Emeth's Garden

Living MY religion

2011-03-23T00:23:00.000-07:00

My friend recently posted this on this Facebook status.

" Live well, stay healthy, faithful to your partner, family and friends. Eat well. Laugh often and do good. That is my religion"

This is not a cult that he formed. Far from it, it is the officially cited and sometimes non-cited 'religion' of many, many people in the world today; particularly in the West or from those who are influenced by the mores of Western behaviour and thought. The faith of their fathers is archaic, irrelevant and downright nasty in some cases. We, as modern people, are now enlightened and see that there is no God.

Essentially, it means that you are the Captain of your own ship, you own the ship too and you are totally responsible for steering the ship to get to your destination. And there is no one else who is involved or present that you should be accountable for. It is a religion based on the worship of one god: Yourself

How would the Christian respond?

I wouldn't bother with a lengthy response. Scripture doesn't even bother with pages upon pages trying to prove the existence of God. It simply says:

"The fool says in his heart, "There is no God" (Psalm 14:1)

Notice that the key term is "in his heart". Not with his mouth, although that may be assumed. Not with his actions, or a Facebook post, although that may be assumed as well. But deep down, in the hidden bowels of his heart, he has already decided that there is "no God". So, all the counter arguments to a certain extent will make about as much dent as a sprinkle of water on the Sahara. His heart is barren of the living waters of the Holy Spirit, which means that he is as lifeless and as bereft of life as the aforementioned desert itself

In other words, at times, there is no arguing with a dead man. Dead is dead. And should God choose to revive and regenerate the heart at a later stage, may you be the one to bring the Gospel to such a person so that they may be rejoicing in Heaven. But right now, he is dead to the Word and in fact, ready to counter your efforts because he has already decided, and he is a fool for doing so.

Where do we see another usage of the term "Fool"? It's in Luke 12:19-20 where Jesus relates the parable of the rich fool.

"And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry. But God said to him, 'Fool!'. This night your soul is required of you and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?"

The sad thing is that he is not a fool for just denying the Lordship of God. The tragic uninmaginable horror is that the fool will get for eternity what he has seeked for in his time on earth:eternal separation from God. But by then, it will be too late to repent. The door has closed forever

That is the real essence of foolishness.

How does 1 Corinthians 13 apply here?

2010-07-27T10:26:00.000-07:00

Here's something to ponder:

If you are serving at church already..

1) How many ministries are you serving in?
2) Are you currently being asked to serve in more?
3) Have you noticed, once you said "yes", that suddenly there are more meetings you have to attend, more issues to solve, more deadlines, more expectations and more responsibilities?
4) Now, when you first started serving, did you have passion in your heart and a smile on your face?
5) Is it stil there now?
6) Do people appreciate you serving? Is there support, love and compassion for your needs as you take care of other people's needs?

Tell me where the punchline is

2010-07-08T23:37:00.000-07:00

Have you ever noticed how so much of church life seems to be dominated by the need for everyone involved to laugh? Or to have fun? Rarely does a sermon start these days in the modern church without a few jokes from the pastor to 'warm' the congregation up. Or how the selection of a speaker for a cell group, conference or camp is determined by whether he can make the audience laugh and feel good.

I sense in this a dangerous precedent. One in which the carnal desire of gratification is satisfied through the intense need to joke and laugh about things. In other words, too much seriousness is not a good thing. Let's keep it light.

It has been described that this is now the way of the world. This is a generation that has never known any wars, hunger, poverty or great upheavals. It's a generation that has been remarkably prosperous like no other time before in history and one which has ample resources and time to spend on leisure activities, consumer goods and programs to satisfy one's own's desires. Sadly, this is reminiscent of the period in history known as the fall of the Roman empire, which occurred at a time when the empire was relatively peaceful and wealthy, which then led to the society becoming weaker over time as they forgot how they got there and concentrated more on satisfying their wants through gluttony, displays of barbarism and cruelty in the circuses and debauched acts.

All this is another word for superficiality and a slide down the slope away from the gospel. This is not to say that there is no joy in the Gospel. Far from it, the Gospel is a picture of the greatest joy possible - that of God redeeming you from eternal condemnation. If that doesn't fill your heart with joy, I don't know what will.

However, the joy that is seen these days in the current church is a far cry from that. It is a fleshly distraction from the Gospel and to satisfy the need for ears to be tickled. What happens then when you hear a sermon on sin? Or the fact that those who continue sinning and never repent are going to Hell? Is this a laughing matter?

The more we veer towards inappropriate hilarity at the wrong time and place, we steer away from talking about those issues. And the Devil will have made a gain there. There is a time and a place for humour, and it can even emanate from the pulpit; but the underlying principle is that it cannot detract one ounce of attention away from Jesus Christ and the Gospel

So the moment I become Pastor standup comedian, I forego my responsibilities as a steward of the Bride of Christ. As soon as I bow to sulky and bored faces during Bible study and inject a round of conversational topics that gets everyone laughing gayily, I have won the hearts of men (and women) to myself but not Jesus Christ and the Gospel

We decry the lack of awe and reverence during Holy Communion. There is ranting about the lack of respect and passion in the youth in their commitment to Christlike discipleship. Then we look at how we approach worship, the message, Bible study and prayer - is it any wonder why what we get is something of our own doing and not to be blamed on anyone else?

If you are not getting any yucks from the sermon - too bad. When Bible study seems boring to you, suck it up and do some study before the study. Life isn't a never ending laugh track and the church isn't here to make you happy or entertain you. Learn to live life with more discernment, soberness and judgement. And above all, bear in mind the God who gave his Son up as a perfect sacrifice to die painfully and horribly on a Cross for your sins.

See if you can laugh about that.

Communion - some thoughts (2)

2010-07-03T05:04:00.001-07:00

Just how is communion seen in Malaysia? It's a tough one to answer. I have heard how some people see the sacraments as magic infused talismans. One person told me that a parishioner wanted to take the bread back to his ill wife so she could take it and be healed. I want to laugh but at the same time, realise that behind that mistaken notion is a genuine need for people to see a manifestation of God; in whatever form, even if it is in the form of a wafer

This need is real. Even the most hardened intellectual somewhere is crying out for a display of divine presence, even if the aim is just to disprove it; a laughable notion if there ever was one. But it is real and it is because we were made in the image of something larger than ourselves.

Thus, communion can be seen as a time when the gap between us and God is closer. I have to be careful how I say this. It is the death and resurrection of Jesus that brings us into God's family and confers on us an adopted status. An act performed by laity or priesthood with some food objects and utterances is not an incantational act that miraculously brings into a 'special place', so to speak. The blood of Christ that washes your sins away gives you that status

But in a sense, it does bring us closer because each time we take the sacraments, we are reminded not only of the time in the upper room where Christ shared himself with his disciples, but a hint of foreshadowing a far greater time. A time when he would die and be resurrected forevermore. And a time when he would come again once and for all to rule over the earth in his rightful place as King Jesus

Therefore, communion is not just a celebration of an event in the past, or in the present. It is both. But it is also the expected hope of things to come and both a sad and joyous occasion wrapped into one. It is best likened to the hope of an expectant mother, anxious and waiting nervously for the child to come, thinking about the pain of labour but ultimately, every tear will be worht it and wiped away when the baby come.

So it was in Bethlehem 2000 years ago. So it will be some time in the future, but it will not be a baby that comes but a sovereign, omnipotent, just and loving King.

Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus - and take your rightful place on your throne.

SDG

Communion: Some thoughts (1)

2010-06-13T08:32:00.000-07:00

Malaysia is one of those places where Communion is becoming increasingly inclusive. Years ago, you had to be a card carrying certified baptised member of your denomination to take communion. And like some credit cards, these were not transferable. If I was baptised at a Methodist church for example, I was allowed to take the bread and wine (or grape juice) at any other Protestant church but not a Roman Catholic, or Eastern Orthodox church

In some cases, this stringency has been relaxed. If you profess to put your faith in Christ as your Lord and Saviour, then you are more than welcome to participate. Communion is both vertical and horizontal. By the act of taking communion, the former entails partaking in the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus. It is an act of communion between you and God.

On the horizontal level, when we take communion as a church, we are effectively saying that although you and I are different in appearance, race, background, gender, etc...we are bonded together in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit, and thus, we celebrate this communal communion. This on the horizontal level

Now, here begs the question:

Is everyone who takes communion your brother or sister?

The answer is dangerously simple, and scary all at once. Not all who profess a faith in Christ are saved. Even if they have done the catechism, membership or prepatory classes. Not even if they've been dunked in the Jordan river itself, three times over for good measure. Now this means (at the risk of sounding like a line from a dramatic war movie) ,that the next time you all line up at the rail to take the sacraments, you should take a good look at the person to your right or left; they may not be spending eternity with God. Heck, take a good look at yourself first! You may not be spending eternity with God in the first place.

This is an important issue because I believe that we have all taken salvation for granted, including myself. And an easy trip up the aisle to take the wafer and wine only serves to reinforce a possible delusion that we are saved, while all this while, our names are not in the book of Life.

Check yourself. Look at your brother and sister. Ask them to check themselves. Seek repentence for yourself, and them. Bring them and yourself to the foot of the Cross first, to Christ all else before doing so. The bread and wine are not magical items that confer you entry into the Kingdom of God. Christ's life, death and resurrection has already done that. He has paid the penalty for you. You need not do anything else but believe onto him.

Then, the walk up the aisle will thus have true meaning. Where you now understand and believe that Christ alone died for your sins while you were dead in your transgressions, to satisfy the wrath of the father, and through his grace and mercy, you now have new life.

SDG

The Remnant: Holding the primacy of Scripture

2010-06-05T04:58:00.000-07:00

This morning, I started a course called "Bible Overview". It's a 10-week course that is part the Moore College external studies Certificate in Theology. Over the course of the next few weeks, I will blog more about it, but for now, I want to say that my initial impression of it is one of great joy and hope.

Why? Not because God has granted me the opportunity to do it, but because there is something I saw today that has raised my spirit regarding the modern church and the lamentable state it has fallen in.

I say young people - university youth, some from high school, eager to learn, study and appreciate God's Word. For a while, others have told me that Bible study is boring, the youth will never take to it,that they need experential, fun filled activities, relevance etc etc. Well, so much for that load of compost.

These were young people who were realising that it wasn't about them or their felt needs. It was about God. And it was about reverence for his revelation that is found in Holy Scripture. It also warms my heart (there ya go, a Calvinist using an Arminian phrase! :-) )to see that these Caleb and Joshua's are still around. They are the remnant

In every dark period where the church has been assailed, ripped apart and generally discredited; a remnant always remains. They are true to God, his sovereignity and sense of his true character. They remain faithful to his Word, relying on his grace and knowing that they are justified by faith alone in Christ alone.

This is a beautiful thing.

My prayer is that through the beauty of Sola Scriptura (solely by scripture), more young people will see the Bible as the primary means of understanding who God is, his past, present and to be revealed will, and his plan of redemption in Jesus Christ's atoning sacrifice on the cross.

SDG

What's Christian camp for?

2010-05-30T21:52:00.000-07:00

Imagine that you have signed up for a tennis camp that says it will turn you into the next Roger Federer, Nadal or Sharapova (or at least try to). So you eagerly go there with your racquet in tow and your best tennis sneakers ready to learn how to hit scorching forehands down the lines and the intricacies of a serve-and-volley game

Now, assume that when you get there this is the schedule you get:

1) 3 hours on the badminton court..
2) A trip to the closest town to buy souveniers...
3) Loads of fun in a swimming pool, and a seminar on aqua aerobics..
4) An intense 3 hour session on how a tennis ball is made, plus a trip to a tennis ball making factory

And so on...

You would feel pretty ripped off, woudn't you? Presumably, the time spent might be fun, enjoyable and relaxing..but it's not what you're supposed to be doing.

None of those things make you a better tennis player.

The prime reason you wanted to go for this camp was to have hours of gruelling sessions hitting thousands of balls. You needed seminars on court tactics with your double's partner. And everyone wanted to attend those talks on better body mechanics on a service motion. Essentially, you wanted to become a better tennis player, and you payed money and sacrificed time for the opportunity to learn to be one

By now my point is pretty clear. Christian camps that don't do what they are supposed to do, that is - preach the gospel, make disciples of men and women and teach them how to be more like Christ should not be in the game of holding Christian camps. You can call it a motivational, spiritual, get to know your inner hurt child camp but once you remove the 'Christ' from the 'Christian' part..it's as good as if you never put that in the first place

All those points in 1 to 4 are in themselves relatively benign, or even good. But they are not what part of those things that should constitute a tennis camp because they add nothing of value. It's like what one of my tennis coaches used to say to me when I asked him how to get better. He said:

" Hit balls. Lots and lots of balls."

So, this is one of the way to become a better follower of Christ. Read the Word. Lots and lots of the Word. Pray to God. Pray lots and lots to God. And this is what you should be getting in a Christian camp. Lots and lots of what you should be getting

SDG

Leading Worship: It's all about the gospel

2010-05-16T07:35:00.001-07:00

I had a great worship session this morning.

After practice the previous night, I was kind of wondering how it would go; but it went much, much better than what I was expecting. Of course, there a few snafu's here and there but for they were not of earth shattering consequence, in my opinion.

Most of all, I hope the gospel was proclaimed in worship today. It's nice if I hear that someone told me they enjoyed worship, but it would absolutely thrill me if they told me that the gospel message reached them. And that Christ Jesus was proclaimed in song today.

That would be nice. Really, really nice

Getting it the first time

2010-05-03T10:13:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when I take a friend to hear a good sermon from a speaker I highly regard, it stumps me when that person doesn't react as passionately as I would have expected. At times, I want to say: "Are you made of stone?!? Doesn't what he said move you in any way?". In my less charitable moments, I am likely to dismiss that person as one who is not in the rarified circle of those elite who "get it"

Now this might work two ways and I too have been on the receiving end as well. Quite a few times, I've sat stone faced through a sermon when all around me, people are guffawing and rolling in the aisles with laughter. And on certain occasions, I can almost sense the same condenscention directed my way as I have done to others.

