Water of Purification

On the 8th or last day of the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot), the Israelites were told to observe one special day of rest (Leviticus 23:39) but from the same passage we do not have any account from scriptures of what they were to do. So we will need to look for the answers in the Jewish customs and practices.

During the time of Jesus, the Pharisees had changed the way the Feast was to be observed. The Feast is also called Feast of Ingathering as it officially marks the end of the harvest and a new crop will soon be planted for the next year. And it is at this point that the leaders would want to pray for rain to rejuvenate the ground and tradition tells us the priests would go down to the Pool of Siloam, draw water and offer this water at the altar to the Lord as a symbolic act of praying for rain and also to purify the water for their consumption.

Jesus did not initially want to be present at the Temple area when the rest of the people decided to go up to Jerusalem for the occasion but He later changed His mind and went along to teach in the Temple and on the last day of the Feast, He stood in the Temple and said in a loud voice, "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." (John 7:38).

Why did He do that? I believe He wanted to show them Who is the true Source of all their water which is the most important commodity in the middle east or any other arid country for that matter. He wanted them to focus on Him and not on the 'ritual' by that time.

Above All - Beautiful Worship Video on YouTube

Someone gave me this link some time back and I want to share with you this wonderful worship video.

Initial when I first watched this, I thought it was some weird video but after watching for a number of times, I am beginning to enjoy the worship. Certainly it is worth your bookmarking it on your IE Favourites so that you can watch it over and over.

I have labeled the link as 'Jesus Painting' - go ahead and click on the link on your left column under the folder "O Worship The Lord"... enjoy and worship Him as you watch the presentation.

Feast of Tabernacles

The Feast of Tabernacles in Israel started on Wednesday and will last for eight days and if you visit Israel during this period you will find very interesting structures all across the country where it is deemed safe to do so.

The Lord told Moses to gazette in his writings for the children of Israel to remember how He had brought them out of Egypt into the land of Rest (Promised Land) and one way of doing that is to erect shelters and to live in these shelters throughout the feast. So this week you might be able to catch a glimpse of many makeshift shelters either in the gardens of the homes or out in the open fields and some may even venture a bit further and 'camp' in the wilderness area (although not entirely encouraged due to security reasons).

Feast of Tabernacles or Ingathering or Sukkot is also thought to be the time when Jesus was born in Bethlehem since it is a time when the Israelites were to commenmorate His Ingathering with His people and some bible scholars believe that He was presented at the Temple on the 8th day for his circumcision on the last day of Sukkot. Luke 2:21-38 gives us an account of the ceremony but I find it a bit strange that the holy Spirit did not elaborate on the Feast if it was really during the Feast that His parents presented Him for the ceremony.

So, is He or is He not born during Sukkot? does it matter? Important thing to remember is that HE CAME and HE DWELT among men - now that is the message of Sukkot.

I stand corrected!

Thanks to Alphonse Yu for pointing out that it was Rock Productions that is involved in the building of the Civic Hub that New Creation Church (NCC) will be renting space to operate from every Sunday and possibly one weekday evening.

And you would think that with a seating capacity of 5000 in the new auditorium, NCC would be having less number of services on Sunday, right? No, you have not factored in the growth by the time the church moves in 2012.

Last count, NCC hit just over 16,000 in Sunday attendance (all combined including Mandarin/Hokkien congregation, etc) about three Sundays ago and we are still experiencing great harvest - at least 50 souls are saved for the Lord every Sunday. All glory to Jesus! Hallelujah!

So four services at the new hub, here we come!

Why am I so excited about Jewish feasts?

In the Old Testament, God gave instructions to Moses for the nation of Israel to observe seven appointed feasts throughout the year and each of these had great significance to what our Lord Jesus had done and will do in the future.
1. Feast of Unleavened Bread - Leviticus 23:6-8
2. Feast of Passover - Leviticus 23:4-5
3. Feast of First Fruits - Leviticus 23:9-14
4. Feast of Weeks - Leviticus 23:15-22
5. Feast of Trumpets - Leviticus 23:23-25
6. Day of Atonement - Leviticus 23:26-32
7. Feast of Tabernacles - Leviticus 23:33-36

The first four Jewish feasts had already been fulfilled by our Lord
1. Feast of Unleavened Bread - on Good Friday for one week after
2. Feast of Passover - on Good Friday when Jesus became the Passover Lamb for us
3. Feast of First Fruits - on Easter Sunday morning when the Jews started to bring in the first harvest
4. Feast of Weeks - on the Day of Pentecost when God sent forth His Holy Spirit
and the last three have not yet been fulfilled.

And so, every year as we remember the last three Jewish Feasts I would be looking forward to their respective fulfillment and that keeps me excited.

When, O Lord, will You return?

Ever wondered when the Lord will return for His own people? According to the Jewish calendar, Rosh Hashannah or Feast of Trumpets (the Jewish New Year) was celebrated 2 weeks ago on Wednesday September 12 and then Yom Kippor came and went on Saturday 22nd. Tuesday night Sep 25 at 6 PM Jerusalem time the Feast of Tabernacles started and this will extend until Wednesday Oct 03 6 PM and great things happen in Israel during this time.

And it is precisely in this context that the recent bombing of a Syrian military base comes to light. Did the Israeli Air Force (IAF) really bomb the base so as to prevent the Syrians from either building their own nuclear facility or to prevent the nuclear material stored there from being shipped to Iran for their nuclear weapon enrichment programme? US President Bush had, in one of his recent press conferences, made the remark "no comments" when asked whether USA knew or can confirm the news. Also the Israeli PM Olmert had evaded the question; likewise the Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Only Benjamin Nataneyhu of the opposition commented that he was aware of the raid and he approved what had been done.

