5 "Dangers" of Bible Study

I am reminded that it is not good enough just to read the Bible devotionally, which we must do each day. Worse still we nibble at the text. We need to study it so that we get into the wealth and meaning of God's precious words. Don Carson put it this way: "Read the Bible Devotionally — and No Less Critically"

I like the following post I received from Logos Bible Software, a great study tool by the way. Have been using it for years.

Having said that, here is a warning of 5 "dangers" of Bible study from that post:

Okay, so maybe “dangers” is a bit strong—but to get the most out of your Bible study, you should be cautious about approaching it in the following ways:

1.     As an attempt to acquire mere head knowledge. Paul said that the ability to “fathom all mysteries and all knowledge” is, apart from love, nothing.

2.     As a means of getting on God’s good side. How easy it is to trust in our practice of daily Bible study or devotional time and not in the God of all grace.

3.     As something done only in isolation. Most of the Bible is written to communities of people, not individuals (e.g., Paul’s letters to the churches). That means that much of what we read has a corporate element to grasp and apply.

4.     As a means to hunt down sins in others. It’s often much easier to see sin in others than in ourselves. Jesus warns against this with the humorous imagery of a speck and a plank (Mt. 7:3–5).

5.     As a way to feel good about yourself. While God often gives us a sense of peace or joy after we spend time in his Word, our primary reason for reading the Bible ought to be to know and love him more.

Looking for Mr. or Miss Right?

There seems to be an increase in the number of weddings over the last few year. Not surprisingly so because the church is growing and the number of young adults have increased too in our midst. A significant number of them are single and hopefully, eligible. But you may ask, “What do you mean ‘eligible’? As long as he or she is single, they should be eligible, right?”

Interestingly, let us look at the definition of eligibility, in the context of marriage. The online dictionary (www.thefreedictionary.com) defines eligibility as: “Desirable and worthy of choice, especially for marriage: an eligible bachelor.”

I like the word “worthy”, which the same dictionary defines as: “Having worth, merit, or value; honorable; admirable.” Getting into a marriage relationship is therefore not just about “the time is right”, “I am already getting too old” or “I found the person of my dreams”. These are not good enough reasons, if they are the only reasons you have. In our self-centered thinking we look around for someone who will fit into our mould of who our spouse should be. We look for someone who can give into this relationship, rather than whom I can give to. He or she would need to serve our kind of desires for our kind fulfillment in life. This whole process has become so self-centered, contrary to an other-centered relationship in a healthy marriage. The scary part about the whole thing is that we will all soon discover that none of us could ever fulfill what our spouse expect of us and that’s when we begin to hear phrases like “That’s not the man (or woman) I married!”

You see, we go into a relationship looking for Miss Right, forgetting that an equally, or more, important thing that we need to do is to BE Mr. Right first. We look for eligibility in others, forgetting that we need to ask ourselves, are we in the first place, desirable and worthy of choice? Occasionally I hear some young adults lamenting to me about the inability to find a potential mate and they expressed the desire to go to another ocean to look for fish. Eventually some do leave and a few returned and said, “Pastor, there’s no eligible fish in that ocean too!” I had jokingly said to them that it's because they are sharks! All the fish will be scared away. Ouch!!

Before they start pointing a finger about why there are no eligible partners around, or that the church is not doing enough to provide a good catchment area, they should ask the first question: “Am I eligible myself?” And I am not talking about whether you are smart, wealthy or good looking. I am talking about an inner beauty and strength that transcends all these; a beauty in character and inner life, a godliness and holiness that is an inherent hallmark, possessing a humble leadership over your own life and others that you become a fragrance of Christ that attracts.

Godly character takes years to build. A few years ago in my conversation with my then sixteen year old eldest son, Ian, I remember telling him that if he invests in building godly characters and a love for God in his teenage years, there is no reason why he should be worried about finding the right mate. Of course I am assuming too that when the inner character is in place, what flows out of his life is the fruit of the Holy Spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Not that it is a guarantee of success but he would have rule out his side of his ineligibility first and let God do the rest. I am assured that Adam was deep in sleep when God brought Eve into his life. He didn’t strive to look for a partner. God knew the loneliness in Adam and try as He may to bring other animals to be His companion, God knew it is only a special kind of lady that would complete Adam’s life. There is a sense of restedness that Adam had.

