Strong and Courageous?

Joshua 1:9 (ESV) - Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.

I now know for sure I am NOT courageous.

Over the past 8 years or so I have faced all kinds of trials. Some have been distressing, like the time loan sharks threatened my family in order to get neighbours to pay up the money they owe. And though the trials have bothered me (I am not Superman, for crying out loud!) none have been able to make me feel THAT scared.

Until now.

Ironic, isn’t it? Actual physical danger to my sons and I didn’t disturb my sleep, but the thought of traveling to Japan for my own personal upgrading gave me sleepless nights. And on the actual day of departure, the fear was so acute that it even upset my stomach.

Embarrassing!

Why does this trip trouble me so much? It’s like an onion, I’m sure I can find many layers of reasons should I be honest enough to look. But at a basic level, I have the full responsibility of making all the arrangements (flight and hotel), travelling to a country where I know very few people, and where I do not speak the native language. My usual support group isn’t there and I am totally unfamiliar to the place. Good enough reasons to feel uptight?

2 Timothy 1:6-7 (ESV) - For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

 

Paul tells us that God has not given us a spirit of fear, which tells me God does not want me to get uptight or anxious over the situations or matters that arise. But on our part we have to fan into flame, to awaken, to stir up, the spirit of power, love and self-control that God has already given us.

 

In other words, don’t sit back and expect it to work out without any deliberate effort on your part!

 

What are some of the ways we can stir up that spirit within us?

 

1)      Speak Directly

 

Open up your mouth and speak to your spirit. You can say, “Spirit of power, love and self-control, arise within me!” And do that a few more times, until it feels good!

 

There will be people who will criticise that as being merely mindless chanting, positive affirmations and all that. But the fact is, we already have clear Scriptural precedent of speaking to ourselves:

“Bless the LORD, O my soul” (Psalm 103:1, 103:22, 104:1)

And calling upon the LORD to arise:

2 Chronicles 6:41 (ESV) - "And now arise, O LORD God, and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might.  

And

Numbers 10:35 (ESV) - "Arise, O LORD, and let your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate you flee before you."

2)      Speak the Scriptures

 

John 6:63 (ESV) - It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

If the words of Jesus are spirit and life, won’t they resonate with the spirit of power, love and self-control within us? 

John 16:33 (ESV) – “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world."

To be totally frank, I don’t see any reason Jesus’ words in John 16, especially that last verse, would help me overcome fear. Jesus didn’t promise anything concrete and tangible here, so I don’t have a logical reason to find his words comforting. They are too vague for me.

 

But when I made the effort to speak the whole of John 16 to myself, reading it aloud 3-4 times in a row, I did receive courage and comfort in the midst of my trials and fears. And it was be a comfort that does not make logical sense to the un-spiritual. I don’t care. I’ll take anything God wants to give me!

 

3)      Pray it out

Philippians 4:6-7 (ESV) - do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

God has given this promise, that if we will commit our problems to him, via prayer, supplication AND thanksgiving, we will have a peace that surpasses all understanding. In other words, a peace that makes no logical sense. To our hearts and minds this peace is like a strong and gentle father consoling a frightened child. “Rest assured, child, Daddy is here and Daddy will take care of everything!”

 

Just take this Scripture at face value, and pray about everything!

 

Bonus Tip – ignore pride

 

In my most recent struggles with fear, it wasn’t the fear that caused me so much emotional pain. It was my pride. I was supposed to be the one who had it all figured out. I was the one who had fought with and overcome fear so many times. I was the one who had successfully taught others how to deal with fear. How could I be so scared now? My pride did not want to accept that I had to deal with fear again.

 

The reason why the Bible has so much to say about dealing with fear is because it is a universal problem. You can be a church leader, extremely wealthy businessman, battle-hardened soldier or internationally acclaimed musician. Whatever your earthly reasons for confidence, no matter how many times you have overcome fear before, you will still have to face fear again, and deal with it using the same spiritual tools as the rest of us.

