The Gospel According to Yeeks

https://www.quora.com/Historically-how-and-why-did-Jesus-of-Nazareth-come-to-be-thought-of-as-God/answer/Sako-Gekchyan Sako Gekchyan: Ok this is going to be long so bear with me because it's not an easy answer... Perhaps I can offer an explanation outside of a Trinitarian bias. Contrary to what many Christians believe, The early followers of Jesus were devout Jews who followed all the commandments. The only one who seems to have opposed the continued following of the law was the apostle Paul who never even met Jesus in person to begin with. Considering the fact that the early disciples were Jews, The idea that their master was God in the flesh would've been considered both blasphemy and idolatry. I'm going to disagree with a claim made by a previous commentor, while the book known as the Didache is believed by most scholars to have been influenced by the apostles, it is completely devoid of any mention of Jesus as God. The only titles it seems to bestow upon...

Does Jesus teach in the parable of the workers in the vineyard that employer's are to pay a living wage?

The gospel frees us from our own good works (Rom 7). That is why it must be shared with Muslims: My conversation with a Muslim on Quora

My guitar playing is nowhere near my dad's so hearing this piece on Symphony 92.4 FM brought back a tinge of home:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among ...

Your lot to praise Him in the sunshine, mine to praise Him in the rain #muse

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end." - Ecclesiastes 3:11 It really ought to be always quoted in its entirety.

“I hope, by God’s grace, that I am truly a Christian, not deviating from the faith, and that I would rather suffer the penalty of a terrible death than wish to affirm anything outside of the faith or transgress the commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ.” - Jan Hus

Image credit: Choo Yut Shing - https://www.flickr.com/photos/25802865@N08/ Since moving to Dover, I have gained a little insight into what life must be like in Ephesus in the first century. How so?  The Star Vista has been a feature of the area for anyone staying in this area. I see its presence from my room, when I walk home, when I take the train and so on. Its unique features can't be missed.  And this must be what it must like to live in Ephesus because the Temple of Artemis (one of the Ancient Seven Wonders of the World) is situated there. Imagine a fixture in the city which you can view from anywhere. Image Credit: Bill Munns Paul when writing to the church in Ephesus reminds them strongly however that there is a greater temple. He reminds them strongly how Christians are now the "Holy of Holies" the very place where God dwells. A temple built on the foundation of the apostles which no eye can see.  This temple is greater than the one built for Artemis. 14 For ...

From Tim Challies: http://www.challies.com/articles/my-wifes-plea-to-christian-men

My new work schedule is keeping my busy. There are a lot of challenges working in this place. I have   somewhat neglected this space because nothing inspiring has been really happening. Until now... On Feb 25 this year I blogged about perhaps writing a book one day (http://yeekiat.blogspot.sg/2015/02/new-writings-page.html). Well that has came sooner than expected. I will be joining two other brothers to write a book on the Gospel of Mark. I was given a huge privilege to teach a series of classes at the start of this year on the Book of Mark. Most of the content from those sessions will now be replicated into a book form. I look forward especially to writing on Mark 6 - specifically why Herod's beheading of John the Baptist is an important digression for us to understand Jesus' feeding of the five thousand. Without Mark digressing to write about John the Baptist's death, we will not understand the miracle. I hope to bring those links to light. It will also be a contr...

Our annual Young Adults Retreat has came and went. It really was a lovely time and the venue we booked helped to ease the rest we were craving. More than that, I am so thankful for the participation this year. 40 people went for the Retreat and we talked about a range of stuff. God was speaking mightily through each and everyone of us, and the Word was clearly preached. I pray that the Spirit protect our minds with all that we have absorbed. There remains much to be done.

For  as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive - 1 Cor 15:22

When Matchbox 20 used to be popular (I know I am showing my age), they released a song entitled “Bright Lights”. I loved this song. I’ve enjoyed covering it when playing in bands. She got out of town, On a railway New York bound. Took all except my name. Another alien on Broadway . The lyrics tell a story of a woman who left town for New York. The first two lines tells us that much. However the next two, gets really depressing. We learn that this woman is heading to New York and is leaving her husband (“Took all except my name”). The last line, tells us the reason. She is going to Broadway to be one of the many hopefuls wanting to succeed in an acting career. Well some thing in life, you just can’t change Some things you can’t see until it gets too late The next stanza speaks of the husband’s lament. Those desires in her has always been there. But he thought what they had was enough to keep her. And then there is the fact that her leaving came o...

Thanks to Tremper Longman III's book "How to Read Proverbs" I have gained a greater appreciation for the Book of Proverbs. I struggled with this book. I suppose there are many like me. The collection of sayings seem so completely random with no unifying theme. But Tremper Longman III helped me to see Proverbs. And especially Proverbs 9. And boy is Proverbs 9 is special. I think once we understand this chapter, our appreciation for the book as a whole multiplies greatly. For a start, the Book of Proverbs can be summed up with these words: "Be wise, and don't be foolish." Proverbs 9 is special in the way it personifies Wisdom and Folly. To help us have the chapter illuminate our minds, I have colour-coded the passage below into three sections and will give an explanatory note for each section: 1 Wisdom has built her house;     she has hewn her seven pillars. 2 She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine;     she has also set her table. 3...

