Songs to translate

It is good to be online again after almost a month of being relatively "internetless". Some time back during the Christmas break, I promised a friend that I will help him translate some Christmas carols from English to Chinese. Being a yellow banana, I soon realised how overconfident I was when making the offer, even with the assistance of all the search engines. Thank God that a friend is at hand to help and I found some useful websites in the process. God bless the people who work hard to set these up. Check these out.....

http://www.ccic-sj.org/Mandarin/Sunday/Worship/Hymns/TanHymns/ (accurate)

http://www.elyrics.net/read/a/aly-&-aj-lyrics/joy-to-the-world-lyrics.html (not so accurate)

Meanwhile.... 2008..... to learn Chinese!!!! Remember to ask me how's the progress. It's another way to motivate the learning ;p

Hello? Who's on the line?

The reasons why we cannot hear the voice of God:

Because of personal and selfish motives. Like Eli, who prided his position as a "senior priest" more than being sensitive to God's voice.

Because of iniquity in our hearts. Eli's sons were entrenched in iniquity. He stopped hearing from God because of his iniquity that he knows about, but yet he didn't get cleared.

Because we offer our services unworthily. Like Eli, who was still serving God while God was angry at Him, stopped hearing from God. Because God stopped speaking to Him.

Because we have forsaken our priesthoods. We cease to go to him as priests. We fail in our function to be the bridge between God and His people. Therefore, God stops speaking.

Because we are too rested in ourselves, not in God. Like Eli, who was found lying in "his usual place", was too comfortable to do things outside his comfort zone. Therefore, he dulls himself from what God has to say to him.

Because of disobedience to the Word of God. Like Eli, who knows the Word, but cannot hear the Word.

Because we are hardened to the judgment of God. We become nonchalant to God's abhorrence of sin, until we become "abhorred" by God. Hence the silent treatment.

A message that spoke to me, and spoke to me well.

* * * * * * * * * *

A thought that runs through my head, about hearing the voice of God. It can be a very tricky thing...

I have a friend in my university days. Numerous guys have pursued her, each one in search of a romantic relationship. So many, until I've lost count. And every one of them said to her, "God told me that you are the one for me."

The girl said how come God didn't tell her the same thing.

Having worked in an inter-denominational Christian Fellowship, I've heard claims about hearing God's voice during committee meetings too. Someone comes up and says, "God told me so and so."

When someone comes up to you and says, "God told me this" or "God told me that", we are left with very little choice. We either listen and obey what that person claims is "God's voice" or disobey "God's voice" and do something else. There's very little wriggle room, isn't it? There's nothing much to discuss then. Let's just do what "God said", and let us all go home. Why bother with committee meetings.

Let's say we go with "God's voice" for this one occasion.

Next meeting, we will have someone else coming up to say, "God told me we should do this." Well, let's be obedient again and just do it.

The following meeting, another person says "I heard God's voice too."

Another one says "I heard God saying something else."

Yet another says, "You are all delusional. God wasn't speaking to you at all! Come now... Let us reason together... Actually ha... God said to me..."

*Sigh*

One view is that God does not speak in the same way he spoke during the biblical times anymore. Upon completion of the canon of Scripture, everything God has ever wanted to say to us are already recorded in the inspired Scriptures. The bible is totally sufficient for us, for every occasion, for every need. We need not turn anywhere else to hear things from Him. Visions and dreams and hearing voices? They are just your imagination.

We find ourselves at one end of fundamentalism.

However, in the Bible, the apostle Paul sees and hears lots of things from God. Paul wrote that the Spirit of Jesus did not permit him to preach the gospel in Asia and Bithynia (Acts 16:6-7).

Later, God spoke to Him through a vision of a man of Macedonia. And that prompted Paul to go immediately to Macedonia to preach the gospel (Acts 16:9-10).

Paul also saw and heard inexpressible things in in Paradise, of which he was not permitted to tell (2 Corinthians 12:1-4).