Maybe one's man's meat is another man's poison. After all, it all comes down to personal preference and mood right? The latter is important, to be true. How often have we gone to a church service and while the worship was good, the sermon was God glorifying and the whole service honoured the Lord; you were in a different world thinking about something else? It happens

But it's not an excuse when the Gospel is preached. When the emphasis is not on the techniques of motivating presentation and all expositing the Word, I must say that at that time, irregardless of mood or frame of mind or whatever; the Gospel must pierce. How deep is a matter for debate. Either you have harderned your heart or God has harderned it for his purpose, the lukewarm response is no response at all. It doesn't have to move you to drop to your knees in repentance (although should you be so moved to, it is not a bad thing), nor should you have to shout "Yes! Preach it, brother!!" at the top of your voice. But it should speak to you. And it can't be ignored

If your father speaks to you, no matter how you feel at that time; you have to respond. And if the Father speaks to you through his word, there is no way you can hear the words: "Jesus died for your sins" and not be affected..unless you are not of the elect

Of course, it is not for me to say who is and who is not. I could very well type these words now and years from now, be the equivalent of the son of perdition. I pray to God I hope not. But I might also be a layabout in the faith, and suddenly die as one who God knows and loves. It is possible for in God, all things are possible

However, this does not excuse a non-response. Once the gospel is heard, you must react. Even if you get angry at it, the reaction shows that it has done it's work as a spear to your conscience. But not to move as a result, it is a dangerous thing indeed, my friend

Put the Gospel First

2010-04-21T00:43:00.000-07:00

This is from D.A Carson's Book "Basics for Believers":

"I would like to buy about three quid's worth of gospel, please. Not too much - just enough to make me happy, but not so , much that that I get addicted. I don't want so much gospel that I really learn to hate covetousness and lust; I certaintly don't want so much that I start to love my enemies, cherish self-denial, and contemplate missionary service in some alien culture. I want ecstasy, not repentance; I want transcendence, not transformation. I would like to be cherished by some nice, forgiving broad-minded people, but I myself don't want to love those from different races - especially if they smell. I would like enough gospel to make my family secure and my children well behaved, but not so much that I find my ambitions redirected, or my giving too greatly enlarged.

I would like about three quids worth of gospel please"

- "Basics for Believers" , page 9; D.A Carson -

2 Kings 5:1-14 : Meditations

2010-04-09T03:52:00.000-07:00

The first thing that grabs you is Verse 1: "..the LORD had given victory to Syria". This is not to be skimmed over and it gives those who say that God always favours them as his children, no matter, what had better take a second, or even a third look at this verse.

It may be that the Syrians avoided the Israelites in battle, and thus preserving the notion that God always sided with his chosen people. However, this is unlikely. The reaction of the king (note the small "k") of Israel probably indicates that neighbourly relations were not always of the cordial kind. And in an era where skirmishes and wars were common place, Israel and Syria came to blows and the LORD favoured the latter!

This goes to show that the Lord is indeed sovereign, and that everything is under his command, both good and evil. Not that he is evil, but evil is not outside his jurusdiction. A quick read of Job 1-2 will show that Satan cannot do anything unless it is willed by God ultimately. Now, this also means that God is not in our pocket, so to say. That even the best of intentions may not garner his favour because we look on 'favour' in uniquely earthly terms (i.e: If I do good, God is sure to bless my requests and give me stuff etc etc)

Was the king of Israel always good? Was Israel always devoted to it's God? Of course, not. So one could say that the Syrians, like the Babylonians, were at one time or another used as instruments of his wrath for his purpose. Not that they were any better, they too were cruel, bloodthirsty and idolatous, with the Syrians and Babylonians worshipping Rimmon (v.18) and Marduk respectively

No, the issue here is that God chooses to save who he'll save and let those perish who he chooses to let perish. This is harsh to our ears but what can we say of the fact that he chooses to save Naaman, a gentile and worse, an enemy of Israel who was probably directly involved in the loss of Jewish lives in his role as commander of the Syrian army? That he uses a Jewish prisoner who is now essentially a slave in a Syrian household to carry out her plans. What of her eventual fate or redemption? We hear no more of her after this.

But in the end, Naaman is cured and becomes a follower of Yahweh. He seems for all intents and purposes, a changed man on the inside and out. His leprosy was external but the more serious condition of the leprous heart was dealt with in this chapter. And in God extending his mercy to Naaman through Elisha, it is in essence a snapshot of Paul's mission to the Gentiles (Romans 11:13)

Ultimately, the lesson we learn from this is that we should not be presumptious in being able to read the mind of God. It is God's perogative to give grace to who he wants, and likewise, it is his choice to issue condemnation. It should serve to make us a little less cocksure about our self delusional lofty status in this world and to realise that we are his created beings, made to worship and serve him with meekness,humility and love

SDG

Theology of the Cross

2010-04-03T23:50:00.000-07:00

" But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us "
- Romans 5:8 -

It is appropriate during Easter that one should reflect on the Cross and what it means to us. Strangely, the Cross is rarely preached, let alone the blood of Christ. This is all part of a current trend that recently has seen attacks on the Doctrine of Penal Subsititution, the Deity of Christ, Double imputation, Propitiationary Sacrifice and the Redeeming act of Salvation. Churches avoid mention of any of these because it is seen as distasteful, off putting and primitive

However, if one stays true to God, and the Word; we must acknowledge these things. You cannot omit these elements; it's a package deal. Justification must mean the Cross. And you must have a theology of the Cross which explains the whole story for what it is, and not a day where one goes on Easter egg hunts and eats lots of Chocolate

No, it is a story which starts off in dark tones. Man, headed towards eternal condemnation and separation from a Holy and just God because he wallows in Sin, unable to do a single thing about it. A God, who loves men and women, totally justified in pouring his wrath out on a rebellious and hateful creation..performs the ultimate act of redemption

The sacrificial offering of his Son. Pure and Holy. A willfull sacrifice by the Son, not coerced, bribed or cajoled. One done out of the purest love. Doing the will of the Father.

As he lay on the Cross, bearing your sins and mine; he could have stepped down. "Enough!" , he could have said. A stiff necked people that refused to listen, follow or obey were now spitting on him and willing him a humiliating and painful death. Oh, he could have wiped them and the whole world out with a thought, or a word.

But he didn't

Till the awful deed was done, and finally, he uttered the last words, that will ever be said by God hanging on that cross: "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit"

It was done. Redemption. Saved. Rescued. No words can describe what was done on that Cross for me that day. Nothing I do from here till the day I die can ever make up or repay that. I can give every waking minute to the Lord, every penny, submit every thought and even give my body to be burned for him..no, not enough. Never enough

And that was Grace. A free gift to someone who doesn't deserve it. It was also Mercy. Ultimately, it was an act of Love from the author and creator of Love: God almighty

On this day, remember this: No cross,no salvation.

May you have a blessed Easter. And always have the Theology of the Cross. Always

SDG

Jesus is my Life Coach

2010-03-06T23:55:00.000-08:00

These days, it's all the rage to be into life coaching; either to have one or to be one. People want to improve their lives. More happiness, more money, more power - and a life coach is just the person to help you do that. He or she is an expert (or at least a perceived one) in a field and their job (for a fee) is to help you attain your goals

Now I am not against all forms of coaching. I benefit greatly from my tennis coaches, my judo teachers and other instructors. If you ask someone to teach you about managing your money, a good financial coach should be able to give you some pointers. It would be singularly foolish of me to say I don't need coaches and can teach myself everything, and it would be highly arrogant as well.

But I am particularly sceptical of life coaches. That is, those who say that they know how life works, so they can help you to achieve greater happiness and get the things that you want out of life . Not that they can't. I'm sure they can..in a manner of speaking.

No, I am wary because they help you attain exactly what you want, and usually what you want is not what Jesus wants. If my desires and motives are not exactly cracked up to what they should be in the first place (read Jeremiah 17:9), then anyone assisting me in reaching those goals are complicit in a bad, bad thing. Sorry, Life coaches, that is the truth.

If I coach someone into thinking that they are a good person, that all they need to be happy is to be self-actualising and realise their inner potential; I am deceiving them into what needs to be actually done. They, and you presumably, are still sinners on the road to condemnation. That's not Life, but Death coaching.

Life can only be found in Christ. It can only be taught through the Word. The leading can and should come only from the Holy Spirit. And all the lessons that you will be coached will be ones that are diametrically opposite to what the world thinks you need to learn. Instead of asserting yourself, you are asked to be meek. Far from living for one's sake, you die to your self for the sake of Christ. And lastly, you count what is seen to be worthy in this world as worthless for the true riches of what is to come in the life hereafter

Can a Life coach give you that, my friends? Can they offer you Hope..or life,really?

No, they can't. And if you are attuned to Christ, you will know this too and stay away from another worldly trinket that has the appearance of a precious stone, but under closer inspection; is merely just a fake bauble.

SDG

The dangers of Facebook

2009-11-24T22:42:00.000-08:00

Like many of you out there, I have a Facebook account. In fact, I can probably lay claim to, initially, being one of it's most enthusiastic users and supporters. I was hooked on it to a degree like no other and often wondered what the world would be without it.

Actually, it would be no better or worse.

Really, you say? What made me change my mind? After one gets over the usual euphoria or being 'in-touch' in a social network, the novelty wears off when one is constantly addicted to the 'thrill' of playing with new applications, adding new friends, placing updates about yourself etc.

In other words, it's all about satisfying your ego again.

What else would motivate you to update others about your life on a constant basis? Do I really need all my friends to know that I had a tough day? Why don't I take it to God instead in prayer, lamentations and exhortations. The reason for why one doesn't do it has always been the same: people only care about themselves and they want others to care about them. But God doesn't feature in there at all

It is a practice that is self-seeking and self-glorifying. The more I update, the more I revel in myself; good or bad. And pretty soon, everyone's raving on about ourselves. Add to that the countless hours that are spent playing around with useless applications and it becomes even more distressing when we consider that those times could have been better spent reading God's Word, spreading the Gospel or in earnest prayer.

No matter how you slice and dice it, unless you tell me that you are running a ministry or counselling someone over Facebook (which is quite possible and therefore a couple of redeeming features characteristic of the system), it remains a tool of destructive distraction that would seek to take you away from building the Kingdom of God

Reality Based spirituality?

2009-08-31T22:29:00.000-07:00

There are two shows I am hooked on, and yes, they happen to be reality shows. They are "The Biggest Loser" and "Chopped". One is all about obese people trying to lose weight and the other has to do with four chefs trying to be the last one standing,in other words, trying not to be 'chopped'

Without a doubt in both of these shows, an amount of intense competition, skullduggery and conflict is necessary. Those are elements compulsory for TV viewership. It is also depressing at times for while compeition is exciting to watch, it also in some ways reminds us of our very primal nature to get ahead at the expense of someone else. It always leaves a taste of wanting something more at the end, a higher and more noble precept, rather than what I witness- which is a survival of the fittest in the ultimate Darwinian sense

On certain occasions, I see some contestants knowingly and willingly put the interests of the group or their team first over themselves. Invariably, while they are loved and respected for that (so say their teammates as they tear up..and then vote them off anyway for being a threat!), they do not win. It seems that Americans love a sole winner and champion the individual succeeding at all costs, no matter the social impact

It broke my heart when I saw a contestant on 'chopped' last night give one of his two eggs to his competitor in the final cook-off last night. He didn't need to do it but he did, and in the end; it jeopardised his dish and he lost the contest. Was his compeititor grateful? No way. She acted as though it was on her own effort, disregarding the charity of the other person. What was even more demoralising was that when the loser was interviewed at the end, he admitted that he should not have given up the egg and instead had concentrated on keeping it all for himself

Thus went another disillusioned soul into the night, who now believes that the meek will not inherit the earth and he will get stomped on if they turn the other cheek. Better to be like the world because the way of Christ doesn't pay, does it?

I sadly admit that at times, the way of our Lord does not look very intelligent, street smart of common sensical at times. In fact, just following it can make our life look like it took a downturn. But then again, Jesus did not promise that all will be great, rosy and peachy

"In this World, you will have trouble" said Christ. And you will - for following him. Don't look to the so-called corporate fat cats who claim that Jesus blessed them this way and that. Maybe so, and if they were honest, they ought to be humble and ascribe it to his grace that they are so blessed and not swimming in a lake of fire. If they claim to they are able to 'work' the gospel so it turns out well for them in terms of material riches; be careful - who are you going to belive: man or our Lord? One is a liar, the other is not. You decide

In my time, I have been made a fool for following Christ. My career has suffered due to decisions taken not to compromise the gospel, and I have had to endure the sniggerings and criticisms of being one who walks the meek way. Or as some of my less charitable detractors have labelled it - the 'loser' way

But I hope and pray that I will not be like that losing chef at the end; that no matter if the decisions I take do not make me a success in the eyes of the world, my peers, parents or even the church. As long as Jesus sees me as his own. That is enough. For to be 'chopped' by him on judgement day, will be far, far worse than anything that could happen to you on a so-called 'reality' show

Can you lose your salvation?

2009-08-03T01:25:00.000-07:00

Recently, a learned brother in Christ , and also an avowed Wesleyan Arminian; challenged me once again on the doctrine on whether salvation can be lost. For 5-point Calvinists like myself, we believe that our sovereign God who has done a work of grace by calling us to him will not let us fall away irredeemably. He will preserve us to end. We call this point the “Preservation of Saints” , the “P” in TULIP.

As an Arminian, his contention is that this salvation is not certain. It can be lost due to the lack of judicious cultivation of one’s salvific faith. Or maybe just stumbling back into sin. the His proof text used was from Hebrews 6:4-6, which states:

“For it is impossible, in the case of those who have been enlightened, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt”

A-ha! ‘So one can fall away!’ said my antagonist confidently. On the surface, it sure looks like that. Those referred to seem to have all the hallmarks of a believer, seen all the things associated with that of a follower of Christ, and sadly had backslided away; beyond redemption

It is a tough passage no doubt, but then again, what does one make of another verse that seems to contradict that?

“ My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”
- John 10:27-29 (ESV) –

Or this:

“even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will”
- Ephesians 1:4-5 –

Notice the phrase “ no one is able to snatch them out”. That means nobody, not Satan, not your beer loving friends or a night in Vegas; no one can snatch you from the Father once he has called you

This does not mean that you do not sin. After justification, we are still works in progress. This is the process of santification, but we will not be sinless until we are in heaven where there is no sin.