When one become Mr. Right, he presents himself as one maturing in Christ, trusting in God for his daily provision and fulfillment of his needs. I have often told courting couples that the best gift one can give to each other at the wedding altar in the sight of God and witnesses, is a maturing man or woman who loves God deeply and is prepared to include God as a full partner in their marriage.

This maturing process does not end at the wedding day. It continues right through our marriage “until death do us part”. So whether you are single, courting or married, are you the Mr. or Miss Right?

Sacred or Secular

I posted on my Facebook the following post on 18 Sep 2013.

Hudson Taylor, a famous missionary, wrote that "the use of means ought not to lessen our faith in God; and our faith in God ought not to hinder our use of whatever means He has given us for the accomplishment of His own purposes." Practically, he applied this truth in his profession as a physician. He asked God's blessing and guidance for every surgical case that he would make the right diagnosis and use his skills wisely in treatment. However, he also never failed to give God thanks for answered prayer and restored health.

The response from different friends were quite interesting. A dentist commented that she prayed "very hard when the tooth cannot come out." It affirms in us our calling in life and they are not to be divided into what is sacred or what is secular. We become split personalities if we do that. There seems to be an invisible disconnect between what we do in our 9-5 job and our spiritual life. For some of us, we feel we have not really served God until we have done so in a ministry in the Church. Is that scriptural? In the relationship between slaves and masters, Apostle Paul made no such distinction. Everything we do is sacred. Worship is whole life, not a portion of time which we set aside. Whether we are in our workplace, school, church or home, we are serving God.
 Ephesians 6:7-8
7 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, 8 because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.  
Our life is a worship to God.

Romans 12:1-2
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
I love the words of Martin Luther, the reformist who said: "The maid who sweeps her kitchen is doing the will of God just as much as the monk who prays — not because she may sing a Christian hymn as she sweeps but because God loves clean floors. The Christian shoemaker does his Christian duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship."

Excellence in what we do is a calling. Our vocation is an expression of our worship. We try our very best because it is a worship to our God. We will not do any less to Someone we love. It is a matter of attitude and relationship.

 

The Future is Now!

My wife and I celebrated our 25^th wedding anniversary this year and we indulged ourselves in a well-deserved three week holiday to Europe. In our own little fantasy world of the “Love Boat” era of the 70’s and 80’s, we decided to bring to realization that dream by signing up for a cruise in the Mediterranean. We spent a week in Italy on our own and joined a 12-day cruise from Venice to Istanbul and back. It was a thoroughly enjoyable holiday where we can withdraw from the routines of life.

In our staggered conversations throughout the trip in between celestial idle moments to exploring the ancient ruins of Italy, Greece and Turkey, and the beauty of the Greek islands, I thank my wife for standing by me for 25 years and we thank the Lord together that we could travel like this as best of friends. We enjoyed each other’s company more than ever as we enter into the early stage of our greying years and empty nest. We are beginning to understand and appreciate our promise to each other when we got married that we look forward to growing old together. Having been a pastor for twenty years, I have witnessed the heartaches of many broken or mediocre marriages. Marriage for some is like a prison cell, waiting for the day to get out. To others, and I am not sure which is worse, they live in mediocre co-existent, each living their own private life.

I often wonder what happened to the youthful ideals of love conquers all and why some couples even bothered to get married in the first place to get where they are today. For that, we are thankful to God that while we have our fair share of rough edges, the Lord has sustained and kept us together. There was a sense of déjà vu in this trip because I thought I saw a similar image before, of us in such a trip. I had a picture of what my marriage would be like, my family and my life. In fact, it is better than what I saw then. In some sense the future is now. I had a picture of what kind of husband I will be when I got married, the kind of father when I had my first child and the kind of influence I can be to people around me. It was then I started investing into the future. The future has now arrived. It is a sobering thought as I remember the life verse God gave me in my 20’s. James 4:14 “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”

I was reminded that life will be short and whatever we do, for most things, we have only one shot at doing it right and the consequences, good or bad will have a rippling effect for years to come, not only to us but for many others as well. I remember crafting out in my early years what the future will be like, and little by little over the years, I invested into that future. Financial advisers have been extolling the power or miracle (some would say) of compounding interest. It is learning to save with patience and discipline, a bit at a time over a life-time, that we are assured of a good retirement. Life is not that much different really. The daily discipline of spiritual growth, relationship building and wealth creation is a responsibility of every person and the disaster of the lack of it is evident in so many we see years later.

