Saturday, October 28, 2006

A Refreshing Morning…

I took a day leave on Friday to just simply get away from it all for a moment. My hope is that it would help me to be refreshed and be refocused on things from a godly perspective.

As I had been living in the western part of Singapore for most part of my life, I planned to take the morning to explore the different sights and sounds and taste of the north-eastern part of the island.

At just before 9am, I went to the Serangoon Garden Hawker Centre (the one beside the popular Chomp Chomp) to eat the famous Kway Chap. I had tried to sample the food in my past 3 visits but they were not open for dinner. I managed to find a good parking lot in the rather crowded place. It was tasty but not as good as I had expected it to be. Perhaps my expectations were too high.

I completed breakfast with my usual cup of kopi while reading through The Straits Times and Today. It was really good to slow down as I took the opportunity to observe the different groups of people around me; ranging from retirees, housewives, young adults (perhaps taking leave like me) and children. It caused me to think about the dreams and fears that these people would have in their lives. How can we, as a church, present Jesus relevant and real to them?

After breakfast, I went to Kovan Heartland Mall. My initial intention was to go there to eat the famous Peanut Pancakes but there was no space left in me. Anyhow, I walked around in the Mall for around 20 minutes. I visited a video/DVD shop. Apparently, this stall has quite a large collection of WWE VCDs. I was just browsing around and it did not take me long to lose interest before heading back to the car park.

Next, I went to Punggol Plaza. I went to the NTUC Supermarket to browse through the food section. Recalling my talk with Claudia, about me not being able to lose weight despite the many hours of exercise, stopped me from buying any “sinful” stuff. I walked swiftly out of the Supermarket like how Joseph ran away from Potiphar’s wife!

Thereafter, I want to buy a curry puff from Sengkang Sqaure. I took the time to smell as well as to eat my puff. I could not recall when was the last time I actually took the time to simply smell my food. In other countries, they talked about taking the time to smell the flowers but in Singapore, our version would be to take the time to just smell our food.

I ended my tour of the north-eastern part of Singapore by getting my car filled up at the petrol kiosk. There were two queues for payment. I was on the shorter queue when I discovered that the cashier was taking a long time to explain to a Caucasian guy about applying for some petrol redemption card program. I was frustrated at the long wait and moved myself to the longer queue.

As I was waiting in the new queue, it struck me on why am I always in such a hurry. Where was I rushing to and what was I rushing to do? To my amusement, I ended up waiting even longer in this new queue than if I were to remain patient in the former queue. Like what one friend had once said to me, “less haste, more speed”. How true is this statement in my life!

God, please teach me to slow down and to enjoy the journey of my life with you. The enjoyment is not only in reaching the destination but in every step of the journey.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

E-Learning Opportunities

One of the greatest things that come out of the internet era is the easy access to many good and free learning.

In the past, whenever I wanted to learn something, I recalled having to visit bookshops and then spent countless hours poring over pages and pages to seek out relevant information. I also remembered having to spend money buying cassettes to listen to the teaching on my walkman (remember these things?).

Nowadays, resources are a plenty if we would only have the desire to learn. There are churches and organizations that allow their preaching and teaching to be streamed for viewing. There are even churches that share the transcripts of their sermons.

I remembered the first time I discovered these resources on the net. It was like finding an oasis in the Sahara desert! These resources have really floated my boat (reminded of this saying by Hong Teck recently) over all these years of serving and walking with Jesus.

I am eternally grateful for these resources that had often found me in my times of needs. Many of these teachers and preachers have mentored me in more ways that I could ever recollect.

Like the bible had said, much is given and much will be expected. Living in the internet age had opened so many doors for us to learn as well as to share and spread grace. Let’s be good stewards of what God have given us to further His cause.

Some of the good website that you can check out are as follows…

www.pastors.com
http://www.mppcfamily.org
http://www.joycemeyer.org
http://www.manutd.com

One of them may have nothing to do with teaching…

I know that there are many more but these are some that I would visit on a more frequent basis.

