through Jesus Christ our Lord

Praise God, for apart from Him we can do nothing! (=

It has been my joy and delight that the Lord has graciously revealed a truth unto my heart, not merely as head knowledge, but through the Holy Spirit this blessed truth enlightened me wholly. And it is my great joy to share it with you, that your joy may be full in this truth, as the Holy Spirit of God reveals it unto you too! And by this truth shall my life, our lives be established on, because this is indeed the way a normal Christian should live!

I'm glad that we may abound in love and zeal for the Lord as He blessed and enriches us this holidays, through camps, cantata, fellowship. It is really encouraging to see brothers and sisters desire to seek God, His will and abide in them through the rest of our lives.

"One thing I have desired of the Lord; this will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life!"

This has been our prayer, desire and hope.. for the time to come. It has always been our longing- to stay close to the Lord- since God met us and started His work in our lives. With great earnestness and sincerity we have all sought for the secret of abiding in Him, and to live for His glory. We have tried, we have failed? It has happened before, it will happen again? Been there, done that! What makes this year a different year from the previous years? What assures us, and gives us hope that we may continue to abound in Christ and bring forth fruit as we abide in Him the year ahead? Where does this confidence lie?

In us? NO! A thousand times no! Are we ever, EVER, able to do it if we try as hard as we can? No.. Even if we are sincere and earnest about it? No! Oh! If we may ever understand the goodness of the Lord- that as He saved us freely, He gives life in abundance freely! Praise the Lord for this glorious truth: [as I rejoiced when I heard it, may you rejoice in God even more!] The Christian life was never meant to be lived by ourselves! (: Whats even more blessed is this: God lives our lives for us! (: (:

Romans 7 explains everything clearly to us!

15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.

18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

O wretched men we are! WHO will deliver me from this body of death indeed! May the Holy Spirit of God reveal this to us, that we may come to an understanding of the utter, totally wickedness, weakness, defileness, sinful and wretchedness of ourselves. To know as it says, "in me nothing good dwells"! And what we will to do, we do not, but what evil we will no do, that, we practice. Unless, we come to clean and am fully convinced of the wretchedness of our self, our lives, and confess it, we can not embrace the power God is willing to bestow upon us! If we desire to live to please God in our lives, do we think we can really do so in our flesh? Have we any desire even to love the Lord? When we feel we are so lethargic in spending time reading God's word, when we hardly feel like conversing with God in prayer, be convinced: This is because we have no desire to seek God at all! Apart from the Spirit, can we call on Him our Lord and Christ? The Bible says, "No!" Let us look at the famous Romans 3 passage:

10 As it is written:
“ There is none righteous, no, not one;
11 There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God.
12 They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable;
There is none who does good, no, not one.”
13 “ Their throat is an open tomb;
With their tongues they have practiced deceit”;
“ The poison of asps is under their lips”;
14 “ Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”
15 “ Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 Destruction and misery are in their ways;
17 And the way of peace they have not known.”
18 “ There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Are we convinced, then, that truly, we are indeed such wretched creatures! For unless we realise and accept if fully, we cannot and will not understand that because of this, our sinful "self" was crucified on the cross with our Lord Jesus! Praise God! He placed us into the Lord Jesus and crucified our very self on that cross! Unless the very pride of our selves is removed, we can never utterly surrender and yield totally to God. But does, and will, the knowledge of our sinfulness and wretchedness bring despair and dash every hope to live and please God? Praise the Lord, no! Let us know that we indeed died with Jesus Christ! And.. let us rejoice: We rose with Him! We died to the law, but we live unto Christ! That is why God's word says, "We no longer live under law, but under grace!" Did God offer only salvation free? Have we no knowlege of this: that it is not of works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He has saved us? In similar fashion and way, God offers a victorious, abundant life so freely in Christ Jesus!

Romans 6
For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.


