HEAVENLY THINKING

I was on my way for a job interview when the Lord brought my thoughts into a forgotten stream of truth. "You're just passing through", He whispered as I was taking the subway train in my formal wear, ready to meet my possible employer.

I thanked the heavens for His great revelation. How marvelous are His words! This world is not my home! I'm just passing through. I am a pilgrim of this world so why should I be overly concerned with such worldly things. Why should I live as if I truly belong here when I am not? Shouldn't I prepare my heart for eternity? Shouldn't I pursue the eternal and godly things as Jesus has instructed?

It all came to me. A few decades more or maybe even tomorrow, I'll be leaving this perishing world. Each day could be my last so why should I live storing riches here? Even if I am successful in my endeavors, death would physically eat my body. So why not live each day as if it were my last? Why not live each day, savoring every moment, good or bad, joyfully with the Lord? Anytime could be my last and my victory is secured so why still cower in fear of the unknown? Why not radically sprint in this life I was born to? Shouldn't I walk as if I will never walk again? Shouldn't I preach as if I will never preach again? When the Lord comes, there will be no more preaching or evangelism. There will be no more standing up for the truth. There will be no more persecution or trouble. There will be no more tears for revival. There will be no more weeping in prayer. There will be no more time to run and hide. Its judgment day. The sea and land would give up the dead. The books of life would be opened and those names that were written, those who belong to the Lord, will live forever with Him, adoring His unfailing magnificence.

The Lord of lords that leadeth a host of fiery angels is soon to come. Soon everything will be over. In this life, I have become a stranger. The moment I was given the mark of the Lamb, I have become a pilgrim. Yes, my flesh still exists and craves the world. But the Spirit will soon complete its work in my heart and so I have great confidence that I would be "fleshless" before the throne of the Almighty on that day.

"What would He be like?" I wondered. My thoughts were far gone. I was still on the subway train marveling at the greatness of the Gospel. We are not just forgiven! We were purchased by His sacrifice! We're free from the power of darkness! We are His now! Not only are we forever cleansed but we can finally enter the enter the Holy of holies and worship Him in Spirit and truth! We have an unspeakable future with the great Creator of life! We, who deserved to die, have a hope to look forward to!? We, His elect, have been given a new life and a new nature. How did it come to these? My heart was leaping with joy! Oh, Lord, how I thank Thee and Thy Cross! What would I do without Thee? The depths of His mercy are truly unfathomable. One thing is for sure: all these are for the glory of His Name.

As I stepped out of the train, wild and free in pondering, it dawned on me. I'll enjoy every remaining time here on earth with the Lord as I wait for His return. With this in mind, I walked out of the subway into the bus stop, more than ready to face another beautiful day.

I Am Nothing

When the Scripture reveals my true nature and my experience proves such disposition, I am at ease. My flesh screams for room before the throne of God but the Spirit, Who is always strong, declares the sovereign holiness of the Almighty.

Truly there is nothing left for man. Not a hand to raise or a head to bow... absolutely nothing. The pain of not being of true use and not being of significance is a pain that shatters the carnal wickedness that dwells in me. Now I truly understand, "In me dwells no good thing", and allow me to add that in the Lord dwells everything of purity. No blemish. No flaw. Perfect in every aspect, corner and surface.

This Lord that the Bible boasts about is not a Lord who works by synergy or transaction. He sovereignly does as He pleases. He breaks and reforms, crushes and restores, hardens and saves and the endless list goes on throughout the pages of eternity.

A true believer would shout at the top of his lungs: "Woe is to me! Undone am I! Yet my Lord is mighty and there is none like Him." And he would close with the words: "Nothing else do I bring, only to the Cross I cling." In his heart he joyfully wonders: "I am unclean to the bone and condemned.. but how did He ever come to love me, save me and even adopt me? I cannot tell. Surely by His sovereign choice He saved me, so that His power may be known and that His merit alone may be recognized, not the works of man."

This dark torment of helpless, hopeless and insignificant void is my Lord's pleasure for such turbulent river of hurt breaks the son of the serpent from the curse of pride and self-esteem. How I praise the God of creation that His Spirit works in such a way that I would submit to His will in pain, for it is against the depths of my rotting filth, but pleasure, for it agrees with the new nature which is another amazing gift from Christ.

