Christ’s Finished Work: Love of God

31 October 2022 Leave a comment

The 1972’s revival, in my limited experience, was a revival of love. It was a crying revival, not a laughing revival (not that I have anything against holy laughter). It was a revival of tears – tears of contrition, and tears from being intensely flooded and overwhelmed by an outpouring of God’s love in the hearts of his children. “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom 5:5). This love is first God’s love for us, and in the recipients’ response, becomes their love for God. Revival is a love transfusion to the half-dead.

This love was made available only after Christ has completed his atonement on the cross and was raised from the dead, and ascended to the right hand of the Father. “Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:39). It is one of the many blessings of Christ’s finished work.

A love that grows

This love that we receive by the Spirit when we begin to follow Jesus is the starter kit. This love is not static. It is dynamic and it can grow richer and deeper or wax cold and fade. St Paul prayed for the church in Ephesus to experience and explore this love in greater measures and dimensions. He wanted the church to “have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with the fullness of God (Eph 3: 18,19). This not a conceptual, cognitive, head knowledge understanding of God’s love, but a love that is experienced in encounters with God, or in simple every day real life, where God’s action and presence is experienced.

A prayer experiment

When I was new to the faith, I prayed almost daily, St Paul’s prayer of Eph 3:14-19 for myself, for more than a month. I remember very intense and deep encounters with the Lord in prayer. I was baptized in God’s love a few times over. It felt like I was been washed and rinsed over and over in the cleansing waters of his presence and love. Why not pray this prayer and ask God for a broadening, heightening, deepening, and lengthening of your experience of his love? This is one prayer that God loves to answer. It will not be the same answer for everyone as it was for me. He knows what kind of experience each of us need. Try praying like this, and after a month, write in the comment box above, what you have experienced.

Transforming love

God’s love has the power to transform lives. Love casts out fear. Yet it constrains us towards discipleship and evangelism. It satisfies us and defines who we are as beloved children of God. We are not defined by what we own or have or possess. We are who we belong to, and who we are loved by. God’s love strips away the burden and yoke of having to meet people’s expectations of us, frees us from insecurities, worldly and fleshly desires and pursuits. It gives us hope and steadies us. I pray you will experience a growing love in these last days when the love of many Christians will grow cold.

Lord, thank you for the love of God that has been poured out in my heart by the Holy Spirit. Help me keep the fires going by gathering together with other believers in authentic relationships and God-honouring worship. Amen.

This is part of a planned series of writings on the topic, “The A to Z of Christ’s Finished Work”. I am writing it alphabet by alphabet Thus far the others that I have written can be found HERE.

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“Walk In A Relaxed Manner”: book reflection

13 October 2022 Leave a comment

Joyce Rupp is a retreat leader, conference speaker and author of many bestselling books on Christian spirituality. This book is her reflections about the 36 days of walking 805 km across northern Spain, from Ronscevales to Santiago. It is called the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, one of the three famous Christian pilgrimages. She walked the camino at the age of sixty and wrote about the life lessons she learned from it.

I asked myself: How do you write about a 36 days walk? Do I write in a diary format? Take journal notes every day of distance, weather, places, people, scenery, food and refugios and convert these into a kind of travel diary. How repetitive and boring! How about writing a “how to” book, a book that gives practical information and helps pilgrims to prepare themselves physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually so as to maximise from the camino experience. Nobody would buy such a book.

The author chose to write in a “relaxed manner”: 25 short, interesting chapters captioned with the life lessons she gleaned.  I thought this was the best way to do it. The lessons were digestible and clear. At the same time, she covered the other information, details and stories in a topical and accessible format. Each chapter she unfolded the lesson she learned, and substantiated it with many instances and examples of experiences that illustrated her point. For example, one of the life lessons she learned was living in the now, not in the past, or in the future. She extracted from her journal an example of this: “It has been a hard day of walking. I did not expect to be so tired each day. I can’t have expectations of it. I just need to live NOW. Even this refugio at Estella. At first, when I saw the situation, I said to myself, ‘Just grit your teeth and think of tomorrow.’ But then, I said, ‘No, I must enter into THIS experience, NOW.’ After I did this, the situation didn’t look quite so deplorable and I found I could tolerate it better.”

