I am under Obligation

I've decided to post the whole sermon here. We are all under obligation to preach the Gospel and to preach the whole Gospel without altering or manipulating it. May God bless you through this message mightily.

*I apologize for the sound quality. Seems the upload caused some of the sound bits to go haywire. If you want the clearer original file, go to the sermon links on the sidebar.*

On Church

Over the past couple of weeks since finishing up my ministry in BB and turning my attention to church, it is almost like learning to walk all over again. Going into a completely new environment is always disconcerting and coming back after a gap of almost 6 years (or was it 7?) means that many things have changed, though some fundamental things have not.

I guess what troubles me most now, as it was 6 years ago, is the quite apparent lack of revelation of God and His Gospel in the church. The lack of reverence and desire for holiness pains me now more than ever. We embrace every new and "exciting" doctrine or method in the hope that it would attract the youth of today. My dear friend, what the church needs today are not new methodologies or fads, but the return to solid preaching of the Gospel and faithful exposition of Scripture. To realize it is not about boosting a person's self-esteem or promising him his best life now, but that is has all to do about eternity and the Glory of God.

We often treat God's word so flippantly and lightly. "God says this", "God says that," or "The Lord is telling me now to tell you this etc...." Now do not get me wrong. The Bible does instruct us not to quench the Spirit nor despise prophecy (1 Thess 5: 19-20), but it also does tell us immediately after that to test all things and hold fast to what is good (1 Thess 5:21). Do you not understand the seriousness of saying something is from God? It is not something to be uttered casually or without much serious discernment and prayer. Can you imagine the shame of standing before God on that Great Day and Him, who is above all things, tell you, "Why did you say things in my Name that I never said."

Oh the need for sober-mindedness. Oh the need for the Holy Spirit to convict men once again of their sin and utter depravity before God and to lead them to throw themselves upon Christ and the Cross. Oh the need for God's Grace to be upon us, to be able to rightly discern falsehood from that which is true.

I am sure that some who read these words of mine might think me arrogant and/or proud. However, let me just say that I too am guilty of doing so many of things I have stated above. May the Lord have mercy upon me and give me the grace and faith to conform more and more to the likeness of His Son.

A Need for Fresh Fire

Really really really need a fresh inspiration by the Holy Spirit. Life is beginning to feel like a roller-coaster of spiritual highs and lows again.

Fresh Fire by Don Moen

Fresh fire let it fall
O God hear our call
Send Your Spirit like a rushing wind
We need fresh fire

We are hungry we are thirsty
Crying our for more of You
Lord we are desperate for Your mercy
Let us burn to know Your Truth
Light a flame in us now
Send Your holy fire down

We have left our hearts unguarded
We confess we've walked away
Lord take us back to where we started
Where we first found love and grace
Light a flame in us now
Send Your holy fire down

More of Your love
More of Your power
Send a revival
We need it now
Stir up a fire
Let it burn brighter
Let the flame burn higher higher higher

Revive us again

A Short Notice

I think I just need to put this down as a sort of "disclaimer" for those who happen to chance upon this blog somehow by the grace of God :).

There is much in theology that remains much of a mystery to the finite mind of Man. Even the very basis of the Gospel, that how is it that God can so choose to love Man so as to send His only Begotten Son, to be crushed under His own almighty Wrath so that Man may be reconciled to Himself, is simply beyond the capabilities of Man to fully comprehend.

As such, there is so much in my understanding of God that needs refining and correction. I make no claim to special revelation nor of infallibility, but like all Man, I am so prone to stepping off the path and of turning my mind to dark and foolish things. Indeed after reading on all the various doctrines and theologies of Christianity, one does come out with a sense of knowing less that what one started with.

While it is still important to discover more about God through the study of various men's writings on Him and through the use of commentaries or study guides, it is also vital to walk with Him as a lifestyle and to literally seek and chase after Him throughout the day.

All that I post is of special conviction to my own life and of which I pray will also be to yours. But indeed I believe that God will continue to refine my knowledge and understanding of Him and His Word and that I am still much of a novice in Christ.

May He receive all the Praise

Mental Block

Recently gotten into a bit of a writer's block for this blog. It's not so much as there is nothing that I want to write about, but the fact is that some of the things that I wish I could write here, I am the least qualified to write about. More and more do I realize how little I know about God, His Grace and Mercy. So little do I know about prayer and His Glory. Who am I to speak and write about Him, the One who created the Heavens and the Earth. The One who placed all the stars in their place and which by His Power, not one of them is missing.