Now why is this important? As you would know the Middle East is the hotbed of all civilisations and is also the place where all history as recorded for us in the Bible took place. The Book of Revelations mentions that the Last War would be fought in Armageddon (sounds very close to "Ha'Megiddo" - a place in Israel). This is a page taken from my book - Israel Land of the Bible Revisited 2003 Dec13-22 From the photo, you can see how strategic the ancient city mound of Megiddo is. At approximately 300 metres above sea-level it has a commanding view of the surrounding plains and from there you can see the flat land extending for miles. It is estimated that at least 4 armies with their armour pieces (battle tanks and armoured vehicles) can be easily accommodated and there is still room for armour manoeuvre; there will not be a traffic jam even.

So, back to the question I asked earlier - "when, O Lord, will You return?" - soon I hope. Are you ready for Him when He comes and in the twinkling of the eye, all believers of Christ Jesus will be raptured to meet Him in the 'clouds' (or if you want to be scientific - stratosphere). If you are not, can I urge you to invite our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ into your heart and you will begin to enjoy His blessings.

A Soldier's Inspirational Song

Someone from New Creation Church sent me this link (column on your left) some time back (almost a year ago).

Captain Cooper received this song from a friend and it became his inspirational song while he was serving his recent tour of duty in Iraq. It goes to show that even in the heat of the war, God is to be worshipped and adored! The lyrics are also provided so that you can follow the song (tune is "In Christ Alone"); don't forget to read his story of how the song came about.

So tune UP the volume and enjoy.

Shoes of the Gospel of Peace

Yes, I am still on this topic of the fight of Faith - not finished yet! I was reading Pastor Joseph Prince's latest book - Destined to Reign - and in Chapter 12 he was explaining how condemnation kills. And I came to this portion where he touched on the armor of God.

For many years now I grew up with the teaching that we have to prepare ourselves to go out into the world and share (preach may be a stronger term for some) the gospel as part and parcel of a Christian's walk (and work, I would say). So for a long time I am trying to arm myself with the Gospel message and getting myself ready should the Lord calls me to go into the mission field and literally live a missionary life. Of course little did I realize that the mission field could be the here and now.

So preparation after preparation and I was still waiting. Until I came to New Creation Church and sat under Pastor Prince's ministry and realized that the shoes here refers to our standing in the sight of God. If you look at the context in which Paul wrote Ephesians you will notice that there were THREE key actions that believers in Christ are to take - SIT (or seated - Chapters 1-3), WALK (Chapetrs 4&5) and STAND (Chapter 6).

It is only when we realized who we are (heirs and joint-heirs with Christ Who is seated at the right hand of God) that we can walk in righteousness in our personal lives and family lives and when trouble comes, we know where we stand. When Paul listed "having your feet shod with the preparations of the gospel of peace" I believe he meant that we need to prepare ourselves and know for a certainty, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that we can STAND (in the context of Ephesians 6) not under condemnation (as Romans 8:1 tells us, "there is therefore NOW NO CONDEMNATION for those who are in Christ Jesus) but as righteous before God the Father and the devil will have to flee from before you.

That, my friends, is how we are to put on the armor of God. Everything that needs to be done for our salvation had already been accomplished at the cross and now we can bask in His righteousness and become a 'blessing magnet' attracting all the blessings that our Abba Father wants us to receive. Go on, keep thanking Him and see the results...

Our Only Fight is The Fight of Faith

Ever wondered why, of all things that we are to fight for in life, the apostle Paul tells us about is the fight of faith? Notice he never advocated that we need to fast or do anything else.

He wrote to Timothy at the end of his life that famous oft quoted verse used in many eulogies, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." (2Timothy 4:7) In fact the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews (whom I believe strongly is the apostle Paul himself as the style of argument and writing is identical to all his other letters) tells us in Hebrews 4:11 "Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience." (NIV)

What are you getting at? you may ask. The good fight Paul talked about is none other than the fight of faith (2Tim 4:7) or the rest (Hebrews 4:11). In fact Hebrews tells us to make every effort to enter that rest - don't let anything or anyone distract us from that rest. So what is this rest? Do you know that everything regarding our salvation had already been completely fulfilled in Christ when He bore our sins and died on the cross for us? Nothing more is needed; you cannot add any more. If we can, then His Death on the Cross was in vain. Praise the Lord, it is NOT in vain.

In fact His Death is so perfect that we can enter into the rest of God on that basis and that alone! No wonder the writer to the Hebrews emphasized that so strongly - he did not want anyone to hoodwink us to think otherwise!

Barnabas Mail Ministry - Why End A Good Thing?

Some of my friends, when they received my mail stating that I was closing that chapter of my ministry about a year ago, asked me why I chose to end such a ministry that had grown to the glory of our Lord.

I assure you that the decision to end the chain of weekly emails came after much prayer and also circumstances surrounding the use of emails. Not only was the introduction of laws and penalties for the proliferation of junk or SPAMs in Singapore but a number of companies were beginning to introduce tough measures to block unwanted mails. And so, usually on Monday morning whenever I checked my inbox, I would have received a flurry of failed delivery messages and some even stronger mails classifying my mail as a SPAM.

Now my parents did not raise no fool and when I saw that, immediately I went to the Lord and sought wisdom on how to handle the looming challenges. Also it did not help when my own computer was attacked by viruses (or is there a worm?). I had all the Norton and Symantec Anti-Virus softwares installed on my computer to sniff out infected messages and yet i received all kinds of mails. I decided to investigate and found that the cranked messages did not originate from my computer but a couple of my recipients' computers were heavily 'wormified' (if there is such a word) and the worm were triggering all kinds of nuisance mails. And if any of you had received such mails, my apologies as the worm could have gone through my address book and sent out mails to you.

And so the decision was very clear at that point in time - close down the email ministry and concentrate on other aspects. But my spirit was not at rest. I noticed that my children have their own blogs and they were happily posting things there and exchanging messages back and forth and that stirred up an interest in me to find out more.

My son was too busy with his career and did not have the time to sit down and explain to me. And so when my daughter came home after her graduation, I decided to check with her how to set up my own blog and after a couple of demonstrations, here I am. And I am able to reach out to a wider audience.

