December 26^th 2004. That was the fateful day when the colossal Indonesian Tsunami hit Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia and as far as the Maldives. Hundreds of thousands perished and millions were displaced. Non-Christians as well as Christians were affected.  How should Christians react to such a disaster? What must those affected Christians do?

A Sri Lankan pastor recently related their experience in the Tsunami. 44,000 Sri Lankans perished in that Tsunami and 100,000 homes were destroyed. He pensively remarked that it is almost six years since the Tsunami hit Sri Lanka and what have they learnt?

The immediate reaction of the people in the aftermath of  the disaster was grief, despair and hopelessness. As a result, many came to Christ to gain hope and strength. The churches in Sri Lanka flourished. His church planted seven new daughter churches in the last six years. One of the most effective witness of the Christians caught in a natural disaster is to actively show love, care and help to those affected. Many opportunities will be opened for the Christians to share the Gospel.

He related how he led a group of young people from his church to a town which was in total destruction. Debris were everywhere and dead bodies could still be seen here and there. The amount of debris was so massive that they were totally lost on what to do and where to start. The youths came  and asked, “Pastor, what shall we do? There is so much debris and it looks impossible to clear them.” He replied, “ Start from one street and work until it is cleared. Then, move on to the next.”

At one of the streets was a Buddhist monastery. The Christian youths came to the monastery and started clearing the rubble. The abbot of the monastery was very surprise to see the youths clearing the rubble. He  approached the youths and asked who has sent them and why were they helping to clear the rubbles. The youths told him that they were from the church and were happy to clear the rubble for the monastery. The abbot was moved by such actions and remarked that he had never known that Christians could show such love and help. He asked for the pastor’s telephone number and immediately made a call to the pastor. He told the pastor his appreciation and said that in the future should the pastor need any help or a place for a meeting, he would be glad to make his monastery available for the pastor to use. The pastor has since then became a friend to the abbot and had used the monastery for some meetings.  Indeed actions speak louder than words.  “The light shines in the  darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:5)

I was listening to a presentation by a Christian brother who is involved in Bible Engagement ministry and was surprise to hear that according to a recent survey they have conducted among regular Church attending believers in a number of Evangelical churches in Singapore, less than 25% of the Christians read the Bible daily. The Bible Engagement ministry aims to help Christians to read and understand the Bible daily and gain more Biblical knowledge.

He said that 25% seems to be the standard among all the churches in the world. This is despite the fact that most Christians know the importance of God’s Word in their lives. This is despite that they agree the importance of  Joshua 1:8 “ This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you shall make your way prosperous,and then you shall have good success” and is God’s formula  for the  believers to have success in their lives. This is also despite the Lord’s admonishment to us, as a defence against the devil, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”( Matt 4:1). This is also despite many of us knowing and proclaiming Psalm 1:1-2 “Blessed is the man … but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night.” Why are we not reading and meditating on God’s Word daily?

There are a few startling reasons which might have caused Christians to neglect reading the Bible.

The first is that Christians are pursuing more secular knowledge than spiritual knowledge. This is due to the importance which the modern society has placed on education and knowledge as enabling a person to have an “upper hand” to his competitions. The easy access to information through the internet and the drive towards work excellence churn an unending pursuit to anyone who has a desire to succeed. It is really like a tiger chasing its tail. In being so caught up with such pursuit for secular knowledge, the Christian hardly have time to settle down his racing mind to read and mediate on what God has to say.

The second reason is that of “no time” mentality. The daily busyness in the secular job; the overtime, the bringing of work home, the unreleasing warp of thinking of ways to solve issues at work, the meetings and the reports plus the demands of caring for the home, give the Christian the impression that he or she just does not have the time to read the Bible.

Next, the rush to work and the time wasted in traveling to and fro for work ; whether driving, caught in traffic jams or traveling by light rail or bus, these are exhausting to the Christians.

Then there is the need to spend time with the family especially with the children. Commitments to extended family members, relatives and friends also eat up our limited hours like  a pac man.

Church meetings also eat up our time. We convince ourselves that serving God or attending Christian meetings are acceptable substitutes for our devotion time with God. Afterall,  we have gone to Church meetings to praise and worship God , pray and listen to His Word. Is this truthful?

Imagine spending one hour talking personally with one’s father versus coming to a family gathering and hardly spoke 5 words to one’s father. They are hardly the same thing. Joshua 1:8, Psalm 1:2 and many other verses talk about one spending time on a personal basis with God and His Word.

In Bible Engagement, Christians are encouraged to listen to God’s Word if they don’t have the time to be set aside to read God’s Word. Audio Bible, audio Devotional messages and audio Biblical lessons can be played in the car, ipod, handphone, ipad, laptops and many other electronic gadgets to enable a Christian to be exposed to God’s Word daily. It is like making “dead” time to “live” time in time management. Make use of your inactive time e.g. while traveling to actively listen to God’s Word.