The main takeaway for me was the lesson of walking in a relaxed manner, which is the title of the book. Rupp wrote: “Gradually I accepted my diminishing energy. I learned to be at peace with it. I also grew more grateful because the deliberately measured pace helped me slow down inside, causing me to become more contemplative as I walked along. This did not happen the first week, however. During the first week our sense of urgency continued to grow. Each morning we made as early a start as possible. We packed our backpacks faster. If we stopped for mid-morning coffee, we didn’t tarry long. When we met other pilgrims, we cut our conversations short. When we paused to rest our feet, we kept the stop brief. Our unspoken motto became: Push onward. Push forward. Push, push, push. Rush, rush, rush. We soon discovered that the rushing and pushing cause us to lose our enjoyment of the walk itself. We left home in order to experience the freedom of getting away from it all but we simply took the tensions with us in new forms. The place of our stress changed but we had not changed. We continued to strain and groan under the desires and expectations of achievement and accomplishment – goals which our culture thrives on and implants in us almost from birth.”

She continued: “When I came back home from the Camino, I observed how rushing and hurrying and pushing are evident everywhere. Overachievement, competition, comparison, addiction to work and duty, unreal expectations of needing to do more, the obsessive pursuit of having more – all these fell on us as heavy cultural and self-imposed burdens. When these attitudes and messages press in on us, they cause us to lose our harmony and self-satisfaction. There is far too much hurry and worry in most lives. There never seems to be enough time to complete the daily chores of laundry, lawn care, meal preparations, phone calls, and paying bills, let alone the pressure of other accomplishments that people feel compelled to do. Parents with children involved in an overabundance of activities, health care workers working double shifts, educators saddled with extracurricular tasks, managers with countless meetings, retired people with too much scheduled – these are some of the many people who need to walk in a relaxed manner, but who find their responsibilities and overextensions make it difficult to do. Undoubtedly, it will take a lifetime for me to fully learn the lesson of walking in a relaxed manner.”

I enjoyed reading this book that was given to me by pastor Thomas, and was amazed that the author was able to glean so many life lessons that will help us in our life’s pilgrimage. This book is a must read if you wish to do the camino or a part of it, or any other kind of camino, or long hikes over many days. It is a catalyst for fruitful reflection about your life’s pilgrimage, which is the most important of all pilgrimages.

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MFIS Leaders Seminar: When Angels Tiptoed

24 September 2022 4 Comments

The morning of the one-day “I Will Build My Church” seminar was stormy and I was disappointed that I could not take the MRT and ride my foldable Brompton bike to get there. I was anxious as I waited for the storm to wane. I lived in Jurong while the venue was Riverlife Church in Pasir Ris. However I was thankful that the path to the Chinese Garden MRT was mostly sheltered. Even then my pants got wet because of the strong wind. By the time I reached Pasir Ris station, I grabbed the first cab I saw. 

Even then I was late, and entered the hall of about almost 150 pastors and leaders seated in the first worship hall of Riverlife when the church used the current location. The first plenary speaker Senior Pastor Ben Lee of Riverlife Church, was already teaching about the fourth of the top ten concerns about the ascension gifts. I like what he had to say and resonated with what he explained so systematically, clearly and emphatically. 

Pastor Gabriel Han delivers his message

The second plenary session was delivered by Pastor Gabriel Han, formerly senior overseer of Victory Family Centre. He is the set leader of Ministers Fellowship International, Singapore (MFIS). Already I could see the different impact each speaker brought. While Ben Lee enlightened and clarified, Gabriel inspired and imparted faith. By the time he ended, I was blessed and armed with faith that the Lord himself will build his church, and it will be a prevailing, equipping and glorious church. 

The surprise bang was when the guest preacher was Tan Ye Peng, once the deputy pastor of City Harvest Church. He preached about how radical grace forms the new humanity that is the church. It turns upside down the honor-shame culture of the first century. In this new creation, everyone whether male or female, slave or free, Jew or Gentile, rich or poor is graced with an honor that is founded not on abilities, wealth, job status, lineage, or power, but upon God’s radical grace. The shame is of course removed by forgiveness, reconciliation and the love found in Christian fellowship. Such radical grace is best demonstrated in the way Christians treat each other with honor as bearers of the image of God.

