Elder Ho Kien Keong
30-06-2019
Joshua 5:1 New King James Version (NKJV)
The Second Generation Circumcised
5 So it was, when all the kings of the Amorites who were on the west side of the Jordan, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before the children of Israel until [a]we had crossed over, that [b]their heart melted; and there was no spirit in them any longer because of the children of Israel.
God had to prepare their hearts.
Joshua 5:2 New King James Version (NKJV)
2 At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make flint knives for yourself, and circumcise the sons of Israel again the second time.”
God is more interested in their hearts than in their victories.
1) Consecration:
Deuteronomy 30:6 New King James Version (NKJV)
6 And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
God wanted the Israelites to understand consecration.
Spirituality is God taking your heart into a place where He is able to work.
2) Ownership:
Joshua 5:10 New King James Version (NKJV)
10 Now the children of Israel camped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho.
It is a place of ownership, where they have to remember once again why they had to move from the eastern side of the Jordan River to the western side. God wanted them to know ownership of their lives.
3) Be on God's side
Joshua 5:13-15 New King James Version (NKJV)
The Commander of the Army of the Lord
13 And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, “Are You for us or for our adversaries?”
14 So He said, “No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.”
And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and said to Him, “What does my Lord say to His servant?”
15 Then the Commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy.” And Joshua did so.
Consecration, ownership and holiness form the ingredients to fulfil God's purposes.
When you come behind God, God goes ahead of you.
Be on God's side. He will fight the battles for us because we are following His will and purposes.
Romans 8:31 New King James Version (NKJV)
God’s Everlasting Love
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
Romans 8:37-39 New King James Version (NKJV)
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Joshua 6:20 New King James Version (NKJV)
20 So the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets. And it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat. Then the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.
Elder Ho Kien Keong
16-06-2019
Being a father is the most difficult job in a godless world.
Fathers are at the forefront of this challenge to bring them up biblically.
Between God and what we do is the father and mother.
Jesus in the Gospel of John reveals the heart of the Heavenly Father.
We see interconnectedness between Jesus' heart and God's heart.
When hearts are connected there is a sense of belonging.
It is the heart that calls us to be aligned to the values and conviction of the family instead of a set of rules.
When hearts are connected, it is no longer a duty.
If we are not careful to build on things that are solid, we are in danger of building a consumer mindset.
When we are connected, we are able to bring up values. It is the values that we build together.
There is ownership and belonging in what we do.
The challenge for us is to take heart of what God says.
Time waits for no man. Time passed cannot be retained. There are so many things that would distract our hearts.
Over time, we have developed a consumer mindset. When we come to church, we come with a consumer mindset that looks only to our own needs. It will never have ownership and a sense of belonging.
We must go beyond a consumer mindset. We plant seeds that will grow and have lives. We plant our effort and time that will one day bear much fruit. We need to build and to plant.
Make it a family commitment to be on time.
We build a spiritual home for everyone.
Together we open the presence of God. Let's have our hearts connected. Create a culture to be responsible to build deep relationships where hearts can be connected.
Jesus gives a picture of God being a gardener.
If we begin to understand that God is a gardener, deep relationships cannot be random but intentional.
Deuteronomy 6:6-9 New King James Version (NKJV)
6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
We need to be intentional as parents to create good memories at home.
Catch those teachable moments.
Stay interested in our children's lives and empower our older ones. Truths are often caught than taught.
Do the values that you believe in the Bible come out in good times and bad times?
Spiritual families need to be intentional in our steps to God to become disciples.
Churches have become tourist attractions because they have lost the values of being intentional disciples. They cannot be random disciples.
There is unity in strength but weakness in individuality. Find time to be intentional.
We need to remain faithful. We need to remain to endure.
As we remain faithful, we need to dig in to change the soil, put fertilisers, prune and later come to a point to reap.
It is not always our children's problem. Fathers and mothers are equally responsible to change.
Ephesians 3:14-21 New King James Version (NKJV)
Appreciation of the Mystery
14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father [a]of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
We are chosen to be a father and a mother. And God recognises that.
The journey in life is to go and bear fruits that will last, just as Jesus spent three and a half years with His disciples. It is the will of God. When we pray the will of God, it is executed in your life and your relationships.
John 15:16-17 New King James Version (NKJV)
16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. 17 These things I command you, that you love one another.
Love brings the hearts close. We need to love with sincerity of our hearts.
God loves us. We love God and we love one another.
We have a Heavenly Father that is long term.
Pr Dr Chew Weng Chee
09-06-2019
The Gospel of Matthew is a manual on discipleship.
Matthew 28:19-20 New King James Version (NKJV)
19 Go [a]therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” [b]Amen.
Jesus begins His teaching with the Sermon on the Mount.
And Jesus ends the Sermon on the Mount with a choice:
You decide whether it is the narrow gate or broad gate. (Matthew 7:13-14)
And you decide on what kind of fruit that you want to produce. (Matthew 7:15-20)
And you decide what kind of house you want to build: the foolish builder or the wise builder. (Matthew 7:24-27)
Matthew 5:7 New King James Version (NKJV)
7 Blessed are the merciful,
For they shall obtain mercy.
None of us are merciless. But a lot of us treat God like the Pharisees. We begin to take on this air or aura of religiosity.
Mercy and grace is the glory of God. And it is not only for you and me. It is for a thousand generations.
The 8 beatitudes precede the salt and light. The character precedes the conduct.
It is doable. It is a Christian counterculture.
The good news is we are blessed because God never shortchanges us.
Mercy is the same word as love.
The mercy of God is part of the glory of God.
Psalm 23:6 King James Version (KJV)
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
Psalm 23:6 New International Version (NIV)
6 Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.
Justice has been met at the cross. The mercy and love of God can now flow to you and to me.
If God is a God of mercy, ask-lah. The problem is, we don't ask enough. Why? Arrogance. Self-righteousness.
All of us need mercy. The problem is, we don't ask enough.
God's mercy is inexhaustible.
Luke 18:9-14 New King James Version (NKJV)
The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector
9 Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ 13 And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be [a]humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Whatever that you're going through, come to God humbly. And God will begin to pour out His mercy to you and to me.
Freely give, freely receive.
Are there areas of your life that you have not show mercy?
Because you have not shown mercy, that becomes an obstacle and a blockade for the mercy and blessing of God to flow in your own life.
You have to show mercy.
How do you minister to the people who kill your family?
Mercy was offered but it was not taken.
At the cross, mercy and justice met.
