Battle of Wills

There is a battle which we often tend to ignore or not noticing its importance, the battle of wills. I remember not so fondly about the times in one of my army trainings, my instructor will say it is all in the mind, physical pain is nothing. At that time, I thought he was being ridiculous. Fortunately over the years, I realized the simple truth in that, the battle of our mind and will precedes the toughest of battles in life. Whether we are preparing for a tough time ahead in our career, or tackling a monster of some undesired habits, or even through some struggles, the crud of the tipping point of victory lies in us facing the issue in the will.

The problem is not about victory in life, but that we are holding on to a defeated mindset of the past life – the fallen nature, and refusal to put on the right identity of Christ. Of all people, I am guilty of all the charges. Despite knowing all these, does not mean I have gotten the victory, as knowledge is but a first step to gaining that victory. Through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit in revelation given to us through the Word of God, it is our decision now, to fight it out in the battle of will, to allow ourselves to be transformed first in our mind, next through our lives, that we will grow to be more like Christ. This battle is part of a life long war waged against the fallen world and nature.

The universe and me

If the relative size of a speck of dust compared to the universe is so insignificant then so is ourselves? Can we measure who we are and what our destiny should be to such drastic comparison? Such comparison is mere exaggeration and inaccurate to say the least but it is how human tend to use to say something about their destiny or themselves don’t they?

The importance of one’s worth and destiny is not measured merely in its size but on which those worth and destiny are built on? Is it built on a good cause, material wealth or something bigger than ourselves? One said that unless our worth, destiny lies in a bigger cause than ourselves, it is not worth a single moment of our lives. Question is what is my worth? It is immeasurably big, bigger than this universe because it is rooted in the very cause in relentless pursuit of who God is, that is the bedrock of my worth and destiny.

Guard thy heart

Not just against all manners of fleshly lust but against invisible human menaces such as pride, jealousy, hatred, selfishness and self condemnation. Too often have we associate the command to guard our hearts and have never considered its essence. True christianity lies in its application first on the condition of our spirit and soul and then physical for what transpires in the making and moulding of our soul must result in a physical change. The changing of our heart must result in a selfless act of considering others better than ourselves to a total surrender to the almighty God. It is a process as delicate as the hands of the surgeon and we can place our trust in him who is the master potter. Let the process of guarding our heart, conditioning of our mind and the changing process of our mind and heart begin so we can till one day be truly like Christ.

Friends

Friendship and its meaning has changed over the years for myself. I have lost some true friends and have made quite a number of acquaintances. Along the way too friendship is broken down with good friends and mostly insignificant ones and another category appears when I came unwillingly into the marketplace.

If I were to be asked if I have any friends I would probably say no. Not that I am a hermit but perhaps I have had friendship which I wish I had kept and protected but I did not. When comes to friendship I must admit among many other things a total failure. What would I look for in a friendship beside the kindred spirit?

I looked at myself most of all that how can anyone want me to be their friend?seriously I am mean and I mean it I am a mean bastard that selfishness i realized one of the strongest trait I have with regards to friendship. I think it is giving selflessly that truly defines friendship, and I have none of it. Can I give selflessly? Sure I am capable of but I measure who is worthy of my selfless act! Ya that is pure selfishness. Mercy often said I am and I casually remarked that I sell prawns and crabs too.

I wonder why am I the way I am. No I am not attempting to be philosophical but i am so sick of life. Life of meeting repayment of financial obligations and debt, working to earn a miserable and meagre pay and I wish I am heathier like running on a marathon, swim daily, kick the ball and to do so without breaking out a migraine and I think life has taken out a chunk of joy and I absolutely hate it. Now I am merely a computer football player or I can only dream of taking beautiful picture and travel the world with mercy and even to see the need of the orphans and widows and lamenting about it. It is such position now I hate and I think such attitude to life affects directly to how I view friendship. No friendship is worth the keep especially when there is so much shit in life and I do not need more shit in building or investing into other people other than keeping my life out of the stupid mess I am already in.

Wha is wrong with me? I need a radical change of heart to look at lives and people of what matters more to Jesus. I need to wiper to clear the clutter of my eyes and heart to see what matters more eternally. Friendship being one of them. Now in the midst of planning for my wedding I do not actually intend to invite any friends except those on mercy’s side. I do not intend to have a best man and I think I relished the quiet solitude in life that I love the clutter free circle of acquaintances.

See being nice to others always held some form of expectation. When they don’t meet up to the expectation they drop dangerously below the standard. I remember who had been kind to me and who didn’t and it is a heavy burden on this friendship business that i very much prefer to drop it off at the top of the dusty shelf that says storeroom and of no noble consequences.

Why the church must twitter?

