A Year Full Of The Unmerited Favors Of Abba God - 2009

To some the year 2009 is one they would very quickly prefer to get away from because of the troubles they had encountered - the credit crisis at the end of last year and first half of this year, the H1N1 scare, the natural disasters and now the cold winter in North America and Europe and north Asia. Given a choice, some would rather that they had completely missed out on those events and chugged along.

But life is simply not like that. In fact everyone of us face the same challenges but how one handles it makes the difference and I prefer to lean hard on my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for my blessings in the midst of the storm. Yes, 2009 has been an exciting year for my family and I. We started the year with a word from the Lord through our Senior Pastor Joseph Prince on the last Sunday of 2008. The Lord promised that 2009 would be "a year where the unmerited favors of our Lord would flow bounteously" and it is for whosoever would believe and seize on it.

So my family and I took that word from the Lord and we ran with it the entire year believing the Lord will indeed fulfill His promises. And indeed He has (still doing now as I write and hence the present tense)!  The year started quietly in January but began to gather momentum as the months set in and where others in my industry experienced difficulties in clinching deals, deals were hunting me down. I had requests for meetings from quarters that I have never met before and by the grace of the Lord, He gave me wisdom to handle these requests and going into 2010, would sprout into new businesses.

On the family front, my children are experiencing new opportunities in their individual lives. My wife is getting amazing results in her part-time undergraduate studies and we are all growing stronger in our faith in the Lord.

And all these happened to us not with our own efforts but truly by the grace of Abba God. If He did not spare His most precious Son and gave Him up for us on the cross, how will He not grant us all the desires of our hearts. I am so blessed.

Handling Arguments

In the wisdom reading of today, Proverbs 25:8-10 stands out
    v8   - do not bring hastily to court, for what will you do in the end if your neighbor puts you to shame?
    v9   - If you argue your case with a neighbor, do not betray another man's confidence,
    v10 - or he who hears it may shame you and you will never lose your bad reputation.

I am being reminded of what a very close friend of mine said when I was growing up - 
   "never engage in an argument, because..."
  - when you lose an argument, you have just lost face but 
  - when you win an argument, you have just lost a friend. 

How true! Over the years I have endeavored to avoid entering into arguments and whenever I do get into some serious discussions and circumstances point me to a potential argument brewing, I have learnt quickly to back off and walk away.

It is always better to walk away and hence never get into the argumentative mood than to regret later for staying too long. Trust me, I had been there before - multiple occasions and have saved both my reputation and my friends.

Relationships in Marriage

When a person believes in Jesus as his Lord and Savior and receives Him into his heart, the Holy Spirit comes and indwells him and with the Lord's presence, he becomes a blessings magnet. Now, imagine what it is like when two believers come together in a marriage and form a family unit - that relationship is doubly blessed since Christ is now not only present in each believer's life but, being united, He become the third cord in that family unit and soon that relationship will begin to flourish.
Ecclesiastes 4:12 tells us, "Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken".
So a marriage that is centered around Christ (the third person in the marriage) will be strong (see picture - Three-strand Cord) as each strand twines around the other two and hence strengthens each other. However, looking at the picture on the right (Four-strand Cord), one can easily observe that alternate strands will not touch each other (the two black strands do not touch each other; similarly, the two brown strands never get to meet each other).

   

When a party outside of the marriage relationship enters into the fray, one of the two will become intertwined and 'break away' from the family unit and soon the entire marriage will be weakened.

The same can be shown in the second set of pictures - the picture on the left shows a three-strand cord and because of the way it is being pleated together, it is the strongest rope available. However, when we add the fourth strand into the rope, unless one is very careful in pleating, the cord do become weakened whenever a cross-over is missed.

   

                            
When a new person is added into the family nucleus, the marriage relationship has to be worked on with double vigor else the distraction will impact the tenacity of the marriage. More strands do not automatically mean a stronger cord; unless conscious effort is put in to avoid crowding, the entire rope will be weakened and the cord will have to be discarded or rewoven. This conscious relationship building applies also to members of the family - children can occupy the place once held so lovingly by the spouse and if nothing is done to correct this, precious marriages can start to crumble and disintegrate.

Are We Using Wealth Or Are We Being Used By Wealth?

Very interesting that the wisdom verses for me today talks about our attitude for wealth. Are we using wealth or are we being used by wealth?

Proverbs 23:4-5

v4 Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint.

v5 Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.

And my daily devotion (Ecclesiastes 2 & 3) talks about the futility of our daily struggles to amass wealth and fame with our own strengths. King Solomon (who wrote Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs and a couple of psalms) found in the later part of his life that whatever he had achieved will no longer remain his after his demise, nor will they belong to his children or grandchildren if they do not obey the Lord.

