Sunday, 22 June 2008

Is there a hope?


Paul explained to everyone he was speaking in tongue, he spoke more than anyone in Corinthian. But in another place in the letter to Romans, he admit he has his struggles of life.


Here Paul wrote to the brethren in Romans, to tell them, about his personal life in Christianity, he had a great struggle in himself, the good and evil, and he sees himself, and he said he has to depend on the Lord Jesus Christ in order he can has the victory in Christian walk. Paul did not boast about his tongue speaking talent here, he already explained that speaking in tongue is a spiritual gift, but then there is still the struggle of sin, Paul explained only the Lord Jesus Christ can free him from the bondage of living in sin. I hope those who are praying in tongue can see themselves as Paul sees his own self, we have the struggle of good and evil. We are not better than Paul, I think. We must pursue the freedom from the law of sin, speaking in tongue is not the measure stick of our spiritual life, it may help us, or it may sometimes edify us like Paul told the Corithian, but we thank God through the Lord Jesus, we have the ability to live a victor life, may God help us.



The Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ commanded his disciples not to judge, it is not good to judge, but if you judge, the measurement we use to judge other, must be used on ourselves first. Before we can judge others. The Lord warned us, that we may not see our own weakness, because of our spiritual blindness. Most of the time, we presume we are better than others, MORE SPIRITUAL THAN OTHERS, we are more spiritual because our doctrine is right and better, and look down on other, but we forget we also have the same spiritual struggles like other, sometime we are worse than an unbeliever, in our daily act and behavior , we are not living as the light and salt in the world. For examples those who spoke in tongue like to judge those do not speak in tongue. And likewise those who read books more will judge those who does not read as much as they would. There are division because of tongue speaking and so on. They mock each other because of what they know, they can not get together because of the head knowledge.


This is what I look into the mirror and I see myself, sometimes an angel of light, yes, having the head knowledge, and able to judge others, but what about my walk the Lord, as I had told you before, the glory has left me, you can see now I am living in bitterness, may God give me peace and grace, in Christ, may God pick me, I am not any capable preacher, neither a not good Christian, I cannot campare myself with Paul or anyone of the full time pastor, but I can tell you many had been greatly disturbed because of the struggle to weather to speak in tongue or not, and also the VPP perfect underlying text, both of them have cause us much pain and labors days and nights without ceasing.

Life may be full with bitterness and sadness, I had face to face with the devils and demons before, and also facing the attack from them, but then sometimes in my life, in my depression and tension I roared and shouted like one of them, is there a hope to become a better Christian? Who can heal and save me from this kind of emptiness and weakness, no one, except the Lord Jesus, sometime I feel great, sometime I feel down. Even thought, there are visions from heaven, and voices from above to us, but life did not stop there, there are times I did not take up the cross and follow Jesus Christ, did not let the old man die, and let He lived in me. Because of living in falsehood, one will become a false apostle one day. I do not have the authority to teach you but the Bible is my authority to teach myself, may the Lord keep us from big and small errs.


The Lord told his disciples about the coming events, because of iniquity, the love of many shall wax cold, endurance is need in order to be saved in the end, and the Gospel is to be preach in all the world, the end will come.
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Lin Lao Peh and Ling Lao Peh

One day, my friend in the college, made fun of me, he is from a very conservative background, I am not spiritual as he is. One day I was in the room, I heart someone next door is calling me, so I asked, "Who is it?" And he answered me, I heard something like either "Lin Lao Peh." or, "ling lao Peh." That is hokkian, but what is the differences? Until today, I still cannot understand what he meant? Lin and Ling, which is used in that sentence? Why a Christian brother answered me like that? I remember God is our Father, "lao peh," is there another one? No, I do not think so.
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The light I never forget

Many years ago, when I was serving in a church, the congregation did not believe in present signs and wonders. Since I was serving with them, I did not preach anything about signs and wonders. I did preach about how we should taking care of those with the same faith. Weekly I taught in Sunday School and preaching on Sunday.

