Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Week 13: Be Thankful

Good day, Mdm!

Hope you are having a great time in Japan! Imagining myself waking up in the morning, next to Mt Fuji and taking a deep fresh air, staring in awe at the gorgious scenery has already made me feel so afresh and relax...

Yes, I embrace "rest", "relax" & "refresh".... We mentioned last week that "healing" & "health" in Hebrew come from the root word "raphah" which mean "relax". Even a non-believer would say:"Relax, take it easy!" when he see someone in anger.... How much more we, as Christian where the foundation truth goes all the way back few thousand years ago, should embrace the state of being "relax" (not laziness though).

Proverbs 14:30(Amplified) 

"30 A calm and undisturbed mind and heart are the life and health of the body, but envy, jealousy, and wrath are like rottenness of the bones."

How do we have a calm & undisturbed mind and heart?? Last week, we talked about meditating on God's Word...

Proverbs 4:20-22(Amplified) 

"20 My son, attend to my words; consent and submit to my sayings.21 Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart.22 For they are life to those who find them, healing and health to all their flesh."

God's Word has the effect of healing our body (with no side-effect, of course)! But, we say that not all of God's Word is beneficial to us, we need to find them. The thing is this, since the fall of man at the garden of Eden, we are all subjected to the curse (death, aging, body deteriorate) whether we like it or not. God has thus provided the remedies. One of which is the Word!

John 10:10 

"I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." 

Jesus says that He is the way, the truth and the life! Therefore, in order to have the effect of healing/healthy body, our focus must be in Jesus and Jesus only... as well as His finished work.. (which is in line with the word "healing" in Hebrew "rapha" - "think, speak of sacrifice") By the way,are you seeing the beauty of God's word? The formation of this word "rapha" alone was few thousand years ago before Jesus came to fulfill the Word! There are more than this. And the more you start to "see" Him in the Word, the more there is life!

My prayer to you is that one day, you will come to a place where you are so in love with His Word and not because you need to read the Bible for the purpose of healing or whatsoever, just loving Him for who He is... And then the healing, blessing, peace, grace will just flow unnoticingly in your life...

Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day, I thought I should share a little on "Beng thankful". Having a thankful heart unlock the power of God in our life.

In John 11:41-42, Jesus gave thanks to His Father and raise Lazarus for his death... Wow! Jesus did not pray for a supernatural healing power... He looked at the situation but not overwhelmed by the situation (Lazarus is death for 4 days!!!) and then He thank God for hearing Him... Next moment, He said:" Lazarus, come forth!" And Lazarus raised for his death! Short and sharp prayer... Cool!

That also say that we don't need to pray a "long" prayer when ministering healing to others.. I know the "stress" of praying for others, but prayer is not about praying an impressive prayer.... It is about Him! Even when we are not composed in our prayer, our heavenly Father know....I'll share about this another time, we'll continue to focus on personal healing first. Still got quite abit to talk about.

And in John 6:8-13, Jesus gave thanks for 5 loaves and 2 fishes and multiplied to feed 5000... If in situations of death & lack, Jesus gave thanks to His Father, how much more we , as a believer, should do likewise. We don't thank God for the problem, but we thank God He is the answer to our situations. Amen!

As you have notice by now, I've included Yubing and Angeline in the email. I am thankful to bump into Yubing recently and have her and Angeline included in this email. As much as I've benefited from this sharing, I hope they too can benefit from it.

Also, last nite, my friend, MacDonald messaged me and said that he would like to join me for service this weekend! Praise the Lord! As you might have know, he has been suffering from skin problem for many years. He has tried many ways and seen many doctors but to no avail. The last time when I met up with him, I told him this:" Do you believe that your skin problem can be healed just by eating bread?"

Of course, you know I am talking about Holy Commuion and we've talked about the importance of it before. But for him, he was puzzled with my question. Anyway, I didn't manage to convey the full message to him as he is not receptive at that moment. But, deep down in my heart, I sense the need to share this message with him. I am hoping that with his initiative of asking me to go for service, he will find his answer to his skin problem.

With that, I wish you & your family peace in the remaining days in Japan.

My favorite verse for this year -

John 14:27 (NKJV) 

"27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. "


John 14:27 (Amplified)

"27 Peace I leave with you; My [own] peace I now give and bequeath to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. [Stop allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed; and do not permit yourselves to be fearful and intimidated and cowardly and unsettled.]"


Shalom

Bro

Dated: 27 Nov 2013

Monday, November 18, 2013

Week 12: Healing & Health

Good morning Mdm,

Just to wrap things up for the past weeks on discussion...

Last week, we talk about activating "angels" and the biblical references. The key to this is not to worship them but to know that they are around us, as long as our focus is in Jesus.

