A few months ago, my daughter spoke with me saying “Dad, you know, I never really knew God until recently. I mean, I have been following you guys to Church since I was born and I have always considered myself a Christian. I read the Bible every night and I pray to God every now and then but I wasn’t quite sure that I really know God or Jesus. I prayed the sinner’s prayer because I was afraid that I might be left behind at the Rapture. You guys would have gone up to heaven and I am left behind on earth to face the tribulation alone…. scary. I really wanted to know God personally and it was only when I started joining the Youth cell group and attended some Youth conferences where I really experienced the Presence of God. I wept because I was so touched and was baptized in the Holy Spirit. In the past, I always dread going to Church because I wasn’t interested in the service and didn’t understand what the Pastor was preaching and I didn’t want to feel like a hypocrite as I considered myself not so spiritual as the other Christians. Now, I love to go to Cell and can’t stand not going to Church.”

What my daughter has gone through is a common challenge, a second or third generation Christian faces. My wife and I are first generation Christians and we had faced some opposition from our non-Christian families when we became Christians. Our faith and belief in Christ have always been clear-cut and firm. But not so for our children. Often, they are not sure whether they are Christians because their parents are Christians or because they really personally believed in the Lord Jesus. Hence, they are reluctant to go to Church or join in the activities of the Church because they are confused and do not want to be hypocritical. They feel that they are going to Church and are Christians because their parents forced them to do so or be so. Trying to please their parents, they just merely fulfill a routine every Sunday or Saturday. They are not sure whether they are really saved. When they open up their hearts to us about their doubt, we quickly assure them by asking “ Have you prayed the sinner’s prayer? If you have, then you are saved. The Bible says in Rom10:9 that if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, then, you are saved.” Is this true in their case, I wonder ? Our soteriology determines our assurance or non-assurance of salvation. Do they really understand what salvation is all about and the reason why they need to be saved? I mean, generally most Christians take salvation for granted because it is something in the future. Some may say, “ I have not finished coping with all the problems in this life, why trouble myself with the next life ???” If we consider that the SPM or STPM or the University exams are critical (very important) for the future success or failure in our children’s lives, then their salvation is even more serious in the long run … eternity! Our life on earth is short, we may live up to 80 or the most 100 years but what happens after we die? Our children’s souls will continue to live for endless years. Where will their souls be if they are not saved and what will happen to them ? How can we make sure that our children’s souls will be with us in Christ in heaven forever? If there is something a parent can do to help their children, I am sure, they will especially with regards to their children’s eternity.

What then is Salvation and why does God need to save us and to save us from what?

When the Bible talks about salvation, it can refer to something physical like the people of Israel being delivered by God from the charging chariots of Pharoah ( Moses loudly proclaimed “ See the Salvation of the LORD!” Exodus 14:13) or the saving of our souls from eternal condemnation in Hell. The Gospels tell us how Jesus and His disciples went about “fishing for the souls of men.” (Matt 4:19). Why do the souls of men and women need to be saved?

What is the soul? Our soul is our inner true self. It gives us our self-consciousness of who we really are. I was really amazed when I visited someone in hospital recently and he was so conscious of his surrounding even though he had just come out of a massive surgery. The body was in a wreck but the soul was so alert. The soul of man was formed when God first breathed into Adam ( Gen 2:7). Every human being is born with a soul since that day. When a person dies, the physical body is left behind to decay but the soul continues into the next realm of existence ( the spiritual realm). The problem is that because of Adam’s disobedience to God’s commandment, he sinned and all of mankind inherited this Original Sin from Adam. (Rom 5:12 – Therefore as sin came into the world through one man (Adam) and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned.) This sinful nature dwells in every man and woman and causes us to commit more sins. The Bible refers to the root of sin as the evil desires within a man. “ Let no one say when he is tempted, “ I am tempted by God”, for God cannot be tempted with evil and He Himself tempts no one; but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin (sinful actions); and sin when it is full-grown brings forth death.” ( James 1:13-15). Sin not only leads us to die physically but also to a second death to our souls. Jesus warned us in Matt 10:28 “ And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” But Paul said, “ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” ( Rom 6:23). Our souls can be saved from the judgment of God and eternal suffering in the fires of hell. Our souls can live forever in Jesus free from all suffering, pain , sickness and sorrows.

