It is God who grants us favor with men

SCRIPTURE:

 “Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.’

“They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand. Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.”

I was cupbearer to the king. Nehemiah 1:8-11

OBSERVATION:

Many Christians avoid reading the Old Testament, but it is in fact rich in helping us understand God’s character and reveals to us how He deals with people. In His promise to the people of Israel through Moses, God assured them that they would be scattered among the nations if they were unfaithful, but even then, if they returned to Him and obeyed Him again, God would bring them back to their home land.

For us, even though we are under the new covenant, the principle is the same. Some of us found Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life, but we became choked by the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth or the desires for other things, and left the narrow way to salvation in pursuing God’s kingdom and His righteousness. However, if we, like the prodigal son, come to our senses and return back to God and seek to please Him, He is faithful, and will bring us back to fellowship with Him.

Nevertheless, although we know God is merciful and longsuffering, we must never take the grace of God for granted lest we come to a point where we are no longer able to turn back. Many in the church today think that just because they have said the sinner’s prayer at some point in time, they can do whatever they like henceforth and make it to heaven. Do not be deceived! The Scripture is clear that those who keep on sinning as a way of life will not inherit the kingdom of God. As we walk on this earth, we do fall into sin, but we who are truly in Christ Jesus do not keep continuing to sin as a way of life, and our desire is always to grow in righteousness by following the Holy Spirit’s leading so as to please God more and more.

God promised to bring the repentant of Israel back to the place He had chosen as a dwelling for His name. This reminds us of God’s desire to stay together with us, which is the whole purpose He sent His Son to die on the cross that we might be redeemed. The whole Bible is the story of God’s plan to bring a people to Himself who will love Him and revere Him and stay with Him forever.

In the last part of this Scripture, we also learn from Nehemiah’s prayer that God can and does cause others to favor His servants. It is thus a good and fitting prayer to ask God to give us favor in the presence of others, be it our teachers, superiors, colleagues, or anyone with whom we come into contact with. We need to remember though, that Nehemiah asked for this favor not for selfish purposes, but for the good of His people. Hence, the purpose for favor upon us should not just be for personal motives, but to glorify God with our lives.

APPLICATION:

Praise God that He is faithful and forgiving and accepts anyone back who returns to Him in humility and honesty. If we are strayed away from Him, return back quickly, and find His favor and forgiveness again. Praise God for His great plan to bring us to Himself through His Son that we might stay with Him and be part of His people. Desire and pray that we might learn to live according to His will more and more. Pray for God’s favor in the presence of others we come into contact with, that we might glorify Him, and be a blessing to more and more people.

PRAYER:

We praise you and thank You, Heavenly Abba Father, precious Lord Jesus, for calling us to become part of Your family, to have that great destiny of being able to stay with You as Your people. For those of us who have strayed from you, we pray that You bring us back, and forgive us as we return to You. Help us O Lord, and give us a strong desire to live life in a way that pleases You more and more. We pray to You too, Lord, for your favor in the presence of our teachers, our superiors, our classmates, our colleagues, our friends, that we might be more and more a blessing to them in a way that glorifies You. We praise You and love You and thank You, Lord. In Jesus name, Amen.

Our God who sees and hears us

Our God who sees and hears us

SCRIPTURE:

Then I said: “Lord, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against you. We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses. Nehemiah 1:5-7

OBSERVATION:

Studying the prayer of Nehemiah here, we get a good glimpse into the characteristics of the great God we pray to. Firstly, we are reminded that God is the God of Heaven, that He made the Heavens high above us, and He is the Great and Awesome King there. Later, in the New Testament, we as Christians are exhorted to set our minds on things above in Heaven, where rust and moth cannot destroy rather than on earthly things here that pass away.

Secondly, we are reminded that God is a loving and faithful God, who keeps his covenant with those who love Him and keep His commandments. Our part is to love God and obey Him. We can rest assured that He will never leave us nor forsake us who love Him and obey Him.

Thirdly, God has ears that hear and eyes that see those who pray to Him, especially those who pray to Him day and night. Nehemiah’s stance in prayer is serious, and he puts his whole heart into it, praying day and night before the Lord. God is pleased with this kind of genuine prayer, and listens to and sees the man who prays fervently like that!

