The two Books of Chronicles, the Book of Ezra and the Book of Nehemiah are a continuous work by the same hand. The part of this work known as "Chronicles' is a revision of the history of Israel which is contained in the earlier books, from Joshua to Kings; supplemented from other sources which are lost to us. The history is continued in Ezra and Nehemiah, with the return from Exile, re-population of Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Temple in 538 to 515 B.C. though the date of these two books is the same as that of Chronicles, they make use of original records and documents including Ezra's report of his own mission and Nehemiah's memoir and they are a valuable complement to the information on the Jewish Restoration which is incidentally contained in the books of the prophets Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. The different documents are, however, arranged in a baffling order in which incidents appear to be classified by subjects rather than chronologically.

1 CHRONICLES - (1) David and his Entourage: the Genealogies from Adam to Israel - Chapter 1 to 10 - (2) David the King and Founder of the Temple Worship - Chapter 11 to 14 - (3) The Ark in the Citadel of David and prelude to the Building of the Temple - Chapter 15 to 29 - 2 CHRONICLES - (1) Solomon and the building of the Temple - Chapter 1 to 9 - (2) First Reforms of the Monarchical period. Rehoboam and the regrouping of the Levites - Chapter 10 to 27 - (3) The Great Reforms under Hezekiah and Josiah. The sins of Ahaz, father of Hezekiah - Chapter 28 to 35 - (4) Israel in the closing years of the Monarchy - Chapter 36 - In summary : Chronicles ends like Kings, with the deportation of the Israelites into the Babylonian Exile. A religious history of Israel covering the same period of time as 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings.

EZRA - (1) The return from Exile and the rebuilding of the Temple - Chapter 1 to 6 - (2) The Organisation of the Community by Ezra and Nehemiah - Chapter 7 to 10 - NEHEMIAH - (1) The call of Nehemiah : his mission to Judah - Chapter 1 to 13 -

In summary : The return of the Jewish people from captivity in Babylon. The rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem after the exiles returned from Babylon.

                                                                            Page 3

If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.

By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -

Introduction of the Books of JOSHUA, JUDGES, RUTH, SAMUEL and KINGS. In these books the history of Israel is continued from the death of Moses at the end of the book Deuteronomy and a constant theme is the recurring disobedience of the nation and often its rulers, to the laws of God revealed by Moses and served by the prophets.

Oral traditions and written documents of varying ages and characteristics were brought together to form the books as we know them and these appear to have given continuity and a general consistency by successive editors profoundly influenced by the outlook of Deuteronomy between the time of Josiah's reform (622 B.C.) and the return from Exile (538).

JOSHUA - (1) The Conquest of the Promised Land. The Preparations - Chapter 1 to 2 - (2) The Crossing of the Jordan - Chapter 3 to 5 - (3) The Conquest of Jericho - Chapter 5 to 7 - (4) The Taking of AI. Sacrifice on Mount Ebal; The Law Read There - Chapter 8 - (5) The treaty between Israel and the Gibeonites - Chapter 9 - (10) Five Amorite Kings Form a Coalition. The South of Palestine is Subdued - Chapter 10 - (6) The Conquest of the North - Chapter 11 to 12 - (7) The Apportioning of the Land among the Tribes - Chapter 13 to 21 - (8) Joshua Finishes his Course - Chapter 22 to 24 - In summary : Joshua describes the conquest of the Promised Land and the partition of the territory between the tribes and ends with the last discourse of Joshua: here the conquest is shown as the collective action of a united nation. The capture and settlement of the Promised Land.

JUDGES - (1) First and Second Introduction. A Summary account of the Settlement in Canaan and genaral reflections on the Age of the Judges - Chapter to 1 to 3 - (2) The Story of the Judges told in Episodes, the Calling of Gideon, Jephthah and the Lesser Judges, Samson, The Crime at Gibeah and the War against Benjamin - Chapter 3 to 21 - In summary : Judges depicts each of the tribes as fighting to win its own territory. It contains the traditions of the century and a half during which there was no king in Israel and groups of tribes were led in war and ruled in peace by governors. The nation of Israel is rescued by a series of judges or military leaders.

RUTH - The short book is placed with it because its story is set in the same period but it does not form a part of the single conspectus of national history which runs from Joshua to the end of Kings - Chapter 1 to 4 - In summary : A beautiful story of God's love and care.

