Above all else

National Family Week is coming up - if you recall, we are having the "have dinner with your family" thing for our office sometime in May. There are also a number of other activities organised in conjunction with the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports and the National Family Council. This includes the Family Festival 2007 - a week-long series of family-themed lunch-time talks in the CBD from next week 21-25 May 2007. The principal organiser is Touch Community Services (with whom I have done a little work, hence my connection to this series of activities), with partners including Focus on the Family, Fei Yue Community Services, Care Corner, Koda, and DEL-Care. The program is pretty good as it covers a broad scope of interesting issues, and the venues are pretty close by e.g. One Raffles Quay, Capital Tower. For parents of teenagers, Yeang Cherng's workshop on mentoring teens in the internet age should be current and insightful. Yeang Cherng is a member of t...

A couple of things I've been thinking about. Should we or our employers support or contribute to charitable causes run by religious non-Christian organisations? *readers aghast!* Sigh. The moment comments like this are made, political correctness often kicks in. Wah, Christian can be so intolerant ah?! But let's cut through the fog of political correctness. What are the issues here: 1. Helping the poor and needy is God's command. Therefore meeting people's felt needs is important. 2. A non-Christian can do as much or more good deeds than a Christian. Therefore doing good is not necessarily being Christian. Suppose a philanthopist wants to leave his mark on the world. He donates $1m to his alma mater for a scholarship fund. The fund is named after himself. Has he done good? Yes. Is this admirable? Probably. Is he being Christian? Maybe. 3. In the present context - the company does good. Who gets the glory? The company obviously. The temple too. Does God appear anywhere y...

I'm thinking that maybe we could be getting too comfortable with the group's status - you know, just happy turning up, or just happy to write/receive mails. A shake-up required to get us to the next level? Let's see. And more importantly, let's pray! This anecdote has done the rounds before - see if you know it: A night club was being prepared for opening night in a small town. For months, the local church gathered to pray against the bad influence that the night club could bring to the neighbourhood. They made no secret of their campaign to the rest of the town and the night club owner Mr Smith. On the night before opening, a terrible storm came up and lightning struck the night club building, razing it to the ground. Mr Smith promptly sued the church members for the damage. In court, the church members vigorously denied liability. In his final judgment, the judge stated, "Whatever the findings of this court, one thing is clear - and that is that the party who rea...

At last week's meeting I shared about the need to keep filling up with the Word. As God sends more people into my path for me to share the gospel with, I realise the importance of getting my spiritual fuel tank topped up. When I don't fill up on the Word, I have less to give - I am less wise, less patient, less energetic. My wife can testify to that haha (my wife: that's not funny :P). I must admit that until recently, I have never really felt the importance of filling up on the Word (apart from general exhortations from people like my leaders and pastors as a generally Good Thing To Do). Personally, I like reading the Bible. It's really quite an interesting book. But it's never actually felt like it could be a recharging experience until recently. That set me thinking. Many's the time that I've read the Bible, then put it aside, having gained nothing very much. Why? The answer came to me quite clearly - my petrol tank has been full most of the time, because...