So often people of the world struggle to build their fortunes and acquire fame but they fail to realize that what they did achieve will in the end be lost when the Lord is absent in their lives. We need to realize that the most important component of our life is to be at peace in the Lord. When we are completely at peace with our Lord Jesus, health and wealth will hunt us down - the Righteousness of Christ will envelope us and attract the blessings of God into our lives.

Jesus himself taught His disciples that they (and we are also included as His audience) "cannot serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money" (Matthew 6:24). When man serve Money (or wealth) he will be so consumed with that passion that he will forgo all else in order to get what he set out to receive even to the extent of his physical well-being. How sad to find people who spend the first forty years of their lives to get wealth but had to give back this wealth later to retrieve their health in the second half of their lives.

So which category would you rather be in? Love the Lord or to serve Money? As for me and my house, we would rather love and serve the Lord.

The Devil Will Have To Restore What He Tried To Steal From My Family

Two things happened to my family and I today and my wife and I had declared to the Lord that the devil tried to steal from us and now he has to restore and do that BIG time.

Incident #1

This morning when we woke up, my son discovered that our kitchen was flooded with almost 0.5 cm of water and that the water continued to flow unceasingly. Of course, that woke the entire family up and after we had washed up, I had to shut the main tap off to prevent more wastage.

Tried to call the contractor who renovated our home at around 07:30 AM but he was not answering his call and so after sending him an urgent text message to his mobile phone, I called him again and managed to talk with him at around 08:30.

He came to look at the kitchen and tried to diagnose the problem and after about 30 minutes he discovered where the fault area was. What baffled him was that the pipe that was supposed to have burst led to nowhere and also there were no welding or any form of stopper in the first instance and how after all these years (15 years to be precise) the problem surfaced surprised him as well. Finally he brought in his welding tank and after 30 minutes, managed to seal the leakage area.

Incident #2

This evening as I was about to enter the Pan Island Expressway (PIE) through a slip road near my home, a long string of cars stopped to allow some pedestrians to cross the road at the zebra crossing. Of course I also stopped and waited. Just as my car came to a complete halt, a brand new Merc came from behind and, not paying attention to t he long line of cars, collided into the back of my Honda Jazz and damaged my rear door (hatchback) as well as the rear bumper. Now my car moves with a loud rattle as the loose bumper vibrates with the engine and I have to send the car in for replacement of parts which may take up to one week.

So, am I annoyed? you bet I am and I also know who the real culprit is - the one who came to steal, kill and destroy - but he will never be able to get away because my Daddy God will deal with him and make sure he restores to us, not one for one but a hundred-fold.

The Devil Knows His Time Is Running Short

Two days ago, Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) was celebrated in Israel and around the world among the Jews and in 2 days the Feast of Tabernacles will be celebrated. Usually around this time of the Hebrew calendar, interesting things do take place.

The WTC twin-tower attack on September 11, 2001 also took place around this time based on the Hebrew calendar and to have two big earthquakes and one monster typhoon all happening within one week is just uncanny. Typhoon Ketsana left a trail of devastation in Manila and now Vietnam and even Cambodia were lashed by this same monster. Imagine one month's equivalent of rain fell on Manila in just under 20 hours and caused floods affecting more than 2 million people.

Next came the 8.0 magnitude earthquake around Samoa this morning and because the epicentre was not that deep, a tsunami with waves of around 5 metres swept over the islands in the region. And just three hours ago a 7.6 magnitude earthquake shook Padang in Sumatra island and we could feel the tremor here in Singapore.

So what conclusions can we draw from these incidents? that the devil is angry because his time is really running out literally as the Lord Jesus Christ will come back very shortly for His Bride the Church.

Hebrews 12:26-29 states -

v26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, "Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens."
v27 The words "once more" indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.
v28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe,
v29 for our "God is a consuming fire."

Was God responsible for these incidents? Definitely not for it is very clear that the devil is responsible. Is God doing anything to prevent or stop these? I do believe that God is in control and He will definitely not allow His children to be touched by the devil. But a friendly word for those who have yet to put their faith in Jesus - even the devil knows when his end is coming so how about you?

When the Lord Jesus Christ returns, there will be a reckoning for eternity - those who have place their faith in Christ will be taken up to spend eternity with the Father while those who do not believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior will be eternally separated from the Source of Life. So what would you choose?

Speaking Words Of Wisdom

Recently there was a revival of the songs written and sung by the Beattles and I was constantly bombarded by this particular song, "Let It Be" with the word 'speaking words of wisdom', over the Singapore radio channels in the morning, afternoon and evening over my car radio.