In general, 80% of the time, the English translation is a very faithful rendering of the original languages. However its strange choice of wording YHWH as the capitalised LORD occasionally messes things up. For instance, Psalm 91:2 reads: 'I will say to the LORD, "My refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust."' If we make some adjustments to the translation above to be more conservative towards the original language, we will see it read: 'I will say to YHWH, "My refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust."' The modification captures the nuance more because terms LORD and God has almost become interchangeable. But the simple rendering above shows the real gist of the Psalmist intentions. He is declaring YHWH as his God and not Baal. He declares that YHWH is his refuge and not anything else. The use of YHWH's name in the Hebrew personalises who the Psalmist is talking about. Not God as in a general concept of God but YHWH, the...

It is one of Augustine’s many and characteristic endeavours to drive his readers to despair precisely in order that they like he will look elsewhere for hope, recognize their need for God and cry out for deliverance. - The Christian Witness in the Earthly City: John H. Yoder as Augustinian Interlocutor by Ollenburger and Gerber Koontz

As part of our hermeneutics course in church, I was given this as an assignment. Reading But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?” Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah,that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that a...

“May we sit at the foot of the cross; and there learn what sin has done, what justice has done, what love has done.” - John Newton

We have been running this for a number of years but I am just as excited about this year's edition as I am for the previous years. Excited for the speakers we have lined up, excited for the topics we are going to be dealing with and excited that we get to spend a few days as a community together. We hope that God will be glorified in this and that the Word will shape our lives as we come and examine it together. Poster done by Kiyoko

“For when Christ is preached, and the promises which God hath made in Christ are believed, the Spirit entereth the heart, and looseth the heart, and giveth lust to do the law, and maketh the law a lively thing in the heart.” (William Tyndale)

“Not withstanding that the resurrection is a future event, he shows that it happens every day; for when God raises up again a man whose life is despaired of, and who has been brought to the very gates of hell, He shows nothing other than a resurrection, snatching from the very jaws of death the one who had fallen into them.”

A recent article I wrote for my church's quarterly newsletter can be accessed here . Would also like to take this opportunity to thank God and acknowledge the encouragement I have received from the folks who are behind this. I would not consider myself a polished writer but I am very grateful for their reception of the ideas as well as editing skills.

I may have posted this before. Still in love with it :-) Keith & Kristyn Getty - Ribbon Roads: https://youtu.be/ysAEU9MWYLA

Word studies always bring incredible insight. A recent training that I have been undergoing brought my attention to potential fallacies when embarking on these etymological attempts. I hope God will guide our minds as we seek to be faithful.

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/20-things-remember-your-loved-ones-suffer-from-depression.html So much of it nail on the head

An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land. the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their direction; my people love to have it so, but what will you do when the time comes? (Jer 5:30-31)

Often times, Scripture gives us an internal evidence that helps us pinpoint when a certain book was probably written. One such example is 1 Samuel 9:9, the author deviates from narrating the story to offer his commentary of events: "(Formerly in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, he said, “Come, let us go to the seer,” for today's “prophet” was formerly called a seer.)" We do not know who wrote 1 Samuel, but it does show us from this text that the time of prophets is a possible guestimate.

"We'll join the everlasting song and crown Him Lord of all." Grace to participate in an eternal anthem. Strangely powerful image today.

Passing Afternoon - Iron & Wine - With Lyrics: https://youtu.be/xg_Xxcv5VLs The first Iron and Wine song I heard. Still beautiful after all these years.

A recent assignment on a study on this book has brought about a greater awareness of the actions of Ruth in this book. In Ruth 2:2, Ruth converses with Naomi and she tells her mother-in-law what she is about to do: And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.” (Ruth 2:2) This demonstrates an amazing awareness of Israelite law. In Leviticus 19:9-10, God instructed the Israelites to never completely harvest the land in order to leave some food for the sojourners and foreigners to "glean". The reference verse is shown below: “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am t...

Ruth 2:12 The LORD repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge! Ruth 3:9 He said, "Who are you?" And she answered, "I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemed." Ruth sought refuge under the Lord's wings. A redeemer's wings is provided.

If we could hear the demons speaking, will they be proclaiming that we are "servants of the Most High God"? (Acts 16:17) #philippi

"Even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you . I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save ." (Isaiah 46:4)

Keep me always in the understanding   that saints mourn more for sin than other men,   for when they see how great is thy wrath against sin,   and how Christ's death alone pacified that wrath,   that makes them mourn the more. A Puritan prayer

I have created a new " Writings " page for this blog, mainly as a depository for some writing projects that I have taken on. The main bulk of this material will be recent contributions that I have made to my church's quarterly newsletter. I have received rather encouraging feedback from the editors of the newsletter and this looks set to be a regular thing. I am grateful for their encouragement as well as their editing feedback to polish these raw writings. It has been a pleasure working with them. Perhaps one day I will embark on a book project.

