The amateur philosophising theologian

Choices

2012-01-26T18:01:00.001+08:00

We really have a lot of choices when it comes to communication today.

In the past, we only have pigeons and postmen.

Then, we have telephones and telegraphs.

After that, comes mobile phone, emails and instant messaging over computers.

With all advances in technologies, we now have smartphones which can log into internet to allow emails and instant messaging on the go.

And thus New Year Resolutions

2012-01-24T22:15:00.002+08:00

And so after weeks of thinking and reflecting through, here are my New Year Resolutions for the year:

To lead a simple life. This is not simple to be defined. But I mean simple at two levels. Firstly, to keep living at a simple level and not spend beyond what is necessary. Over the past months, I think God has spoken to me that He has blessed us beyond measures and I ought not to ask for more. In fact, this year, when people ask me what birthday present I want, I got stuck for a while and realised that I am actually already quite contented with what I have and I don't really have a lot of needs and wants that I would want people to fulfill. Secondly is to think simply and not make things very complicated for myself. This is more difficult to be worked upon but it can be done. It by no means, though, implies I am going to stop digging deeper into theology and the word.

To see the world through God's eyes and perspective. It is easy to be inspired by God's vision and mission for the world and strive to live it out but how about seeing the world through God's eyes and perspective? I gained a glimpse of that when I went over to Japan last year and during the marathon in December, God showed me a glimpse of His view of the world throughout the run. I was almost in tears throughout the whole run (tears not because of the pain). Yet, to see people and the world through His eyes remains a difficult task because of the fact that we are human beings and sinful beings.

And so, these will be my resolutions for the year. Not a complicated and difficult to remember tasklist.

A simple critique of a chinese deity

2012-01-15T14:04:00.002+08:00

I was just thinking on the bus the other day: the chinese worships a deity by the name of Guan Gong, who is actually the deification of the historical character, Guan Yu, from the era of the Three Kingdom. From what we know from Hong Kong serial, generally two groups of people worship the deity: the policemen to ask the deity to help them find justice and protect them, and the crooks for the deity's value of 'yi' which means camaraderie.

Now, I highly suspect what we see in dramas is true and if this is so, I would say this is a very conflicted deity. With police and thief worshipping him, he cannot possibly answer the prayer of both sides. To answer the prayer of the police to find justice is to defy his crooked worshippers, but to answer the latter's prayer is to defy the value of justice which he seems to embody. Either way, he contradicts himself.

The conclusion? Deification is a human invention and therefore the deities mirror human behaviour, even to their sins and morals. This was exactly the kind of thing that Socrates questioned but no one dared to face up to reality for a very long time. For Chinese in Singapore, no one would really dare to realise that they do not know what they worship.

It is indeed a sad spiritual case.

A lot more thoughts on New Year resolutions

2012-01-13T02:48:00.001+08:00

Attending a conference on missional church can potentially change one's perspective. If being missional means I have to be one of the catalysts, then so be it. If it means I have to be in a certain position to contribute to missional changes then I should want to be in these positions to impact and disciple the people.

Church planting and missions are a process and not just decisions. It involves a huge deal of discipleship. Becoming a missional church, we have to be more intentful in our discipleship and be ready to allow the Holy Spirit to innovate our methods and ways. Maybe this is one year that I need to challenge my own mindset and other people's mindset as well...

Other thoughts on New Year resolutions

2012-01-12T18:17:00.001+08:00

It is a bit amazing how my thinkings and LG plans are getting in line with what HIM is doing. Perhaps one area I will want to look closely at is to see how I can experiment different ideas with the LG and the unit, and at the same time challenging old paradigm.

I was also sharing with a brother from Brisbane about my trip to Japan. It is quite interesting to see how such trips can serve to inspire people. He mentioned that I seem to have a heart for Japanese. I am not very sure about it although I know seeing the devastation does break my heart a bit.

Some more thoughts on New Year resolutions

2012-01-12T01:19:00.001+08:00

Hmm...

Just more thoughts on what my new year resolutions should be.

Perhaps I should bring over some resolutions from last year to this year, to strive more and improve more. But the fact that I can bring can either mean that they are too general or too difficult to achieve. As those are from the bible, they might be too general or should have been those stuff which i should be striving on whether they're my resolutions or not...

Random thoughts from Global Conference (not organised)

2012-01-10T23:27:00.001+08:00

Grow in God and the Holy Spirit and go deeper with Him.
Thru God and His leading we will be able to.
We are the gatekeepers in our prayer and we need to open what God has decided to open. Matt 16:17-19 God has given us the authority to reach out to the people we are ministering to

Keeping our DNA. Keep to the truth of God's word and we know to be the truth. We need to be going about the Father's business.
Continue the DNA of discipleship, raise Christ centered disciples.
Continue the DNA of mission. Continue the mission spirit. Our people must continue to look beyond the local boundaries.

Continue to develop the leadership team. Connect tightly with the team.
Invest in the team and look at how we can develop them.
Pray togther with the team.

Pray to God that He will give us victories in our challenges this year.

Now is the time of great opportunity for the church to go forth. God wants us to step forward in spite of the challenges we face as a church. We got to rise up in such a way that we live out God's mission more effectively and impactfully and break thru into new territories and rely on God's divine strategies.

We need to rise up together as a family of churches to do God's work, to be united and serve together.

Go where God is going, move with the Holy Spirit.

Unless we have the faith that God wants us to have, we cannot impart the faith that God wants others to have

Thoughts on New Year resolutions

2012-01-10T01:59:00.001+08:00

It has been around 10 days into the new year but I am still thinking about my resolutions for this year.

One is more or less confirmed. I would want to take the year to venture out of Singapore more as I am doing now in Chiang Mai. The keyword is mission and if God is calling me to mission, it is really time to start thinking seriously about it.

Of course there are other things in my mind that I have not really thought through seriously or really taken the time to think. But some may stem from some regrets I had over in 2011.

Yet I'm in no haste. I have 5 days in Chiang Mai to think about it and allow God to speak to me about it on what He hopes for me to achieve and grow in for 2012.

Exciting year ahead. No hurry in making things happen but a lot of thoughts to be made sense of.

2012-01-09T16:34:00.001+08:00

The love of God is incomprehensible in the sense that if He does things that we want Him to do, it's cos He loves us and if He does things that we din want Him to do, it's also because He loves us. After some reflections, the love of God is an absolute fact, it's our business to make sense of His love, not other people.

Bye 2011, Hello 2012

2012-01-01T00:00:00.000+08:00

It has come to the time of the year again when I need to take stock of the outgoing year and think about the incoming year. What has happened over the past one year? Let's take a look at it:

January
January was quite happening for me, thinking back what happened in church. I was halfway involved in planning for the YG Mission Camp, and of course, my first time in Chiang Mai attending the Passion Global Conference where I got to hear the testimony and the sharing of Ps Bill Wilson who is an incredible man of God. During the time in Chiang Mai, I got really challenged in thinking what my real passion should be and this of course sets off a year long search and questioning in my future path as a disciple of Christ.

The YG Mission Camp took place at Stansfield residence immediately after the week I was in Chiang Mai. Entering into that phase was quite stressful, but rewarding. It was the first camp (and perhaps the last) that I took charge in the overall planning and the first camp in Uni-YA history (and the last) to focus entirely on experiential learning for missions, with a focus on missions. There were a couple of spiritual attacks here and there during the journey but through the protection of God, we were able to pull through the camp, thus garnering responses from the YG and the graduating students to do missions. And I was heartened that the camp had made genuine impact in the lives of the participants and in my own life as well. I was even more honored to have worked with a group of committed people to plan a camp focusing on mission.

February
February was a relatively quiet month compared to January. However, it marked the first month that I stepped down from ushering and floor managing. It was a tough call but a necessary one. I never wanted to step away from ushering but without me doing so, it would have been difficult for others to rise up (since by default you can only have that many floor managers and team leaders). Also for the sake of my LG, I would need to step away so that my other ministry on stage would not take up so much time away from my LG. I missed ushering, and I will always do.

March
Again another distinctively quiet month, other than the fact that I began to read a lot more on apologetics and start spamming on theology which slowed down eventually. It was a month of good news for me at work, since I was told that I got a better performance grading than I expected, which I really thank God for that. And therefore, that resulted in a whole tonnes of money being poured into my account as part of my performance bonus, and I finally got my Macbook Pro, which I am using now to type out this reflection. Kickstarting the whole city whole world series in church, I guess this also marked the time when I began to seriously think about obtaining the Masters of Christian Apologetics from Biola, though this thought has been harbouring for quite some time already.

April
Building of the new AXIS auditorium (it wasn't named Axis that time yet) required us to start thinking about raising funds for the new place. But that particular campaign reminded me of the very chair that I received Christ on. And it fully convinced me that it was the right thing to do, because someone sponsored the chair that I sat on 6 years ago. It was also a traumatic month politically given the result of the GE2011. I guess God used that event to seriously challenge me on my own involvement in YP and if it is really worth continuing that kind of service to them. I have yet made my decision as of now, but I know it's sooner or later that I will want to step away from grassroot work. By the way, that also marked the beginning of a three to four months hiatus from Facebook, as an attempt to clear my mind off the clutters of negative comments. April we also made our second trip to Batam to gather information in the land regarding the spiritual condition there. All in all, it was a good trip as we managed, by God's grace, to meet people who are able to communicate and share with us and are willing to help us.

May
May was the time when I was expecting the new transfers from the Uni group to YG but it wasn't to be. However, I guess I took the chance post GE to send an email to PM and posted that letter on my blog criticising for the first time the way that YP was run. Months later, there may have been an improvement but I guess there's still a long way to go. I wanted to sign up for the Go Forth Conference, but it clashed with the Sundown Marathon (which surprisingly despite all the hiccups was the best Sundown I ran). Got played out by Ellson who decided to sign up for the conference even when he decided to run the Sundown together with me. Oh, by the way, I got my first iPhone 4 by then, and it was to be a dramatic transformation on how I used my handphone from then on, realising the power of 3G...

June
June... I attended a uni friend's wedding. It was at Botanic garden. However, I think, as I blogged earlier on, the events leading up to the wedding, I was challenged by God to face a series of past hurts and bad histories. It was also then that prompted me to think seriously more about the issue of BGR, as I prepared to disciple the transferees. Again, God spoke to me a lot in that area, though I think I still have a long way to go.

July
July was a traumatic month I supposed. The highlight was the WCWW conference at indoor stadium with the new people in my LG. It was the month that the transfers finally came over to YG and we the LGLs had to make a pitch to them on why they should join our LGs. At a single moment, it instantly saw my LG grow from 9 to 14. There were questions among my coreteam whether we can contain the new transferees but looking back from now, I guess our fears were well answered - we can and we are able.

WCWM conference was a good reminder to me why my life mission should be mission for God. The first day I was quite impressed by the testimonies of the panel speakers but it became clear to me that as they were praying for the different pillars of society, it was not to be for me as I began to clearly sense my calling to go out to the mission field.

The low side of this month was when I had to contend with different emotions, all those during the conference and after the conference. But it was also the time when I realised that this was exactly what I wrote in my PnF guide to my unit, that there is a cost in His cause, and one of the costs in pursuing His cause is the price of having to contend with the emotional struggles of people around me and minister to them.

August
And thus ended my hiatus from Facebook. I was struck by Denise Phua's comment that as Christians, we need to reclaim the space in the new media. Therefore, I decided to pull myself back to Facebook. Also it was to be a channel of communication with my LG, now that the LG has grown so much. We also started the SHAPE series in the unit, exploring our spiritual gifts, passions, ability etc in an attempt to find out shape. I guess it also allowed me to dig deeper into different theological thinking about spiritual gifts. It was indeed a good experience and a good experiment using NCD's spiritual gift assessment on the people in the unit.

September
Batam, it was the second time back there this year. This time, I was glad that Weikai, Wileen, Ming Xi and Ivy went along with us. It was their first time and I was encouraged by their heart. It was also very funny as we began to talk about some nonsense here and there. It was also the time that the reality of leading a large LG began to caught on to me. Yet, it was also the time when I realised that the large LG was not exactly a bad idea, especially when the people are together in one heart and well connected. I was encouraged to realise that there were great synergy in this group of people, which led me to rethink about the notion of restructuring.

October
October saw the launch of iPhone 4S and the demise of Mr Steve Jobs just a day after the launch. But more importantly I admit that I had to go against the general grain of thought towards restructuring. I was just glad that I was able to gain agreement with Joyce Peh. It was also during this period that I decided to go Japan to help out with the mission work as well as the period that I was supposed to help out with Robert's wedding. It was the time when the preparation was going full steam and I was trying to gather the team for Japan, supposedly. Thank God for Sharon, Xinying and Pang Shen for forming the team, and bringing the whole process to Japan in full motion during the end of the month.

November
November was interesting. The highlight of the month is of course the trip to Japan. It was my first mission trip to do community related work and I was glad that it was to be in Japan. The process and the journey was documented in the previous blog. It was also during this period that I confirmed my calling for mission, since I so enjoyed the work that I was doing during my time in Japan. Of course, there was also Robert's wedding. It was a long awaited wedding for a lot of people and we were glad that we were able to play some part.

December
This is the last month of the year. As we enter Christmas, I must admit that this is one period that work became busier, but it was also supposed to be the last month I serve in the guitaring ministry. This was not to be though. There was also Stanchart Marathon which I prefer not to mention here.

So after so much, let's also review my resolutions for last year:

Firstly, it is to do the things that I am currently doing in a better way. Lead the CG better, disciple my sheep better, relate with people better, play the guitar better. Basically, I will still be doing the same things as I have done last year, but there is always room for improvement. So need to do them better.
Secondly, as I have shared, it's to be more sound minded in my decision making. This is nothing new as well, since I have shared this in a previous post.

Lastly, it's Spirit-leadership. Again, nothing new. But let me just share a few things regarding this. Over at Chiang Mai, I believe that God is speaking to me and confirming to me about this aspect of my life. It is quite fascinating to see that God confirms all these during the teaching sessions by the pastors. The only question is how can I measure my life accordingly? Fruits of the Spirit perhaps? Certainly.

Firstly to do things better, have I achieved so? I think I certainly still have a lot to go for all the things I have been involved but there were certainly improvement. At least I know my guitaring had improved by leaps and bounds. Secondly, I also felt that there's still some way to go in terms of sound decision making, but I do see progress. At least, now I am able to see things objectively while making big decisions, but it was the small decisions that require more work.

Spirit leadership wise, it is one aspect where there's a lot to be thought about, since it is difficult to measure, but am I leading by the Spirit more and more? Again, there's still a lot to be worked upon. I continue to feel that I have a long way to go in terms of moving in the Spirit as well as my own relationship with God, even when other people say otherwise. Yet, this is one area which we will need ot continually grow in and there's never a way to measure the success of such resolutions.

I think following from last year, I will hold off from listing my resolutions for 2012 till I return from Chiang Mai and certainly before my birthday.

Till then, happy new year, my readers.

Moving on from Christmas

2011-12-28T14:50:00.001+08:00

Moving on from Christmas, this is the time to start reflecting on the past year and start planning for the upcoming year.

So what will my resolutions for 2012 be? And how have I performed for 2011? I guess you will find out on New Year day itself.

Would really like to spend the countdown at airport but see how lah...

Testimony on Straits Time

2011-12-26T01:41:00.004+08:00

I never thought Straits Times would publish such stories, but I am impressed that they did. Yet I wonder how many people really read them and ponder on the real meaning of Christmas rather than thinking Christmas as just a merry day of feasting and giving?

Moved by God's love after fall
Chinese national Liu Chengyu, who works as an electrician here, is celebrating his first Christmas because of a spinal fracture from a bad fall in July.
The former atheist, who found God through the ordeal of his injury, said: 'I used to think Christmas had something to do with Santa Claus but the day had no meaning for me until now.'
Tonight, the 44-year-old from Jiangsu province will stand before a 500-strong audience at the Fairfield Methodist Church Chinese Christmas service in Tanjong Pagar Road to share his conversion.
His injury happened when his then employer asked him to repair a light at the workers' dormitory in Punggol where he lived. He lost his balance on an unstable ladder and fell 2m.
Mr Liu received a basic checkup at a hospital, was given some painkillers and discharged the same day. He was back at work after four days of rest. 'I had no choice. If I didn't work, my family in China would have no money,' said the father of a five-year-old daughter and an unemployed 22-year-old son. His spouse is a housewife.
But the pain in his lower back became so agonising that he lost his appetite for 10 days. His employer, however, refused to take him to hospital again so he went on his own.
During his 10-day hospitalisation in August, doctors found that he had a compression fracture in a lower spine vertebra. They advised against an operation as he would risk paralysis.
His employer insisted he pay the $6,000 hospital bill before it reimbursed him, except he had no money. Then his one-year contract expired in September and he found himself out of work. He had no roof over his head too. 'I felt suffocated by my burdens,' Mr Liu said.
At the urging of friends from his former workplace, he attended the migrant worker church service at Fairfield Methodist Church 'to find hope'. He said: 'At the service, I was deeply moved by the love of God and I felt my burdens lifting.' He was baptised a month later.
He eventually found temporary housing with a friend. A lawyer is helping him pro bono to recover medical fees from his former boss.
Because of Mr Liu's medical condition, he is still in pain and unable to sit or stand for long periods, but he does not blame God.
'I am born into a world of sin so suffering is normal. But the birth of Jesus Christ on Christmas to save sinners like me gives me strength to carry on,' he said.
Huang Lijie

Musing about Christmas

2011-12-25T12:29:00.000+08:00

For to us a child is born
To us a son is given... - Isaiah 9:6a

Entering into Christmas, it is intriguing to see people wishing Jesus 'happy birthday' on Facebook and Twitter. But the more I think about it, the more inaccurate I feel.

I was just musing, how can it be that Christmas is the birthday of Jesus? Technically speaking, Christmas is not the birthday of Jesus, because the son is not born, He is given. He has existed eternally. Remember that the Word is with God, and the Word is God? Now, if Jesus is eternal, can someone tell me why are we celebrating His birthday? Isn't birthday a celebration of creation? Yet, I think there are reasons to continue to celebrate if we mean the arrival of the God incarnate on Earth.

All in all, at this stage, I just find it weird to celebrate Christmas as the birthday of God. It just doesn't sound right.

Christmas isn't Christmas till it happens in your heart

2011-12-25T03:21:00.001+08:00

As a worshipper

2011-12-18T01:29:00.000+08:00

And so I served my last time as a stage guitarist for Uni-YA.

For those who are wondering, I did not opt to step down because I am facing problems and issues. Neither is it because of my lack of spiritual life. It is also not because of my lack in skill. In fact, I felt that over time, my own skill has improved a lot and my musical acumen has grown over the past year in serving. It is also interesting to note that I am beginning to be able to fully express myself in worship when I am playing the guitar for praise and worship.

As I reflect through the past one year or so, it has been short but it has been exciting for me, as a worshipper of God. Tiring as it may be due to the need to go for practice and reach service venue early, as well staying back late for evaluation, the price for serving on stage has never been too great as the joy I experience by serving on stage. It is like Eric Liddell who told his sister that when he ran, he felt God's pleasure. It is as if for me, when I played on stage, I felt God's pleasure.

A lot of my reflections from my first time still stand, as I have posted back in 27 July 2010.

It is also interesting to hear comments that I always look happy while playing on stage. Result of joy from the Lord perhaps.

I will miss serving on stage. The reason why I stepped down is to focus more on mission work, and pastoral duties. I never thought I will need to do that one day. One year ago, I thought I could handle pastoral duties with floor managing and stage guitaring. One year on, I guess it is time for me to be more focused and not let myself be towed down by other stuff.

Till next time we serve again, I will never forget the fun we had serving together as a Uni-YA band.

Testing some functions

2011-12-13T08:31:00.002+08:00

Just testing some functions in Google.

Thanksgiving

2011-12-10T00:45:00.001+08:00

I was in the Celebrate Africa event earlier this evening, and during praise and worship, the worship leader mentioned something along the line to ask us to remember how God has brought us through all these years. I thought it was interesting, because it was right at Nexus 6 years ago on 10 Dec that I began my journey with the Lord. How funny is it that 6 years on and I was standing there in Nexus listening about the mission works currently being done in Africa.

But yet, as we continue to pray and fast for the season, I think it is an apt time for us to give thanks to the Lord, for who He is, for He is good and His love endures forever.

God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” - Exodus 3:14

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever. - Psalm 118:1

If there are nothing else we can give thanks to God for, we give thanks to Him for He is good, His love endures forever. That is the love that dies for us while we are still sinners. We give thanks to God for who He is, not who we think He is, nor who other people conjure Him up to be. And I ask myself, what can I give thanks for for all these years?

Give thanks to Him for the family He has given me. They have provided for me well all these years.

Give thanks to Him for the country I am born in. It has sheltered me well all these years.

Give thanks to Him for the education I have been provided. It has molded me well all these years.

Give thanks to Him for the friends I have made in schools all these years. It has been fun.

Give thanks to Him for my first lifegroup in Hope. They have worked hard and prayed hard for my salvation.

Give thanks to Him for my second lifegroup in Hope, and the first one I led. They have endured a lot of my nonsense and inexperience as a noob LGL. And they have brought much fun in the times we have together.

Give thanks to Him for my third lifegroup in Hope. I lump my time in YG transition, Jan's LG and eventually Weiling's LG together. It was the time when I experience great support in the LG while I searched for job.

Give thanks to Him for my fourth lifegroup in Hope, and the current one I'm leading. You taught me a lot on fellowship. To grow from a LG starting from three to now, it was not easy but the fellowship is worth it.

Give thanks to Him for my sheep all these years. They have too endured a lot of my nonsense.

Give thanks to Him for the CLM of my batch. Those are great fellowship and support. There was always great laughter and encouragement everytime we gather.

Give thanks to Him for the MACHO back in the NUS days. It was great having a bunch of brothers with similar vision for God serving together.

