God's amazing grace

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Last week, my son, Jared was diagnosed with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis(JIA). It is a chronic disease that has no cure medically. This auto immune disease causes swelling of the joints, according to the doctor, only a life time of drugs can control this condition. It was truly heart breaking to hear such bad news.

Two months ago, Jared developed a swelling in his right foot that wouldn't go away. Thinking that it was one of his sports injury again, I brought him to a polyclinic to get a referral letter to see a specialist in a hospital so that we can save costs on seeing expensive private doctors at specialised clinics. And God was in control from the beginning, he led us to KKH woman and child hospital to see an Orthopaedic as a subsidised patient. After one month of physiotherapy, his foot did not improve, instead, his left knee began to swell up as well.

Two weeks later, we had to admit him to the emergency clinic because he woke up with intense pain in his knee. He was hospitalised for three days and went through so many needle injections and blood tests. His knee was wrapped in a big bandage that look amusingly like a rugby ball. And the big white ball jolted me because it suddenly reminded me of a vision that I saw some weeks ago during a prayer meeting. In the vision I saw a big white ball, and the word that God gave me was that somebody has a painful swelling on one part of his/her body and God is going to heal him/her. I praise God for this promise and assurance. My faith rises with hope for Jared.

Finally after an MRI and X-ray scan, Dr Thas, the KKH Rheumatoid Arthiritis doctor came by to announce that Jared has JIA (Juvenile Idiopathic Arthiritis). Idiopathic means unknown in medical terms but God knows exactly what was going on and he is in control!

As I was reading Nehemiah last week, it spoke to me about Jared's condition. Just as God used Nehemiah to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem and restore the faith of the Israelites, God will also rebuild Jared's health and restore his faith. And all these will take time and he will use many people along the way to help us, just like how he uses so many people to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem.

Yesterday while I was sitting outside the clinic, I started reading 1 Peter 1:3-9,

³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, ⁵ who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶ In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷ These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. ⁸ Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, ⁹ for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Verse 4 spoke to me a lot... about the inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. Even though we have troubles and difficulties in our life here on earth but we can put our hope in God as he has prepared an inheritance for us in heaven. We may have spent our time building our health, career, kids, friendships, marriages and wealth...but all these are not forever, they will eventually perish, fade away or spoil. Our living hope is in Christ, our lives on this earth are only temporal, trials and difficulties strengthen our faith and character. 

My prayer is that Jared will become stronger in his faith. And through this journey with God, he will draw nearer to Jesus and experience his amazing grace!

faith and obedience

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God's word is holy and his law is righteous and just (Rom 7:12) . Each time as I meditate upon his word, I am inspired by his truth and deepened in my understanding of his word. His word teaches us how we should live our lives and live it to the fullest. When we choose to obey God we will be able to enjoy his blessings (Deut 28:9-11). 1 John 5:3 says that if we truly understand God's love for us, we will desire to keep his commandments.  However, there are many teachings that condemn the obeying of God's laws as legalistic. 

Why is it that many resist hearing the law of God and continue to disobey him? 

We are sinful by nature, and it is always a struggle to obey our God (Rom 7:15-20). We have a human tendency to want to do things our way because we think we know what is the best. Sometimes, we see bad circumstances as God abandoning us and we even question his existence. Bad situations may occur because of our disobedience or because we have drifted far from him. Sometimes, difficult situations are God's way of testing our faith. The word testing may even disturb some of us, why would a loving God choose to test us in a difficult way? Job 1:12 shows God giving permission to satan to attack Job. Why must God put Job, a God fearing and upright man through many hardships to the extent of loosing his family, all his possessions and even his health? When I read Job, my heart was filled with much heaviness. But Job 1:21 inspired me to put my trust and faith in God, he is sovereign and he desires to strengthen our faith and character. His plans are always good no matter how bad the situation may seem (Jer 29:11). Job chose to obey God despite of the circumstances because he knows God and trust him. By God's grace Job walked through his difficulties and was able to overcome his weakness. And God restored him and blessed him more abundantly than before.  

Trust and obey God in all circumstances, by his grace we will stand firm in our faith and experience his wonderful blessings. The blessings may not happen in this lifetime for some but definitely when we leave this earth to join Jesus in heaven, we will experience his fullness and glory. Paul experienced much persecution and hardships but he never gave up. He was poor, cold, hungry and suffered much physical discomfort, and he was possibly martyred like the many other apostles. The question is, what meaning is a life like this - a life of suffering? Isn't a life with Christ a victorious and blessed one? 

Dear friends, please do not be fooled by many false preachers who tell you that God's desires are to make you rich and successful. And that his grace will help you to reign in this life, all you need to do is to believe. God desires the best for us doesn't mean he will yield to all our wants. God is sovereign, he knows what is good for us, what the world tells you is good may not be desirable for us. God already warned us in Luke 12:15, "... Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions." The world will tell you that you need to make a lot of money in order to feel secure about the future. And false preachers will also tell you that riches, good health and possessions are signs of God's favour upon you. God's way of prospering us is not how the world perceives it, in terms of dollars and cents, instead he blesses us beyond the material and financial blessings. There are some people who are poor yet they live an abundant, joyous and fulfilled life in Christ, on the other hand, there are people who have riches and possession yet do not experience a fulfilling life. 1 Samuel 2:7 " The Lord sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts." In fact he "He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor." (v8)

Do not listen to the new age preachers who repeatedly tell you that it is legalistic to obey the law, because Jesus has already fulfilled the laws of God and his grace allow us to experience a lifetime of financial blessings and health here on earth. Their message subtly suggests that it is alright to sin because we are already imputed with his righteousness and God will not judge us. 2 Cor 5:10 clearly says that one day we will have to face the judgement of God. 