"God is the only comfort. He is also the supreme terror: the thing we most need and the thing we most want to hide from. He is our only possible ally, and we have made ourselves His enemies. Some people talk as if meeting the gaze of absolute goodness would be fun. They need to think again. They are still only playing with religion. Goodness is either the great safety or the great danger—according to the way you react to it. And we have reacted the wrong way. . . . Of course, I quite agree that the Christian religion is, in the long run, a thing of unspeakable comfort. But it does not begin in comfort; it begins in the dismay I have been describing, and it is no use at all trying to go on to that comfort without first going through that dismay. In religion, as in war and everything else, comfort is the one thing you cannot get by looking for it. If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end: if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth—only soft soap...

"Now the whole offer which Christianity makes is this: that we can, if we let God have His way, come to share in the life of Christ. If we do, we shall then be sharing a life which was begotten, not made, which always has existed and always will exist. Christ is the Son of God. If we share in this kind of life we also shall be sons of God. We shall love the Father as He does and the Holy Ghost will arise in us. He came to this world and became a man in order to spread to other men the kind of life He has—by what I call ‘good infection’. Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else." - C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity

30 “As for you, son of man, your people who talk together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses, say to one another, each to his brother, ‘Come, and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord.’ 31 And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear what you say but they will not do it; for with lustful talk in their mouths they act; their heart is set on their gain. 32 And behold, you are to them like one who sings lustful songs with a beautiful voice and plays[a] well on an instrument, for they hear what you say, but they will not do it. 33 When this comes—and come it will!—then they will know that a prophet has been among them.” (Ezekiel 33:30-33) A wise brother told me not to heed to much of the praises from ministry

Sermon on Phil 1:1-26 (Saturday Evening @ GBC) Sunday Discipleship Seminar on Mark (Sunday 11:15am - 12:30pm @ GBC) Photos by Nehemiah Chong

ILO chief laments failure to tackle inequality at Davos I am no economics expert but have the following thoughts: 1) Is it fairer to say there is “little they can do” instead of “unlikely to do anything about it”? I am curious as to what can actually be done? The most common method of trying to redistribute the wealth has been the implementation of a type of “Robin Hood” tax which is highly ineffective as the rich have the means to move their wealth around various countries 2) Like it or not the world economy functions on a “trickle-down” basis from the 1% to the 99%. Very simply, the 99% is dependent on the enterprise of the 1%. A man with a billion dollar net-worth can stomach the risk of 1-2 million which can do wonders for somebody’s job and family and produce that trickle-down effect. 3) There is simply no onus on the 1% to do that. The only way I suppose is to persuade the 1% by showing them that they have benefitted tremendously from the 99% working rather hard to he...

"Then he brought me back to the door of the temple, and behold, water was issuing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). " (Ezekiel 47:1a) Jesus, in the temple, declares how those rivers ought to flow: "Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”" (John 7:38)

From Letters of Note: Link

Got a lot of feedback from various groups on how to improve as a teacher but I hope the people learned something of the greatness of Jesus Photo by: Heng Wen Xiu

On the subject that Christians are no different from Epicureans in seeking pleasure, differing only in the choice of activities that one chooses to partake You are right on one point in that we are all beings of pleasure. But to the Christian, God Himself is the pleasure not so much the Christian activities that grant us that (although a Christian should find the community of believers and the preaching of the Word pleasurable). The words from the Psalms are written in this form - "Oh taste and see that the Lord is good" (Psalm 34:8). The use of the language which are usually associated to the partaking of food is deliberate for us to understand this. The invitation is to taste God and his goodness. I do not mean exactly that the Epicurean acts are futile. It is healthy for Christians to thank God for everything we have been given from music, to food, to the gift of friendships and so on. So in this we share similarities with the Epicurean. The best way of explaining thi...

Apparently you can: After three days he called together the local leaders of the Jews, and when they had gathered, he said to them, “Brothers, though I had done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers, yet I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans. When they had examined me, they wished to set me at liberty, because there was no reason for the death penalty in my case. But because the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar—though I had no charge to bring against my nation. For this reason, therefore, I have asked to see you and speak with you, since it is because of the hope of Israel that I am wearing this chain.” And they said to him, “We have received no letters from Judea about you, and none of the brothers coming here has reported or spoken any evil about you. But we desire to hear from you what your views are, for with regard to this sect we know that everywhere it is spoken against.” When they had appointed a day f...

You came from an agrarian family that owned a huge piece of land. This piece of land has been owned by your family for generations. It was a great piece of land that always yielded its crops for you and your extended family. Now it was your turn to inherit this piece of land. You were looking forward to bearing this responsibility. You knew this day would come, for you have been groomed for it for years. You were determined to walk in the ways of your forefathers who performed this task dutifully, setting for yourself a wise example to follow. And then things happened. You screwed up. You got into a mess. A huge financial mess. You were supposed to bear the responsibility of providing for your family through this piece of land but you screwed up. You needed to sell stuff. One by one. You started selling the cows that you depended for milk. You started selling the sheep you depended for wool. You started selling leftover crops. You started selling your house. And then you starte...

This is careful bible reading by Abraham Park