Give thanks to Him for the various matric committees that I have served in. I have learned a lot from these experiences and it refined me as a disciple in all these experience.

Give thanks to Him for the YG Camp 2011 committee and the YG conference committee 2010. Those were great privilege to be planning camps and conferences that had impact on people's lives. I am glad to be able to be part of that.

Give thanks to Him for the usher ministry. Though I am no longer a usher, those years in ushering molded me too. I started off as an usher, it will always be a special ministry in my heart.

Give thanks to Him for the worship ministry. It is in the worship ministry that I discover a passion in worship. Though I find freedom in worship playing guitar for God, I will soon be stepping down from the ministry. Yet those were great times.

And many more.

Brothers and sisters, what can you give thanks to God for today? There is still one thing we can give thanks for if all else fail, that He gave us His one and only Son. That's the reason we celebrate Christmas, isn't it?

那些年

2011-12-07T22:07:00.001+08:00

看了这部电影，还真的让俺感触几深一下。

想起那些年，高中暗恋的女生。。。

那些年，高中在教室里踢的足球。。。

那些年，学校胡闹的日子。。。

那些年，当兵吃蛇的日子。。。

那些年，在路上看过，在网路上聊过的女生。。。

那些年，打的电动。。。

那些年，在大学留在教室念书的日子

那些年，在大学捡到的ち，养过的猫。。。

等等。。。等等。。。

也有几句话说的不错，例如男人在喜欢的女孩子面前，其实是很胆小的。我现在还是在喜欢的女孩子面前一样胆小。。。

虽然已没像当年那么幼稚，但是比以往更笨，更白痴。。。我是指在喜欢的女孩子面前的时候。。。

回味。。。那些年

Remembering His Story

2011-12-06T23:39:00.001+08:00

It just so happens that this week is a time of reflecting and evaluating my own walk with God. It is a good time to do so too, especially when all the events confluence together to make it a special time to do so. I will hope to elaborate more on this on Saturday. But as I was reflecting, I was reminded of Psalm 78:

My people, hear my teaching;
listen to the words of my mouth.
I will open my mouth with a parable;
I will utter hidden things, things from of old—
things we have heard and known,
things our ancestors have told us.
We will not hide them from their descendants;
we will tell the next generation
the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD,
his power, and the wonders he has done.
He decreed statutes for Jacob
and established the law in Israel,
which he commanded our ancestors
to teach their children,
so the next generation would know them,
even the children yet to be born,
and they in turn would tell their children.
Then they would put their trust in God
and would not forget his deeds
but would keep his commands.
They would not be like their ancestors—
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
whose hearts were not loyal to God,
whose spirits were not faithful to him. - Psalm 78:1-8

I do believe that there is a reason for God to exhort His people to remember His deeds. This consistently happens throughout the OT when God or the protagonists set up markers to remember the things God has done for them. One incident that I can remember clearly comes from Joshua:

When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua, “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.”

So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.” - Joshua 4:1-7

The act of reminding ourselves the deeds of God serves to... well... remind ourselves of His deeds in our lives. This may sound a bit 'duh' but I just thought to myself, how many times do we apply the 'Recency rule' in our lives and based our relationship with God on the current events of our lives, without thinking through what He has done before that? A lot of time, we may have lost track of our own walk in God because we have lost track of what He has done and the miraculous transformation of our rebellious heart into one that follows Him.

Even as we pray for Christmas, pray for harvest, pray for anything and everything, let's ask ourselves if we have really set up sufficient markers in our own journey with God where we can remind ourselves of His faithfulness and goodness in our lives? Do we look back and marvel at His majesty and wonders in turning our lives inside out since the day we were found? Our history is indeed His Story.

Oceans will part

2011-12-04T19:27:00.001+08:00

It was very ironic. I was happily running my marathon somewhere towards the 25km mark (I think) and suddenly I found my muscle rub cream missing. As a result I decided to slow down and started walking instead. Halfway walking towards MCE, I was looking at the sea, and thought to myself... I don't like the sea and ocean after my STM (I think I was having that thought or somewhere along the line of making sense of my feelings towards the sea).

Perhaps God has a sense of humor which no one can comprehend. Just then, my MP3 was playing the song - Oceans will part.

I guess God has a way to make us slow down so that He can meet with us and speaks to us. How ironic, when we are singing Oceans will part, oceans parted and destroyed life, and I wonder if people really know what they are singing about, when they ask God to show them the work of His hands, when it is not going to accept the answer.

I guess I am still in the midst of making sense of what I saw in Japan. But following that, I think it was good 3 hours plus walk with God and hearing from Him, being ministered by His Spirit.

2011-12-02T09:44:00.001+08:00

When I watched this video on Chris Tomlin narrating the process of recording the world edition of 'How great is our God', I just felt the same way as I did in my previous post. God deserves to be honored in every languages and tongues.

Feel like leading a multi-language PnW now...

我神真伟大， Besarlah Tuhan!

2011-12-01T00:02:00.001+08:00

I was on my way back home when I was thinking of the world edition of Chris Tomlin's How Great is Our God. Something touched me deep within on the bus. It is the fact that God is and can be praised and worshipped in all tongues and languages - a fact that should make it worthwhile for us to go the effort to witness His gospel. And this by itself testifies His greatness.

How great is our God
All will sing
How great is our God
All will see
How great, how great is our God

我神真伟大
歌颂你圣名，真伟大
全地都看见
我神真伟大

Besarlah Tuhan
Puji Dia
Besarlah Tuhan
S'luruh semesta ajaib
Besarlah Tuhan

なんて偉大な
我らの主あなたわ
全地わ知る
偉大な神

(Sorry, only able to provide the translations in languages which I understand... to ensure a certain degree of accuracy over what I took from the internet)

And John said in Revelations that he looked and 'there before him was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb'.

And there they worshipped the Lord.

Besarlah Yesu.

The shovel under the house

2011-11-29T21:50:00.001+08:00

On a lighter note about the trip, in the first house that I worked on, there was a snow shovel stuck under the house. Turns out that the tsunami wave lifted the house, and the snow shovel floated in under the space. No prize for guessing what happened after the wave subsided....

Taking down a house

2011-11-29T20:00:00.001+08:00

Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. - Matthew 7:24-25 (NIV 2011)

I thought I wanted to pen this thought down before I forgot again. During my time in Japan, we were tearing down houses, so that they could be rebuilt again. These houses were soaked by the tsunami water and due to the way the houses were built, we had to put in a lot of effort in cleaning and clearing up the mess.

I was then just thinking, how are we building our own house? What are we building our houses on? Build it wrongly for the wrong purpose on the wrong foundation, and it will take a lot of destruction and tearing down to rebuild a new one. Such is the work of the God's pruning.

Apple of His Eyes

2011-11-28T21:10:00.001+08:00

He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field" - Luke 10:2 (NIV 2011)

As those who are following my Facebook would know, I was away for a relief mission trip to Japan over the past one week. To be honest, I never thought that I will one day end up in Japan doing mission, but God's sovereign plan works differently from what we have in mind. I wonder how am I going to start this post updating all of you what happened in Japan over the past one week and some of my thoughts.

It really all began when I received the brochure from Hope Centre calling for volunteers for the disaster relief mission to Japan. At that time, I just felt that I would like to join in the trip but I wasn't quite sure if I want to commit given the cost and time. It wasn't until I received an email asking if anyone is interested that I decided that I wanted to go for it, just to experience what is it like to be part of disaster relief.

The programme was coordinated by OM and Samaritan's Purse, focusing on the affected houses that were damaged by the Tsunami at Ishinomaki-shi. Our job there was to tear down and clean up the houses which were damaged by the tidal waves so that the carpenters from Samaritan's Purse were able to come and refurnish the houses. Below are some of the pictures from Ishinomaki-shi.

On the right: a house that was destroyed by the tsunami

The outside of the church that hosted us

More damages of the town

It used to be a house there

Yes... It is flat now...

Some of the houses across the church

The second house we worked on

The dirt and debris we cleared from the house

The owner's name is Minami Kawa

We were joined by fellow brothers and sisters from other churches in Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau and Australia. The work included pulling out wood and floor boards, pulling out nails, clearing the mud and dirt from the tsunami, cleaning and bleaching the leftover.

It was also quite sad when we visited other affected areas:

This used to be a church... It was wiped clean by the tsunami

I can only say one thing... It was flat, it was really flat.

What can I say after the whole ordeal of seeing and working in the houses?

It is very easy to ask why did such things happen to anyone? It is very easy to think of an unloving God when one sees the level of devastation that occurred in Japan, or even in Sumatra back in 2004. It is heart breaking enough. I remembered I was standing in front of what used to be the entrance of a building, only to see flat land in front of me. I remembered attending a prayer meeting there and the pastor shared that the body of the wife of one of the residents at Ishinomaki was found the week before we arrived, 8 months after the disaster. I remembered seeing the heaps of debris and all the technological advances of one of the most developed economies in the world could not handle the destruction of nature.

Gone, it was all gone in one wave.

And I was really asking God, 'Why?'

Can you imagine standing there, right after the wave came, seeing what you used to know is not what you know now? I thought I was looking at Singapore without Sumatra. I vividly remembered reading the news in 2004, that if not for Sumatra, Singapore would have been wiped out by the tsunami. I thought I was looking at that possibility back in Japan.

But yet, at the aftermath of the disaster, when all hope seemed lost, we know intuitively, as Christ followers, that Jesus is the hope. I remembered in an interview conducted with one of the fisherman, who happened to be the first family to open up to Samaritan's Purse and OM, that he almost lost all hope until the Christian volunteers came. Almost all the Japanese whom we randomly talked to along the way thanked us for coming to help with the relief work. We visited the temporary shelter and the ladies were so grateful that we brought them food and clothing for the winter. It is at the aftermath of the disaster that the hope from Christ became apparent to the people (and I hope it won't take one for Singaporeans to realise too)

I was reflecting over the past one week on the work in Japan and other mission works around the world. Jesus is right. The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. There are so much work remained to be done. Not only in Japan, where houses remained to be rebuilt and lives remained to be restored, but also in other countries, in our own workplaces. The aroma of Christ is waiting to be spread but the workers are few. How much can we accomplish?

And I was reminded by the words of encouragement from Ming Siew, the incredible lady from OM leading the work there. She mentioned that we should not measure successes by our standard but by the standard of God. Of course, when one sees the work she is doing, when one sees the work that her assistant, Tomomi, is doing, you know that they need more. As I think about what other churches are doing in other countries, I know that they need more workers. But even as I think about our own workplaces, I also know that the workplaces need more people who are willing to stand up for God.

But where are we?

For me personally, I just wonder how can I just stand it, being here in Singapore, while knowing that the world still needs more workers out there for the harvest? Granted that the workplace is a mission field by itself.

One good thing from this trip is that it further confirms God's calling for me to the mission field. It's becoming clearer and clearer by the moment. I was working in the house, pulling out nails when I found myself enjoying the work a lot. It is the kind of work that we get foreign workers to do back here in Singapore but when I know that it's for an eternal purpose, the work takes on a different meaning altogether. It is there in Japan, working with Ming Siew and Tomomi and Jason - the real missionaries, that I caught a glimpse of eternity, of the work that missionaries do. (To qualify, the work they do are not exactly the church planting missions that we often talk about in Hope Church). It makes me want to take a three months no pay leave to engage full time in missionary work - just to see if I'm cut out for this in the long term. I guess I can never look at my own work, and my own calling the same way again. It is now almost sure that I will want to devote my life to mission work.

The only question is in what form.

The secondary question is when and where.

But I was reminded of the passage from 2 Kings.

Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die? If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’—the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.”

At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, no one was there, for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us!” So they got up and fled in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives.

The men who had leprosy reached the edge of the camp, entered one of the tents and ate and drank. Then they took silver, gold and clothes, and went off and hid them. They returned and entered another tent and took some things from it and hid them also.

Then they said to each other, “What we’re doing is not right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let’s go at once and report this to the royal palace.” - 2 Kings 7:3-9 (NIV 2011)

In the passage, God used 4 lepers, who preceded Aristotle and demonstrated excellent and impeccable Greek logic, to take a step of faith to go to the Arameans. They had nothing to lose by going to Arameans, since 3 out of 4 choices they had, they were going to die anyway. I was just asking myself, what do I have to lose if I decide to obey to God's calling and go into the mission field? What do I stand to lose?

And when the lepers realised that that was the day of good news as they 'rampaged' through the empty camp, they did not hesitate to go and report the news. We, as Christ followers, know the Good News of Jesus but do we hesitate or wait to spread the news? Do we just talk but display no action? One thing that I learned over the trip is that our actions count. The Japanese may not be receptive to the gospels by word, but they see us helping, and recognise the gospels in deed.

So what do we got to lose?

Can we trust God to bring us through if we decided to obey and submit to His call? One thing which inspired me a lot was the faith and obedience of the long term workers there. It was really heart touching to see people responding to God willingly, giving up so much in the eyes of the world for so little (which reaps a lot of eternal rewards).

Of course, even as I reflect through, I am also reminded of one danger point. It is very easy to be touched and inspired by a mission trip. The question remains: what are we going to do with it? It is very easy to be burdened with the people whom you serve during the mission trip, but it is the onus of the individual to earnestly seek God to ask Him for the direction and path and not merely allow ourselves to direct our way just simply based on any seeming burden. It takes prayer and a lot of prayer. Burden cannot be taken lightly and should never be. It is easy to say that you feel burdened for Batam, Cambodia etc, but it is another thing to determine where God is exactly leading you towards.

The trip did not end on Friday. I was glad that we had a chance to join the brothers and sisters from Hope Tokyo on Saturday for fellowship and to tour around Waseda University:

The mission did not just end at Ishinomaki. We joined Hope Tokyo at Waseda University to tour the ground. Found out from them that they wanted to target at the university students and needed strong leaders there. I smell an opportunity for support mission. It was also heart warming that they are concerned over the development of the disaster areas as well.

Overall, I think my perspective changed a lot over at Japan. It is difficult to see things the same again, and I think I am fairly prepared to take my prolong no-pay leave. 2012 might well be a more missional year for me.

We are the apple of His eyes.

Fellowship of the Unashamed

2011-11-25T21:32:00.001+08:00

I am a part of the fellowship of the Unashamed. I have the Holy Spirit
Power. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has
been made. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won't look back, let up, slow
down, back away, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense,
and my future is secure. I am finished and done with low living, sight
walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tame visions,
mundane talking, chintzy giving, and dwarfed goals.

I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or
popularity. I don't have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised,
regarded, or rewarded. I now live by presence, learn by faith, love by
patience, lift by prayer, and labor by power.

My pace is set, my gait is fast, my goal is Heaven, my road is narrow, my
way is rough, my companions few, my Guide is reliable, my mission is clear.
I cannot be bought, compromised, deterred, lured away, turned back, diluted,
or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the
presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the
pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of
mediocrity.

I won't give up, back up, let up, or shut up until I've preached up, prayed
up, paid up, stored up, and stayed up for the cause of Christ. I am a
disciple of Jesus Christ. I must go until He returns, give until I drop,
preach until all know, and work until He comes.

And when He comes to get His own, He will have no problem recognizing me. My
colors will be clear for "I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the
power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.." (Romans 1:16)

By Dr. Bob Moorehead

Running for a cause

2011-11-15T23:27:00.001+08:00

https://www.give.sg/TeamGIVE/huanyan/running-for-a-cause

I have been running marathons since God knows when. I saw this give.sg thingy on one of the SCSM newsletter and decided that I have nothing to lose if I participate in one of the charities to help raise fund for the cause.

I chose Make a Wish Singapore as the charity I'm raising fund for. For no particular reason but I just felt that making wishes come true and giving these children a fantastic experience and granting their wish is quite something.

Make-a-Wish basically makes the impossible a reality for the children with life threatening diseases, so as to bring more relief to them in the midst of their struggle and to bring them hope. As a believer, I think we are the salt and light of the world and if there's anything we should bring to the world, it's love, hope and faith.

Freely we receive, freely we should give.

So do support me. Since I am going to run, I might as well do it for a good cause.

Interesting day

2011-11-13T01:02:00.001+08:00

Today is the wedding of Robert and Melissa. As most would know, Robert is the goofy guy who brought me to know Christ some years back (he has since complained that his current weight is a result of the frequent late night suppers with me back then). Nevertheless, being happy for them, looking at them, I would never have imagined that I would witness the day he gets married. Maybe there are some people in my life whom I would not imagine the day of their marriage. Perhaps it's the surrealism that we were still so young and single in the good old days and then we realise that families are being started and formed as a result of matrimonial union.

Of course, in the midst of helping out with the wedding, there have been conversations about our own matrimonial futures. After all, every wedding we attend is an opportunity for the singles and unmarried to start fantasizing on their big day. It also becomes an opportunity for people to tease one another - today I was the victim....

Yet, as true as it might be that I can start fantasizing on the day of my own wedding, or the day when I propose marriage to whoever is with me at that time, I think I am still very contented to remain single for the time being. I believe a few ingredients are in place here. The most important being God Himself who have to be in the picture. Exactly how, I am still exploring and thinking and learning. However, for me, one thing is very clear, my first priority is the path and destiny that I know God has laid for me, which means that I can like any sisters I want but as long as the sister is not following the same path, it will thus become very difficult for me to go into a lifelong partnership with her.

Of course, I believe that being single comes with its perks. After all, as Paul said, an unmarried man is concerned about the Lord's affairs - how he can please the Lord (1 Corinthians 7:32). The perk being that I can have the time to serve God in whatever capacity that a married couple does not have. But definitely this does not mean I will have more capability but it just means I can have more flexibility in terms of time and space. And being single gives me the space to grow in the Lord and to make decisions in a carefree manner.

Yet I think we tend to miss out one important thing which Paul added in that passage as a qualifier:

Nevertheless, each person should live as a believer in whatever situation that the Lord has assigned to them, just as God has called them. - 1 Corinthians 7:17 (NIV)

After all, it's really more important to have a bearing on God's calling than to seek marriage without a sense of direction.

That being said, before I forget, I just want to point out something which I realise in my research about relationships. What happen in most literatures about godly relationships is that they are written and thought through without a consideration or exhorting the readers to consider the compatibility in vision. I may be overgeneralising here, but while I do realise that most of the examples I have read in the literatures (mostly from America) assumes that the couples' ministries will remain locally. Actually, it is often easier if the couples' ministries or callings are localised. More often than not, I realise that situations where people's vision becomes incompatible are not addressed, especially for aspiring missionaries. I am not sure if this is a situation that is peculiar to the context that I operate in. Yet, I just want to point out that if you are a single, and if you are sure that God is leading you to go church planting, there is no use in pursuing a girl who has set her heart away from that path.

Lastly, ending the whole post, my EJ160E made its debut today during the church wedding:

The JD

2011-11-12T00:55:00.001+08:00

Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds - John 12:24 (NIV)

Sometime back I had a revelation. After thinking through and reflecting it, from the different verses within the bible, I concluded that dying is part of the job description as a disciple of Christ.

Sounds taunting, but think about it. Jesus came to earth as the God incarnate to do what? Die! What did he really say throughout the gospels? In John 12:24, I felt that this is where he has put it so explicitly, that unless we die, we remain only a single seed. Of course, it doesn't really mean physically dying but that's part of the picture.

Let's break the JD down further. The first death we have to go through is perhaps dying to our selfish and sinful self. This is what John 12:24 would have meant, similar to Luke 9:23 where we are exhorted to deny ourselves and take up our cross. In the MSG translation of Luke 9:23, it translates denying ourselves as letting Jesus be on the driver's seat. In other words, it's the same as John saying 'he must become greater, and I must become smaller'. This is perhaps one form of death that is more palatable to most of us, although the thought of letting God taking control forms a sense of resistance even within the most ardent disciples at some point in time.

The second form of death is what I call martyr, the physical dying for the sake of Christ's kingdom. This is the form of death that we often read in the bible. Al the apostles, with the exception of John, died a martyr death - Peter was crucified upside down, Paul beheaded, James beheaded, Thomas speared to death, etc etc etc. Stephen was stoned to death. Jim Elliot, Adonirum Judson and many more modern missionaries all died for the sake of Christ. We are told in the bible that in the last days, we will be persecuted and be held on trial. Jesus said not to be afraid as this would be the chance for us to proclaim the reason why we believe. Our death would lead to His glory more than His disgrace - and this made possible only by His resurrection. As Paul said it quite aptly: "To live is Christ and to die is gain".

I just ask myself "am I ready to die for Christ when the time comes". This used to be the question that was being asked during water baptism. I still can't believe that it is not asked now, taunting or not. But this is one question that I believe as believers and disciples, we ought to think about seriously.

And the day will come when this clause in the JD will be activated.

Musing

2011-11-11T08:18:00.001+08:00

In today's Straits Times, an article on an ultra-Jewish community has this statement:

And anyone who attempts to drive through the neighbourhood on the Sabbath - when driving is banned under Jewish law - risks a rock thrown through their windscreen

I find it amusing. If how is throwing a rock not considered work as driving?

EJ160E

2011-11-08T21:45:00.001+08:00

For those who are not aware, I recently broke the guitar that Shuyi lent me sometime back. I had been using the guitar for some time and upon breaking the guitar, I realised how much I like that model. It's an Epiphone EJ160E, supposedly Epiphone's remodeling of Gibson's J160E, which was the first electric acoustic guitar supposedly in the market and the one which John Lennon used when he first started performing.

The guitar is bigger than most acoustic guitar that I know and at retail price, is more expensive than the Timothy that was used for the Uni-YA service. In my opinion, it sounds better than Timothy too. It has a natural amplification and the sound produced is generally sharp and crisp, much to my liking.

So I bought over the broken guitar from Shuyi, and decided to get the replacement EJ160E over eBay. I managed to find a supplier who was able to ship the good to Singapore. This one shown in this post is the replacement. It costs me around SGD 750, after shipping cost (retail price at Swee Lee is around $2000). This is a second hand guitar but man, I think its previous owner took good care of it. What's best is that it has no defect (the previous one has a slight manufacturing defect).

