Jesus answered them, "My teaching isn't Mine but is from the One who sent Me. If anyone wants to do His will, he will understand whether the teaching is from God or if I am speaking on My own. (John 7:16-17 HCSB)
Anyone who choose to follow Jesus and do His commandments will know if His teaching is from God.
O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him. (Psalm 34:8 KJV)
Thursday, November 30, 2017
Saturday, November 25, 2017
Why God Did Not Protect Modern Israel
Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the LORD God, the God of Israel. For I will cast out nations before you and enlarge your borders; no one shall covet your land, when you go up to appear before the LORD your God three times in the year. (Exodus 34:23-24 ESV)
God had promised that if all Israel were to appear before God three times a year in Jerusalem, no one will attack them during this period. History has proven that Israel was not attacked as God had promised. It was an unnoticed miracle because it looked so natural.
But for modern Israel, things changed. In 1973, Israel was attacked by Egypt and Syria during Yom Kippur. In 2002, there was a suicide bomber killed himself and 25 Israelis during Passover. Why has God fail to keep His promise to protect Israel in modern times?
Some answers were offered:
Jesus told her, "Believe Me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:21-24 HCSB)
God had promised that if all Israel were to appear before God three times a year in Jerusalem, no one will attack them during this period. History has proven that Israel was not attacked as God had promised. It was an unnoticed miracle because it looked so natural.
But for modern Israel, things changed. In 1973, Israel was attacked by Egypt and Syria during Yom Kippur. In 2002, there was a suicide bomber killed himself and 25 Israelis during Passover. Why has God fail to keep His promise to protect Israel in modern times?
Some answers were offered:
- God does not exist and those history were myths;
- Modern Israel is not true Israel, the true Israel is the Church.
Jesus told her, "Believe Me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:21-24 HCSB)
Friday, November 24, 2017
From Beginning Till The End
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1 ESV)
There is no book like the Bible. It tells you how it all began. It tells you how it will end.
Remember what happened long ago, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and no one is like Me. I declare the end from the beginning, and from long ago what is not yet done, saying: My plan will take place, and I will do all My will. (Isaiah 46:9-10 HCSB)
In 1989, Francis Fukuyama announced the "end of history". The free-market liberal democracy had won out and would become the world's "final form of human government." But Francis Fukuyama is now worried about democracy's future.
The whole statue was crushed into small pieces of iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold. Then the wind blew them away without a trace, like chaff on a threshing floor. But the rock that knocked the statue down became a great mountain that covered the whole earth. (Daniel 2:35 NLT)
For I will create a new heaven and a new earth; the past events will not be remembered or come to mind. (Isaiah 65:17 HCSB)
Long before Francis Fukuyama existed, the prophet Daniel already given the world a panoramic view of history. Three more empires will come after the Babylonian Empire. And then the Kingdom of God will be set up as the final form of government. The prophet Isaiah told us that God will then create a new heaven and a new earth.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. (Revelation 21:1 ESV)
There is no book like the Bible. It tells you how it all began. It tells you how it will end.
Remember what happened long ago, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and no one is like Me. I declare the end from the beginning, and from long ago what is not yet done, saying: My plan will take place, and I will do all My will. (Isaiah 46:9-10 HCSB)
In 1989, Francis Fukuyama announced the "end of history". The free-market liberal democracy had won out and would become the world's "final form of human government." But Francis Fukuyama is now worried about democracy's future.
The whole statue was crushed into small pieces of iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold. Then the wind blew them away without a trace, like chaff on a threshing floor. But the rock that knocked the statue down became a great mountain that covered the whole earth. (Daniel 2:35 NLT)
For I will create a new heaven and a new earth; the past events will not be remembered or come to mind. (Isaiah 65:17 HCSB)
Long before Francis Fukuyama existed, the prophet Daniel already given the world a panoramic view of history. Three more empires will come after the Babylonian Empire. And then the Kingdom of God will be set up as the final form of government. The prophet Isaiah told us that God will then create a new heaven and a new earth.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. (Revelation 21:1 ESV)
Thursday, November 23, 2017
Homosexuality and Pedophilia
Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. (1 Corinthians 6:18 ESV)
The Bible only allows sex between married man and woman. Any sex outside this context is sin.
Homosexuality and pedophilia are both sin. Homosexuality is a sin because it is not sex between a man and a woman. The Bible has many verses against homosexuality, for example Leviticus 20:13. But the Bible does not mention pedophilia directly. The silence of the Bible does not means that pedophilia is acceptable. By implication, marriage is between an adult male and an adult female, not between an adult and a child. Matthew 18:6 has a severe warning against anyone who is a stumbling block to children, especially to those who believed.
In today's western liberal society, homosexuals are viewed as an alternate sexual orientation, not a perversion. We are told to accept them as normal. Refusing to do so is treated as immoral. We are not given a choice. In some countries, not recognizing homosexuals is a criminal offence.
Pedophiles, on the other hand, are treated as perverts of the worse kind. Wherever they are found, they are hated, shamed, prosecuted and imprisoned. No one is allowed to speak for pedophilia.
