Archive for April, 2008
Some Christian blogs focus on theology, the Christian life, church denominational issues, or other particular focus that would interest other churched people. So you have Jesus Creed by Scot McKnight or Albert Mohler or Adrian Warnock or Real Live Preacher and other such blogs. There is certainly an important role for such focused blogs and such targetted audience.
In my case, without my being intentional, BLOGPASTOR reaches out to the churched and the unchurched. I began blogging as an attempt at reaching out to young people in the church. As I got familiar with the tool, I realized it was reaching even more than just the youths or church people. According to Google Analytics my blog reaches people in all the continents, and it is the Lord’s blessing, but many other websites do the same. This is thanks to the increasingly powerful search engines that scour the internet and blogosphere to categorize and locate all words to form like a gigantic concordance of sorts. So if someone wants to learn about Holy Communion and does a blog search they may get to my blog to read a post I wrote about that subject. Now this is all good if I want only to reach Christians. Few pre-believers will do a search on ‘Holy Communion’. But they would do a search on ‘NUS or NTU better’, and they will see a post I did on this topic. And I seem to get some increased visits after A Level results from people who do a search with that in mind. Now I didn’t deliberately write on that topic with that in mind though there is no shame in that. I was just trying to figure out something for my son and posted the results of my research. And I believe some of those who read that post, and went on to read other posts including my ‘About’ testimony would have read how Jesus changed my life and family. That’s one of the reasons I try to evangelize pastors to blog, like I am doing now, especially if they enjoy writing: it can reach those outside the church.
If you want to reach those outside the church, you just have to write about things in addition to theology or church or spiritual matters! You have to write about a variety of topics and the best are those you have knowledge of and interest in. Then the people who are outside the church will visit and read your blog and perhaps be a little more attracted to Christ and less misconceived about the faith. They may not pray the sinner’s prayer but what is evangelism but bringing the unchurched one step closer to following Christ. For me I write about soccer, my treks and travels, politics, current affairs, interesting local personalities and my family. So if someone who is a pre-believer googles “NTU or NUS business school better” or “Mt Kinabalu” or “Philip Ng” or “Dr Chee Soon Juan” for instance he may get to my blog and read more than just the post on that particular topic. And he hopefully gets to know what the Christian faith is like.
Random Musings, fellow blogger in Johor Baru, writes about Star Trek, Movies, Manga, Medical matters and it attracts all kinds of readers, many of whom do not know the Lord. Hopefully they then read his other stuff about the Lord. That will definitely smash common stereotypes people have about Christians.
Blogging is a tool for influencing the new generation and it gets even better with embedded videos as they convey something of the joy and peace among Christians that words fail to do. I wish I can do a blog in Mandarin because 200 million in China are hooked up and it is rising fast. I am persuaded Web2.0 will one day be more pervasive than newspapers and books. Books and bookstores will not exactly go the way of cassette tapes but in 20 years time, it is likely my children’s children will be carrying laptops instead of heavy bags to school.
Any pastors out there want to start a blog?
April 28th, 2008
I. SERMON OUTLINE:
Acts 1:8 ‘But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.’
The church was made for a mission: to be witnesses to Christ both at home and to the whole world. This is one of the purposes of life. The infant chuch spread the Gospel with great effectiveness and the passage we meditate on today touches on some of the keys to their effectiveness (Acts 2:1-4)
Verse 1: “they were all with one accord in one place”- the church enjoyed unity. It was a unity that was forged on their knees and in fellowship in the shadow of the Cross and the Empty Tomb. In addition they were praying and waiting for the Holy Spirit.(Acts 1:14). There is great blessing and glory when the church are united(Psalms 133). Out of the overflow of this vertical and horizontal harmony the gospel spread.
Verse 2: “suddenly” - God can surprise us anytime, we should be more expectant! The room was still but suddenly a rushing wind entered; the emptiness became fullness; the despair became hope; the boredom of waiting became the excitement of fulfillment; it all happened “suddenly”. Like a father who loves to surprise his children with gifts, God loves to surprise us. We should expect it…especially when we are praying. Peter was in prison; the church prayed; but when he showed up at their prayer meeting SUDDENLY it shocked them. The gospel spread because God suddenly shows up when we preach and anything can happen!
Verse 3: “fire” Fire denotes purification, warmth, but one quality we must not forget: it spreads fast. Like Jeremiah the message of the gospel and the Spirit within was like fire that compelled the church to spread the gospel. As the apostles said, their experience was, “we cannot help but speak”.
