Of Provisions and Channels

Sunday, 29th March 2009

I used to serve in the LCEC of my church as its Honorary Treasurer. I recall during one such LCEC meeting whereby a senior church leader highlighted to us that Methodists are not allowed get any source of funding from the Tote Board, hence we need alternative sources of funding, one of which is the bienniel Methodist Walk, which I blogged about yesterday.

Our founder, John Wesley was totally against any forms of drinking or gambling, and his followers were to abstain from such vices absolutely.

The reason why Wesley was so adamant was because his ministry was to the coalminers of his day. These were the blue-collar workers, as it were, who after a hard day's work, would go to the nearby pub for drinks and to throw dice and oftentimes would emerge from it drunk and broke. In order to help them break out of these strongholds, rather than tell them that a glass or two was sufficient or wagering a pound or two was sufficient, the best treatment was to tell them to go "cold turkey".

Hence, a good Methodist who is true to the teachings of John Wesley is not supposed to even touch a single drop of beer, or take part in any lucky draw. Although we Methodists do not talk about such topics (because they are considered taboo), I will not be surprised if in any given pew of any service, more than half has either drank a glass of beer or bought a lottery ticket in the last 3 months, or both.

I recall an occasion back in 2006 when a member of my then-cell actually said during a cell meeting that he had bought 4D based on the birthday of the youth pastor's youngest son! He was a new-born believer, so he did not realise what he said was better left unsaid. After being counseled by the cell and cluster leader, he now knows better than to even talk about it; he just buys it on the sly :-D

But what then is a Christian's stand on this? I mentioned that while Methodist schools cannot get funding from the Tote Board (because the Board gets its funds from gaming and lottery activities), Catholic schools seem to have no issue with this.

I recently had a discussion with a fellow brother-in-Christ on the topic of gambling. He referred me to a passage in 1 Kgs 17 whereby there was a famine in the land of Israel, and God told Elijah to go to Cherith where he was to drink from the brook and ravens would bring him food and meat in the mornings and evenings.

Now, Lev 11 records for us what God considered to be clean and unclean animals. In verse 13, the raven is mentioned as an unclean bird. So the question that my fellow brother posed to me was this... why did God choose ravens to feed Elijah, rather than clean birds such as doves or pigeons?

The provision came from God, but the channel that God used to supply that provision seems to be a strange one.

Elijah could have had 2 responses to the situation...

The first response was for him to tell the Lord, "God, I don't understand why you are using an unclean channel to feed me, but I will not question your methods. Thank you Lord for providing for me."

The second would be, "Lord, I want to honour you in this situation. I will not accept anything that comes through an unclean channel. So if I have to starve to death, I will do so."

He chose the first.

Fast forward to today. I know Christians who stand on all parts of the spectrum where gambling is concerned. On the one end would be those who will not even take part in a lucky draw because of the element of chance involved. On the other end are those who feel God is sovereign and can choose any channel He sees fit to bless His children. Some have even shared testimonies about how God prompted them as they were walking past a betting outlet and even gave them the 4 numbers! They even tithed on their winnings!!

Readers, do let me know what your view and stand on this is. You can choose to use a pseudonym if you are a Methodist; that is perfectly understandable :-)

As for me personally, I believe it is totally between you and God.

If you feel convicted on total abstinence, then honour God with that, but do not condemn others who are not. On the other hand, if you do not feel any conviction on this, then again it is between you and God. But do not over-indulge or talk about it so freely and openly such that it causes other brothers and sisters in the Body to be stumbled.

Walk Like A Methodist

Saturday, 28th March 2009

This morning, we fetched both our daughter and son to their respective schools. Buses would then take them from there to ACS Independent, where they would join fellow participants in the Methodist Walk 2009.

The Walk involved students from the various Methodist institutions in Singapore (ACS, MGS, ACJC) as well as members from various Methodist churches who would walk a certain distance to raise funds for their own schools in the case of the former, and the Methodist Schools' Foundation in the case of the latter.

This Foundation was set up to pool together funds that are raised by the various Methodist churches to be disbursed to the schools that require those funds.