“I am confident – no matter what type of church you are leading, no matter what type of community you are ministering to, no matter how much you do or don’t like technology – this E-Book will lead to a conversation that needs to be had.”

Terry Storch – LifeChurch.tv

I wonder should the Church be twittering? Twittering is one of the social media platform that’s gaining rapid popularity among netizens. The platform is so popular because it allows posting of short messages on a singular platform that allows followers to follow the updates to the moments in life.

It is a great marketing tool, of which i have been exploring as one of the main options in our social media marketing campaign. However for a church to employ this platform, it runs a greater risk of packaging our faith in a marketing aspects. Question remains, how can we remain relevant to this world without becoming the world? Christianity today seeks relevancy not just in its secular appeal such as sanctuary or a quasi-yoga’istic approach to life, but it is bigger than these, it seeks a spiritual revelation of our sinful nature and the Gospel of the good news in a Saviour revealed in the person Jesus. That He died for our sins and was buried but on the third day, He rose again, and ascended into the heavens and He will be back. It is a spiritual message that must dawn in the human spirit an absolute moral direction as a result of a regeneration of our spirit.

Then the question would make more sense in whether the Church must twitter rather than Why the church should twitter.

The beautiful sunset over the eastern sky of Singapore brought me to a standstill from the overwhelming clouds that I thought, the world is so big, and I am so small.

The wonder of life, is complicated with the pain; which so often is the subject of question of why. I’ve just learnt that a friend’s granny just passed away, i can’t helped but thought that as one grows older, such incidents must be common or increasingly common.

Is Man ready for pain, or the capacity to understand it? Perhaps Pain is the best testimony that there is a God, for He went through the pain of seeing Jesus dying on the cross, and that must be it, the so called imprint of one’s destiny with eternity lies with the issue of Pain and how Man handles it.

Guitar and Guitar Effects for sale!

If anyone is interested to adopt and take over my guitar and guitar effects. Please drop me an email at daniel.ho@gmail.com

Ibanez Guitar comes with an electronic tuner, straps, and an hard case. I will include a distortion box as well @ $450 and the Zoom Multi-Effects G2.1U @ $150

The perfect church

Since the beginning of the church age as narrated in the Book of Acts, the pictures conjured are far from what we see today in the mega churches, the humanized church movement and mega wealthy pastors and preachers and prophets.

Isaac mentioned yesterday which has shed some light to why there are so many times i find deluded with the so called organized religious meetings we affectionally call “services” or “evangelistic meetings”, that in the early churches, one of the key characteristics is that the people give whatever they have to share and that there is no lack among the christians then. Not that i have anything to give, but part of me, i want to give to whoever is in need. And yet, pride has prevented me from asking help. In a dire financial situation now, bills are piling, my faith is stretching thin and fragile to that fact, who can i go to for help with my financial debts? So many has spoken about living about in prosperity and it is God’s blessings in financial aspects, i am beginning to wonder, am i not a child of God and that it pleases God that no matter what i did, how much i gave to the church, that my situation just got from bad to worse, and that the debt is mounting to a despairing situation?

Maybe i am not right with God that He is not intervening in my situation? Maybe i am a sinner, that i inherit nothing but wrath and curses? Probably a reminder, that my faith requires me to make a choice – that whatever i believe in, is all a lie, or that requires me to go beyond what my eyes has seen to what faith actually requires in believing in Something or Someone of which my eyes cannot see? I could just give up, and when my heart is despaired beyond what i can take, the first group of people i should turn to for help is the last or is never the group i want to ask – the Church.

Mirror mirror on the wall

As the evil queen to look into mirror and asked who is the fairest of them all, I wonder how many of us actually do that? Not in asking who is the fairest but to truly see ourselves in reflection. As I’m on the bus right now to meet mercy at borders, I reflected on my week – oh mediocre time management, getting abit lazy with my pursuit of God and that says it all, my week was a total failure when I am not putting God first even in my daily walk and not to mention the whole list of things I have not live up to.

I remember that incident about my comments on this Indian lady who is hairy and call her name and that sums it up – I’m at self righteous and insecure. Only people who is not secured makes snide remarks about how other people looks! Who knows, she might be an angel or mother Theresa! I got to tame that monster of self righteousness and really put on a sack cloth of humility.

I am a man of flaws! No wonder the message this week rings around this – God’s strength is made perfect in my weaknesses! Who am I to boast of myself? What abilities have I to sing about? Ah wretched Man I am! Father help me to guard my heart that I may not puff up arrogance and pride that I will see others through your eyes and through your heart.

A letter from Shultz.

