Sunday, April 12, 2009
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Psalm 91 - The Protection Psalm
I remembered some years ago (I think it was around Year 2003, probably around the SARS period), our church was placing a lot of emphasis on Psalm 91, The Protection Psalm.
Everyone in the congregation was given a little card with Psalm 91 on it, so that we can carry the card and meditate on the Psalm everywhere we go. We would recite Psalm 91 during the services pretty often too.
There was one Sunday when Pastor Joshua preached, we also recited Psalm 91 at the end of the service.
In the same evening, H and I went out to Novena area for some shopping and dinner. While on the way home, H was driving and was turning right into the expressway. At that point in time, I saw bright headlights and heard a bang and felt a jerk and I wondered why I could see the front of a taxi so close at my left side.
Then we realised that a taxi had crashed into our car at the area near the left front passenger side, where I was sitting. The left corner of the taxi had hit the front left wheel area of our car and our car was shifted one car width away from the original location by the impact.
Strangely, we had not noticed the taxi was coming towards us while H was making the turn. Blessedly, none was injured, not even a tiny scratch, not even a tinge of fear. But the car had to be towed to the workshop for "major" repair for more than 1 week as it could not be driven.
As H was not a believer of Jesus Christ, I told him that it must be God, Who had protected us from injury and that God is faithful to honour His Word to protect us from harm because of what He has promised in His Word.
I really thank God for His protection on that day.
Psalm 91 (New King James Version)
Safety of Abiding in the Presence of God
1 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.”
3 Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence.
4 He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
5 You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day,
6 Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
7 A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you.
8 Only with your eyes shall you look, and see the reward of the wicked.
9 Because you have made the LORD, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place,
10 No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
11 For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.
12 In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.
13 You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.
14 “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
15 He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. 16 With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation.”
Everyone in the congregation was given a little card with Psalm 91 on it, so that we can carry the card and meditate on the Psalm everywhere we go. We would recite Psalm 91 during the services pretty often too.
There was one Sunday when Pastor Joshua preached, we also recited Psalm 91 at the end of the service.
In the same evening, H and I went out to Novena area for some shopping and dinner. While on the way home, H was driving and was turning right into the expressway. At that point in time, I saw bright headlights and heard a bang and felt a jerk and I wondered why I could see the front of a taxi so close at my left side.
Then we realised that a taxi had crashed into our car at the area near the left front passenger side, where I was sitting. The left corner of the taxi had hit the front left wheel area of our car and our car was shifted one car width away from the original location by the impact.
Strangely, we had not noticed the taxi was coming towards us while H was making the turn. Blessedly, none was injured, not even a tiny scratch, not even a tinge of fear. But the car had to be towed to the workshop for "major" repair for more than 1 week as it could not be driven.
As H was not a believer of Jesus Christ, I told him that it must be God, Who had protected us from injury and that God is faithful to honour His Word to protect us from harm because of what He has promised in His Word.
I really thank God for His protection on that day.
Psalm 91 (New King James Version)
Safety of Abiding in the Presence of God
1 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.”
3 Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence.
4 He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
5 You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day,
6 Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
7 A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you.
8 Only with your eyes shall you look, and see the reward of the wicked.
9 Because you have made the LORD, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place,
10 No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
11 For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.
12 In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.
13 You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.
14 “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
15 He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. 16 With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation.”
Saturday, February 21, 2009
God's Guarantee For Your Prosperity
Pastor Prince was focusing on meditating God's words in his sermon on 27 May 2007 on God's Guarantee For Your Prosperity and he quoted from George Mueller's booklet called "Soul Nourishment First". The content of the booklet is as follows:
Soul Nourishment First
A Booklet by George Mueller
May 9, 1841
It has pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, the benefit of which I have not lost, for more than fourteen years. The point is this:
I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, or how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers, I might seek to relieve the distressed, I might in other ways seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world; and yet, not being happy in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in a right spirit.
Before this time my practice had been, at least for ten years previously, as an habitual thing, to give myself to prayer, after having dressed myself in the morning. Now, I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God, and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, by means of the Word of God, while meditating on it, my heart might be brought into experiential communion with the Lord.
I began therefore to meditate on the New Testament from the beginning, early in the morning. The first thing I did, after having asked in a few words the Lord’s blessing upon his precious Word, was, to begin to meditate on the Word of God, searching as it were into every verse, to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word, not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated upon, but for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul.