If you are in your first half right now in your life, “maybe next year” is your worst excuse. You have far more important things at stake than you think. This is the power of vision. Life is like a mist. Don’t live to regret it later. My future is now, and a little more to go! You will be saying this too, soon.

What is Church to you?

Check out a write up of my sermon here:

http://christianitymalaysia.com/wp/church-you/

Coats in the shopping carts

I find the story below from Os Hillman quite interesting, especially the "aha" moment of realization.

A former client of mine was the marketing director of a large food brokerage company and told me a story about one of their client grocery stores located in the upper Midwest. It seems that the store could not understand why at a certain time every winter sales plummeted. They studied their product line and interviewed customers. They did everything possible to uncover the mystery. Finally, someone made a remarkable discovery that changed everything.

 

It seemed that whenever it was really cold outside, the manager raised the temperature in the store. When customers came into the store it was too warm for them, so they removed their coats and placed them in their shopping carts. This meant less room for food and resulted in reduced sales overall. They lowered the temperature of the store, and as a result, the sales climbed back to the levels they were accustomed to. Their adjustment resulted in restoring sales levels.

It seems to me that when things are comfortable around us, we tend to overlook the simple things that can become a snare in our spiritual life if we are not careful. In the desire to accumulate more, we are often not aware that these things begin to take the place of what's important in our spiritual life. Sometimes it can be the cares of the world, desire to hoard more than what we need, or simply crowding out of our lives the daily devotional time with Jesus that is necessary to help us centre on Him as the Author and Perfecter of our faith.

What are the adjustments that we need to do in our lives? What are the coats in our shopping cart that needs to be removed so that we can put into it what is of ultimate importance.

Ephesians 4:22-24

22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

What is Heaven Like?

In a very intense discussion we had in our Master of Ministry class on the course titled “Caring for the sick and dying”, I realized much of how we respond to crisis in our lives is dependent upon our perspective of life. I think it is only human to cling on to what’s here in this brief life on earth. When we minister to those terminally sick or aging, when do we decide to stop praying for healing and face the fact that it is probably better to go to be with the Lord? I am reminded of how Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones prepared himself to die. This man of God was a Welsh Protestant minister, preacher and medical doctor who went to glory in 1981 at the ripe old age of 81. He had accomplished much in life, a chief influence in the British evangelical movement in the 20^th century and a minister of Westminster Chapel in London for almost 30 years.

It is his personal belief that no one should begin the inevitable journey of dying and then to die unprepared. He often preached about it and now to walk the talk. While battling cancer towards the end of his life, he knew it was time not to write more books, but to prepare to die.

His biographer, Iain Murray, visited Dr. Lyold-Jones to discuss an autobiography, a year before he died in March 1981. The old minister decided against it and Murray wrote: "It had to do with his final assessment of the right use of such time as remained to him. It came home to him with much conviction that time to prepare for death was very important; he needed such time and believed that its right use was now his chief work as a Christian. What was uppermost in his thoughts did not lie in the past at all. The big thing before him was that all Christians need a pause from the activities of life in order to prepare for heaven."

In the last days towards the end of February 1981, with great peace and assured hope, he believed that his earthly work was done. To his immediate family he said: 'Don't pray for healing, don't try to hold me back from the glory.' On March 1st, he passed on to the glory he had so often preached about on meeting the Saviour he had so faithfully proclaimed.

This also reminds me of Apostle Paul. He understood the future glory when he said “We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”

(2 Cor 5:8). Having a healthy appreciation of what our future holds will set us on a hopeful perspective when we are at the brink of death. “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Cor 15:55)

The lack of eternal hope creates the proliferation of health products and supplements, exercise routines to shape up the body and the covering up of the signs of aging through plastic surgery. I look with amusement how people are in denial often of their true age. Jokingly they say, “After 40, we stop counting.”

Consider the joy of being able to grow old gracefully and to see that there’s beauty too in aging. I am not saying this because I am approaching the point of eternity or graying at a rapid rate (which is totally superfluous with my crown of graying hair). I probably have a good 25 years before that point if nothing serious happens to my body or God should decide for me “Time’s up!”

