Archive for April, 2007
Missed a great chance to take a pic of me and my wife having chicken rice with my on-line friends who visited our service on Sunday but we were caught up in the excitement and just forgot. Daniel and Lynette Ong (Curahee101 and Looxie) met quite a number of members who knew them via my blog and theirs. We talked about the blessedness of tithing and giving by faith. Told them I’ll pay a visit to their church, COOS, one day. Interestingly, a few days prior to this I was having lunch with Yip
(see photo) and we were talking about work and he mentioned one of his Christian clients, and it turned out to be Daniel Ong. Small world!
Then there were the Englands too, a missionary couple from New Zealand to Romania, whom I remembered having steam-boat dinner with long long ago. He remembered the church van I was driving.
James and Kimberley Creasman and sons and Andy a CRM volunteer doing some video of the impact of Focusing Leaders Network in Singapore were in church too to get some takes of the church in worship and interview some members. James is the leader of the CRM ministry in Singapore, which focuses on leadership development, and he was my coach during the duration of the course. His wife is a talented vocalist and drama artiste and trainer and I asked Christina to network with her. And later I even caught up with Seng Chor, a wonderful Christian leader who facilitated the pastors’ network I was in.
Right now I am overdosed with excitement.
April 29th, 2007
Signboard at Bukit Timah Hill. Appreciate the concern but isn’t it obvious we do not need the “DO NOT RUN”?
Unusual for traffic to slow down on the highway(PIE) on a sleepy Sunday, but on the way to lunch with pastor David Chee, my wife took a shot of the civil defence in action in some kind of simulated training ……..or is it for real?
April 26th, 2007
I have added additional features on my website. The first was the SET PRAYERS which I still use today since I was first introduced to them by Norman Wong.
The one I now want to draw your attention to is READINGS just next to it. Click this button and not only will a window open, but as you study some of these precious articles, spiritual windows will start opening up too. “A Life More than Guidance” by Dallas Willard, one of my favourite authors, is an excellent read about hearing God. It is laborious at the beginning but as you continue to climb, wonderful views and new horizons of understanding will open up to you. “A Christian Review in the Lord of a Busy Day” by David Townsend, the Jesuit priest who was my spiritual director last November 06 is a great guide to a very helpful method of prayer. Try it.
In READINGS I will only show those extracts and articles I find unusually helpful and ‘healthful’ and find myself going to them again and again. Sure hope you are blessed too as you read them.
April 25th, 2007
My daughter, my wife and I gasped when we heard her answer on live national TV last night. When the final question was asked, “What would you do if your mother violently objected to your marriage to the man you love very deeply?”
One finalist answered: she’d ask her beloved to win her mother’s heart just as he won hers. Another said it can all be reasoned out. The poorest answer was: I am sure my mum’s not like that….which sort of just ignored the issue posed by the question.
Ms Jessica Tan, 25, newly crowned winner of Miss Singapore Universe 2007, replied something to the effect that she would ask her beloved suitor to let her go as she loved her mum too much. We were stumped and thought that to be quite unreal, but she is so way ahead of the rest in the other segments, she would still win. And win she did!
Wouldn’t most women just go ahead despite such objections? or at most delay, get more opinions, persuade mum…? After all much has been invested and love doesn’t knock on the door whenever you want.
Or maybe it points to a deeper issue: the modern independent woman doesn’t put as much value and importance to marriage like women of previous generations do.
Give me your two cents worth…..
April 23rd, 2007
As soon as my son Matthew graduated with a diploma in banking and finance from the Singapore Polytechnic he applied for entry into the undergraduate programme of the National University of Singapore and the Nanyang Technological University business schools, even though he was just short(GPA 3.469) of the scores needed (GPA 3.5). He also included in his applications his achievements in the financial trading and business competitions he engaged in at school and national level. Yesterday he opened up an official envelope and was super happy that the NUS Business School has offered him a place in the degree course with one semesters worth of exemption. Oh the grace and goodness of God. We rejoiced with him at the news…….and now we are hoping the NTU Business School would accept him too. That would be a happy situation for him to be in!
April 20th, 2007
Crazy, senseless, tragic. What other adjectives can I use? 33 deaths, mostly students who were there to study. When I saw Washington, I quickly checked Jabez’s blog to make sure it wasn’t his university, and thank God it wasn’t. We need to pray for all the bereaved families and the shocked student body. May the Lord’s people there be a channel of comfort and peace. Pause and pray with me now,
O Lord, who Yourself suffered a violent death, have mercy. These are real people with real families and they have died so suddenly and horribly. We pray for all the grieving families, student body and friends, that You will give them comfort in their distress, peace in the midst of their confusion and shock, and the love to forgive and heal their wounds. Lord be close to them and bring them closer to You. Let Your people there be a channel of Your love and comfort. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
April 18th, 2007
Had lunch at a Japanese restaurant with friend Paul Chan (left) and with Benny Ong(center), owner of a financial brokerage firm, an evangelist through and through. If Benny Ong bleeds, every drop of blood will cry, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.” Well I don’t believe an evangelist has to be Billy Graham or Benny Hinn or in “full-time Christian work.” Benny is a full-time evangelist because the one passion that drives his life is the seeking and saving of the lost. He has led scores of people to the kingdom of God, and though past 60 he is still at it. This time I heard how he and his wife Anne, on relocating to a new apartment opposite Parkway Parade, actually made special efforts to reach out to the grassroots HDB people, reaching out to them by buying and sharing breakfast and inviting them to church meetings. This may seem normal to you until you realize there is a big status and income gap between him and the HDB folks. Church members, he said with passion, need to come out of their status-based cliques, and reach out to people below their social strata. Benny is an engaging preacher and he has spoken in our church Sunday services on many occasions and preached in a memorable church camp in Kuala Lumpur. I like it when he infects our congregation with an enthusiasm for witness in the marketplace.
Another thing I noted: he excercises five days a week, brisk walking and stair-climbing, and he loves looking around for good local food, a kind of once a week indulgence. Well evangelists have to eat too!
April 16th, 2007
I thought the kid’s slot has gone the way of the dodo, but in the Bedok-Tampines cell, they do it with the adults overlooking and hopefully overhearing. Linda Leo was teaching the children some values, how God looks at things. Like He does not look at your success but at the content of your character. Or like He does not look at your grades, but at whether you cheated while getting it. Then they prayed for the children.Good idea.
Doing the kid’s slot with everyone has advantages and disadvantages but to do it well it has to be done well within 15 minutes. Adults attention will decrease if it drags. They may even get weary of it, especially after a day’s work.
April 15th, 2007
I spent a few hours reading instructions, dabbling and stumbling to put up these static pages under wordpress, a free content management system, to make available these set prayers which my friend gave me permission to adapt for website use. Rev Dr Norman Wong wrote a handy booklet “Lord, Teach Us To Pray” but it is out of print. I used it and found it a helpful addition to my list of favourite prayer aids. Take a look at the buttons above and click “SET PRAYERS”. Check it out and use it. Hope it helps you.
April 14th, 2007
I attended a Christian funeral last month and the preacher preached in fluent and melodious Teochew dialect of how Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead when I was distracted by a senior citizen in sunglasses and black shorts who knelt and prayed just five feet behind me. He said, “God, give me a good number….” He threw pieces of paper on the floor and picked one up and repeated the process until he had four numbers…..5, 1, 4….can’t recall the last number. I was surprised, and took a picture quickly with my mobile. I later found out he is a retired architect.
April 12th, 2007
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