A few months ago we enjoyed an election here in Malaysia. But the fun did not actually end with the election results, did it? For weeks after the election we were all waiting for the new government to form: who’s gonna be in the cabinet? Who’s gonna be new minister of this and that? High […]
In the opening words of the bible we are introduced to God as a Trinity: the God, the eternally breathing Spirit, and the eternally speaking Word. And shortly afterward we are introduced to a man and a woman living in a garden in perfect fellowship with that trinitarian God. He is their Heavenly Father, and […]
So last week Daniel and his friends spent three years in university, learning the language and literature of the Babylonians. The purpose of their university education was to turn them into loyal Babylonian officials. And the plan was probably to send them back to Jerusalem one day as governors who would continue the process of […]
Way back in Book 4 of Genesis — the account of Noah and his sons — God sent a flood and destroyed the corrupted civilization of Cain. Unfortunately, that same flood also destroyed the Garden of Eden, which was the original connecting point between earth and heaven. The sacred center of the earth had been […]
So as we catch up with Abram here, we find him at a very difficult place in his life. See, once upon a time he was living in the far east of his world, somewhere along the border of Iran and Iraq, happily minding his own business, worshiping the gods of the mountains and the […]
Today we are going to start with a thought experiment. Ready? So one day your lawyer calls you and says that you have just inherited ten billion ringgit from a relative you didn’t even know you had. And he tells you that it’s going to take some time to process the full amount — it […]
From the very beginning of his letter to the Christians of Roman Asia, Peter has been telling them that they are the continuation of the Old Testament people of God, the ancient people of Israel. And this was very important for these Christians to hear, because they had a unique problem. See, the Roman empire […]
Last week we found Abraham at the very top of the world. The local king had given him the freedom to live wherever he wanted in the land, and his wife Sarah had finally given him the legitimate son he had been waiting decades for. Abraham’s many years of stubborn faithfulness to God had finally […]
So here we are, beginning Part Three of our sermon series on the Song of Songs. In Part One, we learned that sexual desire is very good, a gift from God designed to remind us of the garden of Eden. We also learned that sexual desire is powerful and even dangerous, not to be treated […]
In the beginning, the Book of Genesis tells us, God created the heavens and the earth. That is: he created the spiritual universe, and the physical universe — which ancient people thought of as a vast ocean called the Abyss, containing the raw materials of creation. And, to clarify this point, Genesis goes on to […]
Last week, Moses escaped from a murder charge by fleeing into the Arabian desert, into the land of Midian, east of Egypt. And this was a bit surprising for us! Because from the beginning of the Book of Exodus it has been clear that the children of Israel desperately need a champion to save them […]
Okay. So last week Peter began a letter to Christians who lived almost 2000 years ago. And he began by calling them “God’s elect” — which is a good thing! Peter was saying that these Christians were members of the new nation of Israel, a new nation made up of people from many different nations, […]
Early on in the Book of Genesis, God called a man named Abraham out of the chaos of a collapsing empire. God promised that he would establish a “house” for Abraham — a family for Abraham — that would also be God’s ”house”, God’s family. In response, Abraham built a series of altars where his […]
Okay. So last week we left the Israelites camped at this place called Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, a foretaste of paradise. They have escaped from slavery in Egypt, they are no longer slaves, they are the firstborn nation of God! And to prove it, God led them to this […]
