IAFB Australia Incorporated

To most of us, churchgoers; coming to the church services is one way for us to show that we are active members of such church. However when outside of the church service, do we still keep ourselves active in expressing our faith? Or we simply keep ourselves quiet about it and simply go along with the worldly deeds of our unbeliever peers. The brother of Jesus, James, reminds us in his epistle that faith must be accompanied with works -- "For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead." --James 2:26. There are two separate phrases in this verse which are correlated with each other as the former refers to the church and the latter to its member. Being member of Christ's church does not start and end in coming and leaving the church service. Membership starts on the day of your salvation, the time you accepted Jesus as your Savior and repented on your sins; and ends in eternity with Jesus. Our physical death will not end our goal for ete...

When I was looking at the old photographs of my children, it reminds me how  beautiful they are when they were still babies and I noticed how quiet and contented they are when I was carrying them in my arms. It is good to be a child, indeed, as you are not aware what things are happening around you.  Psalms 131:1-3  1 O Lord, my heart is not proud, nor do I have a haughty look. I do not have great aspirations, or concern myself with things that are beyond me.  2 Indeed I am composed and quiet, like a young child carried by its mother; I am content like the young child I carry.  3 O Israel, hope in the Lord now and forevermore!  The psalmist in Psalms 131 is trying to console himself and not to concern the things that are beyond his. With our limited knowledge and wisdom, we cannot explain and longs for things that cannot reach by human capabilities. There are things that we can only hope for to God that everything we need will be taken care of by Him. Like ...

There was an event during the days of Jeremiah where God shows a great illustration of how he desire to bound Israel to Him forever, to be His chosen people (read Jeremiah 13:1-11). But in all the efforts of God to restore them, they keep on failing and breaking the heart of God. He was then making a decision to punish them and like the linen belt will be completely useless. God shows us that the linen belt was initially a new one. It is tied to Jeremiah's waist and it looks great, he is happy to wear it and show to everyone how good the belt is. Likewise as the chosen people of God and though we are not new, God declared us as His new creation when reconciled with Him through His Son, Jesus Christ. It says in 2 Cor 5:17, "So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away - look, what is new has come!" When Christ holds us or wears us in Him, His favors is also with us. He is too happy to showcase us as to world and how blessed we are know...

“Why should any living person complain when punished for his sins? נ(Nun) Let us carefully examine our ways, and let us return to the Lord. Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven” - Lamentations 3:39-42. When staring in a beautifully painted wall, we may get amazed to its outstanding beauty at the first look. But staring to it for some time, we start looking for the defects, a hole, paint patches, dirt, etc. The tendency of human mind is to always try to find out of what makes a perfect imperfect. It seems that there is no difference in our relationship with our God, we tend to complain on His alleged imperfections to us especially when we feel punished by our committed sin. We assume that God is unfair as if it is Him who caused these pains to us. We are acknowledging our sin against Him, thus we repent, but we do not want to be punished. This is not a true repentance then, it is just admittance. Though God accepted us wholeheartedly, we still have to bear the conseq...

When we accepted Jesus as our personal Lord and Saviour with all our heart, in truth and in action; we experienced a rebirth of our spirit. We, together with Christ, have overcome death which is the wages of sin and given a renewed life born of Spirit from God and promised of eternal life with Him. This metamorphosis drama of redemption is indeed an illustration of God's abundant grace and love to all humanity. Finally, we are now restored in our relationship with God that once had been broken by our sin. The faith of every believer, his cries, and his longings; moves God spirit and that what gives us the opportunity to live a renewed lives. Jesus, in one important event of his ministry on earth, awakened Lazarus who was buried for days then. You can follow this story in John 11:1-44. When Jesus called Lazarus to wake up, there was no participation from crowd occurred. However when Lazarus came out from his tomb, Jesus commanded them to "unwrap him and let him go." It was...

Every believer is entrusted with the Gospel of Jesus the moment he accepted Him as their Lord and Saviour through the Holy Spirit who draws us near to Him and gives His wisdom abundantly. Therefore, it is our responsibility to preach to everyone without any exceptions. However as we try to share Jesus' Good News, we either trying to be caught in emotional defensive and/or offensive conversation rather than victorious salvation of souls. We all fall in this invincible trap that almost unrecognizable and later becomes our habit already. A habit of defensive and offensive preaching of the Gospel is not the main characteristics of it. It may only lead to sending people away from hearing the Word of God. The good news of Jesus, indeed, exaggerates the image of God such as Kind, Love, Mercy, Grace, Just, and Eternity in heaven.  Paul summarizes it in Titus 3:4-7 says " 4 But "when the kindness of God our Saviour and his love for mankind appeared, 5 he saved us not by works of ...

As we age, most of us are prohibiting ourselves from consuming too much of sweet delicacies as part of prevention to any future diseases like diabetes. However, we cannot avoid it completely as eating sweets is truly part of our lives since we were a child. In the same way in our walk of faith with Jesus, we all started as a child. In 1 Cor 13:11, " When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child... " When we grow in faith, we also grow in wisdom. Proverbs 24:14 said, " Likewise, know that wisdom is sweet to your soul; if you find it, you will have a future, and your hope will not be cut off ." Wisdom is a sweet that prolongs our lives, indeed, with great future and hope as we often find and consumed by it. Wisdom is the sweetest food of our soul, which is sourced from God Himself. Job 12:13 " With God are wisdom and power; counsel and understanding are Hi s. We have to seek God through Bible reading, Personal Devotion...