1 Flock 1 Shepherd... A Malay Christian's Testimony.

Still a blessing!

2011-06-08T00:44:00.006+08:00

Epistles of Christ

Hi dearly beloveds!

I am most glad to see that this blog is still a blessing to many. I'm still getting emails and responses from the entries here. It is wonderful to see how Jesus can impact many, even in something as humble as this blog.

We are all the bearers of THE Good News, the Letters of Christ Himself. It's whether you know it or not. But i choose to be aware of it most of the time. I do forget, yes. But for the most part, i'm most glad that i've been imparted with the knowledge of this verse shared by Pastor some time back.

2 Corinthians 3:3 clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.

So, go out there, Shine, be a Blessing, walk with this knowledge that you ARE the Letters of Christ Himself!

Shalom,
Emmanuel

Peace, Love & Joy.

2011-04-26T15:09:00.003+08:00

^{Galatians 5:22-23
22} But the fruit of the Spirit is LOVE, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

I've been reading some of the caustic comments on this blog and also another which I have somewhere on the internet. It's interesting to see the spirit of the person writing such caustic and sometimes even hateful comments. It's a reflection of the spirit residing inside.

Who is in us? Who is in me? I'm glad to say I have Jesus in me. HE has given me Peace, Joy and most of all LOVE. We love our neighbors in thought, deed and word. And the measure of it all? It is how our neighbors see us and perceive us and experience Jesus' love through us. People can always tell when you're faking it. Allow Jesus to work through you to manifest His love for your fellow neighbor.

I hope this can be food for thought and spirit.

God bless everyone!

Shalom.
Emmanuel

First Fellowship session at my place.

2011-01-29T20:58:00.002+08:00

Hi everyone!

It's been a very long time since i posted anything. But today has been an exceptional Jesus day! Finally i have followed through with a calling God has put in my heart for a few months already. A small group of friends came over to my place and we had a wonderful time of testimony, sharing the Word and prayer.

Praise God. Thank you Jesus!

Let's make it happen more and more!

God bless everyone here.

Emmanuel

Hope, Thanksgiving & Receiving.

2010-01-10T00:01:00.003+08:00

Hi Blessed Folks!

It has been a while... About 6 months since i posted anything. Been busy with work, been putting the faith march on the sidelines lately... Prompted to reactivate this blog cos i know it's been a blessing to many already. : )

What else then do we have on this earth? It seems, day to day, the world we live in is growing bleaker, darker and reeling into chaos. How do we as believers reign in this life on earth?

One word...

HOPE.

As a Christian believer, the primary driving force in our faith IS Hope.

In the Greek text of the New Testament "Hope" in the original language is "Elpis".

And Elpis is defined by Strong's concordance as:
1) From ἔλπω elpō which is a primary word (to anticipate, usually with pleasure); expectation (abstract or concrete) or confidence: - faith, hope.

And defined in Thayer's Greek Definition as:
2) expectation of good, hope

We can concur and put both definitions together in the spirit of the Good News as:
Hope = Elpis = A confident expectation of good!

What more can we ask for then? Knowing that we are the beloved one of God and now we can confidently hope for good things to happen in our lives!

Next best thing to do?

Give thanks for what we have in our hands and confidently expect good things to happen, confidently expect the miracles to happen, confidently expect supernatural abundance!

*Best results shown here:
Mark 6:36-44
36 Send them away, that they may go into the country round about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread: for they have nothing to eat.
37 He answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat?
38 He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? go and see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and two fishes.
39 And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass.
40 And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties.
41 And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all.
42 And they did all eat, and were filled.
43 And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes.
44 And they that did eat of the loaves were about five thousand men.

The above illustration showed the magnitude of the miracle and abundance, with the very little Jesus had in His hands.

But where's the key then?

Here it is!...
John 6:11
And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.

Go to the One in Heaven and give thanks with what you have now in your hands and He will give what you do not have in your hands! : )

What's the last bit then?

Enjoy the fish and bread given! Receive it! Eat it! What's the point of a miracle or blessing coming your way and you don't receive it and enjoy it?

Start telling Him that you've received your blessing already!

Mark 11:24
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

I hope you have been blessed!

I pray to all that read this, to have a Shalom 2010! A year of Abundance, Favor & Rest!

Shalom & God bless you all,
Emmanuel : )

Why & How do we Love?

2009-07-18T22:54:00.003+08:00

Something really simple but profound...

1John 4:19-21
21 We love Him because He first loved us.
20 If anyone says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar. For if he does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
21 And we have this commandment from Him, that he who loves God should love his brother also.

Is the love we receive from God conditional on our good works/deeds/prayers?
NO. He FIRST loved us. Even before we've done anything for Him, He first loved us. Can we then mete out the same measure of love, as we have been given by God by His abundance of Grace, to our fellow man? Be it friend or foe.

I hope we can all dwell & chew/meditate on this thought for the rest of the week. : )

Shalom Shalom,
Emmanuel

I am Blessed!

2009-07-18T00:19:00.003+08:00

Hi All!

I've been asked several times at work today, the usual, "How's your day?" or "How are you doing?" kind of question.

What would the usual response be usually? "Oh ok." or "Not too bad." or something to that effect. But today i decided to catch myself before i said these things and quickly shouted out, "I'm good! Great! Hallelujah!"

I've decided that whatever that the day has in store for me, nothing can beat how God has given His very best to me. His beloved One, Jesus Christ! How terribly bad can my day be when God has given me His best already?

Christ consciousness. The consciousness of how much God loves me. That's what brings me through the whole day. And with that, i can really count my blessings. From the simple breakfast that i have at home, till the time i reach home and greeted by my wonderful family.

I hope we all can meditate and dwell on this consciousness that it doesn't really matter what happens to us, we have all already been blessed in advance!

Shalom & be Blessed,
Emmanuel

"Missing the Bull's Eye... Originally." A reply to Brother Hamzah's comment on 31st May 2009.

2009-06-02T01:18:00.006+08:00

Shalom Bro Hamzah,

Welcome to my blog. I hope it has blessed you in some way. I'm glad this blog has reached out further and further into cyberspace.

Let's get started... : )

To answer your question about the doctrine of "original sin", we must first understand who this doctrine is for and by whom. The doctrine of "original sin" is NOT biblical and it is part of the Augustinian theology created by Augustine of Hippo or widely known in the Catholic church as St. Augustine. You can find a pretty concise study on this matter here: http://www.bcbsr.com/topics/augh_os.html

Now, let's use the bible to intepret bible.
Deuteronomy 24:16 says,
"Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin."

Now, God is a just God, He will not go back on His words. Therefore this verse immediately nullify's Augustine's theology.

Another verse for reference would be, Ezekiel 18:20
"The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him."

The primary argument for the doctrine of "original sin" comes from Romans 5:12-19. A nice article to read would be found here: http://www.tektonics.org/lp/origsin.html
Probably the last 3 paragraphs sums it up.

Paul was simply saying that by one man's(Adam) "missing the mark" - [the definition in Thayer's for "Hamartia" - which is the original Greek word for sin], caused death to reign in the lives of mankind. The word "Hamartia" is a noun and amoral in nature. Meaning there is no connotations of emotions or moral values attached to it till the person does something, for example, cursing.
Adam missed the mark when he believed Satan about eating the fruit and becoming like God. Adam was deceived. Adam was already like God! Because he was made in the image of God! That's the devil's ploy in our lives. To make us unsure and uncertain of our position with God and in God. The devil made Adam self conscious. Therefore being conscious of his position of missing the mark. When we are conscious of our shortcomings we are actually sin-concious, therefore being sin concious brings about death.
Interestingly, through biblical accounts, we can see that before the flood and the Law giving, we can see that Adam's descendants up to Noah lived really long lives! Adam himself lived till 930 years! Why? Though death was the effect of missing the mark but Adam has not seen death around him. The consciousness of death was not a reality for Adam for a really long time. Even missing the mark will not cause death to come immediately if you're not conscious of it(death)!

But what i'm trying to drive at is this, Adam's missing the mark has brought about death in humanity because the federal head of humanity has chosen out of free will to be out of God's glory and protection. Adam being representative of mankind gave up the authority of man's divine position on earth and handed it over to satan. Therefore his progenitors will be born in a world that has already fallen out of God's glory. Thereby being born into the realm of death and not of eternal life.
And as Paul mentioned in Romans 5:13-14 "13(For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression,..."

Sin is in the world. But missing the mark is only taken into account for (the word used is IMPUTED) after the law giving (Mosaic Covenant). And as Paul mentions, nevertheless, irregardless of missing the mark NOT being taken into account for, death still reigned. And death here is both physical and spiritual. Therefore physical death would seem now, to be a natural cause of being born into this world. Not so much whether we missed the mark or not but because of the decision of our federal head Adam to live outside the glory of God, therefore we, the progenitors of Adam are born outside the glory of God too. But the imputing of judgement for missing the mark only came later after the Mosaic covenant was given.

But praise be to God, He saw all this coming. He prepared a solution and key for us to enjoy everlasting life and be back in His fellowship. And that is through the shed blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. As mentioned here in Romans 5:18 "Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life."

We are all now justified unto life! So Bro, enjoy this life! You are now no longer condemned but made righteous before God not by your works but by the finished work of One Perfect Man!

Amen!

And to answer about my statement saying that i'm already forgiven even before i was born. I was making a chronological reference to Jesus' crucifixion 2000+ years ago versus me being born in 1977. I was born in the year 1977, therefore simply put, 1977 years after Jesus' crucifixion. His finished work then 1977 years ago has wiped out ALL sin for everyone on this earth forever! Past, meaning the prophets of old who saw YHVH as their redeemer and Savior, present, meaning the disciples that walked the earth with Jesus during His ministry and those that saw His Truth & Saving Grace, and future, meaning me born 1977 years future to the event of the crucifixion. Therefore, technically, my sins have been forgiven already, way before I was born! : )

I hope this helps... Thanks for reading Bro...

God bless you richly Brother Hamzah. : )

Shalom,
Emmanuel

Put the Amazing back into Grace!

2009-05-27T23:43:00.005+08:00

Hi Beloveds!

Wow... It has been a while. Been busy. A calculated shift in work again. But Praise the Lord that His hand is always there to guide me and lead to green pastures & still waters.

I probably would like to provoke all our brothers & sisters in Christ out there to start thinking about Paul. Yes, the super apostle, Paul formerly known as "Sha-ul" in Hebrew.

Amongst all the apostles, Paul would probably be the one who was persecuted the most. Why so? Read his letters. Paul preached the Grace of God till it seeped from the pores of his skin. Grace has been an absolutely touchy subject amongst believers. But I believe Paul was on the right track somewhere since 3/4 of the New Testament was written by him. Detractors might say that the Christianity that we practice is called Pauline Christianity. I beg to differ. Paul saw Jesus for who He really was. Paul had a wonderful & powerful revelation of who the person of Jesus Christ is. And that GRACE is all wrapped up in Jesus! John 1:17 says this:

"For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."

See the difference in the words used with regards to the law and about Jesus. The 10 commandments was written on stone and given to Moses by God. The law was written on a dead surface of rock. But Truth & Grace came through someone ALIVE! Who is this someone? Jesus Himself!

All that we look for is wrapped up in the person of Jesus Christ. And all the we deserve as punishment for our sin has already been fully judged and punished on the body of Jesus on the cross. In fact, what He did was an overpayment! Yet we who deserve nothing, receives everything! (Ephesians 1:3-14)

So brothers and sisters, let us love one another. Let us love our brethren who are still out there on their spiritual journey. Let us be there to comfort them , to be a friend, a brother, a sister, even, a father or a mother. Just as Jesus displayed His love and Grace even in the final moments of His earthly life, He sees His mother grieving, He still has a heart to love and to fill that gap for her... John 19:26-27:

²⁶ When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!” ²⁷ Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.

Let us have a revelation of God's love in our lives. He wishes to stand and be in that gap for you. In whatever area that it is right now. His super abounding Grace will eat up and overwhelm that dark spot in your lives right now! He is truly Amazing! He is our Father. I call Him Abba. Daddy. And Daddy gave me Jesus to remind me that in Him and with Him in me, I AM living a victorious life! Amen.

God bless & Shalom to one & all,
Emmanuel

The One Love.

2009-04-06T00:39:00.006+08:00

Hi Dearly Beloveds,

As we look to this world that seems bleak, full of hate, anguish and violence. There can only be One solution. It is not to have a one world economy, it is not to have a one world legal system that determines our every way of life, it is to look to the One that has given His all for the world.

Why do we look to ourselves for the solution? Look to the One that says, "It is finished!"

HE has completed the work. Rid the world of Sin, but it is upon us to share this Good News. Share the NEWS that we no longer carry the burden of Sin in our Spirit but has been borne on the One that's without Sin.

How about a news flash tomorrow at prime time, "The Sins of this world, eradicated by rebel rabbi sent by GOD Himself." Wouldn't that be awesome?

Splashed across the front page of all major newspapers:

"Liberty, Liberty! Sin washed away by the Tsunami of Grace!"

written by Chris T.,

"The Man, the Rebel, the Light, the Shepherd, the SON. How you want to call Him, what you want to call Him, can't change the fact that He has done it! Done what? SIN eradicated. Removed. Expunged. Nuked. No more in you and me. He the One, said, "I did not come to judge and condemn the world, but I've come to save it." Mad man, many said. Blasphemy some said. Demon possessed even!

But the fruits of His ministry, however, did just show otherwise.

HIS mission was always in love, charity and liberation. He healed the sick, delivered people from demons, opened the ears of the deaf so they could hear, opened the eyes of the blind so they could see, restore death unto life just like raising Lazarus because his family grieved him so, fed 5,000 people with 5 loaves & 2 fish and much much more.

With such Love though, the people still wanted Him dead. "Death by crucifixion!" Shouted the Holy ones. "Release the murderer!"

A Man who Loved the poor, the sick, the dejected, the outcast, sent to the most brutal punishment ever, while a murderer walks free. This is the justice of the world. The guilty for the innocent. The blemished for the spotless One.

But this Rebel, did not utter a single word of contempt. He opened not His mouth, dumb as a lamb to the slaughter.

In His suffering, He can only think of one thing. You. How joyous is He in His heart knowing that what He will accomplish will forever set you free. Oh how He longs to be with you. But He knows, this mission, this journey, this passion for you, is an utterly, excrutiatingly, painful one. He holds His strength, whatever that He can muster to stay alive during the beating, the whipping, the scourging, the heavy crucifix which He can barely carry, limping because of His severed sciatic nerve. He must be mad. Oh so mad. Crazy, out of His mind. Why go through all that for a lot of people cursing at Him, spitting as His face, shouting obscenities at Him. WHY?

Love. He says, "As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you; continue in My love."

Must be some kind of crazy love. A love so precious that the Father sacrificed His most precious One. For you.

Even to the very end, as He was pinned to the crucifix, naked, bloody, battered beyond recognition that there was no beauty in Him whatsoever, He had a heart for them. For those who abused Him. For those who gambled for His clothes. He interceded for them, saying, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

Scorched under the sun from 9am till noon, then darkness fell. A strange eclipse swept the entire earth at that time. For 3 whole hours. The world was in absolute, desolate darkness. As if it was truly the end. But at 3pm, He shouted, "It is finished!" The end. His mission was over. And He gave His last breath. The horns blared across from the Holy sanctuary. The perfect sacrifice has been slain.

No news came. Not one of His closest disciples turned up to claim His body. On Joseph. From Arithmathea. He had a beautiful garden, fit for the One to be laid in. And there the body of the Rebel was laid to rest.

1 day passed, 2 days passed, the disciples were all scattered. Losing hope. 3rd day came.

It wasn't the men who witnessed Him being alive again. It was the woman. The woman restored by He Himself. Speaking to a gardener, estranged, crying, that the body of the One she thought was lost, without realising it is HE!

