The Kingdom of God and our Daily Bread.

Hi everyone,

Beloved children of God...

Yesterday was an interesting day at work for me. We had a management meeting and I was the only one who mentioned the importance of having a proper work-life balance. There were 2 other managers who are proponents of sacrifice for the company. Personal life and professional life are one. One of the managers even said that because he is still single, super driven and willing to 'sacrifice', he said that he is the kind of person the company needs more of. From his tone of voice i can just tell that he is willing to put all else aside just to make money. It is fascinating to see how some of us in this world have put money and material success as the central object of our lives. Even one of the most important pillars of this world, family, can be sacrificed for money. Work takes central importance because that's where we make the 'bread'. But what happens if we stay at the bakery 24/7? What happens to your family for those who have one? What happens to those single people out there who outwardly show and think that having a family is not important at all but deep inside there is a huge cry for love and the need to have a family of their own? Their lives revolve around their personal gains and successes at work and that becomes their measure of success. Will these people truly succeed in what they endeavour to do? Well, monetarily i believe they can achieve what they sought out to do. But what about their soul? That thirst and hunger for total completeness and rest, will they achieve it? Will they be truly rich outside and inside? I doubt so.

Besides putting money as the central measure of success in this life, they have totally negated God out of their equation of success by believing and endorsing systems of wealth creation through external means. Feng Shui, geomancy, horoscope readings, astrology, crystal healing/protection methods and so on takes the position of God for these people. Our God, who is so gracious, will still grant success to these people just to see who they attribute their success to. Is it to Him the Almighty God? Or to that feng shui master who arranged the office furniture? I totally agreed with Pastor Mark in one of his sermons when he said that fear drives people to stupidity... Just get my mom to join the office, she'll gladly arrange your furniture for you every other month. It's her hobby and she loves doing it for fun!

Let's take a look at scripture and see what IS God's way.

Matthew 6:33

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

I'm sure most of us are familiar with this verse. Some would find this verse and use it to spiritualize it to the fullest extent and possibly quote it out of context. Some would say that seeking the kingdom of God is the only thing we should be doing in this world, any pursuit of material gains in this world is wrong. But as we look in context, we can see that God knows our needs and wants. In fact, He sees to our needs and He supplies and He adds upon it. Meaning our needs will spill over to the things that we want also!

So what does God provide? He gives us food to eat, water to drink and clothes to wear. He knows we need all these things. That means basic neccesities are met by His grace.

Matthew 6:31-32

31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, With what shall we be clothed?
32 For the nations seek after all these things. For your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things.

And the rest of the stuff that we want is... Added unto you!

To get a richer understanding to what God wants to do for us, we look at the Greek word for 'added' in the Greek NT.

προστίθημι

prostithēmi
pros-tith'-ay-mee

- To place additionally, that is, lay beside, annex, repeat: - add, again, give more, increase, lay unto, proceed further.

So God wants to lay beside us more than what we asked for, He repeats what we already have, He adds again, keeps giving more and increasing further, things laid unto us!

Hallelujah! Thank you God, Praise Jesus...

From all these promises that God has made to us, how necessary is it now for us to get a feng shui master to arrange the office furniture just to get get more sales for the company? Shameful isn't it, how some of us in this world have put our faith in things that are seen instead of the greatest unseen force which is our Almighty YHVH. Jesus our Redeemer has made us right with God to receive His everlasting promises. Isn't it so insulting to our Abba Father to see His children arranging their furniture and thinking that by doing so, more money is going to flow into the company?

It's also interesting to note that the reference to making money is, "bringing the bread home" or "making the dough".

In ancient Hebraic times, there's 2 kinds of bread. The first is the common bread Hametz
חמץ which is leavened bread. Hametz represents our daily life that's tainted with sin (leaven sours the dough to give it flavour after the baking process, leaven is taken from day old dough). It sours our personality and puffs up our pride just like the bread being baked. So, this is the kind of bread that the rest of the world is making.

The second bread is Matzah
מצּה which is unleavened/unfermented bread. Matzah represents our Jesus! The untainted bread, this specific bread, unadulterated by decay. Unlike the rest of humanity, our Lord Jesus had not been infected with the rottenness that was in mankind. Matthew 26:26 says;
And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is my body."

What then, is the taste of Matzah? According to Strong's Concordance it is: concretely sweet (that is, not soured or bittered with yeast). Amen to that! Our daily bread in Jesus is concretely sweet! And like the Manna which is only good for one day, we follow through to Matthew 6:34 'Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow; for tomorrow shall be anxious for its own things. Sufficient to the day is the evil of it.'

As Christ is, so are we in this world. We have our Daily Bread in Him, we take it home and oh how completely sweet it is!

Richly blessed dear beloved children of God and amen to that.