If the Lord's angel would speak His thundering voice, it would start with an "I" and end with an "I". He is God, I am not. He is holy, I am not. He is everything that is not of me. I am simply the opposite of His being, if not for His tremendous power of salvific grace.

In the end, I am but an insignificant ant under the shade of the mighty oaks. I am well and blessed beyond words! Now I understand what Paul truly meant when he said "When I am weak, I am strong." It is not just because in our weakness is the strength of God found. Neither is it also just about being humble and submissive to the churning forces of His throne. Thirdly, it is not just about losing your energy that you may take up the strong armor of the Lord. So what is it about?

Its about: I am nothing but God is everything. And since I am His, I too share in what He has; not in terms of control but in terms of enclosure. As a sandwich gets trapped in a sandwich bag until it is eaten by its Maker so does a sinner gets trapped in grace until it is consumed by the Holy Fire of God. So then, I am weak, oh yes trapped in sin, but was saved by grace, oh! what marvelous, incomprehensible act? And now strong not by merit or achievement but by the power of Christ's deliverance alone.

I am truly nothing. What great torment! And yet it is also my greatest comfort because my Lord is everything! I may painfully be an empty shell but look! I can and shall be filled! And despite such loss, the glory and responsibility is of God, not of man. I am free from everything and at peace with Him by Him, through Him, in Him and for Him. So though the pain comes, the peace drawn from such is eternally rewarding. It is all about God.

GROWING IN ACCORDANCE TO THE SPIRIT'S PACE

One of the things that I've learned when it comes to spiritual growth is to be patient with the will of the Father. Too many times have I rushed and have done things to perpetuate my growth. I couldn't wait for the hand of God and I wanted to grow in faith badly. What were the results? Confusion, loss and bitterness.

It is true that a Christian must grow in the likeness of Christ but the only determinant of our growth pace is the Holy Spirit, the resident of the regenerate heart. He works inwardly through our daily experiences or the truths of Scripture.

Ah, I am so far from what God wants me to be. And I feel that I am just wasting my life. How in need am I of ever increasing godliness desperately. But lo, God has promised to clothe His Church and prepare her for the coming wedding. So I wait in the will of God, striving in vain to the things that matter and never giving up on the crown set before the narrow path.

Regenerate Or Degenerate?

“What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such a faith save Him?” -- James 2:14

This New Testament passage has become a cliché because of its repeated use. The common interpretation for this verse is that genuine faith will always lead to good works. But there is more to this passage than we can ever think of. It pertains to the Holy Spirit’s work of regeneration.

When a person gets saved by grace through faith upon hearing the Gospel, he is forgiven of his trespasses by God. In addition, God, by His Holy Spirit, regenerates the man in lieu of His new covenant (Heb 10:15-18). Regeneration is synonymous to sanctification and it is the theological term used to define the supernatural transformation brought about by the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer. This inward transformation brings about outward manifestations such as repentance, hatred for sin, separation from the world, passion for God, obedience, conformity to the Scriptures, devotion, perseverance and so on. Regeneration is a process of change and it explains the journey of a former sinner into a blameless saint.

Man is granted a new nature the moment he repents, accepts his hopeless case before the living God and believes in Christ, the one True Lord and Savior. This new God-given nature is completely different from the old and sinful one. It is because of such Spirit-driven nature that man is said to be “born again” or “born of the Spirit” (John 3). The Holy Spirit’s work testifies on behalf of the convert. A new believer begins to change and see the world in a different way. He starts to hate the sin he once craved and pursue the things of God with a fiery passion. He seeks God desperately and his lifestyle is that of godliness in conformity with the truth that is in Christ Jesus. He does all these by the continual work of the Spirit.

Click on the chart to enlarge. Although the chart looks like a cycle, regeneration is not a cycle. It is a one-way finished work. The only way the chart points back to a pure heart is because mankind used to have a pure heart (before the fall of Adam and Even) and also because the end of regeneration is a pure heart (our pre-fall state). Follow the chart by its numbering and observe its stage. It is the simplified work of God bringing sinful man back to His image and likeness.

Make no mistake, a regenerate Christian is not perfect. In fact, a practical indication of regeneration is continual battle with sin. However, in the believer's struggle, there is an overcoming of sin. In other words, a regenerate believer can still sin but he cannot remain in sin.