1 & 2 SAMUEL - (1) The childhood of Samuel - Chapter 1 to 3 - (2) The Ark in Philistine Hands - Chapter 3 to 7 - (3) Samuel and Saul, the Institution of the Monarchy - Chapter 8 to 15 - (4) Saul and David, David at Court and the Flight and among the Philistines - Chapter 16 to 31 - (5) 2 SAMUEL - David learns of Saul's death and David King of Judah and of Israel - Chapter 1 to 8 - (6) David's Family and the Intrigues for the Succession - Chapter 9 to 24 - In summary : 1 & 2 Samuel place side by side, various traditions relating to the beginnings of the monarchical period; the prophet Samuel, through whom God chooses Saul as the first of the kings is represented as the last of the 'judges'. The early history of Israel including the reigns of Saul and David.

1 KINGS - (1) The Davidic Succession - Chapter 1 to 2 - (2) Solomon in all his Glory, the Trader and his Decline - Chapter 3 to 11 - (3) The Political and Religious Schism - Chapter 12 to 13 - (4) The two Kingdoms until Elijah and the Elijah cycle, the great Drought, the Aramaean Wars, Naboth's Vineyard and another War with Aram - Chapter 14 to 22 - (5) 2 KINGS - The Elisha Cycle, the Moabite War, some Miracles of Elisha, the Aramaean Wars and the history of Jehu - Chapter 1 to 10 - (6) From the Reign of Athaliah to the death of Elisha - Chapter 11 to 13 - (7) The two Kingdoms to the Fall of Samaria - Chapter 14 to 17 - (8) The last years of the Kingdom of Judah and the two Wicked Kings - Chapter 18 to 21 - (9) Josiah and the Religious Reform and the Destruction of Jerusalem - Chapter 22 to 25 -

In summary : The two Books of Kings open with the concluding chapters of the history of David's family begun in 2 Samuel chapter 9 and are a continuation of Israel's national story up to the destruction of Jerusalem in 587. A political history of Israel, focusing on the reigns of selected kings from the time of Solomon to the captivity of the Jewish people by Babylon.

                                                                         Page 2

If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.

By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -

Sacred Scripture / Holy Bible refers to the sacred Book or collection of books, accepted by the Christian Church as uniquely inspired by God and thus authoritative. The Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible contains two major sections known as the Old Testament and the New Testament were written over 1,000 years in the Hebrew language except for a few selected passages which were written in Aramaic. The Old Testament tells of the preparation that was made for Christ's coming.

The New Testament was written over 100 years. The original language in which it was written was Greek and tells of the growth of the early Church. His teachings, as a Person and His works.

The first five books, make up a group which was known to the Jews as 'The Law' or 'The Pentateuch' and for many centuries all five of the books were attributed to Moses as the sole or principle author. However, modern study of the text revealed a variety of styles, a lack of sequence and such repetitions and variations in narrative that it is impossible to ascribe the whole group to a single author; four distinct literary 'tradition' can be identified and found side by side in the Pentateuch.

Two of these go back to the time when Israel became a nation - a period dominated by the figure of Moses; the traditions of earlier times converging on him and the memories of what happened under his leadership together made up the national epic. One means of distinguishing between these two separate strands is their use of different names for God: one employs the name Yahweh and is known as Yahwist the other uses Elohim and is known as the Elohist.

The two other identifiable written traditions are later: one known as the Deuteronomic introducing additions and revisions by Levites after the fall of the kingdom of Israel; and one the work of editors after the Exile known as the priestly tradition. The Mosaic religion set its enduring seal on the faith and practice of the nation and the Mosaic law remained its standard; the modifications required by changing conditions over some seven centuries were presented as interpretations of the mind of Moses and invested themselves with his authority.

THE OLD TESTAMENT

GENESIS - The origin of the world and of mankind - (1) The Creation and the Fall - Chapter 1 to 6 - (2) The Flood - Chapter 6 to 9 - (3) From the Flood to Abraham - Chapter 9 to 11 - (4) The story of Abraham - Chapter 12 to 25 - (5) The story of Isaac and Jacob - Chapter 25 to 36 - (6) The story of Joseph - Chapter 31 to 50 - In summary : Genesis sets the history of the ancestors in a background of primordial history. Creation and the establishment of the covenant relationship.