Verse 4: “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” - they had encountered the Holy. He filled them, and later He filled them again, and again and again. Like the little lamps of the ten virgins we need to refill our small wedding lamps again and again with God’s inexhaustible supply. How? the vertical and horizontal experience of verse 1: deeper fellowship with the Lord and his people.
So these are the simple keys but they were the essentials. They had no great technology, nor “silver and gold”, not education, nor modern programs and methods. But they had the Holy Spirit in them and upon them and in front of them.
II. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. What are the many spiritual resources that God has given to the church to carry out the task of evangelism and missions?
2. Besides what have been mentioned, what other secrets are there to the rapid spread of the Gospel that we read about in the Acts?
3. Some have argued that the church “need to go back to the basics” in order to be effective witnesses? What do you think are those basics?
4. Most people come to Christ via the natural network of loving and trusting relationships and based on needs and problems faced by pre-believers. Was that how it was with you? Share your experience?
5.Name one or two persons you care about and want to see saved and in small groups of two and threes, pray specifically for God to turn their hearts to Him.
April 28th, 2008
The International Baccalaureate (IB) was first offered by ACS(Independent) in Singapore and came with the reputation of a widely recognized pre-university educational program used in 125 plus countries. It is not easy to do well in it, much less get a perfect score. But let me tell you the secret, but please keep it secret. You have to drink a bottle a day. Drink what? New Moon chicken essence. Not Brand’s, but New Moon. You ask, “How do you know that, pastor?” Well, that sweet girl in the poster is in my young adult cell group. No kidding! Her name is Elsa Goh and she was one among a handful from the first graduating batch who had perfect scores.
Now for the real secret: First, she is very smart. Second, she is very focused and motivated. Third, she puts in consistent effort throughout the year. Now thats the secret! Please don’t tell anyone or it won’t be a secret anymore. Of course taking chicken essence regularly won’t do you any harm!
April 27th, 2008
St Paul mentioned in 1 Corinthians 11: 26, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.” This can mean daily or weekly or monthly or whatever a Christian assembly decides is best in their situation.
For the early Christians living in the revival fires it meant daily. “So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart.”(Acts 2:46).
About twenty years later we read this:”Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.”(Acts20:7)
About a 120 years later, Justin Martyr, the martyr and Christian apologist(100 to 165AD), in AD 150, wrote about how Christians gathered to worship at that time.
“And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead.” (First Apology, 61-67)
A few things can be noted about early Christian worship from this description just a hundred years after Christianity began:
1. They gathered together on a Sunday because it was the first day of creation and the day Christ was raised.
2. They read from what we know today as parts of the Old and New Testament. And they read a lot to sustain their faith because not everybody is literate nor were copies so easily available like today.
3. The leader preached on the texts that were read.
4. Then they prayed.
5. The holy communion was celebrated and the bread and wine distributed, even to those who were absent.
7. The free-will offering was taken and used mainly for needy orphans and widows, those in prison for their faith, and hospitality to ’strangers’.
8. Hey, where’s the praise songs and music?
This meant they took holy communion every Sunday.
Now about 2000 years after the birth of the Christian church, most Protestant churches in Singapore, even the traditional ones, have holy communion only once a month. You ask them why and the answers will bring pragmatism to the fore: “It makes the service long and draggy”. “It becomes ritual and meaningless if done too frequently, like weekly”. “We have too many members and the logistics is a headache”. “We want to have more ministry time”. And the chorus goes on.
But are we depriving God’s people of something very very precious and a vital means of grace? Are we starving their souls of mystery and participation in the Triune?
I was talking to Rev Lewis Lew, a priest with
St John St Margaret’s Anglican Church (at last, a church that has a longer name than the one I belong to!) during the Alpha Conference lunch, and he told me that they used to do it monthly but now it is available every Sunday but only in either of the two morning services each Sunday. I asked are there young people who move from one service to the other just so they can have communion every Sunday and he said yes there are some. Interesting. Maybe young people know better where to find “real bread”. Each church has to decide what is best, and to me personally, monthly is not best, definitely not best. But this is where the church I serve is on its journey.
I’d like to know more about communion practices in Singapore churches. Please tell us something about your church’s denominational affiliation , how communion is practiced in your church, and what you feel about it.
April 20th, 2008
It was energizing to hear Nicky Gumbel again at the Alpha Conference 2008 last week. The last time I heard him was about 5 years ago during an earlier conference. He covered the same material but I was different; then, I was evaluating the tool; now, I was listening as a practitioner.
Two things struck me. One was the fact that in his local church in London the people who most attend the Alpha Course are those from 18 to 35. I wonder if churches and campus ministries here have done enough to reach Singapore’s young adults with the Alpha Course.
