A young adult cell meets at my place every Saturday afternoon. My wife and I have a growing affection for these godly and talented young people, mostly serving with the worship ministry. One of them is Sarah, and her grandfather, Mr Phua was ill. He was bedridden, unable to speak or care for himself, with a chronic bedsore. All this after a fall about two years ago. The cell decided to visit and worship and pray with him last Saturday(click on pics). We worshiped the Lord, sprinkled with scripture readings, prayers, words, and singing in the Spirit. I felt the anointing and presence of the Lord. My eyes were moist. This was no formal going through the motions; it was deeply meaningful. A few days later we received this letter from Caroline, Mr Phua’s daughter, who was present. She wrote:
“We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to you and Sarah’s Cell group for your visitation, fellowship and wonderful + inspiring worship time with my parents at my home last weekend. My mom had been touched and inspired by your cell group - the wonderful young people who can lead and pray for her and my dad during the worship time. She felt renewed inside and her faith in God has been strengthened once more. She felt that she was able to worship the Lord with them at my home as if she is in a church. My mom was very happy on that day after you all left. Her face was radiant. Praise God.I know my dad - he was able to hear and listen to the worship time and praying moments. I saw him shedding a few tears during that time. I thank God for giving my parents a time of uplifting and giving glory to God at my home despite not being able to go to their church.I am also inspired by what the Lord has used each one of the wonderful people in His ministry. They are His wonderful and marvelous tools to be used for His Kingdom and His Glory. I believe that God will bless and develop them much more to further His ministry everywhere they go. I was glad to be able to serve you with my bakery. I pray and hope that there will be another round of worship and praying time for my parents so that they will be brought closer to God much more through Sarah’s cell group. We are looking forward to it “
Reading the letter was an encouragement. It got me thinking. Bringing the cell and the worship outside where the needs are can be very impactful. These missional young adults has gotten out of the hype and emo of popular Christianity, and entered into the real world of suffering and need, and deliberately offering themselves there, they were used by the Lord to refresh a bedridden man, and a family worn out from caring for him.
It also got me thinking about the future face of ministry. By 2020 the number of senior citizens in Singapore would have doubled, and a percentage of that would be homebound. What kind of ministry would the senior citizens need? How will the growing aged population shape the ministry of churches in the next decade?
Just imagine this. We have Singaporeans who have emigrated to Australia for a more balanced education for their children and a higher quality of life for the family. And we have many more who wish they could, or had done so, or plan to do so, or wish they have the guts to do so…..because they are unhappy with the rat race in the competitive local school system and work place. But today we read of a billionaire, Jim Rogers, former co-founder with George Soros, of Quantum Fund, and his third wife and two kids becoming Singapore Permanent Residents, and trying to get their daughter into Nanyang Primary School, where she can learn Mandarin and be educated in the Singapore school system. In order to secure a place for their daughter in the school, believe it or not, they are taking the time to volunteer their services to the school, a sacrifice only desperate parents make to get a better chance for school entry. I mean he could just donate like some loose change from his pockets, say $150,000, to the school fund, and surely that would count for something (surely his one day is even more precious than $150,000).
I say give him citizenship because he is already acting like a true Singaporean!
Is Jim Rogers seeing something in our education system that we Singaporean gripers and complainers have missed seeing?
It should be comforting for many Singaporean parents who feel their children are trapped!
He is no relative of mine though we bear the same surname. He founded and pastors New Destiny Fellowship International, one of the rare churches that has its main service on Saturdays. I did an interview with him, the first of a whole series I hope to do (ambitious, impetuous me) on people answering the callings of God into all kinds of work, but mainly into full time pastoral or missions work. The intention is to encourage people of all ages to answer the call of God to his many varied works.
“Numerous writings on the subject preserved confirm that revival is Divine intervention in the normal course of spiritual things. It is God revealing Himself to man in awful holiness and irresistible power. It is such a manifest working of God that human personalities are overshadowed and human programs abandoned. It is man retiring into the background because God has taken the field. It is the Lord… working in extraordinary power on saint and sinner” (Arthur Wallis, In the Day of Thy Power, p. 20).
“The essence of revival is that the Holy Spirit comes down upon a number of people together; upon a whole church, a number of churches, districts or perhaps a whole country. It is a visitation or outpouring of the Holy Spirit God has come down among them” (Martyn LloydJones, Revival, p. 100).
“……a movement of the Holy Spirit bringing about a revival of New Testament Christianity in the Church of Christ and its related community. It may significantly change an individual, a group of believers, a congregation, a city, a country or even eventually the world but it accomplishes the reviving of the Church, the awakening of the masses and the movement of uninstructed peoples towards the Christian faith; the revived church by many or few is moved to engage in evangelism, teaching and social action” (J. Edwin Orr, The Eager Feet, p. vii).
“… what we call revival is simply New Testament Christianity, the saints getting back to normal” (Vance Havner, Hearts Afire, pp. 103104).