Happy learning and growing

Monday, October 23, 2006

Mandarin Camp At Sentosa

I was at the Mandarin Camp on Saturday and Sunday evenings. It was an awesome time.

On the first night, Pastor Kung Ching and her team (from Hope Kuching) ministered prophetically mostly to the leadership team of the Mandarin group. All of them were visibly encouraged and strengthened by words of encouragement and reminder. I went around noting the words given so that I would help in any way for the team to be further built up.

Pastor Kung Ching also encouraged the whole congregation to rally around James (our Mandarin pastor) to fulfill God’s plan for the church. On the second morning, many broken and strained relationship were mended during the time of response.

Claudia and I really enjoyed spending time with our Mandarin church people. There is always such a strong spirit of family bond and diversity in the group. It really personifies the concept of the church being a body and how it grows from strength to strength as each part does its work.

Here are some photos that I would like to share with all of you...

We have the young aunties (it’s a great place to bring our parents to)













Then the younger adults













And then the youngest children













Me, James, Connie and Claudia













Me and my dad-in-law













Andrew & Sau Hoi













James praying for David on his birthday













People being amazed that I can write in Chinese!













I really pray and hope that we can all connect our Mandarin speaking parents, relatives and friends to our growing Mandarin group. This is a gift that God has given to our church for that purpose. May our mandarin church continue to prosper!

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Life After Hair Cut

I spent $45 on my new hair do. It was quite an experience for me. I felt like an innocent lamb led to the slaughter. The hairstylist told me what he would be doing and I agreed without giving much thought at all. I just wanted a change and almost anything would do for me…

Here’s a picture before the visit














Here’s the slaughterhouse (It’s Hairy!)














If anyone of you were to visit this place after appreciating and admiring my new hairdo, please tell them you got to know about their salon off my blog. I may be able to get discount if I do visit there again.

If you saw my hairdo and decided to never visit this place ever, then there may not be a need to tell them where you get your information from…

Here’s the outcome!














Here’s the outcome and the instigator in getting a new hairdo














When I came to office on the next day, LO commented that it was "a just wake up kind of look" hairdo and a hairstyle that one gets after a long flight from the States.

Yin San told me twice on that day that my hair was long and that I needed to have my hair cut. I just had it cut the day before!!!

Many of the other people encouraged me to have my hair colored, dyed or highlighted. This time I am a bit more cautious about being so liberal in accepting hair challenges.

James said that he would help me style my hair.

Whatever the case, I am learning to be satisfied with my new hairdo. The more I look at it, the more it looks fine to me.

It may be crown of thorns to others but it’s crown of glory to me!

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

It’s Hairy!

After keeping my hair for more than a month, D-day would finally be coming within the next few days. For me to not visit the hair salon for more than a month is like a minor miracle for me.

I hate the feeling for having my hair touching my ears and necks. It makes me feel itchy and hot and heavy! That is why I had been keeping my hair really short over the past years. In fact, if I had things my way, I would have kept no hair at all. However, Claudia said that it would make me look like an over-size monk or mafia and it would not help His cause too much.

Recently, I had seen some of the people around me having a new makeover in their hair style. And I must comment that some of them looked really good. I had also been “challenged” to go for a new hair style as well. It was really a challenge for me as I prefer my hair to be as non-existent as possible to keep my head light and cool and free of itch.

Convicted of a need to change, I had been keeping my hair longer over the past month. To be able to have a new hair style, I need to firstly have hair for them to style! Thus, I had been carrying my cross for the past month. And the day of glorification (prayerfully) is coming this week as I will be visiting a highly recommended hair stylist in Fast East Plaza. These is this hair stylist that is good at creating new look and his service does not come cheap.

Why am I doing this? Vanity has some but very little influence for me. Mainly, it is to look more contemporary and fashionable such that I could get the message out to more people.

