​I just want to share a short reflection after reading about what happened on 16th November to John Allen Chau - (http://www.bpnews.net/52019/crazy-or-called--missionarys-death-debated). The story of Chau probably reminded us to the story of Jim Elliot and his four other friends who died trying to reach the Huaorani in the Ecuador. But it also reminded me to a question I got from a colleague many years ago when I was still in research: Is Jesus’ death a sacrifice or a suicide?

I shared the story of Jesus at that time and one said: Supposed that Jesus did once walked on earth and went to the cross, I think He was crazy to go to the cross. It was suicide not a sacrifice. At least you serve some higher purpose if it is sacrifice, but it is suicide! Who wants to believe in someone who committed suicide? It is difficult to accept that Christ’ death is necessary for our forgiveness of sin and to take away God’s wrath.

With the controversy of his death, we do not know the impact of Chau’s story yet but one thing for certain, we know the impact of Jesus’ story. The story of Jesus’ death keeps on transforming lives including my own life. God’s way to reconcile His justice, wrath, mercy and love through His one and only Son is the most remarkable story I have ever heard and we believers have the assurance of truth in the story of Christ that transforms us daily.

If Chau’s story can stir the heart of many believers, should not the story of Jesus be even more powerful to compel us to be His witness to people who have not heard of His good news? God has called His people from every generation to be His witness. Will we learn from Jesus’ obedience and pick up our cross to share the good news of Christ in this month of December?
 
Matthew 28:19-20 NKJV
“Go 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, 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.”

- Jenni Wang

It is a normal experience for the modern world we live in. With constant distraction and options; variety of choices as we go through our days.

This is how God prompted me about the battle in my mind... and how indecision and double-mindedness drains my energy and capacity. It is that constant background chatters; that static noise that eats away at your ability to focus and concentrate. It is time to step up and decide, be steadfast in the choices we made; choosing righteousness over fleeting emotions or mood.

James says that those who are double-minded will not receive anything from God, they are unstable in ALL their ways. Being double-minded permeates all aspects of our life not just that one area we think we struggle with. 

But let “Steadfastness have it’s full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let her ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given Her...” (James 1:1-27)

- Susanna Tan

 Think about this, you are never alone. Those quiet, lonely times when you think no one gets you or even appreciate you, those are false thinking. No, you are never alone.

There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24. That precious friend is Jesus, He promises He is with you always and He will never leave nor forsake you. Before your day even started, Jesus guarded you through your slumber, He was with you when you woke in the morning, when you begin your day and thought about your plans ahead, Jesus is there. He is waiting with the direction you need. When you encounter a problem in your day, Jesus is still beside you, waiting for you to speak to Him and ask of help, He is ready to comfort you and even has provided a solution. As you are reading this, Jesus is beside you.

“My presence will go with you,” (Exodus 33:14) Jesus promises. Become aware of His presence in your day, think of Jesus as your constant companion. It will change your perspective, try it. Find the comfort and relieve from the false loneliness you feel. Jesus could fill that void better than anyone or anything ever can.

Psalm 139: 7 - 10
Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?  If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me.

- John W.

Reading this passage below, the words “The Invitation” came to mind, because of the language of Relationship God is using. 

Words like Come...Show...Walk...With Me...Work...With Me...Watch...Keep Company...Keep...With Me...

God never designed life to be walked without Him. We were always meant to depend on Him. But how many times have I taken the steering wheel and left Him out? 

God has been holding out His hands, waiting for me to grab His hands with both of mine. He wants us to allow Him to take the lead in life, in work, in our relationships... to Watch Him and Work with Him and Model what He is doing. And then to Keep Remaining in Him. 

And this is the secret to LIVING FREE! And LIGHTLY! Not burdened like the rest of the world...