From the desk of Steve Shultz:

I’ve never seen less clarity than during this season over who would be the next President. This, I believe, was a tactic of God. And I’ve always said God can change a man or a nation in a moment. I’ve also said God is NOT a Republican nor a Democrat. HE is in charge of the universe.

Jesus had ample opportunity to criticize the government of HIS day. Yet HE chose to correct the People of God instead. Both parties have things they have done right and have also done wrong.

Earlier this morning, our editor Julie Smith and I were praying and talking about the election outcome. She shared with me that last night after Barack Obama was announced the winner, God simply told her to “Pray for him like he is a son.” I believe this is the heart of God over our new President-elect – because he is a son and we are to pray for him as one.

Please keep the current and the next President in your prayers. This is a both-and situation. I TRULY believe that for most prophetic voices, God HID who would be the next President. And add to the fact that we are the most righteous nation on the earth, giving generously and praying fervently in this last season. We are a people that need to stand and not allow the rift of this nation to get any wider than what it already is.

I could go on, but this is simple and irrefutable. We often ask why a given prayer is not answered. Well, it is. God always answers the prayer of agreement. God knows our prayers even before we pray them. It says so in the Word. Nothing is without the will and purpose of God. Nothing!

I leave you with this Scripture – this applies to every creature on earth and every man, woman and child:

Psalm 139:16, “Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.”

When i read this email, i am shocked, actually not shocked by their arrogance. Generally there are others who said Barack Obama’s victory is a defeat for the Christian and Evangelical Community, and the world around, not that he is the first Afro American to win the presidency of the United States, but because he stands for every thing contradicting the Christian faith, and first his secrecy of his faith is a subject of question, second, he is pro abortion, is that what Steve Shultz says, God’s heart is with this man who supports abortion, an act of murder of millions of babies????

How about when Steve’s arrogance to say America is the MOST righteous nation on earth? I am shocked that the extent of his false doctrines cometh with pride, pride that is an evidence of his wickedness. America is far from being the most righteous nation on earth, with millions of babies murdered each year, with the immoral weak leadership of the nation that sells on greed that led to the collapse of the economy of a nation, with corruption, sexual immorality that only an apt description of the Ancient Babylon befitting of the nation of America. Unless Steve Shultz and his group of wicked ‘false prophets’ and ‘false teachers’ of Elijah List repent, they too will perish together with their flock of apostates.

I grieve to learn Obama is the new president of the United States. In hearing his speech at Chicago, he will go on to create a common economic market that will set the stage of the end times, a muslim in ‘christian’ clothing will shift United States’ stand in the world affairs, especially in the area of Israel’s conflicts in the Middle East. Now thousands if not Millions of babies will be legally murdered and supported by Obama administration, and directly Steve Shultz.

Sin and me

Judges 10:15 – “But the Israelites said to the Lord, “We have sinned, do with us whatever you think best, but please rescue us now.” When God’s people realized the depth of their sin and impending punishment by God, they repented and asked for His help; unfortunately, we often hide or avoid the issue of our sin. We must not view confession as humiliation or weakness. Acknowledging our sin, and asking for forgiveness, cleansing and power opens door for God to use us mightily. I believe this is something all of us, especially me, need to realize that the provision of forgiveness is given in an environment of restoration, not at the premise of destruction. That’s one thing the devil will never be able to do, as the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, bent on destruction of the saints, but God, the Lion of Judah, must confront us, but gently restoring through our confession, repentance and provision of restoration.

Godly Sorrows

Godly sorrow worketh repentance.”

2 Corinthians 7:10

Genuine, spiritual mourning for sin is the work of the Spirit of God. Repentance is too choice a flower to grow in nature’s garden. Pearls grow naturally in oysters, but penitence never shows itself in sinners except divine grace works it in them. If thou hast one particle of real hatred for sin, God must have given it thee, for human nature’s thorns never produced a single fig. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.”

True repentance has a distinct reference to the Saviour. When we repent of sin, we must have one eye upon sin and another upon the cross, or it will be better still if we fix both our eyes upon Christ and see our transgressions only, in the light of his love.

True sorrow for sin is eminently practical. No man may say he hates sin, if he lives in it. Repentance makes us see the evil of sin, not merely as a theory, but experimentally—as a burnt child dreads fire. We shall be as much afraid of it, as a man who has lately been stopped and robbed is afraid of the thief upon the highway; and we shall shun it—shun it in everything—not in great things only, but in little things, as men shun little vipers as well as great snakes. True mourning for sin will make us very jealous over our tongue, lest it should say a wrong word; we shall be very watchful over our daily actions, lest in anything we offend, and each night we shall close the day with painful confessions of shortcoming, and each morning awaken with anxious prayers, that this day God would hold us up that we may not sin against him.