In fact, the entire book of Revelation was written based on John's vision from God at Patmos Island.

Extending out from that, we also have local modern day prophets, who hold seminars and writes books on "personal prophecy". They help you discover what God has to say to you personally.

We also have David Yonggi Cho, who wrote a book "Heaven Is So Real". He says God showed him how heaven is like. And he describes heaven from a first-hand experience.

Elsewhere, he also writes about "the fourth dimension". Something that apparently the Holy Spirit taught David Yonggi Cho, but no one else:

Then God spoke to my heart, "Son, as the second dimension includes and controls the first dimension, and the third dimension includes and controls the second dimension, so the fourth dimension includes and controls the third dimension, producing a creation of order and beauty.

The spirit is the fourth dimension. Every human being is a spiritual being as well as a physical being. They have the fourth dimension as well as the third dimension in their hearts."

So men, by exploring their spiritual sphere of the fourth dimension through the development of concentrated visions and dreams in their imaginations, can brood over and incubate the third dimension, influencing and changing it. This is what the Holy Spirit taught me" (Cho, The Fourth Dimension 1979:p40).

And we find ourselves on the other end of liberalism.

Hearing the voice of God is not an easy thing. On one end, we may purpose ourselves to hear nothing at all, because it is "not correct theology" to be hearing things from God. On the other end of the spectrum, we open ourselves to the idea that God still speaks today, and get ourselves confused with every wind of deceitful teaching.

I believe God speaks to us. I am not referring to supernatural revelations or hearing clear voices in our heads.

The bigger problem with us is not so much in determining which voice is authentic and which is not. Any child of God will experience God speaking to him or her in one way or another. Just that we are too stubborn to admit it.

Our bigger problem is we do not obey Him even when we know it. And we may sometimes try to explain God's voice away by sounding strictly theological.

Albert Chew speaks good messages. I've heard him twice. And I've heard God's voice from him twice.

Did Jesus rise from the dead?

In 1963, Birmingham, Alabama, a 14-year-old girl, Addie Mae was killed in a church bombing by white racists. She was buried in her grave. Her family came and visited the grave every year, bringing flowers.

35 years later in 1998, her sister wanted to relocate Addie Mae's burial site. Her grave was dug up... And it was found empty!

Her family was in great distraught. Their inquiries led them to poorly kept cemetery records. Cemetery officials cannot figure out what happened. They suggested that the tombstone could have been erected at the wrong place.

Of all kinds of explanations given, no one had the audacity to suggest that Addie Mae rose from the dead.

Yet, there was this Nazarene, whose grave was apparently found empty too. But Christians have the blatant audacity to claim that the Nazarene rose from the dead.

Is the Nazarene's missing body a problem that cemetery officials have not yet solved? Are the Nazarene's followers jumping to far-fetched a conclusion? Or did the Nazarene really pull off something unprecedented... By walking away from his own grave?

Come and find out more...

Did Jesus Rise From The Dead
Date: 15th February 2008 (Friday).
Time: 8:30 p.m.
Venue: Kepong Gospel Chapel.

http://www.useekufind.com/peace/grave.htm

Isaiah, Moses, David, and the fear of God

Reflections on last Sunday's sermon:

Isaiah saw God's holiness and man's sinfulness. Hence, he feared God.

Moses saw God's eternity and man's brevity. Hence, he feared God.

David saw God's omnipotence and man's impotence. Hence, he feared God.

Indeed, a good way of experiencing the fear of God, is by seeing it through the eyes of those three men, combined.

By realizing our sinfulness in the light of God's holiness, we experience fear. A fear of God, who stands on a moral high ground that far exceeds ours.

I remember my Young People's advisor during my Sungai Nibong days. I remember seeing him as a standard of moral high ground. We will be scuttling around, doing our own thing... When suddenly, he appears and asks us one question:

"What is the purpose of doing this?'

Then we shiver. And think, "Did we do something wrong?"