“To the church, a revival means humiliation, a bitter knowledge of unworthiness and an open and humiliating confession of sin on the part of her ministers and people. It is not the easy and glorious thing many think it to be, who imagine it fills pews and reinstates the church in power and authority. It comes to scorch before it heals; it comes to condemn ministers and people for their unfaithful witness, for their selfish living, for their neglect of the cross, and to call them to daily renunciation, to an evangelical poverty and to a deep and daily consecration. That is why a revival has ever been unpopular with large numbers within the church. Because it says nothing to them of power such as they have learned to love, or of ease, or of success; it accuses them of sin, it tells them they are dead, it calls them to awake, to renounce the world and to follow Christ.” (James Burns, writing in Revival, Their Laws and Leaders)
In America when an evangelist preaches a series of meetings, they call them revival meetings. They are more emotional, intense affairs that seek a response of repentance or rededication. When the Lakeland meetings began in April as a single week of healing evangelistic meetings, they did not expect that the meetings will continue till today, because the power and presence of God were more evident than usual, and miraculous signs and healings were taking place. But is this revival? Controversy has risen in part because of his talk of unusual activity attributed to an angel named Emma. In addition, the evangelist, Todd Bentley does not look Billy Graham-like, clean and proper and acceptable. In fact, he sports tattoos all over his body and hands, and looks like a bouncer. But even if he does not talk or look controversial, is this revival? With Web 2.0 environment, news of the revival have travelled wide and far. In fact you can watch the meetings live every day. And there are testimonies that it can impact others through the internet access. Wonderful! But does its worldwide reach make it revival? What makes a revival a revival? Must all revivals look alike? Must they look like the Jonathan Edwards revival in New England or the Welsh revival or the Hebrides revival? For that matter is the Toronto Blessing a revival? What about the one in Brownsville?
It was a father’s day gift and I was delighted when my son bought an Arsenal jersey (the real thing) even though it was last season’s. Yes, I wonder if I will get to wear this with pride at the end of the coming season. It looks like good players are leaving beloved Arsenal and being hunted by huge clubs with offers of huge pay rises, while hardly any exciting players are being bought by Arsene Wenger. The comforting news is that Ronaldo is a big transfer target of Real Madrid, as we all know the cliche’: Real always gets what it wants! Is it better for Ronaldo to move from Man U to Real Madrid? My opinion is yes! yes! yes! yes!yes! why so? Let me give you ten good reasons:
1. He has won everything with Manchester United already: the elusive double of EPL Championship and UEFA Championship. He’s reached the mountaintop. Next challenge is to win the double with another club.
2. Arsenal will have a better chance to win the EPL championship.
3. He gets to leave dreary and damp Manchester and see the sun again.
4. He will save his legs from the English leg-choppers: remember Eduardo!
5. It gives Arsenal a better chance of winning the EPL Championship in the coming season. Manchester United without Ronaldo’s 40 plus goals means second or third.
6. Real Madrid will pay him for what he is really worth.
7. His legs will be fresher for Portugal in the next World Cup because the Spanish league plays less games than the EPL.
8. He can avoid the notorious “hair dryer” treatment of Ferguson. In Real Madrid they will assign him a personal hairdstylist.
9. Rooney will look a better player.
10. Arsenal will have a better chance to clinch the EPL Championship next year.
How do we dispose of old deteriorated Bibles? I must admit I have thrown some down the HDB thrash bin although most of them I have given away or made available for others to take and use. How many Bibles have I owned and fawned and used and discarded like used tissues at a hawker center table? I dare not guess. How should we dispose of old used Bibles properly? I have thought of different things but the best idea I have come up with so far was to give it away for others to use. But what will the others do with it when they buy their own new Bibles? So my interest was piqued when Anthony Loke of Old Testament Passion blogged about this and linked to a rabbi Mark Gellman’s recommendation. I have extracted the rabbi’s idea about proper disposal of old used Bibles for your convenience. Tell me what you think.
Q: I have quite a few old Catholic prayer books handed down from my wife’s mother years ago. I would like to know how to dispose of them. — F., via e-mail
A: Catholic prayer books (missals) and old deteriorated Bibles still bear the word of God and the name of God in them. They are old and worn, but they are still vessels of the holy, and so they cannot be disposed of in the garbage with yesterday’s green bean casserole. This respect for worn-out sacred books is universally shared by Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In older and more traditional Catholic practice, I am told, the books would be covered and buried respectfully though not necessarily in a cemetery. They should be covered and then buried. “Dust to dust” refers to the disposal of all holy vessels.
We invited Rev George Ong to speak on “Unveiling the Glory of God”, subtitled Cat and Dog Theology. We were his fourth June church camp but he was energetic, engaging, humourous, penetrating and enlightening. Rather than the usual inspirational/prophetic fare for church camps I decided this time to go for some solid teaching for more balance. The teaching and preaching was appreciated and well received by the church. It served to deepen our call to glorify God in missions and not be so “me” centered. It was a corrective to our Singaporean Christian “consumer” mentality. He brought along stocks of the 12 humour books that he authored/compiled, and they sold well. It was wonderful to fellowship with this ex-Youth for Christ worker, former army captain, Trinity alumni, formerGrace Assembly pastor, and to hear about his faith-walk as an itinerant preacher, credentialed with the Assembly of God.