And to bag an award? that tops it all.... glory to Jesus!

An Award - All Glory to Jesus our Lord and Savior!

Wow, what an honor! I woke up this morning and opened the blog and found sitting on the post last evening, one comment from a 'reader' saying that my blog had been awarded the 'blog of the week'. Initially I could not believe my eyes that this is real; I thought someone pull a trick on me and then when I investigated and went into the blog-site, I actually found the award on their website.

Yes, the 'reader' is an online service of some Christian brothers and sisters who want to track the many blogs out there that spread the good news about Jesus and His Finshed Work. This is their URL - http://cyberanger.blogspot.com/ - and the nomination is for the week ended Sept 22 and so awarded on Sept 23 which is today. All glory be to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for this honor really belongs to Him and Him alone.

When I was led to start this blog on August 30 with my first post, I really had no idea where it would lead me. All I wanted was to have a platform to continue the work that the Lord started me with, way back on July 03, 2001. I shared this in one of my weekly email messages six years ago and I guess many may not have heard it before or are very new and want to find out.

Way back in October 2000 in one of the caregroup meetings, a word of prophecy came through my then caregroup leader for me. The word was 'son of Barnabas' and when I heard that, my first thought was that the Lord wanted to encourage me in my bible study ministry in Deutsche Bank where I was working. I joined the Christian Fellowship of the bank in early 2000 and because of the wonderful messages of grace which I had heard through New Creation Church I wanted to share with the Fellowship. I started leading the bible study from June that year and then came the news that a number of the founding members of the Fellowship were leaving the bank and joining other organizations for better prospects and all of a sudden there was a vacuum in the leadership and I was asked to take a bigger role. And so when the prophecy came I took it to mean that the Lord wanted to strengthen my heart that He is behind me in the tasks ahead.

I was indeed encouraged. And then the same word of prophecy came to me AGAIN in February 2001 through the same caregroup leader and this time it suddenly dawned on me that maybe the Lord had something bigger in store for me. Indeed He had. You see, when I first started to lead the bible study I wanted to do it as a weekly session but because I was also beginning a new regional project in the bank which would require that I spent time away regularly overseas (and here I am talking about three weeks away every two months or so), I was seeking the Lord how I should continue and be effective about the bible study sessions. So that same word the second time around really set me thinking and I told the Lord, 'show me'.

Indeed, He showed me in no uncertain details. In March, during the one-week school holidays I went down to Perth in Australia for a class reunion dinner with my childhood friends who have now emigrated and settled in Australia and whom I had not met for more than 30 years. And my oh my, what a reunion we had. Although there were no tears during that meal, as I was enjoying the conversation, the Spirit in me pointed out that the majority of my friends have not received Christ into their lives. In fact one of them, a Chinese guy, even married a Malay lady also from Christmas Island and had converted to Islam. So throughout the dinner my spirit was unsettled and I began to ask Him what could be done. And, yes you guessed it, He showed me by landing a whole two pages of contact information which one of the organizers had laboriously compiled - 24 names, addresses, phone numbers and, bingo, email addresses!! yup, all twenty-four email addresses for 24 individuals and the Holy Spirit specifically drew my attention to these email accounts.

And so I had the confirmation there and then. When the prophecy came in February and on my business trip at the end of Feb/early march one evening after dinner, I felt the urge to switch on my office laptop and to attempt logging in to check my emails which is not usual since I would have already done so in the day when I am at the branch. But that evening it was different. As I was logging in, I felt the Spirit telling me, "Andrew, you have a desire to share the word and you have the tool right in front of you. Use what you have and I will give you the rest."

And so when the address list landed on my hands, I knew that this was the confirmation I was looking for. I have the tool - the laptop; I have the medium - the bank's secured email system; and now I have the addressees - the mailing list (plus a couple more people within Deutsche Bank). I toyed with the ideas but did not have the writer's urge. I thought I need a whole lesson on Literature and English Composition and so I waited and waited. Three months passed without my doing anything and I thought the idea was dead.

Never! The Holy Spirit was setting me up in those three months. In June 2001, Alice and I decided to have our house repainted (we moved into the house in August 1994) after almost seven years and I was on annual vacation so that I could keep an eye on the contractors. A fortnight of 'supervising' the painters and workers and just as I was feeling bored, the Holy Spirit gave me a gentle nudge, 'time to write'. So the ministry of encouragement (the Barnabas Mail Ministry, as I called it) was birthed. My first week message was sent to 47 email accounts and over the next 50 months the list grew to 163! Praise be to Jesus who blessed the work and gave the increase!

Am I a Hebrew language student?

I know some of my readers had been asking me whether I am a student of the Hebrew language and my honest answer would be, 'No'. What I do dabble with occasionally are some of the common phrases and what I had learnt from my own pastors especially my Senior Pastor Joseph Prince. Now he is truly a Hebrew language exponent.

So what do I mean when I use certain terms like when I greet you, "Shalom" or when I say, "Shalom Bokertov" or when I sign off as "Shalom, Shavrou-tov"?
"Shalom" - peace, wholeness, health, prosperity, completeness
"Shalom Bokertov" - peace in the morning or good morning
"Shalom Shavrou-tov" - peace for the week or have a blessed week

Of course some of the Hebrew words which I quoted in my earlier posts are from the on-line bibles and you can find pretty good help at "Bible-Corsswalk" (which I have included in my Favourite Links on the left column). Do your word search using the option "NAS with Strong's Number" and then you will see some of the words highlighted in blue and underlined. Click on these words and a separate page will come up with all the explanation of the Hebrew including the phonics.

So go ahead, enjoy your on-line search and be blessed...

What was the Ark really like?

Yesterday I posted pictures of the ark - two versions - and I know some of you must be wondering, which is the correct one? Personally, I believe that the first model is more plausible because the people of Noah's day had never seen a boat or ship before in their lives.