The confusion, I believe, comes from a view of salvation as a one time event where you get your ticket punched as though you were about to board a train. This is the present view of salvation in the evangelical church. You put your hand up, and accept Christ. Thereafter, you strive to be good, but if you’re not, you might backslide so much that you lose your place on the train. God takes your ticket, so to speak

Look at Ephesians. We are chosen before we even ‘decided’ to go up for that altar call. That aligning of your heart’s compass needle to the true north of the Godhead is a work of the Holy Trinity indeed. It is the Holy Spirit, regenerating your mortally depraved soul, pointing to the Son as the atoning sacrifice for your sins and bringing you to your knees in repentance before the Cross. Redeemed from your sins by his blood, you have a righteousness not of your own, that of Christ, and through that, the Father calls you his own – from the very start

It’s the ultimate love story

To solve the issue of Hebrew, one should look at the literary effect being outlined here in that passage. The key phrase is the use of an absolute proposition : “It is impossible..” By doing so, he is stating the absurdity of a certain situation happening. And the example put forward is a question as to whether someone who is a believer can fall away

The manner in which it is answered is telling. The author’s premise is:

1) It is possible to “taste the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come..”
2) But once you experience all that, how is it possible that you can fall away?
3) For it should be impossible for you to do that, but if you do, then maybe you haven’t really “tasted the goodness of God”
4) Thus, those who claim all that and still fall away…were not truly saved in the first place

This is sobering thought. But it does make sense in the light of other cautionary passages such as Philippians 2:12 which tells you to “..work out your salvation with fear and trembling”. It means work on your sanctification, know that you are justified but if there is no display of sanctifying behavior, in other words, your deeds do not follow your words – then brother, sister: I think you have a serious problem here saying that you are justified

Thus, my problem with the Arminian view. If Jesus says that he will “give them eternal life and they will never perish”, how come some seem to do just that in Hebrews? This gives us the unsavory possibility of having to call our Lord a liar; which he definitely is not. But the author of Hebrews in not telling tales as well, which leads us to the position that there are those who look, smell and taste like a follower of Christ; but they are not of him. Again, we do well to heed the verse that says:

“ Not everyone who calls me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven”

Or in my vernacular, putting a tuxedo on a goat still makes it a goat.

SDG

The 'wrong-ed' way of Jesus

2009-07-30T22:40:00.000-07:00

Recently, it came to my attention that there was some conflict amongst some people I knew at church, and it spilled into what could be characteristically called - a blog war. Accusations, sniping and who knows what else was thrown on each side. To date, it still has not been resolved.

One of the good and bad things about the internet is that it has given voice to the dienfranchised. If I feel wronged, I blog, email, twit about it. Far more effective than making 100 phone calls or writing 100 letters (and a lot cheaper too). The problem here is the phrase "If I feel wronged"

Rather than talk about that. Let me point to the Word of God as usual (yes, yes, I know..we Calvinists always go on and on about the Word). Throughout the story of the Bible, it has been one of humanity feeling 'wronged'. Eve feel wronged for being duped by the serpent. Adam felt wronged by being sucked in by his wife. I bet both of them felt wronged when God gave them marching orders out of Eden. Cain felt done in by Abel, then did him in. Esau - done in by his deceitful brother Jacob. The list goes on...

History is one whole litany of man feeling he's been 'wronged'. Well, sorry, my Oprah sensitised touchy-feely people..there's only one who's been 'wronged' here - and it's God. Somehow or another, from day 1, we have been the abject failure of whatever it is we were supposed to be. We kill with words, then objects, or both. Hate, discord and greed is what we are best at sowing, not seeds of grace and love

And then we committed the ultimate wrong - we sent the Son of Man to the Cross.

Yes, you, chum. With your filthy, sick sins. You and I might as well have pounded the nails into his hands, or picked up the scourge to whip and tear his flesh. We are stand condemmned; and rightly so.

However, Jesus, the only man to have been wronged by every person in existence, bore the wrath that was due to us and took our sins. He who was justifiably wronged and should have exacted just retribution to us for our inquities gave his life for us instead. What grace..what mercy..what humanity. The truest sense of it. And beyond.

In finality, I am not saying that we shouldn't seek justice, resolution, reconciliation or dialogue. All of those things under the banner of Christ is all good. Damn good. What I am leaving you with is this - there is a bigger picture, and it goes beyond some bits of jottings on a blog. We should all seek to remember that, including me

SDG

2009-07-14T01:24:00.000-07:00

At times, I have asked why I nit-pick over certain points or words in the Bible. I suppose it is a sign of the times that this current generation seems to eschew the practice of careful thorough analysis, as opposed to a cursory reading with an emphasis on the subjective experiential result at the end. Their feeling is: “ Why do you want to argue so much, I mean, can’t we all just stick to John 3:16, hold hands and sing ‘Kumbaya’?”

Unfortunately, I would call them out of their own hypocrisy. They say that words don’t really matter. Really? Ask your girlfriend or boyfriend how they felt about you. And if they said they ‘liked’ you when they meant they ‘loved’ you or vice-versa, can you see how much confusion and grievance that could possibly cost? Words, and their correct definition and placement within a context are tremendously important, and no more so than in God’s Word

One word that, by the grace of God, has made a comeback is “Propitiation”. It is not a word that we use very much any more but one that is vitally important in understanding the whole message of the Gospel. To ‘propitiate’ is to make a sacrifice to avert some form of judgement, wrath or anger. It is a word used to describe the conciliatory and atoning sacrifices made in order to avoid a divine punishment.

In recent times, this word was seen as primitive and not representative of what a ‘loving’ God should look like. So, it is no wonder that as some translations of the Bible omitted the aforementioned word, and used the term ‘expiate’ instead. This was seen in the New English Bible, where it is mentioned:

“ For God designed him to be the means of expiating sin by his sacrificial death, effective through faith. God meant by this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had overlooked the sins of the past..” ( Romans 3:25 : NEB )

What is the difference? To ‘expiate’ means that sin is removed, or put out. The root word ‘ex-’ is the same as the one used in words like ‘extinguish’ and ‘exhale’. Is a wrong word to describe God’s saving grace? No. Christ’s death on the cross indeed cancelled the debt of sin over us. It was redemptive in the removal the sin curse.

Is the word sufficient? No. It hardly does justice in depicting the real nature of his death. In using the word ‘propitiation’, as seen in the ESV translation below, we finally see that Christ’s death did not just remove the sin debt, but also appeased the wrath of God who previously had judged us all as sinners worthy only of receiving death. It also depicts that the very act of sending his own son is a testament to his loving grace and mercy and also characteristic of God as a just being. It is crucial that we see this, otherwise our depiction of God will be a one dimensional, mono-perspective one and our whole understanding of the Gospel will have been built on shaky foundations

“ whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance, he has passed over former sins.” ( Romans 3:25 : ESV )

‘Expiation’ is insufficient because it does not refer to the satisfaction or appeasement of God’s wrath, turning it to favour. God’s righteous anger needs to be appeased before sin can be forgiven (note the sequence), and God in his love sent his Son (who offered himself willingly) to satisfy God’s holy anger against sin. In this way, God demonstrates his righteousness, which here refers to his inate nature of being holy, and just.

Thus, one word is of matter of grave importance. At the very heart is the nature of salvation itself, and if one lacks a proper understanding of it, one does not have the correct understanding of God. It is that important, and it is that serious

SDG

Chicken or beef, sir?

2009-07-05T09:10:00.000-07:00

Picture this:

You're at your wonderful, large comfortable middle class church with numerous programs. You've got programmes coming out of the wazoo. And all of them look good. Maybe a worship workshop? How about a power prayer seminar? Or maybe a retreat for some spiritual invigoration? Sounds good, right?

Decisions, decisions. Choice after choice

And yet..all so wrong

When you are faced with alternatives, and all those alternatives look good - how do you choose? I mean, it's not as though I've a choice between church or drugs, right? They are all 'spiritual' and 'godly' choices

Oh,oh..my normal readers (about 1 or 2 in the world..:-) )know that when I start using quotation marks, I'm about to get snarky, and they would be right

Listen very carefully:

If you choose what your heart is telling you to..chances are...it's the wrong choice.

Remember what it says in Jeremiah: "The Heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick. Who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9 ESV )

Your choice should be the one thing that you find boring, painful, a chore you wrestle with and the very thing you fear

For most people in church, it's serious Bible study. The one with no jokes, no trendy topics and dazzling music or video. Just you, a Bible and God. That's it.

I have seen the most spiritual looking and sounding people suddenly go weak at the mention of reading the Bible seriously. I have seen the same people in worship, raise their hands in glorious ecstasy to the King of Kings, promise that they will go to the ends of the earth for their Lord and fall to their knees in supplication..

..but they will not pick up his Word to know him better. His very precious divine word that has come through millenia, literal blood, sweat and tears and now is neatly bound in leather and sits in front of us in an airconditioned study room at church. We will not touch it.

Why? I've been asking over the weeks. Why is that?

Paul knew the answer, and it is a sobering one indeed:

" For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.."

( 2 Timothy 4:3 ESV )

Think about that for this week

SDG

Really Radical Youth - Part 2

2009-06-29T20:23:00.000-07:00

Imagine a youth who is well behaved, polite and properly attired. Someone who listens and obeys their parents. Works as a volunteer at church and social organisations on the weekends. What would you call him or her?

An oddball. A freak. A nerd.

Can we just take a breath and a pause to reflect on what has happened to our perception of moral values and cultural mores? The absurdity of taking what looks to be a more biblical model for behaviour and saying that it is out of the norm? We sometimes need to step back and take a look in the mirror to see how warped we've become, because we have accepted the lowest common denominator of social behaviour, applied the weakest of standards to our youth, and deemed it okay; even worth developing

It is the equivalent of giving everyone an 'A' because we don't want to damage their precious self esteem.

I see this in many instances. When a youth event is Bible study, hardly anyone turns up. When it is a 'fun' event involving worship, food and what-not; the place is filled to the brim. The watchwords of this age are fun, good feelings and being happy. To which I say: Beware - these will not get you the Kingdom of God.

Look, I don't have just classical music on my iPod. Nor do I dress like someone out of 'Revenge of the Nerds'. What's on the outside doesn't always reflect the inside but it is folly to suppose that there is no connection between the two whatsoever. You are what you eat. You dress and behave the way you feel and think. Perhaps, we need to think about that a little and check the way we portray ourselves to the world.

I gauge it very simply. Whenever I drop my 89-year old grandmother at church on Sunday, hardly anyone ever bothers to open my car door to help her out. They just walk by caught in their own little world. So, really , there is nothing radical about our faith when this happens, nothing radical about our church and nothing radical about our people

To paraphrase a song, 'We are the World', and that is a sad indictment indeed according to biblical standards

Really Radical Youth - Part 1

2009-06-27T21:45:00.000-07:00

This is a follow up to my previous post on Radical Youth Ministry. Some questions were posed to me once when I mentioned the example of Mark Dever's youth ministry at his church. Primary among them was : " Is it really possible that these kind of youth exist?"

You see, the problem with youth these days is that we are prepared to accept the lowest common denominator from them in terms of behaviour and attitude. Adults have already inwardly typecasted them as rude, rebellious self-centered individuals with a short attention span. But, so as not to alienate them or make them worse; they obligingly pander to these characteristics by giving them at church the music they want to hear, the topics they think they can relate to and the latitude to dress in the manner that they choose to.

What poppycock.

It is not that I think the youth today do not display all those aforementioned characteristics. They do. I did, when I was young. At times, I stil do. But the answer does not lie in mere capitulation to the mores and ways of the world and admit defeat in the cultural wars. This does not mean locking citadel doors and bringing up the drawbridge over the moat as well. You can't effectively shut out the world, even if you were Amish. But you can engage it from a Christian perspective and win; especially if your base is Biblical

What do I mean? Let's take an example.

Now I can tell you to turn off the TV when hot chicks on MTV in skimpy outfits start prancing around in a Jay Z vid. But that doesn't really work. Nor will browbeating you with Christian alternatives. I've known people who started lusting after singers on the Christian Contemporary Music scene just because that's all they were able to see and listen to. It doesn't make it any holier or rightheous; it's just transference

The key is to apply good, solid biblical teaching on this issue. I would talk about a simple issue; why are those dancers on MTV dressed in hardly anything at all? You mean they can't dress in a full dress and dance? In fact, why do they have to dance like that? And furthermore, what are those lyrics about? Why is it always about ho's and bling? Pardon the street vernacular.

In short, a process of enquiry through the whole issue will reveal certain points.

1) You're being manipulated hook, line and sinker by media companies and a greedy system

2) The singer and dancers don't care two-hoots about your wellbeing or love you. They really don't. They just want you to buy their CD's

3) My weaknesses are being exploited. How do you feel about that?

All this comes about because the Word of God makes one think differently about how the world is viewed. It's not an amazing revelation. It's a Biblical one because somewhere along the line, the Word of God has been used for teaching, exhorting and guidance in it's proper context.

A youth who subscribes to that view is not going to be the same. His or her world will slowly turn upside down, and they will start on the path to be really radical. But more about that in part 2.

Really Radical Youth Ministry - another perspective

2009-06-22T21:12:00.000-07:00

When a nationally renowned and respected youth worker in the U.S one day paid a visit to Mark Dever's Capitol Hill Baptist church youth program in Washington D.C. he was shocked. They were studying Wayne Grudem's "Systematic Theology" quietly and earnestly and discussing the subject of the atonement on the book of Romans

He admitted a little embarassedly that at his church, he had to rely on all the normal stereotypical elements to keep the youth interested in church; loud music, games, drama skits, exciting topical sermons etc. When he asked Pastor Dever about what special planning he instituted to get the youth to be like this, and what program he put in place - this was his response:

" I have 150 youth doing bible study on a Saturday afternoon and after that, we sing hymns written by people who have been dead for over a 100 years. And you ask me if I planned this? "

The ironic point here is that we have been conditioned to believe that the youth of today cannot take bible study, that the old techniques are passe. And we need a new approach, radical ideas and constantly changing techniques to keep them interested. Thus, a whole new industry based on keeping the youth in church has surfaced. And it is based on the premise that youth today have short attention spans, an incapacity to digest complex and tedious information and are inclined to the experential rather than the intellectual.

Mark Dever's approach takes the opposite approach, and it is a uniquely Calvinist one. God is sovereign. He does not need to pander to you, or study you. You need to study him. And worship him reverentially.

Thus, the program (if I may call it so), has the paramount aim of going back to the basic fundamentals of knowing God through his primary source; The Bible. All other stuff is then built on it. How different this is from the modern day church where it is the other way around. We design our activities first, then fit the Bible around it, or as an afterthought.

I admit that as a one time youth counsellor, I have been guilty of doing that. In an effort to keep the youth interested, I had committed the gross sin of putting God into the background, and then wondered why the program was ineffective. But there was this great fear that every counsellor felt, that if they did what Mark did, then the youth would find it boring, irrelevant and leave for another more fun church

In the end, I realised that if this was the case, then so be it. The Word says : "The heart is deceitful above all else, who can understand it". We have made the classic error of thinking that the heart is essentially not-too-bad, and that if we tweak it through some cool church programs; the youth will see that Jesus is the way to go.

