Judges 20 - 1 Samuel 4

These readings were very wide and covered many things

The end of Judges really was quite gory again. The children of Benjamin were punished for what happened to the levite's concubine. A mass internal war, civil war to be exact took place between the tribes of Israel together against the Benjamites; in which the Israelites won at the end, after an impressive battle though from the Benjamites; 25,000'ish against like 400,000 and was totally able to win 2 out of the 3 battles. God does not totally wipe out the Benjamites, sparing them from utter destruction. and their fellow brethren also were sympathetic to them at the end by providing wives for the remnants. The method for choosing your wife though for pretty weird. Step 1: hide behind a bush. Step 2: wait for the girl dances to come out to dance in the festival. Step 3: kidnap the girl of your choice and take her as your wife. Imagine if this custom remained today hehe

The story of Ruth was very good as always. Reading it from the perspective of viewing God as OUR kinsmen redeemer was refreshing. He does not leave His children inheritance'less and does not despise the poor, the afflicted, the despised.. And the devotion of Ruth to her mother-in-law Naomi was impressive. Thought me the importance of devotion to family and to God.

The beginnings of 1st Samuel start of with the pleadings and sorrow of a woman named Hannah, who interceded and pleaded God for a child, of which she would devote the child to God for His service. Here we learn some principles of intercession and intense prayer, and that it is ok to pray in your heart, God still hears :) Samuel is birth and here is the beginning of hope for Israel. this young lad could hear the voice of God, who was rare at those days - there was no widespread revelation and the voice of the Lord was scarce (kind of reminds me of modern days). Samuel's presence would be seen more significantly in the readings to come, for now: Israel's ark is captured; the glory has departed from them and Israel is currently leader'less

Judges 10-19

Today ended with a super disturbing reading

I mean the accounts on jephthah were super cool. and samson rocks as always. and I found account of Micah's idolatry quite funny, though i didn't learn anything from that. BUT the account of the levite's concubine was just disturbing. to be honest i was quite disgusted. why does the bible have to show such graphic accounts. sigh

i'm really 'wow-ed' by the bible's realistic, down to earth, normal and sometimes messed up 'human' people who did great things for God. jephthah was this random 'despised' dude who was banished from his homeland, banded together with some raiders and plundered; yet he was used by God to deliver Israel. Samson was far from ideal, marrying an enemy of his people, killing mass amounts of people, sleeping with harlots and easily enticed; yet was still used by God to judge His enemies. It was noted that 'it was God's plan for him to marry his enemy', to fulfill His plan, hmm...

God works in ways we can never perceive. You'll never know who He's gonna use. Most often that not He chooses to surprise us. I guess the key is just to be open, and ready; if we can ever can be :)

Joshua 24 - Judges 9

More biblical military strategies

Strategy no.4:-

You gotta be left-handed. Create for yourself a mini-dagger and hide it under your clothes. Present a tribute to the king of your choice. Tell him you've got a 'secret message' and get everyone to leave the room. Thrust your dagger (and the rest of the details you can read yourself, the bible's quite graphic, VERY GRAPHIC!). Once you've got their leader, bring in the rest of your men into the war and win :)

Strategy no.5:-

Bring in a girl with you :) (seriously, check out the war Barak fought ;)

Also let another girl offer accommodation to the enemy's leader, offer him milk and blanket. When he is asleep, bring in a tent peg and hammer.... (sorry! i was grossed out as well!)

Strategy no.6:-

First find out if God's really on your side by offering him some food and see if He'll set it on fire. If that's not enough get a fleece and ask God to make the fleece wet while the ground is dry in the morning. If that is STILL not enough ask God to reverse the order, make the fleece dry while the ground is wet in the morning. Once you've made sure He's on your side start by getting your troops. Make sure ALL the wimps are NOT on your team. (note about 22,000 men will leave you, leaving you with only 10,000 real men). After that send your 10,000 men to drink water. Those who drink (laps) like a dog separate them from those who drink (laps) from their hands. (note that this will leave you with 300 real and alert men).

Now. With your 300 real and alert men (this sounds like the movie 300! lol), arm them with pitches and torches on one hand, and a horn on the other. Break into 3 divisions and sneak up on your enemy surrounding them at night. At your signal, command your army to break their pitches and blow their horns! This should cause utter confusion in the enemy's camp and they'll end up killing each other. Finish up the remnants :)

The key to winning with this strategies still remain the same: follow His directives. Not by might, not by power, but by His spirit. And also to note, finish up your spiritual enemies, cause if you don't they'll continually be a pain. Sometimes God 'allows' these enemies to still hang around, to test us. to keep us humble and dependent on Him. Interesting eh?