 

Since we all have to deal with fear some time or other, do share this with other  believers if what I wrote is helpful to you. In the meantime, be blessed!

 

When God Offends You

Looking back, I realized that my university days were when I was the most zealous for Jesus.

I would spend hours in the Bible, prayer and personal worship. I was active in a church worship band, evangelistic concerts and in music lessons, to hone my skills. And I would practice both the piano and the guitar a lot. I wanted skill, and skill that would last, so that I had more to use when serving in the worship ministry.

“Did you get any studying done those days, JJ?” Errr…

Ever since then I have gone down a lot. Life responsibilities, such as work and family, make me more like a normal Christian, who has to be seriously disciplined to seek God. Practice time is less (ironic for a music teacher, right?) so I have to make the best use of whatever little practice time I have.

Now I could be disappointed. Given the amount of zeal I had in those days, I was expecting that I would be a hard-core, effective servant of the LORD, teaching the Word and being used in healing the sick and all that kind of stuff. But even though I am nowhere near what I dreamed of in my university days, at least I am still walking with God. He has been holding on to me all these years.

And I am grateful!

Not all the people I knew from those days are still walking with the Lord. A few have fallen and are no longer serving God or walking with him.

And it bugs me. I remember looking at them, seeing how different they were from me in terms of personality and giftings, and yet sharing the same purpose: Glorify Jesus with whatever we had and in everything we could do. I was thinking things could only get better, and we would, working together but in our own unique ways, keep on serving God, achieving more and winning our nation for Christ.  

Then offences struck. And people stumbled.

Offences can come from men

Luke 17:1-2 (KJV) - Then said he unto the disciples, “It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come! It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.               

People in church can offend you. And to get a sense of what kind of offence we are talking about, the word used for “offences” is the Greek word from which we derive the word “scandal” from. It means to trip up, to stumble or entice to sin. Jesus said that it WILL happen.

Knowing that it will happen is our best defence. When we know that it will happen, we will not lose our faith just because people in church fail us. Guess what? If we set our hopes on people, rather than on the LORD, they will disappoint us.

Psalm 118:8-9 (ESV) - It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes.

So people disappointing us is no excuse. So what if your pastor is a hypocrite? So what? So what if your church people don’t love you as God commanded them to? So what? I mean, if love was so easy, God wouldn’t need to admonish us to love one another, right? Obviously, divine love is not nature to us in our fallen nature. Did God ever promise us that the rest of the believers will love us properly, as he desires? I don’t think so. So why let yourself be stumbled just because people in church let you down?

Offences can come from God

John 6:61-62 (ESV) - But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, "Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?

 

Again the same Greek word for offense appears. In effect, Jesus is saying, “Does this scandalize you? I am still holding back. You ain’t seen nothing yet!” Jesus then delivered his doctrinal bombshell.

John 6:65-66 (ESV) - And he said, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father." After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.

 

Maybe it won’t be salvation doctrine that offends you. How about the way God forgives and blesses sinners?
 

Luke 15:29-30 (ESV) – 'Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.  But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!'

 

When the Gospel, preached in its entirety, offends, some people turn away from God entirely. Sometimes they go doctrine shopping, looking for a church, religion or philosophy that excuses their pet sins or justifies their beliefs and preferences.

2 Timothy 4:3-4 (ESV) - For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,  and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

 

How do we hold firm when God himself offends us?
 

John 6:67-69 (ESV) – So Jesus said to the Twelve, "Do you want to go away as well?" Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God."

 

Jesus has the words of eternal life, which means they cause us to know God, to perceive and be sure of him (John 17:3). His words are Spirit and they are life (John 6:63). But they are no benefit to us unless we actually let his words abide in us (John 15:7). We need to actual taste and experience God’s goodness (Psalm 34:8), especially through the Word (Hebrews 6:5). We start by believing that Jesus is the Holy One of God, then when we grow in our experience of his Word and his goodness in our lives, we end up knowing for sure.