We need to start thinking about heaven a little more so that we are not so earthly bound that we have no eternal perspective. When I say heaven, I do mean the NEW heaven and earth that we read about in Revelation 21. We will then be blessed with a new perfect body. God now dwells with His people so much so that His glory will be the everlasting light source. We will be living on a new earth and not flapping our wings into ethereal worship! I find myself asking some of the following questions. What is heaven like? Will we ever be bored with eternity? Will we recognize our loved ones and will we have emotions? What kind of bodies will we have and what will earthly nature be like then? Do we still eat and ever grow fat or do we need to still exercise? Are we clothed and will there be music and what kind? How big will the new earth be and do we still keep time? At what age will we remain for eternity and what language do we use? Are there privacy and will we have a super mind? Will we still use science and can I be the scientist that build a starship Enterprise and explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before. “Beam me up, Scotty!” It sure is an exciting place! Think about that!

Marketplace Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for creating the world and all that is in it. Thank You for creating us in Your image, calling us to be fruitful and to be faithful stewards of Your creation. You did not give us our business to take us away from our relationship with YOU, or our SPOUSE and FAMILY. Remind us that our business is simply Your gift to us, at this time, to deliver Your provision. Give us the faith to believe this and the ability to trust You.
Father, would You draw each of us into a closer and deeper personal walk with You? So that we can hear Your voice and truly let You guide us as You promised.

We pray that You would give us an understanding of Your eternal prospect regarding our work in this life and help us see the impact of our choices on our eternal consequences and rewards. You trust us with this business, and we have the responsibility to steward it well and to use it for Your glory.

Father, please enable us to live an integrated life 24 hours 7 days a week and 365 days every year under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. So that who we are on Sunday is the same person that our colleagues, customers and suppliers see the rest of the week.

Lord, help us to recognize that our calling to lead a business is just as sacred as the role of the pastor or the missionary. Make us good soil for Your Word, so that the worries of this life and the lure of wealth and desire for things will not prevent us from producing kingdom fruit that remains.

Please deliver us from the pride that prevents us from hearing Your voice, and seeking Godly counsel.

Father, the business environment often draws us to worldly behavior. Strengthen us in our resolve to do business Your way. Enable us to behave and perform in such a way that we dispel the commonly held lie that business is about greed and selfishness. Help the community to recognize that business is about meeting needs and serving others.

Would You help our nation to overcome the lie of the devil that 'religion is personal and should be kept private'. Help us practice the truth of Jesus' assignment to 'go and make disciples', and Peter's admonition to be ready to explain the hope we have. So that all people will have the opportunity to hear Your word, and see You at work.

Help us to never use people to build our businesses, but rather help us to get better and better at using our businesses to build people; helping them to grow into all You intend for them.

Father, we want to change the world by bringing the Kingdom of God to the marketplace. Help our influence on colleagues, customers, suppliers and other associates result in salvation, sanctification and service as we cooperate with You to build stronger members of Your church.

Lastly, we long to hear You say to us:
‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen!

Just For Fun - How many squares are there here?

For the simple answer: click here.

For the detailed solution, click here.

What makes life meaningful?

I posed the above question on facebook and received a few interesting replies.

Paulin Tan

If, throughout the course of my life, I can manage to positively influence another's life or ... bring up a brood of kind, compassionate and good kids who can help make the world a better place.

Norma Sit

Knowing God. Life itself. Family. Work.

Michelle Yu

When I make the best out of everything, appreciate and remain a thankful heart through seasons of life- be it an up or a down. From there, impact others positively and that they will be able to see this grace I carry through my life this far, that 1st comes from God.

Paul Messal

Obedience and Love.

Daniel Lim

Purpose beyond one's self.

Jennifer Lee

People and revelation through conversation about the LORD

Antony Mark Brown

Knowing our identity in God; which gives me purpose and identity. This gives me meaning.

Andrew Goh Hwee Liang

Is when we know what we can do for God.

It is quite interesting to see how different we are as men and women in our understanding of life. Men generally place their meaning on what they do and women on relationships. Notice how we men use words like "purpose" and "do". Women use "influence", "knowing", "appreciate", "conversation".

That's the beauty of gender difference. We both bring a richness that completes the picture. We need though to forge a clear theology of who He is. Meaning in life is both "doing" and "being". I for one think that meaning in life is really about firstly knowing that you are loved. Remember when you first fell head over heels in love with this amazing person? Remember when you woke up every morning after that filled with a sense of purpose? That was a teaser to how we can fall in love with God and be filled with meaning in and for life.

Someone said it is a settled conviction of how much God loves us. Meaning becomes clear when we know we are loved! That must be the starting point before we can make any sense out of life!