In His Time.......... with P.Ramachandran

The team left for Medan this morning. The departure was at 7.40 AM and so it was an "early rise and shine". This was Jerusha's first mission trip and her mom and brother were in the airport to send us off.  We met the other group, led by Rev James, in the airport. They were coming along with us to Berastagi for their own retreat. Two in Rev James team are in a terminal stage of cancer. James, himself equally ill and on wheel chair, just wanted to bless them on this trip. True meaning of what a church should be. Bishop Ezra met us in Medan airport and all the travel arrangements were meticulously made. After a "super" lunch in Medan town, we made our way to Berastagi.  Dr Mike Ong, our partner for Nepal church planting work, also joined us in Medan. He is here to introduce the "School in thumb-drive" program to the school in Berastagi. It took us almost 4 hours to reach Bersatagi due to heaven traffic. The usual journey should have taken us 2 hrs. Appar

This week I had the privilege to be part of the training program for 31 leaders from 21 different countries. The training was held at Lexis-Hibiscus Resort at Port Dickson. I was there from 18-28 Jun. The hotel was the best I had every stayed. It was large, had its own private swimming pool and a steam bath. The view for the balcony was stunning.   This is the first face to face session after Covid 19. During Covid it was done through zoom. The program has also been revamped. From 8 weeks in zoom, it has been trimmed to 2 weeks and the methodology has also been revised.  Now we had two facilitators taking the session together. Bro Ritchie Tay, the Malaysia Haggai Alumni President, was my co-facilitator. This time we did four session on 3 subjects. It took a lot of energy and preparation and we were totally dependant on the Holy Spirit.  By God's grace our sessions went very well. The participants, most of them professionals and a few pastors, were young, matured and very interactiv

Today I had the honour of sharing the Word at Salem Chapel, Singapore. Salem Chapel, is one of the churches that was started by the Finnish missionaries. The late Rev Ikonen who  pioneered   this  work was also the one who  solemnised   our  wedding in 1986. Seemed like yesterday. Wonderful missionaries with great passion.  I think I visited Salem only once when they moved to this new place and it must be in the early 80's. It was good to see some familiar faces but most of them are new to me.  It was good to see Pastor Caleb Pandian again. We both go a long way back in the 1970's when we attended Sunday school together at Blk 69, Naval Base. Sis Rasi was instruemntal in bringing us to the Lord. Pst Pandian shared in church how my mom used to bring him to Sunday school in the early years. He also shared in the church that I was the first to give him a Bible in those days. So glad to see how God is using him in missions as well as in Salem. I was so happy to meet Sis Esther Tan

Mark 12:30 - Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. In response to a teacher of the law, who asked Jesus, what is the greatest commandment, Jesus gave the  above  answer. In addition Jesus gave the second greatest  commandment , which is to   ‘Love your neighbour as yourself".  The teacher of the law acknowledged the master's answer and Jesus  replied -  “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”   We can know all about the law, all about the commandments but we  found  wanting in  following  them. "Not far but certainly Not In" The Torah has 616 commandments in total and of them all, two stand out. What does it mean to love God with  all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. St. Richard of Chichester (1197–1253) summaries it in the following prayer -  “Thanks be to thee, O Lord Jesus Christ, for all the benefits which thou hast given us; for

 It was my joy and privilege to facilitate the subject of BME for this seminar held at Canning Garden Baptist Church. I almost missed the flight to Ipoh on 3 Jun. The departure was at 6:30AM and at 5:15 AM, I was still on my bed, praying, until Jonathan reminded me that I had a flight to catch. It was a mad rush but thank God, I was one of the last passengers to board the flight and I arrived Ipoh in good time. This is my first visit to Ipoh although I have passer by it many years before but never got an opportunity to stay there. Ipoh is a a city in the valley surrounded by beautiful mountains. It's a laid back city, green and tranquil. I liked it there. Less people, less traffic and abundance of good and cheap food. I was told that it's a city for retired people as most young people leave for KL and Singapore to find jobs.  I noticed that there are many churches scattered all over the city. Many need to be reached with the gospel. About 30 participants attend the seminar. Man

Romans 5:3  -  Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   In the previous devotion we saw how Paul tells the Roman church to rejoice in hope of the glory of God. They are to boast or rejoice in that their sins are forgiven by faith and grace of God. And that God’s grace has given us the right standing before God. Now he exhorts the church to rejoice or boast also in their suffering. This is because the outcome of suffering is perseverance is endurance. The Christian life is a journey. From the time we are justified, God by His Holy Spirit lads us through process called sanctification to mould us and to make us more like Christ. Suffering is one of the tools God uses to mould us, in this case to produce perseverance.  When a Christian faces suffering or as the KJV calls it tribulation (suffering in the worst form), we should think of it as a punishment or curse that has come upon us. Rather we should rejoice as this will pur

R omans 5:2  - through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. (NIV) Romans 5:2   Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory. (NLT) In verse one, we saw how we have been justified by faith alone and nothing else added to it. Any addition to his element of faith, no matter how good and necessary it may seem, is a false gospel. And I make no apology for making this statement.  The first benefit from being justified is that we have peace with God.  Paul further asserts that faith in the finished work on the cross gives us a second benefit, access into this grace of God.  In addition to our sins being forgiven and granted peace with God, we now have change in our standing before God.   Paul reminded the Ephesians in  Ephesians 2:12  -  remember that you were at that time separate fro