John 12:35 Then Jesus said to them, “A little while longer the light is
with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he
who walks in darkness does not know where he is going.
At a 5 star hotel in
Kuala Lumpur, high above the busy world, looking across into the window,
we glimpse at dfferent worlds perhaps how Jesus sees us. The masses
working below in the construction site like ants in a harsh world.
Window to
Poverty
My dad didn't leave me
any inheritance, except a meal ticket where my education would provide
the means of an earning. A simple earning, a simple meal.
At a visit to the True
Jesus Church, an evangelical pentcostal church in Kuala Lumpur on Sat, my aunty pointed me to the head pastor, an elderly man in his 70s. "Your Father knew Him..." said my aunty.
When my grandparents died very young in the 1950s, they went to the church to ask for
help for the family of 10, but no help came. Hence, my father's life
long angst against this church.
My father became
Anglican.
I can't blame the
church for they were not rich. The givings for a church in Apr was only
RM 6,630 (215 members). They had ministered to the poor in contrast to
the foreign missionary rich Anglican and Methodist churches backed by
the colonialist.
I can see why one would
be tempted to cross over to the excesses of Prosperity Theology because
the Pentecostals were poor. But surely, we are to walk in the light.
Window to God's
grace
Sitting at the back of
the True Jesus church, my mind wandered 30 to 35 years back when I first
visited at age 9 or 10. The Holy Spirit first touched me in a strong
and tangible manner revealing Christ to me.
Nothing has changed
much. The large number of elderly, and only a few youngsters. The
secular represented by Hollywood, TV, Emails, Movies, Facebook are
disdained! The men sat at the left and the women the right. The most
conservative church had grown but slowly, a fate better than many
Episcopal churches in the US.
But God used this
church to reveal the supernatural Light - Christ the Saviour to me. It
was a spiritual revelation. God used that my family disdained to bless
me.
I longed for the Grace
of God in my life, to experience God's light and presence of Jesus
Christ. Let me be in the supernatural light in the midst of darkness.
Window to the
mega rich
Mat 19:24 And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through
the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
In the evening, I
attended my Aunties birthday. The visitors, the Datuk and Datin's in
their sparking million dollar jewelry amazed me.
It was a different
world of luxury, enjoyment, more than sufficient without cares nor
concerns. The were of retirement age, yet looked in their early 40s, for
wealth can buy youth in the best foods, supplements and cosmetics.
I looked outside the
window, to the real world, yet for one night the outside matters little
with the good food, 60s band, and free flowing champagne, wine, and tit
bits.
Perhaps Jesus would
also enjoy the pleasures of life. I begin to understand the City Harvest
Cross Over. It was not for the Gospel, but wealth and luxury and fame
which all of us would have wanted or secretly desired.
I longed for a better
life, but will I change and have no compassion, sympathy and grace in my
heart for the Other if life was given to me in a silver spoon. But God's grace is
sufficient for this day and for tommorow.
It is hard for the rich
to enter heaven for their heaven is on earth.
Window to the
church
Mat 13:13 On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the
sea. 2 And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He
got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore
Mat 13: 45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking
beautiful pearls, 46 who, when he had found one pearl of great price,
went and sold all that he had and bought it
The church is a
mystery like the pearl hidden in the OT, and the Gospel, and was born only after Jesus
death and resurrection.
The church is
imperfect, but her imperfections covered by Jesus death at the Cross
just as the Oyster gave its life in the process of covering the small
grain of stone.
There five groups of
people mentioned in the OT/NT, the Jews, the Gentiles, the Church and
the Eunuchs.
People are not
anti-God, or a sense of spirituality and morality, but often against the
revelation of Christ, as Lord and Saviour, the way, the truth and the
Life to God. We may profess to be Christian, but what is Christ to us
unless it washes us clean by the Blood of the Lamb.
I visited a GLBT church
nearby, but it was closed on Saturday. We minister Love, but we actually
need salvation, from ourselves. There are two revelations of God in the
bible - God is Love, and God is light, manifested in Jesus.
When we only preach God
is love, we missed out Jesus by exception, and only preach them the
summary of the law which is not useful for a gay community so hungry for
Jesus. We fed them rocks of the law summarised as love, the Shema
Yisrael, which only led the Pharisees to crucify Jesus.
Can the church be a
beautiful pearl desired by many and not struggling to survive because it
looks like a grain of sand or a tiny rock.
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There are only few
things that Joseph Price of New Creation, and Kong Hee of City Harvest
agrees upon - that is Jesus is coming back soon for the select. But i
have to differ.
I look at the World
through the window of Google Earth. Earth becomes a tiny dot. Who am I
that Jesus should be mindful of me?
The fig tree blossomed
when Israel came back to Jerusalem in 1969. But the temple, the house of
God has not been rebuilt. The Gospel revival has not reached the world,
to the ends. At the end is not only the poorest in belogings, but the
poorest in spirit ie the Gay community.
The role of Gay peoples
is tied closely to the heart of God, of God's grace to a world that has
rejected Jesus and has chosen to worship other gods and put all their
sins upon gays.
=================================
As I looked outside,
from the window of my 5 star hotel, surely it doesn't matter as
long as you are looking high above from the right side of the window in
a good hotel.
I rather be inside the
hotel than the world outside. Yet, Jesus stepped out of heaven to come
to my world that I may see heaven.
Perhaps, it is not
being in the right hotel, but being in the light having Jesus close
beside me. As I sleep, the presence of Jesus fills me, and the song
Jesus loves me this I know.
Shoudn't the window
reflect our light to the World and so bright naturally that it could not
be hidden, just as the light of Christ is reflected in us in the blood
of the Lamb.
The way of Jesus is to
be in the light, to walk in the light. When we are in the light, only
can be begin to walk in God's way. The light of Christ is in us, if we
truly believed in Jesus Christ.
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