When God created the Earth, there was a firmament around the planet and thiis firmament was like a thick layer of moisture and ozone (the greenies would love this) and because of the moist atmosphere, there was no necessity to even rain as the place is perpetually damp and perfect for vegetation. So when Noah was constructing the Ark, the people around him were very curious and I am sure they would have laughed their heads off when they heard Noah saying that God will judge them with a flood from 40 days of continuous rainfall. "What is that?" I can almost hear them asking.

So if they had never seen a boat before, how would Noah know that the Ark needed a keel and ribs to support the outer structure? So I find it hard to imagine that Noah built the second version.

But why the first version is likely? For one the scriptures tell us that God told Noah to build the Ark and at the top to build windows that look out and there were no dimensions given for the total length of all the windows and so all the windows added up was as long as the Ark itself. Also the Ark was box-y in dimension because the tools that Noah had were probably makeshift ones - certainly he did not have those fanciful wood planes that modern day carpenters all pride themselves with.

So my pick is the first model.... agreement? or disagreement? leave your comments please!

The Ark - A Place of Rest

Recently over 2 Sundays, Pastor Prince preached on Rest and he chose Noah's Ark as his bible reference.
It is very interesting that the Hebrew word for 'vessel' (Tebah - pronounced as 'Tay-baw') and the Hebrew word for 'coffin' (Arown - pronounced as 'aw-rone') got translated into the English language as 'Ark' and that causes some confusion as we tend to think of them as synonymous but in reality, they are not.

And so Noah's Ark is actually Noah's vessel while the Ark of the Covenant should really be translated as the Coffin of the covenant. So with their proper translation, it does make a lot of sense why God told Moses to place the ten commandments into the Ark because He did not want His people to see the Law all the time.

With Noah's vessel, no wonder he had so much rest - his name itself meant 'Rest'. And if you look at the dimensions of the Ark, you will realize how formidable the vessel was and why even in the most violent lashing of the winds and waves, the vessel was able to hold out as it was at least 500 feet long and close to 80 feet wide. Hey, the Ark is equivalent to an aircraft carrier in length (though not in height) and wider than an average aircraft carrier. I think a carrier probably measures only 70 feet wide on the flight deck. So we are really looking at a huge vessel!

I was scouring the web to find picture or drawings of the ark and found this interesting picture of a model built by an American company and to get a feel of the size, they built it next to a house.

Another picture or drawing...

Impressed? Wait till you see this one! Someone else built another one...

Very ship-like..

The Sword of the Spirit

Paul described the armor of God in Ephesians 6:13-18 and in verse 17, he talked about the sword of the Spirit. Ever wondered what Paul meant by that? For a long time I had the impression that the sword is the scriptures since Paul also tells us in 2Tim 3:16 that the scriptures are inspired by God. So for many years I went around struggling to memorize bible verses so that when I am tempted I have a verse to counter the devil with.

Bible scholars have this principle called "the principle of first mention" and as we study the bible, we need to take the meaning of particular key words from the first time that word appears in the bible. For example in Genesis 2:2 the word 'rest' was mentioned for the first time and it was in the context of the seventh day and so bible scholars associate the number seven with rest.

Now the first time the word 'sword' appears is in Genesis 3:24 where it is mentioned that God drove Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden and He place cherubim at the east of the Garden and then a flaming sword which turned every way to 'guard' (or protect) the way to the tree of life. So the word 'sword' is to be taken to mean 'protection'.

So this afternoon as I was pondering over this word 'sword', the Holy Spirit brought my attention back to Eph 6:17 and in particular the sword that a believer is supposed to use as his defense against the devil. Do you notice that the sword is the only visible piece of armor that is offensive in nature? the rest are all passive pieces. So my initial thought of memorizing the scriptures immediately sprang to my attention. But the Spirit took me further - back to John 16:7-11. This is the first time Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit by name and the first time He appears in person in the New Testament.

In these 5 verses, Jesus gave us the job description of the Holy Spirit and we better pay close attention to what He is supposed to do for us. He has 3 job functions
1. convict the world of sin
2. convict us (believers) of our righteousness
3. convict (or remind) the devil that he is judged.

When I read that again, suddenly it all makes sense to me. You see, many Christians out there are still trying to declare war on the devil and they go around literally on a 'witch-hunt' looking for the devil and when they do find his disciples, they start to quote scriptures to the evil spirits. No wonder many of them do not see results. Do you know that the devil and his fallen angels also know the scriptures? better than you and I and they even twist and turn the scriptures to their advantage and turn the tide back against some Christians.

No, what the Spirit told me this afternoon was so powerful that I must share with all of you on this blog today itself and not even wait until the morning (it is now 11PM). As the sword is to represent protection and since this sword is the Spirit's, we are to be protected by the Spirit (go back to His job description). When the devil comes against us, we do not need to go 'ra, ra' but we just have to stand our ground and remind him with conviction that we, as children of the most High God, are the righteousness of God in Christ and that he (the devil) has been judged and he cannot touch us. When the devil realizes that you know your ground, he will have to back off and not trouble you again.

Wow, what a tremendous revelation the Father gave me today - this is my manna for today and I am so grateful to Him for this affirmation. Glory to our Lord Jesus for His Word in season, so fresh. Hallelujah!!

Almost Six Months Since Leaving Deutsche Bank

Come end of September I would have left Deutsche Bank for six months and still counting - that is amazing! how time passes so very quickly!

So how is the feeling? one may ask. I am still trusting our Lord to provide me that BREAK-THROUGH in my business. Yes, there had been a couple of small projects here and there but to quote Alice (my wife) I am still too free sitting at home waiting for things to happen.

Is that bad? I will testify that this waiting period is really a test on my faith. FAITH (Forgetting All I Trust Him) is basically having a good opinion of our Lord; so all of us do have an opinion of our Lord - good or bad. Good opinion of our Lord will lead to us trusting Him to be our PROVIDER as Abraham found out on Mount Moriah when he was asked to sacrifice his own son Isaac. Read what he said to his servants in Genesis 22:5, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then WE WILL COME BACK to you."