Not so. The heart is deceitful. Mine, yours and that seemingly innocent kid in your youth group. All of us deserve God's wrath, and would surely get it if not for his amazing and salvific grace. That is the failure of modern programs. Man, or in this case, the youth is placed first, not God. I don't care these days if your youth assembly is growing by the multitudes or even if they are laughing and crying in the streets. If God is not primary, all is secondary and an illusion; no matter how real it seems

I don't know whether the youth worker went back to his church and instituted a program like that. More than likely, he would have been shouted down by the church board and deemed a heretic for curtailing their 'dynamic' youth ministry. I hope not but I am not too optimistic. Which is why I still pray for really radical youth ministry like Mark Dever's to have more followers, and more truly radical youth to follow

SDG

Take a break before it really breaks

2009-06-03T23:49:00.000-07:00

Imagine this. Maybe you've had a series of spritual highs in the past. Been to 50 church camps in a row, sang Hillsong till you dream the lyrics and read the Bible back to front - what, only 66 books?!? ). Along the way, you've told anyone and everyone about the gospel, your nickname is Hudson Taylor and your parents are already packing your bags to the seminary

But now you're frustrated. Your spiritual life seems to be stuck in neutral gear, your haven't opened your Bible in a while and prayer seems to be something said just to get it over and done with. What do you do?

Nothing. That's what

When I gave this advice to a friend of mine, I bet he thought I was the anti-Christ (Sinner! You want to stumble me!!! ) Surely I should have been exhorting him to pray more, sing harder, read more books, get more involved in church. Was I being a stumbling block?

No, I was trying to be a friend

Take it from someone who has been burntout and injured from sports in the past - the same thing can happen to your spiritual life. The only difference is whether you want to admit it or deny it. Many Christians refuse to confess that they are burnt out or have hit a plateau - they rather say that they are a little "tired" or just need to have more "faith".They see it as weakness if they have to admit otherwise

In sports, this overtraining and non-recognition that you have hit a plateau can have devastating and debilitating consequences. Lets say I am already tired, a little injured, weary and frustrated that I can't progress in my training. I urge myself on, pushing on, berating myself for being weak, shouting "ganbattei" all the way...until something snaps. Like an achilles tendon or a bone

And then suddenly, I am out for two years. Bitterness and woe sets in. Why? Not because I wasn't strong, it's because I wasn't smart. I was egoistical, thinking that I was invincible and super tough, only to find out that I was just a lump of clay. Broken clay now. It's all pride

It is much the same with our spritual growth. We sometimes hit a plateau. It's natural and is because we are flesh and blood. Push the rubber band that is your body, mind and spirit beyond the breaking point and be prepared to suffer the consequences

We live in a world that prizes fast paced spiritual growth, action and doing rather than being. Ironicaly, all this serves to place more faith in one's own ability rather than God. In other words, it's what the devil wants. All we want to do is "kar yow" (add oil) when you drive but do you know where you're going?

The most interesting thing about this is that when an injury occurs, it's usually not because it happened there and then. Usually, it was slowly occuring over a period of time, sort of like a small crack in a dam finally leading to it's collapse.

On the positive side, a time of rest where you go about living a Godly life (without being overtly Christian - I will write more about this one day) might be the tonic needed to heal you. It's much the same way that cross training prevents injuries by working other muscles that strenghthen the ones you use all the time. God is building you up behind the scenes, quietly.

You just don't see it but he is there. That is the essence of faith

Why I prefer the gym to church - Part 1

2009-05-24T20:37:00.000-07:00

Some of you know that one of my main passions is the martial arts, and that I spend a good (my parents would say disproportionate! ) amount of time training at my coach's gym. Lately, I've been teaching a lot of classes as well due to the fact that my coach's mum has been criticially ill. The irony is that far from being a drag on my schedule or a stressful situation, I've actually enjoyed it. Why is that? And why do I not get the same level of satisfaction from serving at church?

Now I know this is inherent blasphemy to some. And believe me, I've thought long and hard before writing this. Gym over church? Heresy! Hear me out first

I believe that one reason why most people don't want to serve at church in the first place, or give up serving is not because they are worldly (although some are) or not sacrificial. It is that their experience bucks one integral rule of continuing service - positive feedback. In other words, the sense that you are doing something useful and beneficial.

If I serve, and I see that I make a difference, and that my work is appreciated - I will endeavour to do more. But if I suffer ridicule, negative backchat and the slings and arrows from those whom I try to help - well, in the parlance of the times, only a doofus would stay.

So, this is the critical issue. If a church provided an environment where service - true service and not blind slavery - was appreciated, there would be a slew of people begging to want to part of this. But most times, the church is a full of mini napoleons, fiefdoms and self-interested groups which at times looks more like the secular world than my gym, which is avowedly secular.

The church was never supposed to look like that. It was intended to be a place where the light shone in the darkness. And those in the darkness would gravitate towards it. But instead, in many cases, it reflects the darkness so well that people get confused.

I now choose not to be a part of that mechanism, which is why I have gradually dropped my level of service in various ministries. Does this mean I love God less? On the contrary, this has given my faith a new and more vibrant dimension and I am more in touch with God than I ever have before. It's like throwing off a backpack full of rocks. A backpack is only useful if you have necessities like water, food etc. Rocks are useless, and thus, it is better discarded.

Discard what is useless. Appreciate the minimalism and sheer simplicity of a life in Christ alone. And then, you'll see the abundance.

Why the 286 generation needs to learn how to make their bed

2009-04-09T23:53:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot of talk about how the current young generation is going to go out there and win souls for the glory of God. Preachers exhort it from rallies. Personal prophecies are given (those of you who know me will know that I am rolling my eyes when I write this one..), and kids are fired up because they are more passionate about God and want their lives to be transformed and others, as well

Well, before they pack their Psalty Zonderkids and their best of Hillsong CD's (or illegally ripped MP3's) into their J.C Rox my Sox backpack, maybe they do well to heed the words of someone a lot wiser than them, or me, for that matter- the apostle Paul

"Do nothing from rivalry and conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves" - Philipians 2:3 -

You see, I am rather old fashioned. I think today's youth are insolent, rebellious, lacking in all manner of social graces, indolent, prone to backchat and lazy in the intellectual sense. They are also spoilt beyond belief, indulged to the point where the fat of arrogance drips of them. Like battery hens bred for a life of solitary confinement, they open they mouth for what they feel is their divine right to the good life, and their own inalienable rights

Of course, there are exceptions. However, finding one or two is about as easy as finding a fund manager who didn't hit in the financial crisis in 2008. If you find one, let me know. It's akin to stiking the lottery

Thus, it is even more repugnant when they are in church singing away to Jesus and patting themselves on the back for being 'spiritual'. The odiousness of layering a false sense of humility while backstabbing and displaying all the mores of total depravity are made even more sickening by the fake protestations of faith and sanctification. I should know - I used to work with these youth

Rather than being difference makers ( another catchphrase) and being 'in but not of this world', they are in this world, and they LOVE it. They love it with such a passion that they don't want to leave and would happily go on with their merry ways even if Jesus came again. Of course, that won't happen when the King comes, which is why the 'gnashing of teeth and the wailing' never rang so true

So, who is to blame? Their parents? A church seduced by the secular? Chris Tomlin? All of the above, except Chris - he's da man! But levity aside, all play a part, and thus all are guilty of gross mismanagement of these young souls. But they are not blameless either. Their fallen sin nature is partial to this and thus, rather than rebel in a good way to follow the light, the path of darkness looks more attractive

One common lament that the youth make is that they get no respect from the older people. But respect is earned. It is not a right. If I am applying for a job, I need to earn the respect of the interviewer, and I have to respect him or her. Any less than that will have dire consequences for employability at this company. When I see the youth totally absorbed in their own lives, and it's all about them and their needs, why should the older folk care about them? That kind of selfishness eventually comes back to them

The gospel has the power to change lives. Young or old. The famous mathematician and thinker, Blaise Pascal was notoriously selfish and cantenkerous - essentially not a nice person to be around. Intellectuallly brilliant but with a low emotional quotient. However, when he met God, he became a different person. Those who knew him said that the best indicator of change in him was this - he made his own bed. In the past, he left it to his servants but in his later life, a wave of humility swept over him and he humbled himself to make his own bed.

It is my wish that the young generation be different in this sense. When they meet the real risen Christ and their lives are changed, their difference is seen by everyone around them. Their parents, friends, teachers and pastors will notice that there is real transformation - not just glib superficiality

But I'm not holding my breath

Fun is a four letter word - Part 2

2009-03-21T11:17:00.000-07:00

When I wrote the earlier post on 'fun' I did not expect it to be a two parter. It was just an off the cuff article. But now after some reflection, I have some additions to make

The notion that making fun is the main aim of everything is more insidious than it appears. Wanting fun in every activity means that you want that shot of endorphin or dopamine in every activity. So, any activity that doesn't give you that is deemed not to be of interest to you. This meas that you short circuit rational though processes and depend only on one feedback qualifier: feelings of fun

Notice how dangerous this can be to your spiritual life. A bible study is 'boring' because you it involves work and processes of thought which at times can bypass those yearnings for emotional stimulation. What happens? You give up and thus, what could have been an important tool for spiritual growth is neglected because you let 'fun' be the dictator of what should be undertaken

I notice this all to much at church. We fear boredom and pain. Why? Sometimes, these two seemingly unwelcome fellows are exactly the teachers that we need

The best story I have heard regarding this comes from Gary Player, the world famous golfer who is up ther with such amazing legends as Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer.

Once, while Gary Player was at the driving range hitting balls, someone came up to him and said:

" I wish I could hit the ball like you"

Gary then thought about it and told the man:

" Sure, you can. Just get up at the crack of dawn. Hit a thousand balls until your fingers bleed. Wash the blood off. Then go hit a thousand more. Then, you'll hit the ball like me"

Gary said that the man then left looking sad. And this was his final comment:

" The man wanted to hit like me but he didn't want to do the hard word. Nor suffer the pain. It doesn't work that way - you have to go through all of that"

Likewise, recently when some of the youth asked me about how to deepen their spirituality, they didn't like the answers I gave. Hard bible study doesn't sound like fun. Disciplined prayer sounds even less. But that's what you need to grow into mature christians. And like that man, they will probably look for more 'fun' ways of becoming more mature or not bother. That is up to them

I have taken a stance like Gary. You want to know how to grow, I'll tell you with the limited knowledge I have. But I won't cajol or make you hit the balls. Nor will I call you at the crack of dawn to get to the driving range. You will have to dig deep and find the motivation to do so. Champions are driven from within, not from the outside.

So too with saints of God

Why Billy is not Joel, but he still can't start the fire

2009-03-12T22:20:00.000-07:00

I like Bill Hybels. I really do. He gets a lot of bad press for being seeker-friendly but frank admission here, I am Bill Hybels friendly, ever since I got his book "Too busy to pray" (Highly recommended). In Australia, on the sometimes questionable so-called Christian cable channel with such whack jobs as T.D Jakes, Joyce Meyer and assorted tele-con-vangelists with bouffant hair - he's a paragon of biblical solidity. Well, almost anyway..

He's no Joel Osteen. I rue the day I got that book for my dad and then spent countless wasted hours debating why it was rubbish. Why the Holy Spirit never led me to buy a J.I Packer, John Stott or John Piper book for him, I'll never know

Joel "See how my teeth shine" Osteen is a horrible waste of sermon space. His stuff isn't bad...if you like your God nothing like the God of the Bible. Yes, I know, he quotes lots of scripture but so does Hallmark cards in their pseudo-religious section. And nothing on Jesus coming to save. Apart from that, it's the gospel according to Oprah and Dr Phil..with a slightly Paulo Coelho kind of 'god'

But Bill, he tries to tell people about Jesus...but in a nice way. Yes, a gentle way. Through drama, great songs and stage sets: it's a wonder he hasn't won a Tony award now. His approach is to coax you gently into the Kingdom of God, with a few folksy jokes, a slap on the back and do pick up a decaf Latte on the way in please

Unfortunately, much as I prefer him over the perfectly coiffured one with the teeth, he still falls short of a standard which I believe must be upheld. It is this:

The Gospel must be preached unreservedly

Therefore, no soft selling, cajolling, playful nudges and unclear messages. No relegating Christ and his work on the cross to some footnote while the pastor cracks jokes downloaded from the internet and goes on about the singles 12 step recovery mininstry for weeks on end.

When you preach this, or another kind of similar message, Paul says:

"..the offence of the cross has been removed" (Galatians 5:11: ESV)

The cross offends because you are offensive to God. Therefore, it needs the unimaginable work of the son of God becoming man to die on the cross as an atonement to propitiate God's wrath and at the same time, exact his loving grace and mercy to you, a reprobrate sinner deserving of nothing but hell

If that above passage sounds foreign to you, then you have been listening to a different gospel. Or a false on

Put it this way, on the pulpit, you sometimes only have one chance to say something. What are you going to say? You can tell the congregation that they are decent people, maybe even pat them on the back and give them a pep talk like a football coach

But woe to you should one of them leave the church without understanding the gospel.

"Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel" (1 Corinthians 9:16: ESV)

If he or she dies that night without knowing God - part of that responsibility lies on your seeker friendly head. Think about it

Fun is a four letter word

2009-02-27T18:21:00.000-08:00

If I could ban one word from church, it would have to be "fun".

Before the cries of 'calvanist meanie!' go up. Let me explain, then after that, you can get the dunking chair out on me :-)

In the modern church, that word has become the yardstick generally of whether a program, camp, sermon or activity has been effective. And notice the main tenet of using this as a benchmark: It's need for an immediate response

Fun is an instantateous reaction to a stimuli. There is no such thing as waiting for a while and thinking about whether what just happened was fun - it either is or isn't. This is dangerous because this predisposes the church into judging everything on a straight emotional response and one that can be thoroughly misleading

The effectiveness of the Christian faith can usually only be seen through a long period of walking with the Lord in obedience and discipleship. At times, many of those moments are full of hardship and discomfort - definitely not fun. But it is necessary to build that kind of intimacy with God, if you are serious

Which I think is the crux of the issue here. It's usually a way of skirting the harder issues about where our own individual faith is taking us. Rather than think about that, we rather play with it superficially. Keep it light, keep it fun

The last time I checked, being fun was not really one of God's attributes. And even if you can find some way from your exegesis to argue so, I would contend that it certaintly isn't one of his major ones

Soli Deo Gloria

The face of evil

2009-01-29T00:17:00.000-08:00

A few days ago, over Chinese New Year, I got a phone call from someone in my family. Every family has it's skeletons in the cupboard. Mine is no different. It probably has a whole graveyard full of 'em. Most of them are bones of contention over family related hurts and rejection; perceived or otherwise. In any case, this relative gave me 15 minutes worth of cursing and damning of other family members; including my parents. Not an easy thing to stomach, mind you

When another relative, a milder uncle asked me if it bothered me. I said "Not really, seen and heard worse when I was involved in deliverance ministry" (Yes, I was - back in those bad ol' Mike the charismatic days :-) )

While I severely doubt the veracity of demon posession and related demo-mania; I do believe in the existence of evil. That something is 'tak betul' with the human race- both individually and collectively. I heard a bit of it over the phone. I see a bit of it each day. It's in two kids fighting for a plastic pail in a playground. And it's in an Israeli and a Palestinian drawing guns on each other.