This baby is gonna make its debut soon this coming Saturday during Robert's church wedding... Next hunt, maybe a Variax?

To think a small church

2011-11-06T20:58:00.001+08:00

This post can be seen as a continuation of my previous post on my thoughts on restructuring, but it primarily sprouted from my reflections on my previous and current experience leading a lifegroup in church.

Often (or not so seldom), I have heard of people in church comparing a large or megachurch to that of a small church. One of the main argument for a small church is that the small size of the church allows the people in the church to know one another and to do life together whilst for a large church, people tend to be more distant from one another and the chance to know everyone in the church decreases with the the increasing number of people.

Let's just concede a point. It is almost impossible for people in a large church to know one another. I bet today, our pastors in Hope Singapore won't know every single person in the church. And it would almost be a drudgery if you belong to a small church and you don't really know the people in the church.

The problem with the argument about knowing everyone in the church lies upon a flawed assumption: that you need to know everyone in the church. But it is understandable because that's precisely the ideal state, that we know the people in church and we do life together. That's precisely the whole idea of a local church, where a group of Christ followers come together to find fellowship and to spur one another on towards Christlikeness and the advancement of God's Kingdom. Yet, does this mean that a church should stop growing once it reached a particular size so that people can know one another?

Hardly.

I believe that a church that is Kingdom minded will always expand and grow, rate of growth notwithstanding. Each church will grow at a different rate and will cater to different group of people. Yet, it is hardly believable to fathom that a church that believes deeply in the Great Commission will not grow and reach out to people. It is hardly imaginable that a group of Christ followers will not move to advance the Great Commission without making disciples and making disciple makers. Of course, maybe some churches will remain small by God's purpose, and some will grow into megachurches, by God's purpose as well.

So does that mean that people have to be disenfranchised when the church grows bigger?

Again, hardly.

As a church grows bigger, it must become smaller at the same time. This sounds like an oxymoron, but it is true. At least in Hope, the system of lifegroup provides the very conduit for the church to become smaller while growing bigger. Each lifegroup, from what I see, constitute a church in its own. A church, after all, just refers to the gathering of Christ followers. A lifegroup, I believe, is meant to be mobile, to be able to reach and meet the specific needs of people in the church, to provide the fellowship and the encouragement, spurring on and the discipleship needed. When the people can't get to build intimate relationship with the people in the church, they can do so in the lifegroup. That's the very amazing thing about being in a small group, which unfortunately, may have been underemphasized in some of the larger churches. I am convicted that the glamour of a church (if there's any to begin with in the first place) can be found in a vibrant lifegroup rather than a highly well-run church service.

In short, the lifegroup in a church should be the church to its members. This is where lives meet and lives are shared. To those who think that a small church is better, let the lifegroup be the church you want to be in.

Thru blogger app

2011-11-04T23:54:00.001+08:00

First post thru blogger app.

I am just thinking about it, do we sometime ask God 'why'? Why do we ask God why? Do we know why we are asking Him why?

Just some random thoughts after a drink. I should quit drinking altogether...

A calling

2011-10-26T22:41:00.001+08:00

A calling is simply God's shaping of your burden and his beckoning you to your service to Him in the place and pursuit of His choosing. Finding your home in your service to Christ is key to noticing the threads that God has designed just for you. When you find it, you inevitably feel that hand-in-glove sensation. Finding it gives you the security of knowing that you are utilising your gifts and your will to God's ends first, not yours. When you align your will with God's will, His calling on you has found its home. A true call of God puts a tug on your soul that you cannot escape, no matter how unattractive the cost of following it may feel. And what is the starting point of this process? The Bible leaves us in no doubt: do what you know to be God's will, and then watch how He will lead you into what you do not yet know. You are God's temple, act like it. God reinforces His call as you respond to His nod. - Ravi Zacharias, in his book "The Grand Weaver"

Beautiful Tabernacle

2011-10-23T21:32:00.003+08:00

I was reading on the instructions that God was giving to Moses on the construction of the Tabernacle. It is very interesting (but very boring and tiring) to read that God gives such meticulous instruction to Moses on how to construct the Tabernacle. I think most people would probably skip through the entire process or just skimp through. I, for one, am not a person who can sit down and admire the precision of the design of the Tabernacle, although I think a civil engineer or an architect would most likely be marveled at the level of instructions given (which has allowed scholars to reconstruct the design).

What I was really intrigued by the whole passage is that during the end of the passage, God said to Moses this, "Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God." (Exodus 29:45). And at the end of the construction of the Tabernacle, this happened:

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. - Exodus 40:34-35

So, what this tells me is the obvious thing that once the Israelites obeyed the instruction given and constructed the Tabernacle to the letter, God's glory was then able to dwell in the Tabernacle. Now, Paul said something very interesting which has been quoted in almost all sermons on purity - the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells in the human body as the temple. I am trying very hard to describe this but essentially the link that I want to bring across is that the Israelites had to meticulously construct the Tabernacle without any mistakes so that God can dwell in the Tabernacle. The acceptance of Jesus as our Lord and Saviour brings the same effect and effectively makes our body the beautiful and perfect construction (as deemed by God) for His Spirit to dwell in us, thus making us the walking sanctuary.

The equation: Tabernacle => Human Body as cleansed by Jesus => What creations are we to God that He sees us good enough for His Spirit to dwell in us?

Confessions on Restructuring

2011-10-14T18:33:00.002+08:00

Being in the Uni-YA group in Hope Church, one reality that the LGs often faces is the frequent restructuring of LGs across the different groups. This means that LGs may see new people coming in, old people going out, or even see the whole group broken up to join other groups. Sometimes, the situation necessitates the need to restructure, like new people joining from other ministries, or people graduating etc etc. I think in this post, I want to give some thoughts over this system. My stand may not represent the official stance of the church regarding restructuring, or may not reflect the viewpoint of my leaders, neither does it seek to undermine their authority, though it may be a bit provocative and I may be seen to be shooting myself in the foot for some of my views.

Now, what do I think about restructuring? As a basic principle, I think I often want to start from the purpose why we gather as a LG, or even as a church. The bible is very heavy on this idea, but often, we don't find a lot of anchoring verses (which I think explains why sometime people do not view involvement in a local church that seriously although they may genuinely love God). Perhaps the best verse I can think of currently, and perhaps the most popular verse as well comes from Acts 2:42-47:

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teachings and to fellowship, to the breaking of the bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions and give to anyone who had need. Everyday they continued to meet together at the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were saved.

I believe that a group of people in the LG/church comes together to learn the Word of God together, to fellowship and to encourage each other in their walk with God, to meet each other's needs. Essentially we function as a spiritual family. And it is in a church setting that we are able to grow and be nourished by God, that we receive the covering of the church leadership and people who were willing to shepherd and disciple us.

But we have yet addressed the issue of restructuring. If one reads the book of Acts, God allowed the breaking up of the beautiful picture of the fellowship mentioned in Acts 2 so that the gospel could be spread beyond Jerusalem. (Read the bible). In some sense, God forced a restructuring of how the early church would operate by dispersing the people around. The result was obvious. We see people like Philip reaching out to the Ethopian eunuch. We see the church growing in places like Antioch and from there, to the rest of Asia and eventually into Europe. So biblically, I think God will at times force the church to reorganise itself so that the Kingdom could advance forward.

But I think at such a macro level, people will still have issues with restructuring, because a restructuring affect the relationship of human beings within the setting of a spiritual family.

As a basic principle, now moving to the question on the rationale for restructuring LGs, I think a few things we as leaders in the church should always take note (these are not mutually exclusive but I just try to categorise them to gain greater clarity):

Pastoral needs should always come first. In the church, we are in the business of discipling human beings, God's creation. Eventually, we want to meet needs in the LGs and sometimes, when the needs are unable to be met due to different reasons, then we will need to consider if we want to do a little bit of reorganisation to ensure we meet the needs of our sheep. This may mean that you will have to move people around because there is not enough shepherds in the other group.
Ensure continuity and stability. This is sometimes not possible, based on personal experience, but I think as far as possible, we should make sure people stay together. I don't think the reason of comfort zone should be brought out as a reason to split people up as this is a really lame excuse. Yes, moving people out of their comfort zone will make them grow, but how much would you want to move people out of their comfort zone? We need to know that in the LG, people develop relationships and friendship which are held delicately by the structure. Not that people do not value these relationships, but these relationships may not even be forged without the structure of the LG in place. Different people have different thresholds for moving out of their comfort zone also, and how many times do we see people leaving church because of such frequent restructuring? Instead of listening to their concerns, I sometimes think as leaders, we move too fast split people and we split people up more frequently than necessary.
Listen from God. I seriously think that sometimes we act like God. We think just because we are appointed into that position, we know best on how to organise and structure our group 'because we have God's anointing'. I am, by no means, saying that this applies to all of us but we need to acknowledge that we fall into that trap at times. I am just wondering if we have observed what God is doing in the LGs enough and if we have listened to His voice enough to decide on the best course of action with regards to restructuring. Or do we just react to situations, like just because a group is big, therefore we have to split the group, on the reasoning (very human reasoning) that it is difficult to meet needs in a big group. Then again, how big is big and how small is small and what is really ideal? When we act upon human reasoning, we sometimes fail to see and observe what God is really going to do with group. More than often, when we start doing this, we will start extracting bible verses to support our case.

I voice these things to be taken note for very good reasons. I do observe that relationships built up during one's stint in a LG are often the catalyst for spiritual growth and vibrancy. Different people react differently to restructuring and sometimes, we need to acknowledge that as spiritual leaders, we have not listened to their concerns enough, have not done enough to address their concerns, or even have not seek God enough to act on our decisions. We sometimes just pray to God for His blessings before we actually got His blessings. In some sense, we became too 'organisational'. And normally when we allow people to voice out their concerns or God to speak to us, we have already made up our mind or it is too late. I am speaking very generically here and it may not reflect the experience of everyone but we will need to acknowledge first of all that a restructuring is first and foremost an emotional experience for those who are being restructured.

So where do we move from here? If you ask me, I am not really sure. The nature of a university ministry (and the younger ministries) is such that restructuring is more than often necessary as each group would have different number of people moving on and joining in. How about groups like the YG? I think the YG journey is interestingly preoccupied with restructuring during its formative years, for various reasons. Today, we can see that the structure has stablised. Therefore, one question which someone asked me recently is whether is there a need to restructure in YG and split people up if the LG can function effectively for the Kingdom of God and if the LG can even move on to other ministry (like adults) together.

My preliminary thought is that it is possible. I grow up in an environment where restructuring is a norm, but it is not necessarily obvious that restructuring should be a norm. The one reason why this is so is because it takes time for a LG to grow and develop intimacy in the relationship to be effective. My experience as a LGL, both in NUS and YG, has shown me that even if people already know one another, it takes about a year or two to actually stablise and build meaningful and open relationship with one another so that the LG can move to a performing stage. Then my own question is this, if a LG can function effectively and its restructuring will cause more loss to the Kingdom, then could it remain the way it is? Again, I think we have often failed to hear enough from God on this issue.

My concluding thoughts? I seriously think that we need to consider carefully the ways of restructuring in a church. Everything we do in a church will become beneficial if God is in the picture and if we are able to lean not in our own human understanding. While sometimes secular management theories may work, but God's wisdom is sometimes foolishness in the eyes of man. And because a church consists of people, we need to consider carefully their feelings and desires and the relationships in the LG instead of sometimes having leaders to impose our views and decisions on them and expecting them to submit 'because it is commanded in the bible'. People will submit but I don't think in such a manner. For me, I am generally ok with restructuring but to end off, I see stability as an important factor that we will need to consider. In short, I have no answer to this issue of restructuring, except that it has to be God-driven thing.

Kopi Talk

2011-10-11T22:53:00.001+08:00

Ever wonder what coffeeshop uncles and taxi drivers will talk about at the coffeeshops if they are Christ believers? What will they lament, complain or share about? How will they approach the issues of family, work and friends over a cup of kopi or teh? How would it look like?

You see, if you are not from Singapore, we have this place called the coffeeshop, where people will generally gather to have their lunch and dinner. Late in the night, you see people gather for a beer or something. Generally, a common scene is to see retired men and women gathering to talk about anything under the sun. And in Singapore, I can be sure almost all of them are not Christians. And yet, what would they have talked about? What are the kind of issues if we Christians decide to gather at the coffee table to discuss? How would we encourage each other?

This will be the series of kopi talk that I will be having with my LG. We will talk and discuss about issues that we generally don't talk about in a causal setting. We will emulate the spirit of the coffeeshop uncles and try to talk as they do, to share and complain openly about the pertinent issues of the day.

And so if you think there are issues that should be talked about in a coffeeshop, let me know or drop me a note.

ArtScience Museum

2011-10-06T21:19:00.001+08:00

I randomly decided to step into the ArtScience Museum and paid $24 to go in and see the exhibitions a few days back. Must admit the exhibitions are quite interesting. Here's some photos which I have taken from the exhibitions:

iDead

2011-10-06T16:05:00.000+08:00

So apparently Steve Jobs passed on just right after Iphone 4S was released. It was so surprising that I almost thought it was a prank by Apple or a marketing stunt to increase the demand for 4S.

As incredible as his life was, unfortunately, I do believe that his legacy will outlive him. It is a bit disturbing to see people commenting that the innovations of Apple will fall together with Jobs but this may not necessarily be the case. Perhaps other companies will see the chance for them to finally catch up with Apple in terms of their product offers but a few things one has to bear in mind. Firstly, Steve Jobs did not operate in vacuum although one can see the influence of his ideas and visions in Apple. Yet companies like Sony and Microsoft have and will continue to outlive their founders to push the boundaries of innovation. Such historical precedents show me that it is not impossible for Apple to die off with Steve Jobs. Of course, keeping my fingers crossed, I am hoping that the spirit of innovation is really part of the DNA within Apple.

Secondly, I read it somewhere, but Apple usually looks at its production line in long term, so it is unlikely that iPhone 5 will ultimately die off with Steve Jobs. In fact, I would think that the demise of Jobs should lead to a greater degree of product innovation within Apple, given the fact that Jobs had kept a tight reign over the design of Apple products. Perhaps, finally, we will be able to see more jailbreak functions available in future iteration of iPhones, and better user interface in future versions of Mac OSX? Perhaps finally we may even be able to start customise our experience of the iOS? Perhaps, finally, we will be able to see lighter, slimmer and more powerful iPad or iPhone?

Thirdly, one will have to admit that while Steve Jobs has the vision, he may not necessarily be the innovative one. The avid and more careful historians of Steve Jobs and Apple will tell you Steve Jobs merely saw the potential of the products rather than inventing them, or rather he discovered them accidentally. It's the same story for iPod, Pixar, Macintosh etc. Yet his hunch for the mixture of art and science in his products was admirable. Creativity and innovation are not exclusive to one person and given Apple's reputation being built up by Jobs, it is possible for Apple to start attracting people of creative calibre.

My point is that as great as Steve Jobs was in his life, his death may well be the beginning and not the end for Apple. People are sad but when emotions fade away, we will see that the legacy left by him in Apple may well be a long lasting one, hopefully for a long time before Orange and Durian emerge to challenge their position.

What Discontent

2011-10-02T09:34:00.002+08:00

I was travelling back home last night after a brief round of brainless fun with my LG in the arcade after dinner. Along the way, while I was travelling in the train, it suddenly flashed upon me (I forgot how that thought came to me) that there is a discontentment within me. It is not about discontented with what I have currently, since I know God has blessed me with a lot of things and I have learned to live with what I have.

But it is a sort of discontentment that says 'I still need to grow more and more in wisdom and understanding'. It is the kind of discontentment that makes me feel that I still have a long way to go in terms of understanding the word of God and the intricacies of biblical principles, as well as the realisation that I still want to know more, learn more and yet have such limited resources to do so (but the Holy Spirit is an infinite resource). What more is the limited capacity within ourselves to apply the knowledge and principles that we often sieve from the word of God.

I began to wonder, thus, the attitudes of believers nowadays on what they are really discontented with. Are we discontented with our pay, our work, our friends, our church, our leaders? Are we discontented with the right stuff or are we discontented with the wrong stuff that may serve to distract us away from God? I had an interesting conversation with some of the brothers and sisters in my LG and we were talking about some of the younger believers nowadays. It may be a bit of a generalisation but we all do observe that the theory of the strawberry generation is true, at least here in our Uni-YA service. How many times do we observe that nowadays students are more interested in their projects and SEPs than their service to God? How many times do we observe that people want to do things in the name of God instead of doing things for God? For their self-interest? Because they felt that they are being short-changed in the church? Because they are discontented with the wrong things?

Thoughts on giving

2011-09-30T15:27:00.001+08:00

I am just musing about the principle of giving in the bible, especially the concept of tithing. I am not here to encourage people to tithe or give to the church but to point out something that I find amusing in my own study of the bible, though a bit preliminary at the moment.

It is commonly accepted that in the OT, God instituted the system of tithing as a fixed percentage of produce that the people needed to give. This is well documented in the OT:

Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year - Deuteronomy 14:22

And it is obvious that God views tithing quite seriously as shown by His rebuke of the Israelites in Malachi:

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the LORD Almightly, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it" - Malachi 3:10

I am not here to argue for the benefit of tithing other than pointing out the obvious fact that the bible commands the Israelites to tithe in the OT. But how about now? I have read arguments that argues for the fact that since the NT times basically negates the law of the OT times, including the system of tithing. There is no biblical basis in the NT for tithing. I have to agree that there is nowhere in the NT that tells people that they need to tithe, but following by that logic, then I think the proponents of tithing as an OT practice will be in for a shock if their primary motive is to run away from giving to the church.

My preliminary findings from my search in the Scripture shows that while not prescriptive, the NT folks actually gave more than their tithe and it became a norm. It started in Mark:

But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins... - Mark 12:42

And this widow, who gave out of her poverty, was commended for giving compared to the ones who tithed out of their abundance. It gets even worse:

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own but they shared everything they had. .... For from time to time, those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet and it was distributed to anyone who had need. - Acts 4:32, 34b-35

Not only so, but Paul wrote of one incident as well:

In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord's people. And they exceeded our expectations: they gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us. - 2 Corinthians 8:2-5

If one has to make an observation, it is that when giving is mentioned, people are not tithing, they are giving beyond their tithe. I would guess this poses a bit of problem for people who simply find giving difficult or are just reluctant to give for reasons known only to themselves. The same old story goes, if we seek to follow the norm set by the bible or argue from the bible, we must be prepared to accept the consequences or the implications of our arguments. It was the same case when I was talking about Holy Spirit baptism and saying grace for food.

So, for folks out there, the NT does not supercede the OT. In fact, because of the grace of God given by Jesus, what you realised is that the stake and the bar got risen higher. As more is being given, more will be expected. We are given the grace of God... so what do you think is expected of us?

Faith, Trust and Evidence - Tom Price

2011-09-29T15:22:00.001+08:00

I came across this article which talks about faith. Quite well written. The author, Tom Price, is an academic tutor at the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics and a speaking member of RZIM in Oxford. I think this article sort of mirrored what I have posted previously. And actually no surprise since I build upon the materials and understandings from mainly RZIM's materials.

I've been trying to avoid using the word 'faith' recently. It just doesn't get the message across. 'Faith' is a word that's now misused and twisted. 'Faith' today is what you try to use when the reasons are stacking up against what you think you ought to believe. Greg Koukl sums up the popular view of faith, "It's religious wishful thinking, in which one squeezes out spiritual hope by intense acts of sheer will. People of 'faith' believe the impossible. People of 'faith' believe that which is contrary to fact. People of 'faith' believe that which is contrary to evidence. People of 'faith' ignore reality." It shouldn't therefore come as a great surprise to us, that people raise their eyebrows when 'faith' in Christ is mentioned. Is it strange that they seem to prefer what seems like reason over insanity?

It's interesting that the Bible doesn't overemphasize the individual elements of the whole picture of faith, like we so often do. But what does the Bible say about faith? Is it what Simon Peter demonstrates when he climbs out of the boat and walks over the water towards Jesus? Or is it what Thomas has after he has put his hand in Jesus's side? Interestingly, biblical faith isn't believing against the evidence. Instead, faith is a kind of knowing that results in action. The clearest definition comes from Hebrews 11:1. This verse says, "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." In fact, when the New Testament talks about faith positively it only uses words derived from the Greek root [pistis], which means 'to be persuaded.' In those verses from Hebrews, we find the words, "hope," "assurance," "conviction" that is, confidence. Now, what gives us this confidence?

Christian faith is not belief in the absence of evidence. It is the proper response to the evidence. Koukl explains that, "Christian faith cares about the evidence...the facts matter. You can't have assurance for something you don't know you're going to get. You can only hope for it. This is why the resurrection of Jesus is so important. It gives assurance to the hope. Because of a Christian view of faith, Paul is able to say in 1 Corinthians 15 that when it comes to the resurrection, if we have only hope, but no assurance—if Jesus didn't indeed rise from the dead in time/space history—then we are of most men to be pitied. This confidence Paul is talking about is not a confidence in a mere 'faith' resurrection, a mythical resurrection, a story-telling resurrection. Instead, it's a belief in a real resurrection. If the real resurrection didn't happen, then we're in trouble. The Bible knows nothing of a bold leap-in-the-dark faith, a hope-against-hope faith, a faith with no evidence. Rather, if the evidence doesn't correspond to the hope, then the faith is in vain, as even Paul has said."

So in conclusion, faith is not a kind of religious hoping that you do in spite of the facts. In fact, faith is a kind of knowing that results in doing. A knowing that is so passionately and intelligently faithful to Jesus Christ that it will not submit to fideism, scientism, nor any other secularist attempt to divert and cauterize the human soul by hijacking knowledge.

