Have bad news the NSPCC have tracked me down. They have found me and knocked on my door today. I am abusing Nakai emotionally. They could take her away.

Jean

Your prayers are urgently needed as Jean stands almost alone to fight against those bent on taking her daughter away just because it’s deemed cruel to “emotionally abuse” one’s child when the latter realizes that she can never be good or saved without faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

For the background to this request, please read this post by Jean.Similar Posts:

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The Charter for Compassion is a collaborative effort to build a peaceful and harmonious global community. Bringing together the voices of people from all religions, the Charter seeks to remind the world that while all faiths are not the same, they all share the core principle of compassion and the Golden Rule. The Charter will change the tenor of the conversation around religion. It will be a clarion call to the world.

Clarion call? You bet, though not in the same way as you’d define it, Ms Armstrong.

It was painful to sit through this 21-minute talk by Karen Armstrong, but it will help you understand what she and her “Council of Sages” at the Charter For Compassion are advocating. There’s also a 3:31 minute video on the Charter’s web site.

For more information on this Golden Rule initiative, I’ll direct you to a very comprehensive series written by a good sister, Bonnie, starting with this updated post.

I’m no prophet, but it does look like it won’t be too long in the future when Christians who insist that Jesus Christ is the only way and the only truth (John 14:6) will be seen as uncompassionate people, along with other “lovely” labels we’ve already been bestowed with, e.g. “homophobes”, “intolerant”, “fundamentalists”, “bigots”, etc.Similar Posts:

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If you have the time, drop by Jean’s blog and send her an encouraging note amidst all the hate from the “tolerant” and “open-minded” folks.

Though I doubt if brother Paul himself would call it a prophecy, this episode reminds me of the warning he sent out during the Q&A session at the recently-concluded Revival Conference. Sadly, many of us are still asleep; it’s time to wake up!

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I will stand on my guard post
And station myself on the rampart;
And I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me,
And how I may reply when I am reproved.

Then the LORD answered me and said,
“Record the vision
And inscribe it on tablets,
That the one who reads it may run.

“For the vision is yet for the appointed time;
It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail
Though it tarries, wait for it;
For it will certainly come, it will not delay.

“Behold, as for the proud one,
His soul is not right within him;
But the righteous will live by his faith.

“Furthermore, wine betrays the haughty man,
So that he does not stay at home
He enlarges his appetite like Sheol,
And he is like death, never satisfied.
He also gathers to himself all nations
And collects to himself all peoples.

“Will not all of these take up a taunt-song against him,
Even mockery and insinuations against him
And say, ‘Woe to him who increases what is not his–
For how long–
And makes himself rich with loans?’

“Will not your creditors rise up suddenly,
And those who collect from you awaken?
Indeed, you will become plunder for them.

“Because you have looted many nations,
All the remainder of the peoples will loot you–
Because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land,
To the town and all its inhabitants.

“Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house
To put his nest on high,
To be delivered from the hand of calamity!

“You have devised a shameful thing for your house
By cutting off many peoples;
So you are sinning against yourself.

“Surely the stone will cry out from the wall,
And the rafter will answer it from the framework.

“Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed
And founds a town with violence!

“Is it not indeed from the LORD of hosts
That peoples toil for fire,
And nations grow weary for nothing?

“For the earth will be filled
With the knowledge of the glory of the LORD,
As the waters cover the sea.

“Woe to you who make your neighbors drink,
Who mix in your venom even to make them drunk
So as to look on their nakedness!

“You will be filled with disgrace rather than honor.
Now you yourself drink and expose your own nakedness
The cup in the LORD’S right hand will come around to you,
And utter disgrace will come upon your glory.

“For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you,
And the devastation of its beasts by which you terrified them,
Because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land,
To the town and all its inhabitants.

“What profit is the idol when its maker has carved it,
Or an image, a teacher of falsehood?
For its maker trusts in his own handiwork
When he fashions speechless idols.

“Woe to him who says to a piece of wood, ‘Awake!’
To a mute stone, ‘Arise!’
And that is your teacher?
Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver,
And there is no breath at all inside it.

“But the LORD is in His holy temple
Let all the earth be silent before Him.”