My friends, let us review this awlful truth, an anticlimax to Romans 6 where God promises: "sin no longer has dominion over us!":

24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

["O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?" cried Paul, and it is good when anyone cries out as he did. There is nothing more musical in the ears of the Lord. This cry is the most spiritual and the most scriptural cry a man can utter. He only utters it when he knows he can do nothing, and gives up making any further resolutions. Up to this point, every time he failed he made a new resolution and doubled and redoubled his will-power. At last he discovers there is no use in his making up his mind any more, and he cries out in desperation: "O wretched man that I am !" Like a man who suddenly awakes to find himself in a burning building, his cry is now for help, for he has come to the point where he despairs of himself.Have you despaired of yourself, or do you hope that if you read and pray more you will be a better Christian? Bible-reading and prayer are not wrong, and God forbid that we should suggest that they are, but it is wrong to trust even in them for victory. Our help is in Him who is the object of that reading and prayer. Our trust must be in Christ alone. Happily the "wretched man" does not merely deplore his wretchedness; he asks a fine question, namely: "Who shall deliver me?" "Who?" Hitherto he has looked for some thing; now his hope is in a Person. Hitherto he has looked within for a solution to his problem; now he looks beyond himself for a Savior. He no longer puts forth self-effort; all his expectation is now in Another.] -extract of Watchman Nee's The Normal Christian Life.

But.. my dear brothers and sisters, rejoice! For what comes next, IS the hope and confidence and assurance of a victorious christian life, IS the secret of abiding in Christ, IS the way a normal Christ ought to live!

25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

HUH?

Haha.. YES!

Praise God!

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Galatians 2:20

Stop struggling! Stop working! Stop trying! and.. Stop doing! For the more we do the more we will realise that we can NEVER please the Lord, in our flesh! God says in Romans 6:14, "For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace." We, by doing, places ourselves under the law.. But when we are under grace, God does, and works for us! Who shall deliver us from the body of death, of sin and of self? I thank God- through Jesus Christ our Lord! Praise God we were never meant to please and live for God. God had always planned, that if we learnt so, and would give and commit ourselves to Him, Christ will live in and through us! Only then, can we please our God. For are not this the words of the Father to the Son, Jesus, "This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased"? If Christ lives in and thru us, will we not then please our Heavenly Father?

[And then, in a flash of illumination, his cry of despair changes to a song of praise. He has found the answer to his question. "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 7:25).We know that justification is ours through the Lord Jesus and requires no work on our part, but we think sanctification is dependent on our own efforts. We know we can receive forgiveness only by entire reliance on the Lord; yet we believe we can obtain deliverance by doing something ourselves. We fear that if we do nothing, nothing will happen. After salvation the old habit of `doing' reasserts itself and we begin our old self-efforts again. Then God's word comes afresh to us: "It is finished" (John 19:30). He has done everything on the Cross for our forgiveness and He will do everything in us for our deliverance. In both cases He is the doer. "It is God that worketh in you."] -extract of Watchman Nee's The Normal Christian Life.

May the Spirit of the Lord shine light upon our hearts and minds, to understand this precious truth! Watchmen Nee learnt it, so did Hudston Taylor [as we can read form Sandra's blog entry, ha!]. This is truly the way each and every christian ought to live their lives- through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Now.. what does this truth mean to us? May we ask the Lord to apply it unto our hearts and lives. It really means that we can look to the days ahead with full confidence that "His grace is sufficient for us", that "where sin abounds, grace aboundeth more", that the deliverance from a body of death is "through Jesus Christ our Lord"! Truly the end of self, spells the beginning of God in our lives. When we stop seeking our way, the will of God is worked in our lives. When we cease to live and seek to please God on our own, God lives and pleases and glorifies Himself in this life! Know we not when Christ said, "Apart from Me, you can do nothing"? Indeed, nothing we can do! But Jesus promises, abide in Me, and I [will indeed abide] in you. As much as desire to abide in Christ, He desires much more to abide in us! Let us then, reckon ourselves death unto self, and alive to God in Christ Jesus. May we yield totally ourselves to His Spirit, and let Him live through us, and work in us, all for and unto His glory!

Let us hold dear to this truth as we go on into the year ahead! (=



2005 has come to an end so quickly. Its time to look back and to look ahead as well. Looking back one can only praise God from whom all blessings flow. For all the blessings, testings, trials, each pointing and leading us in the way of Christ-likeness. Looking ahead it is exciting as well as, "daunting". Exciting to see all that God has planned for us, to behold His glory and to press onwards towards higher grounds in Christ. "Daunting", with abit of apprehension because much are the trials and testings we are to face. Yet having the promise of God's grace all sufficient and having the promise that we can all cry as Job cried out, "For when I am tried, and purified, I shall come forth as gold!" I guess daunting may not be such an appropiate word.

Thanksgiving night is coming! Finally the youths can gather again, and remember the goodness of the Lord in our days.

Psalm 103

1 Bless the LORD, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
2 Bless the LORD, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits:
3 Who forgives all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases,
4 Who redeems your life from destruction,
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,
5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Bless the Lord, O my soul! (=