Those of you whose children are from ACS, MGS and ACJC may be wondering how come fundraising activities are held more frequent as compared to other schools. Well, the reason is because Methodism in Singapore has Wesleyan roots. John Wesley was firmly against any form of drinking or gambling. Drinking would include beer and alcohol, whilst gambling would include Toto, Big Sweep and 4D.

Whilst other schools would get their funding from the Singapore Totalisator Board ("Tote Board"), Methodist schools cannot and do not because of Wesley's stand against gambling. The Tote Board was set up to take money that Singapore Turf Club and Singapore Pools raise from gaming and lottery and distribute them out to social, community and charitable causes.

And so, the Methodist schools have to seek alternative sources of funding. One such source is the "Fun-O-Rama", which is what ACJC calls the funfair that it holds every 2 years. I have made it a point to go back there as often as I can, and blogged about last year's here.

Another such source is the biennial Methodist Walk.

Speaking of not getting money from the Tote Board, this stand seems to be peculiar to the Methodists, because Catholic schools have no problems with this. I will blog more about this tomorrow, so stay tuned :-D

My Life Would Suck

Friday, 27th March 2009

The title of today's entry is the name of a pop song by Kelly Clarkson, the first American Idol winner. In it, she sings about how her life would suck without the man in her life.

Well, my life would suck without Him.

As a youth growing up, I used to have lots of acne and pockmarks, so much so that I was given the nickname "Sor Tar Bing" or "Crackers Face" because my face resembled the cream cracker with its many hills and valleys.

As a form of escapism, I would thus withdraw into the world of secular pop music (hence my fabulous knowledge of the music of the 1980s from A-Ha to ZZ Top).

I also did not do too well in my Sec 2 exams and as a result did not make it to the pure science classes. From then on, I could not follow my dad's footsteps to become a doctor.

I wasn't quite a ladies' man either. There was this girl that I admired whom I heard had broken off with her boyfriend, so I thought I could get her on the rebound. Alas, when I saw them both back together again, I was devastated.

I was also quite a weakling when I entered the Army, and nearly decided to end it all in March 1986 when I felt like everything was against me -- I was a failure in looks, a failure in studies, a failure in love, a failure in physique.

Yet, God in His wonderful mercy, prevented me from taking my own life. What He used to hold me back was my 3-month old driver's licence. You can read about that near-death testimony here.

Recently, there was a story about someone who seemed to have everything going for him. He was good-looking, came from a good family, did extremely well in his studies, was well-built and had lots of friends. Yet, he found that life sucked and decided to end it all.

These were the final sentences in what was believed to be his farewell email:

"I do not believe in an afterlife, or a God. Death should be final and absolute. In my time away from home, I have come to reinforce my belief that all ideologies, religions and dogmata of our day are merely facades with which to perpetuate our lives. I have no sufficient investment or interest in any such temporal or spiritual thinking, and this is the main thrust of my decision to pass from the world. I die happy, at peace, almost eager to see what comes next, if anything at all."

I do not, nor am I in any position to, judge him because I myself had contemplated suicide.

What I do know is that my life would have sucked if not for Jesus. But now with Jesus, and the abundant life He has promised, I look forward to each day because I know He will fill them with qarah moments where I am positioned at the right place at the right time. Amen?

Rabbi Caught Eating With Publicans!

Sunday, 22nd March 2009

That would probably have been the headlines of the Pharisaical Times back during biblical times when Jesus was seen eating with the tax-collectors.

Fast forward to today, and the following headline would probably be seen in the Legalistic Times.

PASTOR CAUGHT EATING WITH HERETICS!

Yup, Blogpastor aka Rev Kenny Chee was seen dining with 6 "Christ-centred antinomians" at Bukit Timah Food Centre two days ago ;-)

From right to left, that's him, Joshen, Maurice, Stan, Geri, Jeff Teo and yours truly.

He said he would wear his Arsenal jersey and he asked me to wear my Villa one.

Hope he doesn't get alienated from his other theologically-trained peers the way Jesus was by the religious folks of His day.

Seriously though, we had a great time of fellowship over lunch and dessert, for 4 1/2 hours from 12:30pm to 5pm. Blogpastor got quite a bit of "finished-work brainwashing" from us grace camp folks :-D

Must say we had a blessed time and I am looking forward to more of the same.