I don't see horned halloween devil like creatures behind each individual, pulling the strings of human behaviour. I'll leave that to my..shall we say...more psychically bent brethren of the Pentecostal faith. But what I observe is that in the bones, sinews, emotions, soul and spirit of each human is the capacity and rapacity to want to do evil.

It's about this point that everyone usually waves their hands and says : "Not me! I'm a good person. What about Mother Theresa then". The main difference here is that Mother Theresa knows that she had the inclination to evil just as much as every person in the world - she was just a little better at relying on God's grace than you or me, that's all.

Jesus was really good as pointing this out to those with myopia with regards to evil. To the self-inflated lawyer who demanded to know who his neighbour was - he exposed his racism and pride. To the man who wanted to know how the inheritence was going to be divided, Jesus lectured on the futility of storing up wealth, thus exposing the evil of covetousness

Which is why,sad to say - they crucified him. No one likes their dirty insides exposed. But the irony is that by doing so, it released a Spirit who is perfect as exposing every sin, lie and evil and cleansing it. Out of an act of evil, the death warrant for evil was signed, sentenced and passed. The irony of it all

I can't say I am totally without this inclination to want to sin. Each day passes and I marvel at my capacity for frailty and even more incredible delusion at excusing that. In other words, like most of my other 6 billion brethen on this earth - I try to say that my evil is justifiable

Thus, if some guy scratches my car, I must be justified in doing one to his door. If I get fired from my job, no one will blame me if I take a few pens and a stapler, right? My cry is for justice. For fairness in an unfair world. If no one will protect me, especially God, well, I gotta look out for number one, correct?

In a world of an eye for an eye, there are going to be a lot of one eyed and blind people around

One act of evil is a pebble in a pool, The ripples resonate. Who knows where they will stop. One act of goodness does the same to the pool. When they clash, it looks ugly. Consider this image if you will. Increase the number of good ripples. Increase them to infinity.

After a while, the whole rippled filled pond will look....calm

But underneath, there is activity. Lots of good activity

That, my friends, is the image of a true Christlike world. And in that pond or world, evil doesn't fit in

Only one does the knocking..and it ain't you

2009-01-20T02:09:00.000-08:00

There's a beautiful story in the modern church which goes like this: God is a gentleman. He'll never force you to do something you don't want. They preface this with that picture of Jesus knocking on the door and stressing the point that the lock is on the inside; so you have to open it to let him in.

Bollocks.

There was a man who lived in the village of Midian. In the first forty years of his life, he had been a prominent person in Egypt. It was a luxurious life..but he had to move. No matter, for the next forty, he married, had kids and a comfortable life tending sheep. Great life, eh? Just about ready to retire and then...

God appears to him

Note that he didn't pray for an 'word' or enter into a nice conversation with God. Heck, he probably wasn't praying at all - and he got the 'WORD' himself. That is one scary thought. I think of all those people shouting and praying "God! show me more of you!" or "Let me see your face!" in church. And all I can think of is: "Uh-uh. Nope. I don't want to see God face to face. If I did - I'd soil my pants pretty darn quick".

Look, I would get nervous enough seeing Cate Blanchett face to face (Hot tamale!)...let alone the King of Heaven.

So anyway, he gets into this weird conversation with God. And it involves all sorts of weird stuff happening. He obviously doesn't want the job but at about the point where God turns his hand leprous; he kinda thinks that maybe it would be better to zip his lip for a while as some other appendage might turn leprous.

Point Number two: Saying 'No' to God really isn't an option (Hi, Jonah!)

His whole life turns upside down from that point. His son gets circumcised by his wife Zipporah to save him from getting fried by God. All I know is, that a Freudian psychiatrist would have a field day with this scene..

He then has to contend with the might of the Egyptian army, plagues, complaining ungrateful hordes of his people, going up mountains, making decisions...and all this at a time when he should have been retired or dead. His only wish is to see the promised land. Just one small desire - not to much to ask when he's done all this, right?

Nope. One moment of indiscretion puts him out.

Haven't we all been there? If only I never said that to her, if only I never walked into that place, if only i had studied harder..if only, if only.

And all he can do is watch through his feeble eyes, the others entering into the land of Milk and Honey, while he waits to die. In a land where he has spent the last forty years wandering; only to be so close yet so far. This is the story of Moses

I cringe when I see those self proclaimed 'prophets' in large churches. You want to be a prophet, really? Consider Ezekiel. God tells him that his wife may die...and get this: he is not to mourn for her. Now, this was no nasty wife that he was glad to be rid of. This was the 'delight of his eyes' (Ezekiel 24:16). And he was not even allowed to cry for her. "..yet you shall not mourn or weep. nor shall your tears run down"

You still want to be a prophet now?

What did the verse I use in my first post for the year say? Everything belongs to God. Even you. Even your wife. Your little kids are his. Don't ever say Jesus sold you a false story about the cost of discipleship in the gospels. He was brutally honest about saying that you have to carry a cross.

I honestly have to say that if I knew how much of a cross this was, I seriously may not have opted to carry it. You can call this heresy or blasphemy if you wish. It doesn't matter. You can 'willingly' accept it - if you think it's your will doing it. Or you can walk away. Like Jonah, and see how far you go

"For the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof" - 1 Corinthians 10:26

" Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honoured use and another for dishonourable use?" - Romans 9:21 -

The deafening silence of God

2009-01-19T01:24:00.000-08:00

Nothing speaks more of the impassability of God then the deafening silence of unanswered prayer. The decline of Christianity in the West is sometimes attributed to the years after World War One where many millions of young Christian men died in the horrible hellish nighthmare of trench warfare. Yes, it could be argued that in those millions were thousands of potential missionaries, pastors and workers for Christ. We will never know. But I have another theory

For virtually every christian family that sent a christian son off to war and saw him come back in a coffin; there lay the seed of a growing bitterness towards God. A cold rage towards him for not answering those prayers of protection and safety from danger and death. A body was buried, but that was not all. The faith of a family and subsequent generations got buried as well on that cold day - where God failed to answer their prayers

Of course, God answers prayers, people say. Just not always in the way you want it to be.

As 2009 begins, already the tsunamis of life (note the plural) have already hit and devasted the beaches of my life. Before I can even get one prayer of help out, another hits; and another. Before long, you even wonder whether you should just forget saving the boat (what boats are left to save?) and just run to higher ground until the waves subside - or will they?

Oddly, I have no platitudes for you today. I can't say whether you will keep your faith or lose it. I know many good people who have. What do you say to a father who has lost a child? What do you say to the mother? I have no idea

I guess if I was to answer honestly, I would grab a handful of earth, and throw it into the grave. Where a body lies. And maybe a faith and the faith of fathers

Reformed Resolutions for 2009

2009-01-08T20:06:00.000-08:00

It's amazing how things work out.

Towards the end of a very torrid last year, I was on a high. Finally, I got my resume done and looked forward to entering the workforce again in 2009. In one week, I managed to complete the Stanchart half marathon, attended a seminar by my boxing coach (which was really good) and capped it off by attending YLDP..honestly, one of the few christian camps I had really enjoyed for many, many years. During the camp, I got to counsel a few people, made some friends and even when I came back - intervened to help a friend in serious trouble. I was on a high, both physically, mentally and spiritually

Then I broke my foot

After that, family problems came popping out like termites

Which was followed by even more issues that threatened to overwhelm me

"The Earth is the Lord's, and everything in it"- 1 Corinthians 10:26 -

Every new year, we make resolutions for the coming year. Some of us are glad to see the end of the last one and vow that this one will be better. Why? Because we resolved it to be so. That's the power of positive thinking! It's taking charge, being in control, claiming that I am the master of my own universe.

It's also very wrong

Sometime this year, and I guarantee this, someone will find out they have cancer just before Christmas, and a pale shadow will descend on the family during their dinner on the eve. A child will eagerly await her daddy, only to find out that he died in a car accident on the way home. A wife who is expecting her first child goes into shock when she discovers that her husband has been cheating on her

It's amazing, when you seriously think about it, how little control we exert over life. And yet, we are fed through a steay stream of Oprah and positive affirmation preaching from the pulpit that we are the captains of our ship. But the irony is that we did not make the ship, we did not make the waters and we certaintly do not control the tides or the waves. And you can be the best nautical captain ever to helm a ship but if a 100ft wave hits, you and your plonky vessel - are both going down, my friend

But oddly, this should not make you negative, or totally cynical.

My favourite faith verse of all time in Daniel 3:16-18. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are about to be thrown into the furnace. A pretty hot situation to say the least. And the chances of a reprieve or appeal look slim when the judge is also the king who is chucking you in.

Let's stop for a moment. When Christians think about facing trials like these, or things like cancer, or equally as tragic; many say : " My faith in Christ will carry me through!" very confidently. I don't think so. I just don't buy it. When the rubber really, really hits the road; most christians will falter. I have counselled enough to see that while their are no atheists in a foxhole, they are very few real christians out of one either. The bullets and impending doom will reveal the extent of real gold in your pile, don't worry about that

So, when the trio say " If we are thrown in the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O King.." (v.17). But the kicker is verse 18: "Even if he DOES NOT, we will not serve your gods.."

Even if he does not.

Even if you are in agony and your numerous prayers bring no relief. Even if you pray for the conversion of a loved one and he or she goes to their deathbed unrepentant. Even if you lose everything, and your friends mock your faith. Your parents plead with you to go back to the altar deities, or to at least listen to Dr Phil.

"..we will not serve your gods."

Because we have been there, and seen too much since. Or experienced so much of the real God that we cannot serve or turn back to false idols any more. It may be true that while the world has collapsed and we may be in a corner picking our scabs like Job; we cannot turn back because once the scales have fallen off, we can't put them back over our eyes and pretend that we are blind. That's just goofy

A reformed resolution is one where God is placed where he is. All the earth is his, and it revolves around him; not you. Reformed resolutions seek to proclaim the name and fame of Jesus even if your world is crumbling around you and your own resolutions, hopes and dreams fall into dust. That is the reformed faith at work.

This year, the church will ask you what do you want out of 2009. I want you to ask God: What, O Lord, do you want in 2009? The answers may be just the resolutions that you are seeking in the first place

Happy New Year and Grace to you

A bit of light hearted Christmasness - My top 10 movies

2008-12-04T02:58:00.000-08:00

As it's coming to the end of the year, and notwithstanding that my previous topics have been a bit on the serious side, I thought I'd go completely 180 degrees and do something different; maybe a little of the light side instead. So, below are my top 10 movies in no particular order and the reasons for why I like them

(I have an interesting time when I was doing this. Some of those movies that I thought would stand the test of time after making a huge impact on me in Uni for example fizzled out after reviewing them much later on )

I guess this goes to show that nothing stays constant, except change

1. WHEN HARRY MET SALLY

The quintessential rom-com. Smart and sassy in a way that preceded all New York relationship dramas with a mixture of big city angst, loneliness and ultimately redemption. The jazz tracks meld perfectly with the mood of the picture

2. BLADE RUNNER

My first noir sci-fi movie post Star Wars. Before that, I thought it was all lasers and medals all around from a cute princess. The religious themes and questions about what humanity is still bugs me to today two decades after i watched the movie. Even with Harrison's Ford wooden voiceover

3. DOLORES CLAIRBORNE

A real surprise. What turns out to be a simple crime movie turns out to be a cry in the night for salvation from brutality and evil. It's almost faustian, straddling the region between black and white while untimately giving that rarest of commodities; hope. And all this on a claustrophobically small island

4. PRINCESS BRIDE

The quotes. Over and over again. Never play death games with a Sicilian and never understimate this movie It's a classic

5. WALL STREET

My friend once said that the movie was weak because they looked like characitures. After working in the industry for over 10 years, I can honestly say that he was wrong. The chillingly accurate representation of power, the lure of it and the bitter way it smashes you once you worship it too much should make this requisite viewing for every aspiring Donald Trump wannabe

6. THE BIG LEBOWSKI

The Coen brothers are geniuses for giving us the hero that is not quite a hero: the Dude. It's a journey into a labyrinth of weirdness and fun that ultimately resolves nothing save for the fact that we should be much better off if we stuck to bowling all day instead.

7. LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE

I will bet that very few have actually seen this vastly superior Thai version of 'Lost in Translation'. Forget the latter's weak attempt at minimalism. This is the real deal in dislocation and separation of the human condition via language, culture, background and human instincts. Don't believe me? Then imagine how a japanese speaking yakuza gangster and a thai speaking bar girl communicate across vastly different universes. It's a classic

8. THE FOUNTAIN

Darren Aronofsky's visual tome of three separate time lines and parallel universes will blow your mind and emotions away while retaining the essence of what it's all about in even in all this vastness and incomprehensibility: Love

9. THE CHRISTMAS STORY

No sweetness and light here. A dark yet hilariously funny tale of a young kid craving for a Red-Ryder BB gun has become a holiday classic; which makes me wonder why because the themes it explores are a lot darker than the normal sugar-and-sweet christmas candy that is shown on TV over the period. I guess this is why it works

10. PULP FICTION

Film Noir at it's most accessible (that is, if anyone could actually call Tarentino mainstream). It's violence was not operatic or balletic in what was homage to John Woo. It was cruel without an ounce of remorse or guilt; functional and utilatarian. An incredible portrayal of a tired society and even more weary participants in it. This is a real claasic

Are you ready for eternity?

2008-11-23T05:52:00.000-08:00

As I worship led today, one thing that struck me were the empty seats amongst the congregation. Now I am not saying that numbers are a sure sign of holiness or effectiveness but I have noticed a disturbing trend amongst churchgoers in the last few years - that many people do not want to commit to anything, be it a church, an ideal, a ministry or for that matter..a belief system

Maybe it's a postmodern effect. I think that's giving Derrida, Foucalt and Co. way too much credit. My observations have led me to think that this is something that is not post, or even modern. In fact, it's as ancient as time itself. The problem?

It's called worshipping the god of your glands

When you wake up on a Sunday and stare blearily into the alarm clock, the decision isn't so much to go to church or not, although you might think it is that simple. Rather, it's asking yourself what you have set your thoughts for this life and the afterlife to be ( if you believe in an existence beyond this realm ,that is).

How I live this life, the manner in which I treat my neighbour, the reality of God in my life - all these point to a road map which you've laid out for yourself and it is map depicts your version of what life is all about. And if it does not involve a God, and negates all manner of thought of a deity or anyone else and it's all about me and me alone - then I worship the god of my glands

It means I bow down to the desires of my heart and my eyes and whatever else that drives me. So it's not a late Saturday night that was to blame for waking up late today. You wanted to stay up late. It was you that made that decision to come back at 3am and it's you who made that decision to hit the alarm and roll back to sleep

All this points to a simple fact that God probably isn't that big a deal for you. It is at this point that people get defensive or sheep-faced and start defending themselves by saying things like "you don't know my heart...etc etc)

What you do reflects what's in your heart. You love someone, there's nothing on earth that will stop you from buying the most expensive gifts or doing the daftest things to woo him or her. That's not an effort. It's not a chore. But getting to church, preparing yourself to worship God and interacting with his community of believers is a reeeaaaalll hassle somehow.