By the way, we were just putting up decorations on the YP notice board. He wasn't reprimanding us for what we were doing. He was just asking us why we were decorating it a certain way. Our paranoia made us shiver in our pants.

Can you imagine how it will be like when God stops us dead in our tracks and asks us "Why are you doing what you are doing?" There you go. That's the fear of God. You'd better not be caught doing something bad.

By seeing the frailty of human life through the eyes of God's eternity, we experience fear. A fear of God, who has been around for much longer than we have been. Who will still be around after we become a have been. And will always be around, for us to give an accounting to.

If death is but the beginning of eternity, we have much to fear. We wouldn't want to be caught lying in bed, at the jaws of death, and holding the hand of a loved one saying, "I am scared. I wish I had your faith."

There are few things that can be scarier than that. In fact, I can't think of any.

By seeing how puny is the strength of man measured against the power of God, we experience fear. A fear of God, who is so much stronger than us, that there is nothing and no one who can stand up to Him, challenge Him, or oppose His will.

This will evoke one of two things: Either a sense of God's tyranny, or a sense of awe.

An almighty and all-powerful God will look like a tyrant if He does anything He wills.

But an almighty and all-powerful God who wills to save us... We, who are by nature, powerless, and are objects of His wrath... That invokes a sense of awe. An awe-inpsiring worship of Him.

"How come his English so keng wan?" Mei Yee asked about the speaker, Mr. Cheah Wing Choong.

"He studied in UK mah," I replied.

"Oh, for how long?"

"Dunno lah. Until he got his degree loh."

New Year's Eve Celebration....

Just some long overdue post....of our New Year's Eve celebration......=)....

Aaron :* See..Kenneth...this new game I have on my handphone...cool......*
Kenneth: Wahhhh...cool...i also want ! I also want !
Kah Ken : Ei..i also want to see !! I also want to see !!

Meng Wah : Eleh...like my handphone don't have like that....*show off* !!

Kah Yan : Alah....my game lagi better........this people... The 'satisfied' face of a future millionaire.....=)

Uncle Stephen's group doing their presentation....Talented singers....VERY....=)

And behold....our dear pianist....Miss Yvonne Lew....=)

Heave Ho...Heave Ho ! Heave Ho !

Guess what are this people doing ??

Mr.Chew : I tell you !!! Don't kacau my team members !!!
Uncle Stephen : What ?? Don't point fingers ok ??

Mr.Chew : Ok ok...this is how we 'fight' them.....

* So boring.....entertain me larr.....*

After church...we adjourned to 'Prince Cafe' to celebrate the New Year....

* The Gang*

Wahh....the food is sooooooooooooooooo nice...............

And then it hit....12 o'clock.....and there was fireworks !!=)

After that, we adjourned to Li Ean and Li May's new place....=)

Quite a 'big' place...3 storeys...with the top floor.....like a 'penthouse' like that...and the Yap sisters did not fight for it...but...so 'lovingly' gave it to their brother...=p

We ended the day about 1.30 a.m...and we made our way home.........into the New Year.....=)

*Editors' Note : Sorry for the really late post...=p

Alcorn stuff

Here's an article by Randy Alcorn, from Eternal Perspective Ministries. I have been reading his book: Money, Possessions and Eternity. I've recommended it before to be used as one of our supplementary material for our "special topics". The best and most thorough book I have come across, when it comes to dealing with money and possessions as a Christian.




Really good stuff.

This article is a poignant extension from our Bible Study last night...

* * * * * * * * * *

Lifestyles of the Rich & Worry-Free

by Randy Alcorn

There's only one kind of investment that's risk-free—and the returns are out of this world.

Several years ago I was sued by an abortion clinic for my involvement in peaceful, nonviolent rescues. When the abortion clinic won the lawsuit, it came to garnish my wages from the church where I'd been a pastor for thirteen years. Suddenly my wife and daughters and I were faced with a decision. Could I continue as a pastor when the church would be required by law to pay a fourth of my salary each month to the child-killing industry? As a matter of conscience, we had to resign.

