Speaking the Truth Freely

The Psalmist laments that if he speaks or writes in such a way he would offend the generation of His children. People are easily offended nowadays, Christians and non-Christians, liberals and conservatives. I watched briefly that Dr Jordan Peterson said that all he wanted was to speak freely. Not that I agree with all the things Dr Peterson said but on this matter I agree wholeheartedly. It is also my aim in life to speak freely, to speak the truth as “thy Word is truth” (John 17:17).

Preparing to Preach

It is now less than 24 hours before I will preach God’s Word is a church celebrating Rosh Hashanah, the biblical New Year. As I was having dinner the word of the Lord came to me and I am pretty sure of what I am going to preach tomorrow. Being a preacher for more than 30 years I still tremble and fear before the holy God in whose name I shall speak as the oracles of God. Who is sufficient for all these?

Rosh Hashanah Service

God willing, I shall be preaching on Monday evening service celebrating Rosh Hashanah, the biblical New Year which begins on Sunday sundown. I think I know what I shall be preaching, though I will focus tomorrow and Monday for full preparation. New Year comes in the fall(autumn) in Israel and it is a time of harvest for the end of the year gathering.

"Suffering mistreatment with God's People" (Hebrews 11:25)

After my blogspot this morning, I reflected on the third passage the Lord gave me when I returned to Sabah in 2014 to serve once more among the indigenous peoples of Sabah. The Greek word, συγκακουχεῖσθαι is a hapax legomenon, only found in Hebrews 11:25. With the word, "sun" in the beginning of the word, it means Moses identified with God's people and whatever their fate became his fate. It was the same when I returned to Sabah. I had to suffer the afflictions or more accurately, the mistreatment of God's people. What do I mean by the mistreatment of God's people? In Egypt, the Israelites were enslaved and a foreign people in a foreign land. When they wandered in the wilderness, they were wanderers from one place to another for many years, four decades in all. When Moses identified with God's people, he took on their sufferings as slaves. He became like them, in their lowliness.

Fulfilment of God's Word (2014-2022)

Has God spoken to you of late? I sought the Lord's will when deciding whether to return to Sabah in 2014. I spent several months in prayer and waiting on the Lord and at the end I felt the Lord spoke to me through three passages of Scripture. First, from Leviticus 25 that on one's 50th year (Jubilee) one is to return to one's land and possessions. At that time I had no possession though I interpret "land" as the land of my birth which God confirmed in another verse in Genesis where Jacob was commanded to return to the land of his birth.

Galatians and Ecclesiastes (Books and Commentaries)

Today I am taking a break from writing my commentary on Galatians. On our National Day yesterday I wrote morning, evening and night to get as much done as possible. I am starting to expound on the fruits of the Spirit and I hope by October I shall be writing my last chapter on Galatians 6. By November I get it revised as I read through slowly and add whatever footnotes necessary. Hopefully I can get two people to proof read the draft manuscript in December and by January it should be back with me for final revision and formatting.

The Quiet of my Home

I was following the news of the late Queen's lying in state and the royal family having to attend many ceremonies and church services in different cities across the United Kingdom in the past few days. Now there is a time to rest for the King and one TV commentator said that the Princess Royal had just returned to "the quiet of her home" for a day or two and deservedly so. I was touched by the phrase, "quiet of the home" and I realised how precious that is since it was only about three and a half years ago that I had returned to my home in Kota Kinabalu after 25 years in full-time Christian service.

Surprise

My son said it was a surprise. I prayed that he would come back for Christmas. Maybe we will meet or maybe not. I won't be in KK when he is back. I did not tell him so it might be a surprise to him. He should know that  Christmas season is my busiest time for me. Seven years when he got back for a short trip he managed to come along and we spent two days and two nights in Ranau before driving back midnight Christmas Day for him to catch a flight back to NZ. But this year the timing is out for I shall be away on 23rd December 2022.