We were at Malacca’s Holiday Inn a spanking new hotel near the sea and next to Makhota Parade Shopping Mall. The facilities and food were great and so was the service.
An article by ST political editor Chua Lee Hoong prodded me into some thinking. Chua Lee Hoong, who used to work in the intelligence service, pondered over the squandered potential of Dr. Chee Soon Juan. I can relate to her description of the disappointment of the electorate over Dr Chee’s methods. I too have felt this disappointment. The drift was that had Dr Chee taken the path that Mr Chiam, and Mr Low and Ms Sylvia Lim had taken, he would have been more acceptable and effective. But looking at the three caged lions, whose speeches were often truncated or given little space in our national news media, what loss of civil liberties have they highlighted in the last decade? Have they managed to get us to think?
But of greater interest to me is Ms Chua’s mention about Dr Chee’s claim that his Christian faith guides him. She writes:
Not that I think Chee will care about this. He marches, at least in his own mind, to a different beat. “My Christian faith guides me, and it is a faith that compels me to fight for justice and to treat my fellow men and women with compassion,” he said in court last week.
Back in 1993, he also cited his Christian faith when talking about his 10-day hunger trike:”I am a Christian. I came into this hunger strike under the Lord’s guidance and am leaving it the same way. My life is not mine to take.”
The question though is whether mainstream Christians will accept his pattern of behaviour as being particularly Chritian.
He claims to fight for justice but the way he fights has been lamentable.
A few questions came to mind, as I reflected on this. One, would mainstream Christians accept his pattern of behaviour? Two, can a Christian’s faith lead a person to acts of civil disobedience?
I am not theologian nor have I hard evidence, but to the first question, I think the majority of mainstream evangelical Christianity would not find his behaviour acceptable. The Roman Catholics however are perhaps more enlightened in this respect and they just may be more sympathetic. My feeling is that as products of decades of socio-engineering, not to talk about our Confucian roots and upbringing, the mainstream Christians feel embarassed by his mention of the Christian faith in his explanation of what motivates him. Even the enslaved Israelites resisted Moses when he sought to lead them because they have been conditioned by Pharonic Egypt for 400 years. I don’t think it would be true of mainstream Christians in USA or Australia or South Africa or Philippines. They would see it in a different light, as they had gone through periods of suffering under oppressive and unjust laws and governance to the extent that their deprivation of civil liberties were painfully and deeply felt.
Is Christianity and civil disobedience compatible? Can a Christian’s faith lead one to acts of civil disobedience? Have you heard of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr of the American Civil Rights Movement ? or of Archbishop Desmond Tutu who acted against the apartheid South African government? or Cardinal Sin of the Philippines who rallied the Catholic population against Marcos? Ask each of them if their Christian faith led them to do what they did and they will unequivocally say Yes. Was Dr Chee led by the Lord? Many won’t even countenance him being mentioned beside the other luminaries, but is there not even a tiny possibility that he may be led by the Lord? Is he a Samson, genuinely called, but messing it up along the way?
PS: Civil Disobedience is the active refusal to obey certain laws, demands and commands of a government, or of an occupying power, without resorting to physical violence. It is one of the primary tactics of nonviolent resistance. In its most nonviolent form (known as ahimsa or satyagraha) it could be said that it is compassion in the form of respectful disagreement.
Civil disobedience is one of the many ways people have rebelled against unfair laws. It has been used in many well-documented nonviolent resistance movements in India (Gandhi’s social welfare campaigns and campaigns for independence from the British Empire), in South Africa in the fight against apartheid, in the American Civil Rights Movement, Jehovah’s Witnesses’ stand against the Nazis (1929-1945), and in peacemovements worldwide. One of its earliest massive implementations was by Egyptians against the British occupation in the nonviolent 1919 Revolution. (Wikipedia)
Soros, of Quantum Fund, and his third wife and two kids becoming Singapore Permanent Residents, and trying to get their daughter into Nanyang Primary School, where she can learn Mandarin and be educated in the Singapore school system. In order to secure a place for their daughter in the school, believe it or not, they are taking the time to volunteer their services to the school, a sacrifice only desperate parents make to get a better chance for school entry. I mean he could just donate like some loose change from his pockets, say $150,000, to the school fund, and surely that would count for something (surely his one day is even more precious than $150,000).
It was a father’s day gift and I was delighted when my son bought an Arsenal jersey (the real thing) even though it was last season’s. Yes, I wonder if I will get to wear this with pride at the end of the coming season. It looks like good players are leaving beloved Arsenal and being hunted by huge clubs with offers of huge pay rises, while hardly any exciting players are being bought by Arsene Wenger. The comforting news is that Ronaldo is a big transfer target of Real Madrid, as we all
know the cliche’: Real always gets what it wants! Is it better for Ronaldo to move from Man U to Real Madrid? My opinion is yes! yes! yes! yes!yes! why so? Let me give you ten good reasons:
guess. How should we dispose of old used Bibles properly? I have thought of different things but the best idea I have come up with so far was to give it away for others to use. But what will the others do with it when they buy their own new Bibles? So my interest was piqued when 