Throughout these weeks, we're still in the topic of "Healing".. Be it physical or mental healing, we believe that Jesus Christ, our Lord had come to set us free from sickness, illness, mental torture.. If u read the gospel and His ministry on earth, a huge part of it was attributed to healing.

We've also look into the hebrew word for "healing". Amazingly, it reveal that 'healing' has to do with 'speaking and thinking of the cross'. i.e. 'to focus on the finish work of Christ on the cross.'

So far, the discussion revolves around personal, individual healing...  There's a little more to talk about in this area before go on to talk about extending your hand to heal others.

In personal healing, we talking about the importance of holy communion, taking in a worthy manner in remembrance of what Christ has done at the cross. The other two area of importance are meditating on the Word and speaking in tongues.

In view of all of us going for holiday sometime this week, I'll touch on the topic on meditating on His Word.

Let's look at Proverbs 4:20-23

20 My son, give attention to my words;
Incline your ear to my sayings.

21 Do not let them depart from your eyes;
Keep them in the midst of your heart;

22 For they are life to those who find them,
And health to all their flesh.

23 Keep your heart with all diligence,
For out of it spring the issues of life.

Note verse 22 says: " the Word become life to those who find them...." Find them.. that mean you need to find or search them. All the Words in the bible are from God but not all benefit us...
What do I mean by that?

eg... Let say now I wrote you this email. Apart from you, as you can see , it is CC to Siu Ching & Akiko. All of them benefited from my sharing besides you. However, if for example, I were to say :" Sis, you should stop driving recklessly on the road..." This statement would not apply to Siu Ching or Akiko since they do not drive on the road...

Likewise, we need to filter out those Word that apply to us.  The key to this is to focus on God's promises and the New convenant promises. How do we know if we are focusing the right Words? The verse say " they are LIFE to those who find them!" Ask yourself if you feel "alive" or edified after reading that particular verse??

Note the verse continue with "And health to all their flesh"

The word "health" in Hebrew is "marphe" (Pronoun : mah-pey) מרפא

Remember the word "heal" in Hebrew "Rapha"  רפא

Note the similarity between "health" & "heal" in Hebrew... health has to do with healing and both come from the root word in Hebrew "Raphah" (Pronoun:  Rah- Far -Hey)

This Hebrew word "Raphah" mean "relax".

Ahhh... Health has to do with healing (speaking thinking of the cross) and has to do with "relax".

That make perfect sense in natural, isn't it? Why do we go holiday?? Relax, of course... And usually we feel refresh after coming back from holiday.

In the same manner, reading and meditating on the bible verse has the effect of healing/relaxing your body. Yes! your body. The verse says:" health to ALL their FLESH!" Flesh mean your physical body, not just spiritual being.

The bible in essence is a medication. Reading the bible can keep one in good health not just spiritually, but also physically. Research shows that out of those healthy people around, 20-30% of them actually goes to church.

Have a look at this:

http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/spirituality-may-help-people-live-longer

As such, I would encourage you to meditate on God's word (Remember those sermons on meditate on God's word) Pick one or two verses and start "chewing" on them.... Slowly bit by bit... Don't have to rush through the entire bible. For the "healing" effect comes when the "nutrition" of the Word is fully absorb by the body. Amen!

I hope you and your family will have a wonderful holiday in Japan... Without a doubt, as much as I embrace "rest' & "relax" and will definitely enjoy ourselves in Chiang Mai.

Lastly, I shall leave you with this verse to meditate

2Cor 13:14

" The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen."


God bless, have a fruitful & blessed trip!

Bro

Dated: 18 Nov 2013

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Week 11: Angels all around

Good day Mdm...

Just to recap on last week, we talk about Holy Communion and emphasized the need to partake these elements worthily...knowing deep in our heart that Jesus, his body is broken for us and His blood is shed for our sins. I'm glad to hear that 2nd sis-in-law is making effort to do this daily.

Note that in our Lord's prayer... the Holy communion is mentioned as well..." ...give us our daily bread (Jesus) and forgive us of our sin (blood), as we forgive those who sin against us..." I would encourage you to do this as often as you can but DO NOT MAKE it out of a ritual... then, it become a law and not grace.

This week, I felt prompted to put aside on the topic of "healing" for a moment. I felt led to address the current issue revolving in our family recently. The past few days has set me thinking, with a burden in my heart. The threat and disturbance by Sis-in-law 's son has put much unrest in some of us. I must agree with you the threat is real and can be unpredictable. The outcome to some extent can be very serious.

As much as this unrest has taken foot hold of our anxieties and worries, I was crying out to God on what should we do. God led me to this passage in Psalm 91. Please spend some time to read and meditate on this passage.

I'll talk a little more after you've read and re-read and meditate on this passage.



