The reflecting theologian

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. - Romans 7:14-20 I was talking to a friend yesterday on how we reached certain logical conclusions after reading the Scripture. Then we concluded that bad hermeneutics generally lead people to the wrong conclusions about what the Scripture means. I have previously pointed out Philippians 4:13 and today, I would like to point o...

I have to say, I agree with him telling her 'Don't waste time'. What LKY told a local female PHD student will make you laugh#throwback #RIPLKY Posted by SGAG on Wednesday, March 25, 2015

23 March 2015 marks the end of one era with the passing of LKY. Many things have been said of this man on how he brought Singapore to be where we are today. Many stories have been told on how he fought for the unions in his younger days, how he allied with the pro-communists and eventually won his fight against them, and how he survived the communal politics of Malaysia and brought Singapore beyond separation. Indeed, all these can be read in books about him. When I was doing history in NUS, he was almost integral in all the readings about Singapore politics post WW2. And indeed, with his passing-on, I think Singaporeans would have felt that something is now missing from our national life. However, while I used to admire this man for what he has achieved for Singapore, in latter years, I have learned to admire him beyond that. What he had achieved is great but I believe that his relationship with his wife, Ms Kwa Geok Choo is what really makes him a great man worthy to emulate. His d...

Recently a friend told me that the church has been indoctrinated with a theology of niceness. This means that a lot of people expect the people in church to be 'nice' to them and anyone who shows 'coldness' or 'hardened heart' is considered 'not nice'. In fact, there was this girl whom I was counselling some time back who was uncomfortable how one of her friends sets boundaries with her family, which caused her some distress. But is being nice part of Christianity? Standard answer seems to suggest 'yes.' Very often, people quote from the Scripture on how Jesus was surrounded by the sinners and prostitutes to explain why Christians should be nice. Since we are Christ followers, so we ought to follow Him. (Disclaimer: no one tends to explain that along that line but the connotation is implicit). But how about this: 13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple courts he found people selling cat...

I think I am probably one person who gets whacked very hard by the people around me (knowingly or unknowingly) of being too hard up and rational about my faith. It is not unusual for people to be turned off by me when I talk to them about doctrines and theology. In fact, I have been accused that my theological training has made me an unempathetic and cold person (which I must say that they are wrong since I am probably one before I start my theological training.). But my focus is not to whack back on the people who whacked me, since it is not going to be a fruitful session. My focus here is in doctrine, in relations to my series of posts on spiritual growth.  I shall start off from a finding I found from Christianity Today : This statistic may not happen in Singapore, considering that Christianity here tends to be more conservative than those we find in USA, but I think in terms of the differences between what we believe and what we practise, it is almost on par. What do...

In my previous post, I talk about how we can attain the spiritual markers for spiritual growth. On further thoughts, I would like to elaborate more on the personal tools for spiritual growth. Recently, I had a conversation with a friend who told me that he does not believe that our spiritual life is just between us and God, but the community comes into play. Fair enough, considering how God intends for the church to be His vessel on Earth to serve His people. But he went one step beyond this and claim to the effect that both are equal in status (which by the way is not a very good representation of his original view). The argument stems that Jesus is the head and the church is the body and they are never meant to be separated from one another.  It is easy to see how such a view can be derived. But there are major problems actually when one adopts such a position. Firstly, let's target at the verses that give us the idea of the head and body. There are, as far as I understan...

In the last post, we talked about the four markers for spiritual maturity and growth. The next logical question we then have to ask is how then do we 'attain' these markers? Here we will discuss on some of the pointers that are pertinent to help us attain these markers. 1. Understand that God supplies the resources for spiritual growth The first thing that we need to understand is that God supplies for our spiritual growth. He brought us into this and He took upon Himself to make sure that we grow to conform to the image of His Son. As Peter would say in his second epistle: His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. - 2 Peter 1:3  Without belaboring on other similar verses that suggest the same thing, if we can bear in mind that this is indeed the case, then it means that we can grow spiritually if we open up our eyes to discern the resources He has given us - though most of...