The result I have found to be almost invariably this, that after a very few minutes my soul has been led to confession, or to thanksgiving, or to intercession, or to supplication; so that, though I did not, as it were, give myself to prayer, but to meditation, yet it turned almost immediately more or less into prayer. When thus I have been for a while making confession or intercession, or supplication, or have given thanks, I go to the next words or verse, turning all, as I go on, into prayer for myself or others, as the Word may lead to it, but still continually keeping before me that food for my own soul is the object of my meditation. The result of this is, that there is always a good deal of confession, thanksgiving, supplication, or intercession mingled with my meditation, and then my inner man almost invariably is even sensibly nourished and strengthened, and that by breakfast time, with rare exceptions, I am in a peaceful if not happy state of heart. Thus also the Lord is pleased to communicate unto me that which, either very soon after or at a later time, I have found to become food for other believers, though it was not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word that I gave myself to meditation, but for the profit of my own inner man.
The difference, then, between my former practice and my present one is this:
Formerly, when I rose, I began to pray as soon as possible, and generally spent all my time till breakfast in prayer, or almost all the time. At all events I almost invariably began with prayer, except when I felt my soul to be more than usually barren, in which case I read the Word of God for food, or for refreshment, or for a revival and renewal of my inner man, before I gave myself to prayer.
But what was the result? I often spent a quarter of an hour, or half an hour, or even an hour, on my knees, before being conscious to myself of having derived comfort, encouragement, humbling of soul, etc., and often, after having suffered much from wandering of mind for the first ten minutes, or a quarter of an hour, or even half an hour, I only then began really to pray. I scarcely ever suffer now in this way. For my heart, first being nourished by the truth, being brought into experiential fellowship with God, I then speak to my Father and to my Friend, (vile though I am, and unworthy of it), about the things that He has brought before me in His precious Word.
It often now astonishes me that I did not sooner see this point. In no book did I ever read about it. No public ministry ever brought the matter before me. No private intercourse with a brother stirred me up to this matter. And yet, now, since God has taught me this point, it is as plain to me as anything, that the first thing the child of God has to do morning by morning is, to obtain food for his inner man. As the outward man is not fit for work for any length of time except we take food, and as this is one of the first things we do in the morning, so it should be with the inner man. We should take food for that, as every one must allow.
Now, what is the food for the inner man? Not prayer, but the Word of God; and here again, not the simple reading of the Word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering over it, and applying it to our hearts. When we pray, we speak to God. Now, prayer, in order to be continued for any length of time in any other than a formal manner, requires, generally speaking, a measure of strength or godly desire, and the season, therefore, when this exercise of the soul can be most effectually performed is after the inner man has been nourished by meditation on the Word of God, where we find our Father speaking to us, to encourage us, to comfort us, to instruct us, to humble us, to reprove us. We may therefore profitably meditate, with God’s blessing, though we are ever so weak spiritually; nay, the weaker we are, the more we need meditation for the strengthening of our inner man.
Thus there is far less to be feared from wandering of mind than if we give ourselves to prayer without having had time previously for meditation. I dwell so particularly on this point because of the immense spiritual profit and refreshment I am conscious of having derived from it myself, and I affectionately and solemnly beseech all my fellow believers to ponder this matter. By the blessing of God, I ascribe to this mode the help and strength which I have had from God to pass in peace through deeper trials, in various ways, than I had ever had before; and after having now above fourteen years tried this way, I can most fully, in the fear of God, commend it.
In addition to this I generally read, after family prayer, larger portions of the Word of God, when I still pursue my practice of reading regularly onward in the Holy Scriptures, sometimes in the New Testament, and sometimes in the Old, and for more than twenty-six years I have proved the blessedness of it. I take, also, either then or at other parts of the day, time more especially for prayer. How different, when the soul is refreshed and made happy early in the morning, from what it is when without spiritual preparation, the service, the trials, and the temptations of the day come upon one.
(source: http://www.whatsaiththescripture.com/Voice/George.Mueller.of.Bristol/George.Mueller.Bristol.L.html)
Soul Nourishment First
A Booklet by George Mueller
May 9, 1841
It has pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, the benefit of which I have not lost, for more than fourteen years. The point is this:
I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, or how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers, I might seek to relieve the distressed, I might in other ways seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world; and yet, not being happy in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in a right spirit.