I used to think that Abraham took a long time at the altar struggling with the flint knife whether to plunge the sharp instument into his son's body or to walk away and disobey God. Now I know better that he had so much faith that the Holy Spirit said this about his faith in Hebrews 11:19, "Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death." Abraham had such a high opinion of our Lord that God called him THE FRIEND of God. What a title; what an honour.

So I have to ask myself everyday, "what is your opinion of our Lord?" I kept reminding myself that I have more going for me than Abraham - we have our Lord Jesus who had already died for our sins compared to Abraham who could only look forward to His death. So I really have no excuse for not having a good opinion of Him with all these blessings already laid out right in front of me. Which leaves me only to say, "which blessing will our Lord give me today?" and go out believing that I have already received it.

Now that is a very valuable lesson I have learnt over these last six months or so. My breakthrough will come and when it comes, it will be over-abundant, exceedingly above all that I can imagine and just have to receive my blessings and give thanks and worship my ALL-Sufficient God - El-Shaddai. Praise be to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. AMEN

The devil cannot touch a Christian who is at rest

Recent events can make a weak heart troubled and subsequently lead on to all kinds of diseases and sicknesses. The situation in the middle east, the recent earthquakes in Sumatra, the plane crash in Phuket yesterday, the financial upheaval in the loan mortgage arena, etc can be very discomforting and I know of a few people who had even lost sleep over these incidents.

Disease come from the word 'dis-ease' or lack of ease. And clearly these people are not at ease - worrying about what would happen to their investment portfolio or their businesses or even their jobs. And by worrying, will that add more into their lives? in fact I would say the worrying will take away some moments of their lives and aid the decaying process.

A few days ago I mentioned that the favourite catchphrases of Jesus are 'Don't worry', 'Let not your heart be troubled', 'Take no thought', 'Peace' and 'Do not be anxious'. Jesus told His disciples, 'Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid' (John 14:27) only after He spoke to them about His sending us His Holy Spirit (John 14:26) Who will teach us all things.

So what is the key here? The Holy Spirit will teach us ALL things. So what are these things? Notice in John 16:8 Jesus gave us the threefold work of the Holy Spirit
1. He will convict the world of sin
2. He will convict believers of their righteousness
3. He will judge the devil because he stands condemned

Know for a certainty that we, children of our Lord Jesus Christ, have the righteousness of God in Christ. In John 15:5, Jesus tells us that He is the vine and we are the branches and when we abide in Him, we will bear much fruit. The branch gets its nourishment from the vine and without the vine, the branch is dead. Since we are the branches, we cannot help but receive His righteousness and knowing that will make us at rest.

When we are at rest, nothing will be able to ruffle our feathers. The devil cannot touch us when we know where we stand in the Lord. He can only do so when we are not at peace with yourselves: dis-ease sets in only when we start to worry and that is why Jesus kept reminding us not to worry but be at rest. Hey, He created us; He is the true Manufacturer and He knows His products well.

Watch the Middle-East - something is cooking again

Some time last week, the Israel Air Force (IAF) flew a few sorties over Syria and made an attack on a convoy of trucks that were delivering suspected nuclear related equipment from Iran. The source of the equipment is suspected to be North Korea and they went to Iran who in turn shipped them to Syria. The final target for all these nuclear stuff was Israel of course who is the sworn enemy of Iran and the Hizbollah whose headquarters is in Syria.

Next I am also reading from Israel Today newspaper that Hamas is now gathering a force together to launch more attacks on Israel. The combined nuclear and suicide (or even frontal attack) bombings will be a real challenge for Israel and weighing the outcomes, IAF decided to move and launch a counterstrike and bring down a whole shipment in Syrian soil.

And what was the reaction of the Syrians? So far...nothing yet but we cannot preclude a strong retaliation from them directly into Israeli soil. In fact Israeli military intelligence is now saying that there are preparations by the Syria Armed Forces in the Golan Heights area, an area that Syria lost out to Israel after the Yom Kippo War and which is fueled with immense tension and which Syria had 'sworn' that they will take it back.

What A Way To End The Week

There were a total of four earthquakes in Bengkulu area of Sumatra on Wednesday evening Sep 12 and Thursday Sep 13 and all measured more than 8 on the Richter scale. And of course there were more than 25 aftershocks ranging in magnitudes from 5 to 7.

And now US geologists are predicting that there will be a big earthquake in excess of 9 on the scale within the next 30 years although they feel that this may come sooner. So how to be prepared when it comes? Know that it will come and be prepared for it so that when it does come, we are not caught off-guard. And of course have a strong heart.

And then this afternoon as i was driving home from Orchard Road and as I was travelling along the PIE just after Bedok in the direction of Changi Airport, the downpour was so heavy that some parts of the highway were flooded with at least 10cm of rainwater. And my friend who was riding as front-passenger commented of the lousy weather conditions - earthquakes followed by heavy storms.

So what are we to make out of all these? That it is all part of global warming? as our greeny friends would have us know? No, I say it is all bible prophecies coming to past and soon the End will be here. Are you ready for the Lord when He comes back? what will He say to you when you meet Him? Will you be filled with expectant joy or will you be breathing a heave of regret that you had wasted all those opportunities to have enjoy His blessings for you while you still have time here and now to enjoy and be thankful for? It is entirely up to you...

Boy, is the devil angry or what?

I hate to say this but the devil is angry.
1. First he wanted to remind everyone that he is still a contender for attention when he released that Sept 11 video in America.
2. Next the earthquakes in Sumatra and the violent after-shocks last night and again this morning. Anything above 5.5 on the Richter scale is considered major and above 7.0 can be damaging. Last night's tremor was 8.4 and then this morning (I was checking the US Geological Survey website) there were a number of after-shocks of magnitude 7.5 and above.