EXODUS - (1) Israel in Egypt and the Liberation from Egypt - Chapter 1 - (2) Early Life and Call of Moses - Chapter 2 to 7 - (3) The Plagues of Egypt - The PASSOVER - Chapter 7 to 13 - (4) The Crossing of the Sea of Reeds - Chapter 13 to 15 - (5) Israel in the Desert - Chapter 15 to 18 - (6) The covenant at Mount Sinai and the Decalogue - Chapter 19 to 20 - (7) The Book of the Covenant - Chapter 20 to 23 - (8) The Covenant ratified - Chapter 24 - (9) Instruction on the Building of the Sanctuary and on its Ministers - Chapter 25 to 31 - (10) Israel's Apostasy, The Covenant Renewed - Chapter 32 to 34 - (11) The Furnishing and Building of the Sanctuary - Chapter 35 to 40 - In Summary : Exodus tells of the deliverance of the people of Israel from Egyptian slavery and the Covenant of Sinai.

LEVITICUS - (1) The Ritual of Sacrifice - Chapter 1 to 7 - (2) The Investiture of the Priests - Chapter 8 to 10 - (3) Rules Concerning the Clean and Unclean - Chapter 11 to 16 - (4) The Law of Holiness - Chapter 17 to 27 - In Summary : Leviticus is taken up almost entirely with legislation for the ritual of Israelite religion. It can be largely attributed to the Priestly tradition. The ceremonial law.

NUMBERS - (1) The Census - Chapter 1 to 4 - (2) Various Laws - Chapter 5 to 6 - (3) Offerings of the Leaders and Consecration of the Levites - Chapter 7 to 8 - (4) The Passover and the Departure - Chapter 9 to 10 - (5) The Halts in the Wilderness - Chapter 11 to 14 - (6) Laws Governing Sacrifices. Powers of Priests and Levites - Chapter 15 to 19 - (7) From Kadesh to Moab - Chapter 20 to 25 - (8) Further Legislation - Chapter 25 to 30 - (9) Booty and its Allocation - Chapter 31 to 36 - In Summary : Numbers resumes the account of the desert journey and the first settlement of Israelite tribes in Transjordania. Wandering of God's people in the wilderness.

DEUTERONOMY - (1) Introductory Discourses. The First and Second Discourse of Moses - Chapter 1 to 11 - (2) The Deuteronomic Code. Religious Observances - Chapter 12 to 18 - (3) On the Law of retaliation. On Marriage, Protecting the Weak, Ritual Prescriptions - Chapter 19 to 26 - (4) Concluding Discourse. End of the Second Discourse - Chapter 26 to 28 - (5) The Third and the Last discourse - Chapter 29 to 30 - (6) The Last Days of Moses - Chapter 31 to 34 -

In Summary : Deuteronomy is a code of civil and religious laws, set in three discourses of Moses. It ends with an account of the death of Moses and the appointment of Joshua as his successor. The second giving of the laws by Moses before the people occupy the Promised Land.

                                                                        Page 1

If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.

By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12:15 -

Punishment refers to payment for crime or sin. Punishment of sin is one of the basic truths of the Old Testament, Mosaic Law spelled out the proper punishments for each crime. The punishments generally took the form of retribution, "an eye for an eye" - Ex. 21:24 - Retribution such as this was only a small part of the ideas of compensation and restitution of value emphasized under the Old Testament law. For example, if one person injured another in a fight he was required to repay the victim for any time lost from his job because of the injury. In case of disfigurement, the person committing the crime might also suffer the same violence as a punishment handed down by the court. - Ex. 21:18-36 -

Since punishment was tied so closely to crime and sin it was only natural that this concept should extend from the temporal world into the spiritual world. God meted out His own punishment to those who broke His moral law, notably against Sodom and Gomorrah and the Hebrew people wandering in the wilderness. - Gen. 19:12-29; Num. 14:26-35 -

In the New Testament the concern with temporal punishment became secondary to Christ's message of redemption. An eternal spiritual punishment falls upon those who refuse to accept God's message. Everlasting punishment is the final judgment of God upon the wicked. The classic example of eternal punishment in the Old Testament is the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. - Gen. 19:12-29 - While speaking about wicked angels who are being held in "everlasting chains" the letter of JUDE in the New Testament likened these wrongdoers to the wicked men of Sodom and Gomorrah who "are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire".

