In the beginning...

YHWH

            Who is God? I cannot comprehend Him. When I look out of the window, or when I ride my bicycle, or when I am riding in a car, I like to look outside at God’s creation. It still amazes me, that with all the wonders of the world, from the biggest to the smallest, from the vast expanse we know as the sky, to the millions of plants and animals, to the smallest little bacteria, not even to mention the immense universe and solar systems, that people still  refuse to believe that there is a God.

(Gen 1:1)  In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

In the beginning – God. God was and is and ever is to be, from the beginning, and through out all eternity with no beginning and with no end.

(Gen 1:2)  And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Some people think that there is no God, that all this happened by accident – but when you look at creation,- you see design and order, not chaos and catastrophe. When you look at creation,  you don’t see all sorts of species  mutating into another kind, you don’t see light, or life, just “happen”.  What happened was that God created earth, and it was formless, void, and dark.

           

(Gen 1:3)  And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

Light is the basis of life. Without light there can be no life. God is light, and in Him is no darkness. God only had to say, “Let there be light”, and there was light. And there still is light! Some people worship the sun, or the moon, or the stars. Well I tell you, the sun and the moon and stars cannot compare with the great God who created them.

            The sun cannot create anything. The sun can give off a lot of light, and heat, but even if the sun was around from the beginning of the universe the sun could not have created man, or the animals, or plants! The sun cannot create water, which is also essential to life! Neither can the moon or the stars.

(Gen 1:4)  And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

(Gen 1:5)  And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

            From the creation  God has already separated light from darkness. He has a special plan for everything. He controlled the rotation of the earth so that we have day and we have night. This could not have happened so perfectly and wondrously, if it had not been for God. This could never have happened by itself.

(Gen 1:6)  And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

(Gen 1:7)  And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

When God created the earth, I think that maybe it was made up by a lot of water (if I understand this passage correctly). So God created the water-filled earth, put in light, and then started “interior renovations”.  He did a little dividing, created the firmament, or expanse (of air, I think), to separate the waters above and the waters beneath. Only God could have done that. Some people are humanistic, in that they believe man is God. Well tell me, can man ever create this earth out of nothing? (the Hebrew word for create, bara, means to create out of nothing!) Can man ever ruled the sun and moon and stars, and to call light into existence? Can man create water out of nothing? Can man even have control over this earth to separate the sky, or control where the waters are? Foolishness! Pride! Man can never be the creator because man is the creation!

(Gen 1:8)  And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

(Gen 1:9)  And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

 God created dry land just by commanding it! Man took centuries to come the place of technology where man can dump loads of sand into the sea using some process to extend dry land. I have seen this construction process in passing, and I have even walked on some man-made land, in Melaka. However, man took so many centuries to figure this out – and then the effort and the time it takes to do it – not  to mention the environmental effects of such a development! God just had to command dry land and it all fell perfectly , completely, entirely, into place. By the way, where does man’s intelligence come from, anyway? The facts that we can observe, experiment, construct, and think logically – did this come from monkeys? No of course not! Man’s ability to think is far beyond even the most intelligent animal. Man was created different from the animals- did you ever a bear invent a car ? Or have you seen a monkey creating fashion designer clothes? Or a turtle who became a scientist? Ridiculous and fantastical!  No such thing occurs because God did not create animals like man. Animals are capable of some thought, but mostly they rely upon natural instinct with very, very, elementary, thought processes.

 (Gen 1:10)  And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

            I still cannot understand people who think Nature is the source of life, and “worship” “Mother Nature” as opposed to God the Father. Nature cannot create itself! Nature cannot even sustain itself after man has harmed it! Nature cannot recreate or regenerate itself after, for example, a nuclear bomb hits. Nature cannot create life, nature cannot create water, and nature cannot create light. Who can? GOD can! And He did. He created nature, with all its marvels and beauties, and if the creation is so spectacular, how much more the Creator?

