Who is the skilful writer and preacher?

Instead of stressing myself out due to others’ neglect or no-show, I am focusing on what I can do. I already sacrificed my Mondays (my day off) for a whole year without much rewards so now I am taking another approach - focus on what I can do in my spare time that is writing biblical commentaries. It is now my third day writing especially in the early hours of the morning from 6am-10am. It requires much skills to write a commentary let alone in one’s second language.

One church leader told me that what I preached last Sunday was totally new to him and I whispered in my own heart that it took me 15 years of Bible study with Hebrew and Greek to reach the level of understanding, in fact to be contextual one has to be in tune with the Spirit and speaks what the Holy Spirit is saying to the churches. 

I had to start from scratch, reading the Bible over and over again and towards the end of my 3rd year as a Christian (end of 1984) I started reading commentaries in earnest at the Religious Section of Canterbury University library and also the library of College House where I stayed from April 1985 to July 1987.

Then in 1993 I commenced full time theological study at Auckland University and learned Greek (2 weeks intensive pre Semester) followed by two full Semesters of Greek where we translated 8 chapters Galatians 1-4 and John 1-4. That was only for first year Greek! And two full years of Hebrew as well. 

Who is adequate for all these? I persevered as I love the biblical text and that’s why I could preach well, not taking a verse out of context as some preachers do. I told my congregation that until today throughout Sabah I still receive invitations to preach (10 times this year) and it was because I preach solid messages straight from the Bible, speaking as if the oracles of God by the Holy Spirit.