Vacation

Dear readers,

I will be on vacation in Europe from 14 June to 3 July 2013. As such, I will not be able to blog for 3 weeks!

I hope to see you all at my blog till then :)

9 June 2013

Praise and Worship: 

It has been 2 weeks since my last time in church. Totally excited to be back today and looking forward to worship. Adeline steps up and led the praise and worship. Awesome songs especially "God Is Here" and "Your Grace Is Sufficient" and sang to my heart's content.

No photographs for my readers today as it happened that an usher was sitting behind me and caught me snapping some photos.

1. God Is Here

2. Today Is The Day

3. Your Grace Is Sufficient

4. Your Saving Grace

Topic: God's Forgiveness is Forever

Pastor Lian leads the holy communion today.

The reason why you can be fearless is because of the presence of God with us. We know He is present with us and not because of the absence of fear. Perfect love cast out fear. Jesus is not just with us, He is in us.
That is why we come today to remember Him. Remember that He gave His body to be broken so that ours will be completely whole.

First Testimony:
Shares about how a brother in our church lost control with his car after the wheel got entangled with some fallen tree branches. Two taxi drivers stopped by after a few minutes later to his aid. He went through several tests and was finally discharged on the 7th day.

Second Testimony:
Shares about how a relative in our church was diagnosed with cancer in his lungs and was only given a few months to live. He was introduced to the message, listened to God's word and fell in love with Jesus. A few weeks later, he went through PET scan only to find out he is cancer-less.

Pastor Prince comes on video: He is very pleased to be back a few days ago. He shared that there are many grace-based worship leaders coming after being so impacted by the message of grace. The entire thing about Christianity is that it is not a religion. It is not about keeping a set of rules for God to bless you. It is not even that. When Jesus came, He brought the gospel to us. He came to where we are and this is not a religion. God reached to man. When God reached out, God gets. In the book of Leviticus, the leper cannot embrace his kids, cannot kiss his wife and is kept away. But God cared for him to ask him to be brought to Jesus.

Christianity is not about right doing but is about right believing.

Romans 1:5
Verse 5: Paul knew he was called to preach obedience to the faith. So what is obedience to the faith? It is nothing more than right believing. Man is not essentially dust. God breathed into man to give man life. Man became a speaking spirit and rules by his words. God made man last so that man will rule over what God has made.
Right believing affects your body, your life, your family and all aspects of your life. A sign of worry is a good indication that you are not believing right.

The bible tells us about the prodigal son. The elder was jealous, confronted the father and criticised him for killing the calf to celebrate the younger son's return. He felt he did lots of thing to earn his father's praise. But look what the father replied. The father said to him that "Son, you are near to me. Whatever I have, is yours." What the father was saying is that everything belonging to his father belongs to him. He can do whatever he wants to the calf.

3 John 1:2
Verse 2: Over here it's talking about material prosperity. God wants us to pray for that and then pray for health. Prosperity is a servant, not a master.
".. that you may prosper.." in Greek, is present passive infinitive. Passive means to receive the action - e.g. the boy was hit by the ball.
".. be in health.." in Greek means present active infinitive.
In other words, you can be prosperous without doing anything about it. You can be just a recipient. But when it comes to health and you don't participate in it, you can be sick. That is the reason why there are people who are prospering. That is the reason the church asks you to claim God's healing through verses and by partaking His body. If you attend a church and hear that healing is not for us, leave that church.
When Jesus cried it is finished, it is a perfect word and it cannot be reversed.

Your health is to serve the Lord with. So how does your soul prosper? In the context of 3 John 2, the focus is on truth.
In verse 3, ".. just as you walk (present active indicative) in the truth."
In verse 4, it is also also about truth.
Truth is on the side of grace. The law stands alone. The law of Moses was given but grace and truth came. You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free. Some people are bringing back the law but it is not the law that sets people free.

Galatians 2:14-16
Verse 14: Paul saw that they walked not in the truth of the gospel.
Verse 16: No flesh can be justified by the law. Trying to keep the law does not produce any results.

There was a time in the Old Testament, when the doors of the temple were shut because the king started to worship idols. He took the precious things of God and gave his idols. Then God brought judgement to him. Then his son, Hezekiah took over. See the story in 2 Chronicles 29:6.

Christiandom does not mean everyone is saved. It just means that they are part of a church. It is made up of people who either confess their sins or are truly saved. Christiandom has shut the doors of The Lord for 2000 years.

According to Hebrews 10, once we are forgiven for our sins, we have boldness. The door is the access to God's kingdom.

The Lord's prayer is actually not the Lord's. It is actually the disciples' prayer. The Lord taught them what to pray because He has not died then.

All the forgiveness of the bible is all clear and certain. Everyone who believes receive the forgiveness.
There was a certain pastor who stood at the pulpit and said he doesn't know if he's going to heaven. Imagine how his people feel. Our bible says we are and these things are written so you may know.

Ephesians 1:7
Verse 7: "in Him we have.." in Greek, it is present active indicative. It also means "echo" (See definition below) - you have it. You are forgiven according to His riches and grace. He didn't just forgive like that. There was a penalty paid. There is a ransom and He has the right to forgive. You may think that Jesus' death is His death. But it is actually for us.
"Sin" here is also "paratoma" in Greek.

Thayer's Definition:
Echo:
- To posses, own.

1 John 1-9 is presently a problem because Christians do not know who it is written to.
1 John 2:12
Verse 2: Chapter 2 is after Chapter 1. It starts with "little children". The word "forgiven" is perfect passive particle. We have been forgiven and are still forgiven today. There's no such thing as an an unforgiving christian.

"But but Pastor, if we teach a young Christian and he lives like a devil for many years, how?"
Firstly, if he were to live like a devil for many years, then he wasn't a believer to begin with.

Matthew 6:14-15
Verse 14 & 15: Looks frightening right? None were saved. Jewish people are the only ones who can call God, "My Father". In the Old Testament, the Jewish are baby Christians. "Trespasses" is paraptoma.

Ephesians 4:32
Verse 32: We forgive because God in Christ has forgiven. Forgive here is once and for all. This is the basis for us to forgive others.

How do we have that love for God?
Luke 7:42-43
Verse 42: Jesus said the debtor freely forgave them both. So which of them will love him most?
"Most" means greater in quantity and quality according to Thayer's Definition.
Verse 43: Simon said the one whom he forgave most. But notice Jesus asked who will the two love him most. The one who knows he is forgiven loves God most.

So why people are not passionately in love with God.
If everything is "have to" in your relationship, then there's no chance for "you want to".

In closing,

If you live in sin, there are consequences.

Matthew 18:21-35
Verse 21: Peter comes
Verse 22: "Seventy times 7" is infinite in bible numeric. Marriage is all about being forgiving.
Verse 26: He really believed he can pay it all. Wrong believing here.
Verse 27: "The master" here refers to God.
Verse 28-30: Talks about the man being out in prison until his debt is paid in full.
Verse 31-35: Thank God the story shared here is before the death and resurrection of Jesus. Enjoy the forgiveness today.

Back to Luke 7:42-43
Luke 43: Leaders need to rightly judge. This is the correct discernment we need to have as we have been judging wrongly.