A GIFT FOR PASTORS

Here a prophetic word which I believe is a wonderful word for all leaders and pastors to take heed:

Bill Yount: 2007--"A YEAR FOR PASTORS TO UNWRAP THE GIFTS I HAVE GIVEN TO THEM...IN MY PEOPLE!"

UNWRAPPED GIFTS

"My greatest gift to earth came wrapped in 'swaddling' clothes."

In the Spirit, I saw many gifts laying at the feet of many Pastors. These gifts inside of God's House had been hand delivered by the Lord Himself, but were never unwrapped. Many of these unwrapped gifts had dust covering them due to the fact that the gifts had been sitting there for years.
Many priceless gifts were stamped "special delivery" long ago to bless the pastors, but still were never opened. It seemed many pastors never got past what the gift was wrapped in. The unusual and sometimes controversial wrapping of many of these gifts, led them to believe the gift was not that important or needed.
But oh, how I heard Heaven proclaim, "My greatest gift to earth came wrapped in 'swaddling' clothes. Don't let what gifts are wrapped in stop you from opening them. The best gifts to bless you and advance My Church may often come in wrappings that you would never have chosen. But inside are many gifts that will build My Kingdom, and strengthen you as you lay hands on them, affirming and acknowledging them, and releasing them to do the work of the ministry."

FREEDOM FROM BONDAGES

I look forward eagerly to my daily prayer time with the pastors and some intercessors. We usually start at around 10.45 and end about 12.30 or so. This morning I felt that when we come before that Lord, we should not come with an agenda but to just seek the Lord's face and worship Him unconditionally. I think it was right because God is not a santa claus but One who deserve our all. As we worshipped, i was led to proclaim freedom to those who are bound by the works of the devil like sicknesses and anxiety etc. My mind was directed to Is 61 as I declare the freedom that Jesus had accomplished on the cross. Sis May shared later that the Lord showed her in a vision, a letter that He has written to our church and at the top of the letter was written Is 61. It was a wonderful confirmation of what the Lord had led me to do. Ps Jeremiah then laid hands and prayed for me because he saw the Lord giving me a sceptre of authority. In the book of Esther, when the sceptre was extended to Esther, she was given free access to the King. This was also a confirmation of a previous prophetic word from an intercessor from USA.

CHRISTMAS LUNCH WITH THE STAFF

Today, the staff at church had a Christmas lunch together. After lunch we gathered to talk about the memorable experiences working in church during the year. It was good to hear the positive reports from those who shared. Some new staff have really added positive energy to the environment in the church office. Praise the Lord. I talked about how the staff in New Life worked so well together and often helping out each other without distinguishing whether or not we are from the English or the Chinese Church. I encouraged them to continue with this wonderful spirit of unity. After that, Ps J handed out appreciation cards to each one as well as a Christmas gift which turned out to be towels. We then held hands and Ps Lawrence prayed that our staff will have even a better year in 2007. It was a meaningful afternoon.

OLD FRIENDS

Had breakfast at Kana Curryhouse in SS2 last Wednesday, sitting under the trees with some old MBS alumni friends. Patrick Cheng (NECF), Franklin Morais (formerly FGA Rawang and now lecturer with HELP Institute) and Paul Long (SS Gospel Centre) and I worked together in organising some events and grew close as a result. There seems to be a camaraderie among the four of us that enable us to talk and give advice to one another rather freely without the fear of being judged. I guess you could some of you might have experienced this type of kinship with someone before- the friendship, the acceptance and the respect that is there despite each of us coming from different backgrounds. Much have changed since we last met. Franklin have left the pastorage and enjoying his new job as a lecturer, counselor and trainer in the psychology department of HELP Institute. Paul Long has just resigned from his long time position with the church and have taken a pastoring position in Auckland, New Zealand. God speed to him. I think he will do well. I have never seen a more talented man- savvy with the pc, the ferocious reader, a youth worker, a clown and magician, preacher, administrative 'go-to' man and many more skills. I hope they pay you well in NZ since you are such a total package, Paul. Patrick will make a good Christian diplomat and statesman. He is balanced in his views and always reconciliatory and encouraging.
Ever since the news broke about Ted Haggard, Patrick wanted to start a fellowship group among ministers who are going through their mid-lives, those in their 40s (err..I just made it) so that there will be people who could speak into our lives. That breakfast was a good start. I enjoyed the friendship greatly and look forward to the next one. We agreed to meet together again just before Paul flies off to NZ.