What must we do to be saved? Paul told us in Eph 2:8-9 “ For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God – not because of works, lest any man should boast.” We can be saved by having faith in Jesus and on what He has achieved when He died on the cross. This is the Gospel that God loves us and wants to save our souls from eternal condemnation. By sending Christ His Beloved Son to die on the cross shedding His blood on our behalf ( atonement) He broke the power of sin and death over us and enables us to come back to God forgiven. Paul said in Rom 10:9-10 “if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For man believes with his heart and so is justified, and he confesses with his lips and so is saved.” To believe that Christ has died for all your sins requires an inner resolve within your heart i.e. you have thought this over many times and finally reached a firm decision that you accept this as truth and you trust in what God has said. Faith is the assurance of things unseen ( Heb 11:1). Because you have believed, you now asked Jesus to be Lord in your life and become a true Christian.

There was one night when a teacher of the Law, a Pharisee named Nicodemus who secretly came to meet Jesus at a garden. He asked Jesus how he can be saved and enter the Kingdom of God. Jesus told him that he must be born again of the Holy Spirit and water ( baptism). ( John 3:1-15). This is the mystery of God. When you confess your sins and ask Jesus to be your Lord, the Holy Spirit of God will come and cause a new spirit to be created in you; this is the Born Again experience ( Karl Barth – the Holy Spirit and the Christian Life) . This is the beginning of a Christian life. No one can be a Christian if the Holy Spirit has not caused a new spirit to be born in him or her. And this new spirit in you is your assurance that you are saved forever, for heaven awaits you.

Some have said that the reason God wants to save us is because He wants our fellowship. I think this to be untrue both in Scriptures as well as in logic. How can God, with the company of millions of spiritual beings (seraphims, archangels, elders, angels and saints) be lonely? Why does God need a billion souls for fellowship? Isn’t it silly for us to downgrade God? God wants to save us because of who He is. He is love and He loves everyone of us ( John 3:16; I John 4:7-8 ). Because He loves us He desires to save us from eternal suffering, not because of how good or bad we are.

So, if our children are doubtful about their salvation, we need to sit down and have a heart to heart talk with them apart from praying for them. We need to listen to their views. If we don’t, they will stop going to Church, stop reading the Bible, stop praying and finally keep the idea of God totally out of their minds and lives. They will venture into the darkness of the world and be influenced constantly by the things of the world. Their hearts will harden towards the things of God and ultimately they will be totally alienated from God. When that happens, can we honestly say that their salvation is still intact. They will lose their salvation because they have rejected Christ just like those who have committed apostasy. (Heb 6:4-6 - “For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come.” By the mercies of God and through constant intercession by the parents, some of these children who have strayed away from God may come to their senses one day just like the prodigal son and repent of their waywardness and return to God. But do we want to take such kind of risks on our children’s salvation if we can do something about it now?

There is a new theory raised by New Testament scholars in recent years on how salvation is attained. For many centuries and even up to today, the Roman Catholic Church has been influenced by the Augustinian doctrine of ‘work righteousness’ in addition to faith for salvation. What it says is that apart from faith, a Christian must carry out good works like penance, charity, adhering to the sacraments and teaching of the Church leadership in order to remain saved. The Evangelical NT scholars went into hot debate when E P Sanders , an authoritative scholar on Second century BC Judaism, raised the issue of ‘covenantal nomism’. According to Sanders, a Jew is required to keep the Laws ( Torah and Rabbical) in order to remain in the Covenant of Promise to Abraham by God. Sanders said that a Christian may need to continue in keeping the teachings of Christ as well as in attendance to the fellowship of the saints in order to maintain one’s salvation. Failure to do so may jeopardize one’s salvation. How true this is, no one has an authoritative answer. But, the point is, to remain in fellowship and keeping the teachings of Christ (John 14:23; John 15:7) are essential qualities emphasized and kept by the early Christians and should apply to us too. Our children need to know this and seriously decide on their walk with God. They need to first have a sincere desire for God. They need to experience God in a personal way. Among evangelical Christians there are some who hold the view that just obeying and believing the Scriptures without experiencing the truths mentioned is sufficient because God’s Word is sovereign and inerrant. This is called ‘a priori’. There is another group who hold the view that experience of the truths mentioned in the Scriptures is important. This is called ‘a posteriori’. I believe in ‘a posteriori’. It is vital for the Christian to experience the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of the Living Word of God, the manifestations of Spiritual gifts, the Presence of God, the love of God, the power of answered prayers and the miracles of God. This is because it is the function of the Holy Spirit and the Joy of God to show us His reality. I believe that when our children genuinely believe in Jesus and say the sinner’s prayer in truth, they will experience a confirmation of the new birth by the Holy Spirit. It may be a peace in his or her heart, a sudden lightness in spirit, a sudden joy in the heart, a new sense of freedom, a trembling in the body or a warmth in the heart just like John Wesley. From then on they should continue to experience the reality of God in their lives and develop their love for God and other Christians. This will provide the undeniable evidence of their salvation

