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I’ve been thinking about one conversation I had with a non-Believer friend of mine a few days ago, and I thank God for Ps Prince’s ministry. If not for his Biblically sound and anointed teaching, I would not have had an answer to what my friend had asked.

And by that, I didn’t say that I took what Ps Prince’s teaching, hook, line, sinker, fisherman. Rather, Ps Prince taught us Biblical principles in reading the Bible, two of which are: 1. read to see Jesus (Luk 14:23-27), and 2. rightly divide the word (2Ti 2:15). (And when he gives answers to questions, his answers are consistent anyway, and this is one pastor who is not ashamed to correct himself if he finds out that he’s wrong.) Thank God for a pastor who is not interested in being the sole custodian of interpretations in God’s word. (I have been to churches that give such impressions.) Frees me to open up the Bible and enjoy His word when I am extra-hungry.

So my friend was asking, why is it that in some places, Jesus’ teaching made it sound like those who are moral will go to heaven, regardless of religion, while those who are not will go to hell? So is God double-minded? Is there two ways about salvation?

Before I came to NewCre, I would not have had a Biblical answer for that. I knew that in Jesus I am forgiven of all sins, but I wouldn’t have been able to explain those verses.

That is where the principle of rightly dividing the word comes in. It is important to understand that when Jesus walked on earth, Jesus had not yet died for our sins, and while every word in the Bible is suitable for teaching and exhortation, not every word of Jesus was spoken to us, New Covenant Believers. He was speaking some of the things to Jewish people who were under the Old Covenant.

Take for example what Jesus said regarding one of the Ten Commandments: “You shall not murder”. He said, ‘“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.’ (Mat 5:21-22)

That’s a tall standard! Is Jesus saying to us that you have to never get angry with anyone for no good reason to go to Heaven?

Of course not! If we have to, then if we are honest with ourselves, Heaven will be empty of man!

Jesus, talking to the Jews, was bringing God’s standard back to where it’s meant to be. The Pharisees (the Jewish religious leaders of that day who were first-class in their adherence to God’s laws) brought the law down to where it can be kept. Jesus revealed the law’s true standard so that we know that at the rate we are going, by the law we cannot enter Heaven!

There’s no other way to go to Heaven! Only people who believe in Jesus will go to Heaven, and thank God, ANYONE who believes in Jesus, regardless of how good or how bad you are morally will go to Heaven! Oh hallelujah, THANK GOD for the word “anyone”! (Whoops, switched to preaching mode for the last sentence. Lol.)

In another place, Jesus said that “The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 13:41-42)

Once again, the verse suggests that it is those who practice lawlessness will go to Hell, and the opposite will go to Heaven. Is that what the verse is saying?

Let’s read the context. Jesus was explaining the parables of the tares to His disciples:

“He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Matthew 13:37-43)

So those who practice lawlessness are going to Hell, but the sons of the kingdom are going to Heaven.

Honestly, I am comforted by this. =) After the Lord opened this passage to me, I mean. I’m not saying I know everything from it, but I’m somewhere along the journey.

First off, notice that Jesus used the term sons of the kingdom.

Tell me, do you become a son by birth or by performing? You can’t do something to become someone’s biological son, and on the other hand, your father can never disown you regardless of what you do, biologically speaking.

In short, you are born son (or daughter). You are either son, at birth, or not a son at all.

And that is why when you become a Christian, you are “born again“.

You see, all humans were born wrong. We were sons of Adam, and we were born with sinful nature. (Rom 7:18) It was, and is still, part of us. (NIV uses the term “sinful nature”. NKJV uses the term “flesh”.)

But praise be to God that when we are born again, we become sons of the kingdom, and nothing that we can do can change that position. Because we have been born again in Christ, we can never die. As Christ lives forever, so are we. (Rom 6:9) You see, when you sin, you die, but when you are raised with Christ, you are raised with all your sins judged and behind you, so you can never die! (Sorry, only got born again. No die again. Lolx.)

It gives me such comfort to know that I am a son of the kingdom by birth, not by what I do, not be what I do not do, not by avoiding offense, not by avoiding lawlessness. (These things are good for testimony, because man naturally looks at what you do, but no effect to your salvation.)

“And what about the lawlessness thing?”

Kk, I’m coming to it!

Before we received Christ, we were born sinners, sons of the wicked one. And because we were sinners, we sinned.