GOD HAS ENTERED YOUR LIFE

It's early December and already the malls are being decked out the decorations and Churches everywhere are busy preparing their Christmas programs. I hope that all these will not camouflage the wonderful message of the season- that the King of kings has entered into our lives and brought His Kingdom into our lives.
I liked what I read in the Daily Bread devotion for today-
Peter Larson wrote:"Despite our efforts to keep Him out, God intrudes. The life of Jesus is bracketed by two impossibilities: a virgin's womb and an empty tomb. Jesus entered our world through a door marked, 'No Entrance' and left through a door marked 'No Exit'.
James Edwards echoes this theme in his book The Divine Intruder: “[God] breaks into this world, even when He is unexpected and unwelcome. God joins us in our weakest and worst moments. There is a Divine Intruder among us.”

ALL BELONG TO GOD

A minister friend from Sri Lanka wrote:
We must not think that it is our talent and achievement that have brought us where we are in the Lord’s ministry. He alone chose us, keeps us and prospers us in the thing He pleases. We only need to please Him. Prov 16:3. The fruit of the labour is entirely His by the work of the cross. Is 53:12.

When Gracie, the eight year old daughter of Hudson Taylor died in China , he wrote, “The Gardener has nothing to say, when the Owner of the garden picked a beautiful Rose in half bloom”. It was the Owner’s choice. Gardener acquiesced through pain. If that was his comment about his own daughter, how should we view the fruit of ministry labour?

JE CHRISTIANS

The message that came out of our 'Day to Seek the Lord 2' is for the folks in New Life to go beyond a 'just enough' Christianity.
The world is full of JE Christians. A 'just enough' Christian will only do things out of convenience. He will come for meetings out of obligation and duty. He sits on the sidelines and does not risks getting too involved. You will find him sitting on the back rows of the church even if there are empty rows in front. He is saying, 'Don't expect more commitment from me'. I am busy enough. I love God and He is my priority but if there is danger, or inconvenience or it costs too much- please count me out. I give the 10% because that's in the word but don't expect me to sacrifice anymore. I attend Church but don't expect me to give more of my time. I have done enough to get into heaven . I have walked the first mile- don't force me to go the second mile. This is against the teachings of our Lord who wants us to go the second mile. Be the server and not the served.

MY MINISTRY PHILOSOPHY

"A snot nose reporter asked Mother Teresa:Do you feel like a failure? You have fed hungry people and there are more hungry people today than when you started?You have helped the poor dying people of India, and more people are dying?Do you feel like a failure?

MOTHER TERESA LOOKED THE YOUNG MAN IN THE EYE, AND REPLIED: GOD HAS NOT CALLED ME TO BE SUCCESSFUL, GOD CALLED ME TO BE FAITHFUL. I STAND AT MY POST OF DUTY. THAT IS WHAT I HAVE BEEN CALLED TO DO."

That's my ministry philosophy as well. Success is doing what God has called us to do.

DON'T PUT GOD IN A BOX

My time with the Lord in the morning consist of reading the scriptures and also two devotionals- a periodical 'Everyday with Jesus' by Selwyn Hughes and the other is 'My Utmost for the Highest' by Oswald Chambers.

Today's reading reminds us not to put God in a box. We often think that just because a certain way work for us that we can keep doing it that way. This moves our dependence from the living Lord to our confidence on a certain way or principle.

Oswald Chambers wrote, "Beware of making a fetish consistency to your convictions instead of being devoted to God. There never was a more inconsistent Being on this earth than Our Lord, but He was never inconsistent to His Father. The one consistency of the saint is not to a principle but to the Divine life. It is the Divine life which ocntinually makes more and more discoveries about the Divine mind. It is easier to be a fanantic than a faithful soul, because there is something amazingly humbling, particularly to our religious conceit, in being loyal to God."