If the work of regeneration is not a reality in a person's life, then that person isn’t really saved from the wrath of God that is to come. Salvation is not a flu-shot. It is not a one-time act where you repent and believe. The evidence that you repented and believed when you heard the Gospel is that you are still repenting and believing until this very day. The bottom line of James 2:14-26 is that it is impossible to be saved and yet live like the rest of the world. He is not suggesting that faith is not enough to save you. We are saved by faith alone by the grace of God (Ephesians 2:8-9). However, genuine faith will always bring good fruits. A faith that brings no fruits is unreal.

Regeneration takes place to those who have been saved so that the fullness of God’s glory might be revealed as he plucks out our stubbornly wicked hearts and gives us new, sin-hating and God-loving hearts. We can placidly hold on to this truth for God is faithful and He will finish the work that He began in us (1 Corinthians 1:8-9). The completion of God's regenerative work will be on the day that we stand before the throne of God in heaven.

To have a new relationship with God also means to have a new relationship with sin. As Paul Washer, American Pastor and founder/director of Heart Cry Missions, always asks:

"Has God done such a work in your life that the sin you once loved, you now hate? And the God that you once rebelled against, you now love?"

For those who say yes, I urge you to continually seek the Truth and conform yourselves to it. For those who say no or are not sure of what to say, its time for you to get saved and make regeneration a flourishing certainty in your lives.

One does not pour new wine into old wineskins. Old wineskins must be made new first because they will burst when they come in contact with new wine. It’s the same thing for our hearts. We have to be saved and changed by grace through faith before we can truly belong to God. If no transformation has occurred in our lives, we still do not have the wine of salvation. To be unregenerate means we are still drunk with the inequities of the world.

In closing, salvation and regeneration come hand in hand, there’s no separating the two. It is impossible to be saved and not be inwardly changed. To belong to God means to live a transformed life in accordance to His Word. Let us be divorced with the world and be married with Christ.

Gospel For Asia

Gospel for Asia is an international mission ministry that was introduced to our Church on our Missions month last April 2008. I was truly touched in how God saved and called hundreds of native missionaries to preach the Gospel among the unreached. Their lives and testimonies are truly heart-breaking. Their God-given zeal and the way they preach the Gospel has been what we've been lacking at this present age.

Our speaker at that time was Rev. Martin Lamb and he showed us a powerful video of a certain native missionary who struggled alone for years preaching the Gospel in the hopes that God would save his village. He was tortured with no outside help. He had no food or possessions except for his Bible. Just like the apostles, he survived with his Bible and faith in God. He always prayed in his small, empty room and he spent his entire day preaching and ministering to the people. The villagers cursed him and did not take heed to God's Word. Eventually, it was the kids who got attracted to his ministry. The villagers saw the changes in their children and they began rediscovering the Gospel with him.

I didn't see a native guy working for God in the video. I saw a prophet of God fasting, praying and preaching the Gospel with all his heart for the glory of his Maker. His life reminded me of the lives of the Old testament prophets and the late and well-hated puritans. I'll try to get a hold of this video. The guy in this video represents many of the other native missionaries who are currently preaching the Gospel to their fellowmen.

There is also a book introduced by Gospel for Asia that I haven't finished yet, but I strongly recommend it: Revolution in World Missions by K.P. Yohannan. It is a very powerful and life-changing book. It is so true, convicting and so filled with love. Praise God!

GET A FREE COPY OF THIS BOOK by mailing your name, address and email to:

Gospel for Asia
245 King street E
Stoney Creek, Ontario L8G 9Z9

They'll send it to you in two weeks. Gospel For Asia is a really great ministry and my mother is currently supporting one native missionary. I'm planning to support one too. I also have an extra copy if you want. You can just email me your receiving address at mike.borja@yahoo.ca and I'll mail it to you for free. You can also visit their site at www.gfa.org.

The author of the book, K.P. Yohannan, is a native missionary leading the Gospel for Asia. He isn't the same one I mentioned in the video above. Below are the links to some of his videos I found in YouTube. I started weeping at his first statements. Even before listening to his message, I knew what he exactly meant. How we truly need revival especially here in North America!

K.P. Yohannan Video sermon part 1 -- click here to view
K.P. Yohannan Video sermon part 2 -- click here to view

I praise the Lord for His great mercy and awesome grace. He is calling people and starting an underground revival. Oh Praise God! His love is everlasting! Enjoy and be blessed!