Get this right: you didn’t become a sinner because you sinned; you are a sinner, therefore you sin. (It’s like, I’m a football player; therefore I play football.)

Before we accepted Christ, we belonged to the category of those who practiced lawlessness.

However, because of Jesus’ blood and His finished work, all our lawlessness and offenses were condemned and punished to the full in His body.

Today, in Christ, there is nothing about you that speaks of lawlessness, because Christ has fulfilled the law on our behalf, and there is nothing about you that speaks of offense because Christ has been punished for all our offenses, and plus, God sees you in Christ, who is perfect, without offense! You are sons of the kingdom, clear from offense and lawlessness in God’s holy eyes!

You know what? When you read the Bible with such an understanding, it all makes sense.

Honestly, I had wanted to blog since last Sunday service, but today, the service was so awesome I have to release this, so. Lol.

When I heard Ps Lian saying that even though Ps Prince was not back yet, he’s going to preach anyway, I thought we were going to get a live stream from Israel, but it turned out that today’s sermon was a video from the Hope Conference in South Africa last year.

And the moment the sermon started, my hands were writing on the sermon notes at the rate I have never done so in a long time. In the sermon, Ps Prince condensed so many of the sermons that he has preached over the years - sermons that has made NewCre the church she is today - into one single, power-packed, solid, concentrated, crazily anointed (I have to borrow this term from my Sister Grace!) message.

I think this should go into a tumblr blog instead la. Tumblr is good when y’know, all I want to shout out are these two quotes by Ps Prince that really struck me:

1. Anyone can understand do good get good, do bad get beat; it takes the Holy Spirit to understand that I receive the good I don’t deserve, because Someone received the bad He didn’t deserve!

2. Some churches are still preaching “examine your hearts”! The question today is not how good you are, but how good is your lamb! So stop searching your heart. Examine the lamb. Is the lamb good? If the lamb is good, LET’S WORSHIP! HALLELUJAH!

It’s not everyday that you hear something and you feel like standing up and shouting it out, but y’know, those two sentences really produced such an “Amen”, a resonance in my heart that I simply felt a boldness that came from on high, and I wanted to just tell everyone that YES, this is the gospel that I believe in! This is my Jesus!

What Ps Prince preached today were not new to me, but they were so fresh and so very anointed. I just love to be reminded that it’s not about my love for Him, but His love for me.

It’s like the way we want to Aston’s today. I had baked potatoes as one of the sides because it was one of my favourites. It was not new to me, unlike my main course (Hickory BBQ chicken) but it was so good to eat it again. And I was so enjoying it so much that I was the last to finish my lunch!

Usually I don’t blog about Sundays every week like before, but last Sunday was so awesome that I have to give it a good exception. =)

Valentine’s Day. Chinese New Year. Most importantly, Sunday.

I set out of the house early to grab a tix for 2nd service, as it has been for the past weeks. The difference from other weeks, however, was that I was alone. Most of my CG could not come for church due to visitations except two, both of whom went for 1st.

Because of the reduced number of services, I was expecting a longer-than-usual queue for 2nd service ticket. After all, more people would want to cram into the Rock Audi right?

I was wrong, haha. The queue was shorter. It seemed that a lot of people needed to do visitations so they went straight for 1st. 2nd service fell to mainly people who are not Chinese, (I saw some foreign first-timers at the ticket queue) or people who don’t have to do many visitations, like me.

I was talking to one of the leaders before the service started, and overheard that Ps Lian was preaching, and Ps Prince is attending 2nd. I was surprised, because usually Ps Mark will guest-preach for Chinese New Year service. But no problem; an anointed preacher all the same. =)

It turned out to be an amazing sermon. What spoke to me was Ps Lian’s second point (she preached a three-point sermon!) on Daniel 1. It is a passage that really matches my season as a student. Not that it was a new season in the sense that I wasn’t a student before 2010, but it reminded me of what was being shared during one of the CG’s months ago, albeit in a different light, during one of the CG’s months ago.

But what really blew me away as when Ps Lian shared about the vine.

First thing first, Jesus has ordained for you to bear fruit; it is a closed matter. (Joh 15:16) It’s not a question of whether you will bear fruit or not.

What happens if you do not bear fruit?

‘Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; [fn] and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.’ (Joh 15:2)

Actually, the word “takes away” (or worse still “cuts off” as NLT says) is misleading, because in the original Greek, “airo” means “to raise up, to elevate, to lift up”. Why does He lift us up?

