Orbi Goot Chiak Chooroot Ang Moh Chiak Chooroot

Monday, 12th January 2009

"Orbi goot. Chiak chooroot. Angmoh chiak chooroot."

(translated as "You deserved it!" The second and third parts of the rhyme, which literally means "Smoke cigar. Caucasian smokes a cigar" are superfluous but were probably added on because "chooroot" rhymes with "goot". )

How many of you recall the above nursery rhyme? It is usually said when someone gets the consequence of what he deserves. For example, if someone does not do his homework and the teacher makes him stand outside the classroom as punishment, the other students would chant the above.

We'll come back to that in a moment...

Those of you who have been following my blog regularly would probably realise that the senior pastor of my church, Rev Peter Koh and I are not exactly the best of friends.

After all, Rev Koh was the one who removed me from church leadership in Aug 2007, shut down my cell in Dec 2007, gave my name to the police regarding a vandalism case in Jun 2008 and "wrote" the article about antinomianism which negatively insinuates NewCre and the grace gospel that it propagates, even though so many people (like yours truly) have been blessed by finally discovering what the true gospel of Jesus Christ is.

And thanks to his law-based and performance-based pulpit ministry, I have been forced to take a sabbatical from my church, which is where my family have been worshipping for 5 consecutive generations, since it was established in the early 1930s.

I would be lying if I were to tell you that I did not have hard feelings against him at some point or another.

My dad has been in church leadership for more than half his 74 years here on earth, and he had of course hoped to see his son follow in his footsteps. I am sure it pleased him tremendously to see me being appointed Honorary Treasurer of his church in Aug 2006 and then cell leader of 3L7 in Jan 2007... only for both to come to an abrupt end in Aug 2007.

I am sure it caused him much anguish and heartbreak to have to accompany his son to the police station on 5 Jun 2008 in connection with the vandalism case for which his son was wrongly implicated and subsequently exonerated. The investigative police officer took a statement from me and made me write "Peter Koh = pig" 30 times to determine whether my handwriting matched the one who wrote those same words on the pillar of the flyover, located outside my church. Of course, the conclusion reached was that it was not mine. In spite of causing much inconvenience and potential embarassment to me, Rev Koh has not found the need to offer me any apologies.

Just last Christmas, my dad and I greeted each other with a hug, upon which he told me, "Son, I missed you... in church", to which I replied, "I miss you too, dad" and just at that moment, the Holy Spirit prompted me to add on, "...but I will see you in church this coming Sunday". That Sunday (28 Dec 08), my wife and I decided to sit with my parents (instead of the mezzanine floor) and will be doing so going forward whenever Ps Reuben preaches at the main service.

Yes, I can think of so many other reasons to justify why I should dislike this man, who has caused so much disruption to my family.

His ministry is not exactly flourishing -- while there is huge growth in the Chinese-speaking service (which recently just launched a 2nd service) and the youth service (which saw a record turnout yesterday), the English-speaking service has stagnated, to put it mildly. The campaign to bless 10,000 people was only 35% fulfilled, attendances at prayer meetings and cell attendances are at all-time lows, and tithes/offerings have also fallen drastically. This should not be of any surprise since law-based activities are not sustainable.

But I am not rejoicing at what is happening to PLMC. When the shepherd spends his time finding fault with other shepherds like Ps Joseph Prince instead of feeding his own sheep, we are the ones that end up either malnourished, or worse yet, with food-poisoning. The solution is for the sheep to seek supplementary food elsewhere, which is what many others are currently doing.

Neither do I rejoice over what is happening to Rev Koh at the moment because of the plagiarism case. When one member of the body of Christ suffers, it affects the others as well.

And this ties in with yesterday's blog entry about ROOTSS now having a loyal and established following, and me having to blog more responsibly.

In the final analysis, Rev Koh is doing what he is doing because he truly and sincerely believes what he is doing is for the good of PLMC. He believes that NewCre's doctrine is antinomian, so when one of the church leaders is seen to be embracing what he considers heresy, he does what he thinks is best for PLMC by removing him from leadership and disbanding his cell, hoping that it will prevent that "heresy" from spreading. In fact, one ROOTSS reader (who attends NewCre) actually said that he showed leadership when he removed those who do not see eye-to-eye with him , and I have to agree with her.

What he does not realise, however, is that he is kicking against the goads like what Saul was doing (Acts 26:14), and instead of preventing the spreading of the grace gospel, it is causing the opposite effect! Saul was likewise truly and sincerely believing that what he was doing (as recorded in Acts 8) was for the good of the established religion of his time when he went about persecuting the early church. God used that act to cause the gospel to spread outward from Jerusalem into Judea and Samaria. Likewise, Rev Koh's clamping down on the grace message has instead caused even more of his flock to be exposed to, and to ultimately, embrace it :-D

I recall a lunch I had with the TRAC President Rev Dr Wee Boon Hup back in Jan 2007 and remember what he told me during that meal. (Rev Wee is someone I deeply respect because he was the one who counselled me back in Dec 2002 when my marriage was then on the rocks, and also the one whom God first used to reveal to me the truths about tithing back in Aug 2005).

Anyways, Rev Wee told me that a fundamental difference between a person of the world and a believer is this: When someone falls, the person of the world would say," Ha ha. You deserved it", but the believer would hang around to help that person pick up the pieces.

Or to put it in juvenile lingo, the person of the world would say, "Orbi goot. Chiak chooroot. Angmoh Chiak chooroot.", hence the title of today's blog entry.

The believer (and especially so for a grace-based one) would thicken his skin and help that person pick up the pieces, even when he or she does not show any appreciation to the one doing so.

And that is why when Rev Barnabas Chong (previous W&M and youth pastor of PLMC, and a very. very good friend of Rev Peter Koh) was hospitalised back in March 2007, I volunteered to send his two elder sons for their tuition and taekwando lessons and even went to fetch him home when he was discharged from NUH.

God forbid, but should he ever get hospitalised again, I would willingly do the same again, even though he despised the Crocs that I had given to him and his youngest son by offering them for sale at half-price, has specifically *blocked me off from his Facebook profile*, and continues to spread vicious rumours about me and the current youth pastor.

* This is a photo on Facebook that was taken by Kelvin Lee. Notice that the names of Kelvin and Reuben are in blue and hyperlinked to their profile, but that of Rev Barnabas Chong is in black with the hyperlink disabled* :-D

When he was posted out from PLMC in Aug 2007, I volunteered to film his farewell service and even hand-delivered the DVD to his new church office in Novena Court.

I still look forward to the day (hopefully this side of heaven) when we can be reconciled, because deep inside, I know he loves God and means well too. Please continue to keep us in prayer.

Tomorrow, I will blog about another nursery rhyme...