End Of The Spear

On Saturday, I when to Victor’s place to watch a movie on DVD with my other discipleship group members. The movie is a christian film named End of The Spear. “It is based on a true story of a group of Christian missionaries in Ecuador who set out to reach the Wadani tribe (a violent Ecuadorian tribe defined by revenge killing). When the 5 men from this group are speared to death by Mincayani and others in the tribe, the wives and children of those men move into the Wadani tribe to teach them about God.” I took this from some plot summary. Although personally for me, movies are more of a sort of entertainment, certain thoughts couldn’t help up flash in my mind after this movie. As it was based on a true story, I tend to perceive the drama and action as very realistic and true-to-life, especially the part when the missionaries got speared to death by the Wadani people. Not so much because they were speared to death, but more so, they did not retaliate or could not retaliate. When the son of missionary, Nate, asked him if he would fire his guns if the Wadani people attacked, shaking his head he replied in this manner, “They are not ready for heaven yet.” He had an eternal purpose in mind, that if he killed any of those Wadani people, they would end up eternally in hell. Hence, he had made up his mind to lose his life rather than retaliate from any attacks. Eventually, that was what happened to him and the others. They lost their lives refusing to fire their weapons at the attackers. This could paint 2 different pictures in people’s mind. In the world, this would be foolishness or extreme weakness. They all had guns. All they needed to do was to fire shots and they would have lived. But all they did was fire the guns into the air and took the spearing from the Wadanis. This is the first picture: Foolishness and Weakness. But if these men were foolish, wouldn’t Jesus Christ be the most foolish of all? He gave his life up to his enemies without retaliation, like a lamb that was going to be slained. Moreover, he wasn’t just man, he was God. Would that make God foolish? I recall a bible verse in 1 Corinthians 1:21: “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.” As christians we ought to be “foolish” or being christians, we are already “foolish”, having believed a “foolish” message in the first place. But God is well-pleased in this “foolishness” that we can be sure of. For this “foolishness”,that the world reckons, isn’t true foolishness. On the contrary, it is the wisdom of God. For the passage continues in 1 Corinthians 1:25, 27 “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” “But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong.” This men who gave their lives for the Wadani people had the foolishness and weakness of God. They did things that this world regarded as the foolish and weak, not retaliating to an attack, even to the point of our death. But in doing so, the wise and strong in the world is shamed. I was asking myself, would I have the courage to do what they did. No, I won’t. To do what they could do needed true strength. This is second and true picture painted: Wisdom and Strength. They walked the path that Jesus walked, giving up their lives as sacrifices for the sake of the lost. The true story ended, bearing much fruit, just as Jesus’s death did. The wives and children of those men move into the Wadani tribe and lived amongst them. By Wadani tradition, the children would avenge the father by killing the murderers. But instead, the family of the missionaries cared for them, providing medical support and logistics, even through a tough period of a polio outbreak in the Wadani tribe. That surprised the killers and convinced them thoroughly of God. It was love, grace and mercy that brought the Wadani tribe into faith in Jesus Christ, because evil was returned with good. What a explicit example of the passage in Matthew 5:39 that says: “Do not resist him who is evil; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also.” The missionaries and their families did just that. I imagined myself in the same situation as them. I wouldn’t have possibly done the same thing as they did. They lived as Jesus had lived and died as Jesus had died. Theirs was the sign of true discipleship, following in the footsteps of the master. What a great reminder this is about the calling of God to follow him!

“Am I borned again?”

Last week, as I was reading my bible on the train, going to somewhere, a middle-aged woman approached me and asked me whether I was a christian. I said, “Yes!” and she asked me further which church I came from and introduced me to some websites to go to.

Finally, as she was about to end the conversation, she asked me one final question, “You are not borned again, right?” Astonished by how she abruptly asked me , I replied. “Yes, I am.” She asked me how I know I am borned again. I said, “From the word of God, I know.”

She then asked me whether I prayed and worshiped in tongues. I said I did not. Then she concluded quite hastily, “No, then you are not borned again. If you do not pray and worship in tongues, you are not borned again. Let me show you!”

She pointed to my bible and told me to turn to 1 Corinthians 12 and told me to read. But she didn’t direct me to any specific verses. Incidentally, I was already reading 2 Corinthians so I could flip to the chapter relatively fast.

While I was looking for a specific verse that she would be talking about, she told me quickly. “You got to pray a prayer like this. Ask God to give you the gift of speaking in tongues. Hallelujah! Amen! After that, then, you are borned again.”

After which, she smiled at me and walked away before I could answer anything. I returned her a smile as she went away.

On the train, after that encounter, I thought to myself, having a little bit of mixed feelings.

Firstly, I knew surely that what she has said was not biblical at all. There is no where in 1 Corinthians 12 that says that to speak in tongues is to be borned again. In fact, I found a verse in 1 Corinthians 12: 28-30 that plainly states:

“And God has appointed in the church, first apostiles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues. All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they? All do not have fits of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret,do they?”