Mana Boleh Ini Machiam?

Saturday, 21st March 2009

A couple of annoy-ni-mouse, I mean, anonymous readers have started taking potshots whilst hiding behind a cloak, and asking what my agenda is in bringing up the so-called apology that was written in the Beacon.

Well, Rev Peter Koh is the very same person who recently preached so strongly about ridding the camp of sin like how the way Achan was brought to task. But he isn't practicing what he is preaching when he insists upon God's standards for his sheep, but expects mercy where his own shortcomings are concerned.

Instead of admitting that he plagiarised Rev Mathew's article, he used the word "extracted". And instead of saying "I apologise", he said "we apologise". By not taking responsibility for something which was done in his own personal capacity, he has implicated MY church and brought it into disrepute.

Mana boleh ini machiam? (which means "how can like this?" in Malay)

I am all for God's grace and mercy. After all, that is what I am promoting on this blog.

Yet, it has to be mentioned that those who operate on the law frequency, God deals with them on that frequency as well.

The Israelites murmured and grumbled between the time they crossed the Red Sea and upon reaching the foot of Mt Sinai. Yet, none of them died. But once they said in Ex 19:8 that all God asks of them they were well-able to do, and by doing so boasting in their self-efforts, the frequency as it were was changed. From thence forth, whoever murmured and grumbled were severely punished. I have blogged on this before.

Similarly, the rich young ruler asked Jesus in Lk 18:18, "Good teacher, what must I DO to inherit eternal life?" and Jesus replied using that same frequency by quoting Him some of the ten commandments.

Fast forward to today. This person "writes" an article about the need to keep God's laws, yet breaks the 8th commandment of "thou shall not steal" by committing literary theft. After being found out, does not come totally clean (even though he insists that his sheep do), but issues an "apology" hiding behind his organisation.

Ini machiam mana boleh?

Please do not get me wrong here. I am all for God's grace. But one cannot be operating on the law frequency, and yet expect to be dealt with on the grace frequency. Let's either be hot or cold, and not lukewarm.

And operating on the frequency of God's grace is the reason why I will not pursue this matter officially with the Bishop or the Board of Investigation as set out in section 715 subsection 3 of the Methodist Discipline, even though I was encouraged to do so by one of Methodist pastors, whom I am not at liberty to name. For the same reason, I did not pursue legal action against him when he wrongly gave my name to the police with regards to the vandalism case and till today has not apologised for what he did. The outcome of the above would be further alienation and not restoration, which is my heart's desire (and I'm sure all of yours too).

Should Rev Koh finally come to the end of himself and say, "God, I cannot. You can. I will stop putting demands on my congregation and just preach Jesus and His finished work". From that moment on, he operates on the grace frequency and will be dealt with on that same frequency too.

Now itu machiam boleh (which means "like that can" in Malay).

And the day that he switches to the grace camp, I will be the first one to rejoice and celebrate, and will bring him to Newton Hawker Centre to treat him to a $491 meal, which will include $239 worth of tiger prawns :-)

Versions of the Truth

Friday, 20th March 2009

When I was much younger, I used to be puzzled as to why there were 4 different gospels -- Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. While there were many similarities among the 1st three (that is why they are also known as the synoptic gospels (syn = same, optic = view), John was in a class of its own.

Only recently was I made aware as to why there are 4 different gospels, because of the difference in emphasis placed by each of the authors. Matthew portrays Jesus as the King of the Jews. Mark portrays Him as the suffering servant. Luke portrays Him as the perfect human. John portrays Him as the Son of God.

Which brings me to the subject of today's entry.

For those of you who have been following ROOTSS recently, you would have been aware that in the October to December 2008 edition of the Beacon, there was an article that appeared on pages 4 through 7 entitled "Salvation Made Easy? A Look into Antinominism" which was purportedly written by Rev Peter Koh, the senior pastor of my church. You can download that entire article here.

I have extracted the heading of it as it appears in the publication.

Prima facie, it will appear that the authorship of this article is that of Rev Peter Koh, as there is no mention of anything to the contrary.

