Introducing Metanoia

Metanoia’s new album – Time to die. Read about how the band started in their official site

Jerry Falwell Was Right | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

Jerry Falwell Was Right | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

Is 9/11 God’s judgment on America? We live in the age of Grace, but the problem is many Christians have totally misunderstood the meaning of Grace, in Grace, it is not an absence of justice, judgment and God’s Wrath.

When a nation sin, like America, in the name of God, they went to war against the muslim, for the sake of oil and wealth. In the name of God, the leaders of that nation neglected what’s matter more to God than finding the terrorist, which is the huge problem of corporate greed, high abortion rate, the failure in the institution of marriage on grounds of divorce, moral and ethics failure in the leadership, within the Spiritual leadership of the church, homosexuality strives, fraternizing with the occult, and the list goes on and on.

God will judge America in the days to come, especially now that the leaders of America work to partition the land of Israel. Hurricane carrying the wrath on the nation will be more frequent. In the age of God’s grace, God is still the same today, as He was in the Old Testament days, and Jesus will come back in the Lord’s Day to judge the nations!

1460 days

I looked around but there’s no one
No one except a scrawny looking fella
Standing in the shadow and hidden from sight
The deep drawn features and the blood shot eyes
Darting from side to side
Hoping no one will ever see him

But 1460 days from Sunday on
is a day the scrawny looking fella will beg for its arrival
Wallowing in its misfortune all day long
Browsing through the list of wishes
Things to do, things to accomplish
A goal nevertheless, even if it is to without an end.

I looked at the fella with pity
My heart grieves to see such as this
living a life with so much pain and meaningless.
I feel shards shattered through the echo of the night
in silent pain, the sharp ends of the cracked pieces of the mirror
lay before me a thousand pieces of me

Invasion of Atheism

Over the last one week, there I discovered, a hidden plan to invade the humanity to claim its soul – Atheism. With people like Richard Dawkins, a professor from Oxford (ironic, considering the foundation of Oxford University), a proponent of Evolution in his latest book (apparently a best seller) on criticising God from the start to the end, in his words, God is a sex-crazed fanatic bent on genocide in the Old Testament to the end, i find such strangely leaving a sourish taste in the aftermath of browsing through the book at Borders.

I can’t help but wonder, this is, in fact, the spirit of Anti Christ. The Anti Christ is not just a person, but a spiritual force embodying the Anti Christ throughout the ages to be personified in a real person. However, this is what the weapons of warfare to be  deployed by our great mortal enemy – Satan.

How can Christians whose faith can be explained, and can be defended stand up to such attack? We have the Word of God, our sword. Use it! Be a diligent worker and student of the Word that we may weld it against the tide of Spiritual wickedness in the high places. We have the armour of God! We can pray! That’s the only thing to hold all together, in prayer, we place our trust in God our commanding officer, our leader, our Father!

There came a thought as i was pondering on this matter of evolution and there is no God. If there is God, what’s the point in our existence? If there is no God, then you and i are nothing more than just dust. There is no meaning in everything. The greatest rebuke to Evolution is in us, for there left a ‘hole’ no theory of evolution or anti-God delusion theory can fill, but deep inside all of us, we search for an answer for which to explain why we are here. The search for God is not in science, is not in philosophy, (probably philosophy can explain it), it is not even in religion, it is in how our existence is explained in light of a relationship with God. We are nothing, absolutely dust and mud, without Him, but in Him, I now know where i am going, the source of my deepest fulfillment in life, that ultimate pursuit of my life is God Himself.

Searching for a true christian

Christianity today is far from the original which Jesus has introduced it, or more (hmph, theologically correct), the Apostles and Paul have introduced. I was reading this book “The irresistible revolution – living as an ordinary radical” by Shane Claiborne. It was an amazing book, which echoed the search within for a true radical, simple faith, and no nonsense meaning to what’s the original Christianity that was introduced 2000 years ago.

I think the bits and pieces of this book is echoed by the bits and pieces of this blog in many ways, looking past the facade of sparkling preachers, and glamorous ministry to what it matters most, living by the Word of God and follow what Jesus taught. How far have i fallen, to think i can play this game of Christianity and hope to be found an approved and diligent worker in the eyes of God! No way, i need to repent and start living it every words and iota in the scripture. Time to be radical!!!!