(Gen 1:11)  And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

            There are some who worship plants, or trees, as gods. That is plainly, obviously, wrong! The tree, could not have created light, nor the sun, nor water, nor air, nor dry land, let alone man and all the animals! And what about the planets and the universe? Who would want to worship something which cannot talk, hear, heal, or even move itself? Yes, the ferns  have life, and are able to produce useful energy, but why would you worship the flower, when you can worship the one who created the flower, every flower, every shrub, every grass, every leaf on a tree, specially?  God clothed the grass and the flowers with beauty that man cannot ever rival with all his fashions.

(Gen 1:12)  And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

           

            God saw that it was good. Whatever He made was good! Do scientists ever have any complaints that nature is naturally imbalanced, or that it is incorrect? Man makes the imbalance and the wrongs! The way God created it, everything was perfect! The Hebrew word also means that it is the best, the finest!

(Gen 1:13)  And the evening and the morning were the third day.

(Gen 1:14)  And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

(Gen 1:15)  And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

(Gen 1:16)  And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

(Gen 1:17)  And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

(Gen 1:18)  And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

(Gen 1:19)  And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

           

Here is where God created the moon and the stars and the sun. Earlier on, He created light. Now He gets down to the details, etc. Instead of general light, He creates specific light – great light for day, less light for night. And He could have been setting the earth’s rotation and revolution.

(Gen 1:20)  And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

(Gen 1:21)  And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

(Gen 1:22)  And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

(Gen 1:23)  And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

God created fish and fowl, whales, etc.  “out of the water”. That is an interesting thought that I didn’t study yet. Godsaid all of them were good, and He blessed them, commanding the fish and fowl to be fruitful and multiply. This is the first of the “Be fruitful and multiply” commandments that God gives. If God commanded the fish and fowl to multiply, and they are still obeying Him, why are we “intelligent” humans thinking ourselves better than God. When the fish and fowl can obey God, and we choose not too? (Just a thought…)

(Gen 1:24)  And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

(Gen 1:25)  And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

Gen 1:26)  And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

(Gen 1:27)  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

(Gen 1:28)  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

(Gen 1:29)  And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

(Gen 1:30)  And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

(Gen 1:31)  And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Very good. Very, very good. God created everything, just by His Word. The Bible is the Book of His Word, and it begins with His Words coming to pass! We can look out of the window, or even in the mirror, and know that God has created, His Word endures, and He will never change. May He give you such a faith in Him to know that God’s Word has always come to pass from the beginning, is continuing to come to pass every day, and will ever come to pass for all eternity – why? God is truth, God is light, and God is the LORD! Amen!

Sh’ma Yis’ra’el

YHWH Eloheinu 
YHWH echad

V’ahav’ta eit YHWH Elohekna

B’khol l’vav’kha,

uv’khol naf’sh’kha,

uv’khol m’odekha

Hear, O Israel:

YHWH our God 
YHWH is one 
 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God

with all thine heart,

and with all thy soul,

and with all thy might.

(Deu 6:4-5)

שׁמע ישׂראל

יהוה אלהינו יהוה אחד׃

ואהבת את יהוה אלהיך בכל־לבבך

ובכל־נפשׁך

ובכל־מאדך׃

B'rit Hadashah - the New Covenant

These are passages from Hosea about 'olam haba, the age to come! What a beautiful, glorious promise God has in store. 

