“You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.” – Genesis 4:7

One fine day, the brothers Cain and Abel set out to make offerings to God. Cain prepared his choice selection of fruits and vegetables while Abel brought his choice firstborn lamb. As Cain laid out the colourful display of crops, Abel silenced the frightened lamb with a slit of its throat. Blood gushed out profusely and pooled around the base of the altar as the lamb shuddered weakly in its final death throes. It was a sickly sight to behold, but Abel did it anyway. As the brothers burnt their offerings, it turned out that God took pleasure in Abel’s offering, but not Cain’s. That upset Cain a lot. He probably wondered if God was playing favourites. Well, who wouldn’t want to accept an offering that is fuss-free and that does not require the involvement of death and bloodshed?

God sensed Cain’s anger and spoke thus, “Why are you dejected? You will be accepted if you do what is right.”

Apparently, God knew that the brothers had been taught in making the right offerings to Him as He deemed appropriate, but Cain was not being accepted as he had refused to do the right thing. Abel was accepted because he did things according to God’s way – the right way. God was also admonishing Cain for more than not adhering to the rules of the offering ritual.

God continued to say, “But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.”

I think that was a severe message for Cain. God read the thoughts of Cain’s mind and saw that he had some evil intent of exacting revenge on Abel for besting him in the ritual. Cain must have felt embarrassed and he wouldn’t be satisfied until he had shown that he was the more powerful one. God had warned him to refuse to do what is wrong, to subdue the evil urge and make it a slave, captive to righteousness. Otherwise, sin crouches at the door of his heart, ready to devour him whole.

Refusal to do the right thing paves space for sin to come and threaten our position of right standing with God. Such a refusal can be in a passive form where we are too apathetic to do good and it can also be in a deliberate form where we intentionally refuse to do good where needed. There are many reasons that people refuse to do the right thing. To name a few of them, some people think that it is not convenient as it involves some measure of discomfort; some have been very discouraged by past experiences; and some are simply so inert that they see no point in being proactive about doing the right thing.

When we refuse to do the right thing, we stray away from the shelter of God and give Satan the permission to send his pet minion called Sin. This misshapen, scaly, four-legged abomination creeps into our hearts, lusting to savour our souls and pollute our hearts with its venom. Lust, greed, hatred, pettiness, resentment, immorality, covetousness, selfishness, pessimism, negativity; you name it all!

God desires people to live doing the right things His way. It is not about what we think is right, nor what the world’s wisest sage things is right, but it is about what God says is right. The word of God reads, “But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love Him. That is how we know we are living in Him. Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.”(1 John 2:5-6). God wants people to be loving and respectful in the way they handle relationships so that they will grow healthily and enjoy companionship. God wants people to give when it is within their means so that the wealth can be extended to help the poor. God wants people to work hard so that institutions can be run effectively to serve the world’s needs.

Doing the right thing is not always easy, but people need to keep at it because it is the right thing that God desires us to do. When we are required to give an account for things that we should have done, we cannot say, “I was told to do thus” or “I didn’t do it because it wasn’t convenient”. God called us to do good, even if it means suffering just as Christ suffered for us. Jesus is our example, and we should follow in His steps. (1 Peter 2:21).

Cain chose to do what he thought was right, but he was dejected. Abel chose to do what was right in God’s eyes regardless how unpleasant, and he was accepted. What will you choose to do today?

“So Joshua conquered the entire region – the hill country, the entire Negev, the whole area around the town of Goshen, the western foothills, the Jordan Valley, the mountains of Israel, and the Galilean foothills. The Israelite territory now extended all the way from Mount Halak, which leads up to Seir in the south, as far north as Baal-gad at the foot of Mount Hermon in the valley of Lebanon. Joshua killed all the kings of those territories, waging war for a long time to accomplish this.” – Joshua 11:16-18

To the pessimistic, the passing of time from 2009 to 2010 is just another ordinary, minute movement on the clock; there is nothing special to celebrate about, nothing in particular to look forward to. However, the one who is optimistic and hoping in God sees it differently. The closure of 2009 is the last chapter of an eventful year filled with victories won and battles conquered, and the beginning of 2010 is the first chapter of yet another year of promotion. Just as it had been prophesied that Alive Community Church and her members would experience a year of promotion in 2009, 2010 will also be a year of promotion as long as we keep our minds open on what Jesus is about to do for us.

Alive Community Church has just moved into a new premise in Mountbatten, as promised by Jesus and yet there is so much left to be done. Staff members and volunteers alike have labored hard to make the move happen at the end of 2009 and come 2010, more work has to be done to settle the rest of the renovations, arrangement of furniture and documents, and logistics. No wonder it is easy to lose the light of hope and dread the coming of a new year; because a new year brings a whole new workload for all of us to handle, and we will have new problems to fight through, new directions to be set, new commitments to be made. Remember though, there is no success without sweat and toil.