Yes, as He conquered death, He crushed the evil one's head with His heel! Death is underfoot. Sin no longer has a stranglehold on His beloved people.

Righteousness, Victory, Blessings & Honour. ALL through the eternal removal of Sin, forgiven for eternity via the perfect work that the One has done on His mission to the hill known as, "The place of the Skull." Truly the skull is underfoot, the Cross of Salvation crushed it!

To the One be ALL Glory & Honour.

His name is Jesus."

Wouldn't that be an awesome article to read in tommorow's papers?

Hallelujah! Praise you Lord. You are indeed magnificient, glorious and worthy of all honour & praise.

God bless all of you! : )

Shalom Shalom,

Emmanuel

Jesus our Good Shepherd.

2009-04-01T01:36:00.012+08:00

Hi dearly beloveds,

I realized that though this blog is about Jesus as our Shepherd, i've not had any post on Jesus as our Shepherd! Haha... Well ok, here it is.

I was thinking to myself, we've always known Jesus as our Good Shepherd. But what does Shepherd actually mean in its original Hebrew word?

Whipped out the E-Sword software and found out that "Shepherd" in Hebrew is "Ra'ah".

Oh yes, some background info. For every alphabet in the Hebrew language, there is a deeper meaning, a pictograph, just like the Chinese characters in the Chinese language. So the above pictographs of the individual alphabets of the word "Ra'ah", Resh-Ayin-Heh (read from right to left), has been illustrated above as Head-Eye-Grace (read from right to left).

To me, I see the intepretation as: "The Head(God/Jesus) sees you in Grace!" Hallelujah!

It's so wonderful to see how God has placed special importance in certain words for us to discover these gems. All these speak about His love for us and how much of His Grace He has extended to us via the finished work of Jesus Christ. His Grace is Eternal! We will never run out of it. But it is a daily drawing from Him. Manna is good for today only. We cannot store up yesterday's manna because it's not for today. (Exodus 16:20)

Oh yes, back to Jesus as our Good Shepherd...

Next was to look for the meaning of the word "Good" in the Greek New Testament. I find the Greek language is very expressive and has a certain depth that the English language cannot put across. So, the word "Good" in Greek is actually, "Kalos".

According to Thayer’s Definition "Kalos" means:

beautiful, handsome, excellent, eminent, choice, surpassing, precious.

So I see Jesus as ALL of "Kalos"! HE is beautiful, handsome, excellent, eminent, the Man of choice, surpassing all others and oh so precious to me.

Why then is Jesus so good? Let's look to the Gospels.

Luke 15:4-7
4 What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after that which is lost until he finds it?
5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.
7 I say to you that likewise joy shall be in Heaven over one sinner who repents, more than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.

In verse 4, Jesus was actually asking a rhetorical question which points to Himself. I doubt that any normal shepherd would bother and risk leaving the 99 just to look for that 1 lost sheep; which probably by a certain time would have been dead in the wilderness devoured by some wild beast.

All Jesus was saying was, "I AM that good. I will look for you even though you are that 1 lost sheep amongst the many in my fold."

The first reaction that Jesus has when He's found you is to carry you on His magnificient shoulders, after all that lost walking you did for many days or years, He wants you to REST! He'll do the walking for you. While lifting you up on His shoulders, He's rejoicing! He's super duper HAPPY, elated, ecstatically overjoyed! How awesome is that? Then in verse 6, the moment He reaches home/Heaven, He calls for a party man! To celebrate your homecoming!

Heaven is overjoyed to have one lost sheep return home as compared to 99 self-righteous persons who don't need His saving Grace.

He who is our Good Shepherd ends up as the Perfect Sacrificial Lamb on the Cross of Calvary.

The Perfect One. Sinless, Blameless, put through the punishment for us all. His shed blood has redeemed us ALL for eternity.

Ephesians 1:7
In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of HIS grace;

You see the word redemption in Greek is "apolutrōsis".
Which by Thayer's definition is:
1) a releasing effected by payment of ransom
1a) redemption, deliverance
1b) liberation procured by the payment of a ransom

The Blood of Jesus has bought us ALL out of Sin! We no longer have Sin in us! Our Spirit no longer carries the burden of Sin, though the flesh may still be affected and influenced by the carnal nature of this earthly realm that we live in.

Through His shed blood, we have the forgiveness of sins, ACCORDING to the riches of HIS grace. Not yours, not mine. And God's Grace is everlasting and eternal! Our Salvation from Sin and all things carnal of this world has been bought at a price. A Heavenly price that cost God His dearest. His only begotten One.

Hebrews 5:9
And being perfected, He became the Author of eternal salvation to all those who obey/listen/hear Him,

You see, we can't lose our salvation. He IS our ETERNAL salvation! Forever! Hallelujah!

The reason I highlighted HEAR Him is that God speaks to us in the quietness of our hearts, in the solace of our loneliness; He is that voice of comfort, love, endearment and peace. He also speaks to us through our beloved friends and loved ones. Are we hearing Him in those moments? Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't. But praise be to God, He is ALWAYS there for you and I!

He is always there saying, "Son, I love you. No matter what, I love you. I gave my very own best for you. I'm always here even though sometimes you don't want me. I'm here, right here for you. I love you son."

Hallelujah. Praise the wonderful name of Jesus! He truly is my Good Shepherd. How about you? Do you see and embrace Jesus as your Good Shepherd?

He loves you. He wants to carry you on His shoulders. He knows you're burdened. He wants you to rest. Let Him do the walking while He sings for joy while carrying you.

God Bless all of you richly, abundantly, full of Grace, full of Favour, full of His Love.

Shalom to one & all,
Emmanuel

Can Grace be abused?

2009-03-10T23:57:00.006+08:00

Hi Dearly Beloveds,

Just came back from a gathering session. A mildly heated debate came about when the facilitator of the group used the term "abuse Grace". He was mentioning that it is possible for an individual to "abuse Grace". Extreme scenarios were played out, the heavy subject matter of adultery was used as an illustration.

Taken for example a man, having an adulterous relationship, tells his wife that he's in an adulterous relationship because where sin abounds, grace much more abounds. The verse reference would be:
Romans 5:20
But the Law entered so that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound,

He then goes on to say to his wife that God will bless him more because he has sinned, grace much more abounds in his life.

First and foremost, I think, such situations are rare and few. But i'm sure it happens.

Few key questions:

1) How should that man's wife react and what should she do?

The couple should agree to go for some kind of counselling first. But if the husband disagrees and still wants to continue in that adulterous relationship. Then...

Divorce the man for goodness sake! She is in a hurtful relationship, it would not benefit her in any way to be with this man.

2) How should we view this man?

He is obviously not well. By taking this verse out of the very context of the gift of righteousness and using it for his personal immoral gain and habit, he probably is suffering from some kind of mental and emotional problems. In another word, he is probably to some degree a sociopath (from dictionary.com, noun: a person, as a psychopathic personality, whose behavior is antisocial and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience).

The context of Romans 5:20 starts from Romans 5:14. It would be the recognition of our righteousness before God is as a gift from God. And this Gift, though is free for all who wish to believe, is NOT cheap to God. God paid dearly for it, for us to receive it for free. Jesus paid the penalty for us on our behalf.

Context is here:

Rom 5:14 But death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is the type of Him who was to come;
Rom 5:15 but the free gift shall not be also like the offense. For if by the offense of the one many died, much more the grace of God, and the gift in grace; which is of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.
Rom 5:16 And the free gift shall not be as by one having sinned; (for indeed the judgment was of one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses to justification.
Rom 5:17 For if by one man's offense death reigned by one, much more they who receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by One, Jesus Christ.)
Rom 5:18 Therefore as by one offense sentence came on all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of One the free gift came to all men to justification of life.
Rom 5:19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.
Rom 5:20 But the Law entered so that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound,
Rom 5:21 so that as sin has reigned to death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

When the believer sees the Gift of Righteousness as an act of unconditional and sacrificial love from our Heavenly Father, we see His Love for us!

Now what can set a person free from sin?

Knowing that God does not condemn us any more, we are then set free from the effects of sin.

John 8:10-11 (the adulterous woman about to be stoned by the Pharisees)

10 And bending back up, and seeing no one but the woman, Jesus said to her, Woman, where are the ones who accused you? Has no one condemned you?

11 And she said, No one, Lord. And Jesus said to her, Neither do I condemn you. Go, and sin no more.

So what empowers a person from not sinning? Knowing that though we have sinned and will sin in our earthly lives here, God Himself the Salvation of our lives does not condemn us!

We have now been saved from the judgment which was of condemnation to the free gift of righteousness which brings our offenses, by the blood of Jesus, to our justification! (Romans 5:16)

The knowledge of the Truth sets us free! (John 8:32)

The original Greek word for sin in the NT is "Hamartia" meaning - to miss the mark.

In the context of Romans 5:20, there is no differentiation between what kind of sins are covered under grace which more than abounds. The debate that we had was also whether it is willful sinning, habitual sinning or unconscious sinning.

Sin simply means to miss the mark. In God's eyes sin are all equal, from the smallest to the greatest.

Matthew 5:28
But I say to you that whoever looks on a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Just a thought can be equated to the physical deed itself. This is God's standard.

A man can wilfully sin. In this case, this adulterous husband. He has bent the Word of God to use it for his personal immoral gains, to use it to wilfully hurt his wife and his family, but if some time ago he has declared and believed that Jesus is his Lord and Saviour, then we are not here to judge this man.

We pray for his deliverance from this immoral life he is living in. We pray for his wife to be released from this bondage and be healed from the hurt that she has gone through and we also pray that if both parties decide to go through counselling, that their marriage can be restored and be renewed and that it can be a testimony to the goodness of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Even if that man has rejected counselling, we will still pray for him and we are not in a position to judge him.

Paul succintly said it here in Romans 14:8-13:

8 For both if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore both if we live, and if we die, we are the Lord's.

9 For this Christ both died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and living.
10 But why do you judge your brother? Or also why do you despise your brother? For all shall stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
11 For it is written, "As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God."
12 So then each one of us will give account concerning himself to God.
13 Then let us not judge one another any more, but rather judge this, not to put a stumbling-block or an offense toward his brother.

So, in our speech, conversation, counselling to such a person, it would be much better to speak the Life giving Words of Christ into this brother's life. We don't have to tell him he's got a problem or that he has sinned and done something wrong. His conscience has already convicted him of that.

Let's look to the Word again:

John 8:7-9 (The Pharisees decided not to stone the adulterous woman because of what Jesus said and their conscience convicted them)

7 But as they continued to ask Him, He lifted Himself up and said to them, He who is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her.
8 And again bending down, He wrote on the ground.
9 And hearing, and being convicted by conscience, they went out one by one, beginning at the oldest, until the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

Another example of the conscience bearing witness to the law.

Romans 2:14-15,

14 For when the nations, who do not have the Law, do by nature the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law unto themselves;
15 who show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and the thoughts between one another accusing or even excusing one another,

So coming back to the topic of "Abusing Grace".

We can see it from 2 perspectives.

1. From the spirit of "legalism" and "religiosity".

"Oh! that Brother has abused grace because he used the Word and twisted it to suit his sinful life! Look at him now! Living in sin in that adulterous relationship...! etc."

2. From the spirit of Truth & Grace.

"Yes, we recognise that Brother is now in an adulterous relationship. Let's pray for him and his family that their relationship be healed. Let us leave room for God's Grace to work in his life. For where sin (to miss the mark) abounds, grace much more abounds. I'm sure someone would have recommended them to go for counselling with the church or possibly they would have talked about it."

- Yes, in point 1, that brother has in a way "abused" (wilfully misinterpreted out of context) how that Word of God is applied. But God is bigger than that! In God's everlasting Grace and Mercy, He will surely still pour His Love on this brother's life. To heal him, to renew his mind, to bless him. The response of the individual to God would be like the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-25) returning to his father. Be it returning with good or bad intentions, so long as he returns home, his Father is delighted and overjoyed!

- In point 2, yes we are ALSO abusing God's Grace! Because we believe that God is greater than sin! Where sin is, there is God to deliver you! There is Jesus to save you! His mercy endures forever!

Psalms 118:1

"O give thanks to YHVH; for He is good; because His mercy endures forever."

So if putting such a statement (answers to point 1 & 2) into a mathematical context, we can reduce the common terms and eliminate the less important variables that would not impact the end result (I'm not that good in math so I don't know the exact term for it. Apologies). Which in this case, is the word "abuse".

Grace CANNOT be abused anymore because GRACE has already been abused 2000+ years ago!

Grace is NOT a doctrine, Grace is NOT a teaching, Grace is NOT a message. GRACE is THE Good News/Gospel itself!

Why?

Because GRACE = JESUS !

John 1:17,

For the Law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Grace and Truth CAME as Jesus Christ! So that means, Grace and Truth is the person of Jesus Christ Himself!

To receive Grace is to receive Jesus! So once you're saved, you have already received the Grace of God! Because now you are in Him and He is in you!

How about abusing Grace/Jesus then?

Isaiah 53:5-6,

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

If anyone has watched the movie "The Passion", you would have known what abuse really is. In fact, I believe Jesus suffered more than what was shown in the movie.

The earlier verse in Isaiah 53:2 says,

For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

As a plant pulled out of the dry ground, stomped on, crushed and beaten to a pulp. That was what Jesus went through. In the movie, when Jim Caviezel was on the cross as Jesus, you could still see a face, you still could recognise Jim Caviezel's face. But here in Isaiah 53:2 says, He has NO form ("To'ar" in the Hebrew, which means: shape, form, outline, figure, appearance ) nor comeliness ("Hadar" in the Hebrew, which means: splendour, majesty, glory) and no beauty ("Mar'eh" in the Hebrew, which means: sight, appearance, vision) that we should desire Him.

It would mean that by the time Jesus was on the cross, we wouldn't want to look at Him at all. Because He would have looked totally disgusting and we'd probably vomit looking at Him with our tears rolling at the same time.

So, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we can no longer abuse Grace/Jesus because He has already been abused! All He asks for is for us to USE Him. Use Him, draw on Him, for He is our Salvation in ALL our circumstances in our lives.

So in that circumstance in your life or when we are looking at someone elses circumstance in their lives what do we say? More importantly, what would Jesus say? I believe He would say this:

Matthew 16:15-16

15 He said to them, But who do you say I am?
16 And Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Lord Jesus, You ARE my GRACE! In ALL areas of my life, YOU are my GRACE!

I will use You, I will draw on You, I will feed on You, I will drink of You!

Hallelujah! God is most well pleased when you see and use Jesus this way.

Matthew 17:5,

While he yet spoke, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. And behold a voice out of the cloud which said, This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, hear Him.

Him and Him alone do we hear. Him and Him alone do we magnify and glorify. To Him and Him alone do we give weight to all our circumstances, especially in the moments where we miss the mark.

We give Him Glory, Honour and all praises to Him!

Thank you Jesus, you are our Yeshua, you love us and we love you back.

Amen.

Shalom to one & all,

Emmanuel

Jesus. He's a Funny Guy, Life of the Party!

2009-02-15T00:08:00.001+08:00

Thanks Terence!

Enjoy and be blessed everyone...

Shalom,
Emmanuel

A reply to B.Nora's comment... Jesus is Man & God, and God is not a God of confusion.

2009-01-24T04:07:00.006+08:00

Hi beloveds,

Here is my reply and right at the end is the original comment by B.Nora.

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Hi B.Nora,

Excellent quotes from the Bible. Well learned!

ALL your verses are well quoted but I'm afraid they are also misquoted and quoted out of context. : )

In order to interpret verses, you have to quote in CONTEXT. You have to understand the preceding verses plus the proceeding verses and then understand the context of the Chapters also.

Numbers 23:19
Was part of an encounter when Balak a king of Moab, hired Balaam (a man endowed with the gift of prophecy) to curse Israel. So Balak kept asking Balaam to curse Israel but Balaam could not do it and Balaam kept blessing Israel.

