The reflecting theologian

I recently attended the Eagles Leadership Conference over the past week. It was an expensive conference, but it was worth every dollar because of this: As some of my readers would know, Ravi Zacharias is my favourite Christian author. I would say that most of my theological thinking on a lot of issues stemmed from his writings. But most importantly, my conviction to go on the path to develop the intellectual side of my faith originated from him, whose ministry aimed to bridge the gap between the mind and the heart. His life is so much inspiring to me and the sacrifices he made just remind me of a life that denies himself and carries the cross. It was indeed a highlight to be able to hear him speak. I wish that I can ask him out for a coffee to hear his thoughts on a more personal level but I think just meeting him is good enough for me at this moment. But that remains in one of my wishlists. But after attending this conference, what I got out from the conference seems to be very...

Where faith met its reasons I was just thinking about some of the things I have posted eons ago and rereading them helped me to recollect back the things I have held dearly to. It is always good to go back to your history and see what you have posted and see if any of the positions has changed. I would say that some, especially in the area of interpreting the Bible, have but my main thesis and arguments remain till this day, the same. 

我的名字 刻劃在祢心中 我的臉孔 深映在祢眼中 不是因為 我勢力才能 乃是因著 祢奇妙寬容恩典 雖然有時 我會跌倒軟弱 祢卻一直 包容不放棄我 用祢慈愛 緊緊的擁抱 我讚美祢 寶貴奇妙大愛 唯有祢配得 所有的讚美 一切尊貴榮耀 主 祢的十架 是無價至寶 祢是我尊貴的主耶穌 I was listening to this beautiful song the whole night as well as trying to figure out how to play this song on the guitar. For some reason, I have a certain liking for songs that sing of our weaknesses and God's greatness. Perhaps it is precisely due to our weaknesses that God's glory is so evident in our lives. 

There was a testimony shared on Saturday service which intrigued me. It was the testimony of a sister whom God has spoken to. Encouraging but one point which she made captured my attention. She mentioned that after she responded to God's call, she was thinking that God would give her a helper (translation: husband) and she began to look around but found none. And I would argue that the reason why there was none is because she was looking for the wrong thing. In the first place, God created woman as the helper for man, not the other way round (Gen 2:18). This means one thing: within a family, the man is called by God to lead and take the initiative, not the woman. The woman is called to support the man within the family. I actually argued that it is precisely this cognizance of the woman's calling that the woman should base on in her search for life partner, as all the boundaries and parameters will be defined based on that premise. Simply put it, to go against God's creat...

It was a really chop-chop decision. Last night, while I was working out, I felt a prompting in my heart that I needed to do something over the long Puasa and NDP weekend. I have a long weekend that week from Thurs all the way to Sunday, and I have no class that following Monday, meaning that it was a good opportune time to go somewhere for a really short mission. Hence, I began asking around. By God's divine guidance, it was settled by midnight. I booked my air ticket to visit a brother currently working and planting a church in one of the countries up north. The ticket was expensive by usual standard, but since it was prompted by God, I figured out that the price is not going to be too much of an issue as long I get the timing I need and am able to reach back Singapore by Monday midnight. Moving forward, I think I will try to look out for such opportunities. It makes sense. God is blessing with the providence that allows all these to happen at the moment. In some sense, this...

I think this theme on the presence of God has been getting onto me since the end of last year, when Ps Jeff preached about the Greatest Gift - which is the presence of God in our lives. Lo and behold, when I started school in AGBC, the direction for the school this year would end up to be the Presence of God. I thought to myself: this cannot be coincidence. We often heard about the omnipresence of God. And we know that He is everywhere. That becomes the reason why we, as Christians, have never had a need to build a physical altar that God can reside in, so that we can go there and pray to Him. No, because He is omnipresence, that we can go to Him as and where we are and seek Him, talk to Him and cry out to Him, understanding that He will hear us. In fact, as I am reflecting on the presence of God in my life, the very simple Lord's Prayer comes to my mind. In Matthew 6:9, Jesus taught a very simple opening to an example of prayer to His listeners: "Our Father in heaven, hallo...

I just recently learned something very intriguing... or rather something I learned long ago but never have the chance and tools to properly present this till recently.  I remember when I first came to church, one of the things taught to me about the Word is that there is 'logos' word and the 'rhema' word. The 'logos' word is the written word in the Bible that we read everyday. But when it 'speaks' to us, it becomes the 'rhema' word. In some sense, the fact the church uses it widely helps to reinforce the idea that this is indeed the case. Not to mention, there are times when the same verse or passage speaks to you differently at some point in time, thus validating the claim. But is it really the case? Reading up on a lot of  writings by more conservative Christian authors seem to suggest otherwise. Of course, this does not mean they are right, but my contention is that if there are Christians who argue or disagree on a certain point, then th...

Over the past two weeks, I underwent an intensive course on biblical interpretation. Allow me to share some of my reflection and learning points from the course here. The first reflection point has to do with something my lecturer mentioned in the first day of class, which has been consistently taught to us over the two weeks – we need to be able to keep up with times and learn to reach out to a heavily digitalised world. The key thing is this, if we as Christ followers claim to have the truth, then why shouldn’t we use these media platforms, such as the internet and mass media, to share the truth? No doubt, I still believe that some traditional methods, such as meeting face to face for discipleship or evangelism, still work best, especially when there is a need to clarify on difficult issues which are best said face to face. Nevertheless, if God provides us these additional platforms, then we should take advantage and utilise them. As such, for me, it also means that I familiari...