Monday, April 30, 2007

Good prayer for people living in Singapore

I am in Thailand now for the Hope camp... thinking of the lifestyle in Singapore... think this prayer should echo many of our hearts' desire.

"Slow me down, Lord. Ease the pounding of my heart by the quieting of my mind. Steady my hurried pace with the vision of the eternal reach of time. Give me amidst the confusion of my days the calmness of the everlasting hills. Break the tension of my nerves with the soothing music of the singing streams that live in my memory. Help me to know that restoring power of sleep. Teach me the art of taking minute vacations of slowing down, to look at a flower, pat a stray dog, to chat with an old friend or make a new one, to watch a spider build a web or smile at a child or to read a few lines from a good book. Remind me each day that the race is not always to the swift. And that there’s more to life than increasing its speed. Let me look upwards through the branches of a towering oak and know that it grew great and strong because it grew slowly and well. Slow me down, Lord."

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Being & Keeping The Right Company

One of the many highlights for last week was when I spent time with Hong Teck. We did not meet in some fancy restaurant nor did we meet over some special food.

In fact, we caught up in the same roti prata makan place that we have been doing so for many months already. We had our usual kopi tarek and Hong Teck had two kosok prata.

What was most exciting during that meeting was when Hong Teck shared about his passion for life and for ministry. He shared with me about the importance of having vision for life and the Kingdom. He also shared how important it is for leaders to envision the team and that vision must bleed out of us as it resides within us.

Hong Teck shared with so much passion and fuel that I was afraid that he might get a stroke there and then. I was so captured and grabbed by his sharing. The vision that God had placed in his life had certainly overflowed into mine.

I thanked him for sharing his heart with me and he said something that would reside in my memory for a long time. He said that fellowship should be as such as we encourage and inspire one another towards greater venture for God! I could not have said it better and agreed more.

I learnt that I must be the right kind of company that people want to keep. I want to be a source of encouragement to those around me. I want to be God’s channel of strength to lift sagging shoulders and strengthen discouraged hearts.

Secondly, it also reminded me on the importance of keeping the right company. Alan Tea once preached a sermon about the importance of keeping with the right company. They will either make us or break us.

While we should not have a judgmental and critical spirit about it, we should really take stock of the company that we keep.

The bible says…
1 Corinthians 15:33
Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character."

I am not talking about having Disneyland kind of company where we live in an unreal make-believe world. By the way, Hong Teck also did share about the many obstacles that he faced in his life and in making the vision come to life.

What I am talking about is not denying reality but staring at reality in the face and yet trusting God more than the circumstances.

Some pearls of wisdom here: If we find ourselves having the stature to influence the prevailing less than ideal atmosphere, then it would be great for us to change it. However, if we find ourselves being overcome by it instead of overcoming it, then caution needs to be taken.

There are more times in my life that I would like to admit when I was more like a herald of bad news rather than the good news. I definitely need to make progress in this aspect of my life.

May we all seek to be the right kind of company as well as keep the right kind of company in our lives!

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Sleeping During Service

It’s been a long long time since I last remembered myself sleeping during service. It’s less nowadays as I often am the preacher! It is hard to fall asleep while you are preaching. I have been tempted to do so but I have yet to succumb to it.

After spending some time with Daniel and then Choon Yam, I visited the Indo service for the second time. The first time I was there was during the inaugural service when I preached.

For this time round, 95% of the service was conducted in Bahasa Indonesia. Jorry did a wonderful job leading the praise and worship. Alex was very prepared and chaired the service well. Mike was preaching and he was from Indonesia (he is now a Singaporean). Mike spoke really fluent Bahasa Indonesia (I was told) and it was awesome. The people really responded well to him.

At the start of the service, I was still listening to the translation but part way through, I gave up. It was just too fast and really hard to follow.

It was then that I fell asleep during the service. I was totally off in a jiffy. Emma, the Hope Spore paparazzi, took a snapshot of me! With friend as such, who needs enemy.


















I must say that I still have a lot to learn of the Indonesian culture. Apparently, the Indonesians like things slow. There were parts of the service where it was way too slow for me.

Yin San, the Indo leader, kept assuring me that it was the appropriate pace for Indo service. She was having a hearty time laughing at me (perhaps the vein on my forehead was showing again in my desire to move things faster).

