TWC 20120129: Party or Blessing?

Sunday 29 January 2012

If you would like to be blessed, then pay careful attention to the first psalm. The psalmist tells us that a person is truly blessed when he or she knows God, learns His Word and lives according to God’s ways. To maintain godliness, the psalmist advices against doing what ungodly people ask us to do (walking in the counsel of the wicked), hanging out with them (standing in the way of sinners) and becoming one of them (sitting in the seat of mockers). There is an old Chinese saying: 近朱者赤，近墨者黑 (literally: when you touch black, you become black, when you touch red, you become red) and it simply means “one takes on the colour of one’s company”, and that is exactly what Ps.1 is all about. I have met many Christians who prefer hanging out with non-Christian friends because they are more fun and they do more exciting things. Believe me, almost every ungodly thing is basically fun and enjoyable. In fact, I can’t think of any that is not. Can you? While not all non-Christian friends are ungodly, it would be quite right to say most, if not all non-Christians do not promote the things of God. So if a believer spends most of his or her time in the company of non-Christians, it won’t be long before that believer is influenced by worldly philosophies and ungodly lifestyle. As followers of Christ, we are called first and foremost to communion with God and also communion with each other. Then, we won’t be easily led astray, instead we bring a godly influence to those around us. Each of us is like a luminous stick. In communion with God and one another, God’s light shines on us and we start to glow. We then enter into society to shine our light in dark places and amidst unholy company. Before long, our light will begin to fade. To glow again, we would need to return to spending time with God and fellow believers so that God’s light may shine on us and illuminate us again. Then, we go out again to be His light in a dark world, the cycle goes on and on. As you begin your walk with God today, spend time with the Lord and make time to be amongst fellow Christians for mutual edification. Decide to go to meetings (like prayer meetings, men’s meetings, women’s meetings, cell meetings, etc.) that you have not attended before because you have always given priority to other things. Choose how you spend your time wisely. Don’t let the need for fun and enjoyment rule your life, instead choose God and godliness. Seek ways to grow strong in your faith and know that the stronger your faith is, the brighter your light will be and the less susceptible you will be to ungodly influence. Enjoy Him, love Him, serve Him.

“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” (Ps.1:1,2)

Pastor Barnabas Chong
Email us at twc@cairnhillchurch.com

Today’s recommended video: Give me one pure and holy passion ……

Benny Prasad at Cairnhill on Sunday 5 Feb, 9.30am!

TWC 20120128: Edification of Church and Edification of Self

Tags

apostle paul, church edification, fellow believers, heart of god, secular philosophy, walk with god

Saturday 28 January 2012

The Apostle Paul says in 1Cor.14:4, “He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church.” And in the next verse, he says, “he who prophesies is greater than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may be edified.” The underlying reason why Paul said the one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues is this: edification of the church is more important than edification of self. This is consistent with what Paul said in v.1 too – “follow the way of love”. In the preceding chapter, Paul had defined what love is and the futility of exercising many gifts without love. We must be careful never to place self-edification above church-edification. Some people do for they have been influenced by the secular philosophy of our day – “serve yourself first, seek your interest first”. When believers are not alert and prudent, we may unconsciously allow this diabolical mindset to influence our reading and application of “love your neighbor as you love yourself”. We end up focusing on loving ourselves, we become obsessed with it and not move on to loving our neighbors. As you begin your walk with God today, submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Choose to give priority to edifying your brothers and sisters-in-Christ over self-edification. Choose to love fellow believers over loving yourself. Choose their interests above your own.  It is not that we cannot or should not edify ourselves or love ourselves, it is about emphasis and priority, it is about recognizing the heart of God to give rather than to receive, to bless rather than seeking to be blessed. It is about following God’s way of love – He first loved us. Enjoy Him, love Him, serve Him.

