Preaching in the Anointing

 It was unusual last Sunday as I sensed clearly the anointing once I started preaching from Ephesians 4:3-16. I spent the first 6 minutes talking about a former missionary who was the most influential pioneer of our movement among the Dusuns of Sabah in the late 1930s and then after the Second World War. The first local churches in Ranau were started in 1947. After that, I launched into my preaching and I felt the anointing for the next 45 minutes of the sermon, right to the end. In fact, I felt it was the highlight of my last three sermons, each having been anointed more than the previous one. This Sunday I shall be preaching my 4th consecutive sermon and I pray by God's grace the anointing will be upon me as I preach. I felt for last Sunday's sermon, I had spent a whole week, from Monday to Sunday morning, about 50 hours within the week to preach that 50-minute sermon.

77 Days

I shall be preaching this Sunday on my 11th Sunday with the church from the 1st Dec 2024 which happened to be a Sunday and my commencement as pastor. I am under no illusion of the challenges in front of me with so many things to do. Many things established over the years are set in motion and being done the same way without asking whether these things have biblical foundations. Unless there is a teaching priest in the house of the Lord, it is hard to see the congregation advances in anyway, spiritually and numerically.

My Third Month

This is my third month in my fourth pastorate and it is coming to my 10th week. It seems I have been around forever. I attend all church meetings, from prayer meetings, rehearsals and council meetings. As this is our election year it will get busy from now on. This Sunday we will launch our membership drive to prepare for our AGM slotted on the first Sunday in April, exactly 2 months from now. In the meantime I will lecture on our church’s Constitution which I plan to do every three years according to our election cycle.

Church’s Mission and Outreach

I devoted one session in the leaders’ retreat last Thursday to discuss the church’s mission and outreach, first in our Jerusalem/Kota Kinabalu and our Judea (Sabah). We prayed in our final session as we sought God’s will. Just two days on I felt I know the answer as to where we are going. First I met an elder and church chairman and he invited me to visit his church anytime and soon and in his words “this year”.

Leaders’ Retreat

I have planned this since I accepted the call to pastor the church in early October. The turnout was encouraging with 33 participants from a 100 member church. That’s 33% which is much higher than the 20% of many churches where those who are actively involved are at most 20 percent of the membership. Moreover it was a public holidays and most of my members will normally take the opportunity to return to their home villages. But the first session was great being fresh as I shared for an hour and 5 minutes after a short 15 min praise and worship to start off the proceedings.

Year of the Snake

For the past few days I was in the zone, whether it is a public holiday or not, I work all the time. Even driving to my brother's place last night for New Year's Eve dinner, I was thinking about my three sessions that I needed to lead and speak during tomorrow's leaders' retreat. Sure, I could rest the next day on Friday but I am slotted to lead prayers on Friday, usually preceded by a 15 min sharing from God's Word. On Saturday if my energy levels permit, I will attend the Rehearsal by the worship team and by the time I return home it will be 11pm at night and the next morning on a Sunday I normally get up before 5am to prepare myself to preach in the Sunday service at 9am. Who is adequate for all these?

Year of the Dragon (a Review)

In a few days' time the Year of the Dragon is coming to an end. I have had a roller coaster of a year. But God is great. He is faithful to His promises. When the Year of the Dragon started early last year, I was well in advance in making plans to leave my former Seminary in Kota Kinabalu as I had tendered my resignation in October the previous year. But I had three subjects to teach, all new courses that I wanted to teach especially the Song of Songs and the NT Greek language (Level 2 or Intermediate Greek). Again at the start of the Year of the Dragon, last March I was surprised to hear what the ATESEA (accreditation body of my former Colleges including TTC in Singapore) had to say and I remember well that the five main points the Committee raised were ones that I thought I could make a significant contribution at the Seminary.

Trump's Triumph

I have not seen a greater political comeback since I got interested in world politics during the President Carter's election bid in 1976 than in Trump's triumph in last November's US Presidential Election. I am not sure I can stay up to 1am 21st Jan Malaysian time to witness Trump's taking of the oath of office. By all accounts he was out and down for more than 2 years prior to the Nov election. He was shot once and the second time was a close shave as well. He spent half his time in courts fencing off multiple civil and criminal trials. He was convicted and now has the infamy of being the first convicted felon to hold the highest office in the United States of America. But I was backing Trump all along. I am a non-political person just as I was backing Obama, at least in his first term. When I listened to Trump's speeches, he made sense to a far away foreigner like me, and for sure he made a lot of sense to his fellow Americans.

Inflation Hits Home

It seems every time I visit Pizza Hut the price of pizza has gone up. It is RM29.00 for a large pizza and RM19.00 for a regular. The large pizza cost RN18.00 just a few years ago which means in less than five years cost of pizza had risen more than 50%. Salary has gone up perhaps 10 percent in the last five years hardly accounting for the rate of inflation. In churches, salaries have actually gone down. When you are paying RM2,000.00 for a senior pastor of 20 years experience then can you expect one who is skilled and knowledgeable?

Golden Mouth

John Chrysostom was known as the golden-mouthed preacher. His preaching attracted thousands to the SUNDAY services of his time. My preaching attracts about 110 adults per Sunday but about 90 adults were regular worshippers before I came in a pastor. There has been a small increase in attendance since early December averaging 110 adults. Yesterday I saw the back benches filled to the full with a couple of vacant seats in front. In fact as I went up to preach the second front row was filled with new people.

Church & Vision

As long as I have been active in church, I have always regarded my church as my family. The sense of community must be present if it is true church as many social clubs and institutions also put much emphasis on community, a sense of belonging, Last night it was quite unusual for about 40 people turned up for a Friday night and it was mainly due a a thanksgiving dinner we had before the prayer meeting. I was at church by 5pm having driven from home at 4pm to escape the peak hours after 4pm. It was my turn to preach and lead prayers and I shared from Psalm 45:4-8 about the warrior riding on a horse going out conquering with truth, meekness and righteousness.