God's promise for China. From the Palm of His Hands to His heart in Israel.

Hallelujah...

Welcome everybody to an exciting discovery! I'd like to thank our Pastor for his anointed Word on Sunday. He brought up a new revelation for me and it was The Land of Sinim, China, as it was known during Isaiah's time of about 720-680 B.C. In fact, i believe this discovery is an answer and revelation of a dream that a friend of mine had. My friend told me about his dream in early January. He said he dreamt of his left palm with the arm outstretched to the side and his palm had a silver light travelling from the palm, up his arm and lead straight to his pumping heart, (which he knew was Jerusalem) and his palm then touched his heart. He was perplexed by it but somehow he felt it had something to do with him being Chinese and God calling him and the Chinese people to Jerusalem.

God is Awesome! In an indirect way, He has given me the revelation and interpretation of this dream. All glory to Him.

And the adventure begins...

Let's take a look now at Isaiah 49:12,

"Surely these shall come from afar; Look! Those from the north and the west, And these from the land of Sinim.”

The name Sinim has been used since ancient times to refer to the Chinese people. It has been used later by the French as "Sino" to refer to the Chinese , Latin "Sinae" to mean 'the Chinese', Greek "Sinai", Arabic "Sin" and from China itself in Mandarin "Ch'in" or Qin in English the dynastic name of the country. http://www.lmn.org/magazine/166/china.html

Upon some research we know that there were 3 prior Kingdoms before Qin. They were Xia, Shang and Zhou. The Chinese Nations were known as the Middle Kingdoms from 2205 B.C. with the first Dynasty, Xia, established by Emperor Yu.

"But why Qin? What was the significance of the Qin Dynasty? In fact, during Isaiah's time the Qin Dynasty was not established yet. The state of Qin was only one of hundreds of states under the Zhou Dynasty(770 - 256 B.C.). It was located in the present Gansu Province through which trade with the West was conducted. It was only 500 years after Isaiah that Qin Shi Huangdi defeated all the other competitive states and established the Qin dynasty. From then on, Qin represented the Middle Kingdom [China]. " (quoted from article above) Then there was something about the Gansu Province that gave me a clue to why God chose the Qin state to be the ruling and then representative dynasty of China. The State of Qin is located in the Gansu Province and the province has what we call now the Gansu Corridor. And it is the first stop for all travellers from the East to travel to the West before they had to pass through the famous... Silk Road! The first stop is Chang'An, second Wuwei and then Anxi which was during ancient times part of the Land of Persia/Iran. God made the Qin State prosper because they were the connecting route from the West which was from Egypt, Israel, Arabia. God's Truth travelled down the Silk Road to reach the Land of Sinim/China.

So, can we confirm scripture with history and geography? Let's take a look at Isaiah 49:11, "I will make each of My mountains a road, And My highways shall be elevated."

As we know, trade was done through the Silk Road and had to pass through the Gansu Corridor. Alexander the Great established the Western part of the route by 325 B.C. and by the time the Qin Dynasty (221 B.C.) was established the route was fully connected. So, what was the geographical position of the Gansu Corridor? "The Gansu Corridor is located along a relatively fertile strip running along the base of the Qilian mountains, separating the great Mongolian plateau and the Gobi from the Tibetan High Plateau. Coming from the west or south, the only way in is over the passes." http://www.ess.uci.edu/~oliver/silk.html The highest peak of the Qilian Mountain range is Qilian Shan Mountain with its peak at 6,203 metres. The Tibetan High Plateau has an average elevation of over 4,500 metres. Called "the Roof of The World", it is the highest and biggest plateau in the world about 4 times the size of France. The Great Mongolian Plateau has an elevation of 900 to 1500 metres. My, my isn't God great? The road is by the Qilian Mountains, and the highways of the two plateaus are indeed elevated! One plateau is even called the "Roof of The World".

Wow! All these prophesised about 400 years before the Silk Road was established.

The next question would be, did God forsake the Chinese people? Did He forget them and had left them in darkness?

Isaiah 49:9, That You may say to the prisoners, ‘Go forth,’ To those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’ “ They shall feed along the roads, And their pastures shall be on all desolate heights. "

Missionaries are entering China and thousands are being saved, they have gone forth from God's calling. Hallelujah... We pray for the safety of these missionaries, we pray that they are anointed by the Word and that the Spirit of God shall go forth upon them like a rushing wind.

Will God forsake the Chinese people? Never.

Isaiah 49:15-16, “ Can a woman forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget you. 16 See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me."

God never forgets. He has inscribed them in the palms of His hands, God contnually sees their walls before Him. This alludes to the Great Wall of China. Just imagine that you're in a space shuttle and looking down on earth and you see the outline of the Great Wall of China, and then right now take a look at the lines of your palms, that's how God is continually reminded about His promise to the Chinese people. Hallelujah! Praise God and His everlasting love.

