Above all else

Hi everyone This year has been a momentous one. Just before the start of 2007, which was christened a Year of Victory, my church had us go through an exercise, challenging us to "look far", "go deep" and "ask big". For "looking far" I wanted to establish a prayer group in the office that would endure time (and staff turnover!), so that I could build a long-term habit of being a marketplace minister. Thank God that He has allowed our group to be a blessing through our activities - the coffee sales, the zoo trip and the Christmas parties, and for myself, that it has forced me to try to set an example! Amazing what people can do under pressure :) So, prayer no. 1 ANSWERED! I pray that it will yield even more fruit in the new year. For "going deep" I wanted to ensure that I had a regular QT and word time. I think I might have completely and utterly failed in this, if not for the fact that God forced me to regularly stop, think and reflect i...

Whew what a busy Christmas season. I was reading the account of Phillip and the Egyptian official in Acts 8:26-40 yesterday morning, and I remember thinking to myself that it was important to avoid falling into the trap of reading for the sake of getting Word time over and done with, but rather, making sure that I identified some practical lessons for application! Anyway, here's what I learned: 1. the angel said "Go" and Philip went. Lesson 1: obey God. He is saying to us "go"! Can you hear? 2. the Egyptian official was already a seeker, trying to understand God. Lesson 2: trust God. He has already prepared the hearer. Will you speak? 3. after that first step, God gave Philip a fruitful ministry and a godly family - in fact he was so successful that many years later, he was even called "Philip the Evangelist" and had four godly daughters (Acts 21:8-9). Lesson 3: God is good! God has an amazing plan for your life. Will you accept? Christmas is such a go...

Another true story. Teaching my son letter sounds - you know, "fff" for "F", "sss" for "S" and so on. So he's going "eh", "buh", "cuh", "duh", then he gets to "P" and looks very puzzled, clearly cracking his head over what "P" sounds like, and ends up "PUI!" and spits in my eye.

True story about my daughter. On the flight up to Lijiang, my daughter was sitting with some of my other friends because we were scattered all over the plane. As the plane was going to land, the stewardess told my daughter to fold up the meal tray. My daughter asked my friend why she needed to fold the meal tray. My friend said the meal tray might hit her if it wasn't stowed away properly. My daughter's response? "Then I'll sue them!"

Here’s my update on the Lijiang trip. I learned three important lessons, one renewed, one new, and one old but unlearned! The old lesson is this – God is in charge. Despite my usual reaction of horror at the absence of detailed planning, I was once again proved wrong by events. Whether or not we have a plan, God’s plan always proves to be best. I don’t think this means that we shouldn’t plan, but rather that we should make ourselves available to God’s plan. Despite our failure to announce our arrival at the schools, both secondary and primary schools were pleased to receive us and let us take some classes. I think the most astonishing case was the primary school, where we turned up completely unannounced, and then found out it was meet the parents day and the classes are all free for us to take. Absolutely perfect timing, despite us having no plan to even visit this school until the day before. Simply amazing. Personally, I had planned out what I was going to say to the students. You w...

God wants to give us direction. What are some of the ways in which we can discern his direction? a. the Bible b. the Holy Spirit c. counsel of godly leaders/mentors/friends The Bible is our first guide (Ps 119:105). It is clear on many specific things that are non-contextual and non-negotiable e.g. do not steal, do not murder etc. Sometimes the instructions are more principle-based rather than specific e.g. honour your parents, love your neighbour. For these matters, there's not much argument - in a situation where you are faced with the decision to steal/not steal, there is no need to "pray about it" (a favourite refrain among Christians). But on many matters, the Bible does not contain specific instructions e.g. all other things being equal, whether we should work in job A or job B, or whether we should study subject X or subject Y. On such occasions, the Holy Spirit can sometimes be very clear (Isa 30:21). The Holy Spirit is our counsellor. Sometimes He speaks very cle...