I have so much to learn from and grow in.

“Lord, please continue to bless the Indo service greatly. Please empower my precious brothers and sisters to serve you powerfully. Help us to reach out to more Indonesians and to disciple them well. Help us to reach beyond 100 people at the end of this ministry year!

Thank you Jesus for the two new believers over the past weeks that are coming along so well. May you continue to show yourself real to them.

And please help people to not sleep when I preach!"

Thursday, April 19, 2007

His Banner Over Me Is Love

His Banner Over Me Is Love, His Love...

In recent weeks, there is this song from Hillsong's "God He Reigns" album entitled "His Love" that has ministered to me a great deal. It is my current fave running song. I just love it! Once, I hit the repeat button more than 4 times to listen it over and over again.

It has a wonderful beat and it really reminds me of how much my God loves me! Indeed, with His love, I can run both a thousands miles in my service for Him and probably a few miles (cannot even do 10 miles yet!) in physical running.

If you have the chance, do check this song out. It's a rather new song for me but I am not sure if the album is new or not. Anyhow, I hope this song will do you as much good as it has done for me.

Thanks for loving the often unlovely and unlovable me! Thank you Jesus!


















Here's the lyrics...

His Love: Raymond Badham

Verse:
Your light is over me
flooding over me
the night is lifted
Heaven over me
flooding over me
I can't contain it

PreChorus:
My cup overflows
My cup overflows

Chorus:
Praise the Lord with all my heart
Praise Him for He has done great things
His banner over me is love, His love
His banner over me is love, His love

Bridge:
You brought the sunshine in
and turned the dark to day
You made the shadows flee away
You opened my eyes
to a new and living way
the dawning of a brand new day

©2005 Hillsong Publishing (Admin. in U.S. & Canada by Integrity's Hosanna! Music)

Monday, April 16, 2007

Becoming More Courageous

Courage is a very important quality for leadership and for life. Courage is the opposite of fear. Fear can cause us to be angry, insecure, to lack faith, to be negative, to be critical in a bad way.

Courage is a distinct quality that all leaders need to have in their lives. Courage enables us to do what is right, to stay our course, to lead our people to new heights, to persevere, to have growth points in our lives and our ministries.

David versus Goliath (1 Samuel 17) is a story of courage. It is a story of God working through someone who decided to be courageous.

Israel was at war with Philistines. The Philistine champion was Goliath and he was calling for a one-on-one battle with anyone from Israel. Goliath was over 9 feet tall (that’s 2.7m tall!... slightly taller than me...)

The obvious person from Israel to fight one-on-one with Goliath was King Saul (he had both the positional and physical stature to do so). He was the king and he was described “a head taller than any of the others”.

Saul might have the position and he had the external appearance but he did not have courage. And because of his own cowardice, it caused the whole Israelite camp to be fearful (they were taunted by Goliath for 40 days).

Let’s look at the circumstances that cause David to develop courage in his life.

1) Through The Challenges That We Face In Our Everyday Living (1 Samuel 17:34-37)

David could have run away and no one would have known. He could have fabricated a story of how fierce the lions or the bears were (like Joseph’s brothers) but he did not.

David did not say that it was his own strength, his own knowledge that helped him but that it was the Lord who helped him out and would help him out again when facing Goliath.

It was in the everyday moments when nobody was watching that David built his courageous heart.

2) Through The External Criticism & Opposition That We Face (1 Samuel 17:26-29)

Eliab, David’s eldest brother, was burning with anger with David even though David did nothing wrong.

David was sent by their father; the sheep was left with another shepherd (v20). David was just being obedient to his father’s instruction.

Why did Eliab mistreated David in such a way?

It could very well be that Eliab was angry with himself. In David, he saw his own cowardice (when he was with the other people who were also afraid, he did not feel too bad about himself).

Perhaps, he felt ashamed of himself. Perhaps the fear of facing his true self caused him to be negative and angry.

How did David respond? David merely stated his position and then he moved on to do what he had planned to do. He did not go into a verbal war and argument with his negative brother. He did not allow unfair criticism to have much power in his life, he moved on with his mission.