The doctrine of Predestination is a doctrine little understood by most Christians and much debated by Christian scholars. The Reformed theologians are extremely adamant on their belief in Unconditional Predestination and vehemently attacked the Arminians as heretics. The sovereingty of Almighty God versus the importance of the Freewill of man rest on the two ends of the seesaw;moved by the invisible hands of their supporters. These four weeks study in November 2009 will cover on What is Predestination in accordance to St Augustine and John Calvin, the Arminians and John Wesley’s arguments, Middle Knowledge and Determinism and lastly the Scriptural bases for the various arguments. The notes to these four sessions which will be held at HGC Ampang can be located under the BTS 3 Notes on the right hand bar of this main page.

I was in Church yesterday and we were taking the Holy Communion. In our Church , the practice is that everyone will walk orderly to the front of the sanctuary and take a piece of the communion bread and a small cup from the serving stewards. Each will then return to his or her seat to wait for the minister to instruct us to partake the bread and cup together. Now, seated beside me was an African brother and due to some reasons he abstained from going out and participate in the Holy Communion. My immediate thought was that this brother was serious and sincere about participating in the Holy Communion. Perhaps, he feels unworthy to partake the Holy Communion because of some unconfessed sins in his life or perhaps he feels angry with God. Whatever the reason is, I give this brother his due respect because he didn’t treat the Communion with contempt.

Nevertheless, I was more bothered by the thought that if he was in sin, all the more he needs to participate in the communion! Christ would forgive him of whatever sins he had committed. Christ would want him and welcome him back to the fellowship of His body. God would love him because he was not frivolous with his faith but fears the LORD. He needs the communion more than others so that he can feel forgiven and accepted back into the fellowship with Christ and the brethren. I was so tempted to give my bread and cup to him and tell him all my thoughts but I didn’t. I feel this requires more than just a few words. This thinking of not participating in the Holy Communion has to be addressed more fully and a change of mind or conviction, has to be effected.

I recall that in my younger days as a Christian, our Youth leader used to tell us that if we have sinned or have backslided then we should abstain from partaking the Holy Communion. He read this from some Christian magazine. We all believed in this teaching. This may not be wrong but looking back I feel this was incomplete and the emphasis was wrong. The emphasis should be that we must confess our sins and quickly get back into fellowship with the Lord and the brethren and not to abstain from participating in the Holy Communion. The minister should also explain this and lead those feeling guilty to immediately confess their sins and come back into fellowship with God instead of staying away from the fellowship by not participating in the Communion.

I believe that all Christians , not matter what spiritual or physical states they are in, must partake the Eucharist because this was the commandment of Christ. If anyone is not right with God, then, get right with God. Just as what Paul had said in I Cor 11:23-26, each time we partake the Eucharist, we proclaim the death of the Lord Jesus until He returns. It is a spiritual union with Christ in His death as well as Life in His Resurrection!

I have always been fascinated with David’s life and his close walk with God. David was chosen by God to be anointed as King over all Judah and Israel at a very young age. At 22 years old, he was anointed as King over Judah. At 30, he was anointed as King over all Israel. He was incredibly young to be King over such a difficult nation as Israel. What were his secrets? Why was he chosen and how did he become what he was? What was his walk with God like? Apart from reading from the historical records in I & II Samuel and I Kings on David’s life, I have found the Davidic Psalms as the pool of rich revelation of David’s thoughts, his meditations, his theology, his prayers and his feelings. Hence, I have structured this study of by combining David’s life and his psalms together. In so doing, we may be able to get a richer result by examining his life and thoughts at the same time.