We believe that God’s Word is alive and active and listening or reading God’s Word daily brings transformation to our lives. We have to make a choice. We need to choose between being in the 75% of non- Bible reading or 25% Bible reading Christians.

THE HOLY SPIRIT AT END-TIME

a. The spiritual warfare in heaven and on earth
b. The end time Biblical prophecies
c. The preparation of the Church by the Holy Spirit as a Bride for the returning Christ. more…

THE ANOINTING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

a. The anointing of the Holy Spirit teachings.

b. Ministerial anointing by God

c. Transference of anointing

d. Corporate Anointing in a meeting

g. Peddling of prayer items and “anointed” cloth and handkerchiefs. more…

THE OPERATION OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS IN THE CHURCH

a. Guidelines in the Operation of Spiritual gifts in Church

b. Purpose of the operation of spiritual gifts in the church

c. Level of grace

d. Level of faith

e. Ministries in the body of Christ

f. Correcting errors more…

THE OPERATION OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS IN A PERSON

a. The Holy Spirit as our Teacher

b. Supported by the Word

c. Praying in the Spirit in intercession

d. Self prophecies

e. Revelations in the self study and meditation (musing) of God’s Word.

f. Personal ministry to others more…

THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

THE GIFT OF WISDOM

a. What are the wisdom gifts ? Word of wisdom, word of knowledge,

and discerning of spirits

b. Natural abilities (talents) versus spiritual gifts

c. The mind of Christ

d. Worldly wisdom and the wisdom of God

e. Interpreting revelations, visions, dreams and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. more…

Many Christians desire to be used by God in ministering to others who are in need. We desire to be used by the Lord in growing measure i.e. being able to minister to more and more people progressively. Somehow in the midst of this matter, we may have mixed our “usability” by God with the level of “anointing” which we believe we have received from God.  Pastors are concerned that the size of their congregation is reflective of the “anointing” they have received. There are pastors who believed that they have been  “anointed” to minister  to a hundred only and hence, their congregation is limited to one hundred no matter how hard they work or how many outreach programmes they hold. To another, it might be 1,000 and another 10,000 and some 25,000 or 30,000. Is this true, in the Biblical sense? more…

I was listening to a recorded testimony given by Pastor Dr Philip Lyn on how God raised his four years old daughter, Sarah, from the dead ( http://www.jesushealsmi.com/sarah_lyn.html ). It was a tremendous testimony and a heart warming episode of what goes on in the heart and mind of a parent whose beloved daughter went through coma and the threat of brain damage.

Just a day before her fourth birthday, little Sarah followed her 12 years old brother Andrew to his violin teacher’s home for playtime. Running around the backyard and playing around the cloth lines, Sarah and 3 years old Madeline (the violin teacher’s daughter) were having a joyful time. Somehow, Sarah climbed onto the stool near the cloth lines, where a noose was tied at the end of the line. She might have climbed up the stool and playfully or accidentally placed her head in the noose and when the stool fell she was strung up. By the time little Madeline managed to alert her mother, about 5- 6 minutes had passed and Sarah’s body had turned blackish blue, hanging from the noose. Normally, a deprivation of oxygen to the brain for about 3 minutes would cause an immediate damage to the upper brain. The music teacher cried out to God and did some CPR to try to revive Sarah. Andrew called his dad, Dr Philip who was in his clinic then. Dr Philip rushed Sarah to the hospital but Sarah was in a coma. more…

Last Sunday, I had a wonderful time listening to a first hand account from Pastor Solomon Bulan on the Bario Revival in Sarawak, Malaysia which took place in 1973. A humble Kelabit pastor, Pastor Solomon was a school teacher then. The revival broke out as a result of much prayer for revival among the young people in the Bario church. Bario is in the Kelabit Highlands (Mount Murud). The Kelabit is a small tribe with just about 5,000 persons. The Holy Spirit came upon the people with great power and conviction. The young as well as the old began to cry out and repent of their sins. School children, farmers and almost everyone stopped everything they were doing and went to church from morning till night, everyday, to pray. There were miraculous signs of speaking and interpretation of tongues, healings, casting out of evil spirits, word of knowledge and a great zeal to spread the Gospel to other villages and tribes. Hidden charms kept by the believers were revealed by the Holy Spirit and those convicted had their lives greatly changed. Groups of school boys, aging between 13-15 years, went out into the dense forests, walking for days to preach the Gospel from village to village. Whole villages were converted and set on fire by the Holy Spirit. The journey from one village to another by foot would normally take about 8 – 10 hours. Sometimes, because the team would stop for prayer, the delay may cause them to have to travel at night in pitch darkness. The Holy Spirit would lit up their path by causing leaves to glow in the dark. more…