Joshua 14-23

The most interesting part for this reading to me was the gung-ho'ness of Caleb. Here is a man about 80 years of age, saying to Joshua, 'Give me my inheritance! I am strong now as I was then (40 years ago), I can still travel and fight as well as I could then!' - in his words - 'just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war!' full-on yo! It's a reminder to me to keep on persevering, keep on pushing on, as long as His promises lies ahead of me I shall carry through! Never give up! Never turn back! Never lose hope!

I don't know about you but sometimes I get the feeling like you can't wait for things to end, in terms of going through a semester, facing an assignment, an exam, a task ahead, a ministry, a job, etc. Sometimes the feeling is like, 'Oh gosh I can't wait for it all to end! for me to graduate! for me to step down! for this !@# assignment/exam to finish etc.' Caleb was not like that, he could have easily went, 'I am old, let my children inherit my portion of land, let me have my peace and enjoy the remaining of my life' Noooo.. he's taking it himself! he's going to fulfill God's call for his life! he's going to fight for his inheritance promised to him. and he's not going to let age turn him down.

I need that kind of spirit. I need to persevere. I need to struggle with Him and win. Come on Japh!!

Joshua 4-13

Biblical Military Strategies and Conquests! woohoo!

Strategy no.1:-

Get some priests to carry an ark; command your army to march before them around your city of choice in silence once a day for seven days. The only sound you can make is the sound from rams horns, to be blown by seven priests. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, blow the trumpets and SHOUT like anything, the walls will pretty much crumble down and you can then take your city ;)

Strategy no.2:-

You may THINK you can take a small city with 3,000 men but that's not gonna work if you've got some hanky panky going around in your camp. Firstly you gotta 'cleanse' your camp from any internal sin. Now, take 30,000 warriors with you (to conquer a city of with total population of about 12,000); plant about 5,000 of them in ambush behind the city. In the morning, take your troups, run at the city and fake a retreat. When they come out against you with all their men, command your 'ambush team' to run into the city and set in on fire, then turn around and fight them, they should be caught in the middle as your 'ambush team' can come out of the city and trap them. finish them off ;)

Strategy no.3:-

Command the sun and moon to stand still :) this would give your troups plenty of time to finish your enemy off :)

The key to winning with these strategies: Trust in God and follow His directives :)

Deuteronomy 28 - Joshua 3

The Torah (the first 5 books of the bible), also known as the law books has just finished. We're now entering into the history books (yeah!) And there were quite some amazing discoveries going through the journey of the torah. Here is where is learn how God loves His people, stands for them, fights their battles, tells them of His laws and corrects them for disobedience. Here is a journey of a people who journeyed out of bondage and slavery into the wilderness and finally into the promise land.

What caught my attention was that throughout their journey in the wilderness their clothes never worn out and their sandals never broke. How cool is that?! No need to go shopping to buy new clothes and shoes! They were also fed miraculously with manna and the occasional quail and water from rocks and their journeys were guided by pillars of cloud and fire. God fights for them in wars and even through all their complainings and disobedience God forgives them in His grace and spares them from utter destruction thanks to Moses' intercession and prayers (He still punishes them of course). God shows His realness and majesty and glory throughout Israel's journey.

Also to note was the blessings and cursings outlined clearly in Deut 28 (which we should take head). "Chose this day life or death, blessings or cursing". is quite the theme of deuteronomy. It's a choice, whether to obey Him or not, life is all about choices. the question for ourselves, are we making the right choices? :)

Moses has now passed on; appointing Joshua as the new leader. His call? To be strong and courages! Bring on the history books!

Deuteronomy 18-27

There are so many laws in this reading that some of them had to be categorized as 'Miscellaneous' laws, in my bible at least ;) seriously! in other words, RANDOM laws! hehe. For example: don't wear clothes that mixes both wool and linen (uhh?). Or 'don't plow with an ox and a donkey together (ok..)

But there were some great laws too, like 'don't break your vows' and my personal favorite law of this chapter, 'when a man has taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war or to be charged with any business, he shall be free at home one year, and bring happiness to his wife whom he has taken',and all the men say, woohoo!

Now here's my point. With SOO many laws in the old testament to adhere to, it was impossible to follow all of them. The law is NOT bad, but it is also extremely hard to keep to and is legalistic. Back then, the punishment for breaking laws were mostly death. No wonder Christ had to come and fulfill the law; he didn't come to abolish it but to fulfill it and give us grace and a new way of approaching the law. It is now the 'issue of the heart' more than external doings. It is because of Him that we can be 'free' of many of these legalistic laws and enter into His new covenant; no more of 'breaking laws = sacrificing animals as an IOU for what i've done' but of confessing our sins and asking His forgiveness', because He has paid the price for our sins.

Thank God for what He has done. I can't imagine having to live in those days; may have to view many rebellious sons being stoned in public or wives who tried to defend their husbands in a fight having their hands chopped off. I'm not saying sin can be taken lightly in modern days; the punishment will still be there; in the afterlife, if we don't confess n repent. So live right lives yo!

Deuteronomy 8- 17

"Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply... And you shall remember that the Lord your God let you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord..."

Feels like I'm quite in a wilderness myself. Now at least I know the purpose of it. to humble me, to test me, to know what was in my heart, whether i would keep His commandments or not..

i hope i survive this wilderness, for it is lonely, and painful..

It's good to know He is still sustaining me. He feeds me with that 'manna'; strength enough to get me through the day. Thank You, Lord.

Numbers 34 - Deuteronomy 7

Today I learnt mostly of the need to be humble and to listen to His voice and to yield in total submission to His will.

Not really related to today's readings, which was mostly similar to the previous readings and a recap of laws and other geographical locations etc etc. I was more drawn to understand more about the character of Moses; the unlikely leader who God chose to lead His people out of Egypt and into the promise land. Unlikely because he was unconfident, slow of speech, and exiled out of his own country.

I for one, would hate to take on Moses's job. Here is a man who not only had to deal with all the complaining people who many times refused His leadership but also did not make it to the promise land. For whatever reason God decided not to even 'talk about it'; whether it was because Moses had ONE occasion of outburst when he beat the rock instead of speaking to it so that water came out; the fact of the matter is that God only allowed Moses to 'see' the promise land from the top of the mountain, he was not allowed to cross over the Jordan.

wow. talk about remaining faithful to God and of complete dedication and perseverance. Even when God makes it clear that Moses will not inherit the promise land, his descendants would. If I were Moses, honestly, I would flip. Right there. "GOD! I have served You against my own will for all these years, bringing these people out of bondage, bearing with them through the wilderness, showing them Your signs and wonders and miracles and laws and commands, and now, I'm not even allowed to enter the promise land?! what's the deal with that? Oh sure I was angry with the people that ONE time when I hit the rock but COME ON!" and I would probably throw in the towel, right there.

But Moses, the great leader, the most humble man in all the earth (as mentioned by God himself) decides to still obey God, to follow His commands and His will. Fully knowing he won't be receiving his earthy inheritance, the reward, the goal the Israelites were looking forward all these while. Perhaps his complete trust in God and his dedication to his people kept him going. wow.

I'm a person who gets frustrated. I'm a person who needs to see results. I can't imagine serving Him for 'nothing' (if you know what i mean) but maybe, just maybe God is teaching me something though all this. I need to persevere, I need to be humble. I need to yield myself to Him in total submission. I need to obey him without any questioning. If it wasn't for His grace I wouldn't be alive in the first place. I need to be continually reminded about that.

I've got one more semester in this desert, this fire, this storm, this wilderness. When I'm weary, and tired, without the strength to move on. You are here. You know what's best. I trust in You, God :)

Japheth Chew

Numbers 14-23; Numbers 24-33

A couple of things that stuck me this time round. These readings were hard, as usual. I think a much more effective way of reading is to have a map of ancient israel compared to modern times next to me, a history book of israel text to me, and a lot of patience ;)

God is serious in His judgements. When the people of Israel complain, He is not slow in announcing His judgement; and would do so if Moses did not intercede time and time again. An interesting moment that caught my attention (and was also mentioned by Dr Chew (SIB) at Global Day of Prayer; which was last night at Stadium Melawati - it was awesome!) was the account when God's wrath was spreading in a plague throughout the camp. Moses quickly tells Aaron the priest to RUN to the people carrying a censer (a vessel made for burning insense) and he stood in between the living and the dead; causing the plague to stop - after 14 thousand people perished. Dr Chew mentioned that the censer was the prayers of the saints. How cool is that? Our PRAYERS act as insense to the Lord to halt the plagues of the evil one and counters the cup of wrath that is filling up with curruption and evil; the censer is filling with the prayers of the saints; causing grace instead of wrath to flow over this land.

The next interesting account in this reading was balak trying to get balaam to curse Israel. and a talking donkey! the most ironic thing was balaam answering the donkey back, i mean, if I were him, I would have totally flipped the moment the donkey talked; wouldn't have thought of replying back! So anyway, this account shows me that God STANDS FOR HIS PEOPLE. There were SOOO many accounts of God's wrath being poured forth on His people and of His people being killed. BUT this time, God really shows up for His people, just as how He did with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and in Egypt. He blesses them, through balaam, four times; to the annoyance of balak of course. It brings back a reminder even with all the chastening of God, it is for our own good, and He will always have our back covered, He is Love. Even in modern times, God stands for His people time and time again as can be seen with modern Israel, how God have stood for them in the 'six day war' and other wars, Jews are known for their superiour technology and intelligence and are place in positions of power and influence.

I'm reminded time and time again from these readings of the importance of obeying God's laws, the rewards of obeying them, and the consequences of failing to. I'm also reminded of the precious perfect sacrifice Jesus did at the cross. To cleanse us from our sins and wash us from our past. Jesus made it possible for us to be cleansed and forgiven without having to slaughter lambs and other offerings which was mainly an I.O.U to God until Jesus came to fulfil the debt of sin we owed. We were and are sinners, and are desperately in need of a saviour who died in our place so that we can be free and redeemed and forgiven, a debt that only Jesus Christ, who took the sins of the world upon Himself, could pay.

Let us not forget Jesus in all these readings on the law; but picture how He has come to fulfil it. And I am also reminded to pray for Israel, for Jerusalem, for the Jews, His precious people and nation. May they come to see that their Messaiah has come, He is risen, He is coming back again for His bride. Are we ready?

Numbers 4-13

Interesting how God delegates His tasks to various groups of peoples. "you shall be in charge of this, and you shall be charge of that", teaches us as leaders that we really can't do EVERYTHING, we need people around us to help us.

Again, God is massively PARTICULAR with details. literally, down to the inches. Heh don't think you can fool God, He definately knows all yo! You might say He is quite the perfectionist ;) I just can't imagine having to live with all those details. hehe.

And... the people complain again. complainers complainers. God has to smite some of em with fire and STILL they complain later on. how similar are we ;) and Moses intercedes for them yet again. Good leader to have :) one who pleads to God not to kill His people though they deserved it..

Let's be thankful for His blessings and obey His commands without complaining shall we? :)

Leviticus 21- Numbers 3

One of the main things that struck me today was the importance of the Sabbath, and of following and obeying His commands.

Most of us are at a stage of our lives when we just cannot afford a 'sabbath' - literally, a rest day from work. I know that it's technically 'ok' to work on a sabbath through what Jesus did in the new testament, healing on a sabbath, which was technically his 'work'; but the principle of resting on a sabbath is profound. God created, and He rested. He didn't have to, He could have kept on and kept on creating, but He rested on the 7th day of creation. wow. the Almighty took a rest and we think we can go on and on our lives in an adrenelin rush without slowing down.. no wonder most of us 'crash' every now and then...

God gives us life in which I believe we should be fruitful, productive, hardworking and diligent in the things He has called us to do; whether you're studying or working or in ministry; but I strongly believe that at least ONE of those days should be spent with Him. and THAT is your sabbath. Taking a rest from the busyness and chaos of life; reflecting and pondering upon Him, giving your mind, body, soul and spirit time to recuperate. feed your soul, quieten your mind, exercise your body and rejuvenate your spirit.

One may say, 'But I can't afford to NOT study on Sundays! I need to spread out my time throughout the week'; well, you're technically not sinning that's for sure, but I sure do hope your spirit and soul is fed enough. and you're not burnt out.

I spend my Sundays by myself mostly. After church I'll rest at home, read a book, and spend time with my family. It is one of the best days of the week :) and I can testify that it's one of those things that keep me going through my crazy weeks. There are many benifits from obeying His commands, even more consequences for dissobeying them. Let's strive to obey Him eh?

Leviticus 11-20

Another hard reading to do. More laws...

God is a holy God. There's no doubt about that. And He demands holiness from us. "be holy, for I am holy", says He. And there's consequences for living unholy lives.. major consequences. Back then most of the punishments was physical death. That principle still remains similar in modern times, spiritual death; separation from God.

One thing that hit me though. Do you know how 'ma-fan' it is for a person back then to 'pay' for his/her sin in order to be cleansed and restored? It's like a combination of various slaughtering activities, restitutions, this and that; JUST to be 'forgiven', in that sense. Again, the principle remains the same for modern day believers; although we don't need to find random animals to sacrifice; there is much to be done on our side - confession, repentance, a conscious turning away from sin, seek forgiveness from those we have hurt etc. Not very easy eh? NOW would you rather sacrifice some lambs and pigeons? hehe

Stay holy, guys. and remain pure. It's worth it :)

leviticus 1-10

Today was probably one of the hardest readings for me. The entire chapter talks about offerings, sin offering, trespass offerings etc.. and it goes on and on about how to BBQ properly (sorry but it did make me hungry :p) but here's what I learnt anyway

Every single blessing God gives us should be appreciated and offered back to Him the BEST of the BEST. Back then, God's blessing to His people were in terms of lifestock, grain, fruits etc and the people offered the lifestock without blemish, firstfruits of their land and best of their grain. For us as modern day believers, God's blessings may be money, time, gifts and talents. Are WE giving back to God the best of what He has blessed us with? Are you faithfully serving Him with your gifts and talents in your ministry and persevering doing so even when times seem hard? Are you a good steward of your money and time? Like i mentioned before in the email, tithing to God even 10% of your day is 2.4 hours; are you giving your best to Him?

For me, the best times are mornings (peaceful, quiet) and I usually can get a lot of things done in the wee hours of the morning. The challenge for me is to give that 10% fully to God during those times; like reading His word and coming before Him in prayer. Hope you are inspired to do the same. God deserves the BEST of the BEST.

*p.s - thank God for His grace too. Back then, if you sacrificed wrongly, you're dead (leviticus 10:1)

Bible Reading

Exodus 31-40

What I've learnt

Interesting how Moses pleaded / interceded for his people when God wanted to 'consume' them in His wrath for worshipping some random golden calf that Aaron made (and lied about it later too, saying 'IT came out of the fire' when he actually molded it. some priest he was haha). Again it made me think. These people SEE God's glory on a daily basis (a cloud by day and fire by night! / moses's shining face / God's glory which passes by the camp so often) and YET they want to party with some molded image. gosh.

It is not surprising then that God wanted to wipe them out and make Moses a great nation. You might say it was God's WILL to send his fire and wipe them out of the face of the earth. BUT WAIT. Moses then pleads with God, intercedes for his people saying, 'if you kill these people, what will the people of the earth think? You brought these people out of bondage just to kill them in the wilderness, you can't do that yo! *majorly paraphrased :p*. and this is interesting, GOD CHANGES HIS MIND and lets them live (punishes them of course through plagues and stuff).

Food for thought. Can God change His will for you? ;) Can God change His will for MALAYSIA if His people intercede for our land?

Can God spare Malaysia from disaster due to its corruption and turning away from Him? Who will go for Malaysia, Who will intercede?

Reading the Bible!

and so I've begun a bible reading marathon with a bunch of MYPG'ers (Malaysian Youth Prayer Gathering) people. 10 Chapters a day :)

From yesterday's reading; what I've learnt

Exodus 21-30

We're at a part where the LAW comes in (ceremonial lamb, clothes, tabernacle and whatever not). I learnt that GOD IS A SUPER PARTICULAR GOD. esspecially when it comes to His temple (which is US btw). He wants things in order, He has a blueprint for each of our lives and how we build this temple of His. He is QUITE AN ENGINEER AND ARCHITECH. he knows every detail, every inch, every breakdown, of our life and our work.

yup yup. so take heart when you're reading through geonologies, temple measurements, laws for animals, and whatever not.

God is a God of DETAILS. simply because He cares, is excellent in His work, and perfect. and demands perfection :) Let's live a life worthy of Him and take more effort in getting to know HIm more!

sometimes....

sometimes i ask myself, what if after all this i find myself empty and void?

after all the serving, all the labour, all the sweat blood and tears

after all the victories and failures, after all the gung ho'ness and passion, sadness and depression

after going through ups and downs, joy and pain

it finishes

and i'm off.. sabah perhaps for a year.. doing soul searching and serving at missions

and back... to uncertainties.... this time.. real uncertainties... relationships? work? ministry?

God, I know I should trust You. I tell my friends to, I need to show it myself..

It's scary Lord, and I'm afraid...

that all of this was in vain

that i'll never be able to stand up to a relationship again

that i'll never be totally fulfilled and satisfied with any job or ministry that comes my way

that i've failed you. time and time again

and that i'll run away... from You

why so downcast? oh my soul

put your hope in God

for I will yet praise Him

my saviour and my God