My Faith Crash

I had a massive faith crash years ago.

It was so painful. I was experiencing the presence of God in worship and the Word. I had answered prayers and many significant signs that hinted that I was on the right track. I was returning back to serving God in ministry, and re-discovering the joy of setting my hand to the plough for the Kingdom of God and being fruitful in ministry.

And then the crash came. What I prayed to God earnestly for, I did not get. Even worse, I got the opposite of what I really believed God would give me. He brought me so far, why would he not complete it, right? I clung on in prayer, stayed faithful in ministry and in my own personal time of seeking God, and continued to experience his presence and even answered prayers.

Yes, God continued give me what I asked for. Except for what I wanted the most, desired the most and had reasons to expect the most. For this part of my life I still have no answers, no resolution, no completion. I cannot come up with some spiritual-sounding lesson and say that I now understand why God did things that way during that season. I still don’t.

So what do I have? I still have God with me. Nudging me forward when I totally doubt that he was going to lead me where I am supposed to go. Answering prayers still. Meeting with me in my own personal prayer and worship time still. There is just only one matter, over which I wanted nothing but his will, worked out his way. And when I had finally come to believe I knew what it was, and that I was going to receive it, I didn’t get it. And the shame still remains. Did I ask God for the wrong thing? If so, how could I have missed it so badly?

Isaiah 54:4 (ESV) - Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.

What kept me going? It was the eternal life of God. It was continuing to experience God, even when in one matter I was disappointed. I did get one lesson I can share from that season though: You don’t need trust when someone does what you understand. You need trust when that someone is doing a whole lot of things you don’t understand. That is when you have to decide if you will trust that the person knows what he or she is doing, and has your best interests at heart.

And when it comes to people, your trust can be misplaced. But not with God. He has shown his faithfulness to me many times before and many times ever since. Will I stumble and be offended with God over one matter, or will I look at his past faithfulness and trust, even when I don’t understand? 

Conclusion:

I know this is really long, and I have shared some personal stuff. But I hope that some of what I shared here will be useful to you or to those around you, who are struggling with God offending them. Be blessed!

Parenting and Teaching

It’s barely three months into the year and I’ve been so busy, it’s crazy…

You see, this year Jacques started attending primary school (compulsory education for children aged seven and above).  In Singapore, children will usually attend a kindergarten (half-day program) or childcare centre (full-day program) for 2-3 years before that, and that helps to prepare them for what the schools will teach at primary level.

Jacques was attending a kindergarten near my in-laws. After a whole year of crazy stories about the things the “teachers” there would make him do, I finally discover that his teachers taught him what he did NOT need to know, and not what he needed for primary school. I made this discovery at the end of last year, so I really had no time to repair the damage. Oh boy…

As a prominent Singaporean politician has said before, you pay peanuts, you’ll get monkeys. And with that Singaporean parents will immediately be able to figure out the kindergarten and the sheer irony of the situation!

Maybe it’s just a Singaporean thing. When I look at how much more work there is to do with Jacques to just get him to catch up and have SOME clue of what’s going on in school, it’s easy to just panic, freak out and try to cram everything into him at one go.

And this doesn’t happen only with parenting either. Sometimes as a music teacher I face the same situation with students about to take their music exams, but aren’t ready, or “musicians” who have to ready to play for a worship set by the weekend, but need another few more months of lessons and practice instead. It’s tempting to either give up or data dump on them everything they need to know. And if they can’t absorb or use whatever I teach that’s their problem!

But that is NOT how Jesus does things.

John 16:12-13 (NIV) - “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

We see from here that even Jesus, the Master Teacher, had a sense of pacing. And that pacing was based not only what his disciples needed to know (“much more to say to you”) but also what they were able to absorb (“more than you can now bear”). Because of those factors, he did the best he could do in the earthly time he had available, but also knew that the work had to be shared with others, in this case the Holy Spirit.

