JURONG OUTREACH - DEC 04

A LIFE THAT COUNTS
5 Dec 04

One morning in 1888, Alfred Nobel - inventor of dynamite, the man who had spent his life amassing a fortune from the manufacture and sale of weapons of destruction, awoke to read his own obituary. Of course, it was a mistake. Alfred's brother had died, and the reporter inadvertently wrote Alfred's obituary.

For the first time, Alfred Nobel saw himself as the world saw him --
"the dynamite King," the great industrialist who had made an immense fortune from explosives. This, as far as the general public was concerned, was the entire purpose of his life. None of his true intentions surfaced. Nothing was said about his work to break down the barriers that separated persons and ideas. He was quite simply "a merchant of death," and for that alone would he be remembered.

Alfred read the obituary with HORROR! He felt that the world must know the true meaning and purpose of his life!

He resolved to do this through his last will and testament. The final disposition of his fortune would show the world his life's ideals. And at that time came into being yearly prizes for chemistry, physics, medicine, literature -- and the famous Nobel Peace Prize. *

If you were to read YOUR OWN obituary today, what would it say?

How would others describe what truly mattered to you?

A wise person has written:

 A hundred years from now, it will not matter
what kind of car I drove, how much money I made,
or where I lived.
What will be important is that I…

How would YOU finish the quote? How you answer that question will be reflected in your obituary. The rest of the original quote is: " What will be important is that I... made a difference in the life of a child." Indeed, to make a positive difference in the life of a child is extremely important and commendable. However, THE MOST IMPORTANT factor in our lives, when all is said and done is:

" WAS I A CHRISTIAN?" Everything else is secondary.

NOTHING ELSE MATTERS MORE! Your eternal destiny hinges on the answer.... Because of our sins, WE are lost, doomed to destruction (Matthew 7:13-14) “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”

However, because of Jesus Christ and His sacrificial death on the cross, YOU and I can be forgiven of our sins and have the hope of eternal life with Him in heaven.

God provides these blessings to those who will:

place their trust in Him (Hebrews 11:6) “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”,

repent of sin (2 Corinthians 7:9-10) ”Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing.  For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.,

confess Christ (Romans 10:9-10) “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.,

be baptized (immersed) in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38)Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”,

and live for Him the rest of their lives (2 Corinthian 5:15) ”And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.”.

Chances are, you will not be reading your own obituary. But you have already begun to WRITE it -- day by day, moment by moment.

PEACE IN A TROUBLED WORLD
12 DEC 04

The story has been told about a shipwrecked sailor. He had spent three long years on a desert island when one day he was overjoyed to see a ship drop anchor in the bay. He anxiously watched and waited as a small lifeboat made its way to shore. But then, to his surprise, instead of calling to him to get in, an officer of the ship presented him with a big batch of newspapers. The officer said to this marooned sailor....

"The captain suggests that you read what's going on in the world, and THEN let us know if you STILL want to be rescued." *

We live in a troubled world... There is so much conflict in the world that to be marooned on a desert island can be an attractive thought. "Peace" is a concept that so often seems to be found only in the dictionary. This is true not only of world peace – peace between countries, but also of inner peace – peace within the individual.

Jesus warned, "In the world you WILL have tribulation...," but He also promised, "In ME you may have peace" (John 16:33). Jesus comforted His followers with words of assurance: "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" (John 14:27).

The peace that Jesus promises is not the absence of conflict on the outside, but an inner confidence within the individual - a calm center in the eye of the storm! It is based on trust in a God who cares and provides for His children,

(Luke 12:22-31) And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on.  The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment.  Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls? And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest? Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind.  For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.  But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.

This peace is found in a relationship with God through His Son, Jesus, that sustains His children even in difficult circumstances. (Philippians 4:6-7).

 Jesus Christ died on the cross so that YOU and I might have THAT peace. Through His death, burial, and resurrection, Jesus conquered the number one problem that keeps us from having peace: SIN. His death served as payment for the sins of those who will submit their lives to Him:

believing in and trusting Him (Acts 16:31) And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.,

repenting of sin (2 Corinthians 7:9-10)Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing.  For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death,

confessing that He is the Son of God (Romans 10:9-10) That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

and being baptized (immersed) for the forgiveness of sin (Acts 2:38) Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

The "peace of God which surpasses all understanding" will CONTINUE to "guard" the hearts and minds of those who CONTINUE to walk with God obediently (Philippians 4:6)

VICTORY WHERE THERE WAS ONCE DEFEAT (1)
19 DEC 04

As one year closes and another opens to us, it is a good time to pause to take spiritual inventory and consider some personal improvements.  Paul wrote, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves…” (2Cor 13:5)

Think back to the old Bible story of Joshua.  Under this great commander, God’s army suffered only one defeat in conquering all of Canaan.  This battle was in a small place called Ai.  It was not a stronghold, but Israel “self-destructed” because they had sin in the camp.  In this incident, we learned that God has instructed the children of Israel not to take of the accursed thing of Jericho (Jos 6:18) And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it. .  But Achan’s greed took the better of him. Achan’s covetousness caused thirty-six good men to die (Jos 7:1-26) And Achan answered Joshua, and said, Indeed I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done: When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it..  God would not fight for Israel until they corrected the problem.  The offender was stoned and they went back to the battlefield As the soldiers waited in the hills around Ai for the signal to attack, they must have wondered, “Can there be victory where there was once defeat?”  The answer was “yes”-they won the battle in decisive fashion the second day.

Let us remember that:

YESTERDAY’S LOSS DOESN’T DOOM TODAY.