These are the same people whom you will never get to say these words honestly: Maybe I'm just not into God that much. As I said, they will completely live in a world that relegates God to somewhere between second and third last but they will happily proclaim the most extravagant statements during the few worship sessions that make it to in a year - " Oh, God, I'd die for you", " Jesus, you are the King of my life" etc etc. See the inherent contradiction?

So does anyone belive it? I don't know if they do. But I can bet that they've never asked themselves the above question - are you ready for eternity?

Because eternity is more than trillions and trillion of years in the presence of God. It's worship, it's adoration and it's that desire to be with him totally fulfilled. If the mere thought of doing a infintesimally small fraction of that on a Sunday even fails to stir you - why bother about the charade or saying that you can't wait to see God? Your actions are contrary to your words. Pardon me for saying that, but that kind of eternity (and it is the one depicted in YOUR bible) is probably hell to you

Which is why C.S Lewis wrote that sending people to hell may be an act of mercy instead of judgement, that there are people to whom an eternity with God would be unbearable pain and that it is better for these people to be placed away from him and his followers indeed. I may not go as far as to say that, but I do mull and observe that for some people; their idea of heaven may be an eternity of lazing around shopping malls satisfying their every whim and craving - and then I think that maybe they are not ready for eternity just yet. Their heaven is here on earth so there's no reason to yearn for something more

If God indeed gives you the desires of your heart, he might just do that - but the answer might surprise the heck out of you.

Where is the love? - Part 2

2008-11-07T02:37:00.001-08:00

Two real life stories

A very intelligent and humble man of God, someone who I call my spiritual mentor (not a title I give out easily at all..) has a falling out with another member of church who is known as a sacrificial worker at church. Both start off as friends, now they hardly speak to one another

A choir leader one day passionately cries out to her assembled choir after having an emotional meltdown: "Where is the love?!?". An elderly matriach stands up, and bitterly says in front of everyone: "In this church ? - there is none!".

I am not making these events up. They happened and it is more than sad. It is tragic because by the edict laid down in 1 Corinthians 13..as a church, we stand condemned. We can be known for our great music, talented musicians, fine programs or deep pockets...but if we have not love, we are nothing.

Nothing. Go think about that for a moment

It means all that we talk about and pat ourselves on the back is all for nothing, it is in vain.

People come to church because of the people. And they hope to find love from those people. When they don't get it - they leave. The music, the sermons, the big carpark...they are fine but they don't do one bit about addressing that hollow area in the human heart that cries out for meaning and fulfilment. As Christians, we should know that this area is exactly a fit for God. Not an inch too small or big. Just right. And as representatives of Christ on earth, we should be reflecting that.

But do you know what I see?

I see a church that is filled with back stabbers. People who don't have the guts to say stuff to your face but to whisper their frustrations to each other. I also see people with skin as thin as Filo pastry. Offend them once - and they consciously tick you off their list of Christian brethren. What? You think you and I are going to be able to avoid each other in heaven for eternity?

There is no reconciliation because it is not preached from the pulpit. No one takes it seriously. Exhortations to love each other fail because we conveniently read that as " I love who I want to". This can only be remedied when we have a culture of reconciliation. Nelson Mandela did it for South Africa - preventing bloodshed. Unfortunately, he's not likely to preach at my church anytime soon

It needs hard preaching, a mixture of love and wrath. A serious call to repentance and a reversal of what has been the dominant culture for decades in this church; apathy, coldness, inauthencity, a lack of veracity, cowardness, a lack of faith. It's all there. Harsh words? Nothing even remotely compared to what our God will say to us on the day of judgement when we stand in front of him

Things you can learn from the Charismatics

2008-11-03T00:26:00.000-08:00

Look, I'm never going to be mistaken for someone who channels Big hair or Benny Hinn in church. I can't even speak proper Cantonese, let alone tongues. And I don't go around mapping cities for areas of spiritual darkness; it's tough enough finding my way around Cheras in daytime.

But I do find some useful things about the charismatic church that we should emulate. The traditional church has become a little smug and stale; and a little humility in learning wouldn't hurt. However, this is not be taken as a sign that I am going to be joining the Really Full Gospel Tabernacle of Shekinah Glory Rapture awaiting full signing and wonders church of God anytime soon...

What we can learn:

1) Prayer

Charismatics pray. Sure, they may pray for weird stuff like gold dust or the ability to laugh for hours (tip: go watch a comedy on TV) instead of world peace, but they pray. They believe in the power of prayer and that God can answer prayer. This is something totally biblical and somewhere along the line when we got a little too smart and self-reliant; we may have forgotten the fact that we are "but dust" and that God created us. It's something for us to go back to

2) Joy in worship

You may not like 20 choruses of "I could sing of your love forever" but there is no denying that for most parts, there is joyous worship in a charismatic service,give or take a little bit of over the topness. I know my uncle is fond of saying that hymns in a traditional sense can be sung just as joyously but when was the last time you saw people in the first service weeping or raising their arms with joy when they were singing? I am biased. If there is one part of me that is pseudo-charismatic ; it's my worship style. I don't mind singing 20 choruses...heck, let's make it 21!

3) Not being afraid in engaging the youth

The charismatic churches have a demographic that is youth heavy and why not? These churches came from the Jesus movement in the '60's. Their founders, once they got off LSD and Marijuana, got high on Jesus and brought rock and roll to christian music. In other words, they made an attempt to connect. They were rebellious youth and they knew how to reach out to the same group.

I appreciate the fact that some churches criticise this for being too worldly and giving in to dumbing down certain things. I agree to an extent. Some churches are no different from 'kem motivasi's and the sermons seem not to use any words longer than 2 syllables and no harder than what is required to enjoy a Barney the Dinosaur show.

However, this doesn't detract from the fact they love youth and want them. Your church might have more PhDs and large steeples but where is the love for the kids? You don't have to become an cool hip church, just a church that wants to accept them

4) Going back to the Bible

Sad to say, traditionalists who once were mighty defenders of the Word have deteriotated into a bunch of liberal, well read know it alls who have read everthing except the Bible. Worse, they may have read everything else stupid.

When you have people saying that the Da Vinci Code is true and at a time when they think Billy Graham was one of the four apostles...something needs to be done. While I do not agree with charismatics on their theology of the Holy Spirit, their mostly ignorant whole hearted acceptance of creationism ( I can't even call it science lest I faint) and dangerous stance on the End times; I admire that they are willing to defend the inerrancy of the Bible

I just wish it was a brigher group ;-) (Sorry, I couldn't resist the last dig)

So, there you go. Proof that I am not totally against my babbling, breakdancing in the spirit brethren, I love you all, you represent and rock for J.C..even in your weird way...and that's a cool thing

Where is the Love? - Part 1

2008-10-26T22:21:00.000-07:00

Frustrating.

That's one word to describe how I feel about church at the moment. A while ago, a speaker once said that church was like a hospital; where people go to get better. I disagree, because no one wants to stay in a hospital; no matter how good the food is or the facilities are. You want to leave as soon as you get better

But church is another proposition. You get your sick people, but they find that it's a good place to hang out; not necessarily to get well. And soon, they thrive in their neurosis and hangups instead of dealing with them. The more appropriate place that corresponds to this would be an...asylum

Harsh words? To be sure. I have never minced words and lately, the increasing weariness of dealing with the same old cra..wait, this is a Christian blog so let me use a Greek word that Paul used: 'skubalon'. It means rubbish, dung,etc etc. Hmm..not any nicer than the expletive that I had to stop myself from using.

If you asked me what a church should look like. I would say that it's a place where people are honest and authentic, or can be without being condemned. That's not to say that you can't be rebuked lovingly, but that you can bring up something and it's okay to do so.

What prevents this is fear. The fear of being ridiculed, rejected and run out of the group. Three R's that Satan has used to great effect to build a nice church with a myriad of walls internally. All the rallies, all the revivals and restorationist movements will not help. These have been the church's typical responses to Satan's 3 "R"s. Unfortunately, the church's little r's would make much of a permanent dent. Why?

Because the church needs a transformation from the inside out. That's how the Holy Spirit works. Not outside in like so many of these churches like to think. All the programs, all the techniques and all the whizz bang speakers and music will amount to nothing more than a light 5 minute drizzle on parched desert land. The water must come from the underground and it must saturate the soil from down to up. Then, and only then will you see sustaining growth

Will this happen to my church? God, I hope so.

Some thoughts on Prayer

2008-10-12T22:37:00.000-07:00

Initially, I wasn't going to write on prayer but this was sparked by a very good piece written by Ian on his blog and further interesting and intelligent observations by Chris and the Walking Disaster. So, I thought I'd thrown in my take on this

Ian has quite rightly pointed out some misconceptions about prayer. I hope to expand a little by highlighting what I see as two misconceptions about prayer as it is practiced today

1)Prayer as incantation

This is the type of prayer that sounds no different from a "Money come, Money come" plea to the money gods above. In a sermon given by Chris to the youth one day, he mentioned that we make the mistake of seeing God as an ATM machine - that all he is good for is giving things to us. So, it is no surprise that we we see him as a big Santa Claus and our prayers reflect that

This is why the Prayer of Jabez flies off the shelves in a Christian bookstore. We want secret techniques, ways and words of tweaking God to do our will; not his. An incantation is a series of things you say to get something done according to what you want. This is not Christianity, this is paganism, which is why we told not to babble in prayer like the pagans do (Matthew 6:7)

2) Prayer as a two way communication

I get worried when I see things like people journalling stuff like " God had a one hour conversation with me, and he told me to get my car repainted and to floss more often. Oh! the angel Gabriel said 'hi' to me as well..".

Please don't get the idea that I said God never talks to you. He does - through his Word primarily (Colossians 3:16, 2 Timothy 3:16, Acts 17:11). What he does not do is engage in some Neal Walsch 'Coversations with God' episode with you. There are people in mental institutions who take this too far. Or on the other hand, you can make lots of money with this..

Prayer is you talking to God. Period.

It's like talking to God on a walkie-talkie. You press the button down and talk - then you hang up. He then communicates to you through your reading of the Word, circumstances (both good and bad), people, the weather etc etc. So, in totality, far from limiting God's way of communicating with you - it's much greater than you think; but you need to have some objective way of measuring this - and this is the Word.

If God engages in a two-way conversation with you, then Biblically, you are a prophet. I don't claim to be one. But if you do and if you don't fulfill those requirements of what a prophet is...well, we all know what happens to false prophets, don't we?

3) Prayer as a weapon

This is one of the most abused ways in which prayer is used. Usually seen in bad versions of charismatic church back room deliverances, they involve phrases such as "Get out! In the name of..etc etc). You know what I'm talking about

So some people get the idea that once they throw in a few strong phrases here and there. Satan's going to run away and cower in fright. That's it's your words that send him scurrying...and I'm not so sure about that

Listen. Prayer by itself has no intrinsic power.

What?!? Heresy,you say...

If you were being beaten up by bullies, it's not your weak cry of "Dad, help!" that makes them stop wailing on you. It's the big, strong angry man who hears your plaintive cry and comes running down the road to help you that will.

It is not prayer that has the power. It is God. Remember those times you nearly came to grief and suddenly were delivered through God's mercy and grace? Did you pray before your car skidded off the road? I think not. God's providence ensures that you remain in him. Prayer is a means of thanking him, pleading to him, intercedding for others, crying in grief to him..but it is not a weapon to be wielded to make the congregation do YOUR will,to control others through fear and not to make you look like some superhero, just because you sound all Elijah-like.

Look at Ephesians 6:13-17. The armor of God is composed of numerous items but there is only one offensive weapon: The Sword of the Spirit .

And what is the Sword of the Spirit? The Word of God

In the next verse (v:18), Paul then exhorts us to pray, all kinds of prayer. Prayer is the walkie talkie. Putting on the armor just means you have your gear on. But if you don't talk to HQ, how are you going to know what your marching orders are?

Dismissed, soldier!

One cessationist's perspective

2008-10-08T01:04:00.000-07:00

Imagine this scenario.

You are about to fly to the U.S. Suddenly, over the intercom, you hear the pilot’s voice:

“Ladies and Gentlemen. This is your captain speaking. I’ve had…a leading from God. He told me that I shouldn’t take you to the U.S. Yes, I heard his voice while I was shaving. You know what? We aren’t flying to Los Angeles today. We’re going to Moscow. How about that?”

What would you do? That’s the last time I fly Shekinah Airlines, that’s what I would say!

Over the years, I have slowly seen the dominating influence of the charismatic movement across all denominations and churches. In fact, the rise has been meteoric and wide-ranging. Music is the one such vehicle of this transmission. When I heard “Shout to the Lord” in a conservative Catholic church one Sunday, I knew that it wouldn’t be far long before the Vatican would have it’s own version of the televangelists on TBN (But being Italian, they’d have a lot more style, I presume). In fact, the Catholic Charismatic movement, by some estimates, far exceeds the number of Protestant Charismatics.

In the past, I was content to keep quiet because the raging debates between myself and some of the more vocal charismatics in my own family were so divisive that my grandmother banned all theological discussions at the family dinner table for a while.

Yes, I know, I have a weird family; others fight over money, we fight over Theology.

But now I’m taking a stand because of what I see as an almost patronising and arrogant view by charismatics in general that their view is that dominant, and therefore correct hermeunetical view. This disregards the fact that their movement is only about a hundred years old, and other views have had a longer and more traditional base to claim on. Might, numbers and being the newest doctrine on the block doesn’t always equal righ

Who of us that have maybe questioned the validity of what charismatics believe have been accused with these lines:

“ You are trying to quench the Holy Spirit’s power. That’s a sin!”

“ Sigh. I guess you don’t understand how the Spirit works..”

“ Why are you being an obstacle to God’s work?”

“ I think Satan has clouded your judgement. There’s demonic activity somewhere!”

“ You are only experiencing of what it feels like to be a Christian. If only you could feel what I’m feeling”

and my personal favourite:

“ You think too much. Don’t over analyse. Just let go, and let God!”

What if I told you that there were Christians who thought, felt, saw and tasted God more intently than ever before outside of the charismatic circle?

What if by leaving most of that goofiness behind, the authentic Christianity you would experience would render that a pale shadow?

