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Encounters with an awesome and living God: holy land

3 February 2014 blogpastor Leave a comment

Enjoying our Israeli meals (Photo: Tiffany)

By the end of the holy land experience we were like those who came back after a successful mission trip -thrilled from seeing the living God at work. We saw how God intervened and opened doors as large parts of Israel were affected by an unusual cold snap.

The day we stepped foot on Israel we had wet and stormy weather. The sky frightened us with strong cold winds and drizzle. One moment I was, Oh no, is it going to be like that during the whole trip? Next moment I was praying and believing.

The second night we gathered at a function room. After a fun icebreaker, a few shared how the Lord led them and opened the way for them to visit the holy land. Earlier that afternoon, we ate St Peter’s fish in a restaurant by the lake of Galilee. The fierce winds agitated the waves till all boats were recalled to shore. Our scheduled boat ride was cancelled. So that night I read a pertinent passage about Jesus, the Lord of wind and waves, calming the winds and challenged everyone to pray and trust the Lord to grant us open doors and good weather in the days to come. We had also received news that Jerusalem received a metre of snow and was struggling to cope. Thousands of homes were without power, roads were closed, many motorists were trapped in vehicles, the army had to be called in to help. The Jerusalem mayor called it a snow tsunami. We were told the last time there was so much snow was a hundred years ago. We were in a historic moment but it worried us. That night we prayed with earnest.

Wonderful joy and praise at sea of Galilee — Second trip together to Holy Land

The next morning, the lake of Galilee was safe for the boats and that was a testimony to God’s faithfulness and grace. When they played a song of praise on the boat, great joy broke out, and like little children we laughed, fed the seagulls, played and took photos. Later while on the boat, I conducted the “eucharist” which means “thanksgiving”. How appropriate.

The rest of the trip we had similar encounters of God’s faithfulness and power. Several places were initially closed to us because of the cold weather or power failure. The Dead Sea was closed due to the weather. Masada had a power failure so the cable cars were paralyzed. However the next day, the weather turned sunny and power was restored so we went to both the Dead Sea and the Masada with great joy.

From the Mount of Olives: a snowed over view of old city

The view from the Church of St Peter in Gallicantu

2013 In the footsteps of Jesus pilgrimage

It was the same for Jerusalem. With all the TV coverage of closure of roads, very cold temperatures and trapped tourists, we wondered if we could enter Jerusalem for the last leg of our pilgrimage – the via dolorosa. God opened the way. We saw cars and buses from Jerusalem with thick snow on their roofs. This meant the roads have been cleared. We were excited and so thankful when we entered the holy city and stood at the Mount of Olives. The panorama of the old Jerusalem under snow was a special, unique and rare sight. We were privileged and blessed to be there at that moment.

We came to see the holy land but we also saw the living God in action. This was one blessed and awesome pilgrimage.

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Pastoral ministry Holy Land, In the footsteps of Jesus pilgrimage, pilgrimage, Raffles Air, WRPF

Gunung Lambak trek in Kluang, Johor state

20 January 2014 blogpastor 3 Comments

My trekking friends had planned this as training preparation for the Mt. Rinjani climb in end of April. Since they were in Kluang, Johor state, they also hoped to do some Chinese New Year shopping and take advantage of the weaker ringgit.

There were 16 of us. Some arrived in cars, others on the KTM train. It was Friday late morning and we checked into the hotel and had our usual lunch at the nearby popular Star Restaurant. We enjoyed their specialties at a price that heightened the pleasure. The rest of the day, we shopped, caught movies, had the hair done, ate and bought snacks and isotonic drinks for the next morning’s trek.

Some of us had to hitch a cab while others went in their cars. Gunung Lambak was a mere 15 minute drive away. It was a Saturday morning and there were many locals around and some stalls selling fruits and drinks. The elevation is only 510m or 1673 feet which is about three times the height of the highest hill in Singapore – Bukit Timah Hill. We estimated a four or five hours trek. The initial path was bitumen and cement and reminded me so much of the main path of Bt Timah hill. The latter three quarters to the first peak were slopes at inclines of 40-70 degrees with occasional ropes, steps and tree trunks for support. There were no flat plateaus, no break from the monotonous and challenging slopes.Going down was thankfully a different gentler route.

