WHAT A WONDER YOU ARE!
Dearest Church,
Recently members of the Spanish Basketball team the players posed with their index fingers stretching their eyes to a thin slit in an attempt to look more Chinese as they posed for an advertisement next to a picture of the dragon.
This caused an uproar as many Chinese were offended as they regarded it to be racist.
Paul Gasol, one of the more reknown members of the team could not understand why and said, “If anybody feels offended by it we totally apologize for it. We never meant anything offensive by it.”
To him and many i suspect, imitation is the best form of flattery so why the hulabaloo.
One of the most powerful demon that could wreck marriages, separate friendships and destroy churches is the spirit of offence.
This demon is actively at work in Malaysia. The Chinese and Indians are hurt and offended that the Malays get all the government benefits despite working hard in nation building. The Malays are offended that the other races regard them as lazy and this hurt is a thick wall of separation between the races in our country.
The spirit of offence is also actively at work in churches where members can take offence at a wrong sentence or word a leader or pastor could have used in a sermon or in a conversation. They can be also offended that they do not get the praise and recognition they wanted although they knew that everything done is for the Lord and not for man.
This demon often manifest itself in pride (for e.g. pride in your own race, dialect etc), envy (we envy those who gets the breaks in life or get the commendation, success etc), inferiority (many Asians think that the whites are better than them) and insecurity (we often need to prove that we are better or the kiasu syndrome- ‘the fear of failure or losing out’).
One Christian brother who has known the Lord for many years, recently shared with tears in his eyes, how he had to struggle much with insecurity all his life. He related how he had difficulty relating with certain people who intimidated him.
Folks, the solution is to see how God sees us. In the book of Psalms chapter one hundred and thirty nine, the author tells us that we are wonderfully and marvellously made and that God has crowned us with glory and honour (Ps 8).
Once you accept yourselves fully and realised that God was thinking about you even before He made the world, all inferiority and smallness will vaporise from our minds. God chose to make you- the shape of your eyes, your height and the shape of your toes. You are a wonder conceived in God’s mind!!!
The spirit of offence will have no effect on a person who is fully assured of the wonder of his personhood and who knows that he is loved by his creator.
May the Lord grant us a revelation of the wonder and the marvel that we are.
Love,
Pastor Ron Hee
Dearest Church,
Recently members of the Spanish Basketball team the players posed with their index fingers stretching their eyes to a thin slit in an attempt to look more Chinese as they posed for an advertisement next to a picture of the dragon.
This caused an uproar as many Chinese were offended as they regarded it to be racist.
Paul Gasol, one of the more reknown members of the team could not understand why and said, “If anybody feels offended by it we totally apologize for it. We never meant anything offensive by it.”
To him and many i suspect, imitation is the best form of flattery so why the hulabaloo.
One of the most powerful demon that could wreck marriages, separate friendships and destroy churches is the spirit of offence.
This demon is actively at work in Malaysia. The Chinese and Indians are hurt and offended that the Malays get all the government benefits despite working hard in nation building. The Malays are offended that the other races regard them as lazy and this hurt is a thick wall of separation between the races in our country.
The spirit of offence is also actively at work in churches where members can take offence at a wrong sentence or word a leader or pastor could have used in a sermon or in a conversation. They can be also offended that they do not get the praise and recognition they wanted although they knew that everything done is for the Lord and not for man.
This demon often manifest itself in pride (for e.g. pride in your own race, dialect etc), envy (we envy those who gets the breaks in life or get the commendation, success etc), inferiority (many Asians think that the whites are better than them) and insecurity (we often need to prove that we are better or the kiasu syndrome- ‘the fear of failure or losing out’).
One Christian brother who has known the Lord for many years, recently shared with tears in his eyes, how he had to struggle much with insecurity all his life. He related how he had difficulty relating with certain people who intimidated him.
Folks, the solution is to see how God sees us. In the book of Psalms chapter one hundred and thirty nine, the author tells us that we are wonderfully and marvellously made and that God has crowned us with glory and honour (Ps 8).
Once you accept yourselves fully and realised that God was thinking about you even before He made the world, all inferiority and smallness will vaporise from our minds. God chose to make you- the shape of your eyes, your height and the shape of your toes. You are a wonder conceived in God’s mind!!!
The spirit of offence will have no effect on a person who is fully assured of the wonder of his personhood and who knows that he is loved by his creator.
May the Lord grant us a revelation of the wonder and the marvel that we are.
Love,
Pastor Ron Hee