Christianity has suffered its apparent losses.  Jesus was killed; the apostles were beaten; the church was scattered.  But God always won in the end!  Jesus was resurrected (Mk 16:6); the apostles carried the Gospel to the whole world (Col 1:23); the church multiplied in number (Acts 6:1,7; 9:31)

Christians have set backs, too.  You may have made mistakes, gone back to a bad habit, disappointed your family, failed at your job, even backslidden from the Lord.  We all make mistakes.  One church bulletin reported that “everyone enjoyed the sining.” (I hope the letter left out was a g and not an n!). Around the first of the year, a sign advertising a local barber shop seemed to have lost a Y; it read, Happy New Ear. (Hopefully the barber had not made that serious of a mistake!)

Someone wished:

I wish that there were some wonderful place
Called the Land of Beginning—Again
Where all our mistakes and all our heartaches
And all our poor selfish grief
Might be dropped, like a shabby old coat, at the door,
And never put on again.

There is such a place.  That place is here.  There is such a time.  That time is now (2 Cor 6:2).  Victory can follow defeat!

We all need to start over at times.  Remember the throne set in heaven and the voice which cries, “Behold, I make all things new” (Rev 21:5)?  The Bible speaks of the new covenant.  The Old Covenant was a sentence of death (Gal3:10) For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them., so Christ gave us a new one (Mt 26:28) For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins..  Under it, He forgets our sins (Heb 8:12) For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more..  The Bible speaks of the new man.  Life can be made over again (Gal 6:15; Phil 1:6). For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.

Jesus is the “ Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending….” (Rev 1:8).  The Bible speaks of a new way (Heb 10:19,20) that leads to a new Jerusalem (Rev 3:12).  Share in Paul’s optimism: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor 5:17)

Do not allow Yesterday’s failure stop us from trying for Tomorrow’s success.

VICTORY WHERE THERE WAS ONCE DEFEAT (2)
26 DEC 04

As we recall how the strong Israelites who had conquered many land in Canaan but were defeated once in Ai, (a supposingly weak city), because of sin in their camp, we should learn from them and not to so live in fear of our defeat that we can’t move forward.  We can conquer our “Ai” if we:

DON’T STUMBLE OVER THE SAME STONE TWICE.

Joshua and Israel made sure that they had corrected the “Achan problem” before they returned to Ai.  All of us make mistakes, but it is foolish to keep making the same mistakes. The Greeks used to say that stumbling is a human flaw, but “it is disgraceful to stumble against the same stone twice.”

David Lusk tells the story of two hunters who flew deep into remote Canada in search of elk When they started home, their pilot saw their four elk and told them the plane could carry only two.  They protested: “The plane last year was exactly like this one and we had six elk then.”  The pilot reluctantly agreed to try.  They loaded up and took off.  Unfortunately the plane did not have sufficient power to climb out of the valley with all that weight, so they crashed.  As they stumbled from the wreckage, one hunter asked the other if he knew where they were.  “Well, I’m not sure,” he said, “but I think we are about two miles from where we crashed last year!”

We should learn from “last year’s mistakes” and not make them “this year’s mistakes.”  We should put away childish things (1Cor 13:11) and remove the besetting sun (Heb 12:1,2).  Life is a struggle, but crashing in the same forest is inexcusable.  We may need to get a new set of friends (1 Cor 15:33), or put some good influences in the place of old habits (1 Pet 2:11).  Are we willing to change our lives for the good of our soulds?  Or will we just go on sinning and watching ourselves crash and burn every year?  For most of us it is not a new road we need, but a new determination with which to travel the way that lies before us.

CHAMPIONS GET UP ONE MORE TIME THAN THEY FALL. (Jos 8:19-21)

Championship seasons are rarely undefeated seasons.  The NFL has had one undefeated season.  Tiger Woods is considered by many as the greatest golfer of all-time, and he doesn’t always win. 

Every Christian makes mistakes.  Peter made some serious blunders (Lk 22:45-61) but he bounced back (Acts 2).  So can we!  If you have forsaken the Lord, do not give up hope.  You can return and live the Christian life.  It is possible.  If you have lost your fervor for Christ, you can get it back.  If the devil has led you down sin’s road, you can return—just as the prodigal did (Lk 15).  If you are defeated and despondent, remember Ai shows there can be victory where there was once defeat.

There can be victory where there was once defeat in breaking bad habits.  Many Christians have finally conquered smoking, bad language, procrastination, gossip, and alcohol addiction by saying, “I can do all things through Christ which strengthen me” (Phil 4:13; 2Cor 3:4,5).  Jesus promised, “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing” (Jn 15:5)

There can be victory where there was defeat also in soul winning.  Keep on inviting that family member or friend to church services.  The next invitation may be the one he accepts.  The next sermon may be the one that reaches her.  The next Bible study may convert him.  Their souls are too valuable to give up (Mt 16:26). Love keeps on keeping on.  “Persistence breaks down resistance.”

BE SURE TO PICK THE RIGHT TEAM

(Jos 8:7,18). Abraham Lincoln was asked during the Civil War, “Are you sure God is on your side?”  His thoughtful reply was, “I am not so concerned if God is on our side, but whether we are on God’s side.”  Christians need not worry over who will win.  God will win.  We need to concern ourselves with being “on His side.”

As we contemplate important changes in our spiritual lives, let’s think on these powerful verses:

(Acts 22:16). “And now why tarriest thou? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the nake of the Lord”

(Rm 8:31) “If God be for us, who can be against us?”. 

(1 Cor 15:57) “But thanks be to God, whch giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ”,

(Rm 8:37) “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us”.

 (Jas 5:16) “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.  The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much”.

(2 Cor 2:14) “Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ…”.

Enjoy a “victory in Jesus” on an old battleground this year!