I will boast of my LG =P

2011-09-29T13:56:00.001+08:00

Just showing off my LG, from our birthday celebration last Sat. I must say that over the past few months, it has not been easy leading a LG of such magnitude but WhatsApp and late night chill outs and random makan sessions help a lot on top of our normal LG and service meetups. In fact, I think this group of folks meet more often informally than formally in those settings where we normally meet in church.

Perhaps a recent personality test gives us a clue, we are majority extroverts from the MBTI results and this may have helped and created the sort of atmosphere needed. Definitely you know that people are more opened in sharing lives. Again, WhatsApp helps a lot. We literally have a WhatsApp group chat where we spam each other with mindless chats... though it started by collecting prayer requests.

One thing I must, is that I learned to love all the LGs which I have been in throughout my lifespan in Hope. Be it my first one during my spiritual infancy stage, or my second one during my development as a new LGL, or my third one during my transitional phase in YG or this current one. We need to learn to love our LG and the people in the LG. After this is what we are called to do in the local church setting. It's not about the size of the church overall, but the closeness of the small groups.

Moving forward, I just hope this pretty picture can last a long long time....

Funny Haiku

2011-09-27T13:01:00.003+08:00

Haikus are easy
But they don't make sense sometimes
Refrigerator

Understanding

2011-09-26T11:05:00.000+08:00

"You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them." - Matt 13:11-12 (NLT)

I was just reading this during my quiet time earlier on. It is interesting to note that more understanding on the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven will only be given to those who actually listens to Jesus's teaching or the word of God. This highlights to me one thing, that is we need to learn to listen and meditate on the word of God to gain deeper understanding. It sounds very on the surface, but come to think about it, it is not very simple. How many times do we see people asking fundamental questions about faith when it's something that we ought to have known or have at least the means to dig ourselves? A lot of times, when we lack understanding, we fail to realise that the answer may just be near us, in the word and the teachings in the bible.

Actually I may just be a little troubled by some observations these days. I think we talk a lot about issues but we fail to move beyond our personal opinions in these issues. Therefore, when we talk about them, it's always how we feel but we have not paused and thought about why we disagree with what we disagree and why we agree with what we agree in. In some cases, we have failed to even fall back on what the bible says. I am not saying that the bible has the specific answers, but it does give us the principles by which we apply and lead our lives.

We will gain understanding if only we care to pause and listen to the teachings and the promptings of the word when we listen to sermons and do our devotions.

2011-09-25T02:08:00.000+08:00

Today during the post-service evaluation, someone made a very interesting remark that I seemed to be very happy when I was playing on stage.

I guess I was learning to enjoy the time on stage playing for God, given that I have not much time left doing such music on stage since I will be dropping all my service level responsibility soon to focus more on pastoral stuff and missions work.

But I will miss those times on stage playing guitar. Tough preparation normally but great satisfaction.

Locusts and the years

2011-09-24T01:33:00.000+08:00

I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten... - Joel 2:25

I chanced upon this verse while reading a new acquired book by the name of 'Beyond Boundaries'. Just caught on to this verse and began to wonder what are the things that locusts have eaten. I realised for a moment that things that the locusts have eaten are often gone to waste. Just watch a video on Youtube and one will see the pestilence of locusts in agriculture.

So the years the locusts have eaten are a great deal. In human eyes, the years are wasted. The times are lost. And yet God said, 'I will repay you...'. A promise from God about restoring lost times. Just make me wonder about the lost years wasted before I came to know Him. I guess this must be something in everyone's mind, "why haven't I come to know the Lord earlier?" and "things would have been different".

But God will restore those years. I must say that the past years since I came to know Him have been more eventful and fulfilling than the earlier years. And indeed, He came so that we can live life to the fullest. He is indeed restoring the years the locusts have eaten in my life. In this respect, shall I not be grateful and give thanks to Him?

This of course brings to the question why some people can be so disillusioned about the years they spent with God. There are many reasons and it is not my intention here to start another Ravi Zacharias book on Has Christianity failed us but I just want to point out some facts. A lot of times, when we say we spend time with God, we are actually spending time with people and we need to ask ourselves why are we doing these things. Because simply serving God invokes a cost on our lives. As Wenjiang preached some weeks back, do we learn to spend useless time with God? Can we make sense of what is being restored and what is not? Is it other people's fault or do we fail to look into ourselves?

Locusts. The years. All but will gone with the wind. The Lord will restore the years. Yet how many people are willing to wait and see the fruits of restoration?

God of Creativity

2011-09-21T20:33:00.000+08:00

I am currently sitting in a very inspirational course on creativity. The speaker, to my surprise, is actually a lay pastor trained in theology who is currently earning his keep through training people in creativity and other stuff. Because of this, it got me thinking about creativity in biblical context. I actually started to look at his teachings during the course in a different light, in the sense that I began to evaluate the stuff against biblical standard to see if he is in line with the bible. This is a bad habit of mine, especially when I know that the speaker is a believer.

First start, I think it is probably safe to establish that God is the God of creativity. In Colossians 1:16, it says that 'for in Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him.' This means that no matter how creative we are, in terms of coming with new ideas or rearranging old ones, God is the mastermind behind all these. After all, the fact that he can create the heaven and the earth shows me that nothing on earth is beyond Him. (C'mon, who on earth can envision a Earth which can house life except God?)

I did a quick mental scan of the bible with regards to how God can inspire us to be creative. I had no time yet to dig deeper into this but there are some instances where you know God inspired creativity in individuals. For example, in Genesis 30, Jacob was able to overcome Laban's feint to keep him working for him by using peeled branches to ensure mating sheep and goats gave birth to streaked, speckled and spotted young. In 1 1 Kings, we also saw how Solomon was able to apply his wisdom in deriving a smart way to solve the case where the two women were fighting over the child. I am sure there are more instances in the bible that await to be unravel.

What does knowing that God is the God of creativity really means in our lives? I wonder this at times, especially during this course. Perhaps the one step to being salt and light in this world is to be creative, to be God's conduit to create or rearrange things for His purpose and glory. After all, all things are created for Him. When this translates down to applications, I have every reason to believe that this means if there are issues in the application of biblical principles in our lives, we get creative in thinking how to solve the problem. This may also mean that we sit down sometimes, when we see certain issues in the society or around us and start thinking of ways to solve and tackle them. Take for example, in the recent church building fund campaign, we saw the number of ways that people did in order to raise fund for the church building. The principle is the same, to build God's house, but the method may be different and the application on how to build it, and how to raise funds can be different as well.

Perhaps also means that in LG context, for team bonding, we can engage in weird and silly ideas, instead of the normal ones. Or we do stupid things (not devoid of purpose) during LG to communicate a message?

Thousands of applications perhaps. Perhaps time to be creative about the applications?

How to know if you are model public servant?

2011-09-16T14:34:00.001+08:00

You rejoiced when 'revert' was officially recognised by Oxford Dictionary to mean 'reply'.
You must visit Yakun, Killiney Kopitiam and Toast Box daily to get three quotes for that cuppa during tea break.
You hear ‘Please deal’ and you know the boss ain’t inviting you to play cards.
YCCIAESOA* think FYNAP, pls F/U, FYIP, blah blah blah. *You can communicate in (almost) entire sentences of acronyms.
You form organising committees for every family function and call for meetings to make every decision.

Wrong Worship

2011-09-16T11:37:00.001+08:00

This is a video that has gone viral on Facebook over the past few days. Extremely well done, and I strangely suspect that it describes what we really felt sometimes when we sing these songs.

The sheep and the goats

2011-09-14T22:00:00.001+08:00

I often wonder about this thing called denomination. And I guess most of my regular readers or friends would know that I have a certain objection over the use of Catholics vs Christians, as it is my belief that Catholicism is a denomination within Christianity. At core, we are bound by the Apostle Creed and the Nicene Creed. In practice, we are separated by confessionals. However, this just makes me wonder if this is an adequate way for us to describe ourselves as Christ believers and followers? Talking even with the people in my church has made me realised that people have certain perceptions of certain denominations and therefore they create themselves a false dichotomy that may not be coherent with actual practice and reality. It is a bit like policy makers making policies without considering implementation process.

I was just reminded of what Jesus said in Matthew 7:21:

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord', will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."

Considering this, I would see Christians as three types, instead of the many denominations that we are identifying ourselves today. The first category is what I call authentic Christians, Christ followers who do the will of God and bear the good fruits. These are the Christians who live out their faith in God, regardless of which denomination they belong to and which church they attend. They believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that He died on the Cross and resurrected three days later to save us from sins. These are the ones who live believing that they are accountable to God one day and Jesus really lives. These are the people whom we see the grace of God working in their respective lives. This means I can have a Catholic, Methodist, Charismatic, etc but they live as such and believe as such.

The second type is what I call nominal Christians. These are the ones who profess faith in Christianity but only go to church on Christmas and Easter. Or they may go to church every week. But in the end, these people are the ones who live as if God does not exist despite the fact that they profess His existence every week. We recognise this group of Christians when we see them doing things they should not be doing and yet do not feel any guilt or responsibility. These are the Christians whom the grace of God is clearly absent in their lives. Perhaps they may even resemble the pharisees.

The third type is what I call corrupted Christianity. This is an easy group to identify. They claim themselves to be authentic Christianity, but just by their creed and confessionals, you will know that they do not practice the Christianity that most of us profess. In fact, some of their beliefs and doctrines contradict the bible. Groups such as Mormon and Jehovah's Witness tend to belong to this category. Another group would be those who may profess Christianity or Catholicism but they syncretise pagan worship or idol worship into their practices.

In conclusion, my principle is never to look at the denomination but to look deeper beyond the surface to dig out the core beliefs and faith underneath the proclamation. If even within the Christ followers, we are able to do so, we will probably stop discriminating certain denominations and start seeing what God is doing in their lives.

Batam Trip 2

2011-09-13T00:13:00.001+08:00

Ok, recently we went for a trip in Batam, the final exploration trip to find out more about Batam before we dwell straight into missions in the small island. Before that, the team which went was quite interesting. All from my LG:

This team consist, from the left, Weikai (our food bin), Ivy (our translator), Wileen (the matchmaker), Ming Xi (the normal girl), Joyce Peh (the Matchmade) and myself.

I just want to share that God truly blessed us throughout the trip. We started off our work only on Saturday evening when we attend GBI TABQHA combined youth Praise and Worship Service. It was amusing as everytime we were in Batam, GBI seems to have some special event and we never seem to be able to sit in a normal service. But thank God Cheilla, the sister whom we met the other time, was there and she introduced us to another brother by the name of Darwin who was able to host us throughout the service. I just want to share that while we can't understand the language, certainly there was a pathos that we could understand and comprehend, which is their heart for God. I thought the Spirit literally connected us to His presence during the service, literally with groans we can't express.

Here's some photos of the service:

We had a prayer walk at UIB the next morning. We thought we could find CCA holding their activities. This proved to be one point which we didn't have enough homework done. In any case, this was followed by our visit to the Church of the Good Shepherd, which was planted by a Singaporean pastor from the Anglican church, who came to Batam by herself, leaving her family in Singapore to plant the church. It is now pastored by her successors, also from Singapore. I saw in that church a reflection of what our Hope church in Batam will look like in the future.

All in all, I guess after this trip, it is time for me to prepare for mission. I'm still thinking of my Masters in Christian Apologetics. It's not mutually exclusive, but this is more important. God will find a way if it is His way.

Finally, the food in Batam...

Priorities

2011-09-12T23:40:00.001+08:00

Just thinking what my priorities are right now in my life. This is just to remind myself.

Perhaps at the very start, it's seeing God's Kingdom coming to pass in Singapore, Asia and all over the world. This means that the actualisation of what Paul said in Acts 20:24, to consider my own life rubbish and to fulfill the task that Lord has given me which is to testify the gospel of His grace. This means I need food which I may not have known of, to do the will of Him who will send me. It seems that David Livingstone's prayer is something that I am beginning to pray everyday:

Send me anywhere, only go with me.
Lay any burden on me, only sustain me.
Sever any ties but that which binds me to Thy heart and to Thy service.

This means I can start preparing myself to land, and yes, in Batam in two years' time? This means anything that does not fit into this will have to go. Yes, even the kind of ties I have seen over the weekends. Marriage will go if it doesn't fit in the plan. It may be painful, but this is small deal compared to the lives of people and their salvation? It also means I will prepare to withdraw from PnW team after we combine service in Textile.

At this point, I was just reminded of Charles Wesley's prayer, which I think I want to memorise too, cos it's so powerful:

O Thou Who camest from above,
The pure celestial fire to impart,
Kindle a flame of sacred love
Upon the mean altar of my heart.

There let it for Thy glory burn
With inextinguishable blaze,
And trembling to its source return,
In humble prayer and fervent praise.

Jesus, confirm my heart's desire
To work and speak and think for Thee;
Still let me guard the holy fire,
And still stir up Thy gift in me.

Ready for all Thy perfect will,
My acts of faith and love repeat,
'Til death Thy endless mercies seal,
And make my sacrifice complete. – Charles Wesley

Post Conference Thoughts Part 2

2011-09-08T11:42:00.001+08:00

I was just thinking whether I want to share this but in any case, I just felt prompted to blog this down. It is not as if this is something secret as I have already shared a little bit of these inner turmoil with my LG sometimes back.

To recap, I think I was very impacted by the recent WCWM conference at Indoor Stadium. God spoke a lot to me, strengthened my conviction and made clear His directions. What I have never shared is that that was also one of most emotionally turbulent conference I have ever attended and the most difficult one in terms of having focus and concentration.

Firstly, it is the first time I went into a conference leading a group of 14... though not all of them are around at any one time but it was a matter of coordination. Last year, I only needed to consider 2 folks and that by itself was another challenge on its own. This is not anyone's fault but the experience of leading such a large LG was just stretching me at that moment. Just to add that I am getting used to this already... though it may be time to think about succession planning.

Secondly, and that is one of the main reason (the first one was a peripheral one) was that I was heavily distracted by some issues with another person (of course by virtue of confidentiality, I will not reveal the identity) but this affected my concentration and focus throughout the whole conference, though I think I have not made it very obvious at the start. I am grateful that whatever happened during that period of time is turning out fine and leading to some breakthroughs, but back then, it was tough....

Just want to blog down some thoughts about this back then. I am unable to provide more details beyond in this space, but well, just blog anyway.

2011-09-05T12:56:00.000+08:00

Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, or each one should carry their own load. Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor. - Galatians 6:1-6

I am still trying to figure this out. The Holy Spirit has been prompting me this passage for the past few days But I have been asking God what this means currently in my own relationship with Him and with other people. This is the first time God gave me a verse and I have difficulty in trying to understand its significance in my life and ministry currently.

Perhaps it is a warning to me, that I cannot think of myself as something when I am not. Perhaps it is an exhortation to share the good things from the instructions in the word. Or maybe it is to encourage me to restore those who are caught in sin gently, just that there is only one such person in mind currently and I think that person is recovering well.

Still thinking and praying. It is exciting to figure out God's word in our lives.

Looking at the world

2011-08-27T01:41:00.002+08:00

Argentina
89.28% Christian (actually mostly nominally Roman Catholics)
8.68% Non-religious
0.75% Muslim
1.29% Other

Brazil
91.4% Christians (73.8% declared Roman Catholics)
5.4% Ethnoreligionist
2.24% Non-religious
0.96% Other

Cambodia
83.34% Buddhist
4.8% Ethnoreligionist
3.13% Christian
2.97% Non-religious
2.85% Chinese religions
2.3% Muslim
0.26% Others
0.22% Hindu
0.13% Baha'i

China
20-30% Taoism & Buddhism
18-20% Mazuists
40-60% Agnostics
14-15% Atheists

Ghana
63.4% Christian (many only have tenuous link to a church)
23.79% Muslim
2.5% Ethnoreligionist
0.21% Non-religious
0.1% Baha'i

Indonesia
80.31% Muslim
15.85% Christian
1.3% Hindu
1.2% Ethnoreligionist
0.9% Chinese religions
0.4% Buddhist
0.04% Non-religious

Mexico
95.03% Christians (either nominal Roman Catholics or syncretistic Christianity)
3.6% Non-religious
1.2% Ethnoreligionist
0.1% Buddhist
0.4% Jewish
0.03% Baha'i

Nigeria
51.26% Christian
45.12% Muslim
3.31% Ethnoreligionist
0.3% Non-religious

Philippines
92.25% Christian (some are syncretistic Christianity)
5.65% Muslim
1.1% Non-religious
0.55% Ethnoreligionist
0.25% Baha'i
0.1% Buddhist
0.1% Chinese religions

South Korea
30.98% Non-religious
30.95% Christian
23.7% Buddhist
7% Ethnoreligionist
4.3% Other
2.7% Chinese religions
0.29% Muslim

Tanzania
54.07% Christian (Church attendance only 8%)
31.02% Muslim
12.97% Ethnoreligionist
0.9% Hindu
0.43% Baha'i
0.4% Non-religious

Vietnam
52.48% Buddhist
23.3% Non-religious
9.43% Christian
7.85% Ethnoreligionist
5.4% Other
1% Chinese religions

Zambia
86.95% Christian (many syncretistic Christianity)
10.8% Ethnoreligionist
1.35% Muslim
0.4% Baha'i
0.34% Non-religious
0.16% Hindu

Looking at the world. I watched a segment of JFK Mensah's preaching during the Biola Mission Conference. He was sharing how he became a missionary. He was in a conference and the preacher was sharing the state of Christianity in Africa and he was wondering 'what the heck was happening' and asked God to send him.

I therefore tried to emulate and took out the fact book that I received during the Hope Conference. I was asking 'what?' to the countries with high Christian populations. The point is clear, burden and compassion are built over prayers, and knowing the ground, not just waiting for God to instil the compassion. It's 'go and ...' not '... and go'.

I looked at the world and wondered how much lies are people willing to believe in order to gain some spiritual relief from so-called man-made religions.

I looked at the world and wonder how many people out there, especially people of my age, are struggling with the stupid intellectual irrational issues that people such as Dawkins and Harris are advocating.

I looked at the world and recently decided to declare war on syncretic religions, especially those which seek to amalgamate all the religions (including Christianity), especially worldviews such as Yi Guang Dao.

Are you looking at the world?

Moses and Elijah

2011-08-26T18:31:00.000+08:00

After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus. - Matthew 17:1-3

It is always interesting to see how people look at this passage. If I ask you, why Moses and Elijah, I am sure people will be quoting from Matthew 5:17 that Jesus did not come to abolish the Law and the Prophet, but instead was sent to fulfill them. As such, Moses and Elijah both represent the two categories of Scripture that were mentioned, Moses being the person who gave Israel the Ten Commandments and the Levitical Laws, and Elijah being the person who was deemed as the forerunner of the prophetic ministry which started the writings of the Prophets.

However, I wonder if people are able to see the interesting similarity between Moses and Elijah. It is interesting. I am specifically thinking about the end of their lives. These are the two pax in biblical history whose final resting place was never recorded specifically, or rather God personally oversaw their 'end'. In the final chapter of Deuteronomy, it was said that God 'buried Moses in Moab' but no one knows where's the burial ground. Elijah, in 2 Kings 2, was taken up to heaven in a whirlwind by chariots of fire. In short, no one knows where was his final burial place, if there was one in the first place.

Interestingly, the only such example in the OT was Enoch, who walked faithfully with God and then was taken away by God and was no more. I am not exactly sure whether this means he died and went to God's side, or whether it literally means God took him away like Elijah.

But the focus on Moses and Elijah are interesting because they are the ones who appeared alongside with Jesus in the Transfiguration. The even more interesting fact about these two are that they, at some point, deviated from God's instruction for them with Moses striking the rock for water when God commanded him to speak to the rock and with Elijah eventually hiding in the caves after threats from Jezebel. For Elijah, it was commanded that he went on to anoint Jehu as King of Israel but in the end, it wasn't recorded that he did. In biblical exposition, this is normally interpreted by scholars that he didn't obey God in the end.

But yet, the beautiful thing is that they were the ones who appeared alongside with Jesus in the Transfiguration!!! I think there are a lot to be thought about when it comes to this.

Till the next time I write.

God Moves in a Mysterious Way by William Cowper

2011-08-26T18:15:00.000+08:00

1. God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.

2. Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill
He treasures up His bright designs
And works His sovereign will.

3. Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
In blessings on your head.

4. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.

5. His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.

6. Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan His work in vain;
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain.

2011-08-23T22:07:00.001+08:00

I penned this down in Facebook: 'In times of trouble, in times of trial, I can only say, "thank You, Jesus"'

Didn't know what prompted me to think of this, it must be the Holy Spirit. This just happens to be a busy period for me, with work and ministry confluencing together. Of course, it comes with certain difficulties, and it is easy to be embittered and for grudges to appear and unhappiness to surface. But I guess this is the time when we need to thank God the most, for gratitude is food to the soul. The bible says to thank God in all circumstances, and in the Lord's Prayer, when we prayed 'hallowed be Your Name', it's Jesus teaching us that praise and gratitude comes top in our prayer and should come in our prayer as naturally as our other prayer requests.

God, give us men

2011-08-13T00:59:00.001+08:00

God, give us men! A time like this demands
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands;
Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy;
Men who possess opinions and a will;
Men who have honour; men who will not lie;
Men who can stand before a demagogue
And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking!
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog
In public duty and in private thinking;
For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds,
Their large professions and their little deeds,
Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps,
Wrong rules the land and Justice sleeps!

- J.G Holland

2011-08-12T16:12:00.001+08:00

I was watching a preaching by JFK Mensah when he was invited to preach in Biola Mission Conference 2011. His message was about how we should be desiring for the fire from God. It was excellent preaching, not because it was passionate and reflects of the topic that he is preaching on, but because he did an incredible thing: he preached without any script (or at least he got it in his brain) and he was churning out bible verses like GPMG... all these without reference to a hardcopy bible. Apart from the message, I was amazed by his bible knowledge, or at least the implicit zeal and desire to know and memorise bible verses and understand how they apply in our lives. Truly amazing. I think after Ravi Zacharias, he must be the next preacher whom I will treat as a spiritual role model, not because of what he preaches, but because of his postures and how he does it.