Why is this so? The only reason I can point you to is from scriptures itself. In Matthew 24 Jesus prophesied of the end times and when you look at the events over the past, these are definitely some of the things mentioned in His prophecy. Also we read in Romans 8:22 - "For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now." You may ask, "when will this stop?" it won't on its own. In fact it will get worse and then the end will come.

Just as in labour pains, the end of the sufferings will only give birth to a new life and so this pressure cooked Earth will deteriorate further and come to a complete halt upon the Return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

So what am I saying here? Time is running out for the devil and he knows that Jesus' return is very imminent; it can happen any time now. Interestingly enough, yesterday at 6PM Jerusalem time was the start of the Jewish New Year and they celebrated Rosh Hashannah or the Festival of Trumpets and Jewish tradition tells us that Adam was created on Rosh Hashannah (that was why they believed that God told them to start counting their calendar) and some historians also believed that Jesus was actually born in Bethlehem also on Rosh Hashannah. No wonder the devil gets agitated every year at the Jewish 7th month (used to be their first month until the Law was given at Mount Sinai) of Tishni.

So are we to be concerned about all these events as a Believer? My friend, know for a fact that these incidents will happen but also know in your hearts and in your spirits that you have the Holy Spirit in you and He that is in you is greater than the one outside. So believe in your heart that you are a child of the Living Lord and that "a thousand may fall on your side, ten thousand at your right hand but it will not come near you." Psalm 91:7.

How beautifully the Lord puts it - but it will not come near you! the scriptures did not say it will not happen; it simply says it WILL NOT COME NEAR YOU! It is like you witnessing all these things but they have no impact on you. What an awesome promise from the Lord Himself. You have it and believe in it. Jesus Himself constantly reminded His disciples (and also us when we read His words) "do not worry", "take no thought", "let not your heart be troubled"... in fact 365 times in the gospel - one for each day of the year. He already knows you need to hear and keep hearing it.

2 Earthquakes Hit Southwestern Sumatra

At 07:15 PM this evening, two earthquakes hit the south-western area of Sumatra in the Bengkulu area - 7.9 and 8.4 on the Richter scale. Each earthquakes is quite powerful on its own and when both hit almost within a 5-minute gap, that really raises a number of alarm bells.

Buildings in the CBD area were swaying and tenants who were still working at the time were instructed to evacuate the buildings. Is that the correct advice to give to people during an earthquake? I wonder because the very act of evacuating the building and assembling downstairs could instead pose more problems than good. What is the fear during a tremor? Isn't it that the building may collapse as a result of the loosening of the building foundations? And yet there are some (I would think majority) building management still ignorant of this and just as in a fire evacuation, instruct all tenants to leave by the staircase.

I should think everyone should learn from nations that are faced with very frequent earthquakes to find out how they prepare and educate their people. I recall I was on the 33rd floor of Arkmori Tower in Tokyo back in 1985 when a major earthquake (I think it was a 6.9 magnitude) hit Tokyo at around 3:30PM. I was conducting a workshop at that time and thinking that I was tired from jetlag and ignorant of earthquakes, I grabbed hold of the edge of the instructor's head-table and innocently asked my Japanese students what was happening.

All of them were busy looking out of the meeting room windows at the neighboring buildings swaying and they were applauding as they watched. So, ignorant as i was, I started to panic and asked them what I should be doing. They pointed me to the bottom of the table to locate the hard-hat, the torchlight and the bottle of mineral water and that I should duck for cover under the table if I don't feel comfortable. Well, seeing them having so much fun watching the buildings I soon decided to drop my fears and join them admiring the swaying movements.

Now that was a 6.9 and it was in 1985. Office tables in those days were still made of solid wood and they had proper legs and set of drawers and there is a space in between the legs where one can easily scurry into and take cover and with solid table legs, that can provide an airwell even if the buildings were to collapse and the structures were to come crashing down. To quote them, it is safer to stay under the table than to evacuate and get knocked down by debris.

So important lesson I learnt then and still stuck in my head - never panic in an earthquake and to look for a good strong corner to take cover - under solid tables or under the door frames would be helpful. I still cannot fathom the instructions given by anxious building security personnel to evacuate and then leave the tenants to get hit on the head by falling masonry. I guess they are not to be blamed as that is probably the only set of instructions they had been given. So by instinct, they will tell you to 'evacuate the building'.

It is time the SCDF comes forward and give proper training to the general public on what to do if they felt tremors during an earthquake, albeit far away in Java or Sumatra.

September 11 - 6th Anniversary of tragedy

It was interesting that Osama bin Ladin was reminding the American people that he is still very much at large and still wants to take another potshot at the USA. Interesting that he should choose to do this on the 6th anniversary. Why did he not do it earlier like the 5th (2006) or the 4th (2005)?

As I was pondering over this question just now, the Lord reminded me of the tactics used by the devil. The devil basically has no grip on each of us children of the Lord Jesus Christ. The only way he can have influence over any one of us is via the backdoor of fear and worry. The devil complained to the Lord that He set a hedge of protection around Job and hence he could not touch Job. But then Job opened the door when he entertained fear in his heart (Job 1:5) and said something which he should not have done so.

It is one thing to have fearful thoughts and another to actually blurt it out as confirmation of the fear in the heart. Jesus Himself said to His disciples (Matthew 6:31), "Therefore take no thought, saying...(KJV)" So when Job did that and he tried to appease God with his burnt sacrifices, the Lord knew that He could not protect him any more and hence allowed the devil to inflict harm on Job but he was not allowed to take Job's life as that still belonged to God. It was only later in Job 42:1-6 when he realized what he had done and he repented that the Lord stepped in and reinstated the hedge of protection on him resulting in the overflowing of a double portion of God's blessings on his life.