For the purpose of mutual learning and discussion, I had invited readers to write in, either in support of or in opposition to the views expressed therein. Alas, while there were lots of opposing views, there was none in support. I thus googled the word "antinomianism" hoping to put links to articles in support, and chanced upon one written by Rev P G Mathews back in 1995. The content was strikingly similar, which indicated that Rev Koh had plagiarised Rev Mathew's article. I thus wrote to the TRAC President Rev Dr Wee Boon Hup to highlight to him about this because intellectual theft by an ordained Methodist minister is a very serious matter.

Rev Dr Wee did not reply at first, but after a couple of days, had to do so after I mentioned that I would escalate the matter to Bishop Dr Robert Solomon and/or reproduce my email to him on this blog if I did not hear from him. In his reply, he said he had communicated this matter to Rev Koh and the latter had admitted his mistake, and subsequently sought and obtained Rev Mathews' permission. He also told me that an appropriate apology would appear in the next edition of the Beacon.

Well, the Beacon finally arrived in the mail three days back, and here is the content of that apology which appears in a yellow box at the foot of page 2.

Apologies: In the Oct - Dec 2008 issue of Beacon, the article on "Antinomianism" is extracted from http://www.gracevalley.org/ with permission from Rev PG Mathews. We apologise for this omission.

By the way, the discussion on antinomianism happened to be picked up by Edmond Chua, the Chief Editor of sg.christianpost.com.

When he got wind of what was happening, he subsequently put this footnote at the bottom of his article.

Correction: The article posted Thursday, January 8, incorrectly stated that Rev Peter Koh is Malcolm's Loh former pastor. Loh is actually still a member of Paya Lebar Methodist Church but on sabbatical leave. It also omitted to mention that the article by Rev Koh was plagiarised.

I leave it to you readers to draw your own conclusions on the different versions of the truth :-)

Fireproof: Never Leave Your Partner Behind

Sunday, 15th March 2009

Continuing from my blog entry yesterday, thought I would like to share with all of you about the movie we watched on Friday night, which brought all of us to tears because it was so touching and inspiring.

It is called Fireproof and was produced by the same group who made the movie Facing the Giants.

Here's a synopsis of that movie, which was released in Sep 2008:

Lt. Caleb Holt lives by the old firefighter's adage: Never leave your partner behind. Inside burning buildings, it's his natural instinct. In the cooling embers of his marriage, it's another story.

After a decade of marriage, Caleb and Catherine Holt have drifted so far apart that they are ready to move on without each other. Yet as they prepare to enter divorce proceedings, Caleb's dad asks his son to try an experiment: The Love Dare.

While hoping The Love Dare has nothing to do with his parents' newfound faith, Caleb commits to the challenge. But can he attempt to love his wife while avoiding God's love for him? Will he be able to demonstrate love over and over again to a person that's no longer receptive to his love? Or is this just another marriage destined to go up in smoke?

Here is the movie trailer...



The lead character is played by Kirk Cameron. Those who are in your 40s (like myself) may remember him as the teenage heart-throb who acted in the 1980s hit comedy Growing Pains. Well, he is now a born-again Christian :-)

My favourite scene was the part when his colleague glues the salt and pepper shakers together. When he tries to take them apart, he is told, "No, don't do that, because it is going to cause both of them to break."

And that is exactly what happens when a man and woman comes together in holy matrimony before God. The Scriptures tells us that the two are considered to be one-flesh. Since God is the one that has joined them together, taking them apart is the work of the evil one.

I'll be clearing my last year's annual leave over the next 2 weeks, and will be going to SKS Bookstore or Trumpet Praise to get myself a copy of the DVD to lend to friends. I do not know Glenn and Jamie personally, but feel led to get them a copy too...

Another One Bites The Dust

Saturday, 14th March 2009

The title of today's entry is the name of a song made popular by the rock group Queen in 1980.

Last night, we had a cell dinner fellowship.

It wasn't a cell "meeting" because we didn't go through the 4Ws of "Welcome, Worship, Word and Works".

In fact, I should not even refer to it as a "cell" gathering because in the eyes of my church, it is no longer a cell.

