The reflecting theologian

Today I participated in a CNY performance in a CNY event that's being co-organised between MOH and Lion's Befrienders in front of the Minister for Health and a bunch of elderly folks. It was meant to be a simple performance with just four CNY songs. But I guess we overestimated the time we needed and we ended up doing a lot of impromptu singing. I dun know if I have opened up a can of worms in MOH as there's this lingering fear that I will be arrowed by people to do things outside of my job, i.e performing during special festivsls. But I know one thing, it has been a long time since I last emceed and even though I was nervous at first, I ended up on the 自high mode. At heart, I think I enjoyed serving on the front stage. This often makes me wonder why I will want to step down from worship in the first place. A similar topic was proached at when I met Benaiah on Sunday. There could only be one reason: cos I have other priorities now which I know God wants me to focus on. ...

We really have a lot of choices when it comes to communication today. In the past, we only have pigeons and postmen. Then, we have telephones and telegraphs. After that, comes mobile phone, emails and instant messaging over computers. With all advances in technologies, we now have smartphones which can log into internet to allow emails and instant messaging on the go.

And so after weeks of thinking and reflecting through, here are my New Year Resolutions for the year: To lead a simple life. This is not simple to be defined. But I mean simple at two levels. Firstly, to keep living at a simple level and not spend beyond what is necessary. Over the past months, I think God has spoken to me that He has blessed us beyond measures and I ought not to ask for more. In fact, this year, when people ask me what birthday present I want, I got stuck for a while and realised that I am actually already quite contented with what I have and I don't really have a lot of needs and wants that I would want people to fulfill. Secondly is to think simply and not make things very complicated for myself. This is more difficult to be worked upon but it can be done. It by no means, though, implies I am going to stop digging deeper into theology and the word.  To see the world through God's eyes and perspective. It is easy to be inspired by God's vision and mi...

I was just thinking on the bus the other day: the chinese worships a deity by the name of Guan Gong, who is actually the deification of the historical character, Guan Yu, from the era of the Three Kingdom. From what we know from Hong Kong serial, generally two groups of people worship the deity: the policemen to ask the deity to help them find justice and protect them, and the crooks for the deity's value of 'yi' which means camaraderie. Now, I highly suspect what we see in dramas is true and if this is so, I would say this is a very conflicted deity. With police and thief worshipping him, he cannot possibly answer the prayer of both sides. To answer the prayer of the police to find justice is to defy his crooked worshippers, but to answer the latter's prayer is to defy the value of justice which he seems to embody. Either way, he contradicts himself. The conclusion? Deification is a human invention and therefore the deities mirror human behaviour, even to their sin...

Attending a conference on missional church can potentially change one's perspective. If being missional means I have to be one of the catalysts, then so be it. If it means I have to be in a certain position to contribute to missional changes then I should want to be in these positions to impact and disciple the people. Church planting and missions are a process and not just decisions. It involves a huge deal of discipleship. Becoming a missional church, we have to be more intentful in our discipleship and be ready to allow the Holy Spirit to innovate our methods and ways. Maybe this is one year that I need to challenge my own mindset and other people's mindset as well...

It is a bit amazing how my thinkings and LG plans are getting in line with what HIM is doing. Perhaps one area I will want to look closely at is to see how I can experiment different ideas with the LG and the unit, and at the same time challenging old paradigm. I was also sharing with a brother from Brisbane about my trip to Japan. It is quite interesting to see how such trips can serve to inspire people. He mentioned that I seem to have a heart for Japanese. I am not very sure about it although I know seeing the devastation does break my heart a bit.

Hmm... Just more thoughts on what my new year resolutions should be. Perhaps I should bring over some resolutions from last year to this year, to strive more and improve more. But the fact that I can bring can either mean that they are too general or too difficult to achieve. As those are from the bible, they might be too general or should have been those stuff which i should be striving on whether they're my resolutions or not...

Grow in God and the Holy Spirit and go deeper with Him. Thru God and His leading we will be able to. We are the gatekeepers in our prayer and we need to open what God has decided to open. Matt 16:17-19 God has given us the authority to reach out to the people we are ministering to Keeping our DNA. Keep to the truth of God's word and we know to be the truth. We need to be going about the Father's business. Continue the DNA of discipleship, raise Christ centered disciples. Continue the DNA of mission. Continue the mission spirit. Our people must continue to look beyond the local boundaries. Continue to develop the leadership team. Connect tightly with the team. Invest in the team and look at how we can develop them. Pray togther with the team. Pray to God that He will give us victories in our challenges this year. Now is the time of great opportunity for the church to go forth. God wants us to step forward in spite of the challenges we face as a church. We got to ri...

It has been around 10 days into the new year but I am still thinking about my resolutions for this year. One is more or less confirmed. I would want to take the year to venture out of Singapore more as I am doing now in Chiang Mai. The keyword is mission and if God is calling me to mission, it is really time to start thinking seriously about it. Of course there are other things in my mind that I have not really thought through seriously or really taken the time to think. But some may stem from some regrets I had over in 2011. Yet I'm in no haste. I have 5 days in Chiang Mai to think about it and allow God to speak to me about it on what He hopes for me to achieve and grow in for 2012. Exciting year ahead. No hurry in making things happen but a lot of thoughts to be made sense of.

The love of God is incomprehensible in the sense that if He does things that we want Him to do, it's cos He loves us and if He does things that we din want Him to do, it's also because He loves us. After some reflections, the love of God is an absolute fact, it's our business to make sense of His love, not other people.

It has come to the time of the year again when I need to take stock of the outgoing year and think about the incoming year. What has happened over the past one year? Let's take a look at it: January January was quite happening for me, thinking back what happened in church. I was halfway involved in planning for the YG Mission Camp, and of course, my first time in Chiang Mai attending the Passion Global Conference where I got to hear the testimony and the sharing of Ps Bill Wilson who is an incredible man of God. During the time in Chiang Mai, I got really challenged in thinking what my real passion should be and this of course sets off a year long search and questioning in my future path as a disciple of Christ. The YG Mission Camp took place at Stansfield residence immediately after the week I was in Chiang Mai. Entering into that phase was quite stressful, but rewarding. It was the first camp (and perhaps the last) that I took charge in the overall planning and the first cam...