Suddenly I was without a job I had loved and depended on. I could no longer receive royalties for the five books I had written. I was no longer qualified for a long-term group health insurance plan. As for "financial planning," we were faced with the fact that whatever I did, for the next twenty years (the duration of the legal judgment), I could never earn more than minimum wage without 25 percent of it being taken by an abortion clinic.

Worry has a way of chasing after us. It tries to grab hold of us, bleed off our energy, and rob us of joy by limiting our vision to a short-sighted perspective of this life's circumstances. That's why one of my favorite passages is Matthew 6:19-34, where Jesus unveils an investment formula for a secure future and a worry-free present.

In this great sermon, Jesus doesn't tell us not to store up treasures. On the contrary, he commands us to store up treasures (v. 20). He's saying, "Stop storing them up in the wrong place (earth), and start storing them up in the right place (Heaven)." He also says "store up treasures for yourselves." When we follow Jesus, we act not only in His best interests but in ours. No matter how difficult the challenges of the moment, we can be assured that "they are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all" (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

This was Paul's consuming motivation throughout his life-the prospect of eternal reward from his Master's hand (1 Corinthians 9:24-27), and it was his greatest anticipation at his death (2 Timothy 4:6-8).

Most of us see no further than the horizons of this world. To correct our shortsightedness, God prescribes a vision correction that allows us to see through the lens of eternity. Suddenly we realize this present life is but a brief window of opportunity to invest in what will last for eternity.

A Safe Place for Your Money

In Matthew 6, Jesus says there is only one safe place to invest, and that is in the Kingdom of God. He says, in essence, "You can't take it with you," but he adds a life-changing corollary: "but you can send it on ahead."

Practically speaking, what does this mean? Suppose I had access to $10,000. With it I could buy a new car. Or, I could use the same money to support ten Nigerian or Indian church-planters full time for an entire year. If I have an investment mentality, I ask myself, "What's the better investment for eternity?" Maybe a $1,200 used car, or no car at all, would serve His Kingdom purposes better than a new one. It would allow me to invest the rest in Heaven, where it will never get scratched, dented, totaled, stolen, or need repair.

To carry that thought further, imagine you are alive near the end of the United States Civil War. You are temporarily living in the South, but your home is really in the North. While you have been in the South you have accumulated a good deal of Confederate currency. Suppose you know for a fact that the North will ultimately win the war, and that the end could come at any time. Now, here's the critical question—What will you do with all that Confederate money?

If you are smart, you will cash in your Confederate currency for U.S. currency-the only money that will have value in the long run. You will keep only enough Confederate money to meet your basic needs until the war is over.

As Christ's disciples, we have inside knowledge of a major change in the worldwide social and economic situation. There is a coming holocaust during which no earthly possession will survive (2 Peter 3:10). The currency of this world-its money, possessions, values, fashions, and whims-will be worthless at our death or at Christ's return, both of which are imminent. This "insider's tip" should radically affect our investment strategy. To accumulate vast earthly treasures in the face of this knowledge is equivalent to stockpiling Confederate money in a Union economy.

The Big Picture

Financial planners have a hard time convincing people to look down the road instead of just focusing on today, this week, or this year. "Don't think one year," they'll tell you, "think thirty years from now." Then they'll share ways to prepare for thirty years from now by budgeting, saving so much a month, contributing to an IRA, investing in this mutual fund or that real estate partnership.

But it's only slightly less short-sighted to think thirty years down the road than to think thirty days. The wise man does indeed think thirty years ahead, but far more—he thinks an eternity ahead. He thinks not just to his retirement years, not merely to the end of his earthly life, but far beyond. He plans for the day that he will stand before the Lord, and he prepares for the eternity that will follow.