Sixteen Singapore trekkers in Gunung LambaK

My wife was nursing strained thighs and that slowed us down. Vincent, Jeffrey and Goh were the rear-guard and having them around was a comfort. Before we felt tired, we reached the first peak. We rested a while, had our snacks and went on to the second peak. Along the way, Goh twisted his ankle. A few of us decided to head down. The others went on to the second peak. They later realized they were on the wrong path, and tracked back to the fork and took the correct turn, delaying their return to town by about 45 minutes. By which time the five of us who went down earlier had returned to town, and ate delicious char kway teow in three forms– the traditional kway teow, and one fried in wanton noodles, and another in mee sua. We washed all that down with yong tau hoo soup. After a relaxing bath and rest we later re-united with the rest of the trekkers for the famous beef noodles of Kluang. The way we ate you would have wondered whether we came to prepare for April’s Indonesian climb, or simply to stretch our gastronomic muscles. On both nights, we went to two different hawker centers and ordered almost every available dish for sharing and tasting. Burp. These Malaysian hawkers are simply better than their Singapore counterparts.

It was disappointing that we could not buy much pineapple tarts, love letters or other CNY goodies due to quality issues and lack of variety. However many had their massages, hair treatment, pedicure and manicure and we had a good stretch of our muscles, both legs and gastronomic. And all this without blowing a hole in our pockets. It was fun.

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Interests Gunung Lambak, Johor state, Kluang, Star Restaurant

Experiencing the Holy Land on three levels

4 January 2014 blogpastor Leave a comment

In the footsteps of Jesus (10-21 December 2013)

There are three levels at which we can experience the Holy Land. One is as a tourist. Second is as a student. Third is as a pilgrim.

The tourist

The tourist wants to experience new places, food, culture, weather and see new things and get his or her money’s worth throughout the tour. The person does not want to be taken for a “ride”. The person wants everything on the itinerary to be delivered as stated on the brochure. He or she will usually take a lot of photos and will complain or extol the tour depending on what he or she has experienced. He or she will look for opportunities to shop and buy souvenirs at every window of time. The tourist is satisfied when the tour delivers as promised and he or she has experienced many pleasant new sights, food, and places.

The student

The student wants as much information about the places and historical events and biblical background as possible. Thus before the trip the person would have read a book, or watched many YouTube clips on the holy land, or googled some of the places mentioned in the itinerary. The person would stick close to the Israeli guide and ask questions to learn more. On returning he usually continues his or her research on the Bible and internet. The student is satisfied when he or she has learned a lot of new things.

The pilgrim

The pilgrim looks forward to the trip as if it was a journey of faith. He or she longs to call to remembrance some of the Bible events and characters associated with various places and respond to them by listening to what the living God of today wants to say to them about their life situation. So during the boat ride at the lake of Galilee he or she is not just snapping shots of the feeding of seagulls, but is also meditating about Jesus sleeping in the boat, or walking on water, or feeling the panic of the disciples as water entered the boat. The pilgrim re-experiences what happened to the disciples. He or she interacts with the resurrected Lord who is in the boat there and then. At the Garden of Gethsemane, the pilgrim brings an issue he or she is struggling with, and prays, Lord not my will, but Yours be done, and wait in silence to experience the response of God to their prayer. Even in meals and conversation with others, or through the meditative talks, or holy communion, or baptism, and renewal of marriage vows the pilgrim is aware of the Lord’s action in his or her heart.The pilgrim is satisfied when he or she has experienced God through the places, and the evocation of past events and characters. It is a now encounter with the God of Israel facilitated through the holy land tour.

We have elements of all three whenever we go to the holy land but it is hoped that more and more it would be the pilgrimage that is more dominant and it is the task of the pastor leading the tour to facilitate this.

This was the first time I led a tour of 47 folks to the holy land to follow the footsteps of Jesus. The first time I went on a familiarization tour with Omega Tours my eyes were a quarter opened. My eyes were opened wider this second visit to Israel, and I heard more and learned more. However, as a pastor/leader, I now feel on hindsight that there were a few places where I could have done more to facilitate this encounter/interaction with God. The next time it will definitely be better.