One day, in the middle of late night, when I was sleeping in the church, a small room with my wife, suddenly I was awake, and I opened my eyes, I saw the whole room, being filled with a kind of bright light, I never saw that kind of light before, and never after that, only once in my whole life, whitening light, everything in the room was as white as snow, table, lamp, wall and bed, window, everything in a the sea of white light, like the snow covering everything in the room. I cannot see any differences among the things in the white light, they are equally share the same light, and there was peace, silent peace, from looking into the light. I was happy about the present of the unexpected light, were those shepherd also saw this light in the field late night in the Gospel? Was I in a dream? No, I was 100% awake, I was supprise, few seconds later, the light withdrew from the room, it left us, the room returned into darkness and silent, and then I awake my wife, and I asked her, did she see what I saw She said no, in my heart I had this whisper that moment, the Glory of God has left me, the night this thinking came to me, I was greedy, that is the reason, the glory has left me, why because I decided to leave the parish not long after the incident, to go to another parish, because of comfort and better paid.

Since then I did see not that kind of glory anywhere again, but sometimes at the end of my sermon in the Sunday Morning, only a very small spark bright light, came and shine on me from above, in between my finishing prayer, before the three fold amen, the small light came and goes, I am happy the present of this small sparking light, shining on, as the blessing from above, but it still withdrew from me, I hope the light will stayed on me forever. But it comes when it like to, and goes when it likes to, may God forgive me because of my sinfulness, the glory of God has left me, I knew it is because I am sinning, in darkness now I left, Lord, let your face shine upon me again, I pray.
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New Testament Tongue Speaking

The Apostle Paul commands church brethren, "Do not forbid speaking in tongues" (1 Cor 14:39), and that he wishes those to whom he wrote "all spoke with tongues" (1 Cor 14:5). He further claims himself to speak with tongues more than all of the church at Corinth combined, though indicates in the church more value is found in understandable teaching so that the church may receive edifying, saying that with speaking in tongues, only the individual is edified (1 Cor 14:18-19). Paul discourages simultaneous speaking in tongues in the presence of unbelievers or the unlearned; believers are to prophecy and be understood rather than speak unintelligibly. As 1 Corinthians 14:22-25 says, "Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not: but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe. If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad? But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth." In 1 Cor 12:7-11 and 1 Cor 12:28-30 some find that Paul indicates that not all believers speak in tongues, although some state that Paul was talking about a gift of "diverse tongues", not all tongues, as the gift of "faith" is also here mentioned, and all believers must have faith by definition. There are some who believe that many followers have the ability to speak in tongues (Mark 16:16-17) as a form of prayer, based on 1 Cor 14:14, Eph 6:18 and Jude 20. Paul also refers to the prophecy of speaking in tongues written by Isaiah (Isa 28:11-12).
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Glossolalia γλωσσολαλιά

Church History (A.D. 30 to 1900)

Twentieth-century Pentecostalism was not the earliest instance of "speaking in tongues" in church history; rather, there were antecedents in several centuries of the Christian era, e.g.