Some thoughts about forgiveness. I received a short booklet on this topic in the mail this week, and I thought it was particularly relevant to some things going on in my life at the moment. (a) Sometimes it's not forgiveness, but understanding. (b) Forgiveness should be humble, not self-righteous; restorative, not punitive. (c) Forgiveness only counts when its tough. Forgiveness is only relevant when the matter concerns something unequivocal. It's not applicable when we simply disagree with one another - sometimes we have different points of view, and then what is needed is understanding, not forgiveness. I think it's easy to forget this. People have expectations of one another, and sometimes we fail each other. It seems like we need to forgive the person who has not met our expectations, but actually what is needed is for us to understand that person better. It might be an expectation of gratefulness, or of companionship, or even material needs. If someone fails to live up...

Last Sunday's sermon was about friends. Oddly, I have just been to the company's crisis counselling course (for BCP purposes) which says that counsellors are not supposed to be friends, they are supposed to help you feel better. I suppose there's a place for both. Why? Because really good friends, like parents to their children, are supposed to render value judgments and solutions (which don't necessarily make you feel better). On the other hand, friends won't always be able to help or offer solutions, but in such cases, they're still there for us. The premium to be placed on the support and prayers of true friends is more than we realize. How can we ourselves be a valuable friend to others? Here are 3 suggested elements: (a) steadfast loyalty (b) shared vision (c) selfless giving How is loyalty evinced between friends? Obviously, helping when in need - Proverbs 17:17 says "A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity". Also, protec...

This November, my family and I will be off to China on a short mission trip. This time, I'm not only bringing my kids but also my parents! My kids really enjoyed themselves last year (or so I like to think) and I'm really looking forward to seeing the place again. At last week's team building get-together, each of the team members shared their expectations for the trip. My expectations were as follows: (a) to set an example for my children, so that they grow up with the paradigm that going on mission trips is NORMAL behaviour, and not a big deal. Otherwise they will end up like me, thinking that I am doing God a big favour by going. This will be our third trip as a family, and things have gotten easier from the first time to the second time (the first time, Daniel was still pram bound!), so hopefully we can maintain this discipline and enjoy it more and more as well. To be honest, it has not been difficult - both trips I've gone to have been amazingly fun! (b) to demons...

God has been faithful to our office group, even as our activity has fluctuated as wildly as our stock price. Can't be helped I guess - sometimes work is just crazy. But just last week, when I thought the meeting would have to be abandoned, J introduced T to the group and T came for the lunch meeting. There were just the two of us, but God demonstrated that He always provides, just in time, and I think we had a nice time sharing and praying. Thanks for keeping me company T :) In contrast, the zoo trip probably counts as the very height of our activity in the 9-10 months since our re-inception in January 2007. In my view, the zoo trip was an unqualified success - from the preparation and fundraising to the execution and aftermath. In fact, I just met 2 of the children at our recent charity run, and was very happy that both of them remembered me from the trip and (at least out of politeness if nothing else) appeared to be happy to see me too :) Now to this week's sharing. We know ...

This picture is of Damascus, circa 1677. I've found it important for me to draw near to God, as work threatens to gobble up more and more of my attention. As usual and unfortunately, God always gets more attention in a crisis :p Now, to my thoughts for this week, which are utterly plagiarised from what my wife shared with me haha :) Acts 9:1-17 describes Saul's conversion on the road to Damascus. There are a number of interesting bits in this passage. When Saul is blinded by the light, he says "Who are you Lord (Adonai)?" (Acts 9:5). This suggests three things - one, that he doesn't know who the light is. Two, nevertheless, he knows that the light has authority. Third, he wants to know who the light is. Saul was a busy man. He was an important man. In fact he was just on his way to Damascus to take prisoner the Christians, in a fit of self-righteousness. I'm sure that like me, you have often felt like Saul. We feel busy and important (especially at work), doin...