So the verse in Numbers 23:19,
"God is not a man that He should lie, neither the son of man that He should repent. Has He said, and shall He not do it? Or has He spoken, and shall He not make it good?"

Is in reference to how God works judicially. Why? Because God found no fault with Jacob or Israel.

Numbers 23:20-21,
20 Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it. 21 He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel: the LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them.

God was speaking through Balaam to Balak saying that He is not like a natural man when it comes to judging.

Hosea 11:9 you also quoted out of context within the verse itself. Here is the full verse.
"I will not carry out the heat of My anger; I will not return to destroy Ephraim. For I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst; and I will not enter into the city."

Again, here God is talking about His judiciary role as a judge. Though the tribe of Ephraim (2nd son of Joseph, favoured over Manasseh) and also the rest of Israel, angered God because of their idolatry, God is slow to anger and He is always merciful and loves His people. God promises His restoration to His people.

Hosea 14:4-7,
4 I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.
5 I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.
6 His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.
7 They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.
8 Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found.
9 Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.

The rest of your quotes from the New Testament are also good. But one thing for sure, you also forgot to quote verses that refer to Jesus as the Son of God. Jesus was both Man and God. Let’s discount those verses that refer to Jesus as the Son of God by natural human being characters of the New Testament ok. Let’s look at these few verses here.

Matthew 8:28-29
28 And when He had come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, two demon-possessed ones met Him, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one might pass by that way.
29 And behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with You, Jesus, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?

Here even demons recognise Jesus as the Son of God!

How about here?

Mark 3:10-11
10 For He had healed many, so that they pressed on Him in order to touch Him, as many as had plagues.
11 And unclean spirits, when they saw Him, they fell down before Him and cried, saying, You are the Son of God!

How about an angel?

Luke 1:26-27
26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,
27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary.

Luke 1:34-35
34 Then Mary said to the angel, How shall this be, since I do not know a man?
35 And the angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit shall come on you, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow you. Therefore also that Holy One which will be born of you shall be called Son of God.

The following verses was the encounter that Jesus had with the Sanhedrin (the great council at Jerusalem, consisting of the seventy one members, viz. scribes, elders, prominent members of the high priestly families and the high priest, the president of the assembly. The most important causes were brought before this tribunal, inasmuch as the Roman rulers of Judaea had left to it the power of trying such cases, and also of pronouncing sentence of death, with the limitation that a capital sentence pronounced by the Sanhedrin was not valid unless it was confirmed by the Roman procurator.)

Luke 22:66-71
66 And when day came, the body of elders of the people, and the chief priests and the scribes, came together. And they led Him to the sanhedrin, saying,
67 Are you the Christ? Tell us. And He said to them, If I tell you, you will not believe.
68 Also if I ask you, you will not answer Me nor let Me go.
69 From now on the Son of Man shall sit at the right hand of the power of God.
70 And they all said, Are you then the Son of God? And He said to them, You say it, because I AM!
71 And they said, What need do we have for any witness? For we ourselves have heard it from his own mouth.

Highlight would be verse 70. And confirmation would be verse 71 because the Sanhedrin heard Him!

Jesus recognised the fact that He is both Man and God. That is the reason why He is the perfect sacrifice, the perfect unblemished Lamb of God. Though He was God, He was also Man. He was on earth to know us, to know our frustrations, to know our needs, to know our temptations. Though He was tempted He never fell into sin. He is God because He demonstrated His Godly powers through healing the sick, raising the dead, conquering the elements, casting demons out of people, freeing people from sin and condemnation.

It is good that you quoted Luke 18:19 and Matthew 19:17. But again, what is the context?
What was the preceding verse to Luke 18:19? Let’s look at both verse 18 and 19.

Luke 18:18-19
18 And a certain ruler asked Him, saying, Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
19 And Jesus said to him, Why do you call Me good? None is good except One, God.

There was a young rich ruler/commander/chief that encountered Jesus and addressed Jesus as “Good” Teacher. Jesus was stressing the fact that He did not want to associate Himself with the spiritual “teachers” of His day. There is none, NO, good teacher, except GOD Himself is good! Jesus did not come to be our teacher but He came to be our SAVIOUR! It’s all in His name! Yeshua(Jesus) means Salvation/Saviour!

I’d like to stress again that Jesus did NOT come to be our teacher. He came to SAVE us. What you will realise that whenever He teaches it is always MAXIMUM God standard. And His life is a fulfilment of ALL of God’s standards. That’s why Jesus is representative of you and me. He completes God’s standards on our behalf so that whenever we fall short, it is His finished work on the cross that saves us.

Matthew 19:17 and Luke 18:19 are of the same account.

In fact, Jesus did not “rebuke” this young ruler. Jesus just spoke to this young ruler. Look to the bible. All it says is: Jesus said to him...

Fact is, the word rebuke is seldom used in the New Testament. Altogether, rebuke and rebuked is mentioned about 32 times but NOT in these verses mentioned.
Jesus did not condemn this young man even though he only took Jesus as a teacher.

Jesus did NOT deny He was God. Jesus took His rightful position as both representative of mankind (you and me) and also representative of God on earth.

It is very interesting that you brought up Ezekiel Chapter 2 with reference to the phrase Son of Man. Though it is generally true in the Hebrew Scriptures that the term son of man is in reference to mankind, meaning also son of Adam, descendants of Adam. But peculiar to Ezekiel, we see Son of Man is in reference to the Messiah Yeshua (Jesus Christ)!

Again, this is an exercise of quoting in context not just from the verse, not just from the chapter but from the entire book!

So, the book of Ezekiel begins with of course chapter 1. Let’s zoom in here:

Ezekiel 1:26-28
26 And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.
27 And I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about.
28 As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake.

This likeness of a man in verse 26 as we flow down to verse 28 we see as a man with the glory of the LORD! Then the following chapter, it is immediately followed by an exaltation to prophet Ezekiel by God:

Ezekiel 2:1
And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee.

This Son of man here now is no longer the same son of man that has been used earlier in Job and the Psalms. The previous son of man usage was of a different effect, different emphasis. Here
Ezekiel is now chosen to speak God’s Words!

Ezekiel 2:7 And you shall speak My Words to them, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear, for they are rebellious.

So by this illustration we can see that even the term Son of Man can be a term of exaltation not necessarily relegating humanity to a lowly level. We can see further in Ezekiel 3 that Ezekiel has been given authority by God to do His work.

Ezekiel 3:4 And He said to me, Son of man, go! Go up to the house of Israel and speak to them with My Words.

Now that’s a man with authority!

Ezekiel 3:17 Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.

Only Ezekiel, among all the prophets have been given this special role as the Watchman.
Coming back to where we were. YES, I agree with you. God is NOT a God of confusion. He makes it all very clear IF we read His Word in CONTEXT.

Amen.

Thank you B.Nora for being an active part of this blog.

I pray that you WILL have a blessed journey to the Truth that you seek and you will have fun doing it too!

Numbers 6:24-26
24 The LORD bless you and keep you.
25 The LORD make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you.
26 The LORD lift up His face to you and give you peace.

Shalom,
Emmanuel

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B.Nora's Comment:

Read about your blog and read your blogs. How should I address you as – “Malay Christian” or “Christian Malay” for that matter? For me let me introduce myself, I am a Malay, I am truly fascinated by the story of Christianity converts like Anonymous that leave the comment on January 6th 2009.

Read many other articles on how the Bible and teaching of Christianity can convince many Muslim Malays to convert, however still till now very confused and not convinced. Enlighten me about :-1. Why was Jesus addressed as “GOD” in Christianity when:-
A. The Bible says:
1. Numbers 23:19 “God is not a man…”
2. Hosea 11:9 “...For I am God, and not man...”
3. Jesus is called a man many times in the Bible:
4. John 8:40 “…a man who has told you the truth…”
5. Acts 2:22 “Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know.”
6. Acts 17:31 “He will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom He has appointed”
7. 1. Tim. 2:5 “…the man Christ Jesus.”
8. God is not a man, but Jesus, may the blessing and mercy of God be upon him, was a man, therefore, Jesus was not God.
9. Tim. 2:5 “…the man Christ Jesus.”
10. God is not a man, but Jesus, may the blessing and mercy of God be upon him, was a man, therefore, Jesus was not God.

2. The Bible Says that God Is Not a Son of Man
A) Numbers 23:19 “God is not a man...nor a son of man…”
B) The Bible often calls Jesus “a son of man” or “the son of man.”
C) Matthew 12:40 “…so will the son of man be…”
D) Matthew 16:27 “For the son of man is going to come…”
E) Matthew 28 “…until they see the son of man coming in His kingdom.”
F) Mark 2:10 “But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority…”
G) John 5:27 “…because He is the son of man.”
H) In the Hebrew Scriptures, the “son of man” is also used many times speaking of people (Job 25:6; Psalm 80:17; 144:3; Ezekiel 2:1; 2:3; 2:6; 2:8; 3:1; 3:3; 3:4; 3:10; 3:17; 3:25).I) Since God would not contradict Himself by first saying He is not the son of a man, then becoming a human being who was called “the son of man”, he would not have done so. Remember God is not the author of confusion. Also, human beings, including Jesus, are called “son of man” specifically to distinguish them from God, who is not a “son of man” according to the Bible.

3. The Bible Says that Jesus Denied He is God
A) Luke 18:19 Jesus spoke to a man who had called him “good,” asking him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.”
B) Matthew 19:17 And he said to him, “Why are you asking me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
C) Jesus did not teach people that he was God. If Jesus had been telling people that he was God, he would have complimented the man. Instead, Jesus rebuked him, denying he was good, that is, Jesus denied he was God.
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Good grief! Does God really grieve us?

2009-01-07T00:08:00.004+08:00

Hi dearly beloveds,

Below is a comment I gave on a friend's blog with regards to Lamentations 3:32,

"But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies."

and other stuff relating to it.

Enjoy and be blessed!

---------------------------

Hi there,

You've quoted some really good verses to help someone who is in grief. I did notice you quoted Lamentations.
It is ok to quote verses such as these but we need to know the context of the verses.

Especially Lamentations 3:32:
"Though He brings grief, He also shows compassion according to the greatness of his unfailing love."

This verse can be very misleading for many believers. It seems from the onset that God Himself will bring you grief, then all of a sudden He will show His compassion and love. This verse is not in line with New Testament truth because the context of the entire book of Lamentations is not directed to the New Testament believer.

The grief that the author(tradtionally thought to be Prophet Jeremiah) of this book was talking about was the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians led by King Nebuchadnezzar. (verse ref. Jeremiah 39:1-18)

Jeremiah saw that the idolatry of the people of Israel will cause the nation to fall. This was the main theme of the Book of Jeremiah from Chapter 1 all the way to Chapter 39 when Jerusalem is finally conquered by the King of Babylon.

Because the people of Israel have forsaken their God/YHVH and turned to idolatry, God could not afford His protection for them (therefore in the original Hebrew it is in a permissive tense-allowing something to happen but not coming from the person himself. In this case, God has no grief to give His people because there's no grief in Heaven, so the grief was allowed to come on the people of Israel through an external source, the Babylonians).

We can rephrase Lamentations 3:32 if read in the original Hebrew as:
"Because of that situation(Israel's idolatry), affliction and grief happened(when God could not place His protection because He is righteous). Though that happened, His compassionate love still comes in abundance because of His goodness and faithfulness.

With this in light, we can see that the Babylonians took quite a while before they conquered Jerusalem because the Lord is slow to anger. (Psalms 103:8 The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and rich in mercy.)

We must also understand that this is still in the Old Covenant where God has to mete out His judgment by allowing calamity to fall on the unjust. God is a just God, He has to judge even His own people, if not, He is an unfair God. But God is ALSO a SAVING God.
Jeremiah 50 talks about God destroying Babylon because Babylon has oppressed His people and He will also forget their sins against Him!

Jeremiah 50:18-20;
18 So the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says this: Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria.
19 And I will again bring Israel to his home, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied on Mount Ephraim and Gilead.
20 In those days, and at that time, says the LORD, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and it shall not be found; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found; for I will pardon those whom I leave as a remnant.

But we're now in the NEW covenant where our Peace is paid in the holy blood of God, Jesus Christ Himself. There WILL no longer be any grief coming from God to the New covenant believer now.

Why? Just as you have quoted, John 14:27,

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

So, in order for us to appreciate ALL His treasures in His Word, be it in the Old Testament or New Testament, we have to put on a very special contact lens.
I call this lens the JESUS LENS. Everything that we read in the bible have to be filtered and seen through the Jesus lens, and the Jesus lens represents the finished work of Christ Jesus on the cross, His Victory over sin, death and of course, satan.

Because God paid the eternal and most precious price by giving Jesus up to be punished in our place, we will NEVER be punished by God ever again. Not even a single dot.

Also, the LORD does not abandon us at all. Never for a single moment, even though in our circumstances we "feel" like He did.

How we feel does not affect the Truth. A good illustration i gave to a friend was this:
When i switch on the light of my room, the room will light up, so will i. But for that moment, I can have a range of emotions. Maybe I was feeling sad because i quarrelled with my wife, or I’m still angry at that stupid driver just now, or I'm depressed from a lousy day at work etc.
But the truth of the matter is that no matter how I’m "feeling" the Light IS still shining on me! That's how it is concerning God's love for you.

So we can be rest assured when Paul quoted in the book of:
Hebrews 13:5
...For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."

It is a definite Yes & Amen! Paul was actually quoting what God told Moses in Deuteronomy 31:6 before the Israelites entered Canaan to fight for their land.
Deuteronomy 31:6
Be strong and of a good courage. Do not fear nor be afraid of them. For the LORD your God is He who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.

God also spoke to Joshua who took over Moses' leadership after his death just prior to entering Canaan, Joshua 1:5;

No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you.

Be of good cheer! Moses and Joshua were in the Old covenant yet they still received this eternal promise from God. What more us? Born in again in the royal blood of Jesus, Son of the most High!

Hallelujah! Praise the LORD. : )

I hope this comment has blessed you in some way.

You are the righteousness of God in Christ! : )

Shalom shalom.

Your Brother in Christ,
Emmanuel

As we celebrate Jesus (Xmas) Day...

2008-12-26T15:40:00.003+08:00

Hi all!

Christmas is a time of cheer, good tidings and festivities but more importantly it is a day that we remember that God loved us so, so much He gave Jesus to the world.

John 3:16

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:17

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Important thing here is also to know that God is not a condemning God, neither should His people be. We are all saved in His name. With that we receive His Truth & Grace.

John 1:17

For the Law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

It is in a season where the world says it is better to give than to receive, but in God's economy, it is better to receive first than give. Receive His love, His abundant blessings into our lives, receive His healing, receive His prosperity and of course most importantly before all this, we receive His salvation for the forgiveness of our sins and iniquities.

In the light of this, then, when we give, we will have a revelation of the Father's loving giving heart. We give to be a blessing to others, we give so that our friends, family and even our enemies will see the Light of God's love and the saving grace of Yeshua/Jesus.

Speaking of Light, today is actually the 5th day of Hanukkah, a Jewish festival also called, Festival of Lights or in the New Testament it is mentioned as the Feast of Dedication.

John 10:22

And the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem, and it was winter.

Many Christians have been studying the Jewish Calendar and Feasts and know that Jesus/Yeshua wasn't really born on 25th Dec. Most likely He was conceived during this time of Hanukkah. The Light of the world being conceived during the Festival of Lights. Yeshua was most likely born on the 15th of Tishri, which is the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles.

John 1:14

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

The original Greek word for dwelt here is σκηνόω "skenoo", which explained by Thayer's Definition as:

1) to fix one’s tabernacle, have one’s tabernacle, abide (or live) in a tabernacle (or tent), tabernacle
2) to dwell

The verse before speaks of Jesus not being born of blood or flesh nor the will of man but of God. I'm sure this verse is a direct reference to Yeshua being born on Tabernacles.

