Every person passes on; but the next important thing is: What follows!

Every person passes on; but the next important thing is:  What follows!


The Bible does not  make a distinction between a physical, a spiritual and an eternal death.  It has a synthetic view of death and regards it as  separation from God.  So says Professor Louis Berkhof in his book  SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY.

Moral responsibility, as seen in the rise and fall of civilization history, makes this point.

When mankind disregards the divine intimations in him  -  something in him slowly begins to die.  Luther and Calvin hit upon this squarely, "A person is not a sinner because he sins; he sins  -  because he is a sinner."

With the Fall of Adam  - death was pronounced on all  Man.  Accountable to God, Adam deluded himself  when he tried grasping moral autonomy.

As civilization progresses and religious awareness develops  -  Man becomes aware of a "presence".  Mysteriously he 'sensed'  a  connection between death and evil  -  as recorded in Genesis 3 re the Fall of Man.  The Old Testament does not 'sentimentalize death as 'natural'.

Biblical Theology teaches that death is evil(Deut. 30:15,19) and horrific(Psa. 55:4f).

Death was never part of God's original intention in the Bible's Creation Story.  Death is the separation of body and soul; but  never an annihilation. "Then shall the dust return to the earth ( Matt. 16:28) and "the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.(Eccles.12:7.  God does not annihilate anything of His Creation.  In theology, life and death are rightfully opposites of different modes of existences.

Hell  and Heaven.

The Biblical progressive revelation of a God of Love...  makes impossible the concept of endless punishment in Hell. God is not vindictive.  Love spiritual things. At death, we see ourselves in Heaven. But sin continually  ... we discover it is Hell in that spiritual existence.

We have lost the taste  -  and admiration for the things that  are spiritual  and noble. That experience is Hell.

Likewise, the New Testament nowhere  mentions eternal death. Civilized men of good conscience fears not annihilation  -  but of 'the wrath to come'(Rev. 6:17)  Punishment in Hell paves the way for new beginnings. Dr. Leslie Weatherhead cites the  Dives and Lazarus story(Luke 16::19-31)  Endless punishment serves no good purpose.

It is a study showing the shadows of life's realities.  Selfishness makes Hell on Earth.

If a man lives without compassion, he manifestly digs a chasm between himself and his fellowmen  -   and consequently separates himself from God.  God is there when Pity dwells  -   for God is Love.  Every step we make here fashions our destiny. The destiny of the soul is not settled at death  -  but here  ..  and right now.

Dives was in torment in Hell  -  but discover or uncover the surprise..!?  Dives ceased to be wholly selfish.  Whilst undergoing punishment Dives developed a concern for his brothers

here on Earth!...

The Sin of Blind Casualness.

Dives 'did not see'...the Lazarus at/by his gate!  He would contribute generously to charity  -   community   -   church;   Dives would give a public talk on the 'Great and Growing Divide'  -   but 'fail to see'  lonely  -  loveless Lazarus  in some corner in the sanctuary   -   the more so  'all because Lazarus is a beggar  -  'a nobody'

Consequently...   eventually  God Himself  walked out of that church!?  Ancient Nazareth  -the hometown of Jesus for roughly 30 years  -   rejected Him!?  How do we draw Circles!?

Uncannily...  and frighteningly ..it was Jesus Himself who told this Dives-Lazarus Story.There is  Hell -  and Heaven.  And Jesus came to His Glory  -  only after He tasted Death...."I go and prepare a place for you...  that where I am, there ye may be also"(John 14:2,3)

....on the  Other Side!

A ship is starting out for the oceans.  We catch her going out...  soon she's gone!!

But where!?  Only from our sight....  On some other distant shores other eyes are watching and waiting.  Other voices are ready to take up the glad shout, "Here she comes......"

 Such is death  -   and dying.

The Road down Jericho ... begins from where we are. The sky begins from where we stand...Eternity begins  -  with Today.

Pastor Khoo apologizes for this 'belated' blog;  he has been down with flu for the past  few weeks. God provides -  and cares.  A few readers feel that these blogs could be the more effective  -   if preached.   This is welcome  -   if churches or groups extend their invitations.  I can he reached at  Tel. 6769 8890 or  edwinkhoobt@gmail.com.
 
The Blog  "Why did Jesus keep the Scars from His Crucifixion?" comes from the Holy Week Services at Wesley, Segamat.
 
Walking in the Footsteps/Footprints of the Master...God Bless you dear readers.











Pastor Edwin Khoo

WHY DID JESUS KEEP THOSE SCARS FROM HIS CRUCIFIXION - John 20:27-29 Luke 24: 39-43

GOD will never let death win.  Jesus could have had any resurrected body He wanted  -  when He rose from the dead. 

Instead He purposely chose one that is identifiable easily by scars  -  one that can be seen and touched.  Why?

 

I mentioned these scars when I preached the Easter message ..   at Wesley Methodist Church, Segamat, Johor, Malaysia during my 4 day sessions there. 

Worshipper Dr Ling, a medical doctor, understood and could see the added dimensions of those scars of Jesus relating to the Easter message.
 
