"Sinat Chinam" Baseless Hatred

Pastor Pauline Ding

Thank God for all those that came to support the Teluk Kumbar work. We have up to 30 people coming from TOP. We look forward to the official opening. We hope all of you will come to participate. I hope some of you can come and present something special. Maybe the worship team can take note. It is a miracle, this baby at Teluk Kumbar. We also invited other friends from other churches to come on that day. 

I now ask Sis Melinda to come and pray for me as this is a hard message. 

Do you know why this is very hard for me to share? Because I am still struggling to practice this in my life. I was actually thinking of something else but nothing came out but in the last few days, someone said something "it's easy for the speaker to speak but it is difficult to practice what they speak" and that confirmed what I needed to say. 

This word is a Hebrew word and I'm not a Hebrew scholar so I had to do a lot of study and was very stressed. And I ended up with these two pages. 

That word is called "Sinat Chinam", Hebrew word for baseless hatred. To hate without a cause. 

You hate me because of the dress I wear. Or because I'm a different race from you. Or I speak the wrong words. Where people hate each other for no good cause. Like you look at the face and you don't like the person already. 

I had this problem when I was young. I used to withdraw from white people. Because they behave different. Or those who are educated in Chinese school. I withdrew from them because they think different. But I mix with them because I play volleyball and they are good in volleyball. But I hate it. 

I am now struggling with people who speak different. People who speak nonsense. That's why I need to share this as I am struggling with this. 

According to Jewish tradition the destruction of the Jewish temple was because of Sinat Chinam. Disobedience to God's law was a reason. In Ezekiel at chapter 40 you'll read that they were given exact measurements to build the temple. 

Why? Was God telling Ezekiel that the temple will be rebuilt? The second temple is different from the one that Ezekiel spoke about. It was built when the people were only partially repentant. That's why it could not be perfect. That's why after Malachi there was 400 years of silence. 

The second temple, Jesus said that it will be destroyed again and not one stone left. And it was fulfilled as the temple was destroyed and Israel was dispersed all over the world. Recently they came back and they are now trying to build the third temple. 

They cannot build it yet because now the mosque is sitting on that ground. They have all things ready but they cannot build yet. 

God is waiting for the Jews to come to total repentance. And he is purging them. As I read on the internet I see that God is purging the Jews. For honest reporting, you need to see the other side of the story. Local news says Israel is bad. But we need to see the other side of the story. 

There are many Jews who are becoming Christians. They are called the messianic Jews. The Jews have to embrace the whole world in God's love. Our bible came from Israel and preserved by the Jews. They are special people we can learn from. It is difficult for us to understand the bible according to our own culture. That's why we do not get it perfect. We need to go back to the roots of our believe which the people of Israel knows. 

Malaysian side is saying the Jews were killing the Palestinian. Yesterday more than 170 was killed. A few weeks ago three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped. Israel sent their ground forces to hunt for the three. Because of that they discovered many Hamas tunnels. They used these tunnels to go into Israel to attack them. After a few weeks they discovered the teenagers were murdered in cold blood. Of course some of the Israelites want revenge and killed an Arab teenager. In KL, many came to Dataran to protest against the fighting. But the ones that do not want to stop are the Hamas. The terrorist in Gaza. 

When a ceasefire was called, Israel obeyed but Hamas continued to shoot their rockets. I needed to share because some of you don't know what's happening. Israel gave them an ultimatum that if they don't stop they will come in and take over Gaza. And the civilians were told to evacuate but the Hamas did not allow them to evacuate so there were many casualties. 

Rockets that were targeted at Israel was intercepted. Almost 90% of them. And those that were not intercepted, Hamas said their God diverted the missiles so the target were not hit. Praise God. It was reported on the world news. 

So where do we fit in? We do not take sides. In a quarrel, both sides also wrong. In Israel there are those who do wrong. Of course. In Malaysia there are those who do wrong. In the church there are people who do wrong. But look at what God is doing. 

Ezekiel 43:10-11

10 “Son of man, describe the temple to the people of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their sins. Let them consider the plan, 11 and if they are ashamed of all they have done, make known to them the design of the temple–its arrangement, its exits and entrances–its whole design and all its regulations and laws. Write these down before them so that they may be faithful to its design and follow all its regulations.