You can read a bit more on the dates and chronology here http://www.messianic.com/articles/dates.htm

There are many other articles on the Birthday of Yeshua but i find this article explains it the clearest. Though the author has some strong comments about the Roman Catholic Church and even the Christian Church (Ekklesia) in general, we can learn from the author's research here. The author is a Messianic Jew, meaning a Jew who has received the revelation of Yeshua as his personal Savior.

There will be many of our friends or other people out there who might challenge the Christian to say that we're celebrating a pagan festival, to celebrate the pagan god of Sol-Invictus, we can safely say NO. Though Yeshua's original B'day is during Tabernacles/approx. Sept, it does not stop the Christian believer in celebrating Jesus/Yeshua anytime of the year! So what if Dec 25th is a pagan festival day? We remember Jesus! You know how your friends and family can always give you a belated birthday wish right? Why can't we do that for our Savior? In fact we can celebrate Him anytime we want! Because we have a GOD that can turn ANY circumstances around for the good!

Romans 8:28

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

And ALL believers in Christ Jesus are called according to His purpose. Amen!

Be greatly blessed in this season. I pray that you receive YHVH's abundant Grace & Favour for your coming year of 2009! He has already given it ALL! Receive. Amen.

Shalom to one & all,

Emmanuel

God loves you... & only you.

2008-12-18T23:06:00.007+08:00

Hi dearly beloveds,

Most of us losely use the term "God loves you", but can you truly say "God loves me" and me personally?

God loves you beyond condition. There's NO conditions to receiving His love. As you love your mother, your father, your child, God loves you more than that!

I recently gave a friend of mine an illustration, that if she and her child was taken hostage, and the kidnapper was pointing a gun and about to shoot her child, what would she do? What would i do? What would YOU do? Instinctively we would give up our own lives to save our darling child. That is what YHVH did. The God of the Universe did just that for you and I. He gave up His own life as Jesus/Yeshua for you and me. The beauty here is this, God the Father came as Jesus and Jesus is also Son of God. Jesus is Father & Son together. Jesus said this in John 14:9-11

9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
11 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake.

God in one instant showed His double portion love for you. He gave Himself as Father God to be in a fleshly man to take your sins, my sins and be punished on His body and at the same time giving His Son Jesus Christ in the flesh to take His wrath, the wrath of God on the Cross of Calvary. Why? For what? He gave His Son so that we, His creation, flesh made from the dust of the earth can become His children! Paul says this in Galatians 3:26-29

26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
29 And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Above and beyond becoming God's children, we automatically, in the spirit man become Abraham's seed and become Abraham's heirs according to what God has promised Abraham for his descendants! Hallelujah! YHVH the God of the universe, now is your Father, Abba, Daddy. You are so dear to Him. So am I. So is the rest of the world who can believe that God is a saving God. God is a God of salvation. He WILL save you from wherever you are. That's His promise paid in blood, the final sin atonement, blood sacrifice on the altar. Paid through Yeshua/Salvation. How can it not be more obvious than that? God named His only begotten One, Salvation - Yeshua. YHVH IS Salvation.

The problems that you are having? It has already been Saved! By Him! Don't feel loved? Look to Him, the Sacrificial Lamb. Spotless, blameless. To take all that is burdening you, condemning you, the guilt that's been eating you from inside, ALL that has been paid for! You are now the redeemed of the LORD!

Psalms 107:

2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;

He has redeemed you from the defeat in your life to a place of Victory!

So what kind of Victory do we have, do YOU have? 1 Corinthians 15:

54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Death in ALL areas of your life has now been swallowed up by Victory. Our Spirit is now Eternal. We no longer die in the spirit, we also have victory over our flesh, sickness and disease dies in the name of Jesus!

Now we know that death's sting is sin, and the venom of sin is the law! So be free from the laws of do's and don'ts, be free from atoning your sins by yourself, be free from religiosity, receive the Bread of Life. In Him we receive Life and Life more abundantly.

Jesus Bread of Life

John 6:
33 For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.
34 Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.
35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

Life more abundantly
John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

Receive your overpayment of love today. He wants YOU to call His own. You are loved as His child, the God of this universe. He numbers the very hairs on your head. Mine too. Jesus said this,

Luke 12:7 But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.

God values you. You are not His servant, you are His child. We serve Him out of the abundance of His love, not serve Him to get blessed by Him.

So my friend out there, receive His abundance of Love, Grace & Mercy.

Shalom,

Emmanuel

While You Were Sleeping... A Christmas Praise.

2008-12-16T18:39:00.004+08:00

What is Love?

2008-11-26T17:13:00.013+08:00

Hi dearly beloveds,

How loved are you by God? Does God's love for me require me to be in His servitude? Is His love for me contingent on my good deeds? Will He ever curse me should I be disobedient to Him?

I'm sure these are some very valid questions to some of us out there.

The answer we seek is the Cross of Calvary. Please watch the short music video first before reading on.

"I See Love" by Third Day, soundtrack of The Passion.

I truly see Love on that rugged cross.

Can God love you so much that He gave His very best to be punished in your place? Yes because He is God. And HE can because He is a God of love.
We can use a phrase from the world to describe this: Love is not love till you give it away.

Can you and I do the same to our own child? To our own beloved flesh and blood? To punish your beloved one for someone else's sin?

This love is so amazing and incomprehensible that Paul called it a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks.

1Corinthians 1:
22 For the Jews ask for a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom;
23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness.

We declare to the world that Jesus Christ was crucified and rose again on the 3rd day conquering death, satan and hell, rising victoriously for us!

All that God has done for us was summed up on the cross, ALL His love for us was summed up on the cross, ALL His forgiveness, ALL His mercy, ALL His judgment was summed up on the cross. I used the word was because now we're living in the IS of God. He IS our Refuge, He IS our Shelter, He IS our Hiding place, He IS our Healing, He IS our Provider, He IS our Prosperity, He IS our Righteousness, He IS our Holiness. We're now IN Christ. Whatever GOD IS so are we!!! Amen! Hallelujah!

Now, that is love isn't it? UNCONDITIONAL, IRREVOCABLE, ETERNAL.

ALL that GOD IS, IS us now, the believer in Christ Jesus. He paid His own price of Judgment on His beloved Jesus.

Blessed ones, now Rejoice!

Psalms 13:
5 But I have trusted in Your mercy; my heart shall rejoice in Your salvation(original Hebrew: Yeshua/Jesus).

Blessed is he who sees, blessed is he who hears.

Thank you Father that you hear me always! Father I rejoice in Your Yeshua!

Shalom Shalom,
Emmanuel

I am the First and the Last, I am He.

2008-11-06T01:49:00.006+08:00

Hi dearly beloveds,

I've been praying over what would the next entry be for this blog. God said, "Look for me in between the lines."

So i did.

Pastor has been sharing a lot about Aleph-Tav down through the years. And i went back to the bible looking for the word "ET" or written in the Hebrew would be Aleph-Tav:
את

There's about 185 occurences of "ET" in the OT. Most of us know that Aleph-Tav represents Jesus because Jesus said in Revelation,

1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

And the original Hebrew equivalent is "I am Aleph-Tav."

So I searched on my e-sword for "first and last". The Lord led me to Isaiah 41:4 which makes both the mention of He is the first and the last and He is HE. And by the way this is the first mention in the bible about GOD being the first and the last and in the OT.

Isa 41:4 Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he.

The first mention about GOD being the beginning and the end in the NT is in Revelation which is the verse above.

Interesting to note that Isaiah has 66 chapters and this represents the entire bible. So with this foreknowledge i looked up Mark which is the 41st book of the bible. Read up Mark Chapter 4 since the verse in Isaiah is 41:4, i took the 4 as a chapter.

Something absolutely cool and wonderful was shown to me by the Lord!

The ending part of Mark 4 was about the disciples and Jesus crossing the Sea of Galilee enroute to the Gadarenes before Jesus delivered the demoniac. So, anyway Jesus was sound asleep when the waves started beating the boat. The disciples of course got worried and asked the Lord, "Master, carest thou not that we perish?" (Mark 4:38)

Next moment Jesus got up, rebuked the wind and spoke to the sea, "SHALOM! Be still!"(Mark 4:39) The winds ceased and there was a mega calm.

Jesus then asked His disciples. "Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?" (v.40)

The best part was this, even though the disciples encountered God's working miracle power over the elements, they still could question who was Jesus!

Mark 4:41 And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?

So where's their answer? Look to Isaiah 41:4 again, right at the end.

"... I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he."

Isn't it such a Hallelujah moment?! As the disciples questioned the Lord in the future, the answer has been given in the past by prophet Isaiah.

Also interesting to note is the uncanny mirror image of the chapter and verse numbers 41:4 & 4:41 respectively for Isaiah and Mark.

This is not all. Let's confirm whether Isaiah was really talking about Jesus. We now have to look at the original Hebrew:

ד מִי-פָעַל וְעָשָׂה, קֹרֵא הַדֹּרוֹת מֵרֹאשׁ: אֲנִי יְהוָה רִאשׁוֹן, וְאֶת-אַחֲרֹנִים אֲנִי-הוּא.
4 mî-fā‘al wə‘āśâ qōrē’ hadōrwōṯ mērō’š ’ănî yəhwâ ri’šwōn wə’eṯ-’aḥărōnîm ’ănî-hû’ (the original Hebrew will be read from right to left)

4 Who hath wrought and done it? He that called the generations from the beginning. I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he.

The highlighted in red Aleph-Tav there has the Strong's numbers of H853. And it has been losely translated into the English language as "and with" highlighted in bold above.

But even in the original Hebrew "ET"-
את is still not translatable into any fixed word.

But we know by the Word, that in Revelation 1:8, Jesus revealed Himself as the Alpha and Omega/Aleph-Tav.

So, we can read Isaiah 41:4 as "...I the LORD, the first (Aleph), (את) (Jesus/Yeshua) the last, I am he."

Hallelujah! It's all there!

You are the Beginning and the End. The author and finisher my faith.

Hebrews 12:2

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Thank you Jesus! Thank you Lord that now even without me being in that boat with your disciples, I KNOW who You ARE!

I hope those of you that have read this will be greatly blessed by this entry.

You are greatly blessed, highly favoured and deeply loved!

Shalom,

Emmanuel.

The Good, The Bad & The Dung...

2008-10-07T23:40:00.009+08:00

Hi dearly beloveds,

Recently i was struggling with my new career. Well not recently, it's been months already. I left a profession that i was good at for the past 7 years. Did well, earned decent money, but somehow or rather deep down inside i knew it was something i couldn't do long term. Made a switch to another career path that was drastically different. I did really well for the first 9 months or so, then i had a huge performance slump. And man, was this a really long slump. Started in Feb this year and finally recovering from it now, which is already October.

All this while i was thinking of quitting and going back to what i was really good at. And all this while, ALL the people around me that really loved me told me to stay, hang on and not quit 'cos i have a bright and promising future in this career. But deep down inside i didn't really believe it. Still trying to struggle through and psyching myself up to do better, to look for that lost fighting spirit that i always had. That gung-ho spirit, that leadership training that i had during my national service, that mental focus that i acquired through martial arts training, basically all the positive life experiences that i've accumulated all these years. But somehow or rather all these didn't help.

THEN, the answer to my problems came when my boss asked me out for lunch and blessed me with a fantastic treat at his club. Well, the answer isn't the food of course but the conversation that transpired. I was sharing with him that the reason i felt lousy about myself was that i couldn't find that same fighting spirit, gung-ho-ness, mental focus and whatever else that i had to excel in my previous occupation and translate that to the new career that i had. And this really bugged me and made me feel lousy, worthless and just feel like giving up.

He asked one question that rocked my faculties and initially i didn't really understand what he was saying. He said, "Is that a bad thing?" Meaning me losing all my positive abilities that i had that brought me success previously. Initially i was like, yeah! of course that's a bad thing! It affects everything in my life! Then he reminded of Paul. Paul was a Pharisee. The best of them. Trained in all the ways of the Law. Trained to be the elite. Pushed to the limit where he became a persecutor/murderer of Christians. But we all know what happened to Saul right? Saul became Paul. The persecutor to the preacher!

Paul after being born again in Christ became a radically new person! He was not the same person anymore. He was transformed inwardly and outwardly. And this is what Paul said about all his previous training and know how...

Phillipians 3:

4... If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so:

5 circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee;

6 concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.

8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as dung, that I may gain Christ

This inward revelation that Paul had about being born again gave me new meaning to 2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

What it means for me now being born again in Christ is that ALL of me that WAS me, GOOD or BAD has passed away. God is setting me up for bigger blessings, better things, a newer toolbox of skills. It is only when we have lost all our strength that His strength is perfected in us. All our self will, self effort, self-motivation and know-how are like dung. All our previous good experiences, good knowledge, intensive training are also like dung. Because eating from the Tree of the knowledge of Good & Evil brings death, but Life flows when when we eat from the Tree of Life! Behold Jesus and what He has done. Behold Him who have made ALL thing new!

I'm so blessed to have a boss that not only can help me build a career but also lead me spiritually to higher grounds.

I hope this little sharing here can bless you for your time of need.

God bless, be in His Shalom,

Emmanuel.

The Healer. The Song by Michael Guglielmucci & his restoration.

2008-09-04T00:48:00.005+08:00

Hi Dearly Beloveds,

I recently was informed by a friend of mine about Michael Guglielmucci's public confession that he is not suffering from cancer for the past 2 years, but all that was a cover up for his 16 year addiction to pornography.

If you had not heard the song which he wrote during this time of trial for him, check it out here.

http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=e8b6192a4ee92841d761

Heard that Hillsong & Planetshakers are trying to get this video off the net. So catch it fast.

I know to most of us this comes as a rude shock. I'm sure most of our initial reaction is to somehow have a condemning eye over Michael. But as for me, I think it is his first step to recovery, his first step to victory and walking in faith of his Salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

I was very touched by this video response about Michael's confession. Here it is.

http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=9fbe279b0bb93f34be99

After reading Michael's public statement and his father's response, I watched the live worship video of The Healer song again. This time, i could see and emphathise with Michael as he was singing the song. I could see his hurt, feel his pain and anguish in his heart knowing that he was a pastor, a man of God but living a life in bondage to the sin of pornography. God gave him the strength to come out with the truth, to seek help, to receive healing.

All that we have learnt in church is summed up in this moment. What would you do or say to such a man?

I say we look to the Word.

Romans 5:20-21 (Amplified Bible)
...But where sin increased and abounded, grace (God's unmerited favor) has surpassed it and increased the more and superabounded,

21So that, [just] as sin has reigned in death, [so] grace (His unearned and undeserved favor) might reign also through righteousness (right standing with God) which issues in eternal life through Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) our Lord.

Also, Ephesian 1:7

7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace

This is the defining moment, where the rubber meets the road.

I ask all of you, brothers & sisters in Christ to stand with me in prayer for Michael. Pray for his speedy recovery, pray for his family and loved ones. Pray for them to have the strength to go through this challenging journey with him.

I thank you Father that You have given Michael the courage and the strength to walk in faith and receive his healing.

Be greatly blessed by Michael's song. Your worship is unto Jesus. That song glorifies Jesus!!!

It has inspired me, it has inspired hundreds and thousands of believers round the world. Let's keep singing that song!

Hallelujah, praise you Jesus for you are magnficient!

Shalom one & all,
Emmanuel

Have you received your Peace today?

2008-04-08T17:21:00.008+08:00

Hi Dearly Beloveds,

Are you under stress? Worried about tomorrow? Personal inward struggles that's holding you back from reaching greater heights in life?

Well, Peace is your answer. Whose peace? Jesus'.

John 14:27

Peace (Shalom) I leave with you, my peace (Shalom) I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.

Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Have you received Jesus as your Saviour? Then you have also received His Peace!

Peace is not just a state of mind. It is all encompassing in its "Shalom" sense.