For those who are new to ROOTSS, here's a brief background about what has happened. I used to be the Honorary Treasurer and the cell leader of 3L7. However, because the senior pastor of my church, Rev Peter Koh is against the grace message (which he considers to be antinomian), I was made to step down from both posts in July 2007. My cell was then disbanded in Dec 2007. When fellow brother-in-grace Philip Ng heard about this, he graciously asked my wife and I to join his cell, Goodness.

You can read more about that here.

Well, the irony is that Philip and his family have been attending that "antimonian" church in Suntec on an increasingly regular basis, even more frequently that my wife and I!

But that placed him in a dilemma, because as a cell leader, he wasn't exactly setting a good example for his cell members to follow by embracing teachings which Rev Peter Koh is so against ;-)

So after much prayer and seeking of the Lord, he finally decided to step down as a cell leader in Jan 2009 and is now happily attending NewCre, week-in week-out, without any more legalistic encrumbrances.

This also meant that Goodness could no longer operate officially as a cell, and her members have now been channeled into another cell in the same cluster known as Jireh (which actually multiplied out from it back in 2006).

Yep, another cell has bitten the dust...

And I wonder how many more will...

But hey, there is nothing in the Bible that says ex-cell members cannot continue to meet up as brothers- and sisters-in-Christ. On the contrary, Heb 10:25 says "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching".

In fact, the members of 3L7 still meet up occasionally for a meal. After all, friendships go beyond man-made structures.

My sincere prayer is that during his quiet times of reflection, Rev Peter Koh will consider these fall-outs that have taken place during his watch as senior pastor of PLMC, and seek of the Lord whether he has been barking up the wrong tree and kicking against the goads like Saul did when he went about persecuting the church.

Sure, if it is only a couple of church members here and another handful of church members there, maybe it could mean we "black sheep" are embracing heresies and our legs need to be broken to prevent us from wandering outside the fold.

But hey, I know for a fact that there are increasingly more and more in PLMC who have caught the grace message (they have been contacting me quietly, but are keeping a low profile lest they meet a similar fate), not to mention the thousands of others in Singapore and millions around the world . Surely, Ps Joseph Prince and his fellow grace preachers cannot be fooling all the people all of the time, can they?

Speaking of our fellowship last night, dinner was followed by us watching a very touching movie called "Fireproof" on DVD, which I will blog about tomorrow. I was just wondering whether I should get a copy for Glenn Ong and Jamie Yeo, in the hope of getting them back together :-)

The Envy of Philistines

Friday, 13th March 2009

This article appeared on the front page of the 10th March 2009 edition of myPaper, which is a local bilingual daily.

The headline read "$19m in the kitty in less than 24 hours", which talks about what happened during the recent Miracle Seed Sunday.

Well, there were also non-members amongst the 21,343 who purposefully went to attend that service with the specific intention of sowing into One-North :-D

That Sunday, even though Ps Reuben was preaching at the Youth Service in my own church, my wife and I felt led by the Holy Spirit to be at Suntec.

Raising $18.8m during a time of plenty is already quite a feat. To do so during a time of financial meltdown is something supernatural, and God gets the glory.

Getting a BMW X5 is already a wonderful blessing. But to do so during the current climate is something supernatural, and I give Jesus all the praise, worship and glory. Hallelujah!

Just like how God prospered Isaac during a time of famine and the Philistines envied him (Gen 26:14), may God continue to prosper New Creation Church so that she becomes the envy of the Philistines of today, and ultimately discover the grace message for themselves. Amen?

Covenant Relationships

Sunday, 8th March 2009

I have mentioned that my church has now embarked on a sermon series on the book of Joshua. We read about how God told the Israelites that they were not to keep any of the spoils of Jericho for themselves but to place them into the Lord's treasury. This was because Jericho was the first city to be conquered and the firstfruit belongs to God. I blogged about this in the entry entitled The First Belongs to God.

For all the subsequent cities, the inhabitants were to be totally destroyed, and the Israelites could keep the plunder for themselves. I have also blogged (in passing) about why God told them not to spare anyone -- even seemingly innocent women and children -- and how we are to see them as types and shadows, the substance for us today being things that the devil places in our way to prevent us from inheriting what God has promised us. I will go into more details on this in a future post.