- Susanna Tan 

The day of miracles from God is not of the past. God still reigns, loves His children no matter how broken they are and working just as powerfully from the days of Abraham to our current time. He promised us in His Words, “I’am the Lord, I do not change (Malachi 3:6)

God promises to heal us regardless what ailment our body or mind may have. To heal His children is a small thing for God who created all parts of our beings. “I’am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for me?” He knows when your flesh is hurting, when you are weak and he knows your demons, the ones whom you thought you will never be able to overcome. 

Your demon may be that big mountain of debt, that sickness that you have prayed for healing for ever so long, a wayward child, a stale career, a broken relationship or it could a mental torment within you. Whatever it may be, God knows the story better than your own heart and mind. He knows how hope deferred makes the heart sick and when we will reach a weary, worry-full state, thinking if God will ever come through for us.

God can and wants to heal us. He wants to provide for us but we must first make the decision that we want what He wants and knows His plan is the best for us, without reservation. In following through that decision, let us faithfully do our part to address the physical or spiritual problems that may be a contributing factor. Perhaps this is where the saying comes in, do your best and let God do the rest. Prayerfully surrender what you can’t do; tell Him the pain you feel and watch God’s supernatural power swept you up to His embrace. The day of miracles from God is not of the past.
 
Jeremiah 32:27
I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?
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- Irene Soon

When we read the Bible, we could easily presume that men and women of the Bible seems to be so confident. Unwavering faith despite their impossible situations. Perhaps all these are easily presumed as we are seeing their miracles in hindsight.

Look at Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They were thrown to a fiery furnace for not bowing down and worshipping Nebuchadnezzar’s golden image.

In this, we could see that their faith isn’t the absence of fear; faith overcomes fear. Their faith didn’t seem to be based on any assumption that their bodies would miraculously be fire-proof. They said, “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if He does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

They didn’t know what would happen, but their faith was in the fact that no matter what, they knew God had a plan and they weren’t setting conditions according to what seemed best to them.

You may feel afraid of what you’re facing. Situations may seem impossible and when faith enters, you are assured that God will not leave you despite not knowing what the outcome may be. What faith knows is that Jesus will not leave us comfortless; He’ll be there walking with us through the fire, as He was with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
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​Daniel 3: 17
If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty's hand.

- John W.

Hebrews 3:12-15 (NKJV)
Beware brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion...”
 
Have you allowed your heart to harden…?
 
Recently, I was watching a livestream of Ps Steven Furtick’s sermon on “Choosing your chains.” During the sermon, he uses a C.H.A.I.N. acronym – Choice, Habit, Automatic, Identity and Nature. It was the progression of our deeply rooted attitudes and behaviours through our choices and decisions. After this sermon, I reflected upon all the times I have allowed disappointment, anger, hurt, doubt and unbelief to reign in my heart.
 
In Hebrews, the author writes to an audience to be aware about how our unbelief separates us from being in relationship with God. In this passage, it identifies our unbelief as our unwillingness to trust God. Unbelief is deeply rooted in deceit and presents as hardness on the surface. It is not the weakness of faith, but rather an opposition towards faith.
 
Hardening our hearts is often the response of what has happened to us rather than from others or our circumstances. Some examples are hardening our hearts through unbelief, asking for more signs, presuming upon the mercies of God and relapsing into old indifferences (David Guzik). So how can we soften our hearts and be responsive in our relationship with God?
 
1. The time is NOW!
The Holy Spirit identifies that there is no time like the present. While you may have heard of the saying ‘time heals all wounds’, the Holy Spirit invites us to act upon addressing this today as so far as providing an example of those previously lost in their unbelief (the hearts of the rebellion – Numbers 13 & 14).
 
2. Stay in FELLOWSHIP
While we are in fellowship, we hold one another accountable and keeps us from being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. The word exhort is to call to one’s aid or side. Without the support of the fellowship, our belief in our God can shift into a belief in lies without us even knowing, thus distancing our relationship with God. Many Christians who have tried being separate from the church and other Christians often find their relationship with God also distant and some may even turn from God.
 
So consider the condition of your heart. Do you have the support around you? If not, what are you planning to do about it today?