The adopted "verse of the year" for my church has been 2 Corinthians 2:14 "But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him." God ALWAYS leads us in TRIUMPH and THROUGH US, His fragrance is SPREAD EVERYWHERE. The picture, by the way, is of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. In the past 9 months, I can confidently testify that God’s promise has been fulfilled. Two of the more obvious examples are: (a) my church’s campaign to bless 100,000 people, which ended up several thousand ahead of the plan; and (b) our zoo trip, attended by many of our colleagues, and which was widely publicized throughout the office through our fund-raising efforts. We have much to thank God for in relation to the zoo trip – enthusiastic colleagues, safety of the children despite their wild running , and great weather (especially since it has rained the last two mornings since the zoo trip!). Let’s co...

I’ll split my sharing for this post into a couple of parts: (a) Trouble is inevitable but ONLY God can provide absolutely certain protection (b) God needs to protect us from ourselves (c) God uses the church to protect us Trouble is inevitable but God's protection is certain Psalm 91 is one of the most popular parts of the Bible – it speaks of God’s benevolent protection over those whom He loves. But why do bad things still happen to us? God WILL protect us, but this does not mean there will not be trouble. Psalm 91:14-15 says: "Because he loves me," says the LORD,"I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him." Clearly, there is no rescue if there is no danger. There is no protection without harm. There is no deliverance without crisis. God says he will be with us IN TROUBLE. But BECAUSE WE LOVE HIM, He WILL rescue, He WILL protect,...

I watched this film on the plane from Singapore to London. The film is not, as one might suspect, about the writer of the hymn Amazing Grace, who was the reformed English slaver John Newton. Rather, it concerns the English parliamentarian William Wilberforce. An interesting write-up of William Wilberforce's life, which makes reference to John Newton's influence on William Wilberforce, can be found on wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wilberforce. I enjoyed the film tremendously, and I thought I might share three lessons I learned from it. The first is this. Always persevere. William Wilberforce was an abolitionist in an age when slavery was widely accepted. He struggled for years, failure after failure, to champion a law abolishing the slave trade. After many years, and many failed attempts, he finally succeeded. Had he not persevered, human suffering would probably have been prolonged for much longer. The second thing is this. He surrounded himself with like-mi...

Sunday's message was from 1 Samuel 18:1-4. It describes how Jonathan, the crown prince to the throne of Israel, provided unstinting support (in his heart and in providing physical assistance) to David, despite the fact that David's success must have threatened Jonathan's own claim to the throne. Providing tangible and intangible support to others is a critical part of disciple-making. Last week I spoke about how the church leadership challenged us to be a blessing to 100,000 people. The church has passed with flying colours - the final count was in excess of 108,000. The numbers in themselves mean nothing - some of us may have contributed more numbers than others, but that is completely immaterial. Ultimately, it is the COMMUNITY which has succeeded. And the numbers provide evidence that we are prepared, as a community, to commission great acts of love. The leaders and the church members make each other better i.e. discipleship; and we spur one another on to good deeds. So,...

Dear friends If you recall, I have mentioned that I am part of a campaign to bless 100,000 pre-believers in Singapore within 1 month. As about 5,000 people volunteered for the campaign, that averages out to about 20 blessings per volunteer, or 5 blessings per volunteer per week. The first time I heard about the plan, I thought it was ridiculous. Is it really possible to pray for and bless 20 pre-believers in a month? Do I even know 20 pre-believers whom I can pray for? It would have been easier if it included believers - just pray for the cell group and you've got anywhere between 5-20. By the way, for those of my friends who already know Jesus, it's not that I doubt your relationship with Him - you just happened to be in the way, so might as well pray for you also right? :) Anyway, I decided that I would give God the chance to show me the impossible. SEND ME. I am overjoyed to report that, as of today, I have managed to pray for and bless more than 30 pre-believers. There are ...

This is a video which was screened at the tribute concert "Rock for Wayne" for my brother. I miss him a lot. But I believe he's now with Jesus, and I'm looking forward to seeing him again in heaven. If any of you have anyone you care about - a brother, sister, parent or friend, call them NOW and let them know how much they mean to you. I mean it.