But let's now focus on the story in Josh 9, whereby the Israelites not only spared every single inhabitant of the city known as Gibeon, they even fought others who tried to fight them!

In Josh 9:3-6, we read about how the Gibeonites had heard about what happened to Jericho and Ai, and were afraid they would be the next to be wiped out. So they tricked the Israelites into entering a covenant with them, viz

3 When the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai,
4 they also acted craftily and set out as envoys, and took worn-out sacks on their donkeys, and wineskins worn-out and torn and mended,
5 and worn-out and patched sandals on their feet, and worn-out clothes on themselves; and all the bread of their provision was dry and had become crumbled.
6 They went to Joshua to the camp at Gilgal and said to him and to the men of Israel, "We have come from a far country; now therefore, make a covenant with us."

Gibeon was actually located in the vicinity, but the Gibeonites went to the extent of using worn-out wineskins, wearing worn-out sandals and clothes and carrying moldy bread to give the Israelites the impression they were from a far away land!

And because Israel entered into a covenant with them (and even though they were deceived into doing so), they were obligated to defend them, as recorded in Josh 10. That shows how serious covenants are to be taken.

Unlike contracts, which have get-out clauses, covenants have no get-out clauses. They are only ended when one of the party dies. Covenants also involves the shedding of blood. The covenant which God made with Abraham as recorded in Gen 15 involved a heifer, goat, ram, dove and pigeon being cut in half. The Mosaic covenant required that all males be circumcised (see Jn 7:22). The New Covenant was established by the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

And this holds true of Christian marriages. For those of the world, a marriage is a mere agreement between a man and a woman. If either one wants to opt out, he or she can just file for a divorce. But for us who are Christians, a marriage is a covenant, involving the shedding of blood when the groom penetrates and breaks the hymen of his bride.

At a typical wedding ceremony, the minister will ask the groom and bride these questions:

Do you take this man/woman to be your lawfully wedded husband/wife,
to love and to cherish, to have and to hold;
and do you promise, forsaking all others, to cleave to him/her and him/her alone,
for as long as you both shall live?

And these are the vows that are said by the couple:

I take you to be my spouse
to have and to hold from this day forward,
for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer,
in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish;
till death do us part
According to God's holy ordinance I pledge you my faith

Note that these vows are not just exchanged between spouses, but are also made before God Almighty. All Christian marriages have a third party, and His Name is Jesus. What God has joined together, man is not to put asunder. The recent developments being reported in the press about Glenn Ong and Jamie Yeo seeing other people whilst still being married to each other is therefore something we should come together and intercede strongly on.

The covenant relationship between a husband and a wife is epitomised by that between Jesus and His church. Just like Jesus does not forsake His church no matter what, neither should a husband forsake his wife no matter what. Just like the church is not to forget her first love for Christ, neither should a wife place her love for anything or anyone else before that for her husband.

Let us pray for strong Christian marriages that truly reflect the covenant that we have with our Saviour. Amen?

Grace Preachers Don't Understand Grace?

Saturday, 7th March 2009

Fellow brother-in-Christ Jeff brought to my attention an article that was published in the Singapore edition of The Christian Post a few days ago.

It was written by Rev Monte Le Rice, who I understand from Stan was previously from Calvary Charismatic (now known as Victory Family Centre). It is reproduced in full below.

Deaer readers, please give your comments on the merits of his article. I will provide mine in due course.

Minister: 'Grace' Preachers Don't Really Understand Grace
Monday, Mar. 2, 2009 Posted: 6:50:20PM HKT

An itinerant preacher believes that 'grace' and prosperity preachers have an impoverished understanding of the finished work of Jesus Christ.

"Within this school of thought, Christians are encouraged to surmise that Christian freedom 'in Christ,' is a 'freedom' to achieve, acquire, and gain without guilt," said Monte Lee Rice, in his November essay titled Lose That You May Find.

"Yet for all this talk of calling believers to a life of grace ‘in Christ,’ resting in the finished work of Christ’s atonement, reigning with Christ and receiving His riches, the proponents of this movement have ironically failed to grasp the greater fullness of Christ’s atonement! Its weakness lies so ironically, in its impoverished doctrine of Christ’s atonement.”