Those scars relate to Jesus Crucified.  His flesh  -  the Manhood of God ..  bears "evidences" of the Crucifixion.   And those scars are permanent reminders of His earthly days of confinement and suffering.  This gives the added dimension and significance to Easter.  

Easter can only be  -  because of Good Friday.

Interpreter's Bible Commentary says that Christ offers these scars as  visible and tangible proofs of the corporeal reality of His Resurrection.  "Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as yesee me have.  And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet."   (Luke 24:39-40).

There were many scars  -  before and after Jesus'..   We honor them;  but we worship Jesus.

History of the Crucifixion

Cicero  -  Roman orator and statesman -  pointed out that the  Crucifixion was the most cruellest and most hideous form of  capital punishment. Crucifixion was so tragically common in ancient times  .. Hundreds ...  thousands were crucified on one single occasion.  Just to mention two - 

         

Alexander the Great  -  after the siege of Tyre  crucified two thousand Tyrhians. 

 

In Titus final campaign  in which the Jews were annihilated ... and the Temple destroyed  - it was said that he crucified so many men that  there was no space left for crosses  -   and no crosses for the bodies. (Josephus, Wars of the Jews).

Not only was it the common custom for executing criminals .. it was also widespread  -  practiced in Egypt, Phoenecia,  Carthage, Persia, Assyria, Scythia and even India  -  not forgetting Greece and Rome.  The Romans took it over from the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians.

Methods of Crucifixion

Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible throws dramatic  new light on the methods of crucifixion in antiquity.

Conclusion: Scars are life's reminders.....

Wonder of wonders  scars can never completely go away. My right knee still carries the scars sustained when I was dragged ..in a motor accident when I was a student in my teens;  I'm 84 now. 

 

Because of Easter, we can hope that  the tears we shed  -  the blows

we receive  -  the emotional heartaches we suffer ....will become memories  -  just like the Scars of Jesus for Him  ...  as they are of us.

Scars are  Life's Reminders that Hope is standing by.    One day... a church minister asks ..  when  preaching "What work of man will there be in heaven..,?"  Someone replied,  "None. Only the Prints of the Nails on the Hands and Feet of Jesus."

There's Hope  -  then and now  ..  and always.  We will have re-created bodies  -   a re-created heaven and earth.  We will have an

Easter Beginning.

There is another way to look at those SCARS.  Christmas comes out of a stable.  Christ comes out of a disreputable little village, Nazareth.

Rome died  -  passed over.  Twenty centuries of Christianity passed on  -  out of a Crucified and Scarred Body of the Risen Christ.

And His Disciples saw Him  -  yet once again.  And this time...  Jesus showed them  His SCARS  - they stood up to be counted......

  

  God Bless All...

  Pastor Edwin Khoo

DISCRIMINATION DIVIDES

Think Twice says "It's a Long Journey between Human Being - and Being Human."

A common sight greeting onlookers whilst in Singapore are Seniors cleaning - collecting - polishing shoes...... Granted that their majority are poorly educated, we cannot help but form an opinion.

... arising from observation - rather than from argument. 

 

Whilst 40% of the cleaning workforce are foreigners Seniors fill up the remaining 60%.  Wontonly ... a thin line of discrimination emerges.

As we aged our 'individualistics' become the more apparent.  Our capacity to adjust becomes the more difficult.  Impairments set in - due to the attrition of the years. The emotional impact suffers the most.  

 

Gary R. Collins Ph.D - a psychologist in clinical psychology and lecturer at Trinity Evangelical School.. Texas pin points that the loss of self esteem is the worst thing about aging -

# Everything around .. is letting Seniors know that they are not terribly important anymore.... and that the elderly are too old to make decisions - do useful work

- create new things.... Many end up feeling useless - unimportant.

'PASTORAL CARE' , edited by Richard Spann... reported that Longevity Centres - like those in New Yoirk City, a research think tank on aging issues - reported that seniors are being discriminated against. Many reported that they have been ignored - slighted - experienced impatience and condescension......

 

(Photo 1 - Homeless Seniors end up Discarded .. in a crypt in England...)

 

Interpreter's Bible Commentary explicitly cautions against this.... Israel culture and Old Testament theology directed the adult citizen to care for one's parents (Exo. 20:12).  

 

Parents are not to be discarded...to be eaten by beasts or to die of exposure - as in some primitive heathen societies. The Torah specifically teaches Family Solidarity, viz. the necessity to protect aging parents(Exo. 21:15)

Death is the punishment for children(above 16) who strikes and curses their parents...Babylonian society would cut off the hand that struck a parent - Code of Hummurabi 195.

Modernity ... interprets belittlement as a substitute for cursing....as evidenced with the arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers ......at the New Plymouth Colony in 1670.

Human Progress is very slow from the time of Moses to that of the Pilgrim Fathers....

Come .. 20th century .. we see today the shifting of Parent Care Responsibility .. to State and Society! How .. Sad!  We forget that Blood is thicker than Water! Local churches and the communities should do something positive about this.   But be aware... In my morning walks ... I encounter mini buses ferrying some aged to some centres. They don't look happy....!