LESSONS FROM TED HAGGARD

Ted Haggard's letter to his church http://www.gazette.com/display.php?id=1326184&secid=1 was one of the most well written confessions I have ever read. He blamed no one except himself and admitted to the dark struggles all through his adult life. He put it well when he said, 'The public person I was wasn’t a lie; it was just incomplete. ' A true pastor, he ended his letter by leaving behind some final advice on how the church to respond to the crisis that he created: advice which I feel all churches can also benefit in going through a difficult situation-

"I appreciate your loving and forgiving nature, and I humbly ask you to do a few things:
1. Please stay faithful to God through service and giving.
2. Please forgive me. I am so embarrassed and ashamed. I caused this and I have no excuse. I am a sinner. I have fallen. I desperately need to be forgiven and healed.
3. Please forgive my accuser. He is revealing the deception and sensuality that was in my life. Those sins, and others, need to be dealt with harshly. So, forgive him and actually, thank God for him. I am trusting that his actions will make me, my wife and family, and ultimately all of you, stronger. He didn’t violate you; I did.
4. Please stay faithful to each other. Perform your functions well. Encourage each other and rejoice in God’s faithfulness. Our church body is a beautiful body, and like every family, our strength is tested and proven in the midst of adversity. Because of the negative publicity I’ve created with my foolishness, we can now demonstrate to the world how our sick and wounded can be healed, and how even disappointed and betrayed church bodies can prosper and rejoice."

I pray that he will be fully restored and run the remainder of his race well.

TOUCHING THE LORD

There is a great difference between thronging Jesus and touching Him. Every week thousands go in and out of our churches, join in the activities, sing the hymns and choruses, listen to the sermon;

they throng Jesus but never touch Him.

We can touch God if we reach out to Him in faith, in need and desperation like the woman who bled for 12 years. Luke 8:40-56. Her touch caused power to flow out from the Lord and made Jesus stopped to give her attention.

JERRY FALWELL

A pastor that I admire is Jerry Falwell, pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Virginia. It is obvious that his ministry is blessed because he is unwavering in his righteous stance that is based on God's word. The guiding principles of his life (taken from one of his sermons) are:

1. We are debtors to God and humanity.
Romans 1:14 "I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise."

2. We are called to full commitment.
If God's people will see nothing but the goal line, will accept nothing but victory, will pay any price, will suffer any hurt and hardship, will refuse to be discouraged or disheartened, we cannot help but win; because we are charged with the power of God's Holy Spirit.

3. We must be visionaries.
The difference between mediocrity and greatness is vision.

4. We must be men and women of prayer.
Nothing of eternal importance is ever accomplished apart from prayer.

5. We must be people of great faith.
Hebrews 11:6 "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."If you are going to run this race for God and make a mark on this generation, you must be willing to leap in and, if you lose your life in the doing, lose it for the glory of God!Faith is standing on God's integrity and acting on His promises even if you have to act and stand alone.

6. We must trust God's sovereignty.
God's man is indestructible until he has finished the work God has called him to do.God never promised to keep you out of trouble; but He does promise to be with you through all your troubles.

CHANGE THE WORLD

Evangelist Mordecai Ham conducted a tent meeting campaign many years ago in North Carolina. Two teens named Billy Graham and Grady Wilson were converted to Christ in that meeting. The rest is history. We change the world one soul at a time.

UNCONDITIONAL LOVE

Where have we Christians come up with this idea that we are required to be right and good and perfect before we can be loved? If this is true, then God does not love His children unconditionally. The Bible tells us that nothing can separate us from His love. Not 'badness', imperfections, weaknesses or sin. When we are not unconditionally loved, we will work to be good and right in order to be loved. This is legalistic Christianity. We will hide the parts of ourselves that are sinful and bad and work harder each day to become 'Christian'. Ephesians 1 tells us that we are righteous before Him in love. Before God the Father, we stand in Christ as someone who is righteous and holy. We work so hard to become what we already are- to gain what we already possess.

STRESS

Stress grows from our vain attempt to control and direct our own future according to the imaginations of our minds. It comes from believing that we know the way that we should go. We don't- unless we want to go the way of the world. Jesus alone is the Way. We need to surrender our lives daily to the Lord so that His Way takes over from ours. God's way is a way of life and peace. Great peace have they who love His way.

