The reflecting theologian

Flouting about my CG again, for once in a very long time. The picture you see above is my current CG, the very explosive YGC4!!! We are a small caregroup in Hope Singapore, consisting of working adults and university students, who are committed to serve God and extend His Kingdom in whatever ways we can. Bottom row (from left): Liang Hong, Bei Ru, Sharon, Joyce Chi Top row (from left): Ivy, Jonathan, myself and Yizhong This of course is not the original form of the cg. The CG was conceived and formed a few months back with only three members plus two phantom members, one of them now in the NS group. I think it is a privilege to lead a CG, and I am indeed honored to lead this CG of young believers who are committed to God. We are destined to do great things for Him!

GK Chesterton has once mentioned that he had a fancy for writing a romance about an English yachtsman who slightly miscalculated his course and discovered England under the impression that it was a new island in the South Seas. He used this to illustrate that all his thoughts and reflections about life, which he observed independently, ultimately ended up in a chartered territory, that his conclusions about life are precisely those which Christianity has concluded long ago. As I think through this analogy, I realise that this often happens to myself as well. I have read stuff written by philosophers and writers who expressed thoughts similar to mine, which have in turn been derived through the constant daydreaming on the bus travels. One classic one is the one on infinite causes. I once thought, after knowing Christ, that if you ask a person 'why' to his questions enough, one has to reach a final point by which lies the foundational reason for all his questions. In short, I b...

Prayer often takes up a substantial part of a Christian's life, or it should. In Hope Church Singapore, it is one of the four important basic values of a Christians, the rest being Word of God, service, and fellowship. Before I begin my long reflection on what I think about prayer (inspired by some of the books I have been reading so far), let me share a story about a brother in church, someone whom I have not been meeting up for some time since last year. When I first got to know this brother, he was a relatively young believer, about 7 months old (due to my own experience, I have often found it difficult to comprehend and relate to the difficulties faced by younger believers even though I have been through the same stage as them). And I remember he often shares one of his favourite verse with me. In Matt 7:7, it is written that “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks fi...

Yesterday was an event which I have been asked to attend... In the email that was being sent out, it was stated that we are expected to turn up to support the candidates. After that, there was an email sent out by the members (some self-congratulatory comments) Yesterday was also the Q3 usher retreat. As always, this posits a dichotomy in my life. On one hand, I am involved in the other activities in Singapore, though I should not be too involved due to my occupation, I am also heavily involved in church ministry. But honestly speaking, the choices that I made will make no sense to secular people who do not understand where I am coming from. I mentioned once and I will like to mention again that I am 24-hour minister for God. Of course ministry can and should happen outside of church setting, but I have made a conscious decision to be involved more in church ministry, discipling people towards the KOG. Therefore, it can be said that the event yesterday was worth rubbish at best to ...

In the post, Economics of human lives, I talked about how we implicitly and subconsciously place a value on human lives when we make certain choices on how to utilise our time. Certain things happened over the past few days, which prompted me to write this follow-up post to rethink and reflect about serving God in a local church ministry and how we use our time. I think let's start off from the basic. When Jesus started His ministry, His main message has always been 'repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near'. Essentially, the message has two elements: repentance from our sin, and the Kingdom of God. Most of His parables deal with what the Kingdom of God is like. The core purpose of the cross eventually serves as the basis for our repentance. Before He ascended to heaven, He left behind these words, 'Therefore go and make disciples of all nations...' All these lead me to one conclusion about how we live our lives and use our time. As a Christ follower, as I said i...

The WFL on sound minded church has set me thinking. I have earlier blogged about faith and argued that faith is not anti-thesis to reason, but rather, the both need to co-exist together. I wished that the church can understand this better than it is currently. I am by no means saying that I am practising a very sound minded lifestyle right now, but I certainly can say that I spend a lot of time thinking and contemplating about issues, be it intellectual issues or existential issues. Last week, I started a series of sharing on worship, adapted from Ravi Zacharias' several teachings on worship. Along in the sharings include a few philosophical points which are difficult to understand. And comments from my cg are that these points are a little difficult to understand. I was immediately reminded of what Ravi likes to say, that we are constantly being 'idiotised by the television'. But let me acknowledge that most of the stuff I shared are not easy to understand and I had to p...

On Xin Min, 29 Oct, the newspaper reported a story of a 43 year old woman who discovered she contracted AIDS from her boyfriend after he passed away from the disease. The woman had been with her boyfriend, who was married to another woman, since she was 20 years old. Now she is wheel-chair bound and resides in a nursing home. She had attempted suicide after she realised that she had contracted AIDS, but was fortunately saved by the nurse. In the summary report sent by MOH, the headline for this piece of news is 'she gave her boyfriend love, he gave her AIDS'. It may well apply to us in our relationship with God, 'He gave us love, we gave him ' It applies to me as well. I sometime think of the level of commitment that we have, as a believer and follower of Christ. The thing is if we acknowledge Christ as our Saviour and Lord, then how much are we actually serving Him? How much are we honoring Him? How much are we loving Him, and loving the people around us? Are we re...

As I work in MOH, there is a need for me to understand the economics of healthcare. And as work required, I was made to attend an in-house MOH training course which Economics of healthcare is one of the modules. Moreover, recently,, due to work, I have kena some repeated telecast of the same lecture by the same lecturer. But that's not the point I want to draw out here. In one of the readings that we have to read for the module, there is this very interesting chapter from the book 'More sex is safer sex' by Steven E. Landsburg. In the chapter, 'Matters of Life and Death', Landsburg made the argument that we place an absolute value on human lives. Here's the crux of his argument: If putting a dollar value on human lives strikes you as cold-hearted, grow up. You implicitly put a dollar value on human lives every time you but a candy bar with funds that could instead have been donated to the local fire department. No matter who you are, there is a limit to what...

Yesterday I was at the local Wal-Mart. Now I was only in there for about 5 minutes and when I came out, there he was - a damn Motorcycle cop writing a parking ticket ... So, I goes up to him and said: "Come on Buddy, how about giving a guy a break?" He simply ignored me and continued writing the ticket. So, I called him a pencil necked Nazi. He then glared at me and started writing another ticket for having bald tires! So, I called him a sorry excuse for a human being. He then finished the second ticket and put it on the car with the first. Then he started to write a third ticket! This went on for about 25 minutes ... the more I abused and hurled insults at him, the more tickets he wrote ... But hey, I didn't give a damn. My car was parked around the corner ...

It's 1 Nov but one can feel the Christmas season coming already. At least, we know that Christmas isn't Christmas until it happens in our heart. I have a lot of thoughts in my head which I want to blog but need to find the right time and place to do so. Anyway, I have a feeling that this coming Christmas is going to be an exciting one for my cg and for YG.

O Thou Who camest from above, The pure celestial fire to impart, Kindle a flame of sacred love Upon the mean altar of my heart. There let it for Thy glory burn With inextinguishable blaze, And trembling to its source return, In humble prayer and fervent praise. Jesus, confirm my heart's desire To work and speak and think for Thee; Still let me guard the holy fire, And still stir up Thy gift in me. Ready for all Thy perfect will, My acts of faith and love repeat, 'Til death Thy endless mercies seal, And make my sacrifice complete. - Charles Wesley