Before this time my practice had been, at least for ten years previously, as an habitual thing, to give myself to prayer, after having dressed myself in the morning. Now, I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God, and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, by means of the Word of God, while meditating on it, my heart might be brought into experiential communion with the Lord.
I began therefore to meditate on the New Testament from the beginning, early in the morning. The first thing I did, after having asked in a few words the Lord’s blessing upon his precious Word, was, to begin to meditate on the Word of God, searching as it were into every verse, to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word, not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated upon, but for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul.
The result I have found to be almost invariably this, that after a very few minutes my soul has been led to confession, or to thanksgiving, or to intercession, or to supplication; so that, though I did not, as it were, give myself to prayer, but to meditation, yet it turned almost immediately more or less into prayer. When thus I have been for a while making confession or intercession, or supplication, or have given thanks, I go to the next words or verse, turning all, as I go on, into prayer for myself or others, as the Word may lead to it, but still continually keeping before me that food for my own soul is the object of my meditation. The result of this is, that there is always a good deal of confession, thanksgiving, supplication, or intercession mingled with my meditation, and then my inner man almost invariably is even sensibly nourished and strengthened, and that by breakfast time, with rare exceptions, I am in a peaceful if not happy state of heart. Thus also the Lord is pleased to communicate unto me that which, either very soon after or at a later time, I have found to become food for other believers, though it was not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word that I gave myself to meditation, but for the profit of my own inner man.
The difference, then, between my former practice and my present one is this:
Formerly, when I rose, I began to pray as soon as possible, and generally spent all my time till breakfast in prayer, or almost all the time. At all events I almost invariably began with prayer, except when I felt my soul to be more than usually barren, in which case I read the Word of God for food, or for refreshment, or for a revival and renewal of my inner man, before I gave myself to prayer.
But what was the result? I often spent a quarter of an hour, or half an hour, or even an hour, on my knees, before being conscious to myself of having derived comfort, encouragement, humbling of soul, etc., and often, after having suffered much from wandering of mind for the first ten minutes, or a quarter of an hour, or even half an hour, I only then began really to pray. I scarcely ever suffer now in this way. For my heart, first being nourished by the truth, being brought into experiential fellowship with God, I then speak to my Father and to my Friend, (vile though I am, and unworthy of it), about the things that He has brought before me in His precious Word.
It often now astonishes me that I did not sooner see this point. In no book did I ever read about it. No public ministry ever brought the matter before me. No private intercourse with a brother stirred me up to this matter. And yet, now, since God has taught me this point, it is as plain to me as anything, that the first thing the child of God has to do morning by morning is, to obtain food for his inner man. As the outward man is not fit for work for any length of time except we take food, and as this is one of the first things we do in the morning, so it should be with the inner man. We should take food for that, as every one must allow.
Now, what is the food for the inner man? Not prayer, but the Word of God; and here again, not the simple reading of the Word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering over it, and applying it to our hearts. When we pray, we speak to God. Now, prayer, in order to be continued for any length of time in any other than a formal manner, requires, generally speaking, a measure of strength or godly desire, and the season, therefore, when this exercise of the soul can be most effectually performed is after the inner man has been nourished by meditation on the Word of God, where we find our Father speaking to us, to encourage us, to comfort us, to instruct us, to humble us, to reprove us. We may therefore profitably meditate, with God’s blessing, though we are ever so weak spiritually; nay, the weaker we are, the more we need meditation for the strengthening of our inner man.
Thus there is far less to be feared from wandering of mind than if we give ourselves to prayer without having had time previously for meditation. I dwell so particularly on this point because of the immense spiritual profit and refreshment I am conscious of having derived from it myself, and I affectionately and solemnly beseech all my fellow believers to ponder this matter. By the blessing of God, I ascribe to this mode the help and strength which I have had from God to pass in peace through deeper trials, in various ways, than I had ever had before; and after having now above fourteen years tried this way, I can most fully, in the fear of God, commend it.
In addition to this I generally read, after family prayer, larger portions of the Word of God, when I still pursue my practice of reading regularly onward in the Holy Scriptures, sometimes in the New Testament, and sometimes in the Old, and for more than twenty-six years I have proved the blessedness of it. I take, also, either then or at other parts of the day, time more especially for prayer. How different, when the soul is refreshed and made happy early in the morning, from what it is when without spiritual preparation, the service, the trials, and the temptations of the day come upon one.