Oh for the start, i’ve finished doing up our church website at http://www.paradiseofgod.com.sg Please visit and give your comments yea?

Love God and Love others

The service today was great. Simply put it, there is a refreshing atmosphere in the sanctuary as the Church gathered to worship the Lord and Pastor Sally preached on the Commandments of God – to love God with all our soul, strength and mind, and love others as we love ourselves.

There is a reinforcement which Mercy happily nudged me during the sermon that’s to love others. Like Pastor Sally said, loving each other is a really vague, and for me, it is not even coming close to that to say that it is vague, in fact, that’s one of my major weaknesses, not forgetting others as well. I need God to do a heart transplant in me, removing the heart of stone and hatred and putting in its place, the heart of Christ, and i betcha the procedure is definitely going to be painful; But it is worthwhile.

I’ve decided to step into the position to do up the church site and i have initiated several resources to write articles for the church website and i am going to drive the editorial content on it, and i want the site to reflect the church and its services. Well it is one of my major responsibilities now, besides of course, work and other commitments, and i feel that with God i will do it well, and of course, i am still committed to write, and i am almost finished with my draft of the article on OSAS (Once saved, always saved) and got tons of references and will probably take some time to put it into a proper format. So if anyone’s keen on the article, drop a comment with your email, i will send you guys the completed work once i am done.

In the meanwhile, i think life’s always an adventure, with Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and God the Father, not forgetting I’ve got the job, Mercy and the Church to keep me occupied till i see God face to face.

Mercy and I at Choupinette

This is Mercy! We went to this nice little French cafe at Bt Timah and it was a nice place to hang out, food is not very expensive, and it is a nice place to hang out too!

Egg Benedict!

This is a nice dish, and recommended by the waitress – egg Benedict! It is basically two nicely done half boiled egg on a crispy toast with bacons and is drenched with smooth cheese! This is a must-try!!!

Expanding the Kingdom of God?

This was one of the newsletters i usually trashed it as junk, as usual, my glance across the content caught my attention.

We have been busting out at the seams at our Ministry Center in Maricopa. We purchased almost 4,000 square feet of office space 20 months ago and we have already outgrown it. This is a great sign – expansion of the Kingdom!

We have just signed this week on another lot (the assessment sheet on the property describes the lot as over 10,000 sq feet) and it has a structure on it that will give us close to 1,000 square feet of comfortable office space immediately. We only need $80,000 in order to complete the cash purchase on this lot and office space. We close within 2 weeks.

I believe we can do it!!! Would you help us? Together we can make it happen with no debt.

Is having the biggest church equal to expanding of God’s kingdom?  The above came from Patricia King’s spam of Extreme prophetic where thousands of prophecies were made every week, from Kim Clement to herself Patricia King. I wonder, really wonder and scratching my head, what’s the Kingdom of God, is it the biggest church, or a 10,000 sq feet property? or a 41 million dollar church building?

The Kingdom of God is predominately the Church, it is not heaven either, for the earth is thy footstool, so the body of God’s subject should naturally be the Kingdom where God presides as King and Lord. That’s the church. Not a building, nor can i include numbers as part of it for the biggest church is not a true indication of a true believer. So Patricia King, why don’t you donate the 80,000 dollar to a missionary organisation who can be more sure of expanding the Kingdom of God than your prestige office.

Apostolic Reformation

A new movement (or rather, *chuckled* not new) has re-surfaced under the leadership of C Peter Wagner. What’s apostolic reformation?

C Peter Wagner a self proclaimed, or in his word, considered himself to be a latter-day apostle to all the churches and currently promoting himself as a ‘presiding apostle’ over an organisation called International Coalition of Apostles (ICA).

What is exactly an apostolic reformation? Wagner believed that in every turn of the century in the growth of churches worldwide, he believed God always uses new wineskins to expand the Church, and in his opinion, this new wineskins are similar to those of the Protestant Reformation 500 years ago.

This new wineskins, Wagner believed that it contains “new truths” which are being revealed by a new breed of apostles and prophets and what exactly are these new truths? These ‘new truths’ claimed authority of the Word of God (Scriptures) and these new wineskins are needed to be used by Jesus to build His Church which is the Apostolic Reformation. Such new truths of his band of Apostles and prophets often contradict the Word of God, and the subjective nature of these truths has been evident of late in the weird signs and wonders movement.