Next let me remind you of the angels who had supreme authority but did not keep it and left their appointed sphere; he has kept them down in the dark, in the spiritual chains, to be judged on the great day. The fornication of Sodom and Gomorrah and the other nearby towns was equally unnatural and it is a warning to us that they are paying for their crimes in eternal fire. - Jude 6-7 -

The apostle Paul wrote about the final judgment. He explains that those who do not know God "shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power".

God will very rightly repay with injury those who are injuring you and reward you who are suffering now, with the same peace as he will give us, when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven with the angels of his power. He will come in flaming fire to impose the penalty on all who do not acknowledge God and refuse to accept the Good News of our Lord Jesus. It will be their punishment to be lost eternally, excluded from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his strength on that day when he comes to be glorified among his saints and seen in his glory by all who believe in him; and you are believers, through our witness. - 2Thes. 1:7-10 -

This same idea was expressed by Jesus in the parable of the sheep and the goats. After separating the two, Jesus blessed the sheep - those who have cared for the unfortunate and poor. Then he pronounced judgment upon the goats - those who did not have compassion: "Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire". - Matt. 25:31-46 -

The essential meaning of the everlasting punishment involves banishment from the presence of God and Christ forever.

Then I saw the beast with all the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to fight the rider and his army. But the beast was taken prisoner, together with the false prophets which had worked miracles on the beast's behalf and by them had deceived all who had been branded with the mark of the beast and worshipped his statue. These two were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulphur. All the rest were killed by the sword of the rider which came out of his mouth and all the birds were gorged with their flesh. - Rev. 19:19-21 -

It is already done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give water from the well of life free to anybody who is thirsty; it is the rightful inheritance of the one who proves victorious; and I will be his God and he a son to me. But the legacy for cowards, for those who break their word or worship obscenities, for murderers and fornicators, and for fortune-tellers, idolaters or any other sort of liars, is the second death in the burning lake of sulphur. - Rev. 21:6-8 -

                                                                        Page 1

If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.

By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -

Satan's last assault was an effort to make religion worldly. The Gospel tells us Satan "led Jesus to Jerusalem and set Him on the parapet of the Temple and said to Him: 'If you're the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, He will give His angels orders concerning you, to protect you; and, On their hands they will carry you lest you strike your foot against a stone'. In answer Jesus said to him; 'It is said: You shall not tempt the Lord your God'". - Luke 4:9-12 -

What a lesson is hidden in that answer for those who would make religion worldly by emptying it of all responsibility and by making God merely a passive spectator of our suicides. The plea to cast Himself down from the pinnacle was not a sign of trust in God but disbelief in God. It was an appeal not to a natural appetite but to a perverted pride which assures that God is indifferent to our actions and disinterested in our decisions.

The answer of Our Lord was a reminder that religion centres about responsible persons and not about falling bodies; that man is endowed with free will and is therefore responsible for each of his actions down even to the least; that the universe in which he lives is moral and therefore one in which we mount by making our dead selves stepping stones to higher things.

That worldly religion which denies responsibility, sin and judgment would reduce us all to mere stones falling from the giddy heights of stony pinnacles; it would make us merely material bodies obeying the law of gravitation which pulls us to the earth instead of spiritual beings which like fire, mount up beyond the stars to the Light of the World. Real religion does not say: "Throw yourself down" but "Lift yourself up"; for we are destined not to be stones of earth but immortal children of God. Heaven and not the world is our final destiny. And so instead of casting Himself down like a cheap and vulgar magician, Our Lord casts Satan down and then goes out to another mountains top to give from its heights the Beatitudes of God which lead to true beatitude with God in the everlasting glory of Heaven.

Thus the so-called new religion proves to be an old religion which Satan would establish on earth. There is no new birth in this new faith but the same old spirit in the same old Adam, full of selfishness, envy and sin. By vanquishing temptation, the Eternal Galilean has trumpeted to all nations and to all time the supreme truth that religion is not primarily social, nor political, nor worldly. Rather its function is to minister 'divine life' to society, 'divine justice' to politics and 'divine forgiveness' to the worldly. The world today is really seeking such a divine religion and is near starvation, as modern sects bring to it only the husks of humanism.