Please be kind to me if you see me in my new hair-do and you do not like it very much! The truth is that I may not like yours very much either…

Saturday, October 14, 2006

A Day Of Feasting & Fellowship

One of the things that I had been observing over the years is that many of our church guys tend to put on weight over time. As I looked at old photos, most of the guys have “grown” rather significantly.

I guess there are probably 2 key reasons for this phenomenon. Firstly, living in Singapore has limited our range of recreational activities. I think Singapore national sport really is eating. My bet is that many of us would know where to get what kind of best food around the island.

Secondly, as we age, we mostly do life together through conversations. And what better Singaporean way of conversing than over food. We do life together eating.

I woke up feeling rather stuffed this morning. The reason is because I did life in a big way with some brothers over 2 big meals yesterday. For lunch, Alan and I enjoyed the buffet at Merchant Court Hotel. We ate and discussed over many matters for almost a good 3 hours. It was very rewarding in every sense of the word. For food, there were oysters, salmon, durian pudding, chocolate fondue with fruits, crabs claws and many more. On our talk, we spoke about ministry, life, work and various friends and other matters.

We had earlier planned to go to TCC after the buffet but there was no more space for even a drop of coffee.

After a meeting at Nexus in the evening, Sunny and some of the guys decided to go to Geylang for durian. This is mainly to celebrate Sunny’s birthday. It was a first for me but apparently, some of these guys had done this sort of night eating tours before. To our dismay, the durian season is almost over and we could not get our “hairy mountain king” durian (literal translation that I had learnt from Dave Yew). We had to settle for the lower grade types.














As the fruit and the drinks were laid out, we began to share the happenings in our lives. We talked about the challenges in our work, our exercise routine (or the lack of it), our upcoming overseas trips and others.

When I reached home at just over the midnight hour, I was totally exhausted. I guess my body had been working overtime to digest the large amount of food that I had consumed. My body was really bloated. My heart was rather filled as well. As I rested on my bed, I recalled snippets of the various contacts that took place during the day. I prayed to God that I had somehow been able to share some of the God-life in me with the people around me.

God promised us that when we see Him in heaven, there is going to be a banquet laid out for us. It is going to be a feast of rich food (not low fat healthy tasteless food!) consisting the best of meats and wines.

Isaiah 25:6-9
On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine-- the best of meats and the finest of wines.

So I guess what I did yesterday was like a rehearsal of some sorts for the greatest feast that is to come!

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Leading & Learning

This week is a much more relax week for me. I will only be preaching in the Young Adults Service in Grace AOG church on Saturday.

Because it had been rather tight for the past few weeks, I intentionally took the time during this week to just slow down and to read/watch/listen and learn in the evenings. It had been quite a while since I had the luxury of catching up on the resources.

Like Rick Warren had said over and over again, a leader is a learner. We need to continue to grow and develop such that we can lead our people forward. The moment we’re done learning, then we are really done!

Thus far, I had listened to 2 leadership teachings focusing on the need to be faithful and the checklist of leadership.

The first teaching was really refreshing as I was reminded again on the need to be faithful. The building blocks of a faithful life are built upon the many small things of our lives. We need to faithful with our words, faithful with every task that had been entrusted to us and our time. Faithful seems to be an “uncool old-school” concept of the past era. But in God’s dictionary, it is an eternal quality that he looks for in His people.

1 Corinthians 4:2
Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.

The second teaching brought me back to a character checklist for leadership found in 1 Timothy 3. Once again, these are not new revelations but simple qualities that I already know. However, it is one thing to know but quite another thing to actually do. I need to be very intentional to not only be a preacher of God’s truth but a practitioner as well.

Meanwhile, I am also watching a DVD entitled “The Trail and Testimony of The Early Church”. It chronicles the amazing story of early Christianity and how it thrives despite repeated attempts to suppress it. It gave me a deeper appreciation of church history and the faith of the founding fathers.

On the sideline, there is also this book that I had been flipping through rather slowly. I hope to complete perhaps a third of it by the end of this week. The book is about lasting leadership. It features lessons from the top 25 business people of our times. The list includes Andy Grove (Intel), Peter F. Drucker, Jack Welch (GE) and Sam Walton (Wal-Mart). I am doing my best to learn from varied leadership sources.

