Collected or prepared by Pastor Wilfred Chung

 December 20 - December 26, 2009

December 20, 2009 - Love In Truth

Meditation on 2 John

God’s kind of love, Agape is sacrificial but is not limitless. His love has purpose, content and boundary.

When the word of God commands us to love one another, it also teaches us to love in truth. The second letter of John emphasizes the importance of knowing the truth and practicing truth of God. Only this way will make the servants of God glad. (v. 4)

One of the most important truths is that we recognize and confess that Jesus Christ is the son of God who came in the flesh. Today as in the day of Apostle John, many people who claim to worship Jesus but do not admit the full humanity of Jesus Christ. These people, the word of God points them out, as deceiver and the antichrist. (v. 7) These are very strong word. But we must accept.

The word of God tells us that we should not even receive them into our house and give them greeting. The reason is that when we greet them and entertain them, we participate in their evil deeds. (v. 9-11) If we entertain them, we are giving room for their deception and encouraging them to share their false view to others. That is dangerous in the view of God’s kingdom.

December 21, 2009 - Violation Of Christian Love

Meditation of 3 John

When a person loves to have preeminence in a local church to the point of forbidding or discouraging others to show Christian hospitality and support, he is evil and not practicing Christian love.

There are some folks in the church today who seek to be prominent and exert control of the church in one way or other. Not only they themselves do not sacrifice time and energy to serve God but also tells others not to do so, so that they themselves would not look bad. These are the hemorrhage of the church and must be dealt with.

The Apostle John was very much concern for this issue that was hurting a good church that had those who was still faithful and hospitable. So he planned to deal with it personally and quickly. He would confront the evil controller.

May God help us not to violate the practice of love but promote it always.

December 22, 2009 - Contend For The Faith

Meditation on Jude

In this short letter by Jude, the brother of James, he warned the Christians in his day that they must contend for the faith because some people who slipped into the church were using the grace of God as license for immorality yet they actually denied the sovereign Lord Jesus in reality. He described these people in details for the church to identify them as follows:

They were like the unbelievers who were destroyed in the wilderness after Exodus, like angels who rebelled against God's authority, and like the perverted people in Sodom and Gomorrah. They did not respect any authority, took spiritual matters lightly, and utilize spiritual matter to make money. They participated in Christian banquet and fellowship, yet they were the bad apples who contributed no good influence except false promises and images.

They were unstable like comets wondering in darkness waiting to perish. They were grumblers and fault finders, scoffers, boastful but flattering others for their own advantages. They follow their own evil desires and natural instinct. They divided Christians.

We should all learn from Jude's warning and study to deal with people like that in the church.

December 23, 2009 - Take Heed To Prophecy

Meditation on Revelation 1

The book of Revelation was the revelation to the Apostle John by Jesus so to tell us what John had seen, what were the conditions of and teaching to the seven churches in Turkey, and what would take place in the future. Some of the prophecies were not easy to understand. And there have been different interpretations concerning these prophecies. Some people have taken the attitude of avoiding it. It seems that some churches do not even talk about it or preach on it. I believe that this should not be so.

Listen to what God's word says in verse 3, "Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near." (NIV)

There are blessings for those who read this book, and for those who hear the reading of this book as well as internalize this book of revelation. God has said that the time of Jesus' coming is near. The events presented in Revelation are coming soon. The New Testament has numerous references to the coming of the Day of the Lord. We should therefore pay attention to this book as well as watching for His coming. Those who do are blessed!

December 24, 2009 - A Scene Of Heaven

Meditation on Revelation 4

There have been some descriptions by people who claimed that they had dreams of heaven. But the real picture of heaven was described by the Apostle John here in Revelation 4. Any thing else that is devious from John's description should not be taken for real. What John saw was shown by Jesus Himself for the purpose of revealing God's program to us. (v. 1)

Immediately we are impressed with the scene of God's throne and the thrones around Him. God is the sovereign ruler of the universe. His throne is awesome. And there were twenty four elders who sat on the twenty four thrones assisting Him to rule too. Bible students have had interesting discussions on the identity of these elders. I take them as the representatives of the Old Testaments and New Testaments saints. They all clothed in white garments which meant that they had been washed by the blood of the Lamb and had the robes of righteousness in Christ. (v. 4) Notice that they had golden crowns on their heads. That indicates that they were kings reigning with Christ. (Revelation 3:21)

The second impression one would get is the four living creatures around the throne. The description of these all seeing creatures is some what similar to the ones the prophet Ezekiel saw in Ezekiel 1. I think that these living beings are the representatives of all other created beings in the universe. Their job is to proclaim the holiness and praise of God.

Then the most important teaching in this account is the absolute joy and necessity to praise our Lord and our God. We will all be praising Him in heaven forever. He is our creator and ruler. He is worthy to receive glory and honor and power. So today you and I must learn how to praise Him daily and especially in the public assembly as these elders and creatures in the heaven.

At this Christmas Eve, let us adore the Christ child who has lived and overcome death for us. Now He is the king of kings and Lord of Lords. Hallelujah!

December 25, 2009 - Demonic Attack

Meditation on Revelation 9

The Scriptures tells us that Satan has power to hurt people when God allows him to do so. (e.g. Job 1:12-19).Satan's kingdom has ranks and files. (Ephesians 6:12) So during the time of the great tribulation, we see the great forces of Satan's followers at work. When the fifth trumpet sound, one of the fallen angels came down to open the bottomless pit. And great smoke came out which darken the sun and the air. With it came demonic locusts with stings that can hurt men who would not have the seal of God on their forehead. But they will not be permitted to kill anyone except to torment them with extreme pain for five months. These locusts will be like an army led by a specific general whose name means destroyer in Hebrews and in Greek. (v. 1-12)

Then the sixth trumpet sound, the four demonic angels who have the territory around the river Euphrates will be released to kill a third of mankind. They would arouse two hundred millions of horseman to cause three deadly plagues through fire, smoke and brimstone out of their mouths. The tails of these horses are like snakes with head to harm people.

Even with these devastating judgments, most people on earth at that time would not repent their sins of idol worship, demon worship, murders, sorceress, immoralities, and thefts. How sad it is!

December 26, 2009 - Eat The Little Book

Meditation on Revelation 10

Before and after the sounding of the seventh trumpet, John described how he received further revelation and a lot of things happening upon the earth before the judgment of the seven bowls coming down. (Revelation 15:6f)

In this chapter, John told us a strong angel who had authority over the land and the sea cried out words liked seven peals of thunder. But John was forbidden to record them.

Then John was commanded to take the little book from the angel's hand and eat it. He did, and felt the sweetness in his mouth but later his stomach was made bitter.

The content of the book was obviously referring to the prophecies of God. It was sweet like honey because it was the word of God. But it was also bitter for John because those words had to do with judgment and tribulation upon those who rejected God.

The psalmist told us that the word of God is sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. (Psalm 19:10b) Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel had mentioned that they tasted the sweetness of the word of God.

We are not only to hear God's word but also to digest it and taste it. Only after we taste the word of God in our own lives then we can share it with others like the prophets and John did.