And as I listened to the words of the song, I am again reminded of the words of Wisdom that are found in the Bible. 1 Corinthians 1:24 states, "but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." You see, many of us so often forget (and therefore need reminders) that Jesus Himself is the Wisdom of God personified and the entire Bible was written by and for Him and so when we read His Word, we are actually reading and hearing from Wisdom Himself.

And so, with the timely reminder in the sermon last Sunday, I want to be guided each day by none other than the Word Himself and know what actions I should be adopting as I face the daily challenges of life.

The Doctors DO NOT Have The Last Word BUT JESUS DOES!!

On Monday August 24, 2009 a good friend of mine collapse at home due to the bursting of a major artery in his brain and this happened in the very early hours of the morning. Unfortunately his wife was in Kuala Lumpur and only his 19 year-old daughter was at home.

He was immediately warded in the Medical Intensive Care Unit at Changi General Hospital and put on life-support. As the doctors there presumed he was by then brain-dead, they wanted to harvest all his organs to save other lives. This has now been enacted by the HOTA (Human Organ Transplant Act) passed in the Singapore Parliament and unless one opts out of this, his/her organs are now eligible to be transplanted out of his/her body without the need for consent.

Of course his wife and family members were completely taken aback and protested that he is still alive and so two specialist surgeons were assigned to conduct a series of six tests on his body. Four tests return positive results of no brain activities but two turned out negative results. By the grace of God, in one of the tests, his fingers started to twitched and that put a temporary halt to the doctors' ambitions. However, they still maintained that twitching of fingers are non conclusive of brain activity and that they are still sticking to the theory that his organs can and will be harvested - it is just a matter of time.

Having witnessed the ridiculous nature of the behavior from the doctors (their eagerness to enforce HOTA on my poor friend's body), my family has now decided to opt out of the HOTA Scheme as we believe that the doctors do not hold the last word on our lives. The question of brain-death is not even a viable consideration as far as we are concerned. Have they not heard of cases where a patient, after an extended period of comatose, wakes up and start functioning normal lives? I do not wish to have the doctors playing 'god' over my life. Only Jesus has the final say over how and when my life should end - be it physical death (or sleeping as described in the bible) when Jesus tarries or physical rapture when Jesus comes back. Immediately I will have a brand new body that will last me for eternity; one where there will be no trace of any disease or sickness but perfection.

The Mystery Of The Long Silence

In case you are wondering what happened and the long period of silence on my end for the past two months, I have been so richly blessed that I feel I must share here. You see, after I came back from my holidays in June, I had been tied up trying to complete one of my ongoing projects and get ready for three more that are expected to have started end July but due to last minute changes will only start week after next.

Meanwhile, the Lord's blessings are so tremendous; two of my certification classes achieved perfect scores with a third scoring more than 86 percent (six candidates out of seven passed the certification examinations) and I know that the Lord was using those results to encourage me that more great things will be coming across my path. Also I went to see two clients and both indicated keen interest in pursuing client relationships with my company and one even went to the extent of giving me assurances that my package will be shortlisted immediately and viewed very closely and favorably.

Also the Lord caused certain rather influential people to come across my path and they have indicated keen interest in exploring business transactions. So now you know! What else can I say - when the Lord blesses, He does not understand how to stop. He will only stop when we mortals limit Him and take so little. In fact the Lord, during the feeding of the five thousand men, gave the crowd so much to eat that there were leftovers and I know that there were only twelve empty baskets available for the leftovers; had there been more baskets, I am convinced that He will fill them all too.

In Luke 24:13-27, Jesus chided His two disciples for being foolish and slow of understanding - how many times the Lord have reminded me of His goodness in my life!

And so now I have decided to be a glutton for the Lord's blessings on my life and if He is blessing you and you feel you don't need them, please remember to send them my way and thanks for the thought.

Abba Father Prospers Even Our Mistakes!

My wife and I have just returned from a wonderful eight restful days at the Hakone area in Japan. From here, we can visit Mt Fuji (the highest mountain in Japan) and explore the lakes around the mountain ranges. Throughout our stay we had nice cool (and at times cold - yes, in the midst of summer) weather and a couple of days of showers and these were very welcome for us coming from a dry and hot Singapore and for me it was even more dramatic as I had just returned a few days prior to our departure to Japan from hot Muscat in Oman where daytime temperatures actually hit a high of 54 Celsius and night temperatures drop to only 35 Celsius.