Habbakuk 2:1-20 NASB

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King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits and its breadth six cubits. He set it up on the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon. Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent to gather the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Then the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces gathered for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. And they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. And the herald proclaimed aloud, “You are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, that when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. And whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace.” Therefore, as soon as all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, all the peoples, nations, and languages fell down and worshiped the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

Most people might read the passage above as a shadow and type of the Anti-Christ who shall set up a similar idol of himself towards the end of days and they’ll be quite right. However, my thoughts were brought to think of it somehow as being similar to the idols we have in our society today.

The symphony born out of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music — isn’t that somehow in some ways similar to the cacophony of popular culture today? When you think about it, all of popular culture and even the united views of world leaders and influencers play the same tune: trust in us, bow down to our idols, and pay heed unto them. If you don’t, you shall perish socially, financially or otherwise.

Christians who disagree with much of what the world and popular culture advocates are often ostracized and have insults heaped upon them. Disagree with homosexual marriages? Homophobes! Disagree with the practise of abortion? Fundamentalists (in a derogative sense)! While all we might face is unflattering labels and a few boos, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were brought before King Nebuchadnezzar to be punished (Daniel 3:8-15).

To King Nebuchadnezzar’s taunt answered Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego thus:

O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.

Daniel 3:16-18

What an answer in the face of an enraged king and the threat of being burned alive in the furnace facing them! Yet today, not many of us are prepared to take a stand when we sense that, well, some people might be displeased with what we think, or have the thought that our Biblical worldview is of no consequence and should therefore not be shared and we be seen as “imposing”.

To Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, there was to be no compromise, not even in the face of death, and here we are, wondering if we’ll become unpopular for taking a Biblical stand?!

There’s a price to be paid, of course, and the trio was subsequently cast into the furnace that King Nebuchadnezzar, in his rage, had ordered to be heated up to seven times its usual ferocity (Daniel 3:19-23).

And here’s where I had a hairy thought, so to speak.

As we read on, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were unharmed and King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished to have seen a fourth man in the furnace with the trio, whose appearance was like the “son of gods”. Calling them out, everyone was astonished to discover that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were more than just unharmed — “hair of their heads was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them (Daniel 3:27)”!

It reminded me of another instance in the Bible about hair of people’s heads being unharmed, this time thousands of years later, given as a promise by our Lord Jesus Christ:

Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness. Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives.”

Luke 21:10-19

It is my belief that we are surely approaching those times, and as like the Chaldeans who delivered up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to King Nebuchadnezzar to be punished for not bowing down to his idol so shall there be many who will be most happy to deliver us up for refusing to bow to the idols of this world today. As like the trio, we shall be set before kings and governors too.

When that happens, I pray we shall all have the courage to say as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego did, and bear witness to our faith and trust in the LORD our God. For the promise is that we shall not perish, because we already have eternal life in Christ Jesus, and those who endure shall gain their lives.

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To many, it’s doom and gloom – time to hunker down and try to ride out the crisis as best as we can, while counting on the governments and experts to devise manners in which to bring the world out of the mess caused by unbridled greed and lust for mammon.

Many who have already been affected, and will be affected, will be Christians — at this juncture it doesn’t matter if they are real Christians or those who just profess to be Christians. Looking at Christendom in the past several years, one wonders if much of the teachings coming from pulpits are setting up Christians to be some of the biggest losers in the crisis and perhaps even cause a great falling away (2 Thessalonians 2:3).

Look at what we have today — Christ-less Christianity that has adopted the world’s preoccupation with the self, and subsequently a feel-good “gospel” that’s all about “me”. God wants me to have good self image; God wants me to be successful; God wants me to be rich; God wants me to be the head and not the tail in the marketplace and the list goes on… me, me, me, and just me.

Instead of teachings on separation from the world, a denial of the flesh, and carrying one’s own cross, today many churches are teaching exactly the opposite. The flesh is to be gratified – the natural desires of man to be fulfilled through the accumulation of wealth and power. Instead of separation from the world, the filthiest, God-denying, forms of entertainment are brought into churches with the excuse that they have inherent Christian messages in them.

And then there are some of the biggest scammers in history fleecing thousands upon thousands of not-so-discerning Christians who provide a continuous stream of income for the former simply because these so-called pastors are able to quote Scripture and twist them to achieve the desired effect, much like at the beginning when the serpent told Eve, “You shall not surely die.” (Genesis 3:1-6).