Following Christ doesn't always improve our circumstances-some of my circumstances (including my income) would be better if I hadn't followed the Lord. But better for what? Better for accumulating earthly possessions, but not better for laying up treasures in Heaven and experiencing the exhilaration of trusting God to provide. What following Christ does change is our perspective. The unbeliever's vision is restricted to the horizons of this world. But we have the big picture. We know this life is the preface to the book, the tune-up to the concert. If we are wise investors, we will spend our lives buying up shares in the world to come.

Why Worry?

After talking about two treasuries and two perspectives, Jesus speaks of two masters, God and Money (Matthew 6:24). We can't serve both, so we have to make a conscious choice between them. Our Lord immediately follows this by commanding us three times, "Do not worry" (vv. 25,31,34). The "therefore" of verse 25 tells us that His command not to worry must be understood in light of what He has just stated. In other words, anyone who is investing in the right treasury, adopting the right perspective, and serving the right master has nothing to worry about. In contrast, those who invest in the wrong treasure, adopt the wrong perspective, and serve the wrong master have every reason to worry.

Unlike the pagans who "run after all these things" (v. 32) and "worry about tomorrow" (v. 34), the believer is to follow Christ, live the radical life of faith, and trust God to provide. God is ready to accept full responsibility for life wholly committed to Him. So why worry?

In Matthew 6:33 Christ doesn't just say, "All these [material] things will be given to you." Instead, He specifically limits that promise to those who fulfill the prior condition of seeking first His Kingdom and His righteousness. Rather than a blanket promise to all, this is a contractual agreement with those who are sold out to Christ and employed in God's service. Those committed to building their own temporary, financial kingdom receive no such assurances.

It's no accident that the command not to worry follows the command not to lay up treasures on earth. God warns people "not to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God" (1 Timothy 6:17). None of us is more secure than the object of our trust. If our trust is in material things-a house, a certain job, or people-we set ourselves up to worry. Those things are uncertain; God isn't.

"The sleep of a laborer is sweet, but the abundance of a rich man permits him no sleep" (Ecclesiastics 5:12). God guards any treasures we put in Heaven, so we can relax. In contrast we have to restlessly guard the treasures we store up here.

Where Are Your Treasures?

Christ's radical perspective on money, possessions, provision, and trust raises some practical questions. Do my long-term savings or retirement plans, my insurance policies, my beautiful house, car, or real estate holdings reduce my sense of dependence on God? Do they give me misplaced security? Considering what the money spent on these things would do if directly invested in the Kingdom of God, do I really believe the money is being used in the best way? Am I forfeiting treasures in Heaven by storing up treasures on earth? Am I setting myself up for worry by trusting in the things that cannot bear the weight of my trust?

To those who seek first His Kingdom and sacrificially give of their assets to it, Christ's promise is material provision (Matthew 6:32-33, Philippians 4:19). Trust Him and there is nothing to worry about. Trust anything else and you've got every reason to worry.

With every challenge my family and I have faced during the last several years, I have found myself thinking more and more about the treasures of Heaven. Every moment of our lives we are one step closer to the world to come, and one step further from this present world. Are we headed toward our eternal treasure or away from it? The choice is ours.

Trust His Heart

A friend recently sent a link to the song Trust His Heart. I first sang this song 8 years ago and the song had been an encouragement when I was a young Christian back then.

Again, I have been reminded through the song lyrics that God works wondrously in ways that I cannot fathom. You can check out the song in the attached link.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=uYEC_XFf9Eg

All things work for our good

Though sometimes we can't see how they could

Struggles that break our hearts in two

Sometimes blind us to the truth

Our Father knows what's best for us

His ways are not our own

So when you pathway grows dim

And you just can't see Him

Remember He's still on the throne

*
God is too wise to be mistaken

God is too good to be unkind

So when you don't understand

When you don't see His plan

When you can't trace His hand

TRUST HIS HEART

He sees the master plan

He holds the future in His hand

So don;t live as though you have no hope

All our hope is found in Him

He walks in presence light

He sees the first and the last

And like the tapestry

He's weaving you and me

To someday be just like Him

Repeat *

He alone is faithful and true

He alone know what's best for you

Repeat *