Hosea 2:    ¹⁴ “ Therefore, behold, I will allure her, 

      Will bring her into the wilderness, 
      And speak comfort to her. 
       ¹⁵ I will give her her vineyards from there, 
      And the Valley of Achor as a door of hope; 
      She shall sing there, 
      As in the days of her youth, 
      As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt. 
       ¹⁶ “ And it shall be, in that day,” 
      Says the LORD, 

      “ That you will call Me ‘My Husband,’^[c]
      And no longer call Me ‘My Master,’^{[d]
       17} For I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals, 
      And they shall be remembered by their name no more. 
       ¹⁸ In that day I will make a covenant for them 
      With the beasts of the field, 
      With the birds of the air, 
      And with the creeping things of the ground. 
      Bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth, 
      To make them lie down safely. 
       ¹⁹ “ I will betroth you to Me forever; 
      Yes, I will betroth you to Me 
      In righteousness and justice, 
      In lovingkindness and mercy; 
       ²⁰ I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, 
      And you shall know the LORD. 
       ²¹ “ It shall come to pass in that day 
      That I will answer,” says the LORD; 

      “ I will answer the heavens, 
      And they shall answer the earth. 
       ²² The earth shall answer 
      With grain, 
      With new wine, 
      And with oil; 
      They shall answer Jezreel.^{[e]
       23} Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth, 
      And I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy;^[f]
      Then I will say to those who were not My people,^[g]

      ‘ You are My people!’ 
      And they shall say, ‘You are my God!’”

Hosea 6:  ¹¹ Also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed for you, 

      When I return the captives of My people.

Hosea 3:5 ⁵ Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They shall fear the LORD and His goodness in the latter days.(acharith yom )

Hosea 14

 ¹ O Israel, return to the LORD your God,

      For you have stumbled because of your iniquity;
       ² Take words with you,
      And return to the LORD.
      Say to Him,

      “ Take away all iniquity;
      Receive  us graciously,
      For we will offer the sacrifices^[a] of our lips.
       ³ Assyria shall not save us,
      We will not ride on horses,
      Nor will we say anymore to the work of our hands, ‘You are our gods.’
      For in You the fatherless finds mercy.”
       ⁴ “ I will heal their backsliding,
      I will love them freely,
      For My anger has turned away from him.
       ⁵ I will be like the dew to Israel;
      He shall grow like the lily,
      And lengthen his roots like Lebanon.
       ⁶ His branches shall spread;
      His beauty shall be like an olive tree,
      And his fragrance like Lebanon.
       ⁷ Those who dwell under his shadow shall return;
      They shall be revived like grain,
      And grow like a vine.
      Their scent^[b]shall be like the wine of Lebanon.
       ⁸ “ Ephraim shall say, ‘What have I to do anymore with idols?’
      I have heard and observed him.
      I am like a green cypress tree;
      Your fruit is found in Me.”
       ⁹ Who is wise?
      Let him understand these things.
      Who is prudent?
      Let him know them.
      For the ways of the LORD are right;
      The righteous walk in them,
      But transgressors stumble in them.

Basic Christianity

Pastor is introducing this serious of books by Watchman Nee to the church to use as basic Teaching. It will last us for a year! The theme verse of the series is 

1 Timothy 4:⁷ But reject profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness. 

There are five books in the serious and we've begun to read the first lesson this week. 

The First Book is titled, "A Living Sacrifice", based on Romans 12:1 and  the topic is Baptism. Baptism is a very basic, essential, and foundational part of our Christian life, because it is the birth of our new resurrection life in Christ Jesus. 


Acts 2:³⁸ Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 


I've just read through the first lesson, and I plan to medidtae and chew on it through this week and next week, so I will be totally ready to learn when we begin discussion in church.


Watchman Nee's writings are very straightforward and easy-to-read, in good English and yet profound and deep. I always benefit from great Christian writings which require a better command of the English language, but this is very very good, esp for those who may not be of English background.

Forget Miracles Preach Holiness

The Discipline of Giving God your first in the morning Part 1

I feel like a hypocrite writing this. Today I got distracted when I got up, and started to knit a little, then eat a little, then go and check my email, and check the forum, and check the blog… argh… It is such a discipline to give God my first in the morning. It is a real struggle, especially when I turn the computer. Its not like I waste time on games but I wish I had more self-control to finish reading my Bible first. However sometimes I wake up feeling more like a Christian, and sometimes I wake up wanting to finish off that storybook I was reading last night. So you see, I’m not perfect at all. I’m no perfect Christian who wakes up in a perfect Christian mood full of love and joy and peace, bursting with smiles, ready to be useful and helpful to everyone, loving to spend time with God in the morning.