These pastors — wolves in sheep’s clothing — play on the desperation of people and appeal to their natural desires. After all, who in their right mind in the natural human state doesn’t want to be rich or powerful? And if there’s a god who can give me all that in 100-fold (or more) returns if only I give up a sizable amount of my income as a tithe or building fund, oh yes, I’ll definitely worship that god!

It worries me that in these bad times, when desperation is high, that more would be drawn to such false promises. Most would think that some folks, after realizing that the promises were empty, might abandon the teachings and return to Biblical truth but I fear that the opposite might actually be more probable.

Mind you, I’m not making light of the desperation that some of these folks might have and the extreme poverty and hardships they might face, but it is my opinion that it is in desperate times that people will turn to desperate measures, including falling chin-deep into such mire. We might therefore see some of these tricksters flourishing, fleecing what little the desperate have for their own gains with twisted Scripture and false promises.

In fact, I’d even go as far as to state that such men aren’t very much different from the scammers many of us have at one time or another received an email from at our email accounts. In order for you to claim the promised prize(s), you first have to give and give till it hurts. Their version of Matthew 7:9-11 goes something like this (added words in italics):

Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him after you give what money you have in your bank account as tithe or to the fund.

I am not speculating, but have seen how, even in dire times, many who buy into the prosperity and self-serving messages encourage one another to continue giving despite the pain and desperation. On a blog where the writer preaches the prosperity message, he advises a woman on the brink of a breakdown after failure in her business and calamities in her personal life to “not give up” but continue to give, believing that she will ultimately reap the returns in due time. As recent as this past Sunday, the senior pastor of a mega-church in Singapore has been telling his congregation to pledge more to the building fund and tithe more, backed up by testimonies of folks who have done so and are now rich and prosperous.

While I fear that more will fall into the traps strategically set up by such tricksters, there will also be those who will leave, disillusioned with the faith and angry with God. Most likely they will not blame themselves (for not many will), but their hearts will cry and curse God for not delivering on His promises (according to the pastors). And so, even if there was seed planted that grew a little in their hearts, whatever little bud or fruit there was would be ripped up and thrown away. In many ways, folks who have professed to be Christians but are now disillusioned and bitter are, in most cases I’ve come across, worse than militant atheists.

Finally, what is the true Bride of Christ to do? I very much believe that many in the world need to hear the Gospel — even those who have professed to be Christians but have not the fruits to identify them as being so. Perhaps what’s even more needed and necessary is for many churches to return to Biblical, Christ-centered Christianity. This is a time of cleansing and discipline when we need to pray that the will of the Lord our God be done, and we pray that part of His will is to rid His bride of the impurities of the messages of Self and Mammon.

It is also a time for Christians to be Christians — many, even those who have a good grasp of theology and see themselves as being Biblical, are Christians until they hear someone call out for financial help or other forms of assistance which might inconvenience their normal routines. Perhaps many of us are not too keen to lend without expecting anything back (Luke 6:34-35), or even offer a fellow Christian and even a non-Christian a meal or two but it is in such dire times that, I believe, true Christianity is, and should be, in action. I’m not emphasizing a social gospel, vis-à-vis Rick Warren, but the truth is that the Bride of Christ in recent times has to a certain degree been quite ensconced in our own little bubbles.

There’s no doubt in my mind that God has allowed this unprecedented financial crisis for a reason — that His Bride for His beloved Son Jesus Christ returns to an ethos that solely relies on Him, forsaking the temporal treasures of this world for His kingdom, and defines success as He defines it. As members of the body of Christ Jesus’ bride, we’ll do well to rejoice even in these troubling times, with the full knowledge that God is in control, as we encourage one another and as we pray for many to receive salvation and find true contentment in Him alone.

Maranatha!

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For awhile now, I have been observing and bemoaning the fact that much of Christendom has been feminized to such an extent that there aren’t many Christian men today whom we can certainly call true leaders both at home and in church.

My point is this: that if Christian women are to be godly women, then it follows that we must have godly men who will fulfill the roles that God has ordained them to be in. As the ones ordained to be the leaders both at home and in church, if we men are not godly, it will follow that the women we lead, no matter if we like or admit it, will more than likely not fulfill their godly responsibilities.

I’ve yet to put much of my thoughts on this down, but as a start I am sharing this video on the issue, taken from the TV show Wretched.

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