Christmas Day 2009

Blessed Christmas to all! Tis a joyous morning as we celebrate the birth of Christ which is the meaning of Christmas! Christmas is such a unique event around the world. Celebrated by everybody regardless of race, language or religion. A time of giving be it presents to love ones or charitable organizations. Tis a splendid season!

We went for our Christmas Eve worship service. Gosh! It must have been one of the most wonderful worship service we had. We had piano, organ, and a string ensemble to complement the worship service. How wonderful was the praises and singspiration!

The message for the evening was about the “Beauty of the Birth of Jesus” from Isaiah 9:6:7

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.” (Isaiah 9:6-7).

++++++++++++++++++++++
No Other Birth in the world
++++++++++++++++++++++
@ Was brought about by the power of the Holy Spirit in the life of a virgin. @ was welcomed by choirs of angels singing in the night sky
@ brought wise men from the east to worship the one who was born with costly gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
@ was already known and predicted 700 years before it happened. (Micah 5:2, Isaiah 9:6, cf Luke 2:11)

++++++++++++++++++++++
What gives His birth so much significance and beauty?
++++++++++++++++++++++
THE ONES he was born for – Unto us.
@ He was not born for the angels although they rejoiced when he was born (Heb 2:16)
@ He is the One that the whole human race, and even the whole creation, has been waiting for and hoping for – the One who is given specialy for us.
@ God give Him to us in order to meet our need for Life (John 10:10, 14:6) @ But not everyone wants to receive and welcome him. (John 1:11) @ You need to receive Him as Lord of your Life.

HIS ULTIMATE destiny – “… And the government shall be upon His shoulder” @ “Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end.” This shows us that the rule of Jesus will be permanent. Therefore we must submit ourselves fully to His rule.
@ “… Upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom,”.
He will be a good king, like King David.
Because David was a godly and wise king God made a covenant with him and the throne of his kingdom could be established forever.
This covenant is now fullfilled through Jesus Christ.

No Room for the Lord

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28).

Today’s article reminds me of my 2003 or was it 2003 trip to Zurich. We checked into a low cost back packer inn but it was full. Except a room that was a dysfunctional kitchen turned room if we do not mind. We took it. What a blessing! It ended up we had a private room instead of a shared room, and a kitchen sink that provided a source of water and washing, with abundant drawers to store our stuff!

Indeed, for those who are joyous in the Lord, somewhere somehow, even the most terrible of the matter, he will see the positivity and God’s blessing in it.

Forwarded message
From: RBC Ministries
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 2009 03:10:09 -0500
Subject: Our Daily Bread — December 24, 2009

OUR DAILY BREAD

Thursday
December 24, 2009

God’s Special Place

Read: Luke 2:1-7

[Mary] brought forth her firstborn Son, . . . and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. —Luke 2:7

As a young girl in the late 1920s, Grace Ditmanson Adams often traveled with her missionary parents through inland China. Later, she wrote about those trips and the crowded places where they stayed overnight—village inns full of people coughing, sneezing, and smoking, while babies cried and children complained. Her family put their bedrolls on board-covered trestles in a large room with everyone else.

One snowy night, they arrived at an inn to find it packed full. The innkeeper expressed his regret, then paused and said, “Follow me.” He led them to a side room used to store straw and farm equipment. There they slept in a quiet place of their own.

After that, whenever Grace read that Mary “brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7), she saw the event differently. While some described the innkeeper as an example of uncaring, sinful mankind who rejected the Savior, Grace said, “I truly believe that Almighty God used the innkeeper as the arranger for a healthier place than the crowded inn—a place of privacy.”

Through eyes of faith, we see God’s provision for Mary. Look for the ways He provides for you. —David McCasland

Wait on the Lord from day to day,
Strength He provides in His own way;
There’s no need for worry, no need to fear,
He is our God who is always near. —Fortna

Those who let God provide will be satisfied.

Today’s Our Daily Bread can be found at
http://www.rbc.org/devotionals/our-daily-bread/2009/12/24/devotion.aspx Copyright © 2009, RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI 49555 USA. Written permission must be obtained from RBC Ministries for any further posting or distribution. RBC Ministries produces a variety of Bible resources, which are available for the asking. RBC Ministries is not funded by any group or denomination, and support comes voluntarily from its members and friends. Write rbc@rbc.org for more information.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. This message was sent by: RBC Ministries, 3000 Kraft Ave, Grand Rapids, MI 49512,

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Nokia e71 vs Blackberry Curve 8900 vs IPhone text input area

Thank God for these lovely devices.