Far from taking you into a ‘experience’ with God through a secondary baptism in the Holy Spirit ( a Biblically dubious contention), you become wrapped in world where self-worship sometimes becomes the norm, where you lay your God-given rational faculties down for superstition wrapped up in pseudo-Christian gift wrapping and where Gnostic patterns of ‘hidden knowledge’ suffuse it’s practice

I think one reason why people like me haven’t spoken up is that we didn’t want to look as though we were dividing the body of Christ. Maybe some of it was a low self-esteem; it could be that deep down, we thought we were missing out on ‘something’. And we wanted to be part of the good stuff, but really deep down, it didn’t sink right

Keeping quiet was okay until I realised that silence to some meant assent to them. And this was not definitely so.

And when I started seeing people’s life’s get bent out of shape by false prophecies, healings that were supposed to occur but never did; I wanted to address them

Also, and when the people who could one day run the world’s greatest superpower with nuclear weapons at hand could alter the course of my destiny, and my unborn children with policies that are dictated by your ‘leadings’, then you’ve crossed the line

It took me many years to work out why. It meant unloading all the rubbish that I had been fed and seeing again with the eyes of the Spirit. And this time, I understood what living in the Holy Spirit meant. It means that the focus is on Christ – and only him.

I am a Cessationist. This means that I believe that the more spectacular gifts in the early church, like speaking in tongues, ceased upon completion of the Canon (the Bible). I think that God still heals, and will always heal. He is the source of all healing – whether it’s from your white blood cell count stabilising on it’s own or in the form of a flying hospital giving you your precious sight back. He can work miracles outside of the natural laws, although all evidence points to the fact that for this time period; he has chosen to work within them.

I find the practice of ‘being slain’ downright goofy and not backed by scripture. Tongues as spoken today seems to be more of an auto-suggestive practice and until I find a healing incident involving the resuscitation of the dead and regeneration of a severed limb backed by the British Medical Association or some reputable scientific body; I remain sceptical

Desperate, Dateless and Faithless

2008-09-23T00:58:00.000-07:00

What is a Christian to do when they are getting to that stage where they want to a long-term relationship with a view to settling down and their church is empty of choices? Do they keep praying or do they go to another place to try their 'ong'?

With the change in church demographics over the last few decades, it is evident that there is an obvious imbalance in the skew of certain groups. Teens prefer to hang around their kind so churches have sprung up catering to their preferences and needs. Ditto working professionals. They want a church where they can network with like minded professionals so they leave the traditional churches. This leaves the latter with an older congregation; which is the case in many western churches (and some in Malaysia).

Regardless of whether this is right or wrong, this is the case and what I want to ask is - what happens to those of us (the single ones who have stayed and find this not to be a land of plenty, so to speak?)

There are a few options:

1. "Go way west, young man"

Look, there are 99 non-Christian girls for every 1 Christian out there. So, do you want to go that route and hope that God will change that person and bring her to Christ. And everything will be peachy-keen? It's possible. But it's a risk. And while you may want to quote me story after story where so-and-so married a non-Christian and now, look..they are active church goers, the Biblical injuctions and directional bent is definitely not in that direction

Look at the old Testament prohibitions on intermarrying other tribes. It's not race issue,it's a matter of beliefs.

2. "Go east"

Not to Vietnam, dude. Another church. At least one with more options. It's a well known fact that large charismatic churches have young, single female attendees. So, your chances are better there. So far, so good

But say you hook up. What are the chances of her coming to your church? Slim to none. I have known many great guys who, once married, went over to their wife's church and let their wife determine the choice of church. I know this is contentious so let me lay it on the table - I am conservative. The man is the spiritual leader in the house , or should be. The decision on church choice should at least be a consultative discussion with the final say from the male.

The trouble is that when you join her church, your church dies just a little bit more. And soon, it might die completely. You may say "that's the survival of the fittest". Can I dare you to go say that to God directly? You might find his answer a tad different from what you were expecting

Now, you might say I'm being selfish. Sure, I am. But so is everyone for wanting their way. I just hope that when it comes down to that decision, you recognise the woman in the mirror and I see the man in mine. Okay?

3. " Lay and Pray"

In Mixed Martial Arts, there is an extremely defensive position called "lay and pray". it's when someone is beating the La Brea tar pits outta you and you can't do jack. Your only hope is that the bell rings to save you. Not a bad idea but, man, it's a heckuva way to live!

Sure, pray. But don't lay. There has to be an option out there, and God will provide one. Maybe a donkey will kick you in the nads and you'll be impotent. That'll take care of that. Hey! I didn't say it was the answer you wanted, just an answer.

I guess you see where I'm coming from. I want to see multi-generational churches where growth is organic but darn it, society just doesn't see it that way. And neither do the chicks, which is why I am desperate and dateless..

But faithless?

Not yet. Hey! Why is that donkey coming towards me?

The God who covers all

2008-09-05T09:48:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, there comes a time in your Christian walk when you wonder if God is still there. These are those times when that Hallmark type poster on your wall about the one set of footprints just doesn't cut it anymore. What do you do? Do you pray? Confess sins? Go to a rally and have a spiritual experience? Read your Bible?

Yes to all and No to them

Huh? You say. What on earth are you an about?

We tend to make it an issue when we don't hear anything from God, forgetting that many people don't hear things sometimes..But, somehow, they get through life. They go to work, play with their kids and manage not to lose it. However, we as Christians somehow need some special revelation, don't we? If we don't get it, we 'lose it', get all anxious, and then feel guilty about being anxious. We then plead to God to 'show' himself to us - and pout like kids when he doesn't

The essence of common grace is that he has given certain things to the world that shout out this loud, unmistakable cry: " I AM "

And special grace, the saving grace, that includes us into his family whispers: " I am."

Both the same message in a way, yet different. To the world, he declares " I am the one who created the world in whose abundance you enjoy, gave you the soil you now till and poison and the seas that give you sustenance. " Everyone partakes of this.

But to the elect, he almost inaudibly speaks to their heart " I am your saviour, You are mine and I am yours". Only the elect partake of this

If you have been captured by God, saved from eternal damnation through the substitutionary atoning work of Christ on the Cross; then you need to know that there is a centre where the two "I am"'s become one . And your only response in the awesome crux of two meeting points should be:

You are

And the issue that befell you will slip away because you will see with mind, heart and soul that he is a God who covers all. If there is sin, it is the sin of limiting him to just covering that small patch of loneliness for a while like a band-aid.

God is not interested in being your handyplast. He's interested in doing open heart, totally invasive surgery on you. He want to give you a makeover that is total, not purely cosmetic.

He covers all, because the universe belongs to him. Everything, lock stock and barrel..including you.

You can do all the things above and not come to know God any better until you acknowledge that it is God who comes to you, not the other way around. Worse, don't think he obeys your bidding like some servant because you 'pull' the right levers or incantate the 'right' things

That's why I said - yes to all and no to all of the above prescribed remedies

The cult of personality

2008-08-23T06:28:00.000-07:00

Recently, I was told that two very prominent leaders of large churches resigned suddenly. One because he lied about having cancer and God healing him whereas he never had it in the first place. (That alone should be something to be thankful to God for !) The other was very prominent teleevangelist who had to resign due to a relapse in his alcoholism and some sex related pecadilloes.It saddens me because in the wake of all this, there will be bitterly dissapointed, heartbroken, cheated followers who, for some of them, will turn into cynical opponents of everything that represents Christianity. There will be some who will doubt the validity of all said, done and prayed for in the name of Christ. There will be a fallout and someone will alwyas pay.It's why I found myself drawn to Calvinism in recent years. Years of man centered worship, people and youth centered activities led me to cry "Where is God?"And the answer was simpleGod was always there. We displaced him and made idols of ourselves and others. So, it's odd that he becomes almost the lender of last resort while he should have been the primary source of everthing ( to use to banking analogy)God was always there but we found him boring. So we preferred a repackaged God in a man who uses phrases like a religous Emeril Largesse (go watch the Food Channel!). Bam! Pow! We laugh and think the power of God is flowing through this man. We are titillated, excited, warmed in our hearts, tickled to our toes......for what purpose?We have become addicted to the repackaged God and the most blasphemous word in the modern church is "boring". But that is a perception, not a reality. And you make it your reality by reinforcing that. Think about it for a momentYears ago, this would have bothered me. It doesn't so much anymore, but as I said above; it saddens me. Since I became a Calvinist, it's my opinion that as long as we displace God from total sovereignity; these sad episodes are as likely to be repeated as many times as movies are on HBO.

Megachurch? Nyet! Nyet!

2008-08-23T06:07:00.000-07:00

It's not a secret among those who know me that I am not really a fan of large churches. The more I hear that your church is so big that it has it's own coffee chain or that it needs WiMax instead of Wifi due to it's size; I start furrowing my eyebrows. Now, you might say I'm prejudice. You're damn right about that.I like the little mom and pop shops in quaint villages that I grew up with, in Australia. I hate Mid-Valley Megamall. I like the slow food movement, and have boycotted Mickie D's quite successfully for close to a year. I like small churches where I don't have to worry if I've pissed off the 'Christian' security guy in black. Yes, I'm prejudiced.But I will say something about large churches: I like your large parking spaces. Small chruches are in the suburbs and parking is a nightmare at times :-)If I feel the need to worship in a large setting, I'll sign up for a rally, concert or an event like Passion; which I fully support..But that doesn't happen very much. And honestly, I used to be part of a large church in Damansara and it didn't do anything much for me. In the midst of that humongous crowd; there was this strange sensation that everyone was as disconnected with each other, as though there were all these electrons zipping around each other but none of them colliding or colluding. Honestly, it felt emptyI think the model should have these electrons circling a nucleus; and that nucleus is God: the centre of everything we do or zip aroundSo, while I appreciate the fact that large churches have large bands and the music sounds better because they have the resources and the talent pool, I can't help wondering if a bit of that magic (if I may use that word in a Christian context) is missing..Sometimes I wonder, that if we just decided that it was all about God first. And my brother and sister next, and me last. That those wrong notes played, or luke warm coffee after service didn't matter a darn; we would be closer to the Kingdom of God....and that mom and pop shop which used to serve that great vanilla sponge cake.

A Mongo for Christ

2008-08-17T20:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday when I was worship leading, the worst thing that could happen to a Wleader occured - major stoning in the congregation. A sea of blank faces throughout the first set. Now, I know all the reasons; maybe there was sin in me, or my team, maybe we had too much pride, maybe we put the congregation's reaction over God's approval, maybe...

Then I stopped rationalising.

When I teach in the gym, I can be one of the most theoretical and patient teachers. I care that you learn. I want you to learn. Nothing gives me more pleasure as a teacher when I see that you 'get it.' But if you've seen me fight; you see a different side. You see a brutal, aggressive attempt to rip you apart. But oddly, there's no malice. It's just that I'm direct and efficient

And it was that side that came out yesterday before the closing song. I berated the congregation for that lack of response. And questioned their commitment to want to be at church, to worship, to whatever. I was direct and brutal; in short, I was a mongo, a lumbering thuggish guy with a club as my mediuim of oration

We live in a society that can be too nice and politically correct. And that has affected the church as well. As a consequence, we sometimes refrain from saying things that should be said for fear of giving offence.

The Old Testament prophets never cared about this. They called a spade a spade. Ezra pulled his own hair out at his people's lack of repentance. Jeremiah said in effect, "I'm not going to pull MY own hair out!", and pulled others instead. Jesus frequently offended...well, just about anyone. The gospel of Christ is an offence to some; remember that

In boxing, I have to hit you sometimes. And you will have to learn how to take a hit. It's the same for me. I can be molly-coddled by the darn nicest coach in town but someday, if he really cares for me - he will have to hit me. That's boxing

And that's the way of Christ. You are not meant to sit in your nice chairs rolling through five songs. It's my job to lead you to worship - but I can't make you drink the water. And my responsiblity is to take you there, point it out to you, shout at you if I have to because I love Christ first and his followers second. But I have to do it because I now see why God made me a mongo. A mongo for Christ

Deus Abscondus?

2008-08-11T08:52:00.000-07:00

The latin phrase above refers to the notion that our God is hidden, or has removed himself from us. In the Bible, there are references to our sin being a reason as to why God might seem absent to us at times. Other times, he willingly chooses to do so to enable our faith to grow.

Sometimes it is difficult to see God at all in the world. In the movie, "Tears of the Sun", a U.S Navy platoon led by a cynical, battle hardened lieutenant is asked to evacuate a mission. When they set off, a priest wishes them " May God go with you". The lieutenant casts a wry small and answers: "God has left Africa"

When one looks at the atrocities in Rwanda, Sudan or Angola; one might come to the conclusion that God has left Africa. When a Georgian woman looks at her bombed out house and dead children; who can blame her when she says that God has left Georgia. Or when you walk the streets of an inner city slum and see the down and out of society; has God left our city? Or more personally, when you pray for healing and it just doesn't come; and your loved one passes away - has God absconded?

I admit I have a hard time telling people that God is still around in the face of all this. I have even less time for my fellow Christians with their loopy eschatology theories that promise a new earth after this one is razed. Raze this one? Dudes, it's already burning to the ground. And rather than doing anything about it, the ones who claim to be Christians are washing their hands off the whole thing and curiously acquiring material wealth; an odd behaviour for those about to meet King Jesus in the sky

If I was an observer from outer space, the most likely observation that I would have on earth is that they are a young race in need of careful supervision and intervention because they do not seem capable of running affairs properly. But who would run this? God? But where is he? Why is the God of the Bible, in terms of revelation, so..if I may use the word...fickle?

He storms in when he wants to but remains curiously private; revealing himself within a tribal semi-nomadic race. He does it through prophets, signs which require interpretation rather than appearing in person and succintly declaring and proving once and for all that he is God. So, even if he is not Deus Abscondus, he is remarkably shy for a large God

No one loves me but Jesus - debunking a few myths of a cell group

2008-08-06T11:43:00.000-07:00

In my last post, I may have come across as a little Pollyana-ish with regards to cell groups. I have never said, and will never say that cell groups are certaintly the absolute sure-fire places where it's group hugs and back slaps all night long and everyone comes out feeling all warm and fuzzy.

Far from it.

I have been in cell groups in the past where I was tempted to fake a seizure just to get out (I decided against it because they would just start praying over me and that would have prolonged the agony...). I have been in one where someone tried to punch me. And i was the CG leader. (How's that for contending da faith, Balboa?)

So, not all CG's are equal. But somehow, people come in with certain assumptions , and I want to debunk these myths:

1. I will be accepted immediately

No, you won't. Not if you're a jerk. Not even if you are a Christian jerk. Because no one likes one and at the end of a hard week; rest assured that if you bring an attitude to a cell group, someone is going to want to Bible bash you; and not in the theologically approve manner either

2. There are no cliques

There are always cliques. There will always be. Get used to it. Your mum and dad is a clique. They take you everywhere, include you in most things, except when they...uh,you get the idea. The number one fear of someone going into a cell group is - rejection. You think that you when you walk in there, you'll see a couple flirting with each other, two guys talking about some obscure hobby that only they and 3 others in the world know anything about; and two other members who eye you up and down contemptously, judging you all the time.