(source: http://www.whatsaiththescripture.com/Voice/George.Mueller.of.Bristol/George.Mueller.Bristol.L.html)
Tithing
I just want to share what Pastor Prince had shared sometime ago on some articles that he had come across in the Time magazine about some experiments done to prove that TITHING works. The links are as follows:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,802893,00.html
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,801686,00.html
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,802893,00.html
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,801686,00.html
Friday, February 20, 2009
The Acceptable Year Of The Lord
During the service on 28 December 2008, Pastor Prince shared that the theme for NCC in year 2009 is that this is the ACCEPTABLE year of the Lord.
Reference:
Luke 4:17-22
Isaiah 61:1-7
Isaiah 60:1-2
In Greek, acceptable is "dektos". So what is the meaning of "dektos"?
Strong's Number: 1184
Original Word: δεκτός
Transliteration: dektos
Thayer's Lexicon:
δεκτός, accepted, acceptable denote that MOST BLESSED TIME when salvation and the free favours of God profusely abound.
In Hebrew, acceptable is "ratsown".
Strong's Number: 7522
Original Word: רצון
Transliteration: ratsown
Definition:
1 pleasure, delight, favour, goodwill, acceptance, will
a. goodwill, favour
b. acceptance
c. will, desire, pleasure, self-will
(source: http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?strongs=G1184 and http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?strongs=H7522)
May you enjoy a dektos year of the Lord, the most blessed time. May the free favours of God profusely abound for you and everyone in your family. AMEN.
At the end of the service, we were asked to name 3 areas of our lives that we want the free favours of God to profusely abound. Mine are:
1. shalom for everyone in my family (including the extended ones)
2. career
3. finances
Reference:
Luke 4:17-22
Isaiah 61:1-7
Isaiah 60:1-2
In Greek, acceptable is "dektos". So what is the meaning of "dektos"?
Strong's Number: 1184
Original Word: δεκτός
Transliteration: dektos
Thayer's Lexicon:
δεκτός, accepted, acceptable denote that MOST BLESSED TIME when salvation and the free favours of God profusely abound.
In Hebrew, acceptable is "ratsown".
Strong's Number: 7522
Original Word: רצון
Transliteration: ratsown
Definition:
1 pleasure, delight, favour, goodwill, acceptance, will
a. goodwill, favour
b. acceptance
c. will, desire, pleasure, self-will
(source: http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?strongs=G1184 and http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?strongs=H7522)
May you enjoy a dektos year of the Lord, the most blessed time. May the free favours of God profusely abound for you and everyone in your family. AMEN.
At the end of the service, we were asked to name 3 areas of our lives that we want the free favours of God to profusely abound. Mine are:
1. shalom for everyone in my family (including the extended ones)
2. career
3. finances
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
The Occurences of Peace
Peace (שלום) occurs 236 times in 208 verses in the Hebrew concordance (Old Testament)
Peace (εἰρήνη) occurs 92 times in 86 verses in the Greek concordance (New Testament)
Some of the verses are:
Isaiah 53:5 But he [was] wounded for our transgressions, [he was] bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace [was] upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
2 Peter 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
Peace (εἰρήνη) occurs 92 times in 86 verses in the Greek concordance (New Testament)
Some of the verses are:
Isaiah 53:5 But he [was] wounded for our transgressions, [he was] bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace [was] upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
2 Peter 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
Peace... or shalom (in Hebrew)
How about more on "shalom"?
Strong's Number: 7965
Original Word: שלום
Transliterated Word: shalowm
Definition:
1. completeness, soundness, welfare, peace
a. completeness (in number)
b. safety, soundness (in body)
c. welfare, health, prosperity
d. peace, quiet, tranquillity, contentment
e. peace, friendship
1. of human relationships
2. with God especially in covenant relationship
f. peace (from war)
g. peace (as adjective)
(source: http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H7965&t=KJV)
Strong's Number: 7965
Original Word: שלום
Transliterated Word: shalowm
Definition:
1. completeness, soundness, welfare, peace
a. completeness (in number)
b. safety, soundness (in body)
c. welfare, health, prosperity
d. peace, quiet, tranquillity, contentment
e. peace, friendship
1. of human relationships
2. with God especially in covenant relationship
f. peace (from war)
g. peace (as adjective)
(source: http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H7965&t=KJV)
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