Jesus said," Shalom I leave with you, My Shalom I give to you." Besides giving us Shalom in its general sense, He gives us His own Shalom.

When Jesus was scourged, striped, pierced with a crown of thorns on His temples, was He at peace? NO! He willingly gave up His own Shalom for me, you and the rest of the world!

Have you received His Shalom Peace in your life, today? It is TODAY, that you receive His Shalom. HE is a very present, very now Shalom. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, He IS your Peace.

Shalom in its Hebrew context described in the Brown-Driver-Brigg's Hebrew Dictionary means:

1) completeness, soundness, welfare, peace
-1a) completeness (in number)
-1b) safety, soundness (in body)
-1c) welfare, health, prosperity
-1d) peace, quiet, tranquillity, contentment
-1e) peace, friendship
---1e1) of human relationships
---1e2) with God especially in covenant relationship
-1f) peace (from war)
-1g) peace (as adjective)

Sounds like a lot of good stuff isn't it?!

Have you received all this yet? Yes LORD, I want and I receive Your Shalom in my Life now! Thank you Lord Jesus for this amazing Gift that you left me. I am complete in Your Shalom Peace.

Amen.

Well Brothers & Sisters, receive your inheritance. It is NOW your blood bought right to have the Peace of the Son of God in your Life. His Living, indwelling breath of Peace flows through your being right now.

Thank you Abba. I am Greatly Blessed, Highly Favoured & Deeply Loved by You!

Your most beloved son,

Emmanuel.

The Supreme GOD whom we call Abba.

2008-03-05T00:05:00.002+08:00

Hi Dearly Beloveds!

I wanna start by saying Shalom Shalom to one & all. He came to give us His peace so that we can eternally rest in the truth that we are righteous by His righteousness.

How often have we gone to God and called Him Abba? Some of us often and some of us rarely. But the fact that we can now call the GOD of the universe Abba is truly astounding and for some even blasphemous. But one thing we know as believers of Christ Jesus is that He came to reveal GOD to us as Father.

Luke 10:22
All things are delivered to Me by My Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son will reveal Him.

John 14:9
Jesus said to him, Have I been with you such a long time and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father. And how do you say, Show us the Father?

How do we know who this Father is? Jesus said, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father."

So, we just look at all the gospel anecdotes of Jesus and what He did during His ministry and we will have a glimpse of the Father's heart working in our lives.

He always has His best and does His best for us.

Praise God.

Thank you, Abba.

Christian I am, Malay I am too. Interesting Email Banter.

2008-02-12T01:16:00.001+08:00

Hi Beloveds,

I just received an interesting email from a Muslim Brother. He posted it up as a comment on my first blog entry. I hope this email will be helpful for any Muslims, or for that matter any others who happen to bump into this blog. Below, i've posted both the email sent by this Brother and also my reply. I'm sure you will be blessed by reading this entry. : )

Shalom Shalom.

Emmanuel.

Zaharan's Email-------------------------------

Hi, I'm a Malaysian Muslim. I have no wish to judge you. At the risk of being thought of as putting my foot in your door, let me raise a few questions. One, almost everybody seems to be anonymous here. Is this because you are afraid of being persecuted, ostracized or oppressed by some people? This anonymity may make some people wonder if you are a poseur, a non-Malay Christian pretending to be a Malay planted here for some secret agenda.

Even if you are a Malay and a Christian why belabor it and wear it on your shirt sleeve while at the same time hiding behind anonymity? A bit clashing, if not overcooked, don't you think? I apologize if I sound judgmental there.

Before becoming a Christian have you done any window-shopping and looking at catalogs of various beliefs like Buddhism, Hinduism, Atheism, Rationalism, Islam itself deeply enough and then decide to buy product A and not B or C? Have you studied comparative religions?

I'm not trying to throw a spanner into your mindset but just to share a common interest, assuming we do share a common interest - religions.

Coming a bit closer to your case, have you read any books touching on the subject of Islam-Christianity such as Ahmad Deedat, the story about Khatijah's cousin who was a Christian when he "anointed" Muhammad, the case about how Islam accepts Christianity but Christianity rejects Islam? I'm not defending or attacking either religion or any other for that matter. My standpoint is always one of impartiality when discussing inter-religious matters. My faith in Islam is a personal thing and it is not a standpoint in order to judge others. I don't believe religions more so God for that matter needs defending like he is your kid sister or can be "attacked" as God by definition is beyond such presumptuous human activities.

Finally I hope you can see this uninvited discussion of mine as an interesting and stimulating view that can only add rigor and vigor to whatever choices you make.

Thank you for your indulgence.

My reply------------------

Shalom Brother,

Hmmm, first question is, who's being anonymous? Emmanuel's my baptism name. Are you referring to the other people who have left comments? I've no control over that Bro. If you have read all my entries, i have not made any attacks on any religions. With my very first entry, any mention about Islam was always my personal experience and possibly not representing all Muslims. I respect every man for his beliefs but i am also here to share the Good News. Also to think that i'm a non-Malay Christian being planted and pretending to be a Malay Christian for some "secret agenda" is a bit far fetched for me lah. Think you've been reading too many spy novels. I'm as straight up as that. I just like to share what i've learnt and insights that God has revealed to me and to share it with whoever is interested.

In reference to your 2nd paragraph... I am proud to tell the world that now i need a Saviour and His name is Yeshua, "YHVH is Salvation". I am proud to say that I am weak and His strength is made perfect in my weakness. I am proud to say that no matter how much good deeds i do, it will never measure up to what He has done for me. And now I am righteous before God Almighty because He has given me the GIFT of Righteousness. It is really not blaring my horn but HIS. Back to anonymity again... Told ya, my baptism name is Emmanuel, "GOD is with us". Clashing... overcook... if you're here NOT to judge me, then i believe you have some really strong and harsh vocabulary for somebody who's not out to judge me.

3rd paragraph... Yes, i've done the "window shopping" bit. In fact, that was a very interesting phase of my journey Home. After doing so, i realized that what i believe in now is NOT religion. It is LIFE itself. Jesus said in John 14:6,
6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

I now no longer fall into the category of religion. Religion is following a set of Laws, then being judged based on your deeds on Earth and ensuring there's enough points for me to obtain favour with God so that He can allow me to go to Heaven. But what i have now is undeserved, unmerited favour with my Father because of what He has done for me. Jesus, who's Jewish name is Yeshua, IS a Gift from my Abba Father.

The word "Gift" by definition in the Oxford dictionary is: "a thing given willingly to someone without payment; a present."

So, GOD (YHVH) never did want us to do anything for Him but just believe in Him that He IS our Salvation and He has done it through Yeshua. Yeshua completed His mission for His Father, who is now my Father. How? Too simple for any man who is a student of religion to understand... By being punished brutally, then dying on the cross for our Sins and then conquering Satan and death itself and rising victoriously on the 3rd day. For who's benefit? For me.

Here is an excerpt from Paul. Paul a persecutor of the Jews, who was previously known as Saul a Jew, who killed and murdered Jews for the Roman Empire. Remembering now that Yeshua was a Rabbi during His ministry. So, obviously Saul was out to kill Yeshua too. But see how GOD can even use a persecutor of His people to do mighty things for Him. Saul had a direct encounter with Yeshua, the Light of the World, which literally blinded him but afterwhich his life was tranformed and made him God's vessel of His good news. Here is that defining moment in the book of Acts chapter 9:1-15,

1And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest,
2And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.
3And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:
4And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
5And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
6And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.
7And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man.
8And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus.
9And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink.
10And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord.
11And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth,
12And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight.
13Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem:
14And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name.
15But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:

After this moment, Saul became a mighty vessel for the Lord. And he preached the Good News everywhere he went. One of the most powerful messages that Paul preached was this, Jesus is THE Gift from GOD. Here we see in the book of Romans chapter 5:15-21, Paul talks about Jesus is our Gift from GOD and because of that we have righteousness before GOD, eternal life and His grace reigning through our lives. Lets take a read here, Romans 5:15-21,

15But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
16And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.
17For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
18Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
19For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
20Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
21That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

We can also see in v.20 that with the law, surely offence will abound. So, how? Well, when there's sin, GOD's grace SUPER abounds!

The Greek manuscript for v.20 for these words, "...did much more abound" is:

ὑπερπερισσεύω

huperperisseuō
hoop-er-per-is-syoo'-o
to super abound: - abound much more, exceeding.

Therefore, i am rest assured that no matter how i falter in this life on earth, His Grace will Super Abound to Save me. I'm sure this will be a point of contention because some will say that we can go "havoc" and still go to Heaven. I'm sure with the Love of GOD in our hearts and Spirit, He will also keep us in check and not go "havoc". It is so comforting to know that my Abba has given me so much. And for what? Because when He made us, He made us in His image and on the day He made us He was well pleased. Only after He made man did He say creation was "VERY GOOD". Prior to creating man, everything was just "good". Read through Genesis 1:1-31.

So, GOD has only intentions of GOOD in our lives. He loves me, you, so, so, much. Can you receive that Love? Besides all this Love that i'm getting from my Daddy God... I get a huge bonus! I get to go to Heaven!

I am also assured of a place in Heaven because of what He has done for me. Jesus says here in John 14:1-4,
1 "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.
2 In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
4 And where I go you know, and the way you know."

So, about throwing spanners in my mindset, how about knowing that i have a Nut called Jesus that's really holding my life together and being blessed every moment by my Daddy GOD. Just an interesting trivia for you... If you do have any friends who are pilots and have gone through some kind of helicopter training, they will know that there is this 1 NUT that's holding the main propeller blades together. Without this nut, you'll probably not get a flying helicopter. Guess what this nut's name?... It's called the Jesus Nut. Haha! Funny right? It's ok for me to laugh at this 'cos it's a good illustration of who He is to me. Just Google "Jesus nut" and you'll probably get a lot of information about it.
Jesus was truly a nut case if you read the gospels. He shouted at the high priests of His day and called them hypocrites!
Ate with all the unsavoury characters of His day, tax collectors, prostitutes etc.
His rag tag team of preachers were a bunch of smelly, uncouth fishermen, but by the Grace of GOD, they became powerful ministers of His Word.
Finally, He willingly gave up Himself to be punished in our place. Jesus was NOT murdered. He WILLINGLY gave Himself.

So, i do have a Nut for a Saviour.

Yes, coming back to this email...

Paragraph 5... Yes i have read Ahmed Deedat's rhetorics about Christianity. Very famous man indeed. Famous in the Islamic comparitive study circuit. However, any scholar would know that to get an objective view of anything, we have to look at the situation from both sides of the story. Have you, Zaharan, personally read any books on Christianity written by Christians? Have you personally picked up a copy of the Bible and read it for yourself? Any good judge in court would always look at both the defence evidence and also the prosecuting evidence. I'm sure you will be a very good judge coming from such a scholarly background and a student of comparitive religion. I'm not sure how you see that Christianity rejects Islam. Within the Bible, no where does it state that it rejects Islam. GOD gave Jesus so that we all can come back to Him, clean, spotless and blameless.
You speak of not attacking any religions, beliefs, and also impartiality, yet you mention Christianity rejects Islam. I'm not quite sure of your intentions Brother.
I am also very sure, just as you are, that GOD needs no defending. He's the best defender there ever will be!
I am just here to blow His horn. I am here to Worship Him, Glorify Him, Sing Praises to Him and say that HE IS my GOD, HE is also my Abba.

Finally Brother, i hope with your permission, i can pray for your Shalom Peace, Abundant Blessings in your life, Supernatural Health coupled with a long fulfilling life. Amen.

Shalom, GOD bless,
Emmanuel

Jesus, YHVH Saves! Jesus my refreshment!

2008-01-27T00:59:00.001+08:00

Hi dearly beloved,

Sorry i've been inactive for quite awhile. The past few weeks i have been distracted by work and other things which pull my time away from the Lord in these wee hours of the night.

I've been feeling drained lately from being kept awake at night by my darling baby. It's alright you know. Part of being parents. My wife goes through the same thing and it's tougher for her 'cos she's the one actually feeding baby. Through it all, daily, physically i feel really tired. But i realised something happening in me. I started praying in tongues more frequently lately. It's amazing after those few minutes, I feel truly refreshed! He truly is my refreshing.

John 7
:37 And in the last day of the great feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.
:38 He who believes on Me, as the Scripture has said, "Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."
:39 (But He spoke this about the Spirit, which they who believed on Him should receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.)

Jesus spoke about this refreshment of the Holy Spirit. Those who listened to Him during that feast could not enjoy this drink. But now we can!

It amazes me that no matter how tired or moody or lethargic i feel, whenever i speak about Jesus to someone, i always feel so awake and alert during and after!

Jesus saved us from many things. He also saved us from our tiredness, lethargy and emotional down times.

Jesus is saying, "Use Me!" If all that He has done and gone through for us can't even give us our energy back in our daily lives, then i think we have not seen the revelation of His finished work and how complete it is.

Thank you my Yeshua! You have given me the best isotonic drink ever!

God bless one and all and have a blessed Sunday!

Emmanuel

New E-mail address! 1flock1shepherd@gmail.com

2007-11-26T00:36:00.000+08:00

Hi dearly beloved,

It HAS been awhile since i've posted anything. I'd just like to send a shout out there to all Brothers and Sisters who want to contact me, please email to 1flock1shepherd@gmail.com

Do continue putting up your comments, for whatever you say could be a Word of encouragement for somebody else out there.

Praise God for technology! The world indeed has become a smaller place and because of that His Word can be sent forth to all corners of the earth with great speed and reach.

For all those who need a Word today... Have a good opinion of God! That IS giving Glory to God! Give weight to what He says. He says you are the Righteousness of God in Christ, so you ARE! He says you are heirs of this world, so you ARE! He says we are more than conquerors, so we ARE! Amen!

We come together in this great universe called the World Wide Web, and as we come together, it is a time of Worship and Fellowship. We thank Him for the opportunity that He has created for us to come together to get connected and give each other encouragement.

Thank you all for visiting this humble space of mine. Leave words of wisdom, leave words of comfort, leave words of encouragement and most of all we come to celebrate His love for us.

Thank you Jesus! You are our magnificient Savior!

Shalom Brothers and Sisters.
Emmanuel

From No Limbs to NO LIMITS!

2007-09-27T23:41:00.000+08:00

Praise GOD and WOW!

Wow is for Walk On Water man!

Check out this testimony of, Nick Vujicic, a quadraplegic (does not have all 4 limbs).
http://www.56.com/u47/v_MTMzNzk1NTY.HTML

We pray that the Lord will bless him more than abundantly and increase the reach of his ministry to the ends of the earth.

Do not compare sufferings as this gentleman said, but i tell you, it's such an inspiring story to see God's Grace working in and through his life.

To each has been called his purpose by GOD.

Jeremiah 29:11

11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

He IS our Future, He IS our Hope.

Praise GOD, we Love you Jesus. Hallelujah!

In and Through ALL things we give Thanks.

2007-09-22T16:02:00.000+08:00

Hi all,

It's been awhile since i've contributed anything. I've been busy with work. It's been an awesome blessing to be where i am. Being surrounded by God's people and being guided by their Godly counsel through my day to day activities. It is so awesome to experience God's hand in your life everyday!

Through our tough times of struggle and challenge, that's the time when the rubber meets the road. What do i believe in? Do i believe in a BIG Daddy God who shelters me under His mighty wings at all times? DO i believe that my blessings is dependant on my good works or how "hard" i've worked? Or is it fully from Him and we have already received ALL His blessings for us and what we do here on this earth is blessing in itself where we enjoy what we do EVERYDAY! My Daddy God has given me an awesome job where i enjoy what i do everyday!

Joy and enter His rest... As we rejoice His goodness, He our Rock of Salvation IS our Rest.

Rejoice, Rejoice, Rejoice! Then Worship Him in All His Glory!

BE still and know our GOD. As He was on the cross as us, now, we are as Him in our Father's eyes.