The dearth

2011-08-11T14:14:00.002+08:00

I reflected upon the tough questions that Christians in this region of the world will face from non-believers. Singapore is a very interesting country, because it stands at the crossroad between the west and the east. In some sense, this country is a confluence of both eastern and western thoughts and influence.

Generally, questions on humanism and atheism are easy to answer because there are ample materials out there. The Americans have written so much in the field of apologetics that you can just step into a bookstore and grab a book that talks about how to answer the tough questions that an atheist or agnostic will have.

Here comes the problem. I did a quick survey, most of these books are written from the perspectives and the contexts of North America. Even when you look into the books on comparative religions, it's always from the perspectives on the kind of eastern religions that invades the American society. Very few books out there, if any, address some of the unique tough questions that Singaporean Christians will face, though the principles can be extracted from the materials that are already in place.

Where do I get this from? Recently, I came across a case, where a sister was trying to outreach to her colleague who believes in this syncretic religion called 'Tian Dao' and he actually quoted bible verses to support his case. No books I have read so far address this kind of issues, at least not directly. I used to reach out to a friend who believe in 'Yi Guang Dao', which is another all inclusive syncretic religion. In some sense, these religions are different from the pantheistic philosophies that are being addressed by authors such as Ravi Zacharias and Norman Giesler and Walter Martins. Other local and Asian authors would have addressed other local beliefs in their purest form, but not exactly teaches how to deal with the syncretism that emerge in its own way in Singapore and around this region.

I actually had to spend a night to think through and reflect through all the materials that I have read to come out with an adequate (or rather rough at the moment) response. Will post up my response again. But this is one gap which I feel that local theologians and apologists (if any) should address and help our believers here grapple with. Too many books are written in the American context and more than often, they may not be directly applicable here.

Wisdom and understanding

2011-08-11T10:58:00.000+08:00

"My son, do not let wisdom and understanding out of your sight,
preserve sound judgement and discretion" - Proverbs 3:21

I was thinking about the issue of wisdom and understanding for the longest time since God knows when. Recently, during the conference, Thio Li Ann said something which made me go 'whoa'. She talked about how people commented that things that she talked about are very 'chim'. She rebutted that it should not deter people away from understanding, cos if these are from God, we should ask God for wisdom to understand these 'chim' stuff. I perfectly like what she says.

I think it is not a matter of deliberately being 'chim' and trying to look sophisticated in our theology and philosophy. As I quoted in my previous post, the narrative of the bible appeals to wide range of audience, and is so simple that kids can grasp the truth and so profound that theologians can grapple with these biblical issues for centuries. I like what Ravi Zacharias said in one of his podcasts that truths in the bible sometimes cannot be packed in simplistic terms (not simple but simplistic). Some of the things that Jesus has said in the bible require us to exercise certain mental gymnastics.

That's why I fully agree with Thio Li Ann on the point of asking God for wisdom and understanding. I think a lot of times, we know that we can ask God for wisdom and understanding, but often (not wrong though) for our daily living and decision making. Indeed, wisdom and understanding helps to preserve sound judgement and discretion, and help us not to go astray. But we forgot to ask Him to give us wisdom to understand His ways and to understand His words, to understand what His servants have said about His ways and His words. So, sometimes we avoid the 'chim' stuff and go for the simplistic ones. So, sometimes we choose not to go deep and are contented to remain shallow.

At this point, before I end this post, just another comment about seeking knowledge and wisdom. We are all very busy people, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't set aside time to seek knowledge and wisdom. It is better than shopping and gaming. I could never understand how people make excuses that they have no time to read books to further their knowledge of God. Page One has a quote that says that we can't finish reading all the books in our lifetimes but just read anyway. If you ask me, there are so many pockets of time we can have to gain knowledge. In my travelling, I will either read a book or listen to podcasts (useful ones) and think about the issues mentioned. During pockets of time, I will access into news website to keep myself updated on the latest happenings (not that I am able to grasp all of them at one go). I figure that if we stop watching serial dramas, youtube, cut down on shopping and gaming, we can actually achieve a lot in knowledge. This comes with commitment and discipline.

And so, that's why I will continue to write as I would, to impart as I should. I would not shy away from deep philosophical stuff insofar they are useful for understanding.

Complex Simplicity

2011-08-09T17:11:00.002+08:00

From the beginning to the end the narrative is rich in simplicity, so that even a child can grasp the truth of its stories. Yet it is so profound in its exposition of great theological themes that it has challenged the best of thinking minds and inspired the greatest of artistic genius. The stories are varied enough to apply to the king who hosted a feast; to the politician who sought the best seat in the banquet; to the athlete who ran a race; to the soldier who went to war; to the widow who lacked any income; to the shepherd who lost his sheep; to the father of a wayward son; to the fisherman who cast his nets; to the needy who longed for acceptance. - Ravi Zacharias

I was asked of a question once by a sister on how can people know the truth in the bible when the bible was so deep and when people's interpretation of the bible can be so varied and different. I believe that in the quote that I have provided from Ravi Zacharias lies part of the answer to the dilemma that a lot of people might face when it comes to the bible.

The Scripture says that the word of God is living and active like a double edged sword which penetrate both the bones and marrows. It says that all Scriptures are God-breathed and profitable for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. By implication, in some sense, the truths written in the Scripture are easily understood by the kids in Sunday Schools. Nonetheless, we know that things can become very complicated when we dig deeper.

My conviction about the Word is this, as Ravi pointed out, that the biblical narratives are often simple enough such that the Holy Spirit can point us to the truth hidden within without us going into very deep theological studies into the historical background and contexts, but the truths within are so vast that it is literally impossible not to know the truth at a more intimate level without venturing into the realm of theological study. That is why in almost most churches that I know of, bible study is an integral part of the church discipleship, where people sit down to study and discuss the bible together.

After years of reading the bible, one ought to feel that the more one seems to know about the Scripture, the more he will realise that there are more things he has yet to come to terms and grip with. The understanding of the Scripture, I believe, is a lifelong pursuit worth pursuing. It is simple and yet complex.

F - the saga

2011-08-08T21:45:00.004+08:00

I muse at the recent saga by the NTU valedictorian, Trinetta Chong, who muttered the 'F-word' towards the end of her speech and got into a lot of media outrage, from as usual from parents who became oversensitive over the use of such words.

I become very buffled by such reactions normally. People don't seem to complain when movies are screened with profanities and such. But when a girl sprout off just one, just one, and people come jumping with their face red saying this is not correct. Movies with profanities, if I am not mistaken, are generally M-18, which are around the age of the attendees in this kind of ceremonies. Why hasn't anyone complain with such intensity and passion? Is it because parents refuse to believe that the kids they have breed are capable of such profanities? If so, I have bad news for parents and the public, if you are concerned, you should not send your kids to schools, allow them to step out of the house, deny them the right to television, internet and books, violate the law by keeping them away from NS (applicable for guys) and stop them from working.

And I think there are more things that parents should be worried about other than the swear word. I sometimes would imagine, if I sprout the f-word in church, I would be immediately chastised but the same passion would not be seen when it comes to the lost, when it comes to God's kingdom. But I shall not bring in the church at this moment. The truth is that there are more things in life to be intense and passionate other than a young girl sprouting the f-word. What is this compared to the rest of the issues we should be concerned about? What does it reflect of our current generation?

That's why I like Rohit Brijnath's article today in Straits Times on 'I swear, it's not the worst you could say'. To quote from the article, "...but as speech goes, there is more in life that offends me. It rests way below race-baiting, it does not outrage like sexism does, it is not as disturbing as religious hatred. All this can be spoken of in fine language, but elicits a sharper disgust. Personal attacks on television, in blogs, even in letters I receive, are to me far worse than a quickly bleeped-out word."

Absurdity in obedience

2011-08-04T15:25:00.000+08:00

Recently there has been a lot of commotions in the press regarding this thing called the 'Obedient Wives Club'. The premise for such a thing is that if the wives are obedient to the husbands' demand and meet their sexual needs, they will least likely be going to commit adultery and extra marital affairs. An article in Straits Times dated 19 Jul reported that the club is not taking off in Singapore.

The question raised is whether the premise is true. But I think the founders of the club missed the point. It is as if human transgression is a matter of doing the right thing. The flaw in the premise is that it missed out on the fundamental issue of sin in our lives. We know this from the bible that the fundamental problem in our lives is sin. That was why when asked about divorce, Jesus said that 'Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard...' The problem lies within, not in the things we are doing. It has certainly nothing to do with a wife giving the husband more sex, and certainly nothing to do with the husband getting more sex from the wife.

Therefore, I do find the premise for the Obedient Wife Club absurd and one might as well be amused by what this club seeks to achieve. As commented by Ustaz Abdul Rahman Shaid of the Darul Aman Mosque, the club has never made its plans clear and there is no real benefit for Muslim women (or may I say women as a whole). To quote from him, if women choose not to join, does that mean they are disobedient?

Staring into the eyes of a humanistic worldview

2011-08-04T15:16:00.001+08:00

In an article from Straits Times dated 23 Jul 2011, there was a feature article on the Singapore Humanist Society. The headline was 'I've no God - and am proud of it'. This is quite an interesting article. It reported that these humanists are united in their belief that morality comes from humanity itself and in their rejection of a theistic explanation of reality and their embracing of scientific inquiry. And I felt 'well done, you believe in humanity'. But tell me how reasonable is this position?

Let me show you the unreasonable stance of their humanist position. One such humanist, in the article, declares himself to be an atheist-agnostic secular humanist. What a coalescence of contradiction mixed together by a supposedly university student. I can understand if you declare yourself to be an atheist, or an agnostic. But to mix all these up is just plain unreasonable. An atheist is someone who, by definition, proclaims that there is no God. On how this position can be tenable is another question, but by assumption, this is a position that claims to know something. An agnostic is someone who either claims that one cannot know God, or that one has insufficient evidences to determine the existence of God. So this student is claiming to know that there is no God and that he cannot know the existence of God? So he knows or does not know? My point here in bringing out this is the entire stupidity that people can come to when it comes to denying the existence of God. I am by no means saying that all atheists or agnostics are stupid people, but it is a bit worrying when you see a university student saying something so unreasonable to proclaim himself to be a reasonable person.

One interesting aspect of their proclamation is their belief in humanity. I have heard people sprouting the atrocities of religion, especially that of Christianity. However, I wonder if they have not heard of the atrocities committed by their own worldview of humanism. Marxist humanism, buttressed by Darwinist humanism, provided the ideological backdrop of Stalin's USSR and Mao's China. Nietzche's nihilistic humanism led to Hitler's Third Reich. Jean Paul Satre's existential philosophy (again a nihilistic one) let to Khmer Rouge. Can someone please let me know where on earth does these humanists reported in the article find their faith in humanity from?

Entering into absurdity is Catherine Lim's comment that she would rather have faith than have a faith. Have faith in what? What is she talking about? Of course she has a faith, known as humanism, the religion of humanity.

It is such development that sometimes makes me worry about the future of Singapore. Following the WCWM conference, I am even more convinced that Christ followers must emerge from the underground to gain the voice to speak out in the social media etc. Thio Li Ann was right when she said during the conference that humanistic philosophy has invaded the realm of modern education and in the words of Malcolm Muggeridge, we have educated ourselves into imbecility.

Post Conference Thoughts

2011-08-03T15:12:00.003+08:00

Directly from my email to my LG after the WCWM conference:

Hi all,

the conference is over, but our mission in the city and in the world has barely begun. Will just want to share some thoughts with you all (but will share more this week over LG).

Firstly, I just wanna thank God for Hope Church. Just as Ps Jeff was in tears earlier during the service while leading Holy Communion, I was in tears as well, because it was through Hope that I came to know Christ and found the significance and purpose in my life amidst all the material pursuits of the world. I entered this church when we were about 2K strong and when Nexus auditorium was still big enough to accommodate the uni group and the poly group. But you know, I was so blessed by what God has done in my life and in the church (actually I would end up like Ps Jeff if I share this face to face, that's why I think I will do it through email =P) Over the years, I have seen lives dedicating to Christ and lives transformed by Christ. I remember the Christmas service at Kallang theatre in 2006, it was the service when Yizhong rededicated his life back to Christ. I was in the planning committee for the matric programme which eventually connected Ming Xi, Min Er and Kuang Ting to the people in Hope, and today all three of them are serving and going strong for God. And through these people, a lot of people's lives were changed as well. These are blessings to me, as I see people who don't know or are far away from God, coming in and serve him fervently and zealously, seeking to honor Him. I thank God for this church, for the blessing that he has given to us.

Secondly, I hope that God has spoken to us in bits and pieces and in chunks during the course of the two days, whether you are there the whole time or not. But for those who were there for the panel interview, I hope you can really capture the heartbeat of the panelists and their convictions for God. Please notice how convicted they are about living out a life worthy of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. Their sharing reminds me that it is important to live out our convictions in real terms in our respective workplace. I was in spree of 'amen' when Denise Phua shared about her views on TPL (not politically motivated, I assure you). I was in smiles when Thio Li Ann shared her views about invasion of humanism in modern tertiary education. I was nodding my head when I heard Chow Meng sharing about loving God and not compromising. There are valuable lessons to be learned and please seek God and ask Him how you can play a part in the jigsaw puzzle in your respective marketplace.

Thirdly, just wanna share how blessed I felt during the preaching today by Ps Simon and Ps Mark. As I shared earlier during dinner, there will come a time when we respond (if we ever respond) to missions for many a times too much that God will start asking us when we will really go. And go we should if we ever respond. I responded the first time when I first answered 'yes' to the third question for water baptism. As I shared in my blog, if you get to read that post I wrote for our day 5 devotion, the question on 'will you die for Jesus' was very serious to me, cos I know then that the only way you will die for Jesus is when you obey Him and decided to obey His will to go and make disciples of all nations. From then on, I think I have always raised up my hands during conferences and camps when challenged to go for missions and church planting. In some sense, we have an opportunity right now just 20km south of Singapore @ Batam. I am not sure what God has intend for me in terms of missions, but we see that there is a gap where we can go in and fill in Batam, in terms of ministering to uni students over there. The proximity means that there is immense opportunity for us to get involved in the mission of the Holy Trinity without being too far away from home. I feel I want to be a part of this till the day when God takes me somewhere like He took Philips to the Ethiopian. As I have shared, there would be a cost for God's cause. Everything we have for His Kingdom's cause. Just felt quite convicted over this part, as an integral part of my life currently.

My Cost in His Cause

2011-07-30T00:38:00.002+08:00

I realised that the issue of cost in His cause is something that I have to perpetually examine and reexamine in my own life.

One cost that I have not thought about and I realised earlier is that as someone who seeks to lead and disciple God's flock, he or she will be ruthlessly perfect by He who royally elects. I have heard that many times and experienced that many times, but I never linked it to be my cost for His cause. As a person desiring to lead His church, the cost I had to bear is really my own comfort zone and getting my hands dirty into other people's lives, inclusive of their emotional lives. This is easy when you are dealing with emotionally stable people but the crux comes when you are dealing with those people who have the tendency to allow their emotions get the better of them. This is just one example, but the kind I am particularly weak in dealing with.

But this is my cost. To expose myself in the lives of people, and bear the burden and pain with the flock God has entrusted me with, and to bear with the consequences that come along with it.

Such is the cost.

Is there not a cost?

2011-07-28T23:51:00.000+08:00

However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace. - Acts 20:24

Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. - 2 Corinthians 11:23-28

The last day before the Whole City Whole World conference draws me to one of my heroes in the entire bible: Paul and some of my favourite verses from Paul. Yes, one of the verses that ever spoke to me from the mouth of Paul is 2 Corinthians 11:23-28, which talked about Paul being tortured and the kind of shit that Paul had to go through for God. But Paul is my role model in the bible - he was an intellectual man of God and never shyed away from a reasonable defense of his faith in Christ; he was a faithful and committed man in Christ who had risked it all; he had a cause. These are amongst some of the reasons why I have viewed him as a role model to follow in my walk with God. The most important of them all, is that he risked it all for God; he was willing to pay the cost for following Jesus, even when he was an apostle born abnormally. These two verses I looked at today had forced me to ask myself this question, is there not a cost in pursuing God's cause in this city and in this world?

Is there not a cost?

What are we willing to pay to follow Jesus?

In Luke 14:33, Jesus told the people that if you do not give up everything, you cannot be His disciple. There is certainly a cost involved, but do we count the cost or do we pay lip services to altar calls when we are challenged to respond to God as a disciple? Also think about Mary, when she was told that she was going to give birth to the Lord. When she obeyed, you know what she gave up? What cost her in her obedience is her status as a virgin in her society, in an era when pregnancy is a sign of promiscuity and it made her an outlier.

Is there not a cost?

I remembered when I first got to know Christ, something that made me hesitated to go for water baptism, other than the family factor, was the knowledge that I will be asked this question: by the grace of God, will I be willing to die for Him? It sounds better nowadays, but in those days, I really gave it serious thought because the pursuant of God's cause does not come without a cost and I am not into SM. I thought through it carefully because I wanted to make sure that I wasn't hypocritical when I answered 'yes' before I got dunked into the water. You know, the most incredible thing about Paul is that he really made do his words, that he considered his life nothing except to complete the race set before him. His cause? To testify the good news of God's grace. His cost? Flogged, stoned, beaten, shipwreck, lack of sleep, hunger, etc. And the question I first asked myself when I responded to all the calls for mission and when I answered 'yes' in the water is this: who is Jesus to me that I will be willing to lay down my life for Him? What is this good news that I am willing to die for?

In providing my own answer for this one most important question, I would like to quote from two persons in what they have said about Jesus (which incidentally, I have posted in this blog sometimes back):

"Jesus Christ continually contradicts us and the way we experience ourselves as alive and he compels us to radically redefine what we mean by life. He encounters us the way he encounters the disciples on Easter Sunday on the road to Emmaus. They the ones marked out for death, those who have survived him were really the dead. He the dead one was really the living." - Ravi Zacharias

...............................

“We look back on history and what do we see? Empires rising and falling, revolutions and counter-revolutions, wealth accumulating and wealth dispersed, one nation dominant and then another. Shakespeare speaks of ‘the rise and fall of great ones that ebb and flow with the moon.’

In one lifetime I have seen my own fellow countrymen ruling over a quarter of the world, the great majority of them convinced, in the words of what is still a favorite song, that, ‘God who’s made the mighty would make them mightier yet.’ I’ve heard a crazed, cracked Austrian proclaim to the world the establishment of a German Reich that would last a thousand years; an Italian clown announce that he would restart the calendar to begin his own assumption of power. I’ve heard a murderous Georgian brigand in the Kremlin acclaimed by the intellectual elite of the world as wiser than Solomon, more enlightened than Ashoka, more humane than Marcus Aurelius. I’ve seen America wealthier and in terms of weaponry, more powerful than the rest of the world put together, so that Americans, had they so wished, could have outdone an Alexander or a Julius Caesar in the range and scale of their conquests.

All in one little lifetime. All gone with the wind. England part of a tiny island off the coast of Europe, threatened with dismemberment and even bankruptcy. Hitler and Mussolini dead, remembered only in infamy. Stalin a forbidden name in the regime he helped found and dominate for some three decades. America haunted by fears of running out of those precious fluids that keep her motorways roaring, and the smog settling, with troubled memories of a disastrous campaign in Vietnam, and the victories of the Don Quixotes of the media as they charged the windmills of Watergate.

All in one lifetime, all gone. Gone with the wind.

Behind the debris of these self-styled, sullen supermen and imperial diplomats, there stands the gigantic figure of one person, because of whom, by whom, in whom, and through whom alone mankind might still have hope. The person of Jesus Christ.” - Malcolm Muggeridge

I wanted to move back to the person of Jesus because it is in Him that all the things we do and believe in are being defined. May I say that Jesus' message to this world is a contradiction to what the world is teaching us today? We meet Jesus at the mount, and He says, 'pray for those who persecute you'. We speak to Him at the synagogue and He teaches us to 'forgive our enemies seventy times seven'. We commit to Him by the lake of Galilee and He claimed that fathers will betray their sons because of Him. His message is a message of contradicting the world, but yet also a message of hope, of grace. His message is one that makes sense of what we know and what we have gone through, without which all things become meaningless. Thinkers, philosophers, dictators have come and tried to introduce contrary theories but they can't get rid of Jesus! They have tried to replace his message with their own philosophies. People like Voltaire claimed that the bible will become a thing of the past and today, one of his house belongs to the French Bible Society. Why? Because His message of grace is the eternal message that we need as a fallen mankind. Outside of His message, outside of the person of Jesus Christ, there is no other theory which offers such hope and grace to mankind.

It is in the person of Jesus Christ, that we gain victory over sins, that we became more than conquerors. (Day 1)

It is in the person of Jesus Christ, that the Holy Spirit is being made available to us. (Day 2)

It is in the person of Jesus Christ, that we have an eternal cause to live for. (Day 3)

It is in the person of Jesus Christ, that our past hurts can be healed and our broken relationships can be mended. (Day 4)

It is in the person of Jesus Christ, that all our thoughts, all our feelings, all our experiences can be made sense of and unified in one consummate expression of worship. It is in the person of Jesus Christ that we can make sense of life. That is why when I look into the Word, it is not isolated in one piece, but everything is interconnected. It is through Christ that these different streams of seemingly different thoughts can be tied together. No other religious philosophies and theories have been able to offer such completeness in my life.

It is in the person of Jesus Christ, that I find my cause to live and die for. It is in the person of Jesus Christ that I find the cost too low to pay for a cause like that, the cause of testifying His good news, the good news of His grace in this world. Paul went through that, we are told in the bible that we will go through that. It is in the person of Jesus Christ, that I realised that my earthly life is more than just living seven scores years and die. I am made and created for a greater purpose. I am marked out to run the race ahead of me. My task is to complete the race. My food is to do the will of Him who sent me. My priority is to seek first His Kingdom. As the song goes, "what can I do?" What can I do but to follow Him to the ends of the earth? My question therefore is what is it in Jesus Christ that you have found? What is the cost you are willing to pay in pursuant of His will?