Why then do I continue to write on? I guess it is to provide a sort of travel log over the years. I look back at what I have written a year or two ago and realize how different my views and focus are now. Indeed that looking back, God is indeed faithful and true. May He always be praised and adored.

"This is a faithful saying:

For if we died with Him,
We shall also live with Him.
If we endure,
We shall also reign with Him.
If we deny Him,
He also will deny us.
If we are faithless,
He remains faithful;
He cannot deny Himself."

- 2 Timothy 2:11-13

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Been contemplating a bit on life the past few days and I am ever so conscious about my own mortality. So much that I have done will turn to dust and so much that I have treasured will one day be destroyed by rust and moths. What then will last into eternity?


When it's all been said and done
There is just one thing that matters
Did I do my best to live for truth?
Did I live my life for you?

When it's all been said and done
All my treasures will mean nothing
Only what I have done
For love's rewards
Will stand the test of time

Lord, your mercy is so great
That you look beyond our weakness
That you found purest gold in miry clay
Turning sinners into saints

I will always sing your praise
Here on earth and in heaven after
For you've joined me at my true home
When it's all been said and done
You're my life when life is gone...

Your Call by Paris Reidhead

"Your Call is to Jesus Christ, not to a geographical place."

- Paris Reidhead speaking on Missions

An excellent message regarding the verse "when two or three are gathered in His name." It's not about saying, "in Jesus name", at the end of prayer, but about gathering together and praying first and foremost for the Glory of God.

Warning Hard Message Ahead

The Great Privilege (Download from here)


Warning: May offend those who believe in a soft, happy-go-lucky, antinomian god who just really can't get anything done on this earth if there aren't any well-meaning people to help him out

Message for the Day

How do you know you believe?



Repent and believe the Gospel.

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Just an additional add-on for one of my older posts (It belongs to Christ). This is the edited portion that I wanted to post but for some reason the website I use had a problem at that time.

In a Whirlwind of Thoughts

Okay, maybe I am exaggerating when I say that I am currently in a whirlwind of thoughts now as it is more like a breeze that you feel just before it rains, but indeed there are many thoughts and worries that contest for my attention, especially over these past few days. So bear with me if I appear to be rambling (as I usually do) and/or my posts appear to be disjointed and "non-flowing" (is there even such a word?) over the next few days.

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Supremacy of Christ vs Supremacy of Man (Voddie Baucham @ Desiring God Conference 2006)


Indeed in this Man-centered age, so often have many "Christians" and "churches" relegated God to be nothing more than a divine vending machine, where we go to to get our wishes granted. And so often has our evangelism been based on what sort of perks and benefits God can give you in this temporal world. Believe in God/Jesus and He will heal your backache. Believe in God/Jesus and He will give you a great job or top grades in your exam. Believe in God/Jesus and He will bless you with all the luxuries of this life.

What a travesty! Believe in God because He has sent His only begotten Son to die on a cross to save you from His Wrath! Believe in Christ because though you did not deserve mercy or grace, in His Love He came and drank down the Wrath of His Father so that you can be reconciled and redeemed to God! Don't you dare cheapen the Gospel Call to anything less than that.

But no, no. We want to know what God can do for ME. And it does not even cross our minds to ask ourselves how can a Holy and Just God not strike us down where we stand because of our crimes against Him.

Indeed if it were not for His Mercy, sinful Man would have been obliterated from the face of the Earth eons ago. If it were not for His Grace, Man would have no hope of being reconciled to Him. But yet, and in this is the beautiful mystery, He chose to Love us, and to demonstrate His Love to us by sending Christ down, and for Him to face His Father's Wrath in our stead. What else could you possibly want? What else could you possibly need? Is this sacrifice not sufficient for you, insignificant little you, to live out your days in complete Joy and thanksgiving come what may?

I too struggle with this question. I thank God with every fibre of my being for what He has blessed me with, yet my constant fear would be this, if one day God so chose to take away all the comforts of this life which He has given, would I curse God to His face as Job was tempted to. Lord I beg you for faith if that day should ever come.