Having said that, criticism is either true or false or a mixture. If it is true, then we fix what needs to be fixed and then move on (don't be a self martyr). If it is false, just dismiss it and move on (don’t allow it to cause you to lose heart).

3) Through Resisting The Pressure To Conform (1 Samuel 17:38-40)

Saul dressed David in his own tunic (Saul was a big guy physically while David was a small young man).

David did a really courageous thing to say no to Saul. Saul was the king and a renown warrior. David was unknown and a shepherd boy. It would have been really easy for David to say “Saul should know more than me. I should think that he must be right, what do I know?”

David knew his own gifts and served God in the way that God has called him.

4) Through Facing The Crisis Moments Of Life (1 Samuel 17:41-50)

David had been trusting God in his every day challenges and it made him even stronger as he gone through the crisis period. David faced Goliath head on and he trusted in God and God delivered him.

The summary of the whole story is really found in verse 45. With God, we can indeed be courageous. We need to face our Goliaths, we cannot run away from them.

At the end of the day, this is not really a story about David’s courage or his skills with the sling or his willingness to take risk, it is really a story about God. It is a story about how God is faithful to help us when we trust in Him.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

An Even Bigger Regret?

Because of what happened last week (see 7 April entry), I decided to give this morning return leg between Man U and Roma a miss. Like I said, I wanted to be good stewards of my office hours.

So when I woke up at 6:08am this morning to turn on my mobile. 5 sms-es came through. 2 from Joshua, 2 from my sis and 1 from Alvin Poon. All 3 are die hard Man U fans! We thrashed Roma 7-1!

Now, regret of another kind is seeping in. Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson hailed on Tuesday night's 7-1 Champions League thrashing of Roma as the greatest European night of his 20-year reign and I slept it through.

Imagine people talking about this great event and then they ask me where I was when that happened.... I was sleeping in bed! Certainly not a good testimony.

So now at around 6:20am in the morning, I just have to express my joy and slight regret through this entry.

Now, the semis… should i watch?!?




check out the scoreboard at the top

Monday, April 09, 2007

Easter 2007

Thanks to all who contributed to our Easter services. To the decor people, the video team, the music band, the singers, the ushers and all other unsung heroes, a big thanks to all of you! You have made a difference!

Thanks to the video team for bringing Dave's story to life! Thanks to the singers for helping us hear the love of God in our hearts. Thanks to the decor team for wow-ing us with the big visual declaration of Hope on stage. Thanks to the band for ministering to our spirit. Thanks to the ushers who guided many into Nexus and even more so to the Kingdom. Thanks to all of you who shared your stories live to remind us once again that Jesus is real.

Thanks especially to those among us who brought our friends to a safe place to hear the dangerous message of Jesus' love.

Thank you all!

Thanks also to Steven and Jian Cong for using your creative and drawing talent to serve God! It has definitely helped many to cross the line of faith over the weekend. We appreciate your hardwork and artwork very much.

Some of you have commented and emailed to me that you liked this segment of the Easter Service very much. So here are some pics for you (permission granted already).




































Let's continue to help our new brothers and sisters to grow in Him as well as pray for those that have yet to know Jesus personally.

Saturday, April 07, 2007

2 Regrets & 1 Blessing

Last week, I did 2 things that I really regretted.

Firstly, because I had to find a place to do some work before the Easter rehearsal, I settled in Mac Café. It was around 6 pm plus. I bought a big cup of Latte and an apple crumble.

It's long been established that I should never drink coffee after 5pm. It will always affect my sleep or rather cause me to not be able to sleep at all. I remembered it but I did it anyway.

Lo and behold, I could not sleep on that night. Although I was dead tired, my mind came racing from stuff to stuff. I was only able to find some reasonable shut eye time after 4-5am.

Then on Tuesday night, after settling some admin stuff past the midnight hour, I decided to stay up for the Man U – Roma game. I don’t usually stay up for these graveyard shift games. I know that it would affect my tomorrows (sometimes it is more than a one day hang over… must be aging!) Anyhow, I remembered those past experiences but I did it anyway.

The result was less than ideal (we lost 2-1) but the after effect was much worse. I got up the next day much earlier than before (because I could not get to sleep after the game). We did some banking and then head to the office.

It was a long long day at the office. It was hard to keep focus. I really regretted and repented for not stewarding my time better :( The only silver lining in this was that it was only a one day thingy...