So we were thoroughly thrilled when the thermometer readings dropped to 15 Celsius in the day and nights of 10 Celsius. And we decided to venture a trip from where we were staying (at Nakagora town) to Stage Five on Mt Fuji on Thursday June 11, 2009. The morning started with rains and we decided to stick to our plan and venture forth armed with transparent brollies (umbrellas) at 8:30 AM. Twenty minutes later we were at the bus-stop where we were to make our next connection and so we stood there in the light drizzle with our brollies and waited and waited not understanding that there would not be any buses for the next 90 minutes or more as the timetables posted on the pole at the bus-stop were all in Japanese and we could not understand the language.

Well, having stood there for almost forty minutes we finally realized that we could be standing there in vain and so we decided to flag a taxi to bring us to the next train station/ bus terminal to connect to Kawaguchiko town and from there to catch the 'mountain-climbing' bus to Stage Five of Mt Fuji.
Mistake #1 came when the taxi-driver took us on a slightly longer route to the station and the fare came up to 4,650 yen or close to US$50 (about S$70).
Mistake #2 was when we bought the ticket to the wrong station (two major stops too early)
Mistake #3 was when we decided to alight along the way way ahead of the 'wrong' station and we ended up back-tracking and trying to seek directions in English in a mainly Japanese speaking area.

But that was probably where the misery ended and our blessings started.
1. Where we ended up to ask for directions was also one of the most friendly places - the Japanese lady was so sweet; she went out of her way to connect us to the nearest tourist information desk at the station where we were supposed to have stopped to make our transfer.
2. This lady not only gave us instructions in English but also worked out for us the various steps we had to take to end up to where she was and she actually came out of her office at the station to meet us and hurry us on to our next destination.
3. When we arrived at Kawaguchiko to catch our bus to go up to Mt Fuji, not only had the rain stopped but the sky was so clear that we could actually see the mountain from the train station.
4. The weather continued to hold for us and we were pleasantly greeted at Stage Five with one of the clearest days for visitors. It had been observed that one can only see Mt Fuji in all its splendour on thirty days in the entire year and we were so blessed to be given that opportunity to view His majestic splendour. Thank you Jesus for Your blessings.

Well, the blessings did not end there. We continued to be able to see Mt Fuji again the next day as we decided to take the ropeway to the top of another mountain to visit Lake Ashi. In fact we saw Mt Fuji from various spots that second day - every time the bus turned round a corner and where the vegetation permitted, there was Mt Fuji. - we were simply awed by the Father's blessings.

Indeed He had turned our mistakes into His blessings and we were able to not just have our rest but enjoyed the splendour of His creation. Praise Jesus!

The Heavens Declare His Glory

The apostle Paul, in Romans Chapter 1 spoke of how the preaching of the gospel is foolishness to the wise. The wise among men would be brought down to size as they get to see the wonders of our Lord and suddenly realize that their so called wisdom is no match compared to the awesome truth of our Lord's salvation plan.
Recently the NASA Chandra X-Ray Observatory managed to capture something awesome as they trained their giant telescopes into outer space and capture one of the most fantastic pictures I have ever laid eyes on. Out there in the galaxies in the area of PSR B1509-58, we can see the heavenly bodies come together and wonderfully form a nail-pierced hand and holding onto a beautiful circular golden crown! (note that the picture is a photo negative image of the actual image). And we all know Whose hand it is that is pierced and now rules majestically in Heaven with the Father. Yes, Jesus our Lord was crucified almost 2000 years ago and for light to travel that distance so that we can capture the image, that must have been created millions of years ago.

How can that be, one may ask? I submit to you that when Jesus died, He actually died outside of time so that God's salvation plan spans right across all eternity such that Adam (the first man created) right through to the last man standing before the End of the Earth takes place may be included in His marvelous salvation plan.

So you, who would want to see proofs before you decide to believe in His matchless love, stop and see His great plan and be convince that there is a higher order - our Creator Father - in control of the heavens and the Earth. And for those of us who have believed, take comfort for the Lord is coming back soon for His Bride (the Church). I do believe that He is offering His crown to us at the Wedding Feast after the Rapture which I am convinced will take place very shortly (we might literally be counting the days now).
Maranatha Lord Jesus, come quickly!

Pls look at this website for more images NASA has caught:
http://images.google.com/images?sourceid=navclient&rlz=1T4WZPA_en___US280&q=the%20NASA%20Chandra%20X-Ray%20Observatory%20photographed%20a%20gigantic%20glowing%20blue%20hand%20in%20space%20in%20the%20area%20of%20PSR%20B1509-58.&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi

Start Of A New Family Journey

Over the past three weeks our family had been rather busy. A hive of activities as our daughter became engaged to be married to someone she met while studying at the same university in the United Kingdom. They have known each other for about four years now and because of the physical distance separating them, they decided to settle down next April 2010.