We are saved by the grace of God through faith and not by works (Eph 2:8-9)  Many false preachers omit the following verse that says "For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." James 2:14-26 also says that faith without works is dead. We are justified by his grace and sanctified by his truth (John 17:17).  Justification is the work of God and sanctification is a process where we are set apart for his work (Phil 2:13) . When we are truly saved, we will desire to follow christ and live out God's will. Mat 7:21 warns us that only those who does the will of our father in heaven will enter his kingdom. It is not enough just to believe right, many who believe in Jesus are living a life that is apart from God. It is important however to live right by submitting to his will and walking in his ways. 

Matt 16:24 "Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." What does it mean to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him? It means dying to our selfish desires, maybe even losing our family, our friends, and physical comfort or losing our life. That sounds really scary but it is worth it because when we receive Jesus as our personal Lord and saviour, we receive an eternal life that extends beyond this life on earth. And a loving relationship with God liberates us from the desires of this world, he sets us free from the yearning for fame and popularity, riches and material success. Paul experienced this abundant grace of God, that is why despite of all the physical suffering here on earth he is able to say " For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain" and he warns us in 1 Tim 6:9 about the lure of this world, those who desires to get rich will fall into destruction. Indeed, he has found the joy of life in being contented (1Tim 6:6-8). He has experienced true freedom! 

The journey of faith may seem difficult, because it is always against our own desires. It is not effortless as some false preachers have put it.  In fact those who desire to live a godly life will be persecuted (2 Tim 3:12). But God also reminds us that our sufferings here on earth are temporal (2 Cor 4:17). James says that when we persevere in our faith, we will receive God's crown of glory (James 1:12). 

So press on in our faith, our eternal rewards are in heaven! Let us pray for an undying desire to do his will and obey him so that we will receive his crown of righteousness and glory (James 1:12, 2 Tim 4:7-8)!

the meaning of God's grace

The bible warned us that in the last days, there will be false prophets amongst us, preaching a different gospel to suit their own sinful desires. They will be motivated by greed to preach a gospel that will appeal to people so as to bring in money for themselves. Paul mentioned in 2 Tim 4: 3-4.

There are many preachers who preach grace as a means to receive blessings from God. Blessings in the form of success, wealth, health and prosperity. These preachers preach grace in an exaggerated way and even boldly claim that we no longer need to be conscious of our sins, we just need to know that God wants us to be successful, rich, healthy and prosperous. The biblical errors are sometimes so subtle that even the matured believers are deceived. This false grace doctrine may not imply that grace gives us the freedom to sin but it ignores the laws of God to preach a perverted gospel. 

The bible clearly says that the grace of God teaches us to deny our sinful desires and live a life of godliness (Titus 2:11-12)

I am deeply convicted about understanding the truth. It is easy to acquire knowledge without understanding. We need to humbly come before God to ask him to show us the truth because only the truth can set us free (John 8:32). When we preach the gospel as a means to get "things" from God, we are still slaves to our sinful desires. God is not a means to an end, he is not a god that we can manipulate to get what we want.

Jesus died on the cross for our sins, so that we are no longer condemned but are now able to live with him! He did not die so that we can be wealthy, healthy and prosperous. He died so that we can be healed of our sins!

1 Peter 2:24
“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”

Many false doctrine claims that since we are now living under the new covenant of grace, we no longer need to teach the law and we do not need to obey and please God, because Jesus has already done all the work on the cross. Some even imply that God is no longer angry nor does he grieve when we sin. God's attitude towards sin has not changed (Mal 3:6, 2 Cor 7:1),  he hates sin because sin leads to death and he desires us to obey him so that we can have life to eternal! 

In the book of Nehemiah, we clearly see that God was angry with the people of Israel because of their disobedience but he was gracious and loving towards them, he did not desert them. Instead, he used Nehemiah to help them rebuild the city. He also used Nehemiah to remind them about the laws of God and to teach them to obey the commandments. In chapter 8, as Ezra read the laws to the people, the people became convicted of their sins, they broke down and wept (v9). That is the beautiful works of the law of God, it shows us how terribly we have sinned, the conviction produces in our hearts a godly sorrow. In chapter 9, the Israelites confessed their sins and sins of their ancestors before God, they bind themselves to an agreement to follow God's commandments. This is a sign of transformation of their hearts. When we are convicted of our sins, we will have a desire turn away from our sinful ways to live a life in obedience to God. And that is only possible when we run to the throne of God to receive his grace, not trying to obey him in our own strength. 

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the duty of all mankind.
For God will bring every deed into judgment,
including every hidden thing,
whether it is good or evil.

The lord desires us to fear and obey him but we cannot do it on our own, that's why we need his grace. When our hearts desire to be obedient to him, we will enjoy a loving relationship with him. God used Nehemiah to warn the people about their rebellious ways and to urge them to keep his commandments. God's nature has not changed with the new covenant of grace, he hates sin and still grieves when we choose to disobey him.  Jesus did not come to earth to abolish the laws, he came to fulfil them (Matt 5:17-20). 

God's grace empowers us to obey him and to persevere in our faith. Let our eyes be fixed upon him and his righteousness (Matt 6:33). God does bless us with tangible rewards here on earth but those things are not our goals because our time here is temporal. When we understand God's love for us and his purposes for our lives, we will learn to trust him and be contented in all circumstances (Phil 4:11-13). When we seek to obey him and to do his will, we will be able to experience the fullness of God's blessings...beyond the wealth, health and prosperity. 

So dear friends, do not be discouraged when you face struggles of the flesh, Jesus knows our difficulties and will supply us with abundant grace to overcome (Heb 4:15, Heb 2:18) !