YOUR PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE

What is the focus of our lives? It must be for the glory of God.

1Co 10:31 Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

Selwyn Hughes wrote, "If we do not know what it means to sacrifice self-interest in our lives day by day, then in reality we are not living for God's glory. We must therefore ask ourselves: Wohose concerns dictate what I am doing and the way I am living- mine or God's?

Dr. Larry Crabb in 'Finding God', wrote that we have been reducing God to someone useful- a power to make our lives more personally satisfying. In every Christian's heart there is a desire to know God but all too often it is not so that we might bring Him glory but so that we might gain some benefits for ourselves.

JOY

We must daily enter into the joy of the Lord.

We tend to equate “happiness” with joy but they are two totally different ideas because they each spring from a different source. One comes from the world around me. The other originates directly from the Spirit of the Living God.

Galatians 5:22-23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control…”

We often seek happiness away from circumstances that are not favorable. We cry, 'If only we were somewhere else.' God wants us to DAILY enter into His joy despite the rough situations and the valleys that each of us find ourselves.

Rom 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

Matthew Henry, a Bible scholar from the 1700’s wrote in his diary after some thieves robbed him and took his wallet: “Let me be thankful first, because I was never robbed before; second, because, although they took my wallet, they did not take my life; third, because, although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth, because, it was I who was robbed, not I who robbed.”The only way to have an attitude like this is to release our problems to the Lord. Because He’s in charge we can have joy – no matter what happens. Paul put it this way in 2 Corinthians 7:4: “…in all our troubles my joy knows no bounds.” James 1:2 challenges us to “consider it pure joy…whenever you face trials of many kinds.”

Joy comes from within and is not dampened by what happened without.

OPEN DOORS AND ADVERSARIES

I visited our Ampang Outreach two Sundays ago and this article in their bulletin spoke to me. I hope it will bless you as well. Here is an adaptation of it:

"For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries." 1 Corinthians 16:9

Open doors of service may also let in adversaries. Paul had many of both. Paul chose to remain longer in Ephesus because of the open doors of ministry. Paul was not going to leave regardless of how many enemies he faced. We might assume that he would reach the opposite conclusion (because of the adversaries). In light of the opposition he faced, he could have concluded that it was best to serve in less hostile regions. Instead, Paul based his decisions on God's activity rather than on what people were doing.

As you respond to God's invitations, don't be caught by surprise when adversaries try to thwart what you are doing. If you concentrate on your opponents, you will be sidetracked from God's activity. Don't base your decisions on what people are doing. They cannot prevent you from carrying out God's will (Rom 8:31). Many times the most rewarding spiritual work is done in the crucible of persecution and opposition. While Paul was in Ephesus, a riot broke out in reaction to his ministry. The city theater resounded with an angry mob who shouted for two hours in support of their god, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians!" (Acts 19:23-41). Despite this fierce rejection of the gospel, Ephesus became one of the chief cities from which the gospel spread throughout Asia.

It takes spiritual discernment to see beyond human activity to God's will. As you seek places of service, look beyond what people are saying to find what God is doing.

TOTALLY YOURS

I have started this blog as a journal for my reflections from the my daily morning devotions with the Lord. The Lord willing, I am hoping that these reflections will be of encouragement to my beloved church folks at New Life Restoration Centre in Malaysia. The title of this blog 'Totus Tuus' is Latin and it means, 'Totally Yours'. I hope that gives you glimpse of the sincerity of my heart.

The subject of my first reflection is on the reasons why so many Christians backslide and fail in their commitment to the Lord. Selwyn Hughes (CWR) is right when he said, "Initially when we enter into a relationship with God, everything is so new and unfamiliar that we lean upon the Lord in great dependence." God's blessings soon remove our daily reliance upon the Lord to our confidence in what we ourselves can do to make things happen. This is precisely what happened to the Laodicean Church in Revelation 3. They became lukewarm because they have become dependent on their riches. Deuteronomy 8 gives us the answer- that we must remember that it is the Lord who gives us power to get wealth and thatwe must continue to worship and follow Him and Him alone. We must be 'Totally His'.