IPhone 40×9=360
Nokia e71 43×8=344
BB Curve 8900 36×11=396

The numbers shows. Looks like Blackberry is still the king of text input even in terms of space.

Infact I can shrink the Blackberry display text smaller so that I can have more input to the smallest font size of 7. The screenshot is font 9 btw. I can achieve 41×15=615

Wow! Is that a whopping lot of screen asset to blog about Christ or what!?! I’m a pretty mobile device guy. Most of my blogs are via mobile devices on my Nokia e71 or BB Curve or on my IPhone.

Seriously, I still prefer the text input of my BB Curve despite of it’s noisy clickety click keypad. The screen asset and the keyboard is waaaay responsive. I love it.
Among the 3 devices, the BB is the most noisy. E71 keyboard is very quiet. Iphone? Silent.

These 3 devices are my favourite devices.
Nokia e71, BB Curve 8900, iPhone. I use each of these device in random rotation.

They are indeed splendid devices.

Brings me to a bible verse,
“But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” (Daniel 12:4).

Sent from Nokia Mobile

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Evangelism

Evangelism

Is Evangelism just simply sharing the gospel and that’s it? Yes and No. Yes, we are called to evangelize and tell the world the good news. No, because we are to make disciples of men. ImAgine a newborn, left to fend for themselves, I’m not going to say they are nit going to survive, but the higher likelihood would be with guidance, lest they fall prey to diverse teachings. What diverse teachings am I talking about here? Mormons, Seventh Day adventist, Catholics, charismatics just to name afew. You want your new member of Christian family to grow and fend for itself. So it is really more than just talking an sharing. It is commitment. Just as Christ has shown an example to us. When he was preaching to the thousands. He was concerned for thei well being. Hunger. He perfomed the miracle with the 2 fishes and 5 bread and fed the thousands. So it’s not just talking. It is about action too. Today you talk to a person about Christ. He is moved by the holy spirit to believe and accept christ as the saviour. Followup action needs to be done for this new born to grow spiritually. Remember, discipleship. It’s not about abandonship.

Lord help us to spread the Good News and make disciples of Nations. In Jesus name, amen.

Divine Protection

Jesus blood was wanted on the very day of birth.

Did we thought his blood was only wanted towards the end of the time when he was crucified? Apparently the very moment when he was born, King Herod already wanted him dead!

Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.’ Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I have called my son.’

When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:

‘A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.’

When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.’ Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, ‘He will be called a Nazorean.’

- Matthew 2:13-23

Thank God for his providence that in God’s timing and providence, he was spared. He was obviously divinely protected. We praise and thank God for his providence. Is it not sufficient to know that God is constantly watching over us just as he has watched over Jesus? Divine protection! God do not will us to die in sins, unlike Jesus, who had the specific mission to die for our sins. God’s will is for us to know his son, and to accept him, to repent of our sins to have eternal life with him. That is God’s will for us.

“God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” John 3:17-18

Pet Arowana

Thank God for lovely pets that we can keep. I ‘ve had this lovely RTG since 2003 when it was just a little juvenile, about 6″ long. Now it’s close to 2.5′.
Asian Arowana’s are actually endangered species, each arowana are electronically tagged, and has a certificate when the owner purchases one from the shop.

In fact, this RTG is older than my eldest boy who was born in 2004, the fish was 2003. No, I do not keep this fish for “Feng Shui” reason. It was purely for pet and passion reason. It feeds on Market Prawns, and when it gets sick of it, I’ll get some bull frogs from the fish farm. So how does this relates to Christianity when it comes to arowana? Gosh.. you mean you are going to tell me about Christianity through this fish? Why not?

Thank God for all these lovely creatures that he has created from the beginning of the world. The bible says “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.” The creation of the world and all that dwell therein are all recorded for us in the bible book of Genesis.

Day 1, Light was created.
Day 2, Separation of sky from sea
Day 3, Dry land & vegetation
Day 4, Sun, moon & stars
Day 5, Birds & sea creatures
Day 6, Animals & man
Day 7, Sabbath a memorial of Creation

So our dear Arowana was created on Day 5 of creation. Am I sure it existed since the creation of the world? I don’t know frankly, and it does not matter.
The point is interestingly, air and sea creatures were created on Day 5, whilst land creatures were on Day 6. Why? Again, I do not know.