  • 150 AD - Justin Martyr wrote "For the prophetical gifts remain with us, even to this present time." [2] and "Now, it is possible to see amongst us women and men who possess gifts of the Spirit of God;" [3]
  • 156-172: Montanus and the women that followed him - Maximilla and Priscilla - were speaking in tongues and were trying to prove that they were true prophets. For this purpose they used a list with prophets from the times of the New Testament. But anti-montanists declared that no prophet ever had such attitude and that Montanists were moved by the spirit of deception.[4]
  • 175 AD - Irenaeus in his treatise Against Heresies speaks (positively) of those in the Church "who through the Spirit speak all kinds of languages."[5]
  • circa 230 AD - Novatian said, "This is He who places prophets in the Church, instructs teachers, directs tongues, gives powers and healings, does wonderful works, often discrimination of spirits, affords powers of government, suggests counsels, and orders and arranges whatever other gifts there are of charismata; and thus make the Lord’s Church everywhere, and in all, perfected and completed." [6]
  • After the 1st, or 2nd century there is no record of "speaking in tongues" in any Eastern Orthodox source.[7]
  • circa 340 AD - Hilary of Poitiers wrote, "For God hath set same in the Church, first apostles…secondly prophets…thirdly teachers…next mighty works, among which are the healing of diseases… and gifts of either speaking or interpreting divers kinds of tongues. Clearly these are the Church’s agents of ministry and work of whom the body of Christ consists; and God has ordained them." [8]
  • circa 390 AD - Augustine of Hippo, in an exposition on Psalm 32, discusses a phenomenon contemporary to his time of those who "sing in jubilation", singing the praises of God not in their own language, but in a manner that "may not be confined by the limits of syllables" [9].
  • 1100s - Franciscan order of monks.
  • 1100s - Hildegard of Bingen is reputed to have spoken and sung in tongues. Her spiritual songs were referred to by contemporaries as "concerts in the Spirit."
  • 1300s - The Moravians are referred to by detractors as having spoken in tongues. John Roche, a contemporary critic, claimed that the Moravians "commonly broke into some disconnected Jargon, which they often passed upon the vulgar, 'as the exuberant and resistless Evacuations of the Spirit'" [10].
  • 1600s - The French Prophets: The Camisards also spoke sometimes in languages that were unknown: "Several persons of both Sexes," James Du Bois of Montpellier recalled, "I have heard in their Extasies pronounce certain words, which seem'd to the Standers-by, to be some Foreign Language." These utterances were sometimes accompanied by the gift of interpretation exercised, in Du Bois' experience, by the same person who had spoken in tongues. [11]
  • 1600s - Early Quakers, such as Edward Burrough, make mention of tongues speaking in their meetings: "We spoke with new tongues, as the Lord gave us utterance, and His Spirit led us" [12].
  • 1817 - In Germany, Gustav von Below, an aristocratic officer of the Prussian Guard, and his brothers, founded a charismatic movement based on their estates in Pomerania, which may have included speaking in tongues.
  • 1800s - Edward Irving and the Catholic Apostolic Church. Edward Irving, a minister in the Church of Scotland, writes of a woman who would "speak at great length, and with superhuman strength, in an unknown tongue, to the great astonishment of all who heard, and to her own great edification and enjoyment in God" [13]. Irving further stated that "tongues are a great instrument for personal edification, however mysterious it may seem to us."
  • 1800s Sidney Rigdon will have disagreements with Alexander Campbell regarding speaking in tongues. In 1830 leaves Campbell's movement and joins the Church of Christ (which will become the Latter Day Saint Tradition Churches). The Church of Christ embraces speaking in Tongues and the Interpretation of tongues. At the 1836 dedication of the Kirtland Temple the dedicatory prayer asks that God grant them the gift of tongues and at the end of the service Elder Young speaks in tongues, another elder interprets it and then gives his own exhortation in tongues. Many other worship experiences in the Kirtland Temple prior to and after the dedication included references to people speaking and interpreting tongues. In 1842 in describing the beliefs of the church Joseph smith will identify a belief of the "gift of tongues" and "interpretation of tongues".
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Saturday, 21 June 2008

Please receive the Lord once again.

Pornography addiction is,
Smocking is,
Getting drunk is,
Proud is,
Brotherly Hatred is,
Idolatry is,
Greed is,
I am holier than thou is,
Strife is,
jealousy is,
ill temper is,
selfishness is,
divisions ..........is
Killing is,
Hatred is,
Slandering is,


DIVISIONS .........IS,
What?
Progressive
and Deadly
and .......those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God?

Can I say,
I will lift up my eyes to the hills,
from where my help comes from?
My help came from the Lord, who made the heaven and earth,
behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep,

Let's confess our sins to the Lord
LET God forgive all our sins, receive the Lord today,
we have lost in sins.
Please accept the Lord again, say the sinner's prayer again. Please.
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USING YOUR SPIRITUAL GIFTS
By Al Baker

The apostle Paul writes, "But to each one of us grace was given, according to the measure of Christ's gift." (Ephesians 4:7)

William Farel became a true follower of Christ in the early 1520's, during the time the Reformation, under the leadership of Martin Luther, was raging like a wild-fire throughout Europe. Farel had a burning zeal to preach Christ to whomever would listen and he travelled incessantly and tirelessly throughout eastern France, Switzerland, and southern Germany preaching Christ and denouncing the Pope and the excesses of Roman Catholicism.

Farel, a bachelor until he was sixty-nine, was a short, gaunt man with an unkempt red beard who was fiery, forceful, and belligerent in his sermon delivery. He always preached extemporaneously without sermon preparation and thus none of his sermons have been handed down to us. He was a lightning rod for controversy. He would enter a town and people immediately were opposed to him. On the other hand, many admired and loved him, hanging on his every word, coming to Christ in the thousands. An observer said that one could not listen to Farel without trembling at his thunder, or listen to his fervent prayers without being almost carried to heaven. On one occasion he was attacked and beaten by a host of women who objected to his preaching against the worship of the Virgin Mary. When he entered Basel, Farel called the well known humanist, Erasmus, with whom Luther had much controversy, Balaam. Predictably Erasmus did not take kindly to his accusation and had the authorities run him out of town for sedition. When Farel entered Geneva in 1532, just as Reformation teaching was taking hold of the city, he faced a riot, was beaten, and run out of town by his adversaries.