Pastor Tan first began his talk by asking forgiveness for the hurt that the City Harvest Church had inflicted upon the body of Christ. While in prison for two years, he had often imagined himself apologizing to the pastors of Singapore churches. He ended his message the same way he began: asking forgiveness. Everyone could sense the sincerity of his heart, the sacredness of that moment. Even the harps of heaven hushed, and angels tiptoed around the stage as the leaders of MFIS surrounded him with prayer, prophetic encouragement, and Pastor Lawrence Lee even apologized on behalf of the churches. The presence of God was palpable and I was deeply moved by the radical grace that was demonstrated before my eyes.

Pastor Ye Peng also shared how he decided to pursue a Masters in Singapore Bible College and how a monthly Bible study he led grew from a small group of ex-CHC members who ceased attending church, to a fellowship of about 200. He also shared how God is using him to minister to people about to go on trial, those in ongoing trials, others who are already incarcerated, and still others who have come out of prison. These people find it safe to share their woes with him. He has become a wounded healer.

I had a great lunch and enjoyed the hospitality of the Riverlife Church team. However, I had to leave after lunch. I left thinking I could walk to the MRT, since the weather was fine. However, when I saw a bus stop, I decided it was better to wait a while and take the bus. Indeed, it proved to be the better choice.  

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Queen Elizabeth: Inspiring Model of Christian Witness

21 September 2022 4 Comments

For sure, I am no royalist. I grew up and lived for 25 years in a SIT housing area called Princess Elizabeth Estate, and I had my primary education at Princess Elizabeth Estate School. I loved those years and the wonderful experiences of growing up, adventure, spaciousness, and friendship, and in the last six years, of revival and prayer. The name of the estate made me curious but I felt no affection nor gratitude to the crown. 

Queen Elizabeth visited Singapore a few times but it never got me excited. It was more like, “Oh, so she is here for a visit. What for huh?” She is just a dignitary, like the President of a country, visiting Singapore. She has her duties to the UK and their former colonies, including Singapore. Even her position as head of the church seems to be a formality conferred by virtue that she wore the crown. I must admit I doubted that her faith was genuine. I had this vague perception that hers was a nominal faith, an acted role expected of the queen, not a real lived out faith. I must sincerely apologise to the Queen in future when I meet her personally in heaven, for misjudging her faith. My view has now been totally overturned.

A genuine faith in Christ

Her recent death has however put out a lot of information about the genuineness of her personal faith in Christ and I must say I am so impressed that despite all the restraints of diplomacy in a multi-faith world, she had managed to share her faith in such a winsome, sensitive and brave way. Her witness was low-key but high-powered. She was no tele-evangelist though billions watched her funeral and heard about how her life was shaped by the gospel. She conducted no evangelistic rallies nor healed the sick in stadiums. Nor did she preach an evangelistic message in the church, but her life of faithfulness, godliness and dignity communicated more about the faith that her words. Even her brief speeches every Christmas, which she personally wrote, revealed and displayed her personal faith in Christ openly. She is an inspiration to all followers of Christ to be brave and wise in their witness wherever they are, both by their quiet, kind ways and by a wise, winsome sharing of their faith. 

Some extracts from her speeches

“For me, the life of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace is an inspiration and an anchor in my life. A role model of reconciliation and forgiveness. He stretched out His hands in love, acceptance, and healing. Christ’s example has taught me to seek to respect all people of whatever faith or none.”

During the pandemic, in her Christmas broadcast: “We continue to be inspired by the kindness of strangers and draw comfort that even on the darkest nights there is hope in the new dawn. Jesus touched on this with the parable of the Good Samaritan. The man who is robbed and left at the roadside is saved by someone who did not share his religion or culture. This wonderful story of kindness is still as relevant today. Good Samaritans have emerged across society showing care and respect for all, regardless of gender, race or background, reminding us that each one of us is special and equal in the eyes of God.”

A month before her death she sent a message to Lambeth Conference, an assembly of all the bishops of the Anglican communion that was held every ten years to discuss issues facing the communion. She said, “Throughout my life, the message and teaching of Christ have been my guide and in them I find hope.”

I wish Singapore political leaders who are Christians can learn from her and disclose their personal faith without offending those of other faiths or no faith.  Just do it the way the Queen did.

Lord, we thank you for the exemplary life of Queen Elizabeth. May her example inspire me and all Christians to be more effective witnesses of Christ in the marketplace. Amen.