A Record of Preaching

As storage across my laptops and desktop are filled up as time goes by, I have been going back and listening to my old sermons and see if I could delete some of them to make space for new ones. I don't even record in 4K but 1080p but over time it takes up easily 2TB of space in the past two years. But the highest storage I have is only 512GB and my 2017 MacBook Pro only comes with 256GB. As I listened to my sermons, I must say that I am reluctant to delete any of my videos because of their contents which consist of the exposition of God's Word. Perhaps, one day God will grant me my prayers over 25 years for a personal assistant who can help compile all my recorded sermons and make it into a series of teachings.

Apple Event & Ringgit Depreciation

If you only read ths title you probably wonder what this blogpost is all about. I watched the Apple Event live on Youtube early this morning for about an hour until they got to the most exciting product, the Iphone 14 pro max. The top end model costs RM8,299 while the previous model costs RM700.00 less. The price in US remains the same across board but you have nearly a thousand ringgit increase in the top tier model. It's all about the exchange rate. Being an Apple user who had just purchased a 2-year old MacMini with the old price is a steal when Apple estimated the Ringgit to be 4.3. I told my friend that Apple products would be more expensive and sure enough when the M2 Macbooks were launched two months ago Apple pecked the Ringgit at 4.6 when the Ringgit was hovering at 4.3.

10 Years On Blogging

I did not realise that I had passed a decade of active blogging with V. 2 of my blog since August 2012. I started in May 2006 but stopped for about a year in 2011, making it altogether 15 years in active blogging. It's a combination of spiritual journalling and commentary of Biblical themes and concepts. In each blogpost I intend to give at least one spiritual precept or concept either citing a verse or two or some ministry experience that has theological background. Blogging has helped me to stay sane sometimes because it is an outlet to write thoughts and reflections and if I did not write it, it will go into oblivion. Strangely, when I wrote my "Departure Points" I did not once refer to my blog but instead relying on my memory of what I deemed significant in my first 25 years of ministry (1994-2019). Photo: Preaching in Batam Island, Indonesia in a Church Camp, 2010.

Where is the Faithful, O Lord? (Psalm 12)

Solomon laments that it is rare to find a faithful man, perhaps at best one in a thousand that is 0.001% (Ecclesiastes). Say a city has 1,000,000 people which Kota Kinabalu including its surrounding suburbs would have, you have 500,000 men and only 500 are faithful men. It is a small number. Through these times of testing and pandemic, we see there are less and less faithful men. Men that would not or could not keep a promise. Some 10 years ago, I was promised by a friend that he would get back to me within one month. It was not casual talk, as he repeated his promise with a certain assuredness that he would do what he promised. In fact I met him in a Conference 5 years ago in a third country, but he simply shrugged it off when I reminded him of his promise.

Assayer of My People (Jeremiah)

Jeremiah, the prophet was appointed by God to be the assayer of His people, to test and examine their behaviour and spirituality before Him. The people of Judah are backsliding fast and their actions were becoming abhorrent to God. During these present times of pestilence and the pandemic that comes with it, God's people are tested and examined once more, whether we truly love Him, His Church and whether we love one another. "Act justly towards one another" thunders Jeremiah. "Do not think evil of your brother" saith the Lord delivered by Zechariah, the prophet. What does it mean to act justly and think of others without malice, prejudice and ill-will?

Writing a Commentary on Galatians (in Malay)

I am pleased and encouraged by a pastor's comments on my John's Gospel's commentary last Sunday. I did not seek it but when he saw I was holding a copy of the book, he said that he bought a copy some months back and was blessed by it. That gave me further impetus to write the Galatians' commentary that I am working on since March this year. After the difficult chapters of Gal 2 & Gal 3, I have reached the last paragraph of Gal 4 on Hagar and Sarah. Paul's letter to the Galatians is a great epistle and one of my three favourites as a young Christian (the other two being Romans and John's Gospel). Books in Malay are not only scarce but rare. There are a few Indonesian books but the Indonesian language has developed and diverged so much from Malay (Malaysia's Malay) that only scholars and those educated in Indonesia could understand. So it behoves me to write books in Malay to bless the Malay-speaking church especially among the indigenous peoples.