In 1536, however, Farel was back in Geneva and heard that young John Calvin, then twenty-seven, was in town. Calvin had already made a name for himself as a writer and theologian, having recently finished the first edition of The Institutes of the Christian Religion, as well as having written a commentary on the Roman writer Seneca. Farel must see Calvin and urge him to stay and help solidify the gains the Reformation was making there. As Phillip Schaff has noted, Farel could tear down but not build up. He was a conquerer, not an organizer. He was a man of action, not a man of letters. He was an intrepid preacher, not a theologian. He felt his own defects and he knew he was not the man to establish and build the Reformation in Geneva. He needed another man of differing gifts. He must decrease and Calvin must increase. So he appealed to Calvin to stay and become a pastor and theologian, to preach regularly in the church, to build up the body of Christ.

Calvin was the very opposite of Farel, not only in temperament but also in gifts. He was quiet, withdrawn, calm, an introvert, a great thinker, a 'cutting edge' theologian. He believed he could best build the kingdom of God by retiring to a quiet place and writing his theological books. Farel persisted to appeal to Calvin, that he was needed in Geneva, and Calvin calmly and thoughtfully rebuffed him. Finally, in exasperation Farel said that if Calvin did not stay then he would pray, asking God to curse his studies. Now, admittedly this is a classic example of guilt manipulation but Calvin so feared God that he thought Farel may be heard by him. Calvin relented and became a preacher and pastor. Not one of the thousands of sermons published, nor any of Calvin's theological works were written in solitude; but each was forged on the anvil of vital, daily pastoral ministry.

May I suggest you face at least one of four problems in your life and these belie the tendency of your heart. Perhaps you are prone toward depression, drifting, pride, or fear. The root of these problems is selfishness. The kingdom of God is not about you. It is about God and others. If you are a believer, then you have spiritual gifts, and God wants you to use them for the expansion of his kingdom.

We have an epidemic of depression in our culture, and while risking the possibility of being misunderstood, I suggest this is largely due to irresponsibility, not doing what we know we ought to do. If I am a teen and I am failing in school because I am not studying, then I probably feel bad about myself, and I will want to relieve my pain. I may do so by getting hooked on internet porn, and then I spiral further into feeling bad about myself. The solution, far too often in our culture, is for the doctor to give medication without dealing with the underlying symptoms, the sins of selfishness and irresponsibility.

Then there is the tendency to drift away from the Lord. It may go like this - you stay up too late at night watching your favourite team, and thus you don't have time the next morning to spend time with God. Then things go poorly at work, you respond in an ungodly way to your boss, and you feel further away from God. Before long you are finding excuses for not attending public worship, you are not leading your family spiritually, and you are tempted to go after another woman in the office.

Then there is the tendency toward pride. Looking back at my life, after graduation from Seminary, I now see how much pride was controlling my life. I really thought I was something special and it took about ten years of very painful failures in ministry for God to crush me, to break the back of my sinful pride. I am not suggesting that I still don't battle it (just ask my wife) but I am far more sanctified in this area than I was.

And then most men, myself included, battle the sin of fear. We are afraid of being found out, of losing what we have. We so much want to impress our colleagues that we must make the best presentation of our group. We must appear to really grasp the issues at hand in the business meeting. We must be able to contribute significantly to the long range planning session. And then as you move up the corporate ladder, the stakes get higher. You are making more money than you ever dreamed possible. You have new obligations, new toys, a new life-style to feed, and you fear losing it. I liken it to a treadmill. At first, the treadmill is moving along at a fifteen minute per mile pace with no incline, and you feel comfortable. But then the pace quickens to twelve minutes, then eight minutes, all the while the incline is more pronounced. By the time you have been at it for twenty-five or thirty years you fear that you cannot keep up, that you are going to fail, that you are going to lose it all.

My dear friends, when you are depressed, drifting, prideful, or fearful may I say you are looking at yourself. You have gifts which God expects you to use for his kingdom, and that may mean making money, being an example to others of godly leadership, of teaching others how to live with disappointment. Use your gifts for his kingdom and others. It's not about you.

Banner of Truth

http://www.gracebpc.org.sg/weekly/Apr%202008/0413/gwa.htm
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