His Perfect Love for us, pierced as He hung on the cross for us. We now receive FREELY ALL His blessings.

How can we not rejoice? Amazing Grace.

Yeshua
Hanazarei
Vamelekh
Hayahudim

Yeshua of Nazareth, King of the Jews, who is YHVH.

Thank you Jesus. I love you, i thank you for all that you have done for me. You are in me now and now know i live a Victorious life!

Amen!

Desire Fulfilled is a Tree of Life...

2007-08-16T23:03:00.001+08:00

Hi dearly beloved,

How often have we been told that to desire "things" is carnal? Desire itself being put in a physical/fleshly context can sound like a dirty word.

But truth to be told, God wants us to DESIRE good "things" for us all! That house that you like? Have the desire for it! That awesome German car that you want? Have a desire for it! We have all been blessed with all the spiritual blessings in heavenly places and also blessed with all good things for us on this earth.

Proverbs 13:12

12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire is fulfilled, it is a tree of life.

First question that would unravel this mystery would be, what is the Tree of Life?

As we look back at the first mention of the Tree of Life in Genesis 2:9,

9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

We find that the Tree of Life is "In the Midst" of the Garden. That is truly interesting as we find out that Jesus likes to be "In the Midst" of things too!
There is only 3 times mentioned in the Bible of Jesus being "in the midst" and uniquely we find that whenever Jesus is "in the midst", Peace always follows!

Luke 24:36 And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.

John 20:19 Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.

John 20:26 And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace, be unto you.

So, i would say, it is scriptural to desire all good things as this would bring Jesus into your midst and give you His Peace!

Should we then agree or doubt that our Father can really give us all these things that we desire?

Well i guess His promise is best and we have to hang on to it don't we? Let's take a look.

John 14:13
And whatever you may ask in My name, that I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

John 14:14
If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.

John 16:23
And in that day you shall ask Me nothing. Truly, truly, I say to you, Whatever you shall ask the Father in My name, He will give you.

John 16:24
Before now you have asked nothing in My name; ask and you shall receive, that your joy may be full.

Ask our Daddy God! Ask Him in Jesus name... It's easy!
Just receive freely what your heart desires anytime knowing that the Debt has been paid on the cross through our wonderful Saviour Jesus Christ!

Isn't our Heavenly Daddy great? So much He has already given and now He wants to give us some more!

Who's ready to be blessed some more? Who's ready for their storehouses to be filled with overflowing abundance? Who's ready for their tents to be enlarged? Who's ready for their youth to be renewed unceasingly? Health, Wholeness, Healing, Prosperity and all in all a Victorious Life!

I'm ready! Amen to that.

Are you?...

Be greatly blessed, left, right, center and all around you!

Your beloved brother,
Emmanuel.

Glimpse of Heaven...

2007-07-26T00:24:00.000+08:00

A glimpse of Heaven is all it takes to know that the Kingdom is here and now too...

Many a times we wonder what it's like to be in Heaven with our Father. Look around you, what's your Daddy God saying to you? Is He saying loving words of encouragement? Is He comforting you and telling you not to worry? Is He telling you that everything's going to be ok?

Now when i look at my baby girl, my Daddy God is telling me all those things. He says, "Son, this IS Heaven... Look at your daughter. Do you love her? That's how I love you and so much more." And you know that He's got a BIG BIG smile behind what He just said to you.

"I've given my Son up for you. He was my Heart. As much as it hurts me to see my Heart pierced and staked right through and bled dry... It pleases me to see that I can have you with me in my Kingdom for all eternity."

Our Father gave His dearest best to us, for us... Aren't we blessed?

This love that no man can give, only our Father gives!

Lord, we love You, we worship You, we magnify You in our lives. We thank You for all that you have blessed us with and we thank for all the blessings that we have already received in providence.

Your blessed son,
Emmanuel

He has delivered us! FOREVER.

2007-07-09T22:49:00.000+08:00

Hi dearly beloved,

How often have we asked God to deliver us from this struggle to that persecution and whatever else we have asked Him to deliver us from? I have. I'm sure you have too. Something powerful for us all to believe and practice is what Paul preached to the people in Colosse. Colosse was where the people there were primarily gnostics and had a defective view of Christ. The gnostics believed that all matter is evil. With that defective knowledge of God, it would be impossible to be set free from evil because we are still bound in this flesh that we are in for this life here on earth. Of course, for us, believers in God supreme and almighty, a God that created the Heavens and the earth and a God when He created said that all His creation is good!

With His goodness, mercy and His Son's redemptive work for us, we are assured of ourselves being delivered from all darkness which may seem to overshadow ourselves sometimes. This is what Paul said,

Colossians 1:12-13
12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

Do we think that this deliverance is forever or partial? Jesus' work was final. As He said, "It is finished!", we are delivered from the power of darkness forever. With this, we enter His kingdom. We are now heirs of Light and victorious Kings And Queens forever!

On top of being delivered from the power of darkness, we even have forgiveness of sins! Wow! A double whammy.

Colossians 1:14
In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

But you know, sometimes our mind plays tricks on us. Our mind brings us back to remembrance our past sins, our past addictions, our past failed relationships, our past failures. How many of us are familiar with this? We do not have to worry then because Paul reminded us the following truth. Where at times we are alienated from God through the enemies in our minds by our previous wicked works, we are now reconciled through Jesus.

Colossians 1:21-22
21 And you, who were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled
22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish, and without charge in His sight,

With Jesus, our wicked works are now in His flesh which was put through death. Put through death on the Cross. Is not that not enough for us? For us to be delivered from all powers that once bound us, now we are set free! Forever! Now God sees us holy, without blemish, spotless and without any wrongdoing in His sight.

We praise you God Almighty, that You came for us through your Son, Jesus Christ, and delivered us forever from our iniquities. We pray Lord that we are kept in this knowing all the time.

Hallelujah & Amen.

Your beloved son,
Emmanuel.

My baby girl has arrived!

2007-07-07T15:39:00.000+08:00

Hi to all you children of God,

It's such a glorious day last Wednesday when my baby girl decided to greet us earlier by 2 weeks.

God is so good. Everything was just so perfect in His timing. My heart melted when my baby girl came out. When the nurses bundled her up and brought her to my wife and i, i cried. It was tears of joy. Tears that only God can understand because He gave us that first love. If i can love this baby so much that i'll give my life for her, what more He!

It's so amazing to see God's love packed into such a tiny bundle. And that's how He came to us! A helpless little babe in a stinky manger in Bethlehem. God Magnficient, Supreme, above all else, decided to compress Himself and lose all His Majesty and Glory to be with us. As a helpless baby. He could have come immediately as a young, muscular, strong and strapping man. But no, He decided, let's do this minus all the superhero trappings and come as a tiny bundle of flesh first. Grow up as a little boy, fall down and get scraped in the knees as all little boys do and finally grow up to be a humble carpenter to serve your every daily need to furnish your home. That's who our Lord is.

He that is, will always be our first love. With that we love our family. To know Him is to see Him in all that we experience in life. He gave Himself up to be punished for us, to be beaten for us, to be pierced and bled dry for us, so that we can enjoy this life here on earth more than abundantly and receive all His blessings freely. Freely He has given His first Love to us and therefore we can freely love others, just like my darling baby girl. : )

Shalom to one and all. Be sheltered by His love underneath His mighty wings.

Be greatly blessed, highly favoured and deeply loved.

Emmanuel.

Yet you seek to kill me...

2007-06-09T23:39:00.000+08:00

Why?... Why do you seek to kill me?

I have come to tell you the truth from my Father. My words find no reception in your hearts.

As i have said, if I set you free, you WILL be free indeed.

I am telling you what my Father has shown me. Just as you are now doing what your father has shown you.

I know you are of Abraham's flesh, but are you of Abraham's seed of faith and holiness?

But now,... Now, you seek to kill me?! A man that has told you the truth from God! This, Abraham would not have done...

Yet you say you do the works of your father.

If God were your Father, you would love me... I came from HIM! And only Him... He sent me! I did not come on my own.

Don't you understand what I'm saying? Can't you stand to hear what I'm saying?

Your father is the devil! And you do exactly what he wants. His lust you carry out! A murderer from the beginning! And never did he remain in the Truth. As he speaks, it is all lies! Anything that springs forth of him is a lie. He IS the father of lies!

Don't you not see that?!

And because I tell you the Truth, you believe me not...

He that is of God, hears His words. For this, you do not hear His words because you are not of God.

I have no demon. I honor my Father. You dishonor me...

(Inspired from John 8:37-49)

Lord, i know how we have come to seek You. But i know you have come to seek us first. There are still some of us out there rejecting you, persecuting you, still wanting you killed! Wanting to kill Your Truth. But Lord, i know you are Mighty. And You have said it is Finished!

Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that you ARE LORD of all!

Simplicity: Believing or Doing? Freedom or Religion?

2007-06-02T11:35:00.000+08:00

Hi beloved Brothers & Sisters,

I'm sure many of us have come to a place where like myself, have been pointed at with a finger and being told that we're lost. By accepting Jesus Christ as our Saviour we are LOST. I personally do not use this word on my other non-Christian brothers and sisters. I think all of us are finding our way home, finding our way back to our Daddy God, Abba Father. Given the faculties of our hearts and minds, believing is a matter of choice after the WAY has been revealed to many. We are all crying out to be loved at the most intimate and personal level, which some of our other brothers and sisters have not come to experience yet. It is out of this big-ness, if i can use such a word, of our Abba's heart that we as Believers can love our other brothers and sisters out there who pointedly say that we are the LOST ones.

We do not claim to believe and profess a new religion. Religion is elitist. Only a rare few will attain a desired "holiness" in God's eyes. Religion is adhering to a set of beliefs and system. Religion puts the human heart and mind in boundaries. Religion causes strife as internal factions, denominations, belief systems try to prove who is the Truest one, which "God" is the most true "God". Religion is a state of constant doing to stay in the favour of God. What happens then, if all of these are not fulfilled? Tiring isn't it?

What is, then, Simplicity?

We are called just to believe. Believe that GOD so loved the world, He gave Himself through Yeshua HaMaschiach for the redemption of our SIN, past, present and future. So, in HIS eyes, we are always favoured, deeply loved by our Daddy God and know that we will always be greatly blessed. Because now, HE is IN us. GOD does not see us as the sinner anymore but as HIS own. HE sees us as the perfect Lamb, Jesus Christ.

Just believe and receive and no more doing. You have now found freedom. Our covenant with our Daddy God now does not require us to do the things that religion asks us to do anymore. Would you want to go to Heaven? Do you know you have a place reserved for you in Heaven? It IS a FREE GIFT you know... Do you believe it? Or is your human heart to small to BELIEVE it? Sceptical? I'm sure you are. But believe in a GOD who loves you true and true. Believe in a GOD that numbers the hairs on your head. Believe in a GOD that will chase and run towards you to welcome you home and give you a huge kiss on the cheeks and a really HUGE bear hug. Believe in a GOD that hears every groan and moan that you have in your hearts. Believe in a GOD that put Himself through the greatest suffering on earth to redeem you from Sin and buy you back with His own blood and life. His Pain, His anguish and all our Gain. He has called us His own. His own children. And where does children stay? with their parents in their homes. Our Abba's mansion is HUGE! He's reserved a place for ALL of US!

"Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again to receive you to Myself, so that where I am, you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know." Jesus' own words were these. God on Earth spoke these wonderful and beautiful promise. (Mark 14:1-5)

We just thank Him and magnify Him. He says, don't worry. He goes before us to prepare a place for us. And He comes back again to receive us.

So i speak to all our other beloved brothers and sisters out there; what more simplicity than this? Is religion what you truly seek? Or is LOVE, assurance of Heaven and spiritual freedom that you seek?

May the Lord bless you and keep you in His Shalom peace for all of your days.

Emmanuel.

I AM THAT I AM

2007-05-28T00:24:00.001+08:00

Shalom Shalom Brothers & Sisters,

I want to thank My GOD, My Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. For without Him there is no us. For without Him there is no existence of this universe. The majesty of this magnificient creation of our Father God came into existence and still IS because Our Father from the Beginning had His Son in His Mind to be the glue to our existence, the glue to the universe surrounding us.

The first part of this entry i want to share with you some insights with regards to GOD's introduction to Moses. I AM THAT I AM. *(This is solely my viewpoint and does not represent the teaching that i'm receiving from my place of feeding.)

So, let's begin. I was researching some stuff regarding the Hebrew alphabets and actually sinking my teeth into the letter ALEPH when this verse was used as part of an example. Something popped straight into my eyes. I've read this phrase on my E-Sword (PC bible) before but never noticed the full spelling in Hebrew.

משׁה אהיה אשׁר אהיה

It reads from right to left "MOSHEH AHYH ASHER AHYH" poetically translated in English I AM THAT I AM. In Hebrew it would mean something like "EXIST/BE! Who is EXIST/BE!"

GOD was telling Moses of HIS total EXISTING, HIS total BEING and that HE IS. But then again something struck and rang a bell in my head. AHYH sounds strangely familiar and close to my heart. Because in the Malay language, Ayah is Father! Now, like i said, this is purely my personal view point. But can you imagine... GOD telling Moses, "Moses, Daddy who IS Daddy." WOW! Imagine that. Most of us take this verse to be something pretty impersonal actually. GOD was presenting His absolute Glory as I AM THAT I AM. But now we see how GOD wants to be with us so closely, even with Moses. Daddy who IS Daddy... Man i tell you, i feel so blessed that He is now in us. That's how close He wanted to be with Moses but the Helper was not sent yet as the Son has not yet been glorified.

Ready for one more?

Check this out. In Arabic, Ayah means Sign or Miracle. So, GOD said this to Moses, "Moses, Sign who IS the Sign", "Moses, Miracle who IS Miracle." GOD wants us to know that HE IS THE SIGN & MIRACLE! HE IS! Man, He is such an awesome GOD. Even today He gives us a fresh knowing of His Word.

Which then brings me to the study of Aleph.

Aleph has the gematria of 1. HE is the only One. The Only Supreme GOD. Within Aleph itself we're given the Secret to the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

The letter Aleph is written with 2 Yods and 1 Vav. As we can see how Aleph is written we have 1 Yod above the Vav and 1 Yod below the Vav. The gematria shown is that Yod carries a value of 10, Vav 6. So (2 x 10) + 6 = 26. Which is equivalent to the gematria of GOD's name YHVH. WOW! GOD speaks even through the individual letter that He has created!

Let us see how the revelation of His Son is given through Aleph.

If we draw a horizontal line cutting across the middle of Aleph, we can see the separation of two realms. The divine which is Heaven and His Realm that's without end and the earthly realm where we are. The Yods above and below symbolises GOD's sovereign Hand touching Heaven and crossing over to our realm to touch us. But how? Through the Vav! Vav's gematria is 6, the number of man as man was created on the 6th day. So GOD has to transcend and descend from the Heavenly places through a Man to be with us! And Vav's pictogram is also a hook. So, we can see the lower part of the Vav in Aleph is hooked. GOD wants to be hooked with us and to us! Thank you Father GOD! You love us so much that you want to be hooked to us. So as You sent Your Son and Him being glorified on the cross, He has sent us the Helper in us! Wow! Awesome is our GOD, ain't HE? So now, we are One with Him.

The gematria of Yod is 10. It can be said that it represents our works, the Laws but it also represents GOD's Hands. Gematria of 1 and 0. Beginning and the End. The Alpha and the Omega. The Aleph and the Tav! As Jesus is with us from the Beginning to the End on Earth, He also will be with us in Heaven. Aleph, with the GOD-MAN from the Beginning to the End. Hallelujah! And as we can see, in Aleph, the Man/Vav is not orientated vertically like in the writing of the singular letter of, ו Vav. It is actually slanted to a diagonal, 45 degrees almost. The letter is struck down. The top or head of the Vav is actually pointing downwards to the earth. Prophetic in nature isn't it?