Besides that, we also see the importance of repentance in Nehemiah’s prayer, not just for his own sins, but that of his father’s family and his whole people. He acknowledged before God all their wrongdoings, asking God for forgiveness. Repentance is such a critical part of prayer that we must certainly not ignore it. Our God is a forgiving God, who does not deal with us as our sins deserve but delights in forgiving those who earnestly turn to Him.

APPLICATION:

Praise God as the God of Heaven, High above, Great and Awesome, Loving and Forgiving. Praise God that He has ears that listen and eyes that see and is pleased with those who believe in Him and pray to Him. Learn to repent before Him and ask His forgiveness, not only for our own selves, but that of our family, our company, our cell group, our church. Wherever, we find ourselves part of a community, we can and should repent on their behalf.

PRAYER:

We praise You and worship You, Abba Heavenly Father, Precious Lord Jesus! How great and deep is Your love for us! You are seated high in the Heavens, perfect in all Your ways, great in all Your deeds! We thank You and praise You, that You are a God who hears us and sees us, and delights in having that relationship with us whom You created from the dust. Forgive us we pray for our many sins. Even for the stubbornness of our hearts and that of our family, our church, our workplace, we ask Your forgiveness. Melt our hardened hearts we pray O Lord. Let our ears be open to Your Spirit and receive Your correction. We praise You and bless You and worship You Lord.  In Jesus name, Amen.

The cupbearer cared for his people

SCRIPTURE:

They said to me, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.” When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. Nehemiah 1:3-4

OBSERVATION:

In this study, we first want to focus on the prayer of the great wall-builder Nehemiah, who almost single-handedly took on the project to initiate and drive the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem which was so crucial for the re-establishment of the Jewish nation in the holy city of Jerusalem.

First looking at the situation, we see a sad state of affairs for the remnant of the exile who had made their way back to Jerusalem. They were in great trouble and disgrace, for the wall of Jerusalem had broken down and its gates burned by fire. This meant that those in the city were always vulnerable and exposed, subject at any moment to possible invasions by the enemy.

Upon hearing about this, Nehemiah, being an emotional man, began to sit down and weep. Continuing in this attitude of mourning, he continued to fast and pray before God.

From his reaction, we can see that Nehemiah cared deeply for his people. He empathized with them, and felt their fear, their hopelessness, their disgrace. He himself was in a comfortable position, being of high position in the king’s palace, but he was not only concerned for himself but also cared deeply for his people. And it was out of this heart of concern, that Nehemiah poured out his heart to God in prayer!

Our Lord Jesus calls us to “Love one another as He has loved us”. Would we be as concerned for our fellow believers who are in suffering and weakness? Could we love our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ just as Nehemiah loved his fellow Jews? Nehemiah had a burden for them which drove him to mourn and fast and pray for them.

In today’s society and culture, we have become increasingly self-centered and focused on our own self and immediate family. We find it too difficult, too inconvenient, too risky, to reach out and even start to think about fellow believers who may be suffering around us. We block our hearts from caring, for we feel we have too much to lose. Self-preservation is the order of the day, and we are driven to hoard and keep as much for ourselves as we can for a rainy day.

Our faith hence becomes just an outward show of minimum compliance to pass off as a good Christian. When push comes to shove, we just retreat back into our shell, and let the needy pass by. We excuse ourselves by saying we have too many needs and commitments of our own, that we are not millionaires or rich people with a lot of reserve.

APPLICATION:

Consider the heart of Nehemiah, a man in high and comfortable position who was willing to risk and forsake all that comfort to stoop down to a city in ruins to help his brothers there. On our own, we are selfish creatures and unwilling to help, but we need to start off with a desire to change, to begin to care more, to begin to want to reach out to those who are in need. Even if we have a little bit of that desire, start to pray that God will give us more and more compassion, to let our selfishness recede, and our love for His people increase. Keep praying that God will fan that flame of compassion in our heart, that we might start to feel and care for others like our Lord does.

PRAYER:

Heavenly Abba Father, precious Lord Jesus, You loved and cared so much for us, that You provided the way out that we might be saved. O Lord, Your heart hurts when Your children on earth suffer, while others with plenty do not lift a finger to help. Lord, forgive our complacency, our selfishness, our fear. Set our hearts free we pray to have hearts of compassion, to reach out and help others. Banish that self-preservation spirit from us, we pray, but help us to put our complete trust in You, that we will no longer fear, but move out to help others according to Your leading. We praise You and love You, Lord. In Jesus name, Amen.

