Christ’s Finished Work: Unity

14 December 2023 2 Comments

The world is experiencing great divisions, polarisation and tribalism. People are no longer listening to each other, not trying to understand each other’s position. They hold rigidly to whatever they believe in and they refuse to budge. The vocal ones are usually deeply entrenched in their opinions and beliefs. They are even willing to cancel out others who disagree with them. The need for unity in diversity is never greater than in today’s divided world.

The New testament church faced similar tensions in their congregations because both Jews and Gentiles have come to know Jesus Christ and find themselves in the same congregation. Their disagreements and disputes in theology, practices and expectations caused tension and disunity. 

St. Paul pointed to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the solution to divisions in the church. “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were  far off (the Gentile believers) have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one (conflicting Jewish and Gentile converts) and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility”(Eph 2:13-16 ESV). The walls of hostility and division between believers of Jewish and Gentile backgrounds have been demolished by the power of the finished work of Christ. And so too all other divisions caused by differences in gender, status, beliefs, nationality, race or language. God wants to form a vast community of people in Christ who love each other with a love that covers the cracks of divisions.

Therefore we should be “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”(Eph 4:3). This unity was purchased and founded on the reconciling death of Christ. Maintaining unity is hard work and all believers must strive to do their part. It is worth the effort because unity is highly valued by God. It was so valuable he gave his only Son so that the gift of unity, a unity that first resided in the triune God may be established in the Body of Christ.

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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Christ’s Finished Work: Triumph

6 December 2023 Leave a comment

What is triumph? A great victory or achievement. A second definition is “the processional entry of a victorious general into ancient Rome”. The latter definition was exactly what St Paul had in mind when he wrote to the Christ-followers in Colossae: “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (Colossians 2:15 NIV). It was obvious that he was using an analogy that the first century recipients of the letter would have understood: the triumphant processional entry of a victorious Roman general into the city of Rome after a successful conquest over some faraway country. As he enters in triumph and grandeur with his legion, to the adulation of thousands of people, he would have in the procession the chained, disarmed and defeated generals and rulers of the defeated country. They would be openly shamed and humiliated, while the glory of Rome and the victorious general would be magnified and celebrated. 

What then, in Paul’s mind, were these “powers and authorities”? To him they were the spiritual enemies of God: Satan and his lieutenants. They had been defeated “by the cross”: by Jesus’ death and resurrection. Satan had been stripped of his most potent armament. He has been disarmed of lethal weapons. The kilotons of power (sin and death) that Satan had over human beings have been nullified by the megatons power of the cross. Now all he can do is to deceive and influence people (including Christians) to believe his lies instead of being freed by God’s truth. In the end, Christ triumph will be manifested for all to see, and every knee that has now bowed shall bow before him.

As followers of Christ we can share and participate in this triumph over the enemy. We no longer need to fear the two weapons of the spiritual forces of darkness. We declare by faith that sin’s power has been nullified. “The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work” (1 John 3:18 NIV). The devil tempts us into sin like he did with Adam and Eve, but Jesus has disarmed him of this weapon through the forgiveness of sins, and through setting us free from the power of sin in our life. This is vital triumph.

His other weapon is death, and Jesus broke its power and freed all believers from the fear of death. “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death- that is the devil” (Hebrews 2:14 NIV). The resurrection of Christ is both proof and promise that God will also raise all followers of Christ to a resurrection of life when Jesus returns. This is triumph – beautifully poetic, powerfully effective, complete and final. All because of the finished work of Christ! Praise God!

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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MFIS Thanksgiving Dinner 2023: A Milestone in Leadership Change

24 November 2023 Leave a comment

In celebration of Ministers Fellowship International Singapore (MFIS) Thanksgiving Dinner, on Thursday night, 23 November 23, we were blessed with a sumptuous dinner complete with roast turkeys from Goodwood Park Hotel (courtesy of Mr & Mrs Luar Eng Hwa). We had about 120  pastors and leaders from some 45 churches coming together at Harvester Community Church in Geylang. The program started at 5pm and ended at 8pm. No one was bored, everything flowed according to schedule. We had a great couple Tom and Ethel Cannon as our emcees.

We were particularly blessed by the opening speech by Apostle Patrick Low (Founder & Apostolic Overseer of Christian Community Chapel). He started by asking all of us this question, “What are we thankful for?” We are to give thanks for all the blessings we have received in 2023, but we also need to give thanks for our trials and sufferings. Suffering, is a sign of the true apostolic church. Besides the working of signs & wonders in our ministry, how we handle difficult times in our lives, speaks as loudly as our works.  I felt that this is a word that we all need to hear for this season and to prepare God’s people for the coming season. 

There was a good time of fellowship, and the evening ended with powerful prophetic prayers and proclamations, led by four pastors across the generations. And of course, the celebration highlight was for the birthday boy, Rev Chua Hock Lin, who has been a dear elder brother who always cared and pastored MFIS pastors these few years. He just turned 80! The following landmark announcement was also made by him: “Before I share the message the Lord has put on my heart, I have a short announcement to make. Earlier this year, I felt my time as the first Chairman of MFIS would be over by end 2023. Time for us to transition to a younger person. I shared this with the leadership and they concurred. We also agreed that Ps Sam Gift Stephen, Senior Overseer of Life Centre, would be the next Chairman of MFI Singapore. Ps Sam is on a family vacation and will assume this role on his return. I want to thank Ps Han, our Lead Apostolic Elder, the Apostolic Elder Council, Apostolic Leadership Team and all the members of our Fellowship Teams for their encouragement and support during the last three years. I believe the next season, with Ps Sam at the helm, will move us to a higher level for the mission of MFI Singapore”.