Of course I have gotten to the stage where I enjoy Bible reading (finally! After SOooooo many years!), but then it gives me a different enjoyment, than say, making chocolate roses or posting on my baking blog. Do you know why?

When you read the Bible, it is not for your physical mind or flesh to enjoy. That will only bring you so far. You would probably be stuck in Genesis – Esther reading story after story. You will soon get bored of stories. I got bored of stories. I tried to make the stories more interesting That lasted awhile, but didn’t work.

 Your soul (mind, will, and emotions) will bring you a little further (or more like buy you some time so you don’t fall asleep). Maybe if you are angry or thoughtful etc. you may find what the bible says comforting and reassuring.  Like when you are in trouble in read Ps 91, or you lost money and read Ps 23. It feeds your emotions, your soul. That will, again, only get you so far. That is  not how God wants you to read a bible, with a pair of scissors in your hand and jumping at every promise of God, every blessing of God, everything about the goodness of God – no! No way… that will make you into a emotional unstable and really “sissy” Christian (correct me if I am wrong!) There are times when God’s word is a comfort and God gives you blessing but that is only a small part of what a relationship with God really, really is. Even human relationships based on soulish love will never last!

You see

1)     1)  God’s Word is meant to speak to our spirit though the Holy Spirit. To build us up in the spirit to produce fruit of the spirit (Galatians 5). Not the fruit of the mind, or fruit of the emotions, or fruit of the will, but fruit of the Holy Spirit. Oh that every Christian may understand what it truly means to be alive in Christ (more on than another time). Romans 8:  ¹ There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,^[a] who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

2)     2)  God’s Word speaks to our renewed mind (Romans 12:2 ² And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.)

3)    3)   God’s word must not stay in our brain. Otherwise we would be big-headed clever, smart, and intellectually brilliant “Christians”, who know a lot, talk a lot, say a lot, but don’t live any of it.

 It It must go down to the inner depths of our heart like drain cleaner right to the bottom of a filthy, slimy, drain. It must convict, cleanse, remove, and totally renew our heart and mind and soul and will until we are in complete harmony with God. God will change you. He will bring life to you. But you have to follow His leading and remove whatever it is from your  life that displeases Him. You have to learn to die to yourself, to surrender your life totally to God. You have to stop loving this world and its pleasure. It is painful, it is difficult, but then, we have the hope of eternal glory and that is our ONLY HOPE. (More than these things another time)

4)     4)  I’m running out of time so the rest of the list can come later. God’s word builds into our spirit man, makes his strong, puts iron in our soul and toughens us in His way. He lowers and humbles us. … more another time.

I have been greatly blessed by the conference, books, and teaching of the Bright Light ministry. They came to Malaysia three times and each time I was blessed and convicted to give even more of myself to God. The last time, Miss Grace Mally wrote a beautiful song about God’s word. You can see how precious God’s Word is to her.

God’s Word abides forever,

It is our greatest treasure,

It’s true, complete, and tried,

Just like silver purified.

Though the night it gives us light

Give us courage for the fight,

It is sharper than a sword,

For its author is the Lord.

For anyone of you who are following this blog (whoever and wherever you are), I would love to hear from you in the comment section. I’d especially like to hear more of your insights on the first three chapters of the book of Corinthians along the lines of this post. Or please share with me how God is working in your life through His word. I am learning SO MUCH and have learned so much from listening to other men and women our mighty God. I’ve also learned a lot from good Christian books. I love to read testimonies – not just the “God-is-so-good-to-me-I-have-a-job-a-family-a-big-house-and-two-cars” but real ones of the way God’s sharp sword has pierced into your life J.