And with all these souls saved in the great land of China/Sinae, they have been brought home to the Lord, they have been brought home to their spiritual temple; the Jerusalem within... and Jerusalem the Heart of Israel.

How great is our God! Thank you Jesus. All praises to the King of all Times. Amen.

Yeshua Reveiled...

God is good, Amen...

Recently i was going through a book and there's some interesting revelations about the Hebrew codes in the Old Testament. God reveals Yeshua/Jesus beneath the Scriptures and it is upon us to discover it and glorify Him!

Underneath Isaiah 53:10 which says: "Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand." What was discovered, the second Hebrew letter Yod from "...he shall prolong his days,.." when counted every 20th letter onward will spell Yeshua Shmi, which means "Yeshua(Jesus) is My Name".

How beautiful is that? GOD even gives His name, telling us that He is our sin offering and once we accept and receive this truth,"...he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand." GOD tells us, "My name's Jesus. I'll be offering myself as a sacrifice for you. From now on, i will give you life that's exceedingly happy and long...! And it is my joy in you that will make you prosper beyond your imagination!"

Hallelujah! Thank you Father, for you loved us first...

Interestingly, on the subject of God's love for us, we remember the love story of Ruth. Pastor has preached many times on this topic. The book of Ruth tells us the story of Love, Devotion and Redemption. Let's take a look in the Hebrew Bible. As we begin reading Ruth 1:1 and looking at the Hebrew text http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt2901.htm we start counting from the first Yod. First י Yod is Zero, count 5 spaces forward(right to left) we get another י Yod, another 5 spaces we get ש Shin, another 5 we get וַ Waw/Vav and another 5 we get עָ Ayin. These alphabets were taken directly from the Hebrew Bible from Ruth1:1. This is no coincidence. Look at the above image for the 4 alphabets of Yod, Shin, Waw/Vav, Ayin. (Read from right to left)

This IS our LORD's official signature. Stamped for those who have eyes to see.

Matthew 13:16 "But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear."

This follows the scripture just after Jesus said in Matthew 13:14-15 "And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘ Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive; For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.’

From Matthew 13:14 we can gather that in the ancient of days when the Jewish sages read their books, they missed out Yeshua altogether. But God still made the provision that if they should understand, our Lord Jesus will still heal them. So, in the New Covenant when Jesus came in the flesh, those that have eyes, saw. They saw Jesus in the flesh and they are blessed because their literal sight saw Him! We are now blessed because our spiritual eyes see Jesus.

How awesome is our GOD! The Book of Ruth speaks about His Love, His eternal devotion to us His children, His redemptive work for our sins and it begins with the foreknowledge of Yeshua/Jesus!

HE is indeed our Saviour... Yeshua HaMaschiach.

Praise the Lord! Hallelujah. And Amen.

Faith is our Posture in God

Coming from the background as a personal trainer and also some study in martial arts has made me understand the importance of posture. It is clear through scripture that faith "is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1) and then "...we walk by faith and not by sight." (2 Corinthians 5:7)

So, as we can understand, without a mirror it's really difficult to check our posture or the way we stand. It is an inward knowing and understanding of ourselves than can we posture ourselves properly. So how do we know whether we are posturing correctly or incorrectly? Well all of us need teachers to correct us right? So, that's the first step. Look to Jesus. He's our Saviour and His teachings are abound in the New Testament. We strengthen our faith(posture with God) by reading the word of God regularly. We come to believe and embody His Life as faith in us increases in awareness and presence. As Pastor always mentions, right believing leads to right living.

After the teaching, there's also the practicing right? Sometimes in order to understand the movement of our body, we need to see ourselves in the mirror to understand what's going on. As a trainer, i've encountered many occasions where the client thinks and feels that he/she is doing the right thing. But from my observation it's not correct. So, this comes to point that faith is independent of the intellect and the emotions/feelings. Just like the posture of my client while doing her exercise. They need the constant correction by their 'teacher'. So, what do i do? I bring them in front of the mirror and let them see their movement in front of the mirror. Lo and behold... They are absolutely amazed how their bodies don't listen to their minds. So, intellect and emotions pretty much most of the time go against each other and the end result? Confusion.

But once they come to realise what the correct posture is, they enjoy thier workouts so much more!

And that brings me back to our Lord Jesus Christ. We are in Christ and Christ is in you. That means Jesus is me and I am Jesus! How wonderful! We have our mirror image with us all the time and this IS the perfect mirror image that we seek. Always glorious, always majestic, always victorious. That IS our posture with GOD. So how do we do it? In order to remind ourselves to correct our posture, usually we initially need to constantly look at the mirror to adjust ourselves. So, in our daily lives we need to look for our Jesus Mirror and constantly adjust our minds and bodies to look for His Perfect alignment. The moment we think of Him or talk of Him, Jesus comes to the forefront of our lives. Then can we use Him as our mirror.

