In GOD Alone

"Now I know God calls me to DESIRE for Him and DEPEND on Him alone. But where do I start? How do I even begin to "fix" the condition of my heart?"

Let us ACKNOWLEDGE that it starts with God, that unless the Holy Spirit reveals to us the true condition of our hearts, helps us realize that we need Him, and puts in us a desire to draw near to Him, we cannot even progress. So cry out to God and put our confidence in the Holy Spirit's ability to transform us.

Let us ALLOW God to lead us on His path of transformation. Many times we refuse to follow the Lord's leading even into challenging situations because it's easier to stay in our comfort zones where our competency is sufficient to carry us. Unless we allow ourselves to be led to positions of need, we will not discover God's sufficiency and strength. So surrender and let God lead. Young people, let us die to ourselves and follow where the Holy Spirit leads.

"my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water." (Psalm 63:1B)

Let us ASPIRE towards God's standards and visions. We tend to set goals that are of the flesh and become satisfied with our own accomplishments. Yet it takes God's touch to light up our eyes to see the impossibilities and put in us a desire and hunger for the God-possibilities. This often happens in silence, in solitude and in prayer. Young people, allow God to excite you beyond your wildest dreams!

"I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory." (Psalm 63:2)

Brokeness

As a young Christian, I was impacted greatly by the writings of Watchman Nee, a spiritual giant who knew and experienced close intimacy with God. His books like "The Normal Christian Life" and "The Release of the Spirit" increased my understanding of the spirit man by leaps and bounds. "Brokenness" has been the buzz word this last week. I thought I can do no better than share with you some gleanings from his writings on this subject:

"Many of God's servants are not able to do even the most elementary works. Ordinarily, their spirits should enable them to know God's Word, discern the spiritual condition of another, send forth God's messages under the anointing, and receive God's revelations. However, because their outward man has never been dealt with, revival, zeal, pleading and activity are a waste of time. There is just one basic dealing that can enable man to be useful before God, and it is this: brokenness."

"Without the breaking of the outward man, the inward man cannot come forth to bless others because Christ's life is imprisoned by us. It is not that the Lord cannot bless the church, but that the Lord's life is so confined within us that there is no flowing forth. If the outward man remains unbroken, we can never be a blessing to His church, and we cannot expect the Word of God to be blessed by Him through us!"

How do we know if we've been broken?

"There is one common feature that marks those who have been enlightened and disciplined; they become meek. Meekness is a sign of brokenness. All who are broken by God are characterized by meekness" (Note: not weakness!).

Jesus said, "The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life." (John 6:63)

The King Beckons...

The King Beckons...

What are you doing with the invitation from the King? Go on with life as usual and come back to the invitation when you have the time? We trust not. You drop everything you're doing and you re-schedule your priorities so you will be able to make it to His Presence!

"You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart." (Jeremiah 29:13)

While we can be assured of "finding God", this verse also gives a key condition. The condition is to search for Him "with all your heart". We cannot find God if we are not seeking Him with all our heart. It will be naive on our part to think that we could just experience intimacy without giving God all our heart.

"Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but they will not find me." (Proverbs 1: 8)

"All our heart" does not refer to diligence (in effort or action) alone. It is an issue of complete dedication (heart) to the person. And it is best reflected in our attitude.

"Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD." (Proverbs 1:29)

The attitude needed would be the "fear of the Lord" i.e. a deep reverence for Him.

Can Intimacy and Fear go hand in hand? Yes, fear of the Lord is the key to intimacy because it ensures we hate sin and all the things that turn the King's face away from us. We cannot enter His presence with a casual attitude and expect God to come near.

Let's press on to the King's presence and find each other there!

Dying To Self

Somewhere in Senior Pastor's message last week was a nugget of truth worth repeating.

That Delight in the Lord and Denial of self are both sides of the same coin. Did you catch that?

We cannot bring delight or find delight in the Lord if we come to Him like a sugar daddy or a vending machine which can be manipulated at our every wimp or fancy.

Luke 9:23, Jesus said to them all, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up His cross daily and follow me."

I reflected over three counselling cases which I was involved in recently. In all three cases, the problem would have been solved by Jesus’ prescription - to deny oneself. Ahh, the self is too much with us. Selfishness, self-centredness and self-love. What does it take to come to a point where our delight is God's delight, where we desire what He desires and we care for what He cares?

Impossible to do? Absolutely. It calls for death. Someone who understood this cost of discipleship was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian and Christian martyr who wrote this prayer, "Make me a captive, Lord, and then I shall be free."

Growing In True Devotion

Psalm 40:4, "Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods."

As we seek God's face by reading the Psalms daily, we can discern differences in how we relate to God, using a structure shared by Ps Edmund Chan at the Love Singapore Pastor's Prayer Summit.

The Psalmist through his writings reveals a FUNDAMENTAL dependence upon God – he cannot live for one moment without being sustained by the breath of God. Not a single day apart from God's guidance and direction, not just when he is under siege. He actively puts aside false gods to turn to the Lord.

There is the person for whom devotion to God is merely ORNAMENTAL. Even though he or she may come to church and read the Bible, life goes on relatively unchanged and independent of God.

