The reflecting theologian

These were his instructions to them: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.- Luke 10:2 (NLT) I was just thinking about this verse while I was in the toilet handling my normal business (ok, not exactly the place to describe here). Then this verse came to my mind. What really prompted me to meditate on this verse suddenly was the recent reports on AIDS patients and mental patients dying alone in hospitals or elsewhere. I read one mental patient spending 45 years in a mental institution before dying alone, with no one visiting him over that long stretch of time. And I started thinking where is the church? Then I realised that was the wrong question to ask. I should be asking where are the workers? The workers are few, but why? As an analyst working on HR issues in the government, I think we can afford to peep at the verse through a HR lens to see what can we uncover on the possibl...

A man walks into a church one day and kneels down to pray. "Lord," he says, "I've made mistakes, but I'm determined to change. If you let me win the lottery, I promise to be a good servant and never bother you again." Nothing happens. So the next week the man tries again. "Please, God, let me win the lottery, and I'll come to church every week." Again nothing happens. So the man decides to try one last time. "Lord," he implores, "why haven't I won the lottery? Have you abandoned me?" Suddenly a deep voice booms down from above. "My son, I have not abandoned you, but at least meet me halfway - buy a ticket!" —Simon McDermott

Today's ST reported that SGH has put up signs in all its wards to remind visitors against proselytising after a volunteer from the Church of Praise was found recently evangelising to a patient and was told to leave... a certain Paul Tobin, president of a certain Humanist Society in Singapore called the move a positive step in the right direction... My foot a right direction... I have always maintained my view that Singapore, being a society where religions are free to practice, should allow its religions to practice freely. Where is religious freedom when you allowed a religion which mandate is to make disciples of all nations and is to convert as many disciples as possible to practice without that mandate? It's like telling PAP to run the government without giving them the right to run the government. I seriously think our society needs to wake up its idea. And besides, where does the line for proselytising stands? Where is it drawn? To a non-Christian, the mere act of m...

Simple song, but nice, clear, and express well God's goodness.

http://singaporeseen.stomp.com.sg/stomp/sgseen/this_urban_jungle/639004/simply_amazing_guitarist_with_no_hands_plays_like_a_pro.html 3 seconds into this video... and I know I have to kowtow to this chap... he puts most of us, those who are learning guitar with HANDS, to shame... It spurs me to want to master my guitar even more. According to research, in order to become an expert in something, you need to chalk up 10000 hours of training... how on earth are we going to do so??? Hmm...

1. Twenty nine percent of women spend more time shopping for shoes than they do looking for a life long mate. 2. The average person spends three years of his or her life on a toilet. 3. George W. Bush was once a cheerleader! 4. 23% of all photocopier faults worldwide are caused by people sitting on them and photocopying their butts. 5. The chances of you dying on the way to get your lottery tickets is greater than your chances of winning. 6. Real diamonds can be made from peanut butter! 7. The first known contraceptive was crocodile dung, used by Egyptians in 2000 B.C. 8. Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes. 9. There are more nerve cells in the human brain than there are stars in the Milky Way. 10. It is estimated that millions of trees in the world are accidentally planted by squirrels who bury nuts and then forget where they hid them! More funs to be found in funfactz.com

For you folks who are wondering what on earth did I post that won me the free ticket to our Hope Conference 2011: I deserve to win the free ticket to Hope Conference 2011 because I love my LG, YGC4, a lot and hope to win more free tickets so that less of us will need to pay. I believe in blessing my LG as they are an integral part of my spiritual family. C4 is an explosive and YGC4 will be a spiritual explosive for the Kingdom of God in the city and the world! It helps to be a bit more mushy... and contrary to popular view, I am not using the ticket for myself. YG has people who need free ticket too and this free ticket will be used to bless these people. So, students, your hopes are high but we working adults are most time poorer than students nowadays...

The past GE has seen voters wanting the government to be more accountable to the people and wanting a more transparent accountability mechanism in place to check the PAP. Then I suddenly realise, do we demand the same of our own lives, especially those Christians who support the opposition for this very reason, that the government needs more accountability to its people? No point demanding that the government needs more accountability when you are not accountable with your lives in your first place. My main takeaway? I hope that we are consistent enough to realise that whatever measures we use against other people, we will be judged by the same measure as well.

Now that all the drama has ended. Aljunied went over to WP and God will have His own plans there. It is not for me to judge the decision of the voters, although I pretty much would have wanted PAP to stay around in Aljunied. Anyway, time for reflection. As a PAP member, I sent an email earlier to the Prime Minister. At the risk of PAP image, I would post it here but I need to qualify that this does not negate my position posted here or FB previously. This is the position that I took when I made the decision to go back and help out with the campaigning. At the risk of being chastised by my own party (not as if this has not happened before), here's the email: Dear PM Lee,  I live in Bukit Panjang SMC, and I have been supporting PAP for many years. My support for PAP has led me to volunteer in the Meet-the-People sessions and help out in the last two campaigns for Dr Teo Ho Pin, who is a good man and has served hard for the residents of Bukit Panjang. I have even defended PAP'...

