Ananias and Sapphira - Died, so that their souls might be saved

When I was a young Christian convert, the story of Ananias and Sapphira frightened me. Please read Acts 5: 1-13. Briefly, the new Christians in Acts 5 sold their belongings and shared what they had with others.  Ananias and Sapphira sold theirs, but kept some money for themselves.  The apostles confronted them and both they dropped dead for what they did.  (But this does not happen anymore.  Nowadays, when Christians sin, they don't have to drop dead.)

When I read the Gospels, I had the impression that Jesus was kind and forgiving.  I understand that all men sin, even Godly men.  For example, King David of the Old Testament loved God, but he was also a murderer more than once.  What's so serious about telling a lie or not sharing some personal wealth??

I searched the internet and found that many other people were perplexed over this story in the Book of Acts too. Many were asking: why Ananias and Sapphira dropped dead, and would they go to heaven after that? (See http://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/5122/what-happened-to-ananias-and-sapphira-after-death/24198#24198)

There are only 2 possible answers to this question.  If  A and S were believers, then they went to heaven.  If A and S were non-believers in the first place, then they probably did not go to heaven.

From my personal experience, I know many Christians who sincerely believe in Christ were also great sinners.  They were sincere believers, but not faithful believers.  Many were liars, did harm to others, gave in to all kinds of temptations, and brought disrepute to the church.

So am I - a sinner.  God has forgiven me.  I  thank Jesus for dying on the cross as a propitiation for my sins.

Hence I think A and S went to heaven even though they sin against God.  "They were dead and their flesh might be destroyed, but their spirits might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." (See 1 Cor 5:1-5).

Thank you Jesus for saving me, a sinner.  I believe A and S were saved too.

Story of a Human becoming a Deity

I am very impressed by this video on how a human, an exceptionally virtuous and kind human, became a deity and is now worshiped by 200 million followers.

Just like to share with you.

Christmas Day Disasters

Today is Christmas day.  Merry Christmas.

I remember the Tsunami disaster on the day after Christmas in 2004.  Over 300,000 people perished when Tsunami, emanating from an earthquake, swept across the Indian Ocean that day.

Today, I read in the news that ice storms knocked out electric power to 370,000 homes in USA, and  also to few hundred homes in Canada.  For those of us not affected by such natural disasters, we could continue our celebration of Christmas.  But for those affected and sustained loss or injuries, what was there to celebrate??

But wait !!  Isn't it Christmas?  Isn't it a time to celebrate the birth of Christ and the Love of God?  Why did God not hold back all these so that His people can celebrate His presence joyously?

But now, look at the facts again: 
1) When Christ was asked, "Are You the Son of  God?"  Jesus answered, "Yes I am." (Luk 22:70)
2) When Pilate asked Jesus, "Are You the King of the Jews?"  Jesus answered, "It is as you say." (Luk 23:3)
3) Pilate asked Jesus, "...It was your own people and the chief priests who handed you over to me.  What have You done?" Jesus explained, "My kingdom does not belong to this world;  if My kingdom belonged to this world, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish authorities.  No, My kingdom does not belong here!" (John 18:36)

So Christ had explained why bad things happened to Him and to us, even on Christmas day and Christmas season.  -- He is the Son of God, the King, not of this earthly world but of another world we are to go to.

Without doubt, disasters will occur in this world - even on Christmas day.

Still I wish you MERRY CHRISTMAS.

God's Promise to Abraham - The Abrahamic Promise is done !

And God took Abraham outside and said "Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them." And He said to him "So shall your descendants be." Then he (Abraham) believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. Genesis 15:5.

You see, when you believe in God's promises, you are reckoned as righteous !!!

Now, how many stars were there when Abraham looked up the night sky?  There must be billions of stars in the Universe !

But in 2012, there were about 14 million Jews (or descendants of Abraham) in the world.  The world population of Jews peaked at 16.7 million just before World War II.  Surely this is far below the number of stars that Abraham saw in the night sky!

But its not just 14 million Jews.  I estimated that in the past 6,000 years, about 1200 million Jews had walked on Earth, although only 14 million are alive at this moment.  (The rest of the 1200 million were dead.)

When God said "count the number of stars", God simply mean figuratively "a very very large number".  Now, would you consider 1200 million as a very very large number?   I believe so.   God's promise to Abraham is fulfilled. (And we have not even included Abraham's descendants from his other wife, Hagar, yet.)

In conclusion - trust God and His promises.  If you do, you will be reckoned as righteous in His sight!  Merry Christmas.

 

God stopped the river-flow, again and again, for His people.

How many times did God parted the waters for His people?  You would remember the parting of the Red Sea in Exodus 14.  But there were 3 other occasions.

The second time was when God parted the Jordan River for Joshua's people to enter the Promised Land some 40 years after the parting of the Red Sea.  This time, the people remembered what happened 40 years before.  They knew God would do it.  They were not surprised. (Joshua Chapter 3 and 4)

God parted the waters the third time for Elijah to cross Jordan River, and did it again the fourth time for Elisha to do the same (2 Kings 2).

So, do not be surprised that God will do it again in future for you and I.  In times of pain, when we beseech God to help us to cross our own 'rivers', we can be certain that God could do it.  After all He did it four times in the Bible alone.

In life, there will always be rivers to cross and mountains to conquer.  Have faith.  God is the same today and four thousand years ago.  He will still be there for us.  Merry Christmas.

...And the Word became flesh (What Happened?)

When the Son of God was incarnated and born of Virgin Mary, He took on a physical dimension.  He was flesh and blood.  He was finite in time and space like all human beings.  In the physical dimension, He was no longer all-knowing.  Many things he needed to ask in order to know.  He asked "How many loaves do you have?" Matt 15:34 "Who touched my garments?" Mark 5:30. "...of that day...no one knows...but the Father alone."  Matt 24:36.

But while in the physical dimension, Jesus Christ was still able to exercise his divinity and knew things that humans did not. He knew of Judas' betrayal before hand.  He knew Peter would deny him 3 times before the cock crowed.

God sent His Son to take on the lowly human form to die for our sins.  The wages of sin is death  - and Jesus Christ died for us.   Thanks be to Jesus Christ.

Worship in Quietness

We are now in the second week of Advent.  Soon, it will be Christmas 2013.

Yesterday I attended a wedding at The Bible Church Singapore (TBC).

I had not heard or visited this church before.  I was a bit puzzled why the church is located at a building called the Clementi Bible Centre (CBC).  So upon arrival, I walked around the building to see for myself.

Apparently, within the CBC, there are 2 churches - The Bible Church and Mt Carmel Bible Presbyterian Church.  That was interesting ! There were a few sanctuaries in CBC, some used by TBC and some by MCBPC

I sat down in the sanctuary used by The Bible Church.  The sitting capacity was around 500.  It was a cosy santuary - high roof, no pillars, air-conditioned, simple.  I was very happy with this place of worship.

My own home church is Ang Mo Kio Methodist Church.  Within AMKMC there are a few sanctuaries too.  I only attend the 'traditional' worship services which are less noisy - no noisy musical instruments are used.  I believe the 'contemporary' worship services are somewhat noisy.

So when the wedding service started at TBC, I was really surprised and amused.  The drums were pounding at 150 to 200 decibels and those who sang were shouting.  It really did not matter if you sang off-key.

It was an interesting experience.  But I now confirmed that I prefer worship services that do not use drum instruments that exceed 70 decibels.  The softer the musical instrument, the better - that I could hear the promptings of the Holy Spirit more clearly.