On Monday I am off to the Love Singapore Pastors Prayer Summit in Malacca. When I return I hope to continue blogging about this incredible trip where we experienced the God of Israel at work in our trip, which was beset by a freak cold storm.

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Pastoral ministry Holy Land, Israel, pilgrimage

The Power of Right Believing by Joseph Prince: reflection 3

23 December 2013 blogpastor 6 Comments

This book is deceptively simple, but the truths are gospel truths and potent. Part three of Joseph Prince’s book is titled “Receive God’s Complete Forgiveness”. Part one was “Believe in God’s love for you” and Part two was “Learn to see what God sees”. These are the ABC’s of the greatest news in the world. Does not seem like anything difficult for anyone to wrap their minds around. However I suspect many find it difficult to believe all these powerful declarations. Human propensity is to achieve God’s forgiveness, acceptance and love by one’s own goodness and effort, not to receive them by faith. Believing and receiving God’s forgiveness and acceptance without any human payment for the debt of sin is too difficult for the rational and self-sufficient person to accept. However, these are truths that the world and even the baptized needs to hear over and over again.

Let me first summarize the chapters in part three:

Receive His forgiveness and reign (chapter 7): Prince underlines the importance of believing in God’s unconditional love and accepting his full forgiveness. He also explains how these coupled with the knowledge of God’s gift of righteousness are able to transform and set free those who feel guilty, condemned, trapped in habits and addictions. It also issues forth in works of love not obligation.

Fresh grace for every failing (chapter 8): Prince opens his life and shares how irritable he can get on occasion. He shows that many problems arise out of a person not dealing with a sense of guilt or condemnation in his life. He points out that grace is not merely empowerment as some claim it to be. Grace is God’s unmerited favour and forgiveness for every failing and it is this confidence in continually receiving God’s forgiveness that enables our lives to be transformed and freed from every addiction, sinful habits and anxieties.

Experience freedom from condemnation (chapter 9): Prince uses the woman caught in adultery as the main passage to demonstrate how God does not condemn us for our sins but rather extends his forgiveness for us all. Jesus was the only one qualified to throw the first stone but instead he forgave the woman. And just as release from condemnation would give the adulterous woman the power to “go and sin no more” so it would be with us. Not only freedom from sin but also the healing of our sicknesses.

Reading this book is similar to reading the first epistle to John. There is a constant repetition and use of spiral to weave the truths into your being. There is constant overlapping of truths and applications and a clear outline may not be easily discernible at times. Do not get riled up, used as we are to western logical deductive thought and order with points and sub-points format.

I like one of his fresh insights on Jesus writing on the ground. What is the most common interpretation of what Jesus wrote on the ground in front of all the religious folks who wanted the adulterous woman stoned? Jesus was writing down the specific sins of the angry mob. Some say with their names too! Well Prince saw an interesting twist. He said Jesus wrote on the stony ground, stood up and stooped down to write again. What was he writing? He wrote on the stone ground the 10 commandments. What does this remind you of? Of God, who wrote the 10 commandments on the stone tablets twice – the second time after Moses broke the first set in anger at the sins of the people. Jesus was in effect saying to those with eyes to see, I am the Word made flesh.

Joseph Prince believes that “the root cause of many sinful habits, fears and addictions can be traced to condemnation. I want to talk to you today about going after condemnation as the root to help you receive god’s forgiveness in those areas so that you can break out of your cycle of defeat and step into a new cycle of victory”(Prince, 106). There have been others root causes put up by other Bible teachers. Those in deliverance work will point to rejection as the root cause. Those in inner healing would point to the dysfunctional relationship to the father. Without wanting to split hairs, it seems to me that theologically the root cause should be unbelief. Condemnation is one of the consequences of our unbelief. Our ancestors Adam and Eve were deceived by Satan to believe wrongly that God did not intend good for them when He forbade them from eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The whole process of redemption on the human side would then require the power of right believing. That’s why the cardinal essential for salvation and transformation and effective ministry has to be: by grace through faith (Ephesians 2: 8). However the disagreement here is major.

