The Air-Bag

 25th September 2022

The Air-Bag

You have an air-bag in your car.  You’ve never seen it.  But they tell you, as soon as you hit something or somebody head-on, it’s going to explode.  It’s going to catch you like a down pillow.  And it will be nice.  

Have you ever seen that air-bag in your car?  Is it there? 

You don’t know.  

They tell you it is there, but you cannot see it.

You hope it is there.  

When are you going to find out?  

When you need it...

My wife found that out.  

In the early hours of one morning, on 3rd Ocober 2011, whilst driving to school on the New Pantai Expressway, she hit a styrofoam box in the middle of the road, lost control, swerved and hit into the concrete crash barrier and the car overturned!  

The air-bag exploded and cushioned her from hitting the windscreen or the steering wheel.  

Praise God it worked! The air-bag actually worked! 

Thank God that at that particular moment, there were no fast on-coming vehicles.  It would have been disastrous if there were.

My wife crawled out safely from the overturned car with hardly a scratch on her.  It was nothing short of a miracle!  Praise God for His protection!  He is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble (Psalm 46:1)

What can we learn from this incident?  

Our God is just like that air-bag.  You cannot see Him with your physical eyes.  But you know that when you need Him, He is going to be there. 

He will come through for you when you find yourself in a position demanding that necessity of a divine intervention.  

You can depend on Him to ...

Systematic Theology

17th September 2022

We study theology (“theos”= God, “logos”= word) so that we can know about God and so that we can know God.

If we don’t know about Him, we can’t really know Him.  We may have encountered Him in passing when we made the decision to repent and put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, but we know little of Him unless we study His Word to get to know Him in a more intimate manner.

This is where systematic theology comes in helpful in our spiritual growth.  It organizes into a “systematic” way the knowledge of God as revealed in His Word and how all this knowledge relates to us.  Our fellowship with God is dependent on how well we know Him.

Topics covered under Systematic Theology includes the following :

The Bible

God

Jesus Christ

Holy Spirit

The Devil

Angels

Anthropology

Sociology

Man

Hamartiology

Soteriology

The Church

Eschatology

It helps put you on a firmer foundation regarding tough questions like the Trinity, election, predestination, end-times, etc, that we so often wrestle with in our Bible studies.

I encourage you to get a copy of Systematic Theology for your library.  It will enrich you in your study and understanding of God’s Word.

Thiessen’s Lectures in Systematic Theology has followed me since my student days in 1979.

http://ntslibrary.com/PDF%20Books/Derickson's%20Notes%20on%20Theology.pdf

Derickson’s Notes on Theology is also quite good.  It is only available in digital format.  I find it uncomfortable reading long on the computer, so what I did was I downloaded the entire book and bound it up for easy reading.

Hope that helps...

Do You Have Your Own Library?

9th August 2022

Nowadays, it is so easy to get Bible study resources from the internet.  Practically free and effortless.  The problem is that there are so many different "Christian" teachings in the social media, and if you do not have some basic foundation in your Bible knowledge to filter off the errors, these “teachings” can do more harm than good and lead you astray.  

Allow me to offer some humble advice for the serious Bible student:

 

a)       Always find opportunity to discuss any “new” teachings you may have come across with your Care Group members or church leaders, so that it can be corrected if it is not true..

Proverbs 11:14:  “Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety."

 

b)      Invest in a good library.

 

I am glad that during my younger days as a new Christian, I was encouraged to build up my own Christian library.  Get books with good authors. Books are a worthwhile investment that will last you a life-time, and even until your next generations…  Books are good resource materials that you can refer back to over and over again. 

 

I started acquiring books for my library since my student days, back when books cost just a few ringgit each…  We were poor then, but I saved up from whatever meager pocket money I had and invested in books. 

c)       Suggested books for your library

 

Here are some of the books I found useful in my study of God's Word.  

You may also want to ask your leaders or other brothers and sisters-in-Christ to recommended their choice of books for your library ..

The late Howard Hendricks was a professor from Dallas Theological Seminary.  This book teaches on how to read, interprete and apply the bible to our lives.

 

William Macdonald was the President of Emmaus Bible College and a Plymouth Brethren theologian.

 

This is a great Bible dictionary companion.  Wycliffe is synonymous with Bible translation works in the mission field.

 

I had this with me since 1979…

Theology (theos = God, logos = word, knowledge) provides the basic foundation for your faith and beliefs.  Systematic theology simply organizes the various doctrines of the Bible into a systematic and topical format. It is your theology, undergirded by your faith in God, that will pull you through the highs and lows of your Christian life.

 

Lewis Sperry Chafer was one of the co-founder of Dallas Theological Seminary.

 

Hope I was able to encourage and exhort each other in the study of God’s Word that we may grow and mature in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Hebrews 10:25)

Books, like friends, should be few and well chosen - Samuel Paterson.