A letter from the crown prince

Imagine you received a letter from the Crown Prince of a very rich country. Dear …. Greetings. I am the Crown Prince. Listen, I have specially chosen you and prepared a very high position for you in my company. If you accept my offer, I guarantee you a salary you could never dream of in a job you will love so much you will never leave. Moreover, you can stay in my palace with your whole family, eat my royal food from a buffet everyday. On top of that, my father, the Sultan will also adopt you as his own child and you will be part of my royal family. 

But for now, I want you to stay where you are and I will your Sifu, and start training you. Start to do things the way I teach you. Start to have the attitude that will make me and the Sultan happy. To start off helping you, I will give you a manual. Read it often. Also, I am sending my best servant to help you. If you need any help or advice, ask him. I also have other trainees that I have called. Meet with them and support each other. All of you will be part of my family. Also, remember I am just a phone call away and so is my father the Sultan. You can even start calling him Daddy. Call me often, and get to know me, and I also want to get to know you. I know life is sometimes difficult for you now, and following me is not easy, but you must be patient. If you keep following what I tell you, when the time comes, your reward will definitely be worth it!

Listen, my offer is for a limited time. So make up your mind quickly, and if you accept, start following me seriously and don’t give up! Press on and finish this program, and look forward to a great life forever with us as your new family!

Wow! Wouldn’t it be so wonderful to receive such an offer? Would we believe it? Could we trust the Crown Prince? Well, the truth is that all of us here today have in fact been issued exactly such as invitation. But it is not the Crown Prince of just a rich country who has invited us. It is far, far, far better because it is the Crown Prince of Heaven Jesus Christ who has invited us!

The Bible says the Jesus has gone on to prepare a beautiful place for us to stay in Heaven, a wonderful job for us that we will be completely happy with, and has invited us to be part of His royal family, and the privilege to call our Great Creator God, Abba Father.  

However, that is for the future. For now, we must start training for that new position, and we are not to simply do it on our own. Instead, we are to follow our Crown prince Jesus as our Sifu. We need to get to know him, and understand from Him how we should live, and how we can please Him. He has given us the Bible to help us, which is Basic Information Before Leaving Earth. He has also given us His Chief Servant the Holy Spirit, who is our great Advisor and Teacher to help us and remind us what the Crown Prince said and what is important to Him. He also asks us to meet up with other trainees He has invited to work for Him and join His family, and we meet in places like church and this Chapter to encourage each other and support one another.

Now, our training ground is actually our life itself on earth. And our new position will be in a new kingdom that Jesus will establish when He comes again for the second time. However, coming back to our training on earth itself, we must realize that God did not promise us that it would be easy. Just like the students of a kungfu master have to go through a lot of hard training to learn and grow strong, a lot of discipline is required. However, how successful we are depends on how well we listen to our Master Jesus, and how well we follow His instructions. Jesus is not a distant master, who hardly talks to his students. He wants us to be close to Him, to listen and interact with Him, and the more we do that, the more we will grow and learn from Him. The more we know Him, the easier following Him becomes, and He gives us the power to overcome all our difficulties and challenges. It is the strength of our relationship with our Master Jesus that will carry us through. Two simple things – Know Him, Follow Him. What does know mean? The “know” in the Bible does not merely mean “I know who Bill Gates is” or I met Warren Buffett once. Instead, the meaning of “know” here refers to a very deep relationship like between husband and wife, or closest of brothers or best of friends. To know Jesus means being in an intimate, deep, close relationship with Him. What does “follow” mean? It means to set our life apart to learn how to live the way Jesus wants, to do things the way Jesus would do. That is our lifelong aim, and how we will make it through.

What happens if we reject this offer from Jesus? Well, God is looking for people who will be useful in His kingdom, who will listen to Him, and live by His principles. People who don’t want to follow Him, who want to live their own way, and refuse to change are of no use to God. In Israel, there is a place called Gehenna, where people throw all their rubbish and unwanted things. There are always people burning unwanted things there. Jesus used the word Gehenna to describe hell, a dark place under the earth where everything of no use to God is thrown away. Sadly, people who reject the Jesus will also have to go there. All people who don’t want God and don’t want to believe in Jesus, will go to the place where all God’s goodness and blessing and presence is removed. On earth, our training ground, it is still rich with God’s blessings even though man has destroyed a lot of it. Clean air that we can breathe easily, strength in our bodies to move and walk around, the warmth of the sunshine, the peace of being able to sleep. We take all that for granted. In hell, even these things are not there. People whom God has allowed to experience hell for even a few minutes speak of a place of terrible darkness, of having no energy at all to move, of hardly being able to breathe, always incredibly hungry, incredibly thirsty, and so tired yet unable to sleep. Even worse, there are horrible demonic creatures that torture people there and fire that keeps burning and burning painfully with no relief. And this horrible situation in hell will go on forever and ever just as the beauty and eternal happiness of Heaven goes on forever and ever.