I hope some people are taking the opportunity to read the book along with me and to enter into conversation about it. I apologize for any delays in the approval of your comments on my blog, and also for not replying or conversing with readers. During the Israel pilgrimage the access to internet was intermittent and weak at times. I anticipate that I will be pretty busy during this period with functions and catching up on work that has piled up. Also I have just returned from Israel and I have seen God work his wonders and learned much from the pilgrimage but I need to edit the photos before I blog about that.

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Book and movie reflections Joseph Prince

The Power of Right Believing by Joseph Prince: reflection 2

9 December 2013 blogpastor 94 Comments

Tomorrow I fly off to lead a group of 47 pilgrims in a tour of Israel. Half the members are from our church, the other half are their friends and a group from another church. Its going to be an exciting time. We go to pray and to bless Israel, and certainly be blessed as well. Blessed to see what was once not a nation now a nation; blessed to hear Hebrew, once dead but now a living language; blessed to feel how Old Testament prophecies have been fulfilled, and God’s faithfulness revealed. All this will be energizing for us. This is also the land where Jesus lived, moved and ministered. Here He was born; here He died and rose again. Here is where He will return in glory. I’m excited. Do pray for us.

Before I go off I wanted to write this reflection on the second part of Joseph Prince’s book. If you have his book and it is lying on the shelf somewhere why don’t you read this particular part and help contribute some thoughts on how the book has helped you. You can share what you like or do not like in the book, and discuss more deeply some of the ideas in this part which covers chapters 4, 5 and 6. Imagine you are in a reading club and we are all reading this stuff together to discuss it on this platform instead of face to face.

Part 2 is titled “Learn to See What God Sees” and here is my summary of each chapter in this part:

Play the Right Mental Movies (chapter 4) – The central idea is that we have a tendency to look at the negative and this creates fear in our hearts. We play the wrong kind of mental movies. And fear like a boa constrictor suffocates us to death. We cannot get rid of such fearful ideas. The best way is to replace them. Replace them with God’s truth and right belief.

See Yourself As God Sees You (chapter 5) – Here Prince introduces the doctrine of justification in its practical implications. A great exchange has taken place. Jesus took our sins. We received his gift of righteousness. When God looks at us He sees Jesus’ righteousness and not our failures, sins, weaknesses. He looks at us and He sees a child of God deserving of favor, blessing and approval.

You Are Irreversibly Blessed (chapter 6) – Prince takes the Old Testament story of Balaam paid by Balak to curse Israel but when it came time to curse Israel he actually blessed Israel. Balaam explained that God commanded him to bless and he could not reverse that. God has “not observed iniquity in Jacob, nor has He seen wickedness in Israel”(Num23:20,21). The chapter went on to develop further the idea of justification and how God views us who are made righteous in Christ, and how therefore God loves to pour out his undeserved blessings on us.

I am beginning to notice the use of a dominant image or life story in each chapter. For instance the mental movie, the constrictor snake, or a businessman who moved from fear to faith, or an American guy who found help in knowing how God sees him. I like it that he is using both local as well as Caucasians (with an eye to connecting to American Christians) as it shows that this message can have the same fruit across national boundaries and cultures.

When I read Chapter 6, I thought, I must digest this and share this with the church. Its a beautiful “shadow” that points us to the amazing work of justification and its implications. Traditional teaching on justification falls shy of talking about how God will bless and favor us as a fruit of justification. They will focus on the spiritual blessings as in Romans 5. Prince boldly talks about material blessings though not in this chapter but elsewhere.

Conservative interpretation of the Old Testament also does not allow for the use of typology when the event, person, object or colour is not so used in the same way in the New Testament. Thus since Balaam and the story of Israel, and the high priestly breast-piece, used as “shadows”pointing to the real blessings of justification was never mentioned in such a connection in the New Testament, it is not permissible to interpret the OT text in this way. I am less conservative with regards to this, and there are scholars along a spectrum on this issue. To me, such typology should be permissible. However, the text must not be artificially contorted beyond recognition and reason. It should not contradict any of the major Bible doctrines that are made clear elsewhere. Lastly, it brings out the loveliness of Jesus finished work and not shed light on some insignificant subject. If it sheds light on the overall redemptive theme of the whole Bible and I give it my thumbs up.

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Book and movie reflections book review, faith, Joseph Prince, Justification