“He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church.” (1Cor.14:4)

Pastor Barnabas Chong
Email us at twc@cairnhillchurch.com

Today’s recommended video:  I will build my church ……

I Will Build My Church
Lord, we stand in awe of You, the One who’s making all things new
And as our hearts to You are raised, build here Your holy church of praise
Lord, make us part of this, to see Your Kingdom come and exist as …

A church in victory, a light for all the world to see
Making a difference in this world
A church in unity, displaying love wholeheartedly
Bringing salvation to the world

Jesus, You have said, “I will build My church”
“I will build My church”
Jesus, You’re the Rock, come and build Your church
Come and build Your church

TWC 20120127: My Motive

Friday 27 January 2012

What is my motive for wanting spiritual gifts? Do I want to be a gifted preacher of God’s Word, moving in the power of the Holy Spirit because I want to be respected, well-known, powerful, better than others, served by others and adored by them? The Apostle Paul prefaced this passage on desiring spiritual gifts with “follow the way of love”. He said, “follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts”. Thus, desiring spiritual gifts is part of the Christian journey of following the way of love, the way that Jesus has first shown us – to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love one another. This is something we tend to forget sometimes which is why every now and again, you and I see gifted people exercising their spiritual gifts without love. Sometimes, we do that ourselves. I should always eagerly desire spiritual gifts because I love God and because I want to serve Him in the most effective way, employing the spiritual gifts that are available from the Lord so that His will is done His way in my life. Then, my ministry will demonstrate the power of the Holy Spirit instead of a display of my own wisdom and my persuasiveness. Also, I should eagerly desire spiritual gifts because I love people and love to see their lives transformed. When my ministry is spiritual and not carnal, then the faith of those whom I serve and minister to is built not on man’s wisdom but on God’s power (1Cor.2:4,5). As you begin your walk with God today, why not take time to examine yourself and eagerly seek God for spiritual gifts with a pure heart, and with the intent to use these gifts to glorify God and build up the faith of the saints. Enjoy Him, love Him, serve Him.

“Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy.” (1Cor.14:1)

Pastor Barnabas Chong
Email us at twc@cairnhillchurch.com

Today’s recommended video:  Love is patient ……

TWC 20120126: Prophesy

Thursday 26 January 2012

In 1Cor.14:1, the Apostle Paul tells us to desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy. He goes on to say in v.5 that the gift of prophecy is greater than the gift of tongues and the reason is because it edifies the church. Interestingly, despite Paul’s instruction, the pursuit and exercise of the gift of prophecy are quite absent in many churches. We emphasize many gifts – the gift of love, hospitality, leadership, tongues, discernment, etc. but seldom the gift of prophecy. I believe one reason for this lack is because of the abuse of the gift of prophecy. There are strange believers and so-called teachers of the Word who have given “prophecies of the flesh” instead of prophecies of the Lord. The reaction of many in church is unfortunately, throwing the baby out with the bath water. However, the solution of the problem of abuse is not disuse but proper use. What we need to do is to teach the church properly about the gift of prophecy – how we should desire and practice it. The most important starting point is to learn how to hear from God. This is not something anyone can claim to have mastered, but we can most certainly grow in being more and more discerning of God’s voice. I started the process of learning how to hear God’s voice as a young believer, having learned it from the church I was a part of. I began asking God questions about many things. For instance, “Lord, should I speak to this person about this issue or not?”, “Lord, should I buy this at this time?”, “Lord, should I do this or should I not?”, etc. After asking the question, I would wait quietly for a while, sometimes longer, and then I would respond to the first prompting I get in my heart believing that it is what the Lord wants me to do. I got it wrong sometimes, but most of the time, on hindsight, it was truly of God! Then, I started asking the Lord before praying for a person, “Lord, what would you like me to say to this person? Do you have a word for him?” The Holy Spirit would prompt my heart, I would then speak whatever I felt in my heart. To be prudent, I would usually say, “I feel the Lord impressed this on my heart ….”. I would also ask the person if the words made any sense. If they did, fantastic, if not, I’d ask the person to leave it at the back of their mind for sometime because it may become relevant later. If the words remained irrelevant, I’d ask them to just throw it out because I could have been wrong. As I did this more and more, I found that the accuracy rate also increased. Glory to God! As you begin your walk with God today, why not begin by desiring the gift of prophecy and boldly yet humbly practice it. I believe when you do so, you will begin to edify many, including non-believers! Enjoy Him, love Him, serve Him.

“Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy.” (1Cor.14:1)

Pastor Barnabas Chong
Email us at twc@cairnhillchurch.com

Today’s recommended video: Prophesy (Christian City Church Oxford Falls) ……

TWC 20120125: God’s Best For You

Wednesday 25 January 2012

God wants to give you His best! The Bible says every good and perfect gift is from above. (Jas.1:17). Many believe that God gives us only the best, but do not realize that God’s best may not always be the same as what we consider to be the best. God’s thoughts are higher than ours, His ways are higher than ours. In His infinite wisdom, He may choose to give us something truly wonderful yet it is not something we want. For instance, the Lord told Jonah to preach to the people of Nineveh, but Jonah refused and ran in the opposite direction. Jonah could not reconcile the fact that God could love the sinful people of that city. He forgotten that his wisdom and understanding of God are at best limited. Like Jonah, sometimes we forget that too. We think just too highly of ourselves and we think that our definition of “God’s best” is always correct. For instance, many believers actually think that all material blessings are good and perfect gifts from the Lord. If that were the case, Jesus would have chosen the material blessings offered to him by the devil during the 40-day fast in the wilderness! Many believers today would blindly do just that! This is how I see it. Material blessings that compromise our devotion and service to God are not of the Lord. For me, that’s the litmus test. As you begin your walk with God today, submit the desires of your heart to the Lord. Don’t let your desires rule you and dictate how you live, instead desire the pure Word and purposes of God. Ask God for revelation in every situation, so that your understanding of God’s best aligns with what is truly God’s best. Know that He who began a good work in you will complete it. Enjoy Him, love Him, serve Him.

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isa.55:9)

Pastor Barnabas Chong
Email us at twc@cairnhillchurch.com

Today’s recommended video: He who began a good work in you will complete it ……

 

TWC 20120124: A Minute To Learn

Tuesday 24 January 2012

“A minute to learn, a lifetime to master” – that’s the phrase on the box of my first othello set. It’s so true, othello is an easy game to learn, but a difficult game to master. Likewise, the Christian faith. Important truths such as “trust and obey”, “keep in step with the Spirit”, “count it all joy when the trials come” are easily understood but require a lifetime to master. To make matters worst, the enemy complicates things and deceives us. He would do everything to make a non-believer think that it can’t be so easy to get saved – how is it possible for a person’s sins to be forgiven just by believing in Jesus and what He did on the cross? Many non-believers have said how can one man’s death two thousand years ago make a difference in my life today? The devil is also successful in deceiving believers! As a result, there are Christians who are so distracted by the things of the world that they find it really difficult to simply trust and obey. They are so busy with the concerns of life that going to church or cell group meetings or church prayer meetings has become a burden rather than a joy. Serving the Lord has become drudgery instead of a refreshing service. As a young believer in my early 20′s, the Lord taught me about trusting and obeying Him. We were encouraged by our pastor and prayer ministry leader to attend the weekly Tuesday night prayer meetings, to gather together as a group of believers each week to pray and intercede. I was a student at Ngee Ann Polytechnic then and I had an accounting tutorial every Wednesday morning which required some serious preparation each week. Thus, Tuesday night was an important night for me to finish my assigned accounting homework. Since it was clear that Tuesday night prayer meetings were important for the life of the church, I decided to attend it every week (and I did most of the time) and trusted the Lord to help me finish my accounting homework in a shorter time that normally required. In response to my simple act of trust, the Lord did just that and helped me finish all my accounting homework every week! It was truly fascinating! A non-Christian classmate of mine often rang me about 10 plus in the evening on Tuesday to ask me how to answer certain questions. I would tell him, “let me have a look at the questions”. He would ask, “have you done the work yet?” My reply was usually, “not yet, but I’m working on it now, I just came back from church prayer meeting.” He often questioned my commitment to attend prayer meetings when there was so much work to do. At the same time, very often on Wednesday mornings, he would be really surprised that I’d be at the accounting tutorial with all my work done. Eventually, the Lord gave me the privilege of leading him to receive Jesus as His Savior. Today, my friend is still a believer in Christ and I thank God for that. As you begin your walk with God today, don’t allow the enemy to clutter your life, don’t allow him to complicate your faith, instead simply trust and obey, faithfully practice and live out the plain truths of Scripture and God will certainly honor you and bless you. Enjoy Him, love Him, serve Him.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him and He shall make your paths straight.” (Prov.3:5,6)

Pastor Barnabas Chong
Email us at twc@cairnhillchurch.com

P.S. My apologies for the lateness of today’s post. Had a long first day of Chinese New Year, I had a headache and overslept ……

Today’s recommended video: Trust Him more (believe me, this video will send shivers down your spine) ……