Yet there are others for whom devotion to God is INCIDENTAL. From time to time, he runs across an inspiring touch of the Holy Spirit through the word and is encouraged by the grace and goodness of God.

Then there is also the man who reads the word, draws from Him intentionally, but that inspiration is only SUPPLEMENTAL to all other sources of support in his life.

Whatever position we are in, let's press in to drink deeply from God, to have Him as our FUNDAMENTAL source and sustenance. It requires tasting of the deeper things of God and a humble thirsting for it, renouncing all other sources of dependence. We find rest when we find our sufficiency in God alone.

Psalm 27:5, "For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle and set me high upon a rock."

Lights off by 5, Home by 6

This is February. If you did not get a good start to the New Year on 1 January 2008, you can still claim a new beginning on the first day of the Chinese New Year (CNY) on 7 February 2008. Second chances… how we need it so often in life.

Whether you’re Chinese or not, CNY is a time for family and friends. How do you enjoy the reunion dinners and rounds of house visits? These are great opportunities to renew and rebuild relationships which often get neglected in the busyness of life. This is one key focus in this Year of Sabbath.

In fact many of the things we do during CNY, are in the spirit of the Sabbath.
Like ceasing from work, getting our house in order, preparing special meals, celebrating with family and friends, giving and receiving blessings.

So, for the month of February, it’s lights off by 5 at expo hall 9 and let’s all be home to be with our family by 6.

Be ready to open up your home or embrace anyone who may need a home to go to!

新年快乐,
恩福满堂

Reflection

By the time you read this BUZZ, we would have almost crossed one month of the Year of Sabbath...

Have you experienced Sabbath yet?
Have you experienced the delight of God?
Are the relationships in your life satisfying?

Personally, I am mindful that we could easily cruise through the year without realising or experiencing the promises of God. Unless we take time to pray and to seek His wisdom, we could easily be discouraged that this year is NO different from the previous years.

Yes I am talking about the need to spend time with God in REFLECTION.

Sabbath gives us time to reflect. Reflecting in the presence of God is different from normal reflection. Reflecting in the presence of God calls for us to reflect in the light of His Word and His Wisdom i.e. seeing our experiences through His lens. Do you see life as full of stumbling blocks or stepping stones? In Christ, every experience can become a stepping stone in our journey to become more Christ-like. Thus, there is a need for us to pause and to reflect, without which we cannot see God’s hand at work in our lives. Let the presence of God tutor us to see Him in all the experiences we go through this week.

Start reflecting in His presence today!

The Road To Intimacy

"O God! Thou hast made us for thyself and our souls are restless, searching, till they find their rest in Thee. " - St. Augustine

Preparation of Heart: "Be Still, and know that I am God..." (Psalm 46:10)

Obstacles to cross: External Distractions & Internal Chaos

Identify source and remove any encumbrances blocking your way (Hebrews 12:1)

Pathways you must take: Confession of Sin (1 John 1:9)

Forgiveness (Colossians 3:12,13)

Forgetting (Philippians 3:13, 14)

Direction & Focus: "Fixing your eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith... " (Hebrews 12:2)

Food for the journey: Word of God. Chew on it - Remember the lesson from the cow?

Motivation to keep you going: Jesus, your Joy and Reward!

"The condition of lostness is not the same as the outcome to which it leads. We're not lost because we are going to wind up in the wrong place. We're going to wind up in the wrong place because we're lost." (Dallas Willard)

Delight & Discipline

We are almost 2 weeks into our "a-psalm-a-day" corporate effort. How many of us are feeling the strain of DISCIPLINE more than the DELIGHT of hearing God's voice?

His grace to propel us towards seeking Him. Yet our discipline to press in to seek Him is our assurance of continuing delight, towards experiencing the depths in Christ.

"You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."(Jeremiah 29:13)

As we reach this point, it is so important to know that delight is a promise and eventual certainty. But the only way there, is for us to develop discipline to press in.

Delight drives us to develop Discipline

Discipline drives us to seek breakthrough to the next Delight

Child of God, let's dig in further whenever we feel like giving up, so that we will add self-control and perseverance to our character.

"For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 1:5-8)

Finding Your Delight

We are going to talk a lot about delighting in the Lord in 2008. When was the last time you took delight in something? When you felt the thrill, that sense of pleasure? When was the last time your eyes lit up, your heart rose with eager expectation and you had a song in your heart?

It was a delightful moment for all at the Countdown Party when Senior Pastor led the congregation to read Psalm 1 just after the stroke of midnight on the first day of 2008. We kicked off the reading of 'a psalm a day' and committed ourselves to eat the Word of God first each morning, before food.

Psalm 1 is just the word to start us off in the Year of Sabbath. It gives us the key to a life full of blessings. "Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and on His law he meditates day and night " ( Ps 1:1,2 ) Remembrance and reliance upon the Lord ! It is in reading the Word that we know more about God and it is in knowing Him that we find our delight. Don't lose the impact of the word, "meditate". It is not enough just to read or even to memorise our favourite verses. We need to chew on it! Meditating on the Word takes time and effort but you'll see its transforming power when the Word of God gets into your system.

We're aware many of you are sharing your meditations and reflections on your blogs. It is exciting to see how the same word can come alive for each one of us in different ways. This is also the joy and delight we will experience in this Year of Sabbath.