Officially they were engaged to be married on March 28 Saturday when both sets of parents met over lunch and we discussed what we felt best for our children and agree with them that they will be married on April 03, 2010 Saturday. So now that the date has been set, a series of activities will have to be initiated over the next couple of months.

After the wedding, our daughter will be emigrating to leave in Birmingham, UK, as our future son-in-grace is working with Deloitte's PPL and waiting to secure his UK PR (he is a Malaysian Chinese with Sarawakan blood) and so will have to start planning her packing in addition to getting things organized for the wedding. In fact there will be three sets of celebrations - wedding lunch in Singapore followed by a family dinner over at Sibu in Sarawak and culminating in a wedding dinner over at Kuala Lumpur - spread over 8 days and can get pretty hectic.

And how did the family take the news? well, there were smiles all round as both sides were very supportive of the pending union. In fact the troop i snow working on the logistics for the Event next year. And I dare say that the wedding will draw everyone tighter together as it will become the focal point and we do need this event to do just that. So come Saturday April 03 the families will come together to celebrate the union with a church wedding in the morning followed by a wedding luncheon at Pan Pacific Hotel and then those family members who were supposed to travel to Kuala Lumpur the following Saturday for the wedding dinner will do so.

So we are looking forward to celebrate the blessed union between Mr Joshua Ting and Ms Adeline Li come April 2010. Congratulations beloveds.

What's In A Memorial?

Today marks the 3rd anniversary of the passing of my earthly father back to the Lord and even as we enter into the Holy Week, I am being reminded of what the Lord instructed the children of Israel to do - to build memorials as a testimony of the goodness of our Lord.

In the Old Testament, memorials are in visible forms - stones raised one on top of another to form a column or markers placed at strategic locations to mark boundaries or festivals to remind them of the goodness of the Lord. And in the New Covenant, we have one very prominent memorial - the Cross of Jesus Christ. Each year, the Church celebrates the sacrifice of our Lord on the Cross and worships Him for His atoning death and in three days, we will be doing just that on Good Friday.

Good Friday is meant to be a time of remembrance of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and it is for joy and thanksgiving that we are to observe them. I do not, for once, believe that the Lord meant for us to be so solemn that we cannot even share moments of joy by having a meal together or perhaps even celebrating a wedding. I believe each day we are to live our lives in celebration of the finished work of Christ on the Cross - that we are wondrously saved by that one atoning death and there is nothing more to be added.

Our lives are meant to be a reflection of that grace we have in Him - so live life to its fullest in the divine health that His precious Blood had redeemed us for and stop accepting the lies that the devil throws in our direction that we suffer because of our ancestors. Indeed, when the Lord died on the Cross, He did not die for specifics but His death avails for everything and it spans across the time continuum because God lives outside of time.

Basking In The Love Of Our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ

Recently I had been rather busy being caught up in work - definitely a blessing from the Lord at such a time as this when people around me were trying to look for things to do and keep them occupied.

Indeed, I have two consulting projects going concurrently and another regular monthly training project. And the Lord, for good measure, landed two very quick training projects onto my plate this month. And so, I was just sharing with my beloved wife that I have work almost every day and that the Lord had added joy to my situation (last year around this time I was struggling to find work to occupy my time) and how blessed and loved by the Lord I felt.

And all these times I consciously kept my focus on believing the Lord for His abundance of grace on my situation. Every time I encountered a challenge, I chose to believe that the Lord will grant me the break-through and indeed, He had been faithful to bless. And as long as I stayed focused on Him, I noticed that the burden became lighter and soon the blessings came as in a flood gushing down the channel.

So, what am I trying to say here? that I just sit back and do nothing but believe that He will come through for me? No, I am saying that the Lord looks upon our hearts and sees our faith in Him. Faith is the only currency in Heaven and when we have that currency, we will be abundantly supplied. So I would encourage you to look away from your situation and look towards the Lord and see Him in His love for you. If He chose to set aside everything and give you His VERY BEST (His darling beloved SON), how much more will He be willing to grant us His blessings.

What's With A Name?

A few days ago, a friend of mine brain-stormed with me some possible names for his new business and that started me thinking how important it is to have the right name, not just a good name. I went through this situation three years ago when I started my own company. Granted that two friends gave me suggestions but ultimately I had to make that decision for myself.