The minds of today are beginning to see that our problems are not primarily economic and political but religious and moral; that society will not and cannot be reformed from without but only from within. It is only by the spirit of Christ and the spirit of prayer that the freedom of man, won by bloodshed and national sacrifice, can be safeguarded and preserved. The shattering of all our material illusions during the World War and during the present economic recession has made the clear-visioned minds of our day see that apostasy from the principles of the Saviour, the abandonment of the spiritual life and the transgression of the commandments of God, have led of necessity to our ruin and confusion worse confounded.

There is hope for us, however - and a glorious hope it is - in the victory of Christ over Satan. By permitting the Prince of Darkness to tempt Him even though it was wholly exterior and did not touch His sinless soul, He proved that He is not insensible to our difficulties, our sorrows and our temptations. We cannot say to Him what Satan said to God about Jacob: "But now put forth Your hand and touch his bone and his flesh and surely You shall see that he will blaspheme You to Your face". - Job 2:5 -

Our Lord does know what it is to be tempted away from divinity and the primacy of the spirit; His bones, His flesh were touched unto scourging and crucifixion and His answer was greater than Job's. Job answered: "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord". - Job 1:21 - But the Saviour answered: "Not MY will but Yours be done". - Luke 22:42 - Our King then is One who knows what it is to have His armour assailed by temptation for, in the language of Saint Paul: "For our High Priest isn't One is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses; He was tempted in every way we are, yet never sinned.

Therefore, let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need". - Heb. 4:15-16 - In Him we will find One who feeds us not on earthly bread which perishes but on the heavenly manna which endures unto life everlasting; in Him we find One who vanquishes Satan who would have us exchange an immortal soul for the perishable cities of the world; in Him we find One who asks us, not Satan-like, to cast ourselves down as stones from temples but to lift ourselves up as souls into Heaven.

He was born to change the world to make its religion unworldly, its worship divine and its food the Eucharist. He lived to teach us that life is a struggle and that only those who persevere unto the end shall be saved. He was tempted in order to remind us that as there was a flash of arch-angelic spears when His Father closed the gates of Heaven on the back of Satan, so shall there be a flash of spears and arrows of Heaven-directed prayer as His Church closes the gates of earth upon him who would make himself like unto God; for Christ, the King, the Saviour, was born, lived, died and rose to drive Satan from earth as His Father had driven him from Heaven.

BY ARCHBISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN ( 1895 - 1979 )

                                                                        Page 5

If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.

By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -

If salvation were only economic relief, if religion were only to give bread to hungry stomachs then dogs would be invited to its banquet, No! Man has a higher principle than that of a beasts and a higher life than that of the body. We come into the world not just to sit and rest, to work and play, to eat and drink. Hence, that religion which would make the securing of bread its chief object in life and would seek no divine food will starve with hunger in the midst of plenty. There must come dark hours when God must be trusted even in hunger. There must even come moments in starvation when bread must be refused if it means the sacrificing of a principle that endangers the soul.

It is no justification to say we must live because bodily life in itself is not necessarily the best thing for us. It is better for us not to live if we cannot live without sin. For it is never right for us to starve our spiritual nature to get bread for our bodies. Sometimes the best thing that we can do with our life is to lose it; and the best thing we can do with our body is not to fear those who would kill it but rather to fear those who would cast our soul into hell. Religion need not neglect sociology; the priest at the communion rail need not forget the bread lines; the minister in the sanctuary need not forget the playgrounds. The earthly, the human and the social, are part of religion but not the primary part as Satan would have us believe. Rather, in searching for higher things, do we find the lower; "First seek the Kingdom and the will of God and all those things will be given to you besides". - Matt. 6:33 -

Satan next tempted Our Lord to make religion political by exchanging the Kingdom of God for the kingdoms of earth[world]. "Then [the Devil]... showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in an instant of time. And he said to Him: "I can give you all this power and glory because it has been given to me and to whomever I want to give them. So, if you'll worship me, it will all be yours". And in the answer Jesus said to him: "it is written: The Lord your God shall you worship and Him alone shall you adore". Luke 4:5-8 - By this answer Our Lord declared to all future ages that religion is not politics, that patriotism is not the highest virtue, that nationalism is not the highest worship, that the State is not the highest good. Devotion to the State there must be; loyalties to the kingdoms of earth there must be; tribute to Caesar there must be.