Isaiah 53:4 says,

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. (emphasis is added)

In Hebrew, stricken is נגוע Naga, meaning: violently, to strike (punish, defeat, destroy).

Our Lord was violently stricken, punished to be defeated and destroyed. Yet He rose again and defeated the evil one to give us our Victory. Hallelujah... We love you Lord Jesus.

And finally, the alphabet in Hebrew is known as the Aleph-Bet. And is contracted to be את Et.

In Genesis 1:1 the bible says,

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Hebrew:
Bereshit bara Elohim et shamayim eth herets. (emphasis added)

Literally, it means, "Beginning, created by God AlephTav(alphabet) then heaven and earth."

So, what is AlephTav or better yet who IS AlephTav?

Revelations 22:13

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

And He is our Lord Jesus Christ, His name be Glorified upon all the earth above and below.

Amen & Hallelujah!

In awe of Your Majesty my Father, Your son,
Emmanuel.

Salvation is Greater than Creation...

2007-05-24T00:50:00.000+08:00

Shalom Shalom One & All...

It is HALLELUJAH Time!

For the first time i saw my baby girl's face in 3D during the scan. I tell you, the feeling is great! To know that i'm becoming a daddy, man, so so blessed!

We know that Salvation is greater than Creation... What a kick in the head when we know how awesome is our GOD with His hand in Creation. Creation itself is so beautifully magnificient. Just like my baby. So perfect in every way. What more is our Salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. Without Him, there is no glue to this universe. It is He who Binds, Our Father's Creation together. And finally with His breath, there comes LIFE... Eternal Life in Him. As we glorify Jesus, Our Redeemer, Saviour, we also enjoy His Creation.

Thank you Abba.

Daddy God, You Loved me first. And now you have given me a gift for me to Love and have a glimpse of your Heart.

Your son,
Emmanuel.

In my weakness, His strength is made Perfect.

2007-05-22T00:08:00.001+08:00

Hi dearly beloved,

Have we ever at times felt that in our circumstances we needed to do something more about it? But as we keep trying and trying, it seems to make us more powerless. Impotent to some extent. Even when we start thinking about "how" to rest in that situation can give us strive.

Paul said it so beautifully here:

2 Corinthians 12:9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Are we willing to give up and be willing to be weak to our own abilities and allow the Lord's strength to be perfected in us? Are we willing to say, "Lord i am weak in this circumstance, i look to Your Perfect Strength to conquer this situation."

Let's bring ourselves back to Moses' first encounter with GOD. Now we know that Moses was a Prince of Egypt. He pretty much gave all that up by running away into the desert. He had all the power and influence as part of the Egyptian royal family. But after he ran away, our Moses became a shepherd. A great picture for us all as believers. A shepherd is a picture of our Lord Jesus. But there was one thing that happened before GOD commissioned Moses to deliver the people of Israel. There was one thing before Moses was empowered by GOD to do His bidding and the power of God at his hands. This was what God said,

Exodus 4 : 2-3

2 And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.

3 And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.

God asked Moses to now throw down the only thing that symbolized Moses' abilities and strengths. His shepherd's rod/staff. A symbol of authority a shepherd had over his flock. Without his rod, Moses is no more. No more Prince of Egypt, not even a shepherd. Worse case scenario, the rod turned into a poisonous serpent! Of course Moses freaked. Therefore he fled, fearing he might be bitten by the serpent.

Then GOD spoke again,

Exodus 4 : 4

4 And the LORD said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand:

Moses obeyed GOD and picked up the serpent by its tail. Now, is this the wisest move? Not necessarily, by holding a snake by the tail, the chances of the snake turning around and biting you is very high. Then again, it goes to show that Moses had to rely on GOD to prevent the serpent from biting him.

From this account, we can clearly see that GOD's intention was to ask Moses not to rely on his own abilities and strengths but to rely upon HIM. Best part was, Moses' obedience to GOD. GOD said, throw your strengths and abilities down, Moses just did it. We can see from this occasion that Moses did not question GOD. Unlike other occasions where Moses is seen questioning GOD and even complaining. But this instance, Moses did not. His humble obedience is what's required.

So, what we can learn here is that, give up our abilities, give up "trying" to do something when you know that this is ultimately His work, His decision. After doing so, then the Lord will confer back your abilities to you. That's when GOD will turn the serpent back into the rod. That's when we know our abilities and strengths come from Him and there is nothing we can boast ourselves of.

And as we take back the rod, the rod becomes His rod.

Exodus 4 : 20

20 And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt: and Moses took the rod of God in his hand.

Now, we can see the ordinary rod has become The Rod of God.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, we look unto Him and cast down all our natural abilities at His feet and with this seeming act of weakness, we are actually imbuing ourselves with His Perfect Strength!

Hallelujah! Now we can boldly say, "Jesus i am so weak, so impotent but you're strong and my strength comes from you alone." Amen.

Be blessed by His abundant Grace and we receive, always.

Emmanuel

Turn the other cheek... Decoding Matthew 5:39

2007-05-21T23:56:00.000+08:00

Hi everyone! This awesome article is borrowed with courtesy from terenceyeo.blogspot.com

Enjoy & be Blessed!

Turning the other cheek : Decoding Matthew 5:39

Heard during the Thursday, September 22 sermon

"But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." (Matthew 5:39, KJV)

Think about it. When the right hand is used to slap somebody's face (the person standing face-to-face with the individual executing the slap), that slapping hand would usually connect with the left-side of that person's face. That would be the most convenient flow-through of the slapping action.

If the hand connected with the right cheek as is indicated in Matthew 5:39, it would not be the palm of the hand that connected with the face but rather the knuckles. This suggests that: not so much that force was intended to be inflicted by something else was intended.

THIS ACTION OF SMITING ON THE RIGHT CHEEK WAS A CHALLENGE TO A DUEL. Later in Europe, this action developed into using a glove to strike the right cheek to signal the challenge to duel.

Therefore, by turning the other cheek, Jesus is simply saying: DON'T ACCEPT THE CHALLENGE TO DUEL. It does not mean, that the Christian, rolls over and plays dead when attacked. Rather, Matthew 5:39 is an exhortation to not be agitated into reacting. TO be an ACTOR not RE-ACTOR. To be a Thermostat and not a Thermometer.

The same principle applies and is followed through in Matthew 5:41

"And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain."

The Romans had a law that compelled their subjects to carry their loads one mile. After that mile, the subject was free to go. By volunteering to carry the load another mile, the subject reverses roles with the Roman. The Roman was in control at the onset because it was he who issued the order to compel the subject to carry the load. The subject was helpless to refuse this Roman ordinance. But by going beyond the ordinance and offering to carry the load one extra mile, the subject was now in control of the situation. The subject is now the leader and not re-actor.

Are Women allowed to teach & preach in the Church?

2007-04-19T00:31:00.002+08:00

Hi beloved,

Just to share with everyone, i've been struggling with this verse for a long time.

1 Corinthians 14:34 (KJV)

Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law.

I've been asking myself how can this be true? I do not believe for one second that God is partial to any sex. This was absolutely troubling for me because our Church obviously has women pastors. And they are of course super anointed!

Last Sunday, while in the que at Church, i somehow chanced upon this verse again. I asked God to help me with this. I came up with a conjecture that possibly this verse could relate to the circumstances that the Corinthian church was going through then. During that time, there were many women who were involved in divination work, goddess worship priestesses and possibly spiritual oracles of the dead or something. I felt that within the context of the Corinthian church, Paul was advising these women against coming into church to teach and preach something they have not understood yet.

To my surprise, what i assumed was pretty accurate. My lovely wife bought me this awesome bible called the Archaeological Study Bible (NIV) about a month ago and on that very Sunday evening, i dived into this particular bible.

On the Cultural & Historical notes for 1 Corinthians 14, it states that: " The religious activities of women in the Greco-Roman world spanned a wide range and exhibited enormous diversity. Some mystery cults included ecstatic, orgiastic worship in which women played a prominent role, and pirestesses were common in the worship of Greek godesses. Some religious festivals in Greece were exclusively for women..."

So taking within the context of the entire chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul was actually addressing the present problems that the church was facing in Corinth which he founded. Corinth was the chief city of Greece, both commercially and politically. It was a bustling trading port of 100,000. Paul was addressing issues dealing with elitism within the church and conflicts over spiritual gifts among other things.

Now, as we use the word church, we have to remember that church would mean the body of Christ, NOT a building. And the body of Christ, the Church, is male and female. So, Paul knew that the body of Christ in Corinth needed his special attention. Therefore, he started writing his letters to the Church leaders in Corinth in response to their letters to him. Let's also now try and understand some words in Greek in relation to scripture. In the verse below,

1 Corinthians 14:2

For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto mEn, but unto God: for no mAn understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.

The word MEN is anthrōpos, which just means human being, male & female.

And the word MAN is oudeis, which means, not even one(man, woman, thing).

As we can see now, in the context of the chapters; Chapters 12, 13 & 14 are all about Spiritual Gifts, the Greatest gift that is Love, speaking in tounges & prophecy. As noted above, women during that time, possibly, were in high positions of occult or pagan practices which allowed them to speak in 'foreign' or 'strange' tongues too. They were usually induced with some kind of drugs to get into a trance like state or through other demonic means. This was Paul's concern.

But of course, in specific text reference to verse 34, it still sounds like a law to prevent women from speaking in church. What Paul was doing, he was reiterating what his leaders in Corinth was telling him before he gave his answer. And he knew it was absurd for them to say such a thing because the women WERE the church too. Paul knew the situation of all the clairvoyant women etc. but he also knew the importance of women in the church. Let's take a look at the context.

1 Corinthians 14:36

What? came the word of God out from you? or came it unto you only?

Paul was shocked of course. He said, "What?! Did this word come from God? Or it came out from you?" Paul then later goes on to say that his leaders are to understand what he's saying first but if so happens that they do not understand, disregard them for now.

1 Corinthians 14:37-38

37 If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.

38 But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant.

1 Corinthians 14:39-40 (Amplified Bible)

39 So [to conclude], my brethren, earnestly desire and set your hearts on prophesying (on being inspired to preach and teach and to interpret God's will and purpose), and do not forbid or hinder speaking in [unknown] tongues.

40 But all things should be done with regard to decency and propriety and in an orderly fashion.

And Paul goes on to say that the church as a whole should continue and earnestly desire to prophecy and speak in tounges. The last verse, verse 40, gives us what Paul wants to be done at the end of the day. For the Church to do things with regards to decency and in established good and proper behaviour.

Yo! Ladies out there, anointed with the oil of gladness from the Lord, teach us and preach to us please! Maintain your fervent prayer language in the Spirit, receive visions and prophecy from God but not forgetting the greatest gift of all... LOVE. All glory to our Lord Jesus Christ! It is His Love for us first that gives us all supernatural blessings and gifts.

Rock on Ladies! Blow us away with your awesome insights of our Lord!

Hallelujah & Be Blessed!

Emmanuel

My God is so good... All the time.

2007-04-07T14:19:00.001+08:00

Hi everyone,

The past week was very challenging for me. Me and the wife was somewhat "removed" from my in-law's place where we were bunking in temporarily.

It was emotionally draining for the both us. Especially my wife. She's carrying our baby who'll be received into this world come July. But through it all i rested in the Lord and rested on His Word.

That very night when it was past midnight, my wife had cried her eyes out, i needed my time alone with Him. So, i removed myself and went to the kitchen and ate a slice of bread with cheese. After doing so, i told myself that above all else my God will supply me and my wife all the needs that we ever want. In that very moment, i closed my eyes, and started giving thanks to our Lord. I said something like this, "Thank you Father, for everything that you have given me, thank you Father for my beautiful wife, thank you Father for all the future blessings that we will receive as a family. Thank you Jesus for dying for me. Your death, your poverty, your suffering has bought my resurrection Life in my body, my riches and blessings in this world and my joy and happiness in this world. Thank you, Father. In Jesus name, Amen." After that, in my heart, i asked, "Lord, please give me scripture... Your Word that i can rest on." Within a flash of a moment God flashed in my mind Ephesians 5:21. Hmmm, Ephesians 5:21, i wondered what that was. The same moment, i walked back to my room and looked to the Bible.

Ephesians 5:21

Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

For that moment, this verse did not make sense to me. I was thinking what could it be that God was telling me? Then, within that moment He gave me a prompting. He said, "Reza, what did i teach you? To read in context right? Go back 1 verse and forward 1 verse right?"

And so i did. And to my surprise...

Ephesians 5:20

Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;

I was like... WOAH! My God is so good. He's telling me, "Son, you did the right thing." I felt so assured. I felt so blessed that my God can bring Himself down to my level to even speak to me and giving me comfort.

What about verse 22 then?

Eph 5:22

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.

At that point of time, i was telling my wife that we have to move out. The environment we were in was too stressful for her and it won't be healthy for Baby. So, she agreed with me that we had to move out. Which fulfils verse 22.

But verse 21 still confused me slightly. Not knowing that it will be fulfilled the next day. The following day, while i was at work, i messaged a dear Brother of mine. I told him i needed to speak to him and possibly meet for dinner to share with him what happened. Maybe he could help us a little bit. He invited my wife and i to his home for dinner. So, at dinner we were sharing our situation and without hesitation he offered us his guest room for us to stay until we could get our own place. It was so touching for me and my wife. She cried and i was also almost brought to tears. We felt so loved. Not even our own natural families could accept us and love us this way. Without question, without conditions. My family in Christ is far greater than my natural family. And as the both of us submitted ourselves to this dear Brother and his lovely wife, Ephesians 5:21 was fulfilled!

This temporary home now is SO awesome and luxurious that it's unimaginable we could afford something like this on our own! It can only be my GOD, my Jesus that loves us so much...

Thank you, Father, for loving me so much that you gave your only Son, Jesus Christ, for me to receive this undeserved favour and provision from you. All blessings, all riches, all provisions have been laid out for me, only to be harvested. Hallelujah, My Christ & Risen One!

I pray and call forth that this Brother and his wife, be awesomely blessed beyond their imaginations, and the Lord prosper them beyond where their prosperity is at this moment, and the Lord hears and fulfils all their hearts desires!

I AM the beloved son of my Father.

Emmanuel

My Favourite, Psalm 23, expanded for u...

2007-03-22T00:03:00.001+08:00

Psalm 23

A Psalm of David.

1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

2 Corinthians 8:9 (Amplified)

9 For you are becoming progressively acquainted with and recognizing more strongly and clearly the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ (His kindness, His gracious generosity, His undeserved favor and spiritual blessing), [in] that though He was [so very] rich, yet for your sakes He became [so very] poor, in order that by His poverty you might become enriched (abundantly supplied).

2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters.

Matthew 11:28 (NKJV)

28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

John 4:14 (NKJV)

14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

3 He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.

Ephesians 4:21-23 (NKJV)

21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,

Luke 5:32 (NKJV)

32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

John 8:12 (NKJV)

12 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

John 14:18 (KJV)

18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.

Luke 22:21-22 (NKJV)

21 But behold, the hand of My betrayer is with Me on the table. 22 And truly the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed!”

Hebrews 1:9 (KJV)

9 Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.

Romans 5:20 (Amplified)

20 But then Law came in, [only] to expand and increase the trespass [making it more apparent and exciting opposition]. But where sin increased and abounded, grace (God's unmerited favor) has surpassed it and increased the more and superabounded,

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever.

Matthew 6:33 (KJV)

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

John 14:2-3 (KJV)

2 In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

Hallelujah, Thank you Lord Jesus, for you ARE my Good Shepherd and without you i can do nothing.

Your beloved son,
Emmanuel

The Joy of The Lord!

2007-03-18T22:45:00.001+08:00

Hi everyone...

You know, how we can get so caught up with our day to day goals and targets to reach at work and blah blah blah.