The one blessing, among many, that I wanted to highlight was that I headed to the office on Good Friday morning and I discovered that I had forgotten to bring along the office keys. It was a public holiday and no one was in the office.

But praise be to God, James was there in the office. James had apparently stayed over at the office after the Mandarin all night prayer meeting. I had totally forgotten about that. This was a first for James to stay overnight and it was also a very rare time that I had forgotten the office keys. God is soooo good to me. It was indeed a good Friday for me!

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

God's Presence

During one of the prayer meetings a few weeks ago, Mike was using the passage below as a platform. I was really inspired by it. How ironic it would indeed be for the house of bread to have no bread. Similarly, how ironic it would indeed be for the house of God to have no God. We really need His Presence big time! Let's all yearn for more of His Presence in our lives!

"The bread of [Thy] presence."
Numbers 4:7 NRSV

Bread in The Old Testament symbolised God's presence. That's why Numbers 4:7 refers to "the bread of [Thy] Presence." When famine drove Naomi and her family out of Bethlehem (House of Bread), they left for the same reason people leave churches today - no bread!

Tommy Tenney writes: "Why do so many people flock to clubs and bars looking for crumbs? Because they tried the church and found only old recipes and cold ovens; there was no presence of God in the pantry.

"For some churches it's a pride thing; through tradition, they try to preserve the image of where God's been, at the expense of where He is now! They talk about what He used to do - but what about now? It's time we set aside our personal agendas and man-made games; it's time to say, 'He must increase, but I must decrease' (John 3:30).

"When people experience the presence of God it overrides human theologies and changes hearts. Why? Because someone with an experience is never at the mercy of someone with an argument. On the other hand, when people experience only a hint of God mixed with other things, it immunises them to the real thing.

"The problem isn't that God's not in the church, it's that sometimes there's not enough of Him to make the needed difference! Ezekiel said, 'I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple' (Ezekiel 47:1 NIV). If living water is to reach this generation, it must first flow down through the church aisles and out through us!"

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Indo At The City Bayview

31 March 2007 marked our first Indonesian Service in the City Bayview Hotel. It was awesome!

I was so excited that I arrived at the hotel at around 1:40pm. The service was due to start at 4pm! I was early because I wanted to spend time with the Indo team and encouraged them along the way. It was great to see everyone being mobilized.

Yin San and Jorry, the Indo service leaders were also there with the rest of us. We went through the décor, the food, the music, the sound, the praise and worship, the ushering and every other thing that needed to be in place. I am so proud of the whole team.

At around 3:15pm, We had our pre-service prayer and from the way they prayed, it was evident that not only everyone’s hands were in this, everyone’s hearts were in it too.

Our service started promptly at 4pm. The worship team was fantastic. The musicians were really skillful and the worship leaders led us into the presence of God. Although I could not understand most of the Bahasa songs, I was still ministered by being in the Spirit’s Presence.

One of the highlights was a video presentation that chronicled the growth of the Indonesian group over the years. It was a powerful visual testimony of the faithfulness of God.

I preached from the gospel of John after the video. I tried to insert a few Bahasa words here and there but to little avail :(

The room was packed and it was indeed “warm” fellowship. I believed that there were close to 60 people in the service.

At the end of the service, all of us committed ourselves to God by writing our little prayers on little footprints that were given out to all of us. This was in line with the service theme, "A New Step".

After the service, we fellowshipped at the nearby Kopi Tiam. To say that the Indonesians love fellowship would be an understatement of the century!

“Jesus, I want to thank you for our Indo group. I am so blessed by their hearts and love for you and for one another. May you continue to cause them to prosper in every aspect of their lives and ministries. Lord, bless the leaders and help them to lead them to greater heights. May your Name be praised through all that they do. Amen.”

Some useful information for you to bring your Indonesian friends and relatives to our services.

The Indonesian service is held every Satruday at the City Bayview Hotel on Bencoolen Street. The service starts at 4pm. You can contact Yin San at 63179155 (Tel) for more info.

Below are some photos from Simon Chan. Thanks bro.




Church bulletin & little footprints







Worship Time







Preaching Time










Committing To God Through Little Footprints







The Whole Family