I read and heard James Gomez. But there are a lot of questions which I have regarding his healthcare plan, which is full of contradictions. I cannot claim to speak for MOH and Khaw Boon Wan, but I think I really want to put to the table some facts also for consideration. Firstly, he proposed expanding the healthcare budget. In case he hasn't done his homework, the healthcare budget has been steadily but surely increasing over the past few years. Increasing our healthcare budget by three times would mean that we will be spending nearly 12% of our GDP on healthcare, just about a few percentage point lower than USA. USA, spending 18% of their GDP on healthcare, has since achieved the worst health outcome among all the OECD countries and deemed the least cost effective. There is a reason why Obama has been trying to reform the healthcare system there. But my first question, where is the 10 billion that he is asking for coming from? Reserve again? What are the KPIs that he hope to ach...

While I was reflecting on certain issues just now, I remembered how some people commented that I seem to be everywhere all the time, or that I seem to be able to cope well with all the things I am going through currently - to be actively involved in church ministry and other stuff such as grassroot activities and political activities. I do have to qualify though that it sometimes take a bit of sacrifice on my part to compromise on some part of my life. I don't get to be engaged in all these activities at all times, and sometimes I have to make a choice. As mentioned before, I tend to give up my grassroot and political involvements to focus more on church ministry, for this is where I felt that more eternal impact could be made. And I do remember God spoke to me once from the parable of the pearl: “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.  When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it." - Matthew 13:45...

This reflection is a result of a comment by a brother regarding one of the Facebook posts I have posted. Essentially, I posted an update on the PAP activity in Bukit Panjang and this brother commented that the act of concerns by the PAP candidate probably reflects more of the person than the party. I wouldn't say that this brother is hypocritical, cos knowing him, he is not. But anyone who makes this kind of inconsistent comments do run the risk of being accused of being hypocritical. Why? To say that the person wears white and white, visited the residents to show concerns reflects not the party is to deny the fact that he is not representing the party when he is wearing white and white. So does that mean that I can go around hitting someone, while wearing white and white, and claim that it reflects my character only, and not the PAP? In my own question, the PAP would definitely have been blasted. It's the same for other opposition parties, and any organisations. So if this i...

I am a simple Singaporean. My income is considered above the median income of working Singaporeans, and that excludes the possible bonuses that I will possibly receive. But my journey to this is not so easy. I can't be considered poor but I have been through the lowest points that other people of my age and stages would have to go through. What are they? I was privileged enough to get a decent education, but that did not come easy. I remembered my mum told me that she had to appeal for me to enter the primary school which she tried to enroll me into. After my PSLE, my family had to appeal for me to enter the secondary school I had wanted to go to. After my GCE O'Level, I had to appeal to go to the junior college that I wanted, but this time I failed. My first three months were spent there, it was one of the top JCs in Singapore and I got 'relegated' to a JC which wasn't even ranked yet at that time. The only time when I didn't have to appeal for my education w...

I almost realised that the oppositions' opposition to the GRC system almost shot themselves in the foot upon observation of how they fielded their candidates this election. The common argument for a GRC system is that given a SMC system and a majoirty Chinese population, it is very difficult for a non-Chinese candidate to win convincingly in a SMC. As such, the GRC system is set up to ensure minority representation. One look at the election lineup this year, and you will notice something very peculiar. The opposition fielded no non-Chinese candidates in the SMCs, while the PAP fielded at least Michael Palmer. I wonder why this development? The strongest case for the opposition to dismantle the GRCs is to show that Singaporeans will not vote along racial line. The fact that they are doing, does this mean that they already agree with what the PAP has been arguing so far? If so, then I would think that the PAP is more progressive than the opposition in this area because at least t...

Lim Hng Kiang, Min(Trade and Industry) Ps Simon Eng, President (HIM) I couldn't resist but notice an eery similarity between President of the Hope Movement, Ps Simon Eng and Mr Lim Hng Kiang, Minister for Trade and Industry... or is it just me? (I took these photos from online)

I will like to touch a bit on minimum wage. There have been calls to implement minimum wage in Singapore. This is an intrinsically attractive option. It means that no matter where I go, I can be assured of a minimum wage without regards how well trained I am, or how poorly educated I am. It ensures that I can pay a certain amount of money, as governed by the law. Of course, we heard about opponents of these ideas to cite economic ideas and theories to argue why this is not feasible. Among those include it indiscriminately increases the cost of businesses and make them uncompetitive; it failed to take into account the training and development of the workers. Before I go on further to expand and add on one of these points, I would like to cite an interesting piece of news that I saw reported in the news yesterday. Hong Kong officially implemented the minimum wage system yesterday. Interestingly, the day it was implemented, the media reported an old security guard who was retrenched bec...

I am thinking how can we better assess the quality and vote-worthiness of the different candidates, be it PAP or opposition. It dawned upon my mind that it is possible and reasonable to be more strict in our criticism of the opposition compared to the PAP. Why? For most of the areas, the PAP has been the incumbent and it is easy to assess what they have done at the grassroot level and to assess their historical records in improving (or to some desecrating) people's lives. However, to compare the PAP candidates at the same 'leniency' or 'strictness' with the opposition party members begs some questions. Firstly, while not true for all opposition members, we need to question what these opposition candidates stand for. It is easy to answer this question for all PAP candidates, cos at least for PAP candidates, they can be consistent with one another. But it is difficult to answer these questions for the oppositions. Take Alec Tok for example. He came in last minute fr...