Israel was promised a large piece of land in Canaan, but that promise was not to be fulfilled without a fight. After Joshua led the Israelites to cross over the river Jordan, they had to face a new slew of challenges altogether. God required them to wipe out the nations in Canaan in order to occupy. It surely was not a free land for them to take! While we can easily read about the conquests in the land of Canaan in one sitting, the entire effort actually took about 7 years. Just imagine the countless times when the fighters had to trudge out of their comfort zones to fight against enemies that had greater numbers than their own. But as they lived with God and walked alongside Him, God helped Joshua and his army to conquer the giant descendents of Anak, and the entire hill country of Judah and Israel. By then, the land finally had rest from war.

From the account of Israel occupying her promised land, we see that fighting and struggling only exist for a season of time. We often expect quick changes and quick victories, but both the move of Alive Community Church into the Promised Land in Mountbatten and our journey with God are things that require a considerable amount of effort. It may take a few more weeks or even months for the new premise to be fully furnished, and it will surely pass. On the other hand, our journey with God is a lifelong process and the changes and victories will take time to happen. We will surely be met with new challenges at work, in school, in relationships, in ministry. Some of us will berate people in awful situations; some of us will shed tears for the people we work hard to minister to; some of us will wring our hair out due to study commitments; some of us will retreat into that dark corner in our hearts when we feel down. We may work hard, fight hard, and pray hard and still do not see progress. But Jesus never stopped working. He never stopped ministering to the needy; never failed to lift up the spirits of the broken hearted. He always watches you closely; He knows you inside out. He knows full well that He will fulfill the promises that He had made for you, and no record in history has shown that He has ever failed. Bringing prophecies, promises and promotions to come to pass is a job scope that Jesus will never fail to do.

At first the bouts of fights we go through do not make sense to us, but Jesus knows what He is doing for us. Just as we have testified that year 2009 had been a year of promotion, we can once again stand firm in our faith in Jesus Christ, and prophesy that year 2010 will be another year of promotion. Keep our minds open, keep believing, keep expecting, and keep working along with Jesus. He will bring us to places beyond what we can imagine.  

“I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Saviour – yes, the Messiah, the Lord – has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!” Luke 2:10,11

O come this Christmas season

To celebrate, there must be a reason.

Many are the tales of a storyteller,

But what’s the reason for Christmas, I wonder.

We sing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer;

What’s about him that we hold so dear?

Hear about Frosty the snowman;

But where’s he where Sunny greets the land?

We hear of elves filled with such glee,

Whether work or play they danced in gaiety.

Not to forget Santa Claus,

In whom are so many promises of presents

That we kids are lost.

What of the glorious light from the heavens

When mighty angels greeted lowly shepherds?

And oriental wise men from whom we heard

Proclaiming Jesus Christ the newborn king?

Now, what a very strange thing:

Jesus and Santa on the day of Christmas; were they of one kin?

For most of my childhood years, I had believed that Christmas meant an annual phenomenal festival when Santa Claus flew all over the world on his magical sleigh, delivering toys to well-behaved children. I imagined him falling down a chimney to be greeted by a nice treat of cookies and a glass of milk. However, no one had a personal encounter with this jolly old man. So maybe Santa Claus was an invisible god of Christmas who sits on his great frosty throne in the north pole, hears the wishes of good kids and blesses them with gifts that appeared out of nowhere. But no matter how hard I wished, that did not happen too. So I snapped out of that fantasy dream and dismissed Santa Claus and all his related kin and creatures as a fairy tale (though such a tale had taught us well on the spirit of giving).

When I learnt why Christians celebrated Christmas, I thought, “Alas, this is finally making sense!”

Although Christmas was not the actual day of Jesus’ birth according to the Hebrew calendar, we capitalize on this festive season to tell of His birth here on earth as God-in-flesh, the servant king. Christmas becomes the time when all of us are reminded that Jesus was born to restore the relationship between God and Man, to care for the lowly, to heal the sick and the crippled. This is the greatest gift that God has for us; it lasts for eternity for those who receive Him whole-heartedly, unlike the material gifts that Santa Claus gives, which can perhaps only spark a child’s interest for but a little while.

It is a real pity for people who have not received this gift that the story of the birth of Jesus is being contested by stories of flying reindeers, Santa, elves, and so on, which are all not real. It is also ironic that on such a carefree holiday, people are busy getting gifts to give away like Santa Claus does. (By now you’ve probably sensed how skeptical I am of Santa. Well, it’s probably the bout of cold as I am writing this. No hard feelings towards the children’s all-time favourite Christmas character, whatsoever.) I really wonder what kind of Christmas songs matters more and brings more meaning to people: ‘Come All Ye Faithful’ or ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’?

