The reflecting theologian

Hi, I have officially moved to another domain: http://reflectingtheologian.com . I will continue to keep this blog as my archive but my latest posts will from now on be posted there . Thanks for your support and readership.

Recently, I read an article from 1843 magazine entitled " The Man Trap ." The premise of the article examines how it is more difficult for men to move into female-dominated domain, in particular if they want to enter into a single income arrangement with their wives and with them being the house person taking care of the household. Articles such this have always served to corroborate with my conviction that men have their own roles in life, so do women. We experience a lot of issues precisely because we fail to accept the God-given roles for men and women within the family setting. Hence, we have women who are career-minded and yet got stuck in a situation where they cannot take their minds off their family. And men who want to perform the women's role in the family generally find it difficult to deal with the stigma and the perception, though I will argue that this is not an issue of self-security. My position is thus a fairly moderated complementarian view of gender r...

The fourth gospel in our New Testament is indeed an interesting piece of document for Christ followers to study. The past one week plus has been a journey reflecting on the gospel and asking ourselves some questions regarding familiar aspects of the gospel that we have never thought of before. There are at least three reflection points that I would like to share here. 1. Jesus as Logos: What is God's revelation really? In the fourth gospel, the Word (greek: Logos) is being introduced as being with God and having the divine quality of God (1:1). In fact, when I first learned of Jesus' identification as Logos years ago, a question came to my mind - why then are "rhema" words so special? My own study into logos and rhema was documented in here . The outcome of my study inspired a rage back then, knowing that many people have artificially created a divide in the word of God. But my recent foray into the study of Logos yielded more insights. I came back to this ...

Recently I was taking another course on the book of James. Similar to Romans, this is also a book that I have co-taught in church and studied in Eagles Rendezvous. Revisiting this book again yielded three reflection points. 1. The disciple's identification  The epistle by James is an interesting book within the New Testament to study. In my own NT study, I have also been fascinated by how economical the NT authors when it comes to their words - that they do not waste words in their letters. This manifests itself right from the beginning when the NT authors introduce themselves. Many of us will sometimes skip over the introduction, but we can learn a lot about the epistle itself as well as its application to our Christian life through the introduction. In James, for example, James introduced himself as a slave of God and the Lord Jesus Christ (James 1:1). The original Greek reveals much more, placing the the possession genitive (of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ) before the ...

(Originally sent out as an article under Eagles' Simply Proclaim) As preachers and teachers of Scripture, it is a core description of the job to exegete and to interpret the Word of God as accurately as possible. This is the most exciting part of the preaching and teaching process. Why so? This is because it is in the interpretation that I learn new insights about God. It’s from these new insights that I ponder and meditate on their implications and applications to my present context. However, as we all know, the task is not an easy one. Very often, our task of figuring out the original intention and message of the biblical writers goes too far—we overdo it and instead of reading  from  Scripture, we read too much  into  it. This means we read new meanings into Scripture that its writers never intended, because we fail to notice the cultural lenses we are using. We assume that the Bible values the same things we value, and condemns the same things we condemn. The ...

(Originally sent out as an article under Eagles' Simply Proclaim) I’ve spent most of my life dreading public speaking. Stage fright is natural, but watching great speakers, I had a hard time believing that they too started out like me—uncertain and afraid of making a bad impression. “Dude, you’re sure to bomb,” I kept hearing in my head. But in molding me to become a speaker, God showed me that the oft-cited fear of public speaking can be a good thing—you just have to channel it in the right way. It never really goes away, so you might as well use it to your advantage! Forget the old bromide of picturing the audience in their underwear. Here are three fears that once paralyzed me—and once I thought of them in the right way, freed me to speak with greater vitality and authority than ever. 1. Fear of Misrepresenting the Word of God The more I learn about the Scriptures, the more I realize how little I have grasped its incredible depths. Charles Spurgeon grasped this when he wrote, “...