Pretty interesting, the sequence of creation has never occurred to me before, much more the sequence of Air, Sea, Land creatures creations were separated by a day!

Praise and Thank God for his goodness on us.

Close calls with accidents

I am on leave today, and been driving a round a lot in the morning, and had several close shaves. Was it my fault? I do not think so, maybe I was being too cautious, but i was definitely normal driver by any standards. In the morning when I was driving to Anson Road Fuji Xerox Building with my eldest boy and my wife on board. A pick up truck was zooming by in the CTE tunnels way above 80kmh on the fast lane. I know because I’m already on 80kmh in the tunnel and he zoomed past me on the right!

Later in the afternoon sending my in-laws and my granny for a ride in the car.
A close shave with a bicycle who suddenly turned out from a pavement right to the front of my car. No, I could not see him as the pavement is blocked from my view. Then at the major road, a Volkswagen GTI doing an illegal U-Turn from an outer lane dangerously in front of me, I had to brake hard. Then along Scotts Road, I was almost sandwiched between a Taxi and a Black Honda Odyssey on my right due to the taxi suddenly swerved into my lane. I had to brake hard and swerve away, else it was a definite accident there.

Thank God for his goodness and keeping us save on the road.

Not Guilty

Not guilty.

How terrifying will it be when we pass from this earth and only to be faced with the great judge at the judgement seat of Christ.

How irony will it be when we were offered the living bread of Christ that promises eternal life and we threw I away, mock and scorn at it. Pity is the person who were offered the living water of Christ and only to be spit out with rejection. How feeble are we. From the very beggining of creation, we are already condemn by the first disobedience thru Eve and Adam, tempted of the devil serpent. From thence, all of us have been cursed with the sin. What is sin? Sin means missing the mark. Who’s mark? Gods mark.

That’s why we need Christ. The Christ is the meaning of Christmas. Every year till the end of earth when he returns again to earth, the same way he was taken away in Clouds after he rose from the dead, three days after, after bein seen by many men, and fellowship.

This same Christ which we celebrate every Christmas is out redeeming saviour. Jesus said “no man can cone to the father except through him”. “by grace are ye saved through faith, not of works lest any any men shall boast” “if you love me, keep my words.” “if you love me, feed my sheeps”.

This same Jesus will declare us not guilty before the awesome judgement seat of God. How can that be? Jesus death on the cross, the out pouring blood was the perfect sacrifice that God the father needed, once and for all for our sins. By his death on the cross, he renders us all not guilty when we come before the judgement seat of God.

How wonderful this is for us who love and have confessed that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Saviour.

Is believe in Jesus sufficient for salvation?

For I know that my redeemer liveth

Read this today and it’s such a wonderful statement! Especially from Job who lost everything and yet still positively looking forward to God!

Our Daily Homily By F.B.. Meyer

Job 19:25

“For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:”

THOSE words express the deepest and most radiant conviction of believing hearts. “He lives, the great Redeemer lives!” Man did his worst; the nail, the cross, the spear, were bitter; but He liveth! Death stood over Him as a vanquished foe; but He liveth! Captain Sepulchre and his henchman Corruption held earnest colloquy together about the best method of detaining Him; but He liveth! He ever liveth: and because He continueth ever, He hath an unchangeable priesthood.

But it is not probable that his words meant all this to Job. The word translated “Redeemer “ is Goel—the nearest kinsman, sworn to avenge the wrongs of blood relations. This conception of the kinsman avenger has been always in vogue in the East, where the populations are scattered and migratory, and our system of law impossible. Beyond the heavens Job thought there lived a Kinsman, who saw all his sufferings, and pitied, and would one day appear on earth to vindicate his innocence and avenge his wrongs. He was content to leave the case with Him, sure that He would not fail, as his friends had done.

Beyond the sorrows and anguish of time he should yet see God; and he longed to see Him, that he might learn the secret purpose, which explained the sorrow of his lot. He had no dread of that momentous event, since his Goel would be there to stand beside him.

“Sudden the Worst turns the Best to the brave,
The black minute’s at end! —
And the Elements’ rage, the fiend voices that rave,
Shall dwindle, shall blend,
Shall change, shall become,—first a Peace out of Pain,
Then a Light, then thy breast.”

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