Author: RCCM

From a sermon series on 1 Kings by See Huang Lim, a missionary at IBF. When I was a child, the one thing that I was afraid of was that my mother would die. I had nightmares in which I saw the lifeless body of my mother. In 2011, it felt as if the nightmare came true when I received an email from my dad, telling me that my mother had a stroke. I flew home from the U.S., and though I was happy to learn that my mother was alive, she was a shell of her former self—unable to talk, walk, or eat. It was as if I had

From a sermon series on 1 Kings by See Huang Lim, a missionary at IBF. We have been going through 1 Kings for a while. Today’s passage is the starting point of the prophet Elijah’s ministry. From it I would like to draw 4 points: 1) God’s unexpected way of provision, 2) worshipping God in the midst of hardship, 3) how Elijah points us to Jesus, and 4) the widow’s act of faith and obedience. Let us pray. [Read 1 Kings 17:1-16] Here is a brief summary of the background. Verse 1 tells us that God permitted a drought to happen in the land of Israel as a sign of

From a sermon series on 1 Kings by See Huang Lim, a missionary at IBF. In this sermon series on the book of 1 Kings, we will soon reach a turning point and enter the fascinating story of prophet Elijah. Today’s is the last passage about evil kings, and it revolves around King Baasha. King Baasha rose to the throne by murdering the previous king. His actions set a pattern for the next few kings; they, in turn, became king of Israel through assassination. Today’s passage is bleak, but I believe it will not leave us hopeless. There are 3 ideas I want to reflect on: 1) God may allow

From a sermon series on 1 Kings by See Huang Lim, a missionary at IBF. Today, I would like to share some reflections about how some people respond to the idea of religion, especially in Japan. We will still read a passage from 1 Kings as part of our on-going study of this book, but I won’t focus on the passage. I’ll only summarize its main point and then reflect on two common attitudes towards religion. [Read 1 Kings 16:8-28] Background The reason for this chaos and death is the same for all 3 kings. The root of the problem was idol worship. Idol worship was not a new problem

From a sermon series on 1 Kings by See Huang Lim, a missionary at IBF. My last few sermons focused on the Northern Kingdom of Israel during the time of 1 Kings. Today, we will read about the Southern Kingdom of Judah, about the first 3 generations of kings there. The first is King Rehoboam. The second is his son Abijah. The third is Abijah’s son Asa. When you read about the kings in this book, you might think their stories sound very similar. That is true. But each king’s story contains one or two details that are unique. I’ll focus on these unique details. [Read 1 Kings 14:21-15:24.] King

From a sermon series on 1 Kings by See Huang Lim, a missionary at IBF. In Japan, many people wear masks. It’s to prevent us from spreading sickness or catching it. But there is another reason for masks, according to a Japanese friend of mine. One day she told me: Some people wear masks because they want to hide something. Maybe they don’t want people to notice or recognize them. Or maybe, they want to hide something dishonest. I thought my friend’s comment was interesting. In today’s story from 1 Kings, we will hear about a king who wanted to hide his identity. 1 Kings Chapter 14 is actually about

This post introduces Christianity in Malaysia. The writer is a member of International Bible Fellowship (IBF) church. My husband and I come from Malaysia, but we have also lived in Japan and the U.S. In terms of race and religion, Japan’s population is quite homogeneous. Like the U.S., Malaysia is diverse, but in my country the lines of race and religion are even more distinct. Multi-cultural, multi-religious country In Malaysia, race and religion are sensitive topics, to the extent that we were discouraged from discussing them as speech topics in school. Though Malaysians live in relative harmony, there is an undercurrent of tension regarding race and religion. The two are