They were in exile with no temple but when they write down these measurements, it is the same like as if they were building it. Just like Bro Wilbur showed me drawings of my office in drawings I see it. 

So as they were building it God brought shame to their hearts. It is not the outward form. It comes into the heart. God wants them to repent as they do it. Just like when we took communion, we contemplate. We look inwards and we see our sin. 

I am an end time preacher. I have to preach like John the Baptist. God wants a pure bride. A bride that is ready. Because the church is not pure enough. It comes from the heart and God wants to deal with us. We are not yet ready to love everybody. 

Revelation 7:9

The Great Multitude in White Robes 9 After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.

I work a lot with Filipinos and Malays and there are some traits I hate. I say 90% of them are like that. The Vietnamese also. A brother bought plane ticket for him and he missed the plane. They are always late. It's all about their way. They are laid back people. You can't get them to do much things. 

But God wants all people to come into his kingdom. 

"Ahavat Chinam" Hebrew for baseless love. Starts from noting in one's mind the positive traits without whitewashing the less desirable ones. This is what God wants us to learn. It's like agape love. Unconditional love. 

God is love so he wants us to love. 

Romans 15:7

Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

We are all different from the Jews. We are Gentiles yet God accepted us. The way that we are with all our hang ups. He wants us to do likewise. Love your neighbour as yourself. 

1 Peter 4:7-8

7 The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. 8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

I was put through their school of experience. When God asked me to adopt an Indian as a son from the streets. A drug addict. An alien that came into my house. He was not a Malaysian. He came and became a Christian. I had one year to take care of him. I worked with drug addicts for more than 30 years. They are very hard to change. I was given one year to change this guy. He was a typical sinner. Very good in cheating and mischievous. And I adopted him into my home. I went through hell but as I went through this baseless love I learnt. 

After one year I became love personified. He did so many nasty things and I did not understand myself. He wanted me to hate him. He did not believe anyone could love him. He tore three bibles. He desecrated the bible when he urine on it. But I couldn't hate or be angry of him. I felt like I was a fool for Christ to deal with this guy. 

He was a very traumatic person. He became suicidal and I lived on the 9th floor. He was on a chair at the balcony. I told him "you want to die please don't die in my house" (laughs).

This person was not the same as the rest of them. I was a professional counsellor but with this person, I changed my methods as I treated him like my own son. Professionally you can change a person in 6 years. But for him with a different method he changed in one year. He said your love has conquered me. I have not seen anyone who was as grateful as him. Just as Jesus said, grateful when much is forgiven. The rest I counselled never came back and gave me bananas also. 

He also made me cried like I never cried before. But he also made me laugh like never before. To teach me to love him. He is now in heaven as he had HIV. I wanted to put a photo of him out there but didn't get to do it. 

I have a three godson. There was one his heart was full of pain. He felt no one can love him. He was always talking about his friends and family and he always curse them. At the beginning i never corrected him. After about one month of building a relationship with him, I asked him a favour. He said sure. I said can you stop saying foul words and immediately he felt ashamed. And he just took out his hands and he said okay to me. You do not need to keep correcting them. Before they know you can trust them you cannot change them. 

I could love this boy because I only focused my attention on his good points. Many said he is a liar. But I focused on his good points. When he was baptised and was given 50 ringgit, he took me shopping because he was thankful. I bought a shoe that cost 30 ringgit and I still keep it for sentimental reasons. 

If we are to learn to love people, don't look at how they are like. They didn't do anything wrong to you. 

Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God's love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong]. It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]. Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]. As for prophecy (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), it will be fulfilled and pass away; as for tongues, they will be destroyed and cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away [it will lose its value and be superseded by truth]. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8 AMP)

Someone said to me you better make sure the work in Teluk Kumbar is a success because someone is waiting for you to fail. I don't know this person. I just want to obey. It's not about me as it's about God. There are more people that is more talented than me. I am a nobody. I can only think it's jealousy. So let's stop the animosity. So that we can all go home to God as a family of love.