Abraham had a name change when he was 99 years old (Genesis 17:5) because the Lord wanted to cause a radical change in his life. The Lord promised him an heir but the son Ishmael whom Hagar bore him was not supposed to be the one and one can imagine how he felt. With the name change, Abram was now to be called Abraham which means 'father of multitude' - a radical change seeing that he did not even have a son or for that matter any children. And I can imagine his wife Sarah calling him, "father of multitude" every time and in the physical he had no children to go by as acknowledgment. It must have been very trying for both of them.

Well, God is One who will always deliver and to the last iota. One year after his name change, Abraham finally became the father of a son through his own beloved wife and the rest, like they say, is now history - the nation of Israel - literally multitudes.

So what am I implying? That the name we use on ourselves and on others will definitely be important. The name we give to our children will directly or indirectly influence their lives whether we like it or not. I recall the reason I gave myself for choosing a name to call myself after I received the Lord into my heart back when I was a teenager was because I was impacted by the brother of the Apostle Peter. In the bible you will only find three references of Andrew (besides his name appearing in the list of Jesus' disciples): -
1. he was the one who introduced his brother Peter to Jesus (John 1:44)
2. he introduced the boy with the five loaves and two fish to Jesus and He fed five thousand men with the gift. (John 6:8)
3. Philip introduced some Greeks to him and he in return pointed them to Jesus at the Feast (John 12:22)

Andrew resolved to be one who will point others to our Lord Jesus and I decided to be like Andrew and hence the choice and I am still resolved in my heart to continue with that.

2009 - A Dektos Year

Since my last post on Feb 07, so many good things had taken place.
1. I have been kept busy in my business - running two project concurrently and doing training courses
2. more business opportunities have opened up
3. Great news on the family side of things

At the end of December 2008, Pastor Joseph Prince of New Creation Church, my senior pastor, heard from our Lord Jesus and proclaimed that this year will be the acceptable year of the Lord and he went back to Isaiah 61:1-2 and Luke 418-19 to check out the original text to find out what exactly was meant by the phrase 'acceptable' and he came across the Hebrew "Ratsah" which simply means 'be pleased with, to be favorable to' (as in Isaiah 61) and in the Greek "Dektos" as in Luke 4.

Now the Greek word is more amazing. In 'dektos' one gets the meaning of "the most blessed time when the salvation and the free favors of the Lord profusely abounds". And so when I heard that, I told the Lord that I want to be in that dektos position to be able to receive His super-abounding profuse blessings for my family and I for this year. And I am already beginning to see this taking shape and form in my life, to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Staying Focused

In these trying times, the majority of us would be tempted to throw in the towel and admit that the way forward would be tough and be resigned to 'fate' and allow the external circumstances dictate how and what we feel. Certainly the signings out there in the world are very uncertain and looks gloomy.

Three evenings ago, I was at a dinner with some of my former colleagues and we were comparing notes about how each person felt and the general mood was one of deja-vu - let whatever will happen fall on me - and anxiety. Well, throughout that evening I had to keep reminding myself that I am wonderfully created, redeemed and now blessed to live and enjoy all the blessings of my Abba Father.

To doubt Him after what He had achieved for us on the Cross is a big slap on His wrist and reject His grace and mercy to us. Indeed it is precisely that He wants us to be above our situations that He went to the Cross and took our punishment by dying so that He can then appropriate His righteousness on us. Where a righteous person is, there will the blessings be and I choose to believe and claim that promise over my life and to continue to enjoy His shalom peace over my every moment of life.

Sure, the devil will want to steal the word in us that we are the blessed children of our Lord Jesus Christ and when we lose our focus and start to feel and be dejected like the rest of the world who do not know Him, he has just robbed us of our joy and peace. When we are not in the place of rest, we will not be able to enjoy the Father's peace in us and open the door to sicknesses and diseases (dis-ease). No wonder so many live miserable lives and do not go on to enjoy length of days as the Father had promised us.

So, as for me and my household, we will feed on the Lord, enjoy His every blessing and go on to live good days for a very long, long, long time.

Jesus Is Coming Back Very Shortly!

In the midst of this global economic gloom and political turmoil, there seems to be only one conclusion - that the stage is right for the Lord Jesus Christ to return. For the Orthodox Jews, His return will signify His coming to them since they never believed He had come the first time around; and for the Messianic Jews (and us Christians) this will be His Second Coming.

Here is an interesting extract from Israel Today newspaper

Culture & Jewish Life
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
The Messiah Boom - Messianic and Orthodox Jews may not agree on his identity, but both say Messiah is coming soon | Aviel Schneider

THE MESSIAH IS COMING SOON! Orthodox singer Ariel Zilber proclaims the Messiah on a Tel Aviv street corner. Together with his friends on a Tel Aviv street corner, Israeli singer Ariel Zilber cried out, “Wake up! Wake up! The Messiah is coming!”