You see, in vineyards, the vines grow and cling on to a structure called “trellis”, a structure which looks like a cross. However, as the vine produces branches, there are some branches that do not cling to the trellis; as a result they are eventually on the ground, dusty and trodden. The vinedresser lifts these branches up and put it on the trellis.

Barrenness in your life is simply the result of you forgetting the Cross.

That is why when you are barren, the Father lifts you up and puts you on the Cross of Jesus Christ!

Beautiful end to the sermon, but the best was yet to come. At the end of the service, Ps Prince, who was in attendance, came on stage and gave a word of prophecy: it is going to be a year of aggressive healing, aggressive shalom, and aggressive love! Hallelujah!

And I was awed. I mean, God so placed me at the right place at the right time to be able to receive this for myself firsthand. I am so blessed. ^^

God really never shortchanges. I just feel so rich and full and fed. =)

Went for lunch with Jesus afterwards, and you know that the service was anointed and you are in the flow with He starts talking to you and you get revelation out of reading a label.

I was at Shokudo for lunch (salmon fried rice inside omelette is hallelujah!) and I was reading this label near a sword display:

“A samurai’s two swords are his source of protection as well as spiritual energy.”

Well, we have the real thing. Read Revelation 19:25. God’s word spoken has the power to protect you and refresh you!

I was just thinking, “but Lord, it’s not like God’s word in and of itself (like physical Bible) has power to protect or refresh me wad?”

And the Lord pointed to me that the sword was from His mouth. Same, the sword proceeds your mouth, child of God! It is of no use if your mouth is closed! But when you declare His word, angels respond and enforce God’s word over your life, and God’s word is life to your flesh! (Pro 4:23)

Awesome, and all this basically burned away the ten-minute waiting time for my salmon fried rice.

That’s my age. 7+7+7. 21.

What an apt age to enter into in 2010, knowing that this year will be a year of restful increase for me.

Seven is the Bible number for rest, so for 7+7+7, DaddyGod is telling me, “rest, rest, rest”.

No, it’s not over yet. Notice that the plus signs are put between the sevens?

“Rest, increase, rest, increase, rest.” HALLELUJAH!

I love life. Plain awesome. =)

Y’know, our church sang a song from a super-old Hillsong album two Sunday ago: the song “All Things Are Possible”. Then, last Sunday, we sang “Glory To The King” from the same album.

So came Sunday evening, I was in a mood to flip through the old Hillsong songs and listen to them.

Never gets old, really - songs like “Eagle’s Wings”, “All Things Are Possible”, “Glory To The King”, “Power Of Your Love” and, of course, “Shout To The Lord”. But the one that really touched me that evening was “So You Would Come”.

And I thought this post would be a reprise lol, because I thought that I wrote about this song once. I did a search through my blog, to find an unpublished post some time more than a year ago, maybe two years ago. (Unpublished means you wouldn’t be able to see it; it was a work-in-progress.) It’s always interesting to read what your past self wrote.

But for sure one thing remains unchanged about the song and about what I think: the song just so resonates with the simplicity of the gospel. The message is so simple, yet so profound.

“Come to the Father”, as the chorus says.

It takes religious churches to pervert the gospel and adds extra conditions, rules and demands to it.

“If you don’t really, really, really, really, really, really repent, God will not forgive you!”

“God wants nothing short of you giving everything to Him! Jesus said, if you do not give up everything, you cannot be my disciple!” (That’s abusing what He said, by the way. He didn’t mean it to Believers.)

“You’d better keep a short account with God, otherwise if you die while having a list of confessed sins how?”

All those teachings are error.

No wonder people today think that Christianity is yet another religion in which God is demanding from them, when in truth, the gospel is simple: in Jesus, you have everything, relationship with God, protection, acceptance, love, success, prosperity, health, all paid for by His blood.

I like the line that said “nothing that you do, can make Him love you more, and nothing that you’ve done, can make Him close the door”.

There is nothing that you can do to earn God’s love, but God already loves you as you are. And there is nothing that you can do that can make Him give up on you. He will always be here for you =) that’s my God.

God can righteously do that, because at the Cross, Jesus took your place, and God the Father forsook Jesus when He needed His Father most so that today, in your darkest time, He will never forsake you.

This is the gospel.