I think that I may have been too ambitious to try to absorb too many things at one go. Whatever the case, I hope to glean as much insight as I can from all these resources. Just as Jesus grew in wisdom, I need to follow suit as well.

A leader is a learner...

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Areas of Personal Growth

We had just finished our quarterly combine team rally. The worship led by Shirley and the youth band was truly awesome. The tangible presence and awe of God was experienced by many. The Filipino group took the meeting another notch higher with their hand mime performance entitled the “Heart of One”. All of us were truly blessed by their performance.

I taught about growing like Jesus had grown while he was on planet earth. We need to be intentional, and not left it to be accidental, in our growth. Although Jesus was sinless, he still continued to grow from strength to strength and glory to greater glory. Thus as his followers, we need to follow in his steps.

We learnt from Luke 2:52 about Jesus’ development.

Luke 2:52
And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

The four areas of Jesus growth were as follows…

1)We Need To Grow In Our Mental Capability

Jesus grew in wisdom. He developed his mental capability and capacity. We need to love God with our mind. We need to be reading more, spending more time to reflect and asking questions to people who are ahead of us in certain areas of our lives.

2)We Need To Grow In Our Physical Health

Jesus also developed in his physical stature. We need to watch our diet as well as exercise regularly. Being sick and sluggish is not honoring God with our bodies.

3)We Need To Grow In Our Spiritual Being

To grow in favor with God is basically to have a stronger and closer relationship with Him. When we have a close relationship with God, it will affect all other areas of our lives.

4)We Need To Grow In Our Social Life

Lastly, Jesus grew in favor with men as well. To love God and to love people are the greatest commandments for our lives. We need to be developing closer relationship with people inside and outside (at this moment) of the Kingdom.

All of us who are Christ-followers need to be intentional and deliberate in developing these growth areas in our lives.

May Christ-likeness be formed in us more and more.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

A Very Tight Week

This is an extremely tight week for me.

After gathering the numerous feedbacks for the Sunday Adults Services, there are a few pointers to work on for this coming weekend. It appears that the work life series has blessed many believers. Many had told me that their eyes were opened and their hearts were convicted to becoming a much better salt and light in the marketplace. This is wonderful.

On the outreach side, the feedback is that the work life series would help the pre-believers to move up the scale but not necessarily to cross the line of faith as yet. Let’s continue to use this coming weekend for this purpose. Let’s continue to trust God for more to cross the line as well.

Please pray with me for the believers to be excellent in the marketplace and for the pre-believers friends to experience Jesus.

Till today, my sermon for this week is only about 60% done. I can really identify well with the title of the sermon for this week: Why Am I Working Like A Dog?!? I am a bit nervous about it. Anyway, I will work hard and ask God for His divine guidance for the sermon.

The other good news is that I had improved in my stamina for quite a fair bit. While I am still far from being the marathon material, I had increased my running time to around 45 minutes now. The theory is that you would only burn your reserve fats (and I have lots of them) after running for more than 30 minutes. The first 30 minutes of run does not burn any fats at all. That explains my size when I only run for 30 minutes maximum in the past…

My main purpose for running is to keep my mind and body fresh while I preach on the weekend. When I am unfit, I find my mind drifting immediately after I close my eyes in the attempt to pray. I may mouth theologically correct prayer words but my mind is totally disengaged. It does not help me to engage the people in aiding us to respond to God’s Word.

To be very honest, I really dread it on most times when I had to jog. It is really a case of self-denial and self-discipline (almost to the point of self-mutilation for me). I keep reminding myself that running is my way of loving God with my strength.

Jesus taught us to love God with all that we have. I attempt to increase my love for God in every one of the 4 aspects (listed in Mark 12) on an annual basis. Let’s all seek to love God more holistically in our lives in an ever increasing fashion.

Mark 12:30
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.