(Originally sent out as an article under Eagles' Simply Proclaim) There’s a saying that practice doesn’t make perfect—it makes permanent. What practice does is ingrain habits in us, but we need to be sure those aren’t the wrong habits. And that’s where feedback comes in. The question: “How can I improve my preaching?” is always at the back of my mind. The logical answer would be: “By preaching more.” But before I got comfortable addressing a church congregation, I wanted to practice and receive constructive feedback without being bashed with criticism. What I needed was to find a place friendly and loving enough to encourage me to continue to improve my preaching, without tearing me apart. My answer, as I journey through this phase of learning to preach, is to immerse myself in a community of like-minded budding preachers whom I meet regularly and hold myself accountable to. Here are three ways you’ll benefit from learning in a group: 1. They experience the same struggle as you. W...

(Originally sent out as an article under Eagles' Simply Proclaim) Fact: Preachers don’t always get to choose their sermon topics. I once quaked whenever I was assigned a passage I wasn’t familiar with, or a topic I didn’t know much about. If there ever was Goliath to slay in my life, this was it! I was terrified. What if I dishonored the Word of God by making a mistake, or lost my audience through poor discussion of the topic? Here’s how I’ve learnt to navigate the difficult process of preparing a sermon, particularly on an unfamiliar text. I’ve come to divide my efforts into the three things a Bible message needs, at minimum. When I focused on delivering just those three things, I knew that I would be able to preach clearly and touch my audience no matter what. That would get me through any difficult message, and set up a framework I could build on in the future, to do even better next time. This process looks simple, but it’s saved me much time and heartache. Here goes: Stu...

(Originally sent out as an article under Eagles' Simply Proclaim) If there’s one truly fundamental thing that holds a biblical message together, it would be sound exegesis. At the very least, we must do our best to ensure that we’re drawing the right messages from the Scriptures—which is harder than it seems! As I grow and gain more experience in biblical interpretation, I have found that there are verses in the Scriptures that I have not been interpreting correctly. I've tried my utmost to improve that, and here are the three key skills I've needed to build up: Mental Time Travel We're not talking  Back to the Future,  but historical empathy. The Bible contains God's  eternal  Word, but it was written for a  particular  audience in a particular time. Imagine scholars thousands of years in the future studying a modern political cartoon or newspaper column—they will have to know the mindset and culture of our time before they can accurately decide what...

Some of my readers may remember that I posted in September 2014 on my big move out of MOH. That , on reflection, was one of the biggest decisions I made in my life back then, to give up my good paying job in MOH and to move to Eagles Communications to work on marketplace ministry. Things went in other directions back then and since I have since not been posting about updates of my life, I think this is a good moment to do it. 1. God has other plans for me, it seems It was entering into Eagles and leaving MOH that I was beginning to gain a better clarity of the ministry that God has in store for me. At that time, I was still leading a young adult lifegroup and was struggling to transit into my new roles. There were certainly some struggles, one of which is the objection from my then future father-in-law. The other was the new schedule that I had to adjust to after moving over to Eagles. Having been attending the Saturday adult service of my church, I found myself unable to attend se...

You know the drill for wedding ceremonies—a march-in, a ceremony and a big catered reception. At my own wedding a month ago, I didn’t want it to be just another ceremony, or just one of the dozens of weddings that my guests attend that year. I wanted them to leave with something more than just full bellies. Then I realized that Holy Matrimony is a time when our guests share our joy, and when they will be especially receptive to the gospel message—is it not the core of our new life together? Are we not counselled to preach in and out of season? In this post, I’ll share five opportunities during the ceremony where the gospel can be proclaimed—in a powerful yet socially acceptable way.   The Intro Video Many couples choose to begin with a photo montage that chronicles their life journey. Instead, I did an interview video where my wife and I shared how God was central to our love story. We chose not to focus on ourselves, but on what God did and what He taught us about livin...

Recently, I was taking a course on Romans. Together with the book study on Romans that I have to attend for Eagles Rendezvous and a similar book study that I co-teached in church, this is the third time that I am learning about the truths in the book of Romans. There are at least four learning points that I have gleaned over the past few months: 1. The Love of God in Our Lives Perhaps one of the most poignant messages that Romans can offer us is the grace that God so willingly bestowed to us even though we are not deserving of it. Romans 5:6-8 sums it up well, that God demonstrated His love to us through Christ while we were still sinners. This, to me, is the ultimate evidence of God's love in our lives. Many times, we question the love of God when we are going through downtimes. I experienced this just during the course, as I began to think of my own future career in my current workplace and my own future family planning. I had a few setbacks (which I will share in future post...