It's pretty much a dual process hand in hand. The word of God is to strengthen our posture with Him and we use the Jesus mirror for daily fine tuning.

Slowly but surely this embodiment of faith will increase in the person until it becomes part of you. When you carry Christ in you, your posture with God is always perfect!

Amen to that.

Blessings Always,

Emmanuel

One Flock, One Shepherd

Hi everybody!

I'd just like to move on from my previous blog at evan.tedfox.com.

I was a former muslim believer and now gloriously saved by our Lord Jesus Christ, i can see what life is like without a Saviour and how awesomely different it is with a Saviour!

Just to let all of you know... Yes! There are Malay Christians in Singapore! Out of no compulsion or coercion have i received our Lord Jesus Christ but my own free will and the Grace of our Glorious GOD! Hallelujah...

Previously, as a muslim believer, whenever i prayed, god always seems so distant for me. I felt though i prayed, i could not feel God's presence in my life. I could speak to god, but it seems like god never spoke back. There was no certainty of life here on earth or in heaven. But praise be to God, He sent His Son to save us to assure us a place in Heaven!

How comforting it is to know that because God loved us first, from the beginning of time and that He understood our needs so well, He knew we needed some saving. His awesome Grace Manifest Yeshua HaMashiach came from the Heavenly places for us. The most important thing for us to know and TRUELY believe is that GOD loved us first. It is not our love for Him that saves us. It is the knowing that He gave the original LOVE. We receive it wholly and embrace that love as a child to our Father. With that then can we believe that He sent His only begotten Son Jesus Christ for us. The impossibility of the idea that God CAN love us that much to sacrifice Himself boggles the mind.

As a muslim previously, i never understood this love from our Abba Father. All i knew was god as a judge, merciful, omniscient, omnipotent but most of all still a judge. And his verdict? Not sure. As he wills, they say. So, life hangs by a tether of a thread. In extreme caution of the balance. All the while trying to keep balancing the scales of judgment. How impossible it is most definitely. I'm sure most of our muslim brothers and sisters will feel this way. I knew i was lost and needed some help. After the intellectual approach failed me, i literally gave up and just talked to God as if He was my friend. I asked Him,"Hey Man, Big Dude up there. I know you're there. But which Way? Buddha, Muhammad, Jesus?... Tell me, show me."

Slowly but surely God revealed Himself to me. As i read further into scripture, studying more about who Jesus is, i always approached with an open heart. And this made the difference. Allowing God to work in me. Of course starting to attend church with my then girlfriend, now wife, made more changes within me. After attending church for about 6 months or so, there was an altar call and something about speaking in tongues which my wife asked me whether i'd like to receive. I kind of nodded my head and walked up to the pulpit. We were ushered to another room, said the sinner's prayer and suddenly one by one of us were speaking in tongues! I didn't know what i was saying but i was crying like a child. I felt God's awesome love for me. One insignificant human being on this earth but significant in God's eyes for His Kingdom. What a glorious day that was in 2003 July.

But the increase in my faith came with that fateful day in November 2005 when a friend of ours brought us to the church she was attending... Worship began. Hmmm... Liking it, i said to myself. Then service started, this really funny lookin pastor came out... and the moment he opened his mouth... Man i'm hooked! This IS the WORD that i've been looking for! Every single bit of it i devoured. Like a hungry child, i ate and ate and i'm still not full. The true unadulterated Word of GOD is preached here. The Truth, the joy, the happiness and the PEACE set in to my soul. Shalom Peace, God sowed in my heart. I hardly miss church and every sunday is an adventure race! An encounter with Jesus is what i look for.

I praise GOD Almighty for this awesome Church that He has built. God's glory permeates through all the pastors and leaders. I thank God for that opportuned moment that He led us there and with that, my faith is increased day to day. All glory to our Father, i love you Jesus! And Holy Spirit, thanks for being there guiding me all the time, every time.

I hinge my calling strongly on John 10:14-16.

Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd; and I know my sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.” John 10:14-16

This scripture gives me comfort and my Rest in the Lord, knowing that HE is the one that will bring all my malay brethren to his Kingdom and i pray that He will use me as His worker. For we know and are sure that the "harvest is plentiful".
Luke 10:2
He told them, The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.

So, thank you everyone for taking time to read this blog and my wish is for you to spread this to everyone you know, especially to your malay friends.

Final shout out of thanks to Jesus my Saviour, GOD Almighty and His Magnificient Spirit in us!

Hallelujah and Amen to that.