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Christ’s Finished Work: Kingdom of God

16 September 2022 Leave a comment

I must admit I was stuck here at “K” because the topic of the kingdom of God is immense. What do I include and what do I exclude? The kingdom is one of the greatest blessings resulting from the finished work of Jesus Christ. “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col 1:13,14). This rescue was accomplished when Jesus died and rose again from the dead. Through his finished work, we are now dwelling and living under the rule, authority and power of King Jesus.

Kingdom future

We Christians are familiar with the Lord’s Prayer. One of the six petitions in this prayer goes like this, “Thy kingdom come”. It expresses a longing for a future, consummated kingdom in which a state of perfect peace, joy and righteousness is established by the rule and authority of Jesus after the complete defeat of sin, Satan, and death. Such a time will come at the end of this present age when heaven will declare: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign forever and ever” (Rev 11:15). Until then, we expectantly watch for the signs of this impending world changing climax to this present age. Jesus himself said to his disciples about the signs of his return: “Even so, when you see these things happening, you know the kingdom of God is near” (Luke 21:31). The apostle Paul reiterated the message of this future aspect of the kingdom when he told the church in Corinth, “I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable” (1 Cor 15:50). There is no doubt that there is a future kingdom based on a renovated new heaven and earth: no more sin, Satan, sorrow, suffering, disease, or death. Jesus promised: “Fear not little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32)

Kingdom now

It may seem puzzling but Jesus and Paul also spoke of a kingdom that is present now. Like a grain of mustard seed, the kingdom had a small beginning and had already established a beach-head on earth in the person of Jesus when he was born in Bethlehem. Once this grown up Jesus was tested by the Pharisees with a hot topic: “When will the kingdom come?” The people were expecting the coming of a political, powerful Messiah to overthrow Rome’s oppressive rule over their country, and establish a new glorious Davidic era. Jesus made it crystal clear to them, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, “Here it is,” or “There it is,” because the kingdom of God is (already) in your midst” (Luke 17:20,21 italics mine). When Jesus walked the holy land and served people with love and power, teaching, preaching and healing the sick and oppressed, the Spirit of God was demonstrating the rule of the kingdom through his words and deeds. Jesus himself once said to people amazed at the authority he had over demonic powers, “If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of heaven has come to you” (Luke 11:20). When Jesus expressed the righteousness, peace, love and joy and other fruit of the Spirit he was also demonstrating the kingdom power and glory. “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17).

The kingdom is already here: it came in the person of Jesus, and the momentum jumped when the Spirit fell on the Day of Pentecost and formed the church. The kingdom rule of Christ continued through the proclamation and deeds of thousands, then millions of disciples of Christ through the centuries, and it will continue till Jesus comes again in power and glory to consummate the kingdom of God. We the church will exercise “the powers of the age to come” (Hebrews 6:5) and other perfections of the heavenly state, but not in its fulness, because we still live in this present evil age in the midst of sin and imperfection. On this side of eternity, there will still be trials and temptations, sorrow and sickness, death and danger, persecution and martyrdom. While by faith we seek to draw down the powers and blessings of the age to come, and we can and will certainly see much of kingdom authority and blessedness in this life, it is only a down payment, the full sum of everything will be inherited when the future kingdom is gloriously put in place by divine intervention.

Practical implications

We are blessed indeed to be brothers, sisters, friends, subjects, aides of the King. He has all authority in heaven and earth, and he delegates it to us to use for the advancement of his purposes. If we ask anything in his name, he will do it (John 14:14). We are to pray for the spread of the gospel (Eph 6:18-20), for all people to come to a knowledge of the truth, and for those in authority and who govern over us (1 Tim 2:1-4). 

Living under his rule of love means we are blessed with righteousness (not ours but his), and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, and are able to serve people inside and outside the church with spiritual gifts.

We are engaged in a serious battle with invisible spiritual forces (Eph 6:10-13) and this a battle that will not end until Jesus comes to consummate his kingdom. Jesus has already defeated Satan, but we are engaged in stubborn mopping up operations.

When the going gets tough, the weak who depend on Christ and have this hope of a future kingdom are the ones who will persevere in the midst of suffering, tribulation and persecution. Jesus was able to endure grave injustice, agonising suffering because of the joy that was set before him (Hebrews 13:1,2), and we can follow in his footsteps because we have a joyous and unshakeable kingdom promised to us.

To read my other posts about the A to Z of Christ’s Finished Work, go HERE.

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