To God be the glory, for Pastor Gabriel Han and the Harvester Community Church team who worked to put this together for us. We praise the Lord since every good and perfect gift comes from above. We look forward to 2024, the year ahead of us, a year closer to the return of Christ.

-A report by Pastor Lawrence Lee (former Senior Pastor of Glad Tidings Church)

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Tabernacle of Holiness: Blessed Pastors’ Children

21 November 2023 Leave a comment

They are blessed by the Lord. At least that is my limited observation of pastors’ children. During the praise and worship at the beginning of the service at Tabernacle of Holiness, where I was a guest preacher, I noticed the worship leader guiding the congregation to experience God’s presence and to rightly honour him. They were a mere three man worship team but I felt like I was taken up in a spiritual whirlwind into a heavenly space and was filled with the Spirit and brought back down to earth again. Later, I found out the worship leader was Pastor Isaiah’s son. Now Pastor Isaiah has a special worship anointing. I have experienced that at the Covenant Pastors’ dinner fellowship many times. The son also has a similar anointing. Not a co-incidence. Passed through the genes? Nah. More likely: son sees father, wants to be like father, God sees his heart’s desire, and gave it to him by sheer grace and generosity.

Later, after the service ended, I chatted with Pastor Xavier and said I have been trying to write a book for some time and it will be an ebook. Then he mentioned about his daughter who had written a book and put it up on Amazon, which I found amazing, and wanted to chat with her. She told me about the fantasy book she had written, one with underlying Christian themes, which straightaway brought to mind, the Narnia Chronicles and other such books. I was impressed and inspired and energised to overcome writer’s block and complete the book I had started.

Two pastors of the same church with adult children they can be proud of, faithfully using their gifts of worship and writing for the kingdom. The interesting twist is that both of these pastors’ children are married to each other. To me this is a bonus: they can expect more blessings ahead.

I enjoyed my time at Tabernacle of Holiness. They are years ahead when it comes to the prophetic gift. In fact they are so gifted that they run a course called Academy of Prophets, both locally and abroad. I have attended it before when Prophet Amos Jayaratnam conducted it in some form years ago. It is informative and it inspires faith. It is practical and it gets you started on prophecy. It is sound and I would recommend it to anyone who desires the gift of prophecy.

If you wish to learn more about the Tabernacle of Holiness you can go HERE.

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Joseph Chean: passionate missions advocate

16 November 2023 4 Comments

I was shocked when I heard the news that Joseph Chean, a friend of World Revival Prayer Fellowship, went home to glory, in a car accident while heading towards Istanbul international Airport. He had just stepped down from his position as National Director of YWAM Singapore to carry the torch and lead Antioch 21, the global missions arm of Love Singapore. Many had high hopes that with the re-launch, there would be a major forward movement for the long-held calling that the Singapore church would be the Antioch of Asia. But in one cruel stroke these hopes seem to have been dashed to pieces. 

While many grieve his loss as a passionate missions advocate, a champion of harnessing of youth for missions, and mentor to many young leaders, pastors and missionaries, we know that those that will feel the deepest pain would be his wife and two daughters he left behind. We will do well to uplift this family in prayer, and in the coming months give them space to grieve, as well as support. 

Joseph Chean preached in our church services a few times. He gave us advice on community outreach around Geylang. He gave his time and advice to us. The advice we value the most was his urging for us to add a mission component to our church retreats. Following his advice, we held a few church retreats in Bangkok, and partnered with YWAM’s Ruth Center to bless the elderly living in the slums. Even this past week a mission team from our church had gone to help build an assisted living facility in a farm area many hours from Bangkok, a facility that the elderly poor can find care and community in a self-sustaining farm environment. We owe this ministry involvement to Joesph’s good advice. He is a man of great faith and vision for missions but it was not that way when he first came to Christ. To read Joseph Chean’s faith story go HERE. To hear his heartbeat for missions, watch this video HERE. 

A former missionary mentioned an insight that Antioch 21 was once led by Rev Rick Seaward, whom I consider a modern-day apostle, and he too died in a road accident in Brazil, South America. You can read about Rick Seaward HERE. Now leading a re-launch of Antioch 21 is Joseph Chean, only 57 years old, and he is struck down by another road accident. How do we make sense of these two tragic accidents? Spiritual warfare? Yes certainly. This shows the strategic importance of Antioch 21. Sovereignty of God? Yes certainly. We cannot fully understand this mystery. We can only grieve, pray, and say, “Lord, we do not understand but we trust you! You are loving and will not do evil; You are all powerful and have control of all things. You are wise and do not make mistakes. We cannot see the end from the beginning, so we will trust you completely and absolutely. May these good seeds planted, die in the ground, and regenerate new life, multiply and bring forth much fruit to your greater glory.”

I am reminded of Stephen, the first recorded martyr of the church (Acts 7). The early church must have felt this man of faith and vision was taken home too young, too early. But a few years afterwards, Saul became Paul, the apostle and history maker who turned the world right side up.

Rev Gabriel Han, Apostolic Elder, MFI (Singapore) and former senior pastor of Victory Family Church wrote this succinct but powerful challenge: “Every generation has been blessed with enough men and women called by God to spread the gospel to all the nations. It is not a lack of divine calling, but rather a lack of human response that hinders this mission. Only by surrendering our will to God’s can we truly obey the command to preach to all and go everywhere. Brother Joseph Chean was among those who lived an obedient, prayerful, generous, and surrendered life for God. May his death usher both a new generation of fervent evangelists and missionaries from our city that Asia so desperately needs”.

This Instagram reel I recently made expresses my sentiment about how the harvest is best gathered in.

If you wish to leave some words to testify to the contribution of Joseph Chean to missions or to your personal journey, please feel free to express it in the comment box above for all to be inspired.

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