Man is social and living in society he must govern and be governed; he must be patriot not only by supporting the just policies of those who rule but even to the extent of laying down his life in just warfare for the common good. These things are self-evident. But Satan would have Christ adore the kingdoms of earth, convert the pulpit into a platform and the Gospel into a national anthem. Our Lord would have us know that earthly kingdoms are but scaffolding to the Kingdom of Heaven, that patriotism towards country is but the nursery to the adoration of God and that it profits us nothing if we gain the whole world and lose our immortal soul.

Politics and religion are related something like the body and the soul. Both have their rights and their duties but one is superior to the other. The primary concern of religion is not the rehabilitation of the kingdoms of the earth or the support of economic policies, for Our Lord came not to restore the politics of the world but to make a new Kingdom which needs neither armies nor navies, soldiers nor monies, slaves nor judges but only renewed and living souls.

He did not say religion must not be concerned with social injustice or indifference to political graft. Our Lord loved His own country so deeply and warmly that, as the first Christian patriot, He wept over it. "But He also loved the Kingdom of Heavens so much more that He was willing to be put to death by the very country that He loved". While time endures, Satan will always tempt religion to be wholly political but until the end of time the due order must be preserved: "Render, therefore, to Caesar, the things that are Caesar's; and to God, the things that are God's". - Matt. 22:21 -

                                                                         Page 4

If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.

By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -

Go back to the picture of Our Blessed Lord as He stood in the untenanted wilderness which stretches southward from Jericho to the Dead Sea. There His forerunner John with bronzed countenance, unshorn locks, leather girdle and mantle of camel's hair whose drink was the water of the river and whose food was locust and wild honey, saw the heavens open and the Spirit of God descend in dove-like radiance over his Master's Head, as there rang out over the Jordan river a voice which to unpurged ears was like thunder: "You are my Son, in you I am well pleased". - Luke 3:22 -

With the waters still dripping from His head, Our Lord went out into the solitude to put a desert between Himself and humanity. For forty years the Jewish people wandered in the desert before entering into the kingdom promised by God. For forty days Moses remained close to God to receive His law on tablets of stone. Now, before announcing His Kingdom, to which Moses and the chosen people had pointed, Our Blessed Saviour retires for forty days into the lonely mountains where no human face to be seen and where no human voice was to be heard.

After forty days of fasting, He was tempted by Satan. Tempted He could be, for He had taken the armour of human flesh, not for idleness but for battle. Oh! Do not mock the Gospels and say there is no Satan. Evil is too real in the world to say that. Do not say the idea of Satan is dead and gone. Satan never gains so many cohorts, as when, in his shrewdness, he spreads the rumour that he is long since dead. Do not reject the Gospel because it says the Saviour was tempted. Satan always tempt the pure - the others are already his. Satan stations more devils on monastery walls than in dens of iniquity, for the latter offer no resistance. Do not say it was absurd that Satan should appear to Our Lord, for Satan must always come close to the godly and the strong - the others succumb from a distance.

But in what did Satan tempt Christ? Here is the remarkable side of that temptation and one which has such a bearing on our own day. Satan tempted Our Blessed Lord to preach another religion than that which He was about to preach. Our Lord was about to preach a divine religion. Satan tempted Him to preach a religion that was not divine but a religion which the modern world calls 'New!' In a word the three temptations of Satan against Christ are the three temptations of the world against the Church today, namely, to make religion: social, political and worldly.

Satan first tempted Our Lord to make religion social: to make it centre about the materialistic of life such as bread for starving bodies like His own. Pointing from the top of the mountain to the stones whose shapes resembled little loaves of bread, he said: "Tell these stones to become loaves of bread". - Matt. 4:3 - It was Satan's challenge to God to make religion centre around the materialistic of life. But the answer of Our Blessed Lord was immediate: "Not by bread alone shall man live but by every utterance proceeding from the mouth of God". - Matt. 4:4 -

By that response, Our Lord declared that religion is not social, in the sense that its primary function is to give food to the body but rather divine, in the sense that it must give food to the soul. Men must have bread! There is no disputing on that point. Our Lord taught us to ask the Father to "give us this daily bread"; He even went so far when men were in dire need of it in the desert places, to multiply bread even to excess. But beyond that He told the thousands at Capernaum, He would not go. "You seek me... because you ate of the loaves and were satisfied. Labour not for food that perishes but for food that remains for life eternal". - John 6:26-27 - Religion is not purely social.

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Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -