A different Gospel?

Passage for today

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel
— which is really no gospel at all.

Galatians 1:6 - 7

 

New International Version

When we read through Galatians 1:1 - 7, we see that the Apostle Paul preached the following Gospel of the Lord Iesus:

• God the Father raised Iesus from the dead (v1b)
• Grace and peace comes from both God our Father and from our Lord Iesus the Anointed (v3)
• God is our Father, and to Him belongs Glory forever (v4b, 5)
• the Lord Iesus gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age (v4) — according to the will of our God and our Father (v4)

Sadly, we read in verses 6 and7 that the Galatian Christians have deserted God and have turned to a different gospel (v6).

Question:

What Gospel are we believing today?

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Taking the Lord's Supper

Passage for today

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

1 Corinthians 11:23 - 26

 

New International Version

Sun 31Aug2025 Wesley Methodist Church Kampar

In what manner should we take the Lord's Supper?

(A) We should avoid the Unworthy Manner

When we look closer into the short passage from verse 18 to verse22, and comparing them with verse 22, we see that taking the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner can be characterised by the following behaviour in the Assembly of believers

• showing divisions in the assembly (v18), having differences with one another (v19)
• not waiting for one another to take the supper together (v21)
• some believers take too much, and get drunk, while others remain hungry because they do not get their share of the bread and wine (v21b)
• such a manner of taking the Lord's Supper despise the Assembly of God and humiliates those who have no food to eat (v22)
• those who do so have sinned against the body and blood of the Lord Iesus (v27)

(B) We should adopt the Worthy Manner

Verses 23 to 25 of today's passage go on to tell us about the worthy manner in which all believers should partake of the Lord's Supper in the Assembly:

• take it in the same manner as shown and as given by the Lord Iesus (v23 - 25)
• compare with Luke 22:19 - 20; Mark 14:22 - 25; Matthew 26:26 - 29
• the proper manner or order of taking the Lord's Supper was received from the Lord and was passed on to the believers in the Corinthian Assembly (v23), as follows:
  1. Take bread, give thanks, and break it (v23, 24)
  2. Recount the words of the Lord Iesus, "This is my body, which is for you, do this in remembrance of me" (v24)
  3. After taking the bread, take the cup in the same way i.e. give thanks, then distribute the wine to everyone (v25a)
  4. Recount the words of the Lord, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me" (v25)

Why is it necessary to take the Lord's Supper in a Worthy Manner?

We read in today's passage that both the bread and the cup is to be taken for one solemn purpose — to do it in remembrance of the Lord Iesus (v24b, v25b).

Each time we take the Lord's Supper together, eating the bread and drinking the cup, we are taking no ordinary bread and wine. Instead, we are proclaiming the death of our Lord Iesus.

Conclusion

The Lord's Supper is no ordinary supper. It is to be taken in the same manner as first given by the Lord Iesus to His disciples.

Each time we take it together, we do so in remembrance of our Lord. We proclaim His death.

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The following are my thoughts on related topics, written over the last eleven years on this blog:

• A Final Commandment (2022.07.30)
• King of Righteousness, King of Peace (2021.09.06)
• Melchizedek, Priest of Most High God (2014.08.02)

The Living Soul

Passages for today

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Genesis 2:7

 

King James Version

24 “The God who made the world and everything in it . . . gives everyone life and breath and everything else. . . .
28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

Acts 17:24 – 28

 

New International Version

Sun 2025-06-08
In loving and cherished memory of my daughter-in-law's dearly beloved father, the Late Foo Check Ping who passed away on Sat 2025-06-07. These thoughts from two passages of scripture came to mind during the funeral wake service that Sunday evening.

(1) The Living Soul gets life from God

Adam got his life from God. He became a Living Soul after the LORD God breathed into his nostrils. Since that day, God's breath became Man's breath. Likewise, all of us today who descended from Adam has the same breath of God in us. Like Adam we also are Living Souls who get life from God.

(2) The Living Soul has life in his Body

When we take a closer look at Gen 2:7, it was after the LORD God breathed into Adam's nostrils that Adam became a living soul. God did not just blow some breath over his head, nor on his hands, nor upon his feet. Instead, the LORD God breathed into his body through his nostrils. Adam received God's life in his body. This life remained in him throughout the years, from young until old.

In Acts 17:28, the Apostle Paul told the Athenians that it is in God that we live and move. Without this God-given life in our bodies, we will not be living souls anymore. We will probably be just like any of the other creatures that God has created, without the breath of God in them.

(3) The Living Soul lives life for God

After Adam became a Living Soul by the breath of God, the Lord God commanded him to go forth and multiply and have dominion over all the other creatures on earth. That was the whole purpose of life prepared ahead of Adam. Adam the Living Soul was given one task — to live his life for God.

Conclusion

Brothers and Sisters in Iesus the Anointed One, as Living Souls who have received the breath of life from God, the same breath that was in Adam, let us live our lives for God everyday until the day of our Lord's return

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Love is patient and kind

Passage for today

4 Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; 5 it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.
7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

1 Corinthians 13:4 – 7

 

Revised Standard Version

Last Sunday during morning worship service in Kampar Wesley Methodist Church, I was reminded of an old gospel song based on this well passage about the Love of God, recorded in 1 Corinthians chapter 13.

During my undergraduate days at Universiti Pertanian Malaysia in the 1980s, we used to sing a song using the lyrics from the Revised Standard Version, quoted above, with a few minor adaptations. Today, I'd like to post the lyrics of this song below. Sadly, I'm unable to locate any audio or video recording of its tune. I shall come back here and post a link should I manage to come across one in future.

Love is patient and kind
Is not jealous or boastful
Not arrogant or rude
Does not insist on its own way

It is not irritable nor resentful
Does not rejoice at wrong
But rejoices in the right

Love bears all things
Believes all things
Love hopes all things
Endures all things

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U P D A T E — Wed 2025.07.16

At last I have managed to write out the tune of this song from memory using numeric solfege notation. Initially, just the melodic pattern, then followed by the rhythmic pattern with the lyrics. Photos below:

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U P D A T E — Wed 2025.07.23

Finally, I have converted the numeric solfege notes above into music notation. Photos below:

Since you have been raised . . .

Passage for today

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Colossians 3:1 – 4

 

New International Version

These notes were first written on Sun 2024-08-18

This well known passage from the Epistle of Paul to the Colossians tells us that we who have been baptised in the Name of Iesus the Anointed One have gone through three changes:

1. We have died with the Anointed v.3
2. We have been hidden with the Anointed in God v.3
3. We have been raised with the Anointed v.1

We are also told in v.4 that we will undergo one more change at the Second Coming of Our Lord Iesus

4. We will also appear with Him in glory v.4

The teaching of being buried with the Anointed in baptism, and of being raised with Him is also written in an earlier passage in Colossians chapter two:

having been buried with him in baptism,
in which you were also raised with him
through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

Colossians 2:12

 

New International Version

Verses 1 and 2 in this passage tells us what we must do with our lives in this world while we look forward to appear with Our Lord Iesus in glory on the day of His return:

. . . set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things

As children of God, we who have died, buried, and raised with Our Lord the Anointed One, let us look forward to appear with Our Lord when he returns in glory. Let us set our minds on heavenly things above us, at the throne of God where Our Lord is seated at the right hand of God. Let us beware of the tempations of many things around us in this world.

Finally verses 5 to 10 of Colossians chapter three teaches us to "put to death", to get rid of our old ways and practices.

5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.[b] 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

Colossians 3:5 – 10

 

New International Version

Brothers and Sisters in the Lord Iesus, since we have been raised with the Anointed One, let us set our hearts and minds on things above, where our Lord is seated at the right hand of God. Let us also get rid of our old ways and put on our new selves in the Anointed One.

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I have previously written on similar passages in the following posts:

• How shall we continue living? (2016-03-05)
• Three Spiritual Laws (2021-08-04)

The Anointed Iesus made Himself nothing

2024-07-07 Iesus made himself nothing.

Passage for today

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.

Philippians 2:5 – 8

 

Revised Standard Version

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:9 – 11

 

Revised Standard Version

Our Lord Iesus the Anointed One was in the beginning with God. He was the Word of God from the beginning (ref John 1:1). Today we read from the above passage in Philippians chapter 2 that the Anointed One was originally in the form of God.

However, our Lord did not count his equality with God something to be grasped (Philippians 2:6 RSV). He did not hold on tightly to his position. Instead he was willing to let go and make himself nothing. Verse 7 tells us that our Lord "emptied himself".

Let us take a closer look what our Lord Iesus the Anointed One had to go through in the process of emptying himself, of making himself nothing:

• He took the form of a servant (v.7)
• He took the form of a human servant (v.7, 8)
• He took the form of a humble human servant (v.8a)
• He took the form of a humble obedient human servant who was obedient to God even to death (v.8b)
• He took the form of a humble obedient human servant who was obedient to God even to a cruel death on the cross. (v.8c)

It was because our Lord had gone through this painful process of emptying himself, from being in the form of God to becoming in the form of man, a humble slave who went to his death on the cross, that God has exalted him highly and has given to him the Name above every name (Philippians 2:9).

So high is the name of the Lord Iesus, the Anointed One, that at the Name of Iesus, every knee — in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, — will bow. And every tongue will confess that Iesus is Lord.

Finally, verse 11b tells us that all this will be done to the glory of God the Father.

In summary, we can say :

1. Iesus did not come to dictate the people around him. Instead he came to die for them
2. Iesus did not come to subjugate the world. Instead he came to sacrifice himself.
3. Iesus did not come to orchestrate a new earthly kingdom. Instead he came to obey God.

Brothers and Sisters in the Anointed One, let us also humble ourselves before God. Like our Lord Iesus, let us be humble obedient servants in His Kingdom so that God will also exalt us and make us sit with Him in the heavenly places.

But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2:4 – 7

 

Revised Standard Version

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Today I am reminded of the following devotional messages which I have posted in my blog over the past fifteen years:

• 2020-04-06 The Heavenly Realm of the Son of God
• 2013-02-25 Whom shall we glorify?
• 2009-07-09 A name above every name

The Parable of Trust

2024-05-05 The Parable of Trust

14 For it is like a man, going into another country, who called his own servants, and delivered his goods to them.
15 To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one; to each according to his own ability, and he went on his journey.

Matthew 25:14 – 15

 

World English Bible

12 So He said to them, 'A man of noble family travelled to a distant country to obtain the rank of king, and to return.
13 And he called ten of his servants and gave each of them a pound, instructing them to trade with the money during his absence

Luke 19:12 – 13

 

Weymouth New Testament

Wesley Methodist Church Kampar, Sunday Service, Matthew 25:14 – 30

This morning, for the first time after having read this passage numerous times over the last forty years, I realised that the Parable of the Talents, a name commonly given to the parable narrated by our Lord in Matthew chapter 25, is actually not a parable about how many talents are increased or multiplied by each of the three servants, but rather how trustworthy the servants have been in carrying out the work entrusted to them by their master.

My meditation on this parable brought to mind three observations about the Trust that the master showed to his servants and the kind of Trustworthiness shown by the servants as Trusteess, in taking care of the business entrusted to them. My observations are as follows:

Firstly, the Commitment of the Trust

The master was a businessman. He was from a noble family. When he wanted to travel to a distant country, he had to find some way to ensure his business continues to go on without disruption. He decided to entrust his money to his servants.

The account in Matthew chapter 25 tells us that he gave different amounts of money (or "goods" as mentioned in Matt 25:14, WEB) to each servant "according to his own ability" (Matt 25:15 WEB). In contrast, the account in Luke chapter 19 says that the master gave the same amount of money — one pound — to each servant (Luke 19:13 WNT).

Regardless of the amount of money given to each servant, the master had one purpose in mind — he wanted to entrust his servants with his business. He committed his goods, or money, into their hands to continue running his business while he was away on a long journey to a distant land. Luke 19:13b WNT tells us that he instructed the servants to "trade with the money" during his absence.

It was a commitment of trust.

Secondly, the Conduct of the Trusteees

We can see from the parable that the servants conducted themselves in two different ways.

Some of them conducted themselves in a trustworthy way. They carried out their duty to their master, to trade with the money entrusted to them. Regardless whether they were given much or little, these servants used their money to make gains by trading.

In Matthew 25:20, we read that the servant who was entrusted with five talents had gained five more. Further on in verse 22, we are told that the servant who was entrusted with two talents gained two more. They had proven themselves worthy of trust, when in the long absence of their master they had diligently carried on with doing the master's business with the money put into their hands.

Such was the conduct of the trustworthy servants.

In contrast, some servants conducted themselves in an untrustworthy way. They refused to carry out the duty of doing their master's business while he was away. They did not trade with the money given to them. They did not make any gains at all. The master's business came to a standstill at the hands of these untrustworthy servants.

Verses 24 and 25 of Matthew chapter 25 tells us that the servant who had been entrusted with one talent began making excuses when asked by his master to give an account of what he did with the money. He said he had buried his one talent in the ground while the master was away because he "knew" his master was a hard and demanding person who "reaped where he had not sown".

Such was the conduct of the untrustworthy servant.

Thirdly, the Consequence of Trustworthiness

The trustworthy servants were highly commended by the master. They were given a promotion to be entrusted with more wealth. (Matt 25:21, 23 NIV).

In both verses 21 and 23 of Matthew chapter 25 (NIV), the master told the trustworthy servants:

Come and share your master's happiness!

As a consequence of their trustworthiness, the servants became partakers of their master's happiness.

The opposite happened to the untrustworthy servant. His master called him "wicked and lazy" (Matt 25:26 NIV). The one talent that had been entrusted to him was taken away by his master and given to the most capable servant, the one who had shown his ability to use his ten talents to gain ten more.

Our Lord explained the taking back of the one talent from the untrustworthy servant with these words:

For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.

Matthew 25:29

 

New International Version

What does this mean? What kind of consequence does this verse imply for both the trustworthy and the untrustworthy servants?

I have been struggling with this teaching of our Lord, both in Matthew 25:29 as well as in Luke 19:26. In particular, I ask myself why does the Lord practise such unfairness, that those of us who already have much will be given even more whilst those among us who have "nothing" to start with, even whatever little we have will be taken away from us.

Doesn't this tell us that God appears to rob the poor to reward the rich? God forbid that I should think thus.

Today I have come to a new understanding of Matthew 25:29 — that everyone of us who are trustworthy will be entrusted with even more wealth in the kingdom of God. And anyone among us who are NOT trustworthy, whatever little wealth we have will be taken away from us in the kingdom of God.

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Brothers and Sisters in the Anointed One, let us ponder over the gifts, the "goods" or "talents", that our Lord Iesus has entrusted to us in this world to carry out His business.

Are we living as trustworthy servants?

Are we doing his business in the kingdom of God while he is away? Will our Lord find us trustworthy when he returns to receive us to be with him in heaven? Our Lord told his disciples in John chapter 4:

"My food," said Iesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work."

John 4:34

 

New International Version

Let us also have the same mind as our Lord Iesus. Let us make it our food to do the will of our Lord who has sent us into the world, with gifts that he has given us.

Let us do his will. Let us finish his work.