All do not speak in tongues, do they? God has given different gifts to different men in the church. Not necessarily does it need to be the gift of speaking in tongues. The gift of tongues is but one of the many gifts. By assuming she is correct, inferring from what she had said, the gift of tongues would be the most important gift because she says that it is the gift that determines whether the individual is borned again. That means that the rest of the church with the other gifts are not borned again.

However, this so readily contradicts 1 Corinthians 12:28 that ‘God has appointed in the church, first apostiles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.’  From this we see the order of the gifts, etc prophecy is a superior gift to teaching and teaching is a superior gift to tongues. So, very clearly and certainly, tongue speaking being the most important gift would not stand.

Ironically, the section that she refers me to for backing her claim has convinced me so easily otherwise.

Recently, listening to a series of sermons by Dr Lewis Johnson on the parables of Matthew 13, I am increasingly convinced of the truths brought out in the light of the parables. I would like to share one portion of it here.

In the parable of the Tares and the Wheats, it reads from Matthew 13: 24-28a:

” He presented another parable to them, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in this field. But while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares also among the wheat, and went away. But when the wheat sprang up and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. And the slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ And he said to them, ‘ An enemy has done this!’ “

The explanation of this is given by Jesus to his disciples in Matthew 13: 37-39a:

“And He answered and said, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one; and the enemy who sowed them is the devil,”

This parable according to Dr Lewis Johnson says something quite really of the age we are living in today. The tares, many false doctrines, are being sown by false prophets from Satan among the wheat. This means that simulanteously as God is revealing his word to men, the sowing of the wheat, Satan is also sowing his own seed, corrupting the true word of God.

It is so easy to be deceived by the ‘word of God’. There is a great deal of false doctrines and heresies prevalent in the world today that we are unaware of and may possibly agree with. They are so similar to the true word such as the one that I encountered that it is hardly possible to tell that it is counterfeit. The woman used christian terms like ‘born again’ and quoted the bible. But it is truly not from God.

It is important to base everything on the Word of God, the foundation of our faith. We need to read for ourselves the bible diligently in its context and ask for the ministry of the holy spirit, lest we be deceived by false teachers. Only through God’s enabling can we be able to tell the genuine from the counterfeit.

Lessons from my Workplace: God is All and in All

I thank God that my time serving my national service is coming to an end really soon. I’m now in midst of clearing my offs and leaves. What a good period of time it is that God has given me to reflect on his goodness towards me and lessons he has taught me for the past 1 year and 9 months!The past 1 year and 9 months serving my national service wasn’t exactly smooth sailing. In fact, I would rather describe it as a roller-coaster ride. I have been posted to 4 different units in total. In each unit, encountering various forms of trials and learning quite a few life lessons, I have been given an opportunity to draw closer to him and grow in different aspects of my faith.

Firstly, I was posted to be a commando. After which, I was posted to medic school to be trained as a medic. Then, I was posted to be a medic in an armour unit. Finally, I arrived at my current workplace in the medical centre of another unit. My postings couldn’t possibly come by chance! How few servicemen had a chance to be in 4 different units to experience 4 different aspects of army life like me!  Yet in each unit, I learnt things of varying character. I am so convinced from this that God has been in control of my life and bringing me through his purposes for my life. I thank God for his sovereignity in my postings.

In my first unit, training to be a commando, God had kept me safe from harm and major injuries. Being an injury-proned person, I’m amazed how I did not break any bones nor suffer from any exhaustion through all the physically and mentally challenging exercises. The training there pushed me nearly to my physical limits. I have broke few of my personal records there by not sleeping for my record number of hours and walking my record distance. Yet, I was kept safe amidst all these. I knew it wasn’t me alone who went through all these things.  I am someone who is weak mentally and I do give up easily when things are tough. God was carrying me through by his own hand.

In medic school, I had to face my greatest childhood fear: Needles. Since young, I have been traumatised by needles. I would be so afraid that would not be able to sleep well the night before knowing there would be vaccinations in school the next day. A section of the training in school was to practice Intravenous Infusion(IV) on each other’s arms. To make things worse, I was told that we would be using the needles that were the size of “Vitagen” or “Yakult” straws. Throughout the first few weeks of the course, I couldn’t sleep well the night before the IV practice. The practices were so torturing for me that I repeatedly fell ill. Miraculously, I overcame needles at the end of the medic course. God was in this too! He took all my fears away.

I am reminded by this verse:

Psalms 8:4: “What is man, that Thou dost take thought of him? And the son of man, that Thou dost care for him?”

Looking back at God’s goodness in my life, especially in these past 2 years, I am reminded again that I have a loving heavenly Father who is interested even in my life. He cares for me and is constantly watching over me, keeping me from harm’s way. I am but a man, but he, the creator of heaven and earth, does take thought of me.

Thank you Lord!