“We want to awaken the nation so that they will call on their Messiah,” explained Zilber, who turned to Orthodox Judaism a few years ago. “We are longing for the Messiah. Without Him we will not succeed in anything.”

Passersby were unimpressed. Perhaps they were tired after a long day of work, or perhaps they thought these people blowing trumpets and shofars (ram’s horns) on a city street were “crazy” Messianic Jews like Yaakov Damkani, who proclaims Yeshua (Jesus) with trumpets during prayer walks in Tel Aviv.

So, world get ready to receive your God the Creator whether you like it or not. Believe in Jesus and what He had accomplished for you at the Cross and receive His grace and salvation for your life.

The Miracle of US Airways Flight 1549

When US Airways Flight 1549 crashed into the Hudson River off New York City on January 13, 2009, I thought it was just another aircraft disaster but this time the survivors were blessed because no one on-board died. I did not take much notice of the incident.

And then a friend posted a note on her account with Facebook and shared about the amazement of the number of people on board the aircraft and its significance and that was when I decided to look at that incident again and discovered something very interesting.

On that flight there were a total of 150 passengers and 5 crew members thus giving a total of 155 people. With 5 crew members, it can only mean that there were three flight attendants and two persons in the cockpit - the pilot and his co-pilot.

Now this is the interesting part. With two persons in the cockpit, there are now 153 in the body of the plane and that number rang a bell. After Jesus had risen from the dead, one early morning Jesus appeared on the beach and He enquired of His disciples whether they managed to catch any fish and their response to Him was that they had caught none. Jesus then proceeded to ask them to cast their net on the right side of the boat and they hauled in a large catch.

In John 21:11 we read, "Simon Peter went up and dragged the net to land, full of large fish, one hundred and fifty-three, and although there were so many, the net was not broken."

The aircraft landed on the river and up to today, other than the left engine falling off, it remained intact just like the net which the Apostle Peter used to haul in the fish - there was not a tear in the net.

The pilot, Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, is probably a Jew (going by his last name) and for a long time, the name of the co-pilot is not widely known. Now, is that not very uncanny? Jesus was a Jew and His partner, the Holy Spirit, never likes to draw attention to Himself and prefers to give all attention to Jesus. So I was not surprised to find that his name was hardly mentioned. And so to me the two persons in the cockpit spoke volumes to me about Jesus and the Holy Spirit that they were in charge.

Also Capt Sully made an extra effort to walk the aisle of the plane, not once but twice, to ensure that everyone had evacuated the plane before he left to be with his crew. Jesus is always there to ensure that we are safe.

And then the point about the number 153. Do you know that the arithmetic progression of the numbers 1 till 17 is 153? and in the Hebrew, the number 17 represents victory? And this (which I just found out last evening) really floored me. If you take the sum total of all the Hebrew alphabet for this statement, "I am God" it all adds up to 153.

So is the Lord telling us something? Certainly I believe so. The 'crash' taking place at a time so close to the inauguration ceremony of President Barrack Obama leads me to believe that God the Father is telling us that we need Him and with Him at the helm, everything will turn out right. We just have to train our eyes on Him.

The Book of Psalms As A Prophetic Book - Part 3

So what does Psalm 109 have to say to us about the year 2009 through israel?

The psalm begins with a cry from Israel for help from the Lord. And we have seen from the beginning of 2009 that the whole world is now turning against Israel for what it had done in moving into the Strip to compliment what its air force had achieved. The mopping up operations by the IDF had been with widespread criticism from the whole world.

Psalm 109: 2-3 -v2 For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful have opened against me; they have spoken against me with a lying tongue. v3 They have also surrounded me with words of hatred, and fought against me without a cause.

And the interesting point to note is that Psalm 109 ends on a praise note.

v30 - I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth. Yes, I will praise Him among the multitude.
v31 - For He shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those who condemn him

The Lord has promised that He will defend His own people, the Israelites and they will prevail. All their accusers will be silenced. So I don't know about you but I am looking for a good closure to the Gaza situation.

The Book of Psalms As A Prophetic Book - Part 2

In my last post i discussed how the early years of Israel found its prophecies in the Book of Psalms and I paused at the year 1973, the year the Yom Kippor War took place. It was an amazing year and Israel took back the whole of the Golan Height which belonged to King Solomon during his reign and was included in the Book of Genesis when God declared that He will give the land to Abraham and his Seed forever.