Here’s a summary of our discussion on our volunteer service project. In any discussion, it’s useful to run through a few key questions: Who? What? Where? When? How? Why? So what? WHO? Care Corner. Likely 50-70 underprivileged primary school age kids. On our own end, currently nine of us have specifically indicated interest. I understand Care Corner's own volunteers will also be involved. We continue to extend this to any of you who have yet to specifically inform me. We will also extend this to our other colleagues once we have finalized the details. WHERE? Probably the zoo, science centre or some other paying venue. I would like to try to avoid a "free" activity. Since these are under-privileged kids, we should try to do something they would ordinarily not have the opportunity to do. We will try to negotiate a discounted rate. WHAT? Besides a general tour of whatever location we choose, we need to organise food, transport and possibly some entertainment. Scavenger hunt?...

Watched Transformers this weekend. Wow - action-packed. I remember my Transformers toys already being pretty cool, but the movie pretty much blows "cool" out of the water. Pity the CGI robots don't actually look anything much like I remember the cartoon characters, but I guess 80s kitsch just doesn't cut it these days. Check out the difference between 2007 (left) and 80s (right)! In a retro-packed weekend, also spent two hours playing Mario Party on the Nintendo 64 with my wife and kids. Having drummed it into Daniel that he's not supposed to cry when he doesn't win, he rather proudly announces "I didn't cry! See?" every time he doesn't actually win one of the mini-rounds. Good for him. Earlier in the weekend, I went to play futsal with my old colleagues. How did it go? Great to see old friends again! Oh, are we talking about the game here? Let's just say I'm glad I didn't have too many minutes on the pitch. The embarassment might...

The Christian life is a life lived in community. Obeying and loving God is about loving our neighbours, believers and non-believers alike. The greatest is commandment is to love God. How is this to be achieved in practice, given that God is non-corporeal? By loving our neighbours. “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Matthew 22:36-40 For this reason, while faith is often personal, the expression of faith in our works seldom is. You may have heard people say “I don’t believe in the organized church” or “my faith is between God and me”. But such an approach is often fallacious because it is difficult for faith to be demonstrated in vacuo. The importance of living the Christian life in communi...

God has a tremendous promises for us. Among other things, He says: He has a plan to prosper us, not to harm us (Jer 29:11); that all things will work for our good (Rom 8:28); that He has prepared good works in advance for us to do (Eph 2:10); and that we can do all things through Him who gives us strength Phi 4:13) We know that God has a plan. We know it's a good plan. We know the plan is specifically for us. We know that the plan is do-able. So what is our response? Shall we participate in the plan, or instead say "I'll pass". As I said to my friends recently, there is only one question - "want or don't want". If your answer is "I want", then the next step of course is to discern God's specific plan for us. For different people, this may present different challenges. Some of us have received a promise long ago, but are still waiting for it to happen. A family member's salvation. A healing. Favour in the workplace. A spouse. What should...

Funny story in church yesterday. You may have heard it before. Here’s my re-telling. This African chief has a great pal, with whom he does everything – they hunt together, fish together, eat together etc. One day, the chief gets his hands on a rifle. All excited about his new acquisition, he goes out into the jungle to test it with his pal. Unfortunately, the rifle is a bit faulty and the first time he fires it, it blows off his thumb! The pal tells him “Don’t worry, this is great, everything will work out well!” To which the irate chief replies “AAARRRGGH are you CRAZY?! I just lost my thumb!” And upon their return to the village, the fuming chief throws his pal into jail (so much for the rule of law). A year later, the chief’s pal is till in jail, but the chief feels well enough to go hunting again. Wisely, he decides to stick with his trusty spear this time. Unfortunately, he gets captured by a bunch of vicious cannibals! Just as the cannibals are lowering him into the cauldron with...