So if you are a parent or a teacher, or even the head of a ministry or church, this is an important lesson for us to learn too. In our teaching and leadership, we need to be aware of pacing, what is the best our children, students and followers can manage at that moment, and how to best work within those limits.

It’s difficult, because we are often pulled in two directions – the present or the future. If we are stuck in the present, we don’t strive for improvement. We just make do with how things are. The kid can’t manage his maths? Blame the teacher and complain to other parents. Your students can’t perform? Blame their previous teachers or label them as lazy. Your congregation doesn’t worship God the way the Bible wants them to? Just ignore it or gossip about it with other church members…

On the other hand, if we see the future but have no plan or vision of how to get there, we get frustrated and impatient. We pressurize and berate our kids, students and congregation. We try to guilt them into conforming to our expectations and lose patience with them if they do not immediately get what we want them to know or perform as we want them to.

This is a sure-fire way to burn out and wear out ourselves and the people around us!

Recognizing Good Teachers

How do you recognize good teachers? Knowing this will help you identify people you can entrust your children or congregation to, as well as give you insight into your own teaching ability. With such insight it’s easier to decide on what you may need to work on in order to get the results you need.

• Lowest Level Teaching – “You want this? Do that!”
  
• Low Level Teaching – “You want this? Do that, which is made up of A, B and C…”
  
• Mid-Level Teaching – “You want this? Do that, which is made up of A, B and C. Usually people do them in that order, but you may have to switch them around if you…”
  
• High-Level Teaching – “You want this? Do that, which is made up of A, B and C. I noticed you already have A, but you are very weak in C, you should spend more time on that for the moment…”
  
• Higher-Level Teaching - “You want this? Do that, which is made up of A, B and C. I noticed you already have A, but you are very weak in C, you should spend more time on that for the moment. Work especially on C1, C2 and C3…” And it can go on and on, depending on how deep is the subject and the specific needs of the student/child/congregation.

Of course, you won’t need the highest level of teaching for everything all the time. If you are naturally inclined towards a particular field, such as music, art or a language, lower level teaching may be all you need. But if you or your child has serious difficulty in something, or your congregation finds it hard to live the life of worship (or walk in divine healing, freedom from strife, etc), then you will need a teacher who is capable of higher level teaching.

And what if no one else is available?

Sometimes we find ourselves in a place when higher-level teaching is needed, but we are the only ones available. We don’t know how to get the people to where we want them to be, but we are stuck with the job and we can’t just hand it over to someone else. At that time, what can we do?

Pray.

Ask God, “What is the best thing I can do, say or teach for NOW?”

Sometimes, all God wants of us is to just manage the now. Jesus taught what he was supposed to teach, and then left the rest to the Holy Spirit. And sometimes, what little we can do may just be enough for God to accomplish what he wants to do.

John 6:9 (NIV) - "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?"

The Bible records that the five loaves and two fishes worked well enough when entrusted to Jesus!

Conclusion:

I’ve always had a heart for teaching. It’s how God has wired me. But that doesn’t make it any easier to do things the right way when it’s my own son! So I pray that the insights from my own experiences will be helpful to you the next time you need to teach anyone something or make any decisions about getting teaching for yourself or others.

Be blessed!

Why Look to David?

One thing I have learned the HARD way - don't head over to any worship forums for a 'quick' look just before bedtime. The questions and thoughts I get can have me so excited I can't sleep!

One recent example is this question Peter Goh brought up on Worship the Rock. He pointed out that many Christian leaders teach worship from the Old Testament models of worship, such as Levitical worship or David's materials instead of looking at the New Testament. In John 4:23 Jesus revealed that there would be a massive change in the nature of worship "... a time is coming and has now come (NIV)" so why look at the older models of worship if God doesn't think they are good enough?

John 4:23 (NIV) - Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

To start we first need to look at what it means to worship in spirit and in truth. I wrote about it in detail before but to quickly sum up, to worship in spirit is to relate to God on the basis of our relationship with him through our new birth (John 3:5-6) rather than what we can achieve out of our flesh (Phil 3:3). And to worship in truth is to realize that there is nothing for which we can claim any credit or glory for, since every good we have done, including our worship, all came from God and was done through God in the first place (John 3:21).