While he was speaking the Lord was also applying his message to me in a very specific and interesting way, bringing to my remembrance a dream I had in the early morning of the first day of the conference. I dreamt that my associate was having trouble introducing the guest speaker to the gathered church as though something had happened. The next thing I knew I was checking the chest of Billy Graham with a stethoscope. I also tried to get him to stand to speak but he had no strength and I had to lay him back to bed. All this was triggered when Nicky mentioned Billy Graham as an example. The light just flooded in and I knew and I knew that evangelism was bedridden in the church and I have to nurse it back to health.
I guess this sort of thing happens when pastors preach too. The hearers may drift off to some other totally irrelevant matter like where to go for lunch, or to something the Lord wants them to deal with, even if it was a tangent from the subject matter the pastor was preaching about. The latter is of course more fruitful than the former, but as much as we would like for our congregations to be entranced by our message, the fact is people occasionally drift in and out, engaged at times and lost in their own worlds at times. We pray though that more often than not, the Spirit takes them by their hair on a holy excursion, and like Ezekiel, put them on a mountain, speak to them or give them a vision.
April 17th, 2008
I. SERMON OUTLINE:
“We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good
works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Eph. 2:10 (NIV)
“Each one should use whatever gift he’s received to serve others.”
1 Pet. 4:10 (NIV)
Fortnight ago: Worship: our love relationship with the Lord
Last sunday: Discipleship: becoming more like Jesus
Today: Ministry - Serving God by serving others
A. SERVING LIKE JESUS MEANS BEING AVAILABLE.
“Two blind men… shouted, ‘Lord, have mercy on us!’ … Jesus
stopped and called them. ‘What do you want Me to do for you?’
He asked.” Matt. 20:30-32 (NIV)
“Never tell your neighbors to wait until tomorrow if you can
help them now.” Prov. 3:28 (TEV)
1st Barrier: SELF-CENTEREDNESS
“Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.”
Phil. 2:4 (MSG)
2nd Barrier: PERFECTIONISM
“If you wait for perfect conditions, you’ll never get anything
done.” Eccl. 11:4 (NLT)
3rd Barrier: MATERIALISM
“No servant can serve two masters… You cannot serve both
God and money.” Luke 16:13 (NIV)
B. SERVING LIKE JESUS MEANS BEING GRATEFUL.
“Jesus looked up and said, ‘Father, I thank you that you have
heard Me. I knew that you always hear Me, but I said this for the
benefit of the people standing here…’” John 11:41-42 (NIV)
“Serve the Lord with gladness.” Ps. 100:2 (KJV)
1st Barrier: COMPARING & CRITICIZING
“Who are you to criticize someone else’s servant? The Lord will
determine whether His servant has been successful.”
Rom. 14:4 (GW)
2nd Barrier: WRONG MOTIVATIONS
“When you do good deeds, don’t try to show off. If you do, you
won’t get a reward from your Father in heaven.” Matt. 6:1 (CEV)
C. SERVING LIKE JESUS MEANS BEING FAITHFUL.
“I have brought You glory on earth by completing the work You
gave me to do.” John 17:4 (NIV)
“The one thing required of servants is that they be faithful…”
1 Cor. 4:2 (TEV)
“Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that
nothing you do for Him is a waste of time or effort.”
1 Cor. 15:58 (MSG)
“He will not forget how hard you have worked for Him and how
you have shown your love to Him by caring for other
Christians.” Heb. 6:10 (NLT)
“’Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful
with a few things so; I will put you in charge of many things.
Come and share your master’s happiness!” Matt. 25:21 (NIV)
II. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. What are some challenges that Singaporeans face with regards to being available to ministry?
2. Brainstorm some creative ways by which Christians in different stages of life can serve despite their obvious limitations:a). the student with his academic and CCA demands. b).the busy executive who works from 8 to 8 on most days. c) the career woman with three young children?
3. Describe some wrong attitudes and motivations with which Christians serve God?
4. What has helped you to cultivate a spirit of gratitude?
5. Faithful means loyal, steadfast, resolute, devoted. Have a positive “gossip” about someone in the cell and church, or outside, who inspires you as one who is faithful in service/ministry? (Good time for cell leader to affirm cell members).
6. What are some reasons why people are able to be faithful? Spend time praying and thanking God.
April 15th, 2008
Elaine did well for her A Levels and is now with the Australian Sisters of Mary as a Canaan helper together with her buddy Evelyn. They’ll be back in a fortnight’s time…. I think. Matthew was out of course from officers’ training for quite some time, and has finally now been sent to the medics course, which he is enjoying. Joshua is in the final lap and finishes his university studies in end April. I am getting a little taste of the empty nest.