We choose our own standards of righteousness and follow our own perversions. Those sins we love we call it right. The sins we hate, we persecute without mercy.
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20 ESV)
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. (Matthew 23:23 ESV)
There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, yet is not washed from its filth. (Proverbs 30:12 HCSB)
Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. (Hebrews 13:4 ESV)
The Bible only allows sex between married man and woman. Any sex outside this context is sin.
Homosexuality and pedophilia are both sin. Homosexuality is a sin because it is not sex between a man and a woman. The Bible has many verses against homosexuality, for example Leviticus 20:13. But the Bible does not mention pedophilia directly. The silence of the Bible does not means that pedophilia is acceptable. By implication, marriage is between an adult male and an adult female, not between an adult and a child. Matthew 18:6 has a severe warning against anyone who is a stumbling block to children, especially to those who believed.
In today's western liberal society, homosexuals are viewed as an alternate sexual orientation, not a perversion. We are told to accept them as normal. Refusing to do so is treated as immoral. We are not given a choice. In some countries, not recognizing homosexuals is a criminal offence.
Pedophiles, on the other hand, are treated as perverts of the worse kind. Wherever they are found, they are hated, shamed, prosecuted and imprisoned. No one is allowed to speak for pedophilia.
We choose our own standards of righteousness and follow our own perversions. Those sins we love we call it right. The sins we hate, we persecute without mercy.
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20 ESV)
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. (Matthew 23:23 ESV)
There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, yet is not washed from its filth. (Proverbs 30:12 HCSB)
Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. (Hebrews 13:4 ESV)
Monday, November 13, 2017
Christianity The Dangerous Religion
He put another parable before them, saying, "The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches." (Matthew 13:31-32 ESV)
The New Testament is full of ordinary people, who would not have been known, if Christianity did not become a world religion. Who would be interested in Galilean fishermen who lived 2000 years ago?
In the first 300 years of Christianity, the religion was spread by ordinary people, unknown to history. No general took up the sword to force people to become Christians. No king got converted and made Christianity a national religion. In fact, in the first 300 years of Christianity, Christians were persecuted by good and wise Roman Emperors, who realized that the Roman culture was involved in an existential struggle with Christianity. If Christianity win, the Roman gods and Roman culture will die.
Christianity did win and Rome and its gods died.
This is the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. (Psalm 118:23 ESV)
The New Testament is full of ordinary people, who would not have been known, if Christianity did not become a world religion. Who would be interested in Galilean fishermen who lived 2000 years ago?
In the first 300 years of Christianity, the religion was spread by ordinary people, unknown to history. No general took up the sword to force people to become Christians. No king got converted and made Christianity a national religion. In fact, in the first 300 years of Christianity, Christians were persecuted by good and wise Roman Emperors, who realized that the Roman culture was involved in an existential struggle with Christianity. If Christianity win, the Roman gods and Roman culture will die.
Christianity did win and Rome and its gods died.
This is the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. (Psalm 118:23 ESV)
Sunday, November 12, 2017
Going To Miss A Sermon On Romans 16
There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after. (Ecclesiastes 1:11 ESV)
This morning, I am going to miss the sermon on Romans 16:12-16 by Rev Dr Tang Tuck Keong because I am overseas.
Volumes had been written on the rest on Romans, but to me, it is Romans 16 that is the most touching part of the whole epistle. It is one of the best parts of the Bible and it makes the Bible different from other books. It is the part that make the epistle real by writing about real people in the church. Imagine these were the ordinary people who lived 2000 years ago and their names and relationships are preserved for us till today, just like our names, which will be preserved because they are written in the Book of Life for eternity. When we are gone, nobody will know us. But that is not important. Because we know God and we know Jesus whom He had sent, we will be remembered by the One who will not die.
And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. (John 17:3 ESV)
Greet those workers in the Lord, Tryphaena and Tryphosa. Greet the beloved Persis, who has worked hard in the Lord. Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; also his mother, who has been a mother to me as well. Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them. Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you. (Romans 16:12-16 ESV)
This morning, I am going to miss the sermon on Romans 16:12-16 by Rev Dr Tang Tuck Keong because I am overseas.
Volumes had been written on the rest on Romans, but to me, it is Romans 16 that is the most touching part of the whole epistle. It is one of the best parts of the Bible and it makes the Bible different from other books. It is the part that make the epistle real by writing about real people in the church. Imagine these were the ordinary people who lived 2000 years ago and their names and relationships are preserved for us till today, just like our names, which will be preserved because they are written in the Book of Life for eternity. When we are gone, nobody will know us. But that is not important. Because we know God and we know Jesus whom He had sent, we will be remembered by the One who will not die.
And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. (John 17:3 ESV)
Greet those workers in the Lord, Tryphaena and Tryphosa. Greet the beloved Persis, who has worked hard in the Lord. Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; also his mother, who has been a mother to me as well. Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them. Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you. (Romans 16:12-16 ESV)
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