Well, yesterday was really a great day for me at work. The goal that we set for ourselves, we managed to achieve. But the icing on the cake was when my friend decided to come to church with me on Sunday, which was today. I was elated!

And you know what, God doesn't just answer your prayers (i prayed that my friend would come to church with me); He superabounds it! To cut the story short, my friend was saved today! Pastor made the altar call and my friend was the first one to stand up and walked to the front. My wife and I was beaming! I said, Hallelujah! Praise the Lord because He is soooo Gooood! I'm so happy for my friend! This is the Joy that no money can buy, no meeting goals or sales targets, no other thing in this world can give me this joy seeing another brother coming back home to the Lord.

I tell you man, i love it when Pastor preaches about the Prodigal Son. It is exactly what happened today. Once we were all lost but now we are found! It is also a conscious wanting to go home that helps. Because the moment we start turning home looking for our Abba, be it good intentions or even ill intentions, our Abba will hike up His stately garments and run to us and welcome us with a big big HUG and loving tender kiss to welcome us Home! And what happens afterwards? A HUGE party man!

Luke 15:25
And his elder son was in the field. And as he came and drew near the house, he heard music and dancing.

So, the elder son came back, which symbolises our old self, our law and works ridden self, he was angry! Our old selves will never accept what Abba has done for us.

Luke 15:28-31

And he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and entreated him.
And answering he said to his father, Lo, these many years I have served you, neither did I transgress your commandment at any time. And yet you never gave me a kid so that I might make merry with my friends.
But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your living with harlots, you have killed for him the fattened calf.
And he said to him, Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours.

So, the final truth is that, no matter what we do on our own to deserve God's favour, it will never be better than accepting the Truth that He is always with us and all that He has is ours.

Hallelujah, Praise God and our wonderful Saviour Jesus. We thank you and we magnify you and the sheep of the world will be in one flock with one Good Shepherd!

Does Christianity make any sense?...

2007-03-18T00:26:00.001+08:00

Hi dearly beloved of God,

Some of us might want to make sense of everything in life. But for most parts, our senses are limited to the five basic senses that we have; the sense of Sight, Sound, Taste, Smell and Tactile Feel. So, where are these five senses governed in? It's in our brain right. So, our mind governs the five senses that we have, and if we try to make sense of God, it will become non-sense. Because God is in the Spiritual Realm. Our five physical senses are unable to reach him. The moment we intellectualize His Grace and Majesty, especially of His Son, Jesus Christ, the further we'll get from understanding Him.

So, i urge many of my beloved brothers and sisters to approach Him through our hearts. Go to Him with an open heart. Say, "Lord, i seek you. Please help me. I'm lost. How come you always feel so far away from me? How come i don't feel that you love me? Please Lord, i'm lost like a sheep waiting for his Good Shepherd."

We intellectualize God's saving Grace for us. How can we intellectualize LOVE? Impossible!
Ask yourself, how did you feel when the last time your mum or dad forgave you and let it slide something which you know you've done something absolutely horrible. Notice i said, how did you feel. If i had asked, what did you think? How different would it have been. I'm sure you can't think through that moment. It must have felt absolutely ridiculous that they forgave you. But they did.

Now, that was Love on a human scale. What about LOVE on a GOD scale? Unimaginable, absolutely non-sense and downright unbelievable. But that's Him! He loves us so much!
So, dear brothers and sisters, take the courage to read the Word of God in the Bible. Read the 4 Gospels. Jesus comes to you through His Words in there. In fact, the entire Bible is the culmination of the Revelation of Jesus Christ!

We might think that we are trying to seek the Truth, but most assuredly i say to you, The Truth is Seeking You!

Matthew 18:12-13

12 “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying?

13 And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray.

Let's appreciate this verse for a moment. Jesus is referring to Himself as the Shepherd. No ordinary shepherd would seek 1 lost sheep out of 99 which he has at the moment. But Jesus will.
So, more often than not, it is HE who is searching for us than us searching for Him.
Hallelujah... Praise you Jesus!

I thank you, i exalt your name up on high for you ARE THE RISEN LORD and the King to come.
Your beloved son,
Emmanuel

I Make All Things New...

2007-03-10T00:16:00.001+08:00

Hi everyone,

I was sharing with a dear brother about how one scene in The Passion touched my heart so much. To my surprise this scene was his favourite too. This scene was when Jim Caviezel as Jesus was struggling along the streets of Old Jerusalem, and his mother Mary, was running parallel to the streets. Jesus fell, gazed to His mother, she looked back and He said, "Mother... Look, I make all things new...!" It was so heart wrenching for me to see that my God did that for me, went through all that pain and suffering for me. It is a love that is unlike any on this earth.

We ARE New now because our Lord Jesus has made all things new 2000 years ago. How Great is our God! Without Him, how can we live in this fallen world and when we do leave this world, where do we go? We are assured a mansion in His Father's House. Because why? Because He loved us first...

That scene if replayed in my mind, brings tears to my eyes. I feel so loved by our Lord Jesus. There are no words to describe what i feel but a sense of reverence, awe and worship. I'd just say, "My Lord, My God... I thank you for what you've done. Jesus, why do you love me so much? I really don't know why sometimes but i know you love me... You make me new, you make me lie down in green pastures, you make the living waters in me flow but most of all, i feel so loved... I feel so like a child in your arms, being hugged, being kissed as a father would to his baby. In you Jesus, i see my Father in Heaven."

He that numbers the very hairs on our head, he that wipes the tears away from our eyes, He that takes away our sorrows and He that takes away death. Jesus takes away the man that is dead in me and substitutes it with the New Man that is so Alive!

Thank you Lord Jesus. You ARE the Lord of my Life, You ARE my Saviour and You ARE my Good Shepherd.

Your deeply beloved son,
Emmanuel

He's no historian, He's no teacher... He Is RISEN!

2007-03-04T01:01:00.002+08:00

Shalom Brothers & Sisters,

I've been in conversation with someone lately who has been asking me questions about our Lord Jesus Christ... I believe in exalting Jesus and preaching the Word from the Gospels itself. The Good News is really the Good News and there's no need for me to make any comparisons with any other books. So, below i am just fielding some of his questions. There's nothing sensitive in this email, so i thought this might help somebody else out there.

Praise the Lord. He IS the GOOD Shepherd.

Amen & Hallelujah!

'Hi Brother,

I believe all your years in a religious school has given you some solid ground in theology and the concept of God... Right now, let's approach God as our friend. I'm not too sure whether you are able to do this right now, but that's the first step anyway. We are all lost sheep. And we need a Shepherd... So Jesus is our Good Shepherd. I'd also like to express myself again, that what i believe in now is not a religion. Because religiosity binds but spirituality sets you free.
What we have now is a renewed relationship with our Abba Father and it's so glorious to know that we can approach God anytime, anywhere and know that our prayers will always be received in it's total wholeness and perfected prayer through our Lord Jesus Christ.

From your comment that the bible has so many versions. Yes, that is true. That's to help mankind understand God. Our God is so good he does not require us to learn the Hebrew language (Old Testament Books:Torah, Nevi'Im & Kh'Tuvim) and the Greek language (New Testament Books, Evangelion) to know Him. HE has kept His WORD true to its substance in all the versions of the Bible that's available for all Mankind and translated into thousands of languages for the world to know their God.

With regards to your assessment about the bible and it's many versions and why you think it's inaccurate and flawed, i have something for you to consider...

Take yourself as a judge in a courtroom. You have a case presented to you. To have a fair trial and true judgment on your part as a judge; would you just look at the prosecution alone? or look at the defense alone? or do you have to look at evidence presented by both parties, have an impartial decision made, based on the evidence presented, to give a fair judgement. I believe you need to use the last approach to be a good judge. So, have you looked at both sides of the coin yet? Many of us fear the obvious... Just a little info for you. The Old Testament is written in Hebrew and until today you still can find the Hebrew Old Testament in its original entirety, in it's same perfect form dated all the way back to the times of Moses. These are the books that the Jewish people still use for their Jewish faith.The Dead Sea Scrolls have proven that the Old Testament we read today is the same as the one that Jesus used during His time. God is so good, He uses His own words to teach us. He gives us revelation of His words each time we read it and hear it. And during Jesus' time, He was fulfilling bible prophecy written hundreds and thousands of years before He came. So, what about the New Testament? During Jesus' time, the people in Judea, Israel spoke a few common languages. Primarily Koine Greek, Aramaic, Hebrew. Just like us in Singapore, we speak primarily English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil. So, the most commonly used language in Singapore now is English. So, most media is either written or broadcasted in English. So, during His time, the Greek language was commonly used and therefore most of the communication during His time was written in Greek. And the primary version that we have now is from the Textus Receptus. There are many good Christian books out there that will help you answer this question. Obviously if you walk into a "preferred" bookstore you'll not be able to get this information. So, as i mentioned earlier on... What would a good judge do? Would you allow an innocent man to go into the gallows? or would you let a criminal walk back out amongst the innocent? I'm sure you'll do what's right... Check out this book by Lee Strobel: The Case for Christ.

So far, your approach to God has been pretty intellectual. Use your heart brother... In your daily practice now, do you feel loved by God? Do you know that God loves you so much? Do you know that Jesus loves you so much? Yes you! Not the collective world but YOU. We tend to generalise God. We can say, "Yeah... God loves all of us." But can we say, "Yes! GOD LOVES ME!" Are you in love with God? But do you know that He loved you first from the beginning of time until the time we see Him in Heaven eternally? Do you believe you are in a position where you can ask God for anything and He'll give it to you because He loves you so much? Do you know that you are assured a place in Heaven? John14:2 says,

John 14:2 In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so , I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

What we must appreciate is, who is doing the talking here? Is it John the disciple?.. is it another rabbi?.. it it any other man on the street? No. It's Jesus Himself! God Himself was talking to us. How beautiful and endearing the thought that my God is so good He does such a thing for me... : )

I love Him so much... But that doesn't beat His love for me...

With your reference to I-Robot, it is very interesting to note that the author of I-Robot, Isaac Asimov is actually an atheist. He does not believe in God. Not like you and me... A person who has not encountered God will always feel that He is a distant force, set apart all else. Do you believe that God is omnipresent? Is He beside you now? Do you know that God walked with Abraham, God walked with Enoch and many other beloved people of God. He is there with you now. But the awesome truth now is, because of what Jesus has done for us, God is now IN us and we are now IN Christ. Meaning we are constantly IN God's presence. This is the personality of the Holy Spirit. : ) Holy Spirit is GOD IN us. Maybe you're uncomfortable with the terminology of Holy Spirit. Let me give you the Hebrew equivalent, the Holy Spirit is actually Ruach HaKhodhesh. The living breath of God in us. How did God make the first man Adam?

Genesis 2:7 Then the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

He is in us. This is true. But to know Him in us, we must first know Jesus. Because after Jesus was crucified and resurrected, He gave us the Holy Spirit as our Comforter.

John 14:26 But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatever I have said to you.

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Once you have come to know who Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus the Messiah) is, then will you come to know the Comforter. He teaches you all things, bring all things to remembrance of our original position with God that we are His beloved children and not His servant. You will also get the Peace not as the world gives you but the Peace that God can give in your soul, your spirit, your mind and your body. After knowing this, what is there to fear? So, let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Jesus is no longer a teacher for me. HE is My Lord and my Saviour! HE IS the Prince of Peace, "Sar Shalom" in Hebrew. No one in this world can give you the peace that you are looking for accept Yeshua Hamashiach.

Last of all, you mentioned that God should be really perfect, a 100% perfect. Well, He IS perfection! More than 100%! He IS perfection itself! The beginning and the end, HE is the Alpha and Omega! How does this perfection come to fruition? It will have to be the finished work of the cross... His undying love for us, led Himself (Jesus Christ) to the cross, being beaten, scourged, whipped to His bones, His Perfect Blood being spilt and finally finished at the Cross of Calvary... and for what? To be the final sacrifice(korban), the perfect sin offering so that no more such sacrifices(ie. animal) need to be done anymore for the Eternal Remission of our sins, past, present, future, forever... and for the total healing of our body, mind and soul, today and forever!

I have to say this right now... HALLELUJAH! - Praise to ye YHVH! (That's what it means in Hebrew.)

And why do i celebrate? Because He is Risen!

Finally, i know all of us seek The Truth. But what defines Truth?

TRUTH is ETERNAL, Fact is temporal.

The world was once known to be flat and taken as fact. But now we obviously know it's round!

So my brother, walk in truth. Seek the God that gives you Truth. And the fruits of this Truth is Peace not as this world can give, Love that you have lost but now have been found and Joy everlasting that people of this world will think you're crazy to be this happy all the time!...

Amen brother... God be with you and the Truth will seek you!

God bless,
Emmanuel. '

Our Shield and Hedge... Divine Protection for us.

2007-03-01T19:37:00.001+08:00

Hi all,

Dearly beloved of our Lord Jesus...

I was inspired to write this post by a recent encounter i had this past week.

How many times have we as believers been discouraged by negative words by people around us? How many times have we been told by some of our own Christian believer friends that what we are doing is not Spirit led and we are using our own self effort or that the outcome of the things we do will lead us into trouble and danger for ourselves and our families?

With Pastor's teaching, i have learnt that, we as the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, have all the authority in the world to reject any negative thoughts that's being put into our head, reject all evil that will come against us and our loved ones.

I believe many of us have not come to the point of realising that God's love for us is perfect. Abba's love is eternal and perfection to the very end. A dear beloved brother was sharing with me his personal encounter with God, where God asked him whether he knew that God's love for him is perfect. This was such a revelation for me. Many of us limit His love according to our knowledge and experiences. Instead of rejecting all that is bad and evil for us, we start to except it as part of the toil of our Christian walk. Many believe that when they start to serve God, they will be challenged by the devil through the authorities that be. What we have known becomes unknown again, that the truth is, satan has been defeated at the cross of Calvary.

It is a state of knowing, that our Abba Father loves us so much that He does not want us to suffer in any way. THIS has to become our daily reality. Then whatever we may do; evangelizing, preaching the Word, sharing our testimonies with people around us, will always be done from Victory ground well knowing that satan has been defeated. And the negativities we experience and see around us are just lying symptoms to get us out of God's perfect love for us.

Let's look at scripture, Job 1:10
Have You not made a hedge around him, and around his house, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his livestock have increased in the land.

So, let's look in context who was speaking to God right now... Job 1:9
Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for naught?

It was satan who spoke to God and satan knew that Job is protected by God. If Job had the Lord's hedge around him, the works of his hands are blessed and his livestock increased... What more us?! Aren't we the righteousness of God now? So, why do some of us still allow fear of this world to creep into our lives?

Deuteronomy 33:29
Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the LORD, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency! and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places.

Isn't He our sword and our shield? His Word is our Sword, Faith is our Shield and we put on the rest of the armour of God in Ephesians 6:11-17. The beauty about this is the consistency of God's Word.

Words in the OT are consistent with the NT. God wants us to know that HE is true to His word and His Word will cut through any enemies that come against us and our Faith shields us from all the lies in this world.

I reject and refuse any words of condemnation that come against me. We become the partakers of the feeding that He gives us and therefore we give back to His service from Victory ground and from abundance. That we have freely received, therefore we freely give back a portion of our lives to Him from the overflow we have received from Him. Anything we do and say that exalts Jesus is service to Him. Such Glory, Such Victory, why should there be any condemnation? God's hedge is around us, God has formed a protection of restraint around us and we have the shield of Faith to repel any evil that is stupid enough to come near the believers of Christ!

Thank you Lord Jesus for you have ensured us eternal protection through your mighty work at the cross of Calvary.

Blessings Brothers & Sisters,
Emmanuel

The Kingdom of God and our Daily Bread.

2007-02-24T01:46:00.000+08:00

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.

2007-02-19T12:10:00.001+08:00

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...

2007-02-16T01:20:00.000+08:00

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

2007-02-14T23:43:00.001+08:00

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

2007-02-13T00:48:00.001+08:00

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.