Personally, friends, getting to know Jesus is the best thing that has happened in my life. Although I grew up in a Christian family and went to Sunday School and church, my heart was not serious in wanting to know Jesus and to follow Him. I would try to be good and follow the rules, but I really didn’t know Jesus well, and there was an emptiness inside me, and I was often unhappy in my teenage years and university years. It was only after I started work in my first year at IOI that I really began to understand that Christianity is not a religion of following rules, but that its really about knowing God and knowing Jesus and learning to do what makes Him happy.

Two things greatly impacted me during that first year in IOI. Firstly, I was impressed by my colleague who went outstation with me. Although he didn’t know much about the Bible, he would thank God very easily for every little blessing that came his way. God was real to him, and I wanted that. Secondly, as internal auditors, we had to stay in an old colonial bungalow that was haunted, and one night, I started hearing little children running upstairs when there was no one there, and then I felt a very evil presence in the room. I cried out as I had been taught in church “Go away in Jesus name”, but the presence was still there although it did not harm me, and I was very scared. I realized that I had not been really serious about knowing Him, not really interested to follow Him. So how could I expect to have His protection? 

From that time, something changed in my heart, and I really began to want to know God and to know Jesus for real! The breakthrough came during a very special church camp where Pastor Chew Weng Chee was the speaker, and I really started to have a fresh and special relationship with God. Over the years, He then helped me to become a teacher of secondary school students in my church and also start a Christian Fellowship in IOI. He also brought me to FGB Jaya One here, and helped me and Jason Tan keep this chapter running for 3 years now. After the change in my heart that made me be serious about knowing Jesus and following Him, I became no longer scared of those haunted houses. Sometimes, I would fast dinner and stay back alone in the haunted house, and once, the lights went off when all alone, but I was not afraid but kept worshipping God. I realized that God is real and that His Spirit in me was more powerful than all the evil spirits. Meanwhile, some of my colleagues talked off their beds being shaken violently when they slept, the alarm clock going off when not plugged in, something lifting them up and putting them at a different part of the house….

In closing, I want to encourage everyone of us to take up that offer that Jesus gives us. The Bible says that no eye has seen and no ear has heard the great and marvelous blessings that God has prepared for those who love Him. Beautiful mansions in Heaven, streets of gold, no more pain, no more suffering, no disease, no sadness. This life is so short, but the next life is forever and is so wonderful for those who follow Jesus! Friends, the Bible says that God sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross for us so that our sins can be forgiven and that we can have eternal life in Heaven. It is truly so wonderful, and so precious to have our sins forgiven, to have our past wiped clean, all our mistakes, all our sins. Being forgiven really will give us such a deep and marvelous peace!

Now, how some of you may ask, how do I know God and Jesus is real when I can’t see Him? Honestly, friends, I myself have not seen God, and most Christians would not have seen God yet. But we know God is real, because of the peace that He has given us in our hearts. Its not that we don’t worry and don’t have problems, but no matter what happens, we know we have that joy in knowing and being able to pray to God, to pray to Jesus. Looking back over my life, and seeing all that God has helped me to do, I am convinced that God is definitely real. How he led me to meet different people, how he took away all my fear in the haunted houses, how he led me to start the Christian Fellowship in IOI, how he led me to work near Jaya One. It can only be God!

In the Bible, Jesus said that all you need is faith as small as a mustard seed. If in your heart, you feel even the smallest possibility that God may be real and Jesus may be real, that your sins can be forgiven, just pray to Jesus right now in your own way. Just say “Lord Jesus, I want to believe you are real.  Please show me you are real. Please forgive me for my sins. Please help me know you. Please help me follow you. In Jesus name, Amen!” May the Lord Jesus lead you to know Him personally and follow Him and help you find and keep the precious truth of His grace forever.