My mother’s dementia has reached the stage where we have to admit her to institutional care. The words “institutional care” sound so cold and uncaring and I don’t know how I will feel if after assessment she does get admitted. O mum, sorry. I heard though that Salvation Army’s Peacehaven is real good at dementia care.
April 14th, 2008
During my visit to the Holy Land, I couldn’t help but feel that Israel is indeed very blessed and highly favored by the Lord. The people of Israel may think it was their sheer determination, creativity, well-educated workforce, resourcefulness and sacrifice that brought them success, and there is some truth in all that, but even more I believe it was God’s set purpose to restore and bless this nation in fulfillment of ancient prophecy. To see, touch, taste and feel all that, brings home with greater impact the truth of God’s forbearance and faithfulness.
We feel grateful to Israel because from them came the covenants, the law, the promises, the patriarchs and the Messiah - Jesus. And because of this we feel despair at their lostness and “hardness of heart” -especially at the wailing wall. They have great zeal but not according to the true knowledge of God. Their beliefs are Jewish orthodoxy laced with superstition. But praise God, a Messianic Jew, a Christian leader, told us that there is a blossoming taking place in terms of openness and responses to the Gospel, and we were glad to hear that more are putting their faith in Christ these days than decades ago.
The weather was welcoming; the food was interesting and healthy; and the bus journeys were never tiring because you never had to travel too far before you got off to visit an interesting site with bible history. The guides were very knowledgeable and ours were Messianic Christians who added biblical insights into their commentaries. You learned new stuff and got a feel of the events and places we read about in the Bible but found difficult to imagine.
Most of all, the company was great and we got to know most of the pastors and their spouses on the trip. I mean, sharing over twenty meals over the tour is a lot opportunities to get to know most of them.
Would I go again? Yes, if the Lord permits, because its a wonderful experience and there are other places I’d like to see.
April 13th, 2008
I. SERMON OUTLINE:
(this sermon uses freely Rick Warren’s sermon outline on the purpose driven life.)
We are created to be like Jesus Christ in his moral character, his values, his spirit. Romans 8:29 states clearly that God’s destiny for his children is that they should grow spiritually to be conformed to the image or likeness of His Son, Jesus Christ. This lifelong process is called DISCIPLESHIP.
God uses the Bible to renew our minds as we meditate and study and He uses people to help us grow in character as we fellowhip or serve together with them. He also uses three unlikely unexpected tools to shape us.
A. THE FIRST TOOL IS TROUBLE
Trouble, tribulation or trials, they are all unpleasant situations designed by God to draw us to God and teach us to TRUST HIM. (Romans 5:3,4) We become more like Jesus when we humble ourselves and pray and depend on God and his solutions.
B. THE SECOND TOOL IS TEMPTATION
While trouble brings us closer to God, temptations are designed by the devil to draw us away from God. God does not tempt us but it is often our internal desire that lure us to do what is not right in His sight. (Matthew 4:1; James 1:14,15). The more we overcome the tempter’s snare and abort wrong desires in our hearts before they give birth to sinful actions, the more we become like Jesus in his purity, generosity, humility, holiness and love.
C. THE THIRD TOOL IS TRESPASSES.
We are talking about trespasses against us. These are situations designed by people to hurt us. Criticism, judgment, mocking, insults, slander, backbiting, betrayal. Jesus went through these (Matthew 27:39-44) and despite the emotional hurt was able to pray, “Father forgive them …..” It was he who taught us to pray daily, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
To err is human but to forgive is divine. We are most like God and glorify God greatly when we are able to forgive and release from revenge those who say or do evil or injustice or hurtful things against us.
II. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Share with the group a trial you went through recently and you learned from it. How did it develop Christlike character in you.
2. We all have different weaknesses, and Satan knows them and attacks us constantly in those areas. Name one area where he attacks and harasses you? (cell leader to remind all of confidentiality and to create a safe environment for sharing, may want to divide into groups of two or three of the same sex).
3. What in your opinion do most people find to be the most difficult thing about forgiving someone?
4. If you were Joseph of the Bible, would you be able to forgive as he forgave his brothers and others?
5. Why is reconciliation so important in the church? What are the consequences when people do not seek reconciliation? And what are the positive values when people seek reconciliation?
6. Discipleship is the lifelong process of becoming more like Jesus in our character. How does the cell help in this process? How would you rate your cell in terms of its effectiveness in discipleship from a score of 1 to 10, and why?
April 8th, 2008
Previous Posts