At this point, I would like to end this chaotic coalescence of thoughts and close off five days of reflection on whole city and whole world by citing the example of David Livingstone, which I think is so apt here to resurface again, whose life so exemplified Acts 20:24:

David Livingstone was born in Blantyre, Scotland in 1813. He was born into a home where his father used to put him on his knees and read to him stories of great missionary exploits, particularly that of Karl Gützlaff, the Dutch missionary who doubled up as a medical missionary too. Young David used to look into his father’s eyes and say, “You know, daddy, one day I’ll be a man like that. I want to be a missionary. I want to be a doctor. I want to serve God.”

David Livingstone got to his knees one day and said this prayer, “Lord, Send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me. Sever any ties, but the ties that bind me to your service and to your heart,” and the words of God came to him “Lo, I am with you always, even to the very end of the age.”

He packed his bags and went off to Africa. And when he took one glimpse of Africa from a distance, he penned in his journal these words: “The haunting specter of the smoke of a thousand villages in the morning sun has burned within my heart.”

He married a woman of the famous Moffat Family – Mary was her name. Her father was a great missionary. They went to Africa. But David Livingstone’s life was that of an explorer and he would move from place to place and his only goal was Jesus in the hearts and lives of men and women – thousands of them.

Finally his wife and his young family couldn’t keep up with him anymore. Some of his children were dying out of sickness and disease so he said to his wife, “Mary, why don’t you them home, and I will see you shortly and spend some time with you. It’s too dangerous for us to go on.”

So he sent his dear wife Mary back home and letters would take months to exchange, but some of the fondest letters of love and romance were sent between David and Mary and you know when he saw her the next time? Not five weeks. Not five months. Five years.

Five years later when he set eyes upon his wife, she could not recognize him because at one stage in his jungle travels going to preach he walked into a branch of a tree that had completely blinded him in one eye and marred the other. His face had been burned under the African sun to a crisp of leather and his skin, which had not been pigmented for it, had been roasted to the point that his body could not take it any longer. His face marred and scarred and his eye blinded and at one time he had been attacked by a lion that had torn one of his shoulders apart. He miraculously escaped.

Now she saw her husband hobbling in with a marred face and a disfigured physical countenance. Hours before he arrived, they had buried his father. David wept because he had longed to tell his dad firsthand of the stories his father had only told him thirdhand.

Biographical sketches tell us that when David Livingstone walked into any university in the British Isles, students and faculty would rise to a standing ovation because they knew they were standing in the presence of a giant of a man.

Finally he went back to his wife one day and he said, “Mary, the haunting specter of the smoke of a thousand villages in the morning sun is still burning within my heart. We need to go back.” She decided that he should go – she had to be with the children. She said, “When they are all old enough I will join you again, David.” And he set off on his lonely journey to preach to the African people who was so much within his heart.

Finally after a long time, Mary joined him and the day she set foot on African soil, she contracted a disease they had so dreaded she would contract. The very day she set foot on Africa, she got that disease and a few days later, he was burying her.

Lowered into the soil of the African earth there, an eyewitness said David Livingstone knelt beside the grave, weeping his heart out, and they overheard him praying, “My Jesus, my king, my life, my all, I again consecrate my life to thee. I shall place no value on anything I possess or in anything I may do except in relation to thy kingdom and to thy service.”

Through it all came the words of God to my heart, he said, “Lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.”

He picked up his belongings and walked back to his hometown village of Ujiji. When he arrived and went into his little home there, he found that someone had played a cruel joke on him and had stolen his medication that he so needed because his body was racked with pain, untold pain. He walked in constant agony. And they said in one of the very few points in his life, he prayed for himself, he got on his knees and said, “God, you promised you would always be with me! I need that medication if I am to continue preaching the gospel!”

As he prayed, he heard steps, and as the story goes, he saw a pair of feet planted in front of him and his countenance lifted for the first time in a long while – he was looking into the face of a white man who didn’t live in Africa. He said, “Who are you, sir?” And the man replied, “Doctor Livingstone, I presume?” (Those famous words) He said, “Yes, sir.”

“Mr. Livingstone, I’m a press reporter, I’ve been consigned to do a story on your life. I want you to know two things about me. Number one, I’m the biggest swaggering atheist on the face of the earth. Please don’t try to convert me. Number two, somebody sent some medication for you.”

David said, “Give me the medication please.”

So Mr. Henry M. Stanley started to travel with David Livingstone. Four months later, the biggest swaggering atheist on the face of the earth knelt down on African soil and gave his life to Jesus Christ.

One of the best biographies you’ll ever read on David Livingstone – two volumes entitled “Livingstone of Africa” by Henry M. Stanley. Stanley said, “The power of that Christ life was awesome and I had to buckle in. I could not hold out any longer.”

Finally his body began to shrivel with high temperatures and pain (they used to carry him around from village to village on a stretcher). One day, preaching from a stretcher, literally trembling, he finally looked at two of his national brothers and said, “Please take me back home. I am very very ill. I’m very tired, I need some sleep.” They brought him back to his home and were about to spill him on to the bed when he said, “No, please help me on to my knees.”

Livingstone buckled down to his knees by the side of his bed and clasped his hands and started to pray. His prayers were so profound, his sanctuary was so unique that his African brothers felt it was blasphemy to stay in his single union/communion with God and they stepped out of his little room.

Then somebody came running and said, “I need to see Mr. Livingstone for a moment.” They said, “Sshh! Quiet, please. He’s praying.” Five minutes went by, they looked in. He was still on his knees. Several minutes went back, they looked in. He was still on his knees. After a protracted period of time went by, they looked in. He was still on his knees.

One of them felt that the man was too tired to continue to pray. He needed to get some sleep. He walked over to him and one of them shook him by the shoulders and inquired, “Wana? Wana?”

Livingstone fell over. He was dead.

He died exactly the way he had lived – in the presence of his Lord.

He didn’t run from His voice. He didn’t wave a lamp that had no light in it. He didn’t sell a soul for some earthly pleasure. But the haunting spectre of the smoke of a thousand villages had burned itself within his heart so that he could say, “My Jesus, my king, my life, my all, I again consecrate my self to thee.”

And David Livingstone's story has prompted me to pray this prayer:

Send me anywhere, only go with me
Lay any burden on me, only sustain me
Sever any ties but the one that binds me to Thy heart and to Thy services.

Is there not a cost in His cause? There is, our Christian life is definitely not a bed of roses. And I pray that when the time comes, we will count the cost and consider the price of following Jesus.

God bless.

Is there not a cause?

2011-07-26T23:51:00.002+08:00

The words of Nehemiah son of Hakaliah:
In the month of Kislev in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa, Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem.

They said to me, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.”

When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. Then I said:

“LORD, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against you. We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses.

“Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.’

“They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand. Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.”

I was cupbearer to the king.

In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him, I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had not been sad in his presence before, so the king asked me, “Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.”
I was very much afraid, but I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”

The king said to me, “What is it you want?”

Then I prayed to the God of heaven, and I answered the king, “If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my ancestors are buried so that I can rebuild it.”

Then the king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked me, “How long will your journey take, and when will you get back?” It pleased the king to send me; so I set a time.

I also said to him, “If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah? And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the royal park, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residence I will occupy?” And because the gracious hand of my God was on me, the king granted my requests. So I went to the governors of Trans-Euphrates and gave them the king’s letters. The king had also sent army officers and cavalry with me.

When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about this, they were very much disturbed that someone had come to promote the welfare of the Israelites.

I went to Jerusalem, and after staying there three days I set out during the night with a few others. I had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. There were no mounts with me except the one I was riding on.
By night I went out through the Valley Gate toward the Jackal Well and the Dung Gate, examining the walls of Jerusalem, which had been broken down, and its gates, which had been destroyed by fire. Then I moved on toward the Fountain Gate and the King’s Pool, but there was not enough room for my mount to get through; so I went up the valley by night, examining the wall. Finally, I turned back and reentered through the Valley Gate. The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, because as yet I had said nothing to the Jews or the priests or nobles or officials or any others who would be doing the work.

Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.” I also told them about the gracious hand of my God on me and what the king had said to me.

They replied, “Let us start rebuilding.” So they began this good work.

But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us. “What is this you are doing?” they asked. “Are you rebelling against the king?”

I answered them by saying, “The God of heaven will give us success. We his servants will start rebuilding, but as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it.” - Nehemiah 1 - 2

In the times of preparation towards the Whole City Whole World Conference, I was drawn to the person of Nehemiah and was reminded of sermons and messages about him from times back. This is the time that we can start asking ourselves, "is there not a cause for us in the city and in the whole world?"

Is there not a cause?

Nehemiah offers us a great case study on how we should approach this issue.

Firstly, he sensed the pressure in his own soul to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. It is perhaps telling of him that the first questions he asked Hanani was about his people and Jerusalem. And this was a burden in his soul, this was the priority in his mind. This pressure in his soul burdened him so much, that he decided that it was not good for him to remain in the palace as the king's cupbearer but to request for a trip back to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall. He sensed the pressure so much that he was sad before the king's presence. I don't know about the rest of the people, but for me, I know I would never feel sad in the presence of important people, in front of my Minister or the Senior Management. In fact, from the perspective of a career man, to be in their presence is a chance for me to shine. But nay, Nehemiah chose Jerusalem over the comfort of the king's palace. The question for us here is this: are we asking God for a piece of His heartbeat for this city, for this world? Do we ask God to break our heart for what break His? What is the 'wall' that God wants us to be so burdened about? Are we satisfied to live life as it is and allow ourselves to fade away in comfortable life within His Kingdom? Do we recognise that the world without Christ is a lost world?

Secondly, Nehemiah prayed and fasted. He prayed when he heard about Jerusalem, and he prayed when he was asked about why he was sad. He prayed. The person who achieves great victory in the physical realm will first achieve the victory in the spiritual realm, in his prayer life and devotions with God. Our daily devotions and prayers are important in our pursuit of His cause. And this is what we have been doing over the past few days, praying and fasting to get close to His heartbeat, to get close to His cause in this city, in this world. Nehemiah not only had the pressure in his own soul on Jerusalem and its people, but he went down on his knees to pray for the cause. Therefore, the question for us to think and reflect is this: when is the last time we get down on our knees to pray for God to work in the city and in the world? Do we pray and push for God to work in our lives, so that we can go and work in other people's lives? Is our personal devotion life rigorous and disciplined enough to allow us to hear His heartbeat?

Thirdly, Nehemiah also knew what he needed. He knew he got to get the king to pay the bill. You know, after saying so much, I know in my heart that God has been calling me out of this little red dot to build His Kingdom, in church planting and in the propagation of Christian apologetics to places where they are most needed. I know what I needed to do - clear my loans, build up my spiritual life, build up my knowledge on Christian apologetics and polemics, explore the lands God has led me into, think about entry vehicles, etc etc etc. Think about yourself, if God has been speaking to you and sharing a portion of His heartbeat with you, what do you need then to prepare yourselves to go into the city and go into the world to reach them for Him?

Fourthly, Nehemiah went to the wall and came back with hope that the wall could be rebuilt and rallied the people. Jesus never said 'wait for them to come' but He sent us to 'go'. He 'saw' and had compassion for the people who were like sheep without shepherd. He sent out the Twelve, He sent out the seventy two, and today He wants to send us. Our compassion, our burden does not come that easily without getting down and see what is the state of the depravity in this world. A classic example came from Kay Warren, wife of Rick Warren, founder of Saddleback Church and author of Purpose Driven Life. She watched a documentary one day about the state of poverty and HIV in Africa and God impressed into her heart a burden for these people. Future trips into Africa further increased her burden for the people in Africa. Together with Rick Warren and the rest of Saddleback, they started the PEACE programme, and today, the number of people participating in PEACE from Saddleback far exceed some of the church populations around the region. Think about the impact. Think about what 'going' can do in our hearts! Likewise, my burden for the world arose from hearing about the need for the gospel in the world, then followed by short term mission trips and other overseas trips that have allowed me to see the spiritual depravity that so plagued the rest of the world. It informed me that the world needs Jesus. If you have the burden for the city, for the world, are you already gathering information, going down to see for yourselves the spiritual needs of the land? It is perhaps time that we need to think about this, be it city or the world.

Lastly, but most importantly, Nehemiah had the correct perspective - to achieve all these for the glory of God. Notice that he attributed his success to God. All glory goes to God and to God alone. So are we having a correct perspective on things that are to come, in our daily work, in our daily life? The man whom God uses powerfully is one who honors God in all that he does and gives the honor back to God.

To end off, think about what C.T Studd, the founder of Worldwide Evangelistic Crusade, said,

Some wish to lives within the sound of Church and chapel bell,
I want to run a Rescue Shop within a yard of hell.

May God bless you as you think about these questions. Amen.

Beer as an alcoholic drink

2011-07-25T15:04:00.000+08:00

A news article in Insing.com today reported that beer is now officially an alcoholic drink in Russia. They actually have to legislate it and sign a bill for it.

This article pricked my interest because recently, my office has been accumulating a lot of beer and some of my colleagues seem to be beer lovers. Of course, a can of beer or two won't get you drunk that easily, but honestly speaking, I wonder what took the Russian so long to acknowledge that beer is alcoholic despite the fact that it has alcoholic content? Perhaps their definition of alcoholic content is something like vodka?

I know that You've called me

2011-07-19T10:33:00.003+08:00

"I know that You've called me."

Two Saturdays ago, when I sang this line during the altar call in service, a chill just ran down my spine. The call from God in our life to disciple and outreach locally and globally is certain. Perhaps the question is not whether God has called us, but whether how we respond to that call.

For now, I see my call beyond the boundaries of East Coast and Changi Beach. Up north or down south, it's God's call.

Crossroad: Where faith meets its reason

2011-07-18T22:15:00.001+08:00

This post is prompted by a lot of thoughts and a lot of posts that have been posted along the way. It is a series of blog posts that list down and consolidated my thoughts towards faith and particularly against the pain in the ass philosophy known as fideism. I chose to target fideism because firstly, the philosophy offers me a good case study to think deeper what faith really is and secondly, it is the first philosophy worldview that stumped me, due to its pro-Christian outlook. But the main thing to talk about here is faith, and yet, I have to start off first with fideism, depending a lot on Norman Giesler's work in the first part of my critique.

Several philosophers have advocated fideism as a worldview towards truth and revelation. Out of these philosophers included Cornelius Van Til, Karl Barth, Blaise Pascal and Soren Kierkegaard. While each of them would advocate different version of fideism, their fideism commonly stresses that:

Faith alone is the way to God and the only way to the truth about God is through faith. God cannot be attained by human reason which often hinders or obscures the knowledge of God.
Truth is not found in the purely rational or objective realm, if it is there at all. Religious truth does not have an objective basis or character. Truth is subjective and personal, not objective or propositional.
Evidence and reason do not point definitively in the direction of God. On the contrary, one is left by reason in a state of equipollence or even paradox.
The tests for truth are existential, not rational. It is tested personally in one's life by submitting to God.
Not only God's revelation but his grace is the source of all truth. Truth comes from top down. If man could know by natural reason, God's grace would be negated and human works would be established as a means of knowing God.

There are certainly positive contributions of fideism to our thinking about God. Otherwise, people would not have found fideism attractive as a Christian worldview. Some of the positive contributions include:

Fideism's anti-rationalistic emphasis helps us to realise that man can neither rationally comprehend nor logically demonstrate the existence of the transcendent God. Rationalistic method alone is gruesomely insufficient. Think about it, our dear Spinoza was able to reach the conclusion of pantheism through rationalistic reasoning. This alone demonstrate rational reasoning does not help us to get a certain knowledge of God.
Fideists are right that neither evidence nor reason is the basis for one's commitment to God. A believer cannot love God on the basis of objective evidence, which alone cannot induce a religious response.
Fideism is also right in establishing that faith is volitional and more than intellectual. When one believes in God, he does not only commit his own mind, but his very being, the whole person.

Though there are more, I shall move on to my main critique of fideism and then go on to examine how we should approach this topic of faith. In spite of the many important insights that fideist philosophers have offered to the Christian worldview, the nail in the coffin flaw about this worldview is that it is almost as unbiblical as rationalism and empiricism. Fideists confuse epistemology and ontology altogether and fail to distinguish the order of knowing and the order of being. Their philosophy begs the question how they know that there is a God. God may indeed have revealed Himself, but how do they know that the bible is the Word of God and not the Vedas, not the Koran, not the Talmud? In this, they fail to establish a case to determine their truth from error. Indeed, as Norman Giesler pointed out, if there is a God and all truth comes from him, it should follow that the very criteria for determining truth from error will be God-given.

Secondly, it also fails to distinguish belief in and belief that there is a God. One must certainly have some form of evidence to warrant his belief that God exists and the Christian God is the one to commit to if he is to make an existential commitment. It's just like taking a leap of faith to embrace someone's wife thinking that she is your own wife without even ascertaining the facts first. The only reason why the early Christians were able to be martyred and remained faithful to Christ is because they saw the living Christ and that was the warrant they needed for assurance that the other things Jesus said in His lifetime about His Second Coming will come to pass. Without that warrant, I would say Christianity would never have lasted.

Thirdly, fideism does not distinguish between the basis of belief and the warrant for the belief. It is true that evidence and reason should not be the basis for our faith and belief, but it doesn't mean that these cannot act as a warrant for our belief. More on this later as I talk about the basis for our faith.

Fourthly, I don't think the propositional and the personal are that mutually exclusive. When the authors of the bible wrote the books, they were offering propositional truth about God and His Kingdom that must be experienced personally.

Finally, either fideism makes a truth claim or it does not. Any truth claim must have a truth test, which fideism does not have. But if fideism does not make a truth claim, we can jolly well toss the worldview out of the window because it would be meaningless to make a non-truth claim about truth and God. This is a dilemma for fideists, because either they make justification to cement their truth claim, in which case they will contradict themselves, or they make no justification, which makes them look pathetic. As implied earlier, a true defense of any truth claim must deal with the evidences that challenge or contradict it. Truth is not only a matter of offense, in that it makes certain assertions, but also a matter of defense, in that it must be able to make a cogent and sensible response to the counterpoint that are raised. This is precisely why Christianity and Jesus are so unique. The truth claims of Jesus and His teachings can be subjected to the test of truth, by all definitions for test of truth.

So where do we go from here? I have roughly outlined Norman Giesler's argument about fideism. But this serves as a useful prelude (as well as a good time of philosophical bashing) to move myself deeper into this topic of faith. Again, here I stand at the shoulder of giants who have walked before me and paved the way for my own understanding how faith should be approached. In fact, at this point perhaps, it would be a summation of the thoughts that I posted in related posts so far.

We often say and remind each other to have faith. This is something that MLM people are particularly good at. But faith in what? Before that question is answered, we need to know what faith is. Previously, I have stated that faith is the commitment to Jesus Christ. The faith mentioned in the bible is not antithetical to reason. It is not just a will to believe and not a redisposition to force every piece of information to fit into the mold of one's desire. Faith in the biblical sense is substantive. Indeed, as Ravi Zacharias put it beautifully, faith is the confidence in the person of Jesus Christ and in His powers, so that even when His power does not serve my end, my confidence in Him remains because of who He is.

The book of Hebrews, perhaps one of the few books that talk about faith (and cause a lot of misunderstanding for those who don't read carefully enough), says it best here:

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess - Hebrews 4:14

Now what is faith based in? Faith is not just volitionally believing in God without reason. Hebrews tell us that faith is the commitment to Jesus Christ, our confidence in Him. That's why the author of Hebrews can say later that faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance of what we do not see. Because the Person, Jesus, forms the base of it, without which that statement would never have made any sense. And I have people quoting me Hebrews 11:1 without the earlier reference to Hebrews 4:14 as if the two verses are completely unrelated to one another.

Now there are implications to this understanding. This means to me that our faith must be based on the Person and the character of Jesus Christ, and not our circumstances and feelings, an unmentioned danger point in fideistic philosophy (for the reason that it has no anchor for which the worldview can anchor itself on). It also means to me that reason is permissible as part of the process of finding and establishing this faith, because I am dealing with a Person, not a concept or a feeling. True, it does not start with reason and does not end with reason, but reason at some point must come in if I am to put my trust in the Person of Jesus Christ.

In actual fact, the names in Hebrews 11, these people all had evidence and reason for their belief and perpetual trust in God. To name a few, Abraham could trust God partly because of the promise fulfilled in Issac, even to the point of sacrificing Issac on the altar. Moses could trust God because He saw the miracles of the Ten Plagues, the crossing of the Red Sea, the Manna and Quail. Rahab trusted God because she heard how God blessed Israel (please read the whole bible to get the context and not just Hebrews alone).

In fact, may I suggest that in most of these cases, the point of contention is not in God's existence but in Yahweh's character. Let me explain, if one is to read through the whole bible, one would be amazed that the supernatural is a given in the world of the OT and the NT. People worship God and gods all over the place. Therefore, the struggle today of atheism vs theism is not the struggle of the day. Their struggle was in the character of Yahweh their God, especially when things did not go their way apparently. And this is indeed something that still happens today. When things do not go our way, we begin to doubt God and start turning away from Him. Peter then would ask a very good question in John 6:68 when he replied Jesus' question, "to whom shall we go?" Turning away from God and abandoning our faith in Him means turning towards other things in life.

Our problem, therefore, is not the lack of evidence that God exists or the lack of evidence of His character. Our problem becomes a volitional one (which then agrees with fideism in part), for the book of Romans clearly says that we "suppress the truth by our wickedness". In Romans 1, it says that God's invisible qualities can clearly be seen in His creations. We have no excuse in natural revelation that we do not know the existence of God. There are evidence for us to know that. It then boils down to our heart, if we want to believe in God and trust in His character. Intent precedes contents. Didn't Jesus also say that seek and you will find? So how can those who do not seek find?