So today the devil is still using the same tactics on Christians. He cannot operate when he does not know where you stand as he is not so smart compared with our Lord Jesus. The devil does not read your thoughts! Oh, please do not give him more credit than he is supposed to have. The devil is not omniscient (all-knowing) and so if we do not open our mouth and speak our minds (thoughts) he is still in the dark about what we are thinking.

So my friends, next time even when you may be having doubts shooting across your minds, please do not speak it out for there is power in your tongue. Better still, reject those negative thoughts and believe the Lord that He is with you and will deliver you from whatever situation you may find yourselves in.

New Creation Church building in the limelight

Well, after Pastor Prince made the announcement on Sunday and timed such that Capitaland's shares cannot be manipulated when markets are closed, it only leaves the official story to be released in yesterday's copy of The Straits Times (September 10, 2007).

Impressive, isn't it? and from the artist's impression, you can see the East-West MRT line to the right of the building in the picture. By the way, there will be another MRT Station next to the new church building and this station will be part of the Circle line. So going to church by MRT will be very convenient and also this place has been touted as the new 'happening' place of the future. The government wants to make One North (that is the name of the whole area) as the Silicon Valley of Singapore with Fusionpolis etc nearby.

New Creation Church is building its own Civic Centre

Yes, it is now official! Pastor Joseph Prince, Senior Pastor of New Creation Church made the announcement today at all four services that New Creation Church, through Rock Production, had decided to build its own 10-storey civic centre at One North in Bouna Vista area right next to the Bouna Vista MRT Station.

The construction and outfitting phases will take a total of four years or so to complete and the church is scheduled to start its services there in 2012. There will be a 5,200-seater performance auditorium with its own orchestra pit and many food and retail outlets will make its appearance there. Also there will be a couple of outdoor performance areas that can sit up to 600 paxs.

Right on the top floor will be a large function/ballroom that has a 400 seating capacity and, get this, you can hold your wedding ceremony or your anniversary service there. Is it not exciting?

Why does New Creation Church need such a monster building? Isn't the Rock Auditorium in Suntec Tower 4 good enough? No, to tell you the truth, three Sundays ago on August 19, 2007, a total of 16,000 people attended the church services - 4 English services, one Mandarin and one Hokkien service and at the rate the Lord is blessing us, we will soon outgrow the facilities - the Rock Auditorium seats 1,400 plus the various overflow rooms to give a total seating of only 4,000 per English service.

So I am excited with the new building - more space, our own building, convenience in transportation (next to Bouna Vista MRT Station) and the more important part - no more Suntec City. Lately the traffic situation there is unbelievably bad not counting all those road closures, etc.

SPAM Mails

It has happened again!

I forwarded the post from yesterday to a friend to explain about this site and the firewall in her company's email system picked up my mail and gave her an alert saying that my mail was a SPAM mail and that it would be sent to her company's head office for further investigation should she insist on opening my mail. Wow, what a whole load of policing going on!

Me? IT illiterate me? A SPAM-ER? Unbelievable isn't it? Well, it is the way the system is set up and I guess that company wants to be extremely stringent with its firewall settings. But it is another instance of better be firm than to be sorry later when the system crashes.

Talking of which I am still getting junk mails on my home email system and to think that I need help with my sex life?? oh, please!! And I also get all kinds of nuisance mails trying to solicit sales on pharmaceuticals and now IT softwares - the latest. So I recommend that you check your email firewalls and set stringent parameters and turn on your virus scan and if you do not have anti-virus software on your PC or notebook, may I suggest you get one immediately and instal on your IT equipment before it is too late. You know you can be prosecuted for abetting a virus propagation?

Frequency of postings

I met up with a friend during lunch today and found out that there are some of you out there who have the impression that I will be sending you the postings as before on a weekly basis and that is why you have not visited this site as frequently as I would like you to.

Well, first things first - I will not be sending you the postings as emails since many of you are using office email systems and these have SPAM mail detection and therefore my mails would have been blocked even though I am NOT a SPAMMER.

Next, as you can see, I am publishing my posts on a more frequent basis than before simply because I want to be as current as I can and not wait for one whole week. Besides, I think you would prefer shortly postings anyway.

So what I would like you to do now is to give me your comments on this posting.

Heard Of This?

Ever heard of the saying, "When the going gets tough, the tough gets going"? Lately some things in my life seem to be getting tough for me and I do not know why but only that I am going to believe that the final outcome is going to be sweet and great by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The tiles in my house driveway started to pop up and cracked when the car went over them and I will have to get a contractor to renovate the driveway. Also my car had an unexplained stalling yesterday morning on the road and I had to pull to the side and restart the engine. Why did these happened? I don't know but I do believe that the devil is trying to distract me somehow away from my priorities knowing that something great is cooking for our family. What exactly it is, i will give you the scoop when it happens!

Now all I am going to do is to keep believing that our Lord Jesus has the last say and it is always GOOD! hallelujah, praise His name.

The Father Loves Us To Be Specific In Our Asking

Recently I have been reading the Book of Judges as part of my daily devotion and I cannot help but noticed that the children of Israel did not completely carried out what Moses and later Joshua had instructed them to do when they inhabited the Promised Land. Moses commanded them to completely drive out all the inhabitants in the land and to occupy them for the land was promised to Abraham their forefather and they were the executors of the inheritance (Deuteronomy 31: 1-6).

In fact the land was described as "a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant" (Joshua 24:13) and all those land were already promised and given to them to enjoy. However, after the death of Joshua and in the time of the judges (leaders/deliverers), we read that the children of Israel did not completely conquer all the lands but left pockets of the original inhabitants intact. And looking back at history, we now see the current Middle-East problems.

What went wrong? Was God to blame for them not driving out the local inhabitants? Certainly the Lord had already declared that He had given them the land but they were reluctant to take full ownership of what God had already given. You see, when the Lord said it is given, it is already given - His words are as good as done. Remember, at the Creation, God spoke and it was so. Here it is recorded that God spoke and so as far as He is concerned, it is already as good as belonging to them. The problem lied in their NOT appropriating for themselves what the Father had given. All the children of Israel had to do was to go and take the land for themselves and the amazing part is that the Lord Himself will go before them and even wins the battles for them. Ans then, this is amazing, He ascribes the victory to them when in reality He fought and overcame the enemies; they just had to obey.