In other words - they all have a clique and have zoned you out. As Christians, we try not to do this but we do mimic the world, and anthropologically, there are strong reasons for being cliquish. The 12 disciples - were they a clique? James and John? Jesus and Peter? The gospels talk alot about them both.

A good cell group will recognise that it has to have a balance of being both open enough to give the chance to an outsider to come in without compromising the integrity of it's aim: to focus on becoming more Christlike. Notice I said nothing about being warm, touchy feely or stuff like that. Why?

3. Acceptance is automatic

The seeker movement (with a great deal of influence from secular group therapy teachings) tries to convey the notion that a cell group should be openly inclusive and accepting of anyone that wants to come in. That notion is slightly falacious

When the church was being persecuted in the early days, they met behind closed doors and were very careful of outsiders trying to join as no one was sure if they were genuine or spies. Therefore, whoever wanted to join had to prove themselves as sincere, genuine lovers of Christ

Bearing the family name of Christ carries a responsibility. It is less a membership card to a country card and more of draft card to war. It's serious business. No one forces someone to go to a CG; it's an honour and a privelage. And we in recent times have devalued it so that it's sold so desperately like a 50% off pastry near closing time.

If you want in - show us you are serious. Now, in our society, we tend to value those who speak out more and a more assertive. The extroverted ones. What if you're quiet and are an introvert? But if you're an introvert -why do you want to be part of a group of extroverts anyway? :-)

Whether you are quiet or not. Everyone craves intimacy and acceptance. To do this, you have to open yourself up and run the risk of going against a fundamental human reluctance to be vulnerable. How you do this - is up to you

In a nutshell, cell groups are a perfect representation of the imperfect. Bickering, whining, weak, neurotic people who need grace more than anything. But hey, didn't that sound like the 12 disciples? It's all the more reason why I think cell-groups are so important. They give us an opportunity for us to depend more on God and less on ourselves. To take each other as crutches rather than live in denial that we have two good feet when in reality we are crippled.

But there is one who heals the lame

And his name is Jesus

Seegeephobia-what's the cure?

2008-08-03T23:52:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that I suck at evangelism. Recently, a friend asked me what I was doing one Friday night and I told her that I was about to go to my small group. When I invited her, she politely declined, saying that she didn't function well in small groups

Now, mind you that this is someone who is no stranger to church stuff. She knows what a cell-group is and probably attended many in the past but now is not. But I also know that for many non-christians, the concept lands somewhere between somewhere between weirdsville and just weird. And the general impression, even for Christians, is that it's bunch of bored people talking Jesus stuff until they can go for supper.

At times, a CG can be pretty boring. And scary. You are sitting in a group with a bunch of people, some of whom you don't know very well, that you are encouraged to go Dr.Phil sharing caring with. So, is this is the way to spend a Friday night?

Damn right it is. You see, part of the beauty of a cell group is that it's the only way you can get introduced into the incredible awesomeness of a christian community family safely. The key word is 'family'. You don't always enjoy being with your family, and you have disagreements at times but when it comes down to the crunch and you need someone to help you out..blood is thicker than water

So too, Christ's blood binds us in small pockets of family called a cell group. We learn about head the head of this family, Jesus, in study; sometimes it's interesting, other times, not so. We share, awkwardly at times, defesively others until we realise that those walls that we have so cleverly built up come slowly tumbling down.

There is no love when there is no authenticity. And there cannot be authenticity without love. A good cell group doles this out, and the measure of a good group is not so much what techniques the leader uses but rather how much the leader and the group loves Christ.

The cure for my friend is simple. She must take the plunge. There is no love without risk and no one can scuba dive without submerging first. If you don't, you'll always snorkel on the surface admiring the view from the top but never quite getting up close.

Youth ministry out of control - part 1

2008-07-05T09:29:00.000-07:00

The title above came from a short video promo for youth ministry that I came across a few years ago. It spurred my foray into youth ministry on a large scale (because it was both inspiring and had a hot looking chick in it..:-) ) Ironically,it also describes how I see youth ministry these days.

When I look at youth ministry as it is done today, it is indeed out of control and definitely not in the positive vernacular of the phrase which the promo intended. One area of concern is the direction of which youth camps are conducted in general.

Youth camps…ah, what can one say about them? For some, it was the first time they committed their life to Christ. Cynically, I’ll then say and the next time round, recommitted again, and again, and again….

For others, it was a time of dread. One only has to read the excellent graphic novel “Blankets” by Craig Thompson to empathise with the loneliness and sense of exclusion suffered by many amidst the hypocrisy and regulated nature of a Christian youth camp. I know as many of those turned off Christ in a camp as those who turned to him as Lord and Saviour.

But I digress. What’s my beef? Here it is.

I think the concept of camps today is all wrong. Totally.

Camps are marketed as a place where you will get an ‘experience’. It’s also going to be ‘fun’, and the worship will rock your sox off ‘cause Lord knows we can’t get that at our church, right? You’re going to be able to spend time with God undistracted, save for the activity packed schedule. Maybe you can fit in some quiet time between brushing your teeth and changing into your pyjamas.

And wait, I haven’t even mentioned the speaker. Last year, they got this amazing speaker who spoke in a loud voice and made us laugh. Now that’s the spiritual test of a good speaker – they make us laugh (wonder where that is in the New Testament?) Of course, these days with our attention deficit disordered generation, we rely on something we can take back in experential terms which validates our attendance. How about….signs and wonders? Nothing like a personal prophecy to let me know that I didn’t blow 3 days of my leave and a hundred bucks to sleep in a cold, smelly bunk with people I don’t know.

I admit I was a tad sarcastic above. But tell me I’m wrong. Be brave and let me know you got the most boring speaker this side of Saddleback for your camp. I’ll bet even if he or she turned out to be a person who loved Jesus like nothing else mattered, and gave up all just to speak to people about his fame, I won’t be seeing him speaking anytime soon at your camps.

Why? Because you care about what the participants are going to write on their feedback form. You care about the senior pastor ragging you about numbers being down this year compared to last year when you got Mr. Rock Star speaker working the crowd. You care about your reputation in church, among the congregation, the youth..anyone else but the one to who matters.

At the end of the camp, when everyone is giving each other their last hugs and promising to see them on Facebook; they’ll reflect and go “ What a great time!”

Yes, it was. Because you went to Disneyland

In Disneyland, they want you to have a good time. That’s why grown men and women put on animal suits to amuse you by dancing and making funny sounds. See the parallel here? Heaven forbid that you should leave the theme park all sad, that would be bad for business.

Their training was bloody combat
And their combat was bloody training
- A Jewish historian commenting on the Roman Legions-

How do you prepare someone to sacrifice their life for the gospel if you give them three hot meals, five kick-butt worship songs in two sessions a day? How do you teach them to contend the word if all they get is a few photocopied pages from the latest insipid bestseller from a Christian bookstore to discuss in an hour? How do they learn to pray like Martin Luther when all they do is pray that they have a nice upper middle class life, so that they can go to University, get a boyfriend or girl friend, marry him or her and drive a Toyota Vios with a fish on the back?

Camps should be tough. Not brutal and sadistically tough for they breed hate, not love. But tough in the sense that when athletes enters the Olympic training center; they know they are not there to watch TV and order room service. They are there to train, to their utmost limit and the aim? To win the gold medal, or the crown, as Saint Paul would have written it.

At the end of the day, consider this fact. We sometimes forget that Paul constantly made many references to going into training and beating the body. Believe me, hard training in those ancient days was light years from the pansy body-pump sessions at your glitzy fitness studio. This may have something to do with the fact that maybe he knew the terrible price that the followers of Christ would have to pay one day in terms of persecution for that decision. To sugarcoat it would have been a lie.

If you enjoy camp too much, you keep wanting to go back to it. Like Disneyland. But it takes money and after a while, you get sick of the rides and you want to punch Goofy in the head. And when you’re seventy, it’s not for you. Your dentures may fall out on the Magic Mountain. After a while, even the initial perceived vastness of a theme park becomes too small. Maybe it is as their song goes; “it’s a small world after all”. Yes, it is. Their world is small

But it’s a big one in the real one outside.

Talkin' 'bout Revival

2008-06-27T09:33:00.000-07:00

I had a discussion with my cousin M tonight. He's a very theologically astute chappie who, like me, is a little left of center when it comes to dealing with church and church people. I prefer to diplomatically say that we've grown up in Christian circles and we've seen, as Judy Collins would sing it, "Both sides now". Tonight, we were discussing the topic of 'revival' and what it meant

Now and then, you here this word bandied around. In Malaysia, invariably because of the huge Pentecostal/Charismatic influence; it is usually taken to mean manifestations of 'signs and wonders'. However, in the past, this was different things to different people.

Was the reformation a revival? When Constantine instituted Christianity as the main religion in the Roman empire; was that a revival? I would argue "Yes"

Now here is the crux. And it is a contentious one. A revival brings about change. Duh, you say. Of course it does. But most Malaysians have a one-dimensional view of a revival. It goes something like this:

1) My faith gets revived
2) My CG is energised
3) My church and other churches get revived
4) My country gets revived

Sorry, folks. It's a tagline. A slogan. It means beans. You may personally feel revived. Great, so does a group of stressed out office professionals after a motivational course. And lets take it one step further, let's say people are streaming into your church and it's filling to the brim. Now, you say, the country is ripe for a revival. Okay, so why are your numbers still a single digit percentage of the population?

It's because in any true revival, no tells you of the nasty pain and problems that follow. During the reformation, we had the 30 year war. Brutal, nasty stuff. People died as a result. Revival in the U.K, puritans were chased to the New World. In most cases, a real revival is not followed by a period of peace or prosperity; but chaos and strife. Why?

Because anything that is truly of God is offensive to the world. The gospel is offensive to the world because it pokes it's eye and thus engenders a spiteful response. And this only happens when it deems the people who are revived to be a threat.

If all I do is claim that a revival is at hand when my fillings turn to gold; then I run the risk of claiming something that is counterfeit as real. How do I know this? Simple - the world will ignore you as a kook. It will continue to regard the church as irrelevant and inconsequential. You will be shunted out of discussions regarding world affairs, the environment, geopolitics, bio-ethics and the like. You are a primitive child to them and they will be happy to leave you alone in your corner messing about with 'signs' of blessings or the coming rapture or whatever.

Because your voice is inconsequential.

You will know a true revival when there is cost. Unbelievable cost. And what follows will not be the light drizzle that dries up as soon as the clods clear and the scorching sun comes out. It's the rain, the water that goes all the way down to the roots of the heart. And it makes it grow.

That is a true revival.

Stop! Don't pass Go first...

2008-06-05T08:18:00.000-07:00

Stop.

Breathe.

Think.

When was the last time you really thought about where your ministry at church was going? No, I'm not talking about the time you got together in a huddle, prayed for a 'Word' or heard a goofy 'still, small voice'. I'm talking about a time you sat down, used your grey matter and said " Hang on, what are we doing here?"

We have some seriously smart people in Church. The historical church had some superb contenders of the mind. For example,mI love D.A Carson's writings and sermons. I don't get all of it but what little I get knocks me away. And some of the smart people we have in church have professional qualifications up the wazoo and jobs to match, which begs the question:

Why do they leave their brains outside the church when they go in?

The gym where I train Jujitsu has this motto:"Leave your ego outside before you come in". Anyone who's ever served in a ministry capacity at most churches know that some of the people you work with usually left the wrong stuff outside.

When did the sudden ostracisation of the rational process and the deification of the 'experience' come in? Some of it may be due to the era we live in - a postmodern self-seeking oriented media fed culture. Some say this started when existentialism took off in popularity. I'm not sure but this will be addressed in later posts

The separation of the mind from all of this has dire consequences. It means that decisions regarding religious matters are more likely to be made based on all emotional based receptors; a dangeorous propostion for a pilot will tell you that there's a reason why a plane is flown with the aid of hundreds of objective gauges and instruments, and not a pilot's "gut feel"

So how do you engage the mind? The answer is simple. Stop. Just stop.

Emotions are like eating potato chips. They taste good, so you eat more. The trouble is that you don't know how much you've eaten until you've become large enough to have your own postcode. So if you want to cease eating - you've got to stop first

Take a breath. Go for a walk. Are you really hungry after that? Chances are that you weren't and you were just greedy. Same with some church experiences. You aren't really in communion with the Lord, that was maybe 20 minutes ago but you say " I'll keep singing that chorus 20 times to get that feeling of closeness nback and there's people crying on the floor, so I'll keep doing it till I get there'

You aren't really hungry. You've been filled, you just don't know it

Think. Think. Think.

For example, who told you to 'let go and let God?'. Your spiritual mentor? What's his authority? When did you last question the content of a sermon or did you just laugh at the jokes and file away three Joel Osteen-like points from it?

Thinking is hard work. It involves upsetting your own apple cart so a lot of people hate to do it. But when you take the time to do it, your Christian walk becomes so much richer and deeper. I am convinced that when we surrender our minds, the world will corrall us into a corner and happily zone Christians out of any influential decision making processes that affect the world at large. My deeper fear is that Christians will accept this demarcation and adopt a form of tribalism where they will only concern themselves with matters of a pseudo-religious nature; which the world happily tells us is our domain

Pretty soon, the church will end up like one of those houses suspended in water, where you shake them and the snow falls on it. The type you get at Christmas. And that's what we'll be - a small plastic representation of the real thing; brought out only once a year.

Stop. Breath. Think

SDG

Under the chestnut tree

2008-06-05T06:53:00.000-07:00

It's not easy being different.

I am not Emeth

He is a Calormene warrior in C.S Lewis' "The Last Battle". When the Pevensie's find him, he is under a chestnut tree. Pauline Bayne's artwork is spot on. She captures him pondering, wondering and a peace with himself. For why not? He has met Aslan himself.

Now a little about me...

I am a 5 Sola, TULIP, cessationistic, Amillenianist, Covenant Theology Reformed Calvinist in Malaysia; where 99.999% of Protestant Christians hold opposing views to the above. (Okay, I exaggerate, it's something like 99.2%.

So I am kind of used to being a different kind of Christian. And this is frustrating to some of my dear brother's and sisters in Christ who just wish I would stop thinking and theologising so much, just 'let go and let God', wave my hands in the air like I don't care and just stick to the Purpose Driven life

Nope. Sorry. Homey don't do dat :-)

I'm going to share my opinions about certain issues relating to Christianity and the church on this blog. If you don't like them, please keep in mind that this is my garden and no one has forced you to come here. But you are welcome to visit and I do appreciate civilised behaviour from genteel guests, so a little respect and courtesy when commenting will be the rule for the day. Ok? :-)

Sola Fide