Starting from 15th Feb 2009, Bible Training School Level 3 (BTS3) at Hope of Glory Centre will commence a series of 4 weekly lessons on David and His Psalms. The notes on these four lessons have been posted under the BTS3 index. You can download them by going to the BTS3 index on the right column of this site.

Outline of Study

DAVID AND HIS PSALMS Session 1 (15/02/09)

1. David’s life and walk with God
2. David’s anointing
3. Introduction to Psalms
4. 73 Davidic Psalms

DAVID AND HIS PSALMS Session 2 (22/02/09)

David’s Prayer Psalms (Mizmor) and laments
His prayer life and prayers

DAVID AND HIS PSALMS Session 3 (01/03/09)

David’s Contemplation Psalms ( Maskil ), Meditation Psalms ( Shiggaion ) and “Golden” Psalms (Miktam)
His meditations and reflections on righteousness and evil.

DAVID AND HIS PSALMS Session 4 (08/03/09)

1. David’s Procession Psalms ( Songs of Accents or Pilgrim songs)
Worship

2. David’s Creation Hymns and Messianic Psalms. Also included the Hallel
Praise and Prophecy

Dr Lester Sumrall once said that there are two foundations in the Church from which spiritual gifts will operate healthily and perfectly. They are (a) unity and (b) love. Without these two elements present in the Church, the Holy Spirit will not give spiritual gifts to the people and even when given, the gifts will slowly fade away. The purpose of spiritual gifts is not just for self edification but for the edification of every one else.

Dr Lester further explained that one of the most destructive forces against the unity in Church is schism. He defined schism as “a division or separation.”

“God does not want a schism in the Church. He does not want us fighting with one another. When a person comes to you grumbling or finding fault with another person, don’t even argue with him. The best way to put a stop to it is by saying ‘Why don’t we pray about that situation ? God will take care of it for you.

It is the beginning of the moving of God’s power among us when we start caring one for another, really caring. There should be a real spiritual relationship among God’s people.

It is so easy to become selfish and isolated, to separate ourselves when God wants us to flow in the Body. You cannot see yourself as a separate entity. You cannot go off into a corner and say, ‘Look at me. I’m really great !’ No, you are not great. God is great. Jesus is great ; the Holy Spirit is great ! You are what you are because of what God did for you through Jesus.”

( The Gifts and Ministries of the Holy Spirit – Dr Lester Sumrall)

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Recent page posted under Sharing the Gospel Index

In our world today, most of us live in a multi-cultural and multi-religion society. Very few, except perhaps those who are living in remote places, still maintain a mono- culture and mono-religion environment. A multi-cultural society can bring out the best and the worst in our people. The best is when there is tolerance and harmonious living despite the differences in viewpoints, values and habits. The worst is when there are prejudices, fear, mistrust , oppression, bullying and use of force.

We who live in Malaysia know what it means to live in a multi-cultural and multi-religion society . For centuries we have tried to live together with our differences in race, religion and values. We come from different ethnic origins ; Malays , Chinese, Indian, Punjabi , Kadazans, Ibans, other minor tribes and the Europeans. We have succeeded so far except for the racial riot of 1969. Yet, we constantly have clashes politically, economically and religiously. But that , I feel is not the main issue. I feel, it is the role played by the people of God which is vital to the nation’s welfare because we hold the key to God’s kingdom. Only when we are able to bring God, the true Creator God, into the heartbeat and life of the nation and its people, that true peace and love can exist in a nation. But cross-cultural communication is not easy due to our many preconceived ideas and reluctance to break our comfort zones. We prefer to stick our the familiar, the orthodox and the permissible. We seldom like to take risk and venture into non-traditional ways

I like to relate an experience on sharing God’s Word to a group of Hindus and some reflections.

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This is the story of John Mark, the man used by the Holy Spirit to record down in writing probably the first Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel according to Mark has been held by many as the first written Gospel from which Matthew and Luke took reference. Who was John Mark and what was his story?

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