It was as Jesus said:

To what, then, can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other: "We play the flute for you and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not cry" For John the Bapist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, "he has a demon". The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, "Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners". But wisdom is proved right by all her children. - Luke 7:31-35

So faith is our confidence in the Person of Jesus Christ. It does not materialise out of nowhere. It cannot be based solely on reason, cannot be based solely on volition and cannot be based solely on circumstances. But because of this, reason can come into play. Because of this, our feeling can come into play. Because of this, our circumstances can come into play. All because of the Person of Christ. Because Jesus is the basis of our faith, history, science, philosophy, and other disciplines can come together to establish a case for Him. It is at the Cross Road where faith meets its reason.

When the psalmist wrote, "come and taste that the LORD is good", he means come and experience it for yourself. It can be proven like how you taste honey and bread. But the step of wanting to taste it must first be taken.

It is the step of faith.

Serpent and Dove (Joke...)

2011-07-18T15:49:00.003+08:00

The bible teaches us to be as shrewd as a snake and remain as innocent as a dove. Some free time has forced me to think through how to achieve this. My own senses told me that it can be done after work... through the following:

This will make you as shrewd as a snake....

This will make you as innocent as a dove... See it can be done...

Disclaimer: This is meant to be a joke out of my own boredom, and not a practical application of Matthew 10:16.

The heritage hypocrisy

2011-07-18T15:37:00.001+08:00

I live near the the rail tracks. And for many years, I have never seen people tracking the rail track until recently. For many years, whenever I take bus out, I have never seen hikers on the road, until recently. All because of the closing of the KTM rail tracks.

I sometimes wonder about the psychic of Singaporeans. We best epitomised the traditional Chinese saying, "失去才知道拥有" or somewhere along that line. And it is always when things are disappearing that people start to be aware of our heritage and the cool stuff we have around us.

As a history enthusiast, I fully agree with Loh Keng Fatt on his point that Singapore's heritage must be experienced in the moment, not when it is going to be gone with the wind. And Singaporeans should learn from all the recent lessons on the loss of some of the heritage buildings, like the old National Library (man, I miss the building). In the name of progress and infra development, it is sometimes inevitable that some buildings have to go, but I think we ought to enjoy them while they last.

So what are the rest which are still around for us to enjoy them? Maybe I should organise some YGC4 outings to these places with my LG and do some photo shoot there together.

Don’t wait till places are gone before you enjoy them
July 12, 2011 Tuesday, 12:39 PM
Loh Keng Fatt on why Singapore's heritage must be experienced in the moment.
I did not take a walk down memory lane on the now-disused railway tracks after the shutters came down on the Tanjong Pagar railway station.
I have taken KTM trains before from Kuala Lumpur to Johor Baru, and dropped in at the Tanjong Pagar station several times long before the news broke that train operations to Malaysia would be relocated to Woodlands.
What is the point of jostling with hordes on the tracks and trying to track down something that has passed on, never to return?
The tracks are now like a museum piece and cannot tell a story without the participation of real trains rumbling on them.
One should really have made it a point to watch the trains whizz past, wave to the passengers and feel the romance of train travel when the services to and from Tanjong Pagar were still in operation.
My point is, things have to be savoured in their entire context.
It is not the same to go down after the action is over and try to reconstruct the past in your mind and attempt to catch a whiff of history.
In a Singapore where many folks argue that things sometimes seemingly are replaced overnight and never resurface, one should really make a fuller attempt to engage with the present.
There must be other things one can do, at least, every other weekend or any spot of free time that doesn’t involve going to the mall, cinema or yet another must-try eatery.
Make time for, say, Turf City where it is anybody’s guess what will happen to it after the current leases for businesses there expire.
The place - where big crowds once cheered the horses romping home – is a throwback to a quieter, gentler past and is nestled amid big pockets of greenery that calm the senses.
While the horses may have gone, the place is not dead and a different business vibe has taken hold.
What is there, you ask? I suggest you go down and find out before the shutters come down on this place, and another jigsaw puzzle of Singapore’s past is lost forever.
Similarly, there must be other places, and crucially, people around you that speak of a past and will be gone someday.
I was in a hawker centre at Toa Payoh the other day, and this one, while modernised, is populated quite a bit with old-time hawkers selling unpretentious, old-time food.
It was a slow Monday and the old couple who manned a coffee stall were friendly and in the mood to talk.
They told me they had to be there by 5am each day to get the water boiling.
No, that’s not early, they added – the aunty in her 70s selling beehoon next stall comes in at 2am to prepare her food.
How long will they continue? The uncle said: “Who knows? I have had a knee operation and I don’t really have to do this anymore.”
I will go back again to find out more about their lives – and Singapore – before they call it a day.

Another Jibe at Public Transport

2011-07-14T08:50:00.002+08:00

Once again, I need to take another jibe at the transport. It is reasonable to say that public transport should not be nationalised and the profits of the transport companies should be viewed in context. However, I believe that their profits should also be viewed in terms of how their service has 'improved' over the years. The only reason why SMRT and SBS can consistently earn profit is because they literally monopolise public transport in Singapore. In short, we the commuters are held hostage by them whether we like it or not. I thought about a move to boycott SMRT and SBS for a day to show them how much they depend on us, but then I realise we will have no means to get to our offices other than by walking or taking taxi if not for buses and mrt. Such is the extent of their monopoly over us.

Furthermore, we might as well do away with PTC. I still remember a report by PTC last year stating bus services have improved. I wondered the methodology by which that report was generated. The PTC is like a rubber stamp for SMRT and SBS, and so once PTC says anything in favour of SMRT and SBS, the two companies can use PTC as a front to do anything they want with the commuters. There is simply something too wrong in the public transport in Singapore for this to happen.

In my opinion, contrary to SMRT and SBS' proposal, this is a chance for PTC to redeem itself by severely force the two companies to cut down their fare until the day comes when they are willing to do an overhaul on their services and ensure service improvement. There are a few points of improvement (at least on bus services) which I think compounded together to make an increase in fare unmerited:

1. Irregular frequency of services. The companies like to use traffic conditions as an excuse for the inconsistency of frequencies, especially when the waiting time differs greatly from the information provided at the bus stop. But my argument is that a service planning without taking traffic into consideration is poor planning, there is no excuse why a transport company cannot take traffic into consideration when it plans for its service. Furthermore, if frequency differs a lot, it is tantamount to cheating. And low frequency starts at the bus interchange itself. Ask anyone who takes the bus service 700/700A from Bukit Panjang Interchange and one will know how disparate the bus service is compared to the other bus services. I am sure we can all come out with examples ourselves. (Maybe we should even start a blog that documents theses) It is just simply poor planning in the guise of many things.

2. Lazy bus drivers. This is a problem for bus services that loop around in town. I do not understand what gives bus drivers the right to assume that they can skip bus stops just because they will be looping around town and therefore assume that no one will take the bus from the bus stops before the loop. This happens a lot of time when I tried to take NR3 and 700A back home. This laziness is seen even more when you see bus drivers can't even be bothered to ask commuters to move to the rear (the haunted rear syndrome) when buses get crowded. This is simply ridiculous. They know how to catch people when they forget to tap their ezlink card but don't know how to do these.

3. Lousy bus and train maintenance. It is very frustrating at times to sit in a bus and realise that the bus bell near you can't work when the bus is arriving at your destination. It is also very frustrating at times when you realise that trains sometime are stuffy, only because the air con is spoilt and SMRT can't be bothered to repair.

Now tell me, in the midst of these problems, why didn't commuters see an improvement? After all, SMRT and SBS 'uses' the profits to 'improve' the services, right?

Nationalised public transport won't run well: Lui

By Kor Kian Beng

THE Ministry of Transport (MOT) has weighed in on expected fare hikes later this year, saying a process is already in place to ensure that transport operators do not maximise profits at commuters' expense.
Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew also rebutted a call by the opposition Workers' Party (WP) to nationalise public transport.
In a Facebook post yesterday evening, he said such a move would likely result in taxpayers and commuters paying more for poorer service.
Transport operators SBS Transit and SMRT Corp announced on Monday that they are seeking a fare increase.
That has sparked noisy debate, with some people asking why the companies are allowed to do so even though they are still making profits.
This year, the two operators have applied for an increase that will work out to a 2.8 per cent rise in total fares collected. That is the maximum allowed.
The Public Transport Council (PTC) has to approve any hike in fares. It bases its decision on a fare adjustment formula that factors in inflation, wage adjustments and productivity. The PTC also looks at the operators' profit levels.
The current formula is valid until next year. MOT yesterday said the PTC would review the formula for subsequent years.
Mr Cedric Foo, who chairs the Government Parliamentary Committee for Transport, thinks the review should start this year, to prepare for its implementation next year. He noted that the current formula has been in place for six years.
'We do have sufficient experience with it to evaluate its efficacy in meeting our public transport objectives,' he added, and promised to consult the public and opposition parties as part of the review process.
In their responses, Mr Lui and MOT sought to explain why it was better to have commercial operators provide public transport services, rather than a national corporation as proposed by the WP.
The profit motive spurs commercial operators to be efficient and improve productivity, Mr Lui said. By contrast, a national corporation run on a cost-recovery basis would have little incentive to keep costs down, he said.
MOT said the experience of other cities shows that private operators are more efficient. That is why cities like Melbourne, Tokyo, Stockholm and Seoul either have or are moving towards commercial enterprises providing public transport services, it said in its statement.
It also urged the public not to view the two local transport operators' profits for each year in isolation. The operators need these profits for future investments in new buses and trains, it added.
In his post, Mr Lui also noted that public transport here is 'very heavily subsidised'.
The Government has invested $20 billion in the existing rail infrastructure and will invest another $60 billion in new rail lines by the end of the decade. However, it does not subsidise operational costs.
'What is important is to ensure that commuters' interests are safeguarded even as we have commercial enterprises run the public transport services,' Mr Lui said.
National University of Singapore transport researcher Lee Der Horng said the fare adjustment formula should be reviewed yearly as global and local economic conditions 'may change faster' than expected. He also suggested that the formula factor in service quality, to ensure that fare hikes are tied to better service.
Transport economist Michael Li of the Nanyang Business School suggested a fund to hedge against fluctuations in fuel prices. Transport operators often cite fuel price increases as one of the reasons to hike public transport fares.
Such a fund should be managed by the Government or an independent body, Dr Li said: 'That way, the operators won't have an excuse to raise fares when oil prices are up but not cut fares when oil prices are down, which commuters perceive to be unfair.'

One year of Explosive

2011-07-13T10:47:00.001+08:00

These few days just got me thinking about the past one year in my current LG. It has been a strange but yet fun one year. It started off with just three pax:

This is a composite pic since I dun have a pic of the three of us together. Then it became like this... gradually:

I guess we see quite some growth over the past one year. It's a really fast one year. I remembered when we first started out at three, it was quite a fresh experience leading a LG of only three people. We can almost go anywhere and do anything we want. Coordinating was much more easier then. Of course, we were blessed to receive more people and more people came to join along the way.

I guess this is one of the most open LG I have ever led (in the sense that we can talk about everything openly under the sun... including BGR... lol!!!), not that I have led a lot of LGs so far. This is also a very funny LG, in the sense that people have alter egos (although we made them up sometimes). The kind of bonding is also very much different from the others I have been to. But one important lesson is really that each LG will have its own characteristics and personalities, depending on the mix of the people.

Ok, this is a very fun LG. Hopefully will continue to remain so as this LG grows... those who know will know what I mean.

Increase in transport fare

2011-07-13T10:24:00.000+08:00

Yesterday's Straits Times reported that SBS and SMRT have separately submitted application to increase transport fare by 2.8%, citing increased cost.

My foot their cost has increased.

To think they have the cheek to increase fare when their buses are coming late, not on time... bus drivers are lazy and always skip stops for whatever reasons, never bother to ask commuters to move in the rear, long train intervals... and they really have the cheek to ask for fare rise.

I think they have to wake up their ideas, seriously and ensure they provide quality service in their transport before a fare rise is merited. For now, I just think commuters are overpaying them for the kind of services we get.

What is your intention?

2011-07-13T10:19:00.001+08:00

I never thought that I will post up something that talks about WP after the last GE. However, this article and the recent developments, as well as some of my discussions with other people after the GE, led me to a tentative conclusion that there may be more than meet the eyes and that PAP's assessment of WP wanting to form the government may be right on the spot. There are a few indicators which suggest these:

1. WP never for once questioned about ministerial pay during the GE. Why?
2. The idea of a co-driver is a high suspect. A co-driver is very different from a buddy who just watches out for you when you are driving.
3. Pritam Singh's comments and LTK's reactions after that reflects a lot.
4. The serious contest for a GRC.

I guess it is alright for an opposition party to aim to form the next government. This is a democracy and the people will decide the party they want for the next government. But such avoidance on the part of WP either shows that they are a bit undecided on this issue or they are using political guerrilla tactics to achieve so, not wanting to do it in the open, afraid that the PAP will do all it can to stop it.

Regardless of the case, I do agree with the author of the article that WP owes the population an answer on their intention and they will have to come clear with it now that Pritam Singh has made the big boo boo.

A Question of Honesty
Why the Workers' Party should come clean about their true intentions
By Citizen Kane

During GE 2011, Low Thia Khiang consistently downplayed WP's ambitions. Whether it was the "spare tyre" or "co-driver" analogy, he and Sylvia Lim carefully avoided showing any ambition of forming an alternative government.

But Pritam Singh declared on Friday at an IPS forum that WP wants to form the government. And if WP can't do it with a simple majority, they will engineer it via coalition.

"It may be a case in future whereby the PAP only wins 36 (seats) and we may have to form a coalition government. There is only a finite number of individual parties they want to work with. So it's not a case of either PAP government or Opposition government."

- Pritam Singh in TODAY, 9 Jul 2011. "Workers' Party working towards becoming government: Pritam"

Low Thia Khiang must have been displeased. We do not know what transpired afterwards, but now Pritam has retracted his earlier statements, calling them personal remarks and just a "theoretical exercise":

"No,that’s not one of our aims...The party has never discussed the idea of coalition at all."
- Pritam Singh

When pressed by reporters about WP's true political aspirations, LTK and Pritam wereas long-winded as they were evasive:

"I do not wish to respond to hypothetical questions, but as a matter of principle, WP is prepared to work with other political parties to further the interest of Singaporeans and, when it is called upon, to act in the interest of the nation."
- Low Thia Khiang

Had Pritam remained candid, he would have won more respect. Instead his candor has been replaced with WP's usual non-answers. Perhaps Pritam has been told by his seniors to shut up.

As for WP wanting to take over the government, we would advise Low Thia Khiang to follow his own advice: Whether this is a hypothetical question is not a decision made by WP, but by the people of Singapore.

WP seems less than honest about their ambitions. Our honest questions deserve honest answers.

The King

2011-07-06T10:25:00.000+08:00

When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel. - Deut 17:18-20

It is amazing to see this passage as I was reading the incredible book of Deuteronomy. In this passage, Moses prophesized that Israel will one day want to be ruled by a king and God actually set the guideline for the king of Israel.

I was actually amazed by the high standard that God set for the king of Israel. In every sense of the word, I thought I was reading a description of Jesus, other than any other kings that have ever ruled Israel or Judah, not even David, Solomon or Josiah or Hezekiah. See the high standard, we see that Jesus knows the scripture inside out, understood it better than the pharisees of the day. We see that Jesus has never considered himself equal to God and displayed the humility described.

Just kinda amazed by the passage.

You are who you are for a reason

2011-07-01T14:06:00.001+08:00

You are who you are for a reason....
by *Russell Kelfer

You are who you are for a reason.
You're part of an intricate plan.
You're a precious and perfect unique design,
Called God's special woman or man.

You look like you look for a reason.
Our God made no mistake.
He knit you together within the womb.
You're just what He wanted to make.

The parents you had were the ones He chose,
And no matter how you may feel,
They were custom-designed with God's plan in mind,
And they bear the Master's seal.

No, that trauma you faced was not easy.
And God wept that it hurt you so;
But it was allowed to shape your heart
So that into His likeness you'd grow.

You are who you are for a reason,
You've been formed by the Master's rod.
You are who you are, beloved,
Because there is a God!

Beauty of building block

2011-06-28T21:49:00.000+08:00

Carl Sagan, in his novel 'Contact', made the suggestion that amidst the statics that are present in the universe, one could infer that there is intelligence involved. Watch the movie and you know what he meant by that. The implication is that as long the thing is not randomness, that suggests signs of intelligence.

Now the picture below is a picture of the rose window in York Minister. You know it is not there by random.

Now the thing you see below is a cross section of a DNA. If macro-evolution theory is true, this ought to look random too. I always wondered what's the big deal about a cross section of the DNA looking like the Rose Window... until I saw this. This is information, no randomness.

Such is the beauty of God's creation.

2011-06-28T15:00:00.001+08:00

It's been quiet for a while. Mainly because I am still thinking about the few planned postings which I will be writing. The first that will need to be due is a new post on faith and reason, opening up the can again to pen down my latest thoughts and findings from my studies. The second post will be the final post on Apologetic Methodology, which ties in closely with the post on faith and reason.

There are other posts which I will be writing. Just to give you all a heads up.

Bad analogies

2011-06-21T22:57:00.003+08:00

If you want to write well, avoid these analogies, actually written by high-school students:

"Her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze."

"He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree."

"McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty Bag filled with vegetable soup."

"The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't."

"John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met."

And my fave:

"Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at 35 mph."

—"Strange World," Campus Life, Vol. 56, no. 9.

Not of the world

2011-06-16T10:33:00.000+08:00

D.L Moody told an interesting testimony in his book: Men of the Bible and I think it's worth retelling here.

There was a great celebration at the opening of a saloon and billiard hall in Chicago, near where Moody lived. As a joke, the organisers sent Moody an invitation to go to the opening. He took the invitation and went down and saw the two men who had the saloon and asked them:

'Is that a genuine invitation?'

They said it was.

'Thank you,' he said, 'I will be around; if there is anything here I don't like I may have something to say about it.'

They said, 'You are not going to preach?'

'I may.'

'We don't want you. You won't want you in.'

'How are you going to keep me out?' he asked; 'there is the invitation.'

'We will put a policeman at the door.'

'What is the policeman going to do with the invitation?'

'We won't let you in.'

'Well, I will be there.'

In the end, Moody told the two men that he will compromise the matter if the two men will get down their knees and let him pray for them. And they were on their knees. Moody prayed to God to save their souls and smite their business. Within three months of the incident, one of them was converted.

The bible reminds us that while we are in the world, we are not of the world. This incident, to me, seems to be a very good example of how this can really work out.

Dreamers have dreams

2011-06-10T15:51:00.000+08:00

I wonder what Joseph would have felt when he dreamed those dreams, to be able to see God's vision and purpose for him in his dreams. It represents a vision, an end-goal and Joseph was to screw these all up in the beginning by proclaiming his dreams tactlessly in front of his family members. But would he be better off if he had not had the dreams? Nay. Remember what he said to his brothers:

And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. - Genesis 45:5-7

Maybe badly executed but certainly fall within God's vision for him. I mention this because I was thinking that we ought to have a dream. We got to resonate with Martin Luther King Jr. in his famous phrase, 'I have a dream'. He has a dream, and that particular speech was moved more by the Spirit than via merticulous preparation. And it changed the American conscience eventually.

And so I was thinking about my own dream, and assessing if those are God-driven, or self-driven. I have a few dreams:

1. Earning big bucks
2. Living in a landed castle (or even better, a floating one)
3. Rule the world (Pinky and the Brain)

An idiot would have been able to tell that these are self-motivated dreams. Of course, the third one is always the best excuse for me to become a super villian... Jokes aside, I would think that over the times, some dreams are indeed fuelled by passion and burden:

a. Venturing into the realm of apologetics to bridge the mind-heart gap
b. Plant a church planting church

With regards to (a), I was even thinking and toying around the idea of venturing into academic realm and bringing apologetics into Singapore universities (think I mentioned these a lot in my previous posts last time) to show that there is no disparate between God and all the rest of our disciplines in universities, that theology is a viable option in explaining certain things. I remember what I heard Ravi Zacharias says that university students are crying out for help in the face of university professors who slam the door against religions and proposed all sort of weird theories to justify their beliefs instead. I have seen this happening in NUS before, so it is not unique to America I believe.

Nonetheless, dreams have to be fueled and driven by the Holy Spirit. Man-made dreams will forever remain as man-made dreams, even if it comes to fulfillment but a dream driven by God can go a long way. Just think about Joseph.

2011-06-10T14:00:00.001+08:00

The following list of phrases and their definitions might help you understand the fuzzy language of science and medicine. These special phrases are also applicable to anyone reading a PhD dissertation or academic paper.

"IT HAS LONG BEEN KNOWN"...
I didn’t look up the original reference.

"A DEFINITE TREND IS EVIDENT"...
These data are practically meaningless.

"WHILE IT HAS NOT BEEN POSSIBLE TO PROVIDE DEFINITE ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS"... An unsuccessful experiment but I still hope to get it published.

"THREE OF THE SAMPLES WERE CHOSEN FOR DETAILED STUDY"...
The other results didn’t make any sense.

"TYPICAL RESULTS ARE SHOWN"...
This is the prettiest graph.

"THESE RESULTS WILL BE IN A SUBSEQUENT REPORT"...
I might get around to this sometime, if pushed/funded.

"IN MY EXPERIENCE"...
Once.

"IN CASE AFTER CASE"...
Twice.

"IN A SERIES OF CASES"...
Thrice.

"IT IS BELIEVED THAT"...
I think.

"IT IS GENERALLY BELIEVED THAT"...
A couple of others think so, too.

"CORRECT WITHIN AN ORDER OF MAGNITUDE" ...
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

"ACCORDING TO STATISTICAL ANALYSIS"...
Rumor has it.