Psalm 91 -In the first Gulf War, Saddam Hussein rained 39 Scud missiles into Israel and miraculously none in the land was killed by any of the missiles. The Lord protected the nation like a mother hen would over her young chicks and we can find the reference in verse 4, "He shall cover you with His feathers and under His wings you shall take refuge." Who would have thought that when Israel was asked by the USA not to get involved in the Guilf War that Saddam Hussein would have fired all those 39 missiles and look at the wonder of our Lord protecting His own helpless ones in the land of Israel. The fact that no one was killed was a miracle. Granted there was one death but the cause of death was a heart attack - an old man saw the effects of the missile on his home and his heart gave way.
Psalm 205 -In this psalm we have an account of how our Lord delivered the children of Israel from the land of Egypt and how He had been given them the land as an inheritance (verses 42-45). In September 2005, the IDF was sent into Gaza Strip to remove the Jewish settlers so that the Palestinians could occupy their former homes. In the psalm there was much sorrow from the people but He was there to remind them that He is for them and that He will care for them.
Psalm 208:9 -"Moab is My washpot; Over Edom I will cast My shoe, Over Philistia I will triumph". Who would have thought that President Bush would be greeted by a pair of shoes when he visited Bagdad in November 2008 and who would have expected Israel to attack the Gaza Strip to take out the Hamas terrorists for what they had been doing to Israel - over 8000 shells were fired into Israel from Gaza Strip in the spell of three years. Israel finally said, "enough is enough!" and unilaterally took action to silence the terrorists. Verse 12-13 tells us, "Give us help from trouble, for the help of man is useless. Through God we will do valiantly for it is He who shall thread down our enemies." Israel had been left to defend for itself; even its best friend (USA) turned against it and criticize it for what it did.

The Book of Psalms As A Prophetic Book - Part 1

For a very long time, history has it that the rabbis, in the 1800s, felt something was very special about the Book of Psalms in the Bible. Because it is the 19th book in the Bible, they felt whatever had been written in that psalm could be linked with events that would happen in the year that corresponds with the number of the psalms; e.g. they said that Psalm 1 would correspond with the year 1901, Psalm 18 would correspond with 1918, etc. Based on that alignment, those psalms that are above 100 would speak about events in the 2000s; Psalm 105 would tie in with the year 2005 and Psalm 109 would point us therefore to the year 2009 which is this current year.

And so I did some comparisons, after the fact, and managed to find some associations: -

Psalm 17:12 - "As a lion is eager to tear his prey, and like a young lion lurking in secret places". In November 1917, a young British general by the name of Allenby rode into Jerusalem and freed the land from the Ottoman Turks and made Palestine a territory of the British Empire. Incidentally, the national symbol of Britain is the lion.

Psalm 38:6-8, 11-12, 21-22 - here the Psalmist prophetically seemed to be crying aloud to the Lord for deliverance; believe it or not that was the year that Hitler started to round up the Jews in Poland and Austria and put them in concentration camps.

Psalm 42:11 - In 1942, Hitler started to send the Jews to the gas chambers; initially in small numbers but as you read on from Psalm 43 and Psalm 44, the cry went up louder and more fervently - that was between 1943 and 1945.

Psalm 45:5 - "Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the King's enemies; the peoples fall under You." Notice that the arrows in this verse is in the plural and because the two atomic bombs landed in Nagasaki and Hiroshima like arrows and they struck the heart of the enemies of the Lord and the war ended immediately with the two bombs and Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945 while Germany had surrendered earlier on April 29, 1945.

Psalm 48- A lot of praise and worship as the people rejoice when they see the hand of God crafting out a place for Himself. On May 15, 1948 the tiny nation of Israel was birthed almost overnight. Verse 4 talks about the kings assembling and they passed by together. The UN Security Council met and decided to set up the nation after much deliberation. And the psalm went further to talk about the pangs of child-birth and we remember that the young nation was persecuted by her neighbors.

Psalm 67- In this psalm, the first two verses recorded for us a special prayer to God to be merciful to them. Prior to June 1967, three armies gathered in three different directions ready to attack Israel - Egypt was in the south, Jordan was on the east and Syria was poised on the north and Israel was hemmed in and the only place they could turn was the Mediterranean Sea on its west. The Six-Day War was decisive and Israel triumphed and won more land than they started with and so the rest of the psalm recorded the celebration of joy unto the Lord.

Psalm 73:25-26- "Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever". Once again Israel was attacked and on the most holy of their feast days - Yom Kippor or Day of Atonement - and they were almost wiped off except by the hand of God on their behalf. Through a miracle the Syrian army was driven back in the north and Israel conquered the Golan Heights.

Now are these coincidences or is the hand of God really at work here? You have to judge them for yourself. I have more to share but that will be on another day.