Above all else

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...

Ed Silvoso came to town over the weekend (the guy who wrote "That None Should Perish"). He shared some interesting anecdotes. As Christians, we are instructed to share the good news, not necessarily good advice. What’s the difference between good news and good advice? Good advice is when a banker comes to your house to tell you that you are bankrupt, repossesses the house, then tells you where the nearest shelter is, and how to apply for CDC aid. That’s great (in the circumstances). But when the banker tells you that he has wiped out your debt, redeemed your mortgage, and put a million dollars in your account for you to spend as you see fit – THAT’S good news. So why is it that we’re so eager to dish out good advice, and so reticient when it comes to good news? Let’s examine the good news. We know there is a God. This God cares. And He cares for us. Let’s respond to these truths. What do we always say Christianity is? That’s right – a relationship between God and us. Relation...

A most elegantly written extract from T.H White's classic "The Sword in the Stone". Merlyn had finished his breakfast, and was puffing at the meerschaum pipe which made his pupil believe that he breathed fire. Now he took a very deep puff, looked at the Wart, opened his mouth to speak, changed his mind, blew out the smoke and drew in another lungful. "Sometimes," he said, "life does seem to be unfair. Do you know the story of Elijah and the Rabbi Jachanan?" "No," said the Wart. He sat down resignedly upon the most comfortable part of the floor, perceiving that he was in for something like the parable of the looking-glass. "This Rabbi," said Merlyn, "went on a journey with the prophet Elijah. They walked all day, and at nightfall they came to a humble cottage of a poor man, whose only treasure was a cow. The poor man ran out of his cottage, and his wife ran too, to welcome the strangers for the night and to offer them all the si...

Last week I questioned how we could improve our little office prayer group. This begs the question – what is the prayer group for? If you recall, the answer from my very first mail is: pray lah! Over the past 6 months, I think I’ve refined my thoughts about this. I’ve emphasized the importance of living the Christian life outside church and the cell group. Church and small groups are for recharging and equipping. They are very important, but practical Christian living is really to be found in our homes and our workplaces. Since the group is meant for recharging and equipping, this is what we should do – encourage and pray for each other when we meet. How do we do this? By sharing our lives and spurring each other to live exciting lives for Jesus AFTER THE MEETING IS OVER. I think we have been making a fair attempt at this. So why aren’t we more inspired, more active, more empowered? Well, there are two sides to the equation. First, the recipients must be willing to be changed. All of u...