Sincere repentance is continual. Believers repent until their dying day. This dropping well is not intermittent. Every other sorrow yields to time, but this dear sorrow grows with our growth, and it is so sweet a bitter, that we thank God we are permitted to enjoy and to suffer it until we enter our eternal rest.

The message of Grace is incomplete without an understanding on repentance. Grace is best demonstrated when it is met with a response, otherwise the beauty and the wonder of His Grace is lost, for like a beautiful flowers were blossomed with no one to appreciate its beauty. For Grace must push us to repent, not in a passive ways but that we are all struggling with sins and as such, till the day God calls us back, God’s grace compels us to look at Sin in its fullest ugliness, and that it must born in us a true hatred of Sin, because it is so hateful to God as well.

How God can use anyone if only…

How God can use this man, so he can use anyone if we only give ourselves to His purpose.

When God draws near.

It was a sense of great honour to be in the presence of great people, and I personally have a few in my memory. But never a time that I was in the presence of great people that i do not deserve, or that I was drawn into the presence that’s based on the air of hostility except one.

Today, after weeks of intense struggles, that I’ve decided the course I would have to undertake. I was offered help, but at the course of another debt that i cannot hope to repay. The business I have set up unfortunately hasn’t really taken off, with many problems that i seems to be helpless with – like dealing with people in office that is wholly incompetent and getting backstabbed by that ingrates. Lack of appropriate financial compensation from the business really puts my faith to the test, but it was in reality the knowledge that my burden will be tripled when Mercy goes off to the mission field in Jan. I find myself unable to trust God to be the Jehovah Jireh, and in fact, i find Him to be far off; hence my christian walk suffers that i cannot come to Him in confidence.

On top of the business problems, financial problems, in personal life, i found myself emotional drained and unstable. I need a long break, I need a reason from God to why i need to go through all these, or that if this is in His will? Getting involved in the youth, in discipleship, which i would love to, but i won’t because i cannot commit when my mind and heart are telling me otherwise.

Under my care was one brother in Christ, Boon Wan. He hasn’t been attending church and i messaged him asking how he is doing, and the reply was that he wants to lead his own life, making money, taking care of his birds and managing his house etc and he is not inclined to come to church. Not that i am shocked by this, cos i have already in mind why he has been absent from Church. But it was my response that i am shocked. It is not the righteous that Christ came, in fact if i am so good, there wouldn’t be a need for God’s grace and mercy every day. It is not that i need to go to church daily or the length of my prayer that justifies me, but it is my conscious need for God that God is pleased with. i can’t live a day without His Grace and Mercy for indeed it is His faithfulness and loving kindness that sustain me. One thing is that i told him, the Church and the family at Paradise of God will always welcome him and will always be there in prayer for him. I think the Church might not be perfect but we can at least love, not just that, but love each other deeply in the Love of Jesus.

I reflected on that incident, that through my words, i began to realize the shift in my theology; now not that i am a gnostic and paganistic cult guy, but i am seeing the world through the eyes of God, and isn’t that theology. Theology in itself is merely a scholastic pursuit of the assumption to know God, but that is wrong. Theology ought to be tickled with knowing God through His Eyes, and His heartbeat for i have learnt to know someone, is to know His heartbeat and to see the world through His Eyes.

I am not perfect, like what Ryan would have inferred, i am far from perfect. But i hope it is my little steps to change, to walk rightly before God is what matters to Him, and if i really believe God is God, and Jesus is God, and Jesus is real and everything that’s written in the bible is real, then i must believe He can take a -10 and a -10 (total -20) to be a million for His glory. Ryan said I am a -10 in terms of financial, and Mercy -10, so how can a -20 touch the world? Yes it is true in Man’s eye, but now, i also see how a boy with 5 loaves of bread and 3 fishes fed the multitude that day.

Joel Osteen – whitewashed preacher

“…. there are more people who are qualified to explain the scriptures to you, but i do not think that’s my gifting…” Joel Osteen.

I was involved in a conversation during supper on Sat with our Youth Pastor, and i told her, contrary to most who believe that there will be an end time revival, that there will be an end time fall away. Christians and so called Preachers, Pastor, Evangelist, Prophets, Apostles and (nowadays you got so many titles) that these will be deceived and even led others to fall away from the faith to follow their gods of wealth, power, material possession and false peace and false hope.

Even seeing in my church, and churches in Singapore with all the talks of Singapore being an Antioch of the Asia, i personally have no problem with that, except that i feel, we are missing something really big, bigger than our ministry, than our church that’s God. I see Pastors selling short of themselves by performing amateur magic shows, or writing books to live a good life without mention of God like Joel Osteen, and many more, are following down that road of destruction and not surprising, many more will follow along.