I personally testify that it makes more sense – and definitely feels much better – to celebrate Christmas because of Jesus rather than Santa. It is better to choose God’s ways than the world. There is such freedom and great joy released into our spirits when we worship Jesus with Christmas songs that point to Him. There is such a great peace for us when we offer Him our adoration. And there is such great meaning and power for our lives when we live for that which is real – the one true God, Jesus Christ.

Because Jesus is the real deal of Christmas, let us clear away the clutter of what is not real, so that we can see His glorious majesty with more clarity! O Come, let us adore Him!

“My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.” John 18:36

When Lord Balian, the baron of Ibelin, fought against the army of the renowned Muslim king Saladin at Jersusalem, he did so not with the intention of preserving the stones of Jersusalem’s walls, but with the sole purpose of protecting the lives of the women and children who lived in Jerusalem. It was a grim story of Lord Balian pitting his wits against Saladin’s ruthless hordes. Towers were torn down, trebuchets fired flaming missiles, and soldiers were even burnt alive. Finally, Saladin decided to call for terms with Balian. He agreed to give Jerusalem’s citizens safe passage to Christian lands if Balian would surrender the city. And so Balian surrendered the holy land. But he had fulfilled the knight’s oath of safeguarding the helpless by winning the battle for their lives to be spared from the sword. To Balian, it did not matter if Jerusalem fell into Saladin’s hands, because the kingdom truly lies in the heart of its people.

That was what Jesus meant when he spoke to Pilate in the Praetorium saying, “My kingdom is not of this world.”

The strength of the kingdom of God lies not in human soldiers, tanks, rockets, and fighter jets. But it lies in God who is the Lord of all. His kingdom is populated by angels of all sorts (archangels, cherubim, seraphim) and the people who worship Him both in Heaven and Earth. All its people are part of a royal priesthood, an army that does not struggle against flesh and blood but against the unseen powers of fallen angels (Ephesians 6:12). The beauty of God’s kingdom is not found in the architecture of different church buildings – not in stone carvings, stained glass windows, or ornamented crucifixes – but in the hearts of the people who dedicate their lives to Him by daily prayer, bible-reading and the way they care for others who are both inside and outside the Christian community.

The kingdom of heaven lives in your heart today. Do you now realize how significant Jesus has made you to be? One cannot deny the goodness that he is made capable of when the name of Jesus has been imprinted in his heart. The kingdom of God lives on earth because you are here in partnership with Him.  

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love…

“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” 1 John 4:7,8,11

“No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.” 1 John 4:12

I was reading a Silver Surfer comic book when I encountered a story about two warring nations. They were in an arms race that pitted one’s weapons technology against the other. Needless to say, countless lives were lost as both nations saw their own battleships being ripped into scrap metal. The only places that were spared from bloodshed were the sacred places of both nations. Then, the Silver Surfer said, “If sacred places are spared the ravages of war, then make all places sacred. And if the holy people are to be kept harmless from war, then make all peoples holy.” (Marvel Comics, Silver Surfer Requiem).

That statement led me to think about how relationship conflicts can be prevented or solved. If holy, sacred things can be treated with reverence and care so that they do not get destroyed, perhaps we can treat relationships in like manner so that they will not be destroyed by any conflict no matter how big or small. Picture these: Terrorism will be brought to an end if the extremists would forsake their ideals and respect the sanctity of human lives, both that of their brethren and their potential victims. Divorce rates will fall if married couples would prioritise mutual love before their own desires. Parent-child relationships will be more nurturing if both would honour one another rather than impose demands on each other.

All in all, our relationships with people will improve and even last for as long as we are breathing if we would actively love them. But we would not be able to do that unless we adopt the mentality of putting others before self and perceiving our relationships as precious gifts. Too many conflicts happen unnecessarily because our desires are not being satisfied or because our own expectations are not being met. If we profess to be Christians, then we must love others (our friends and family members) just as we love Jesus. The apostle John wrote, “And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also” (1 John 4:21). The second commandment that Jesus spoke about loving our neighbours just as we love ourselves is really no less important than the first commandment of loving God with all our heart, soul and strength.

When we love Jesus, we continually put away our own ideals, needs, and wants so that we can be attentive to Him. We honour Him by putting Him before ourselves. We understand Him by reading the bible and praying regularly. We adore Him by seeing Him as a precious friend. Just as we do these, will we also behold our friends and family members as precious as Jesus? Will we put them before ourselves to honour them and talk with them to know and understand them? They are just as precious as Jesus; they deserve to be loved just as we love Jesus.

Relationships that are continually under attack with vicious cycles of conflicts do not last. What can last are sisters recognizing the brothers they come to love as victors no matter what happens, and brothers and sisters honouring each other because of their shared experiences of victory and defeat.