Romans 10:9-11

“that is you confess with your mouth and in your heart (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame. “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Jesus is a human name. And to proclaim that he is Lord is a profound statement that this man Jesus who lived two thousand years ago was indeed God. All that Jesus claimed to be (which included extensive statements about him being sent by the Father, his death and resurrection, his teachings etc) were not just mere statements of a man who was starting a religion. It was that of a man who was God. And for the Jew, all that the prophets had said about the coming of the messiah and all his power and authority and how he was divine was now to be attributed to Jesus.

The call for salvation is to believe in this fact first. I confess that this man Jesus is my Lord who is both creator and saviour.

But not only that, this Lord is not dead today but very much alive. God raised him from the dead. Being alive today means that he is not to dwell in the world after death – the place where we all go to when we die. We can communicate with him here and now in our world. He walks amongst our churches. He knows the condition of our world. He is calls us by name and gives us tasks to do for him as his ambassadors in this world. He is alive today after he was resurrected 2000 years ago.

I believe this to be true. This Lord of mine is alive today because God raised him from the dead. And this is how i live today. With a sense of calling for i follow my Lord’s will and assurance of hope that my Lord will guide and lead me because He is alive.

Now that is Salvation!

Like Getting a New Heart

I struggle with the gospel we preach these days. It seems so gloomy. But then again i also question my own understanding of the gospel. Am i watering it down?

We have just passed the holy week for us. There was good Friday and then Easter. I have come to a conclusion that many times i am just a good Friday christian. What i mean is that for me good Friday is the only thing i celebrate. Easter is just a one day event.

To explain, i give an analogy. If my heart is not well (there is a blockage), i am unable to live as i am meant to live. I am restricted. If it get's worse, i would need put in a stent or a bypass. If it get's worse, a new heart all together. A heart transplant - if there is one available.

Supposing i do have the transplant and the operation is so successful that the condition of the heart is so much better than the original one. And it heals completely till i can do things i never could before. I am in great shape now. Because of the transplant, i can now live as how i am meant to live.

You see where i am getting to?

Good Friday is like Jesus replacing that heart with his life. My heart was bad because of guilt and shame due to my sin and the consequence of sin in my life. Jesus takes the punishment and now i am at peace with God. My 'heart' has been healed completely - or rather totally changed.

But having a new heart is not the ultimate goal of the operation - it is so that i can live as i how i was meant to live. That is Easter - when Jesus conquers death, gives us the holy Spirit and now is now seated at the right hand of the Father ruling our lives and the world. Because of His resurrection, we are guaranteed of life. We know for a certainty of 1. Jesus is the Son and has come from the Father as his words have been consistently true and all the prophets for that matter of fact, 2. He is now exalted in the highest place, interceding and directing our every move and 3. He has sent his Holy Spirit to live in us. Now i am free to be human again with and through Jesus who is Christ and Lord. We have life again.

Now what i mean by us being just Good Friday Christans is when we just keep seeing how he dies for us, how he forgives our sins, how we are freed from sin. We are just thinking of our heart and not really just the life that he calls us to live. Guess when we keep at just our sins, we can manage life better. His death is definite, a done deal. So when we keep saying this, we venture into a path that has been trodden. I guess we cannot be wrong in this as even Paul states that he preaches nothing but Christ crucified.

But if we preach the Easter message, we would be confronted by the implications of Easter rather than just the reality. When i say we now live as how God meant us to live - it would mean living out the creation mandate - to take care, subdue and preserve God's creation and to live under Christ's rule. Now that is not a done deal. There is a lot of living to be done. But is is an adventure, a life full of surprises under the loving care of Jesus through the Holy Spirit for us - if only we trust and obey him.

Oh how i wish that at church and CF we continue to exalt the risen Lord and the redeemed people called to live his mandate more often. How i wish we don't just dwell in our sins being forgive but living out the reason for the forgiveness.

That is my Easter message.

Trinkles in the Light

What does trinkles mean? I'm sure there is a meaning to it but i really don't know what it means. The title is like something unknown that is brought into light. Yes that is what is means. The unknown brought into light.

This is going to be my personal blog. If anyone finds out about it well sorry that you will need to hear me rant. But it would be my journey in my new task - as the 'Executive Youth Director of the Methodist Church'. The title sounds big but for me at present it is just trinkles. I know what i am supposed to here but i am clueless of how to do it. I do know bits and pieces of things to do and i have dreams - big dreams about the direction i hope to see amongst young people in Malaysia but it is still trinkles. Simply because i have begun to see that actually like any other person in this world, i am just one of the people under the service of God. It is his task i am trying to figure out. It is His will not mine. Therefore i am bringing my trinkles into His light. He will show me what to do.

I have been meditating on the book of Deuteronomy these days. It is beginning to grow on me. The people of Israel were invited to take their inheritance - land in Israel. This land was theirs like other parts of the world were given to other people by God (funny i always thought that only Israel was given land as their possession (read Deut.2). God did all the leg work and he would do all the rest to ensure that Israel would get their land.

God is doing something amongst the people of Malaysia. And i know He is giving me something at present. I do know that it has something to do with young people between the age of 15 to 30. Am i ready to go in and take what God has given me? Oh yes there are giants and enemies along the way. There are so many unknown variables. There are so many things i myself do not know. But He has asked to go in and embrace it.

What i have is the history of His faithfulness towards me and His people. He has been there all the way in my life. He has rescued me from my own Egypts. He has revealed himself to me so many times in my life, especially in FES.

So as i weigh the giants and the history lessons, i choose God's faithfulness over any giants that might come along the way. I choose God who brings me life.

So this is a new beginning for me. Prayer is good if you are reading this blog. There are so many things at stake. But the greatest is the people to whom God has called His children.