This is a simple definition of spirit and truth, looking at John 3 and letting Scripture interpret Scripture. We can also say that to worship in spirit and truth is to relate to God based on the new covenant. And the new covenant means that all our sins are forgiven (Heb 8:12) and therefore we have a very good reason for total confidence and boldness in approaching God (Heb 10:19-22). Therefore praising God is a very natural fruit of such revelation (Heb 13:15).

The contemporary worship scene is more influenced by the Davidic model than the Levitical model (many people aren't keen to go back to sacrificing animals) so for now let's just consider: Why Look At David? I'll give a couple of reasons.

Firstly, David had an understanding of God that far exceeded what the Scriptures available to him revealed. We can see him as being very much a new covenant worshipper in the following areas:

1) He saw himself as a son of God - He will call out to me, 'You are my Father, my God, the Rock my Savior.' (Psalm 89:26, NIV)

2) He knew he needed the forgiveness of God and that God was willing to forgive - Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD "-- and you forgave the guilt of my sin. (Psalm 32:5, NIV)

3) He knew that he had nothing in and of himself to offer God, and that whatever he had came from God in the first place - Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand (1 Chron 29:14, NIV).

People can argue over whether David was worshipping God in spirit and in truth. But what is obvious to us is that David, because of the faith he displayed in worshipping God, shows us very clearly how we ought to relate to God as new covenant believers. David was so confident in God that he believed his songs were more precious to God than even the animal sacrifices required by the Levitical priesthood.

I will praise God's name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving. This will please the LORD more than an ox, more than a bull with its horns and hoofs. (Psalm 69:30-31, NIV)

How many of us have THAT level of confidence when we sing to God? Or do we come to God with trepidation, not believing in the fullness of the finished work of Christ? Remember, without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6). David definitely had the faith that pleased God. We would do well to learn from him.

Secondly, the New Testament points us towards the Davidic model of worship. We know that the whole of Scripture is God-breathed by his Spirit (2 Tim 3:16) and yet there are three specific parts of Scripture explicitly tied to the Spirit of God. They are

1) The Words of Jesus (the words in red) - The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. (John 6:63, NIV);

2) Old Testament prophecies - For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.(2 Pet 1:21, NIV); AND

3) The Psalms - be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs (Eph 5:18-19, NKJV).

And God considers the Psalms, the fruit of the Davidic model of worship, so important, that we are admonished twice (Eph 5:18-19, Col 3:16) to feed on them, to talk to God and each other about them. And we have a direct endorsement of the Davidic model given us in Acts 15:16, when James declared that the Gentiles (non-Jews) turning to Jesus is a fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy announcing God's intention to rebuild David's tabernacle (Amos 9:11-12). If God likes the David model of worship so much that he wants to restore it, and even ties the salvation of non-Jews to its restoration, it must be something VERY important to God.

And that means it ought to be important to us also.

Disclaimer: I'll be the first to admit that there are problems with the way some people look at the David model of worship. I personally disagree with using the Davidic model of worship to justify a song-and-dance routine that is based on professional worshippers rather than the entire body of Christ. And that's because of 1 Peter 2:9 which teaches us that ALL of us are royal priests, called to declare God's praises.

But even though there are people who misunderstand the Davidic model of worship, there will always be something useful for us to glean from it (as from ALL Scripture, 2 Tim 3:16). And I believe that we will understand the Davidic Model more and more in the future, as we continue to humble ourselves before God and ask that he open our eyes that we may see wonderful things in His law (Psalm 119:18).

May God himself teach us from His word and make us fruitful in His service!

P.S. if you are not yet on my Invisible Worship Musician mailing list, get over to my page and get in now! I'm going to hold a special sale to celebrate my upcoming California ministry trip. Stay tuned!