Wagner sees evolving out of his new reformation apostles and prophets who represent a new form of spiritual authority. He believes this apostolic refromation is beginning to take hold and will result in tremendous church growth and revival.

Will write more about this impending trend of apostolic movement which its foundation is in doctrinal error, the spirit of heresy and the hidden dangers of such movement.

Shattered dreams

Feeling retrospective of the hype that the media and sometimes the Church itself gave to the hostage situation of the Koreans.

As I was waiting for Mercy at the Burger King this evening at Toa Payoh, i was observing the people who were caught by the beautiful photos and they are just simply mesmerized by it. My passion in photography made me realised how beautiful that is if the photographer can just see this scenario. Then i thought, how great if someone were to offer one of these $10,000 and for them to fulfill their dreams, is something that will gave them a chance to live to the fullest of their lives.

Little did i know that these are only a prelude to what God has in stored. As i was coming out of the train station, i saw this old lady who is blind and selling tissue papers, my heart melted, and i gave her more than what was required and then i saw a few more, outside the station and some walking slowly to their destination looking tired, old, sad perhaps and lines and greases on their faces that i wonder, if someone were to give me $10,000 i will let these people fulfill their dreams.

Chasm separating Christianity

This is part of my research into OSAS “Once saved, always saved” and i felt led to share it here. The chasm separating Christianity is not about our faith, but the wide difference in the theological difference between the Western predominately American evangelical community and the rest of the world.

The evangelical community in America associates the Christian faith very much into the more secular context of their lifestyle (eg: Politics), since their view of salvation is mostly about God’s delivering them out of tyranny, etc their view of God’s delivering Israel out of Egypt, applies very much to the American thinking and hence their fixation of mixing politics with religion is now understandably why.

The duality of American’s concept of Salvation stems out of the Puritan origin of the nation and in the later history of America especially in the era of Emancipation of the black community, the shadow of their previous oppression gave grounds to this particular concept of Salvation.  Therefore, to understand Bush and his idea, no matter how wrong and deluded and ignorant he is, the Christian community finds it hard to reconcile his faith to the idea of deliverance in Bush’s language.

In contrast, the concept of salvation is predominately first a reconciliation of the sinful man to a holy God where Christ died for our sins. The horizontal aspect of that, is secondary and often being exalted as the primary purpose of Salvation. The secondary aspect is man to man relations.

In view of the two widely opposing Christian view of Salvation, we see how the western world exalts preachers and evangelical leaders like Rick Warren in his mission to bridge gaps and bring peace to a broken world, and how Bush is able to garner support for an insidious ideology to world domination as an idea to destroy evil?

Modern Martyrdom

I received two viral SMS last week; one on the 1 year old boy who needed blood, second, on the Korean missionaries who were kidnapped by the Islamic terrorist – Taliban. In which previously i never was favourably disposed towards spam SMS, but these did caught my attention.

What’s modern day martyrdom? That these Korean Christians will die as martyrs. Should Christians pray for their safety that God will command some angels to do the miraculous operation rescue? God indeed can, but will He? Should God’s sovereignty in this situation be questioned if the Islamic terrorists were to kill all the missionaries? Tough question but i think our focus is in how we approach this issue.

I feel the focus of our prayers ought to be the Taliban terrorists, not the Korean missionaries. That through the lives of these Christians, their eyes will be opened to see Christ. In all Martyrs, their prayers were never about their own safety, or even survival, but their eyes firmly catching their executioners to say Jesus loves you. Even when the world mourns for the death of these Koreans, may we always remember, these Koreans are going to a better place; but their executioners are heading in the wrong direction – Hell.

Make no mistakes about it, Christians will be persecuted; when thousands died in the civil wars of the dark African continent; clashes between the militaristic hindus and Christians in the sub continent India, or the Underground Churches in the Communist China; as much as death looms around every day, i believe Grace abounds even greater! While we the more privileged ones, were ‘invaded’ by the carnal World view, that we too, will be persecuted one day for our faith.

My question is, are my eyes fixed on the pleasures of this world, that i will hang on to so much that we will not go to places where we run the risk of losing everything including our lives, if not for the love for Christ and for the people?

The Koreans will die, be it at the guns of the Talibans or years later of old age in Korea, i pray that through their lives, they will illuminate God’s love and that ‘Saul’ will arise among the people who watched. The seed will fall.