(Photo 2 - Eldedrly Britons reject going to old-age daycares......) 

 

 

 

INVOLVE ... the SENIORS

Invite them to share their talents - and experiences .... I turned my hobbies into a self-employed business

(Photo 3 - Edwin's Garden & Landscape Handyman ... Teaching Floral Creation...)

 

Being hobbies ... I enjoyed doing them - and I was proud for Jobs Well Done.. - the PLUS Factors: No bosses pushing me down - and around.. I earned a steady-rising income for over 20 years....

I'm now 84. I did not choose to retire... Falls from a work forced me into retirement - at GOD'S HAVEN - my Retirement Home at Rinting Heights, Johor Bahru x 15 years.

(Photo 3 - from HOBBIES to SELF EMPLOYMENT Photo 4 - G O D'S H A V E N @ Rinting Heights).

I still pursue those hobbies .. I gladly will give you a Helping Hand. Just email or call me at 67698890.. 

 

Several of my ex-employees and past students are today - self employed and happy.

We do not grow old by merely living a number of years. "We aged only when we desert our Ideals and Goals.. There is in every being's heart the love of wonder - and there's always the undaunted challenge of events" - so said General Douglas MacArthur.

Hebrew History began with GOD inviting aged Abraham to be the progenitor of the Hebrews (Genesis 11-25) 

 

And GOD involves Moses, in his aged years, to lead the Israelites out of Egypt ... and later to be the law giver... 

 

Both these Seniors were tasked with positions of authority.  Decline in physical strength is now compensated by an increase in wisdom (I Peter 5:5) God values the older peoples in Israel's History. 

 

Experience counts. Old minds are not slower; they just have much more to recall - because they know so much more - so reported TODAY dated 21st January 2014.

At 84 I am blogging.. Perchance some publishers might find some articles interesting - and worthy...

PAIN SUFFERS .... LONG

The late Nelson Mandela suffered much and long. C.S. Lewis, the Problem of Pain.....amplifies "God is not deaf nor blind to our Pain"

 

He whispers in our pleasures; speaks in our conscience; and shouts in our pain; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."   Pain offers Nelson Mandela access to many more people. Passed on at aged 95 - he fought against apartheid ... suffered shame and imprisonment for 227 long and painful years.

Refusing to be embittered against his white enemies - who are often blurred by prejudices in politics, Nelson Mandela 'imparted' his pain/suffering to his fellow black peoples.  They stood by him.  That inspired him on. He spent 70 long years - fighting for freedom and equality. And he changed modern man's distorted minds - and thinking. He remained assertive all along. God called him back on 7th December 2013. 

 

(Photo 5 - Great and humble gather tp honour Mandela)

"There is no passion to be found playing small.... Poverty is not an accident; it is man-made; and can be removed by the actions of human being." was his battle cry.

His prime purpose was not to defeat the white man... Philip Yancey sums it up fittingly "to awaken the sense of shame against his oppressors." 

 

 

Nelson Mandela put right where/what went wrong... William Barclay Commentary compares his actions to Jesus' 7th Beautitude ..He believed .. and practised peacemaking. 

 

And by making peace, he stood tall - and made his enemies lood small. Together with Bishop Desmond Tutu they highlighted the injustices of the whites against the blacks... Their expertise - put together chasnged their country

.... brought Justice to the afflicted and needy(Psa. 82:3) - transforming bad into good and beinging good out of evil.

Instead of stooping down to their level - hitting back .. Nelson Mandela stood tall "With Malice toward None but Charity to All"   He did not hit back. Hitting back is assault - NOT leadership......He led a pariah nation out of their miseries. 

 

The Lone Ranger lives on - putting right above wrongs....

Truly indeed Nelson Mandela was "a giant amongst men."

Pastor Edwin Khoo

We have many thinkers .... but they do not know.

 

KEEPING CHRISTMAS

KEEPING CHRISTMAS.....

The whole world keeps Christmas... but many keep it wrongly. We commercialize Christmas with shopping parcels cards ... There is good about it - outflowing generosity in one day in the year. 

 

Some sentimentalize it - in truth or on pretence. Yet ..we're happy that Christmas is kept. But the greatest tragedy is so pathetic beyond words - celebrating Christmas but without Christ.

Christmas is God's Greatest Gift to All Mankind. God enters human life. God became Man in Christ.

God is now one with Man (John 1:14-18)

All around us ... are discouraged people. Some are Disappointed. Some are Lonely.. Some others are Hurt. Many others are Heart broken - living starved lives receiving little or no love at all.

Opportunities for love and kindness are everywhere. We do not see because we are blind to them or we do not care. No single day passes me by ... without a simple act of love or kindness..I dare...care...

One simple kind act is far better than hundreds of bowed heads in prayer - devoid of any kind act.

If we can keep Christmas for one day in the year - why not keep it for every day the whole year through.

Jesus was born at a stable. His Incoming makes the Difference between a Darkened Inn and a  Glorified Stable.

Think.

Contributed by Pastor Edwin Khoo