To the Wind with your problems (Paul Washer)

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Having read this blog post from this blog, I too realize that so often felt a certain sense of self-righteousness based on my experiences. So often have I been like the Pharisee who despised the tax collector because I do this or believe that. So often have I thought that because I know this certain Truth or done that commandment of God, I must be somehow better than this other person in church, forgetting that all we like sheep have gone astray, and only that by God's Grace alone has He seen fit to reveal what little Truth so far to me compared with the fullness of His Glory. Indeed I so need to repent daily of this, and that it is only by His sustaining Grace that I should have breath in me.

All praise and thanks be to God

Be Unto Your Name

An old song I know, but one that is so essential in today's Man-centered church.



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Sermon Compilation (On Judgment)

Thinking of the future (again)

I do not know why I so often turn my thoughts to the future and all its uncertainties. Maybe it is at this point in life that one is literally left at a loss at what to do and the future appears less clear and certain than what one is used to.

Growing up, it is indeed easy to become so singly focused, as I usually am, on what one has to do and on the next step in life. From NYPS to ACS, from ACS to ACJC, from ACJC to NS, from NS to NUS, the path is more or less clear and easily seen. However as one now turns his thoughts to the future, thoughts of work and family, thoughts of taking that first independent step into the unknown, one is literally overwhelmed with the amount of choices and uncertainties there are. Where the verse, "We walk by faith and not by sight" really takes on a whole new reality.

Things of course are not helped by the sheer number of weddings that I have had to attend and would probably be attending over the next few years. For a person who rarely feels an emotional attachment to anyone, to move in this direction is quite really a terrifying experience. Notwithstanding the issue of supporting such a relationship, the idea of entering a relationship is something that I can never quite really comprehend or imagine. Oh I have had my fair share of crushes and infatuations, but the weight of responsibility and expectation in a relationship is something that I have always shrunk from.

But in the words of the Lord God, "It is not good that the man should be alone" (Gen 2:18). One dreams of a companion and helper that the Lord will provide. Indeed if the Lord so wills, He will provide one who is a fellow slave of Christ, for no other criteria matters. Whether He chooses to bless me with singlehood or marriage, may His Name be praised amongst the nations.

All thanks be to God

Paul Washer on God's Will (Slaves of Christ)

The Dark of Night

"What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life....

For the death that He (Christ) died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace."

-Romans 6: 1-4, 10-14

Oh God help me, for I cannot help myself

He's Alive

The gates and doors were barred and all the windows fastened down;
I spent the night in sleeplessness and rose at every sound
Half in hopeless sorrow and half in fear the day
Would find the soldiers breakin' thru to drag us all away

And just before the sunrise I heard something at the wall
The gate began to rattle and a voice began to call;
I hurried to the window and looked down into the street
Expecting swords and torches and the sounds of soldier's feet

There was no one there but Mary so I went down to let her in;
John stood there beside me as she'd told us where she'd been.
She said "They moved Him in the night and none of us knows where;
The stone's been rolled away and now His body isn't there!"

We both ran t'ward the garden, then John ran on ahead;
We found the stone and empty tomb just the way that Mary said.
But the winding sheet they wrapped Him in was just an empty shell;
And how or where they'd taken Him was more than I could tell.

Well, something strange had happened there,
but just what I didn't know;
John believed a miracle but I just turned to go.
Circumstance and speculation couldn't lift me very high
'Cause I'd seen them crucify Him, then I saw Him die.

Back inside the house again the guilt and anguish came;
Everything I'd promised Him just added to my shame.
When at last it came the choices, I denied I knew His name;
And even if He was alive, it wouldn't be the same

But suddenly the air was filled with strange and sweet perfume;
Light that came from everywhere drove shadows from the room.
Jesus stood before me with His arms held open wide;
And I fell down on my knees, and just clung to Him and cried.

He raised me to my feet and as I looked into His eyes,
Love was shining out from Him like sunlight from the skies
Guilt and my confusion disappeared in sweet release
And every fear I'd ever had just melted into peace

CHORUS
He's alive! He's alive, He's alive and I'm forgiven!
Heaven's gates are open wide:
He's alive, He's alive, He's alive and I'm forgiven
Heaven's gates are open wide
He's alive, He's alive, He's alive and I'm forgiven
Heaven's gates are open wide He's alive, He's alive, He's alive