- Melanie Riley

​Nature has always been a source of tranquil peace and quietness. When life drags you down, you find yourself refreshed after a walk in the park, the sight of a waterfall, hearing the sound of the ocean waves, seeing the starry night skies or you name it, it is usually in the nature, free for all to see and feel.  

It dawned to me then, that God has always been the author of peace, He fashioned the nature to carry His peace and calmness amidst the busy strenuous lifestyle we so often find ourselves in. When we find ourselves enveloped in the solitude of nature, that is also when we could hear God with clarity and receive His comforting peace. God spoke to Moses from the burning bush at Horeb- the mountain of God (Exodus 3), God brought Abraham out to see the stars to count his descendants to be (Genesis 15: 5)and Jesus went to the mountainside to pray and spent the night praying to God (Luke 6:12-13).

Are you in need of peace to refresh your soul? God has provided it ever so abundantly outside of our door steps and are you struggling to hear from Him? Learn from Jesus and withdrew from the crowd. For us, it could simply mean to withdraw from the crowd our modern life, modern technologies and embrace the peacefulness of nature that He has provided. Quiet your soul then and that very still small voice, you will eventually hear. Don’t let the clutters of life’s demands silence the voice of God within you and robs you of your inner peace.
 
Psalm 29: 11 NLT
The LORD gives his people strength. The LORD blesses them with peace.

- Irene Soon

I am reintroduced recently to the old hymn “What a firm foundation” and a contemporary song “Who You say I am” and I am reminded again who and how God sees us. We are indeed sinners, but also saints because of what Christ has done on the cross. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8).
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In our trouble and distress, He is our refuge (Ps. 46:1). When we are in deep waters, God is with us (Is. 43:2). In our weakness, we find His strength and His grace is sufficient for us (2 Cor. 12:9). When we are weak and there is no more strength in us, He is always sustaining us (Is. 46:4). Even when we are shaken and we feel weak and we doubt our faith as we are overwhelmed with trials and tribulation, He promises to be faithful because He will never leave nor forsake us (Deut. 31:6). Christ has become curse for us ‘just’ to buy us and to pay the full price of our sin (Gal. 3:13-15).
 
I can go on and on, but what I have learned from the songs is more than enough to remind me of who God is, who He is for us and who we are in Him. Most likely we will never be Billy Graham or Mother Teresa or even those people we greatly admire with their long list of achievements or those who have touched many lives and showed God’s love for others, but we are all ‘who I am’ in God.
 
When I feel small and insignificant, or when I feel God is silent and I’m focused on all the negativities around me, I want to encourage everyone (including myself) to take heart and live according to who God is and who we are in Him, not according to who we think we are or what the world thinks of us. May we live as ‘who I am in God through Christ’.
 
Isaiah 46:4
I will be your God throughout your lifetime--until your hair is white with age. I made you, and I will care for you. I will carry you along and save you.

- Jenni Wang

Our Lord Jesus is ever giving, and does not for a solitary instant withdraw his hand. As long as there is a vessel of grace not yet full to the brim, the oil shall flow. He is a sun ever-shining; He is manna always falling round the camp; He is a rock in the desert, ever sending out streams of life from His smitten side; the rain of His grace is always dropping; the river of His bounty is ever-flowing, and the well-spring of His love is constantly overflowing.

​As the King can never be defeated, so His grace can never fail. Daily, we pluck His fruit, and daily, His branches bend down to our hand with a fresh store of mercy. Who has ever returned from God’s house unblessed. Who has ever risen from His table unsatisfied?  His mercies are new every morning and fresh every evening. Who can know the number of His benefits, or recount the list of His bounties. The wings of our hours are covered with the silver of his kindness, and with the yellow gold of His affection.
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How shall my soul extol him who daily loadeth us with benefits, and who crowneth us with loving-kindness. O that my praise could be as ceaseless as His bounty!

​1 Timothy 6:17
Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.

- Writing of Charles Spurgeon