Shalom

Bro

Dated: 12 Nov 2013

Monday, November 4, 2013

Week 10: Healing Thru Holy Communion

Good morning Mdm,

Just a recap from last week, we are still in the topic of healing. We said that as Christian, we should be walking in health as a body of Christ.

And then, we talked about how we can walk in good health.. In short, praying in tongues, taking holy communion and meditate on His word.

Today, I'll share on the topic of holy communion... Let's look at 1 Corithians 11:23 

"23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; 

24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”

Here, we are reminded that when we partake the bread, we remember our Lord, Jesus. So, the question is... what is the big deal?? It's just bread, what can a bread do to our body?? By the way, this is human reasoning...If we see things in a "natural" eyes, we reason "naturally".

Ok, then let's reason together... Let's go to Genesis 3

1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”

2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 

3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 

5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

What happen here? Mankind fall into sin because of one person, Adam. Whether we like it or not, we are sinners the moment we are born into this world because of Adam. Hey, that's is unfair! " I've been doing good, I don't lie, I don't steal. I help the poor....etc How can I be called a sinner?? Well, if I "meow" 3 times now, does it make me a cat?? No... likewise, no matter what I do or don't do, I am a sinner because of Adam. The world has fallen by one man and one act - EAT. Agree?

Why is it so wrong to open our eyes to knowing good & evil? What's wrong with that? That's the problem. We start to take matter into our own hand.. My good may not be good in your eyes, your evil may not be evil in my eyes... We start to judge and condemn in our own limited knowledge of good & evil. We play "God".

Question: If  today, I know I am going to heaven, what would I do in the very moment with my life? What would you do? Can I say that you would do what is most important to you? example, spending time with family member. Giving your best and leaving your best behind?

What did Jesus do when he knew it was about time for Him to die? (let's be clear here, Jesus died as a man, not God. God can never die) He spent time with his disciple and they had holy communion. Do you think this is important? I think so. Ok, you may say that "Well, as much as He knew about His death, He knew about His resurrection... So what is the big deal?"

It is a big deal for all of us... What do you think He did the moment He was resurrected? Who did He met? What did He do?? In Luk 24:13-29, it is mentioned Jesus appear in the midst of a couple (not His disciple). Why? Let's go on... They were walking back from Jerusalem to Emmaus, about 7miles... On the way, they were talking about Jesus, the crucifixion.. the talk of the town... They didn't knew the Person with them was Jesus. When they reached home, they invited Him to stay....

Now, look at verse 30 "When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32 They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within uswhile he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

Notice, Jesus took the bread, gave thanks, broke it and gave to the couple. What happen after that? Their eyes were opened and they recognized Jesus!

I'm not sure if you are seeing the beauty of this Scriptures... Let's recap.. In Genesis, we read that man fall when Satan offered Eve &  Adam to eat the tree of knowledge of good & evil. A couple ate and their eyes were open to good & evil. Sin came into this world.

God restored this entire downfall by having Jesus to offer the couple same thing through eating the bread, the bread of life! And their eyes
were opened to see Jesus (the truth, the way, the life)! Praise the Lord!

Now, earlier we said that through one man's sin (Adam), we became sinners.... but by the grace of one man (Jesus) we are made righteous! Amen!

See Roman 5:18 -19

18 Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. 

19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man, the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

Are you seeing the wisdom & beauty of God's plan now??

Ok, the key here is to focus on Jesus and His finished work. The last thing Jesus did before He goes to the cross was He broke the bread and gave to His disciple saying that "This is my body, broken for you. Take this in remembrance of Me." .After He is resurrected again, the first thing He did was to break the bread and gave to this couple (not His 11 disciples). What does that tell you?? The holy communion is not just for His disciple alone, it's for everybody! Are you seeing the importance of holy communion? Taking it in rememberance of Jesus and His finished work. Once you take holy communion in this worthy manner, there is healing power!

Well, there's so much more to share on this topic alone. But, I think I should stop here to let you "eat" & "digest" this powerful truth. I'll leave you with this truth... This man of God, Smith Wiggleworth (a plumber, not a doctor) who had documented 10 records of raising death people... He took holy communion everyday.

A security guard (not a doctor; one thing for sure, God doesn't care your professional when it comes to miracle) of New Creation church... His mother was declared death in hospital. The security guard requested the doctor not to take away the breathing appartus attached to his mother and requested for more time with his death mother. The doctor agreed only on the condition for a maximum of 3 days since the patient was already death and it will be awful to keep the body for too long. The security guard then brought his relatives (Christians) to the ICU and they had communion next to his mother. His mother is resurrected in Jesus name!!! And of course, subsequently discharged from hospital! Amazing Grace!


Shalom!

Bro

Dated: 4 Nov 2013