"A STATISTICALLY-ORIENTED PROJECTION OF THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THESE FINDINGS"...
A really wild guess.

"A CAREFUL ANALYSIS OF OBTAINABLE DATA"...
Three pages of notes were obliterated when I knocked over a beer glass.

"IT IS CLEAR THAT MUCH ADDITIONAL WORK WILL BE REQUIRED BEFORE A COMPLETE UNDERSTANDING OF THIS PHENOMENON OCCURS"...
I don’t understand it....and I never will.

"AFTER ADDITIONAL STUDY BY MY COLLEAGUES"...
They don’t understand it either.

"A HIGHLY SIGNIFICANT AREA FOR EXPLORATORY STUDY"...
A totally useless topic selected by my committee.

"IT IS HOPED THAT THIS STUDY WILL STIMULATE FURTHER INVESTIGATION IN THIS FIELD"...
I am pleased to feed you bullshit.

2011-06-10T13:58:00.002+08:00

Things You Don’t Want to Hear During Surgery:

- Oops!
- Has anyone seen my watch?
- That was some party last night I can’t remember when I’ve been that drunk.
- Damn! Page 47 of the manual is missing!
- OK, now take a picture from this angle. This is truly a freak of nature.
- Better save that. We’ll need it for the autopsy.
- Come back with that! Bad Dog!
- Wait a minute, if this is his spleen, then what’s that?
- Hand me that...uh...that uh.....thingie
- If I can just remember how they did this on ER last week.
- Hey, has anyone ever survived 500ml of this stuff before?
- Damn, there go the lights again...
- Ya know, there’s big money in kidneys. Hell, the guy’s got two of ’em.
- Everybody stand back! I lost my contact lens!
- Could you stop that thing from beating; it’s throwing my concentration off.
- I wish I hadn’t forgotten my glasses.
- Well folks, this will be an experiment for all of us.
- Steril, shcmeril. The floor’s clean, right?
- What do you mean he wasn’t in for a sex change!
- This patient has already had some kids, am I correct?
- Nurse, did this patient sign the organ donation card?
- What do you mean "You want a divorce"!
- I don’t know what it is, but hurry up and pack it in ice.
- Let’s hurry, I don’t want to miss "BayWatch"
- That laughing gas stuff is pretty cool. Can I have some more of that?
- Of course I’ve performed this operation before, Nurse!

My Bucket List II

2011-06-10T11:31:00.000+08:00

A few years back, I remember bringing my cg and treating them to watch the movie, 'The Bucket List' and subsequently posted some of my thoughts here. I have since not treated my subsequent cgs (or LG now) to any movies. Think it will remain that way but my current LG has gotten better treats. This movie was screened in last year's ID2010 conference and we were asked to watch the movie from the perspective of a disciple and a disciplemaker.

In some sense this post seeks to complete, after so many years, the post that I have not been able to articulate well then. In other sense, it is inspired by a series of messages that I heard online about unresolved conflicts in the family. It triggered me to look back at this movie again because I was reminded of Jack Nicholson's character in the movie, who had an estranged relationship with his daughter, only to find themselves reconciled towards the end of the movie. That was one of the most touching part of the story, together with his eulogy for Morgan's death.

Perhaps another way to ask the question is to ask what do I not want to regret when it's time for me to kick the bucket. Generically speaking, some of these things which I don't want to regret not doing or being include:

1. Church planting and the fulfillment of the Great Commission
2. Restoring broken past relationships
3. Resolve any unresolved issues within myself
4. Stepping out to take risk for God and people
5. Write a book?
6. Marry a wife?
7. Pastor a church?
8. Lead a ministry?

There may be other things, but at this stage, I need to realise that the list is still pretty much vague and broad and even towards the spectrum of immaturity. But certainly, I believe that at the end of our lives, we will not want to leave any broken relationships or unresolved conflicts to remain as status quo. This thought sprouted from a recent incident. A broken friendship in the past came back to haunt me over the past few weeks. While I dun think the two of us are bearing grudges over history, it tends to stir up some emotions within myself when I start thinking about the friendship. I believe it is more or less resolved and the friendship is more or less catching up on lost time. I seriously think it was God's intervention which made this possible, as he forced me to put down all past hurts and be ready to confront the reality of reconciliation as spoken in His word in Matthew 5, when He commands us to leave the offering at the table and go reconcile. In this case, He made me do it. I can safely say that I have overcome these past hurts with regards to this friendship but I can also safely say that I believe there are other issues within myself that needs to be resolved. Most of these may boil down to resentment and once again, I will see that God will find means to bring about healing and reconciliation.

I write all these not to impress upon people on anything. The fact that I link resolution of past issues and our bucket list is because I dun want to regret unhealed relationships and heart issues. In relationships, there will be one day when either one of us will be six feet above the other. Do we want to live with the regrets in our hearts that such hurts remain unresolved? In our inner mess, not resolving them will just prove to be a curse for the rest of our lives and I certainly don't want to look back when I'm on my deathbed and see that some stuff are the direct consequences of these unresolved inner mess.

That's why this will be an integral part of my bucket list.

Interesting comment

2011-06-09T10:47:00.000+08:00

I received an interesting unrelated comment from the previous post:

I would like to invite you to read a special gift from the wilderness of cyberspace Rev 12:6... Not one child of God will be put in a hell fire no matter what their sins. It never entered the heart or mind of God to ever do such a thing Jer 7:31, Jer 19:5 and I prove it by the word of God at http://minigoodtale.wordpress.com. The true Gospel (Gospel means Good Tale) now delivered Rev 12:5, 13 sets us free to love. Before you judge this gather all the evidence first Pro 18:13.

Interested enough, I decided to go into the website to see what this person is talking about... She has a rather interesting outlook on her faith, thinking that she is the prophet that Moses had talked about. I do not know where this comes from but apparently, in her posts, she quoted a lot... and I mean a lot of bible verses to substantiate her points. I didn't really read through the posts, cos she just quotes and quotes...

It is not my imperative to be judging the blog, as much as it's strange given that polemic is not my strong point (but come to speak of it, I should also equip myself with polemic). But it shows to me that one person can use the bible to prove virtually anything, if you are willing to quote anything out of context. This can also happen to other texts as well. The Jehovah Witness was reported to be misquoting academic articles to prove their theology. Furthermore, due to the numerous translations of the bible, I can simply pick one which reflects my theology best. This is what actually happened in this websites. All the bible quotes are literally from KJV, which posed a problem because if you want to use the KJV, which was translated sometime in the 1600s, you have to quote it in context on how the language was being used and the theological understanding of that time, especially if you want to make claim that you are the prophet that the bible is talking about and strive to prove it from the bible. And this is my case for choosing ultimately to ignore the website, deeming it a waste of time, that bible is being quoted out of context. And looking at the exchange of comments, I can simply conclude that if what she is doing and saying are wrong, then it is really up to God and not up to any netizens who have been engaging her.

A bite on the Apple

2011-06-09T10:19:00.000+08:00

http://www.apple.com/ios/ios5/features.html

http://www.apple.com/icloud/what-is.html

http://www.apple.com/macosx/how-to-buy/

I seriously think Apple is trying to put its competitors out of business by earning money from those who could have used these services for free with Google... just kidding. But the concept of iCloud and the iOS5 is really something that will go well with Apple users. iCloud means that Apple users are able to tap into the benefit of cloud computing with their Apple device, something which previously only possible with apps such as dropbox and platform such as Google. For iOS5, the iMessenging feature is surely going to put Whatsapp out of business... cos new iPhone users will definitely going to stop buying Whatsapp if this feature comes along with their new iPhone or even better... iPad. This gives me a good reason to get my iPad...

Demanding Boss

2011-06-08T13:20:00.000+08:00

Read a report in Insing.com on demanding boss in Singapore. Apparently, Singapore has the most demanding bosses in the world, with 96% of them expecting their staff to be reached during out-of-office and vacation leaves. We are only topped by Hongkong: 97%.

I felt a pinch of truth in the report. Thinking about it, how often do we find ourselves knocking off on time, and even if that is possible, how many of us find ourselves doing work at home? I see this in my bosses, though I am quite fortunate not to be activated unless absolutely necessary. But the thought that people can't knock off on time and can't take a mental break from work outside of office just irked me a lot. How much competitive and productive can we get if we find ourselves working beyond what's necessary? Such is the peril of emails and mobile devices nowadays.

The Right Person Myth II

2011-06-07T09:34:00.000+08:00

Are you the person whom the person you are looking for is looking for?

Just thought that my previous post missed out some caveats that I should fill in. I have met several people who questioned me last time when can we tell that we are ready for relationship? Does it mean that we need to be financially stable before we are ready? Does it mean that we need to have a stable career first? I have not really been able to answer these questions but now I shall give it a try.

I think I will start off from the premise that our present, which will be our past, will come back to haunt us in the future. That means that our history and track records matter a lot. I figure that most of our preparation work to be the right person will most of the time deal with our past baggages. This brings to me a new look into the verse that says 'Do not conform any longer to the patterns of the world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind'. Most of us, unless we grow up in a monastery, grow up in the world and we see and hear things which influence us, whether we realise it or not. You see, when we say 'Yes' at the altar during the big day (I have only seen it so far, yet to experience it myself), we make a promise to our spouses to take care of them etc etc etc... all those vows and I am sure we will all mean it when the time comes. However, saying yes doesn't mean it cancels all our past track records, which will not affect our lives.

Take for example, if we have not been managing our own finances well as a single, meaning we get into a lot of credit card debts, we spend more than we earn every month, we gamble away our money at 4D and lottery, we will have no business to say that we have the capability to take care of our families and be responsible with our finances without dealing with the issue at all. Take another example, which may be more applicable to girls, if all along we have been using our bodies to fish for affections, then the ones who will take the bait are those who are looking for... 'bodies'... And for girls, the bad news for you is that a guy who goes for such things will get on another one once a better bait comes along. So in this case, the preparation is really the renewing of our mind to understand that we 'bait' with godly characters (I'm actually quoting this from a podcast I heard recently but this is said as a tongue in cheek).

Take another example, if all along we are unable to be patient and self-controlled, what makes us think that once we are married to the 'right person', things will change? A good case study comes in the form of my father. According to my mother, he likes to watch television and they quarreled a few times because of this. Apparently, today, he has a large screen HDTV mounted on his room wall and a laptop streaming serial dramas and he can watch both at the same time. I can never match his multi-tasking skill. This is a good case on 'changes' before and after marriage... nil. Likewise, if I can't be patient with the girl I like at this moment, what makes me think that I can be patient with her once I 'get' her?

It sounds overwhelming, but I think I am comforted by the fact that transformation is an ongoing thing. We may be in a mess that takes years to untangle but the preparation work can well mean that we try to make real progress in these issues. I guess that's what preparation really mean.

Given all these, I guess I am not yet the person whom the person I am looking at is looking for. More work remains to be done.

The Right Person Myth

2011-06-06T14:07:00.000+08:00

Sometime back, I posted my understanding of a godly BGR here. In it, I expounded on Issac and Rebekah and argued for certain principles from the bible that are useful for us to follow, in order to honor God in a relationship between man and woman. Of course, part of the principles looked at the criteria that one should watch out for in a life partner. What I have never made clear enough is the fact that while we look out for these criteria, we need to bear in mind that we will be judged by the same criteria as well.

You see, I think I agree with the point that seldom does it state in the bible that God has the perfect one or the right one for us. Garry Friesman, in his book on Decision Making and the Will of God, argued that if God, in His sovereignty, has such an idea in mind, then probably most of us are destroying God's sovereign plan, as it just takes one person to marry the wrong person to set a whole series of mistake in chain. Then, we need to ask ourselves, is this really the case? Does God's plan really depend on us making the correct choice to work? I cannot deny that at certain point in certain time, God intervenes to ensure the right guy marry the right girl, as in the case of Issac and Rebekah (but then there are a lot of principles being worked out here for God to work), as in the case of Ruth and Boaz, as in the case of maybe even Joseph and Mary. But most of time, we do not see in the bible that God intervenes that directly into other's love life and dictating who they should marry. In fact, in the case of Solomon and David, it almost seems that God wasn't even involved in the decision making process, but this did not stop the eventual coming of the Messiah.

An yet a lot of us have the mentality of the 'right person'. How many times do we see a relationship that violates biblical principles in church and the couples have the cheek to tell us that 'he's the right guy' or 'I'm sure she is the one', only to realise that they will break up in a few months time. Perhaps the problem is not with the 'right person'. The bible does instruct us on the kind of person that we should look out in our marriage, but these are broad guidelines, which I think almost every sisters in the church fulfills. Beyond that, what's next? This is where the bible stops, but hold on, we realise that it talks a lot about what kind of husbands/wives we should be. In fact, I will see that the whole talk about molding our characters as part of the process of becoming the right person whom the right person is seeking for.

Put it this way, we are looking for the right person, but do we prepare to become the right person? Do we know how to love other people or do we 'love' out of our own self-interest and personal self-gratification? Jesus said, "Love one another as I have loved you". This is the standard of love that He has set for us. And this is the standard that I found out I lacked in previously. Jesus set us a standard with Himself as a basis, and that is high because He loves us so much that He went to the cross. And I wonder how many of us are willing to go to the cross for our supposedly loved one... after the chemistry ends. The church has a wonderful saying, two lonely persons coming together only make a lonely couple. By extension, two persons who dun know how to love will only come together as an unloving couple. As Andy Stanley has once mentioned, make love a verb. It is supposed to be an action verb, and let it remain as such, instead of making it a noun.

I am only stating one example on how we can prepare ourselves as the right person. The key is that as we prepare ourselves to be the right person whom our right person is looking for, we start to realise that we are able to see past external factors and learn how to filter accordingly down to the 'right person'.

Does this mean I dun believe that there is the 'right person' out there? I think I will just state that God has proven in history that He will bring a couple together so long it is strategically important enough for Him to intervene directly. But history has also proven to me that in such instances, the preparation work would have been done beforehand, and the couple would have been prepared enough to play that kind of role in His plans. These are by far few, but they do happen. Yet, till the day He shows me that, I will take it that it is up to me to prepare myself for the bride that is to come, whoever she may be. Right person? Maybe. Even if no, a process embedded with biblical principles will lead us to a suitable partner. This is my faith in Him.

Theology - Inconsistencies

2011-06-03T11:20:00.000+08:00

I was meditating on the issue of Holy Spirit Baptism yesterday, thinking about the debate of the signs of Holy Spirit Baptism. By definition, Holy Spirit Baptism is a given in Christianity. Any Christians worth his salt and who have studied the bible will know that as Christians, we are promised the baptism of the Holy Spirit. You can check out the verses in Bible Gateway by searching for the exact keywords. What is really in dispute is the question whether tongues is a compulsory sign of Holy Spirit baptism.

I am not here to answer the question, but I want to point out some inconsistencies in 'conservative Christians' in their biblical interpretation. Opponents of tongues have always quote Paul from 1 Corinthians when he asked 'Do all speak in tongues' while proponents will counter-argue that Paul is speaking from the perspective of tongues as a gift, not as a sign of the Holy Spirit Baptism. Sadly, I have read more scholarly and more thorough studies for the former case than for the latter case, mostly argued by charismatic writers who practice loose interpretation on bible verses to make their case.

Yet, one case scholars always make is that the fact that all the instances of Holy Spirit Baptism are always accompanied by signs of speaking in tongues does not mean that this happens to everyone. It's just like the argument that just because God spoke personally to some of the prophets through His Holy Spirit in the bible does not mean it is normative for the rest of the population. This sounds ok, but then I was like... 'wait a moment'... what about saying grace for food? I may have missed out but I have so far only found that the only person who gave thanks for food is Jesus... not normative... opps... and you will never see the people who argued against speaking in tongues on that basis argue the same thing for saying grace.

Of course this means something deeper but I dun want to go so far in. I just want to point out that we need to be consistent in our biblical interpretation, regardless of the issues. There are of course some rules to follow. The old rule applies, to allow the bible to speak for itself and not let our theology make the bible speak, which is a danger between the two camps I have mentioned.

The workers are few - a HR perspective

2011-05-31T17:25:00.000+08:00

These were his instructions to them: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.- Luke 10:2 (NLT)

I was just thinking about this verse while I was in the toilet handling my normal business (ok, not exactly the place to describe here). Then this verse came to my mind. What really prompted me to meditate on this verse suddenly was the recent reports on AIDS patients and mental patients dying alone in hospitals or elsewhere. I read one mental patient spending 45 years in a mental institution before dying alone, with no one visiting him over that long stretch of time. And I started thinking where is the church? Then I realised that was the wrong question to ask. I should be asking where are the workers?

The workers are few, but why? As an analyst working on HR issues in the government, I think we can afford to peep at the verse through a HR lens to see what can we uncover on the possible causes. First, the wrong question: where is the church? From a demand perspective, the church may not be visible due to the lack of demand. Simple economic theory, with demand there'll be supply. But this can be safely refuted, cos Jesus said: the harvest is great, and in other translation, it is plentiful. So it cannot be the case that there is no demand for the church to be around.

In this case, I mean the church to be there for the needy and sick and the poor. This is one of the mandate of the church even as we seek to fulfill the Great Commission. We are not to forget the poor and the fringe. This is a fact. That's why, that's why we see that a lot of charitable organisations (at least from the West, which has its roots in Christianity) are founded with Christian ideology as its basis. Even in Singapore, no offence to other religions, but the more successful VWOs are generally run by Christian organisations, which by itself says a lot. Religion is not a bad thing in providing for the poor and the needy because it provides the impetus for doing so. To be fair, we often see Buddhist temples and people of other faith coming out to provide free food etc. They have the impetus to do so, and can claim transcendence in their motives for doing so.

Coming back to the point, it therefore cannot be the case that there is no demand. If I may add, I would think that it is an undersupply that causing the problem. This brings me to my second point: asking the right question, where are the workers. Two ways of looking at it, and I will start off with the easiest way to look at it: a direct lack of supply, not enough people in the entire universe to meet the demand. Demand = 100 but supply = 50. I shall want to put it in this way, that sometimes I think the church we think too much about the attitude of our members and proceed to challenge and challenge and challenge people to go and go and go. We never pause to examine our assumption, or never seem to pause and examine if it is true that people are not going or is it that all have gone and none is left but yet a lot remains to be done? This is of course a very humanistic way of looking at it, but the point is whether we pause and think about it?

Of course, the second way of looking at it is that people are simply not going and that the workers are few because the workers are lazing around. This, and I shall contradict my previous point here, seems to be the real reason why we will want to ask 'where is the church'. At this point, I depart from my HR perspective and look into what Jesus is really implying here. He told us to ask Him to send more workers out there... now how can He send more workers out there unless there is really more workers out there ready to be sent? In physical term, it means there are warm bodies to be sent out from the church and they are waiting to be sent out, for whatever reasons. Maybe people want to do something but they have no opportunity? Maybe people are not aware or are not affected by social injustice etc? In business term, for the church, it means there is a need to market and make known the demand. And so I think it is much safer to take this case. It therefore seems to imply that it is the responsibility of the church to ask and pray to God to send out the people, to turn them from lazer to worker. Seems the case.

And I know I may have diverged a little from the context of this passage but think about it, Jesus sent out the 72 for the sake of the Kingdom, and I am sure under the right guiding from the Holy Spirit, reaching out to the needy, the poor and the sick being there for this group of people helps to tell the world that Christianity is unlike the world has ever seen. That's why Mother Theresa's ministry in Calcutta is so powerful, because they cut right into the heart of the society and show that the church cares for the people. It is a powerful message which perhaps Gandhi has missed due to the time he was born in. But this is potentially the message that we, as the body of Christ, can send out to the world. The harvest is plentiful, and the workers are few. But we keep sending them out, the church can change the world.

Where is the church? The church is always there. I think we have to start asking ourselves where are the workers.

Meet God halfway

2011-05-27T14:21:00.000+08:00

A man walks into a church one day and kneels down to pray. "Lord," he says, "I've made mistakes, but I'm determined to change. If you let me win the lottery, I promise to be a good servant and never bother you again."

Nothing happens. So the next week the man tries again. "Please, God, let me win the lottery, and I'll come to church every week."

Again nothing happens. So the man decides to try one last time. "Lord," he implores, "why haven't I won the lottery? Have you abandoned me?"

Suddenly a deep voice booms down from above. "My son, I have not abandoned you, but at least meet me halfway - buy a ticket!"

—Simon McDermott

Where is the line?

2011-05-26T13:35:00.001+08:00

Today's ST reported that SGH has put up signs in all its wards to remind visitors against proselytising after a volunteer from the Church of Praise was found recently evangelising to a patient and was told to leave... a certain Paul Tobin, president of a certain Humanist Society in Singapore called the move a positive step in the right direction...

My foot a right direction...

I have always maintained my view that Singapore, being a society where religions are free to practice, should allow its religions to practice freely. Where is religious freedom when you allowed a religion which mandate is to make disciples of all nations and is to convert as many disciples as possible to practice without that mandate? It's like telling PAP to run the government without giving them the right to run the government. I seriously think our society needs to wake up its idea.

And besides, where does the line for proselytising stands? Where is it drawn? To a non-Christian, the mere act of me sharing my testimony on how God blessed me can be perceived as such an act. Surprisingly, and amusingly, if someone comes up to me and share that the Mr Guan blessed him with a 4D win, it would never be seen as proselytising. Isn't that true?

And to Mr Paul Tobin, what on earth do you mean by 'right direction'? On what basis do you call that a 'right direction'?

Singaporeans nowadays....

PS: To the anonymous who has given your comments, I have rejected your comment because you have failed to identify yourself. Until you prove your own identity, I will not post up your comment. Partly because I want people who post their comments in this blog to be responsible and not just give anonymous feedback which to me is not feedback or comment at all. But rest assured, I will comment on your comment in my next post, as I have always done so.

You are good - Gateway Worship

2011-05-24T10:31:00.000+08:00

Simple song, but nice, clear, and express well God's goodness.