So what am I alluding to? All the blessings of God had already been won for us on the Cross when Jesus our Lord died and now all that is left to be done is to just ask Him for the blessings. But then, you will say, 'since all the blessings are already mine, then should I not automatically get them even without me opening my mouth and asking?'

Indeed, everything had already been given but we still need to ask and claim them for ourselves. Certainly the Israelites had been given the land but they still had to walk in and take it for themselves. The scriptures tell us that they took th eeasy way out - they lived alongside the local inhabitants. I am sure you do not want to wind up in Heaven and the Lord opens a huge door leading to your treasure house and you discover many large items gift-wrapped lining on the floor and reaching to the ceiling and each item has a name-tag with your name embosses in gold. These are blessings the Lord has for you but because you did not ask for them, you did not claim them.

Do I really have to be specific in my asking? Can I not ask and thank him in general and then receive my blessings? Lets look at Matthew 14:22-32 at the account of Jesus walking on water to the disciples. In verse 27 we read that the Lord Himself comforted them and told the disciples that it was He Who was walking on the water towards them. So all 12 disciples heard the assuring words but only Peter opened his mouth and asked Him whether he could walk to Him. And since he asked, obviously we now have the account of Peter walking on water! why no account of Thomas or Matthew or Judas or Thaddeus or John or James or Simon or Andrew or any other disciple walking on water?

There are no more accounts other than that of Peter of anyone walking on water. Peter asked and he received the experience; the others heard the reassurance but they did nothing further and they ended up seeing Peter walk. Many of us may be watching others receive their blessings from the Lord and silently kicking ourselves for not being forthright in asking for our own blessings.

As a parent, I can share with you how I see the Father's hand being extended towards us lovingly and waiting for us to tell Him specifically what we want from Him. Don't get me wrong here. Our Father is ever so generous to extravagantly bless us and He is waiting for us to just tell Him our heart's desire. Recently I had the pleasure of blessing my son with a suitcase he needed for his overseas business trips. He had been 'researching' for a while on what he wanted exactly but it was there in the department store that he finally settled on his choice and we decided to pick up his choice and made the payment. Now I could have gone out there and bought him a suitcase but that might not suit his taste. Now he is thoroughly satisfied with his choice and i know he will use and enjoy the blessing.

That is the same with our Heavenly Father. He loves us to be specific in our asking and we need to be proactive to ask. Don't just sit there expecting to receive without asking - go on and ask Him expectantly and thank Him and when you receive your blessing, show your appreciation and thank Him. And when you do that, you are worshipping Him and He is pleased with your worship.

Our Father Knows Best

I sent out a note to many of my friends at the end of March 2007 informing them that I would be leaving Deutsche Bank after almost 8-1/2 years and would be setting up shop to provide training and consultancy services.

Well, most of the setups have been completed and the company website is also up and running (http://drbcm-associates.com). I have provided a short write-up about the philosophy of the company, the type of services provided and one page with a brief description of who I am and what my experiences were. I also have a page in there with links to the what is being offered at any given point in time and some references on what had taken place and the feedback received from previous participants. And there is also a page there called 'Contact' with my photo in there and if you were to click on the photograph, it will generate a new email to me and you can send me your questions, feedback, requests, etc and I will respond according.

Isn't that cool? By God's grace, the ideas came to me one day as I was looking for some 'original' ideas and the Lord gave me a thought that it is always nicer to be able to see a face when you communicate. My photograph is the next best thing - being there in front of you would be the ideal but then again, I am not Jesus or the Holy Spirit Who can be anywhere at anytime. I am human and I need to recognize that.

So, how has the experience been for the past five months? I must say it is certainly something not for the faint hearted. On my own strength, I would have said to myself, "Andrew, don't kid yourself and go join another bank and start all over again; it is a mistake! You are running out of time!"

Praise Jesus for His grace and mercy! Assignments have been trickling in and I am believing the Lord that the floodgates will be opened soon and I will be so blessed with so many projects that I will not have time to complain and complain. I want to sing like the Psalmist in Psalm 107:1-3
v1 "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever.
v2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say this - those He redeemed from the hand of the foe,
v3 those He gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south."

I have been constantly reminded by the Lord that He is always with me even though I do not see any outward manifestation. To some extent, I must admit that I felt like Abraham who had no children and yet the Lord changed his name from Abram (father of altitude) to Abraham (father of multitude). Imagine his wife Sarah kept calling him Abraham and I am sure his neighbors must have chuckled at the old couple - 'gone nuts' - 'where are your children, Abraham?'

So now when freinds ask me how is business, I want to and will say that I am blessed and busy. Faith comes first in the spiritual realm and later this will translate into the physical. So I am really trusting our Lord Jesus to bless me to overflowing. That is His style. Remember the miracle of the transformation of water into intoxicating wine at the wedding in Cana (John chapter2)? His mother told the servants to do whatever Jesus were to instruct them and He turned six large barrels of water into the best wine and the wedding couple was so blessed that I am very sure they had provisions for the married life for many years after that.

Another account is the incident of His feeding of the 5000 men with five loaves and two fish and there were 12 baskets left over. No, there was no trick here. The scriptures tell us that everyone had their fill and the leftovers were really leftovers. were there more leftovers? I am sure there would be if there had been more disciples. You see, the surplus was limited by human means and never by divine lack. To the Creator Father, this is nothing. If He can create the whole universe and everything therein, what is the 12 baskets and the 5000 men plus their wives and children (maybe 20,000 in total)?

So I will say this of the father - "I will lift up my eyes to the hills - where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth." (Psalm 121: 1-2)