He went on to discuss how ‘grace’ preachers proclaim Christ’s atonement as primarily directed towards the forgiveness of sins, thus granting believers a positional righteousness, or in other words a forensic view of the atonement. He added however that such a view fails to take into account the other benefits of Christ’s atonement.

This includes setting believers free from the works of the devil, restoring them to God’s likeness, by granting them the ‘right script’ to live their lives – in which Christ recapped the human life journey as the perfect human being, paving the way for them to live as He lived, through each phase of His own human life – providing His life as a paradigm for their own human life, thus God’s intended ‘script’ for living their own lives, which results in their being conformed to the likeness of Jesus Christ, and granting them a moral and life example for them to follow Him.

Emerging as a direct counter-response to what its proponents perceive as the guilt-driven, legalistic ‘do’s and don’t’ form of Protestant evangelical spirituality, and as a result of Protestant Evangelicalism’s failure to preach the full gospel, the success-themed ‘grace’ movement is a captive of arrogant modernity, where the quest and journey towards human actualisation takes center-stage, and “envisions the biblical experience of redemption according to a story-line that is radically counter to the Bible’s archetypical plot of Jesus’ self-emptying journey.”

Even so, he noted that people because they are created in God’s image still have an inherent need for the experience of redemption and so “our every-day talk is filled with redemptive metaphors” like ‘every dark cloud has a silver lining’, ‘it’s always darkest before dawn’ and ‘no pain, no gain’, phrases which suggest that suffering in life can often lead to growth or fulfillment. He suggested that this is why people like to watch and be entertained by movies, read stories, or listen to motivation speakers in one way or another speak to their innate desire to experience redemption.

"So recognising the human need for some kind of development experience of redemption, and yet wanting to avoid appropriating the Gospel teaching of ‘self-denial’ into our ‘Christian education,’ what we end up with is construing Christian development according to varied paradigms of pop psychology,” wrote the preacher.

"[T]he result of trying to conceptualise Christian development primarily according to human developmental theory, without the sometimes painful message of ‘self-denial,’ leads to a non-Christian conception of spiritual growth. The result is that we envision spiritual maturity as having a healthy self image, and a ‘freed-up’ life-style, evidenced by a substantial income and a guilt-free comfort with being ‘in-sync’ with the latest cultural trends, fashions, and bench-marks of material success. The truth is that so much of the premised teachings about ‘God’s grace,’ in the newer success-themed churches, largely reflect premises derived from pop psychology about human self-esteem and self-actualisation… Consequently, Evangelicalism now possess little if any kind of ‘counter-culture’ critique, since it has become so ‘thoroughly enmeshed in consumer-capitalist ideology and confuses success with the eschaton’ (e.g., Christian life journey).”

Lee Rice also discussed the smugness of members of success-themed churches, who see themselves as people who have arrived and see no need to engage or reflect on the spiritualities existing within other Christian traditions, either in the present day or down through history. They “choose rather to base their entire conception of Christian faith exclusively upon the teachings of their movement’s leaders or local senior pastor” and “Bible texts often serve no higher purpose than to anchor messages based more deeply upon pop psychology or modern leadership and motivational theories and platitudes.

"There is as well, a mindset amongst so many believers, particularly amongst those highly influenced by the more success-themed teachings, that the things they possess are signs of God’s favour towards them. Coupled with this is their conviction that their consumerist life-style is in some way, their ‘Christian right.’ These believe that ‘in Christ,’ they are free to purchase the most non-essential or trivial items- at whatever the cost, without any whim of conscience. But let it be unreservedly said that their consumer-driven life-style is a blight to the counter-cultural witness of the Church, particularly during this time of economic crisis.”

At the end of his paper the preacher highlighted four broad ways in which ‘grace’ churches could find their call and centre within the greater body of Christ. Firstly, they must acknowledge both the dark and light sides of material wealth. Secondly, they will have to shift their mindset away from the world’s rags to riches idea of redemption and back towards the biblical paradigm plot of riches to rags foremost modeled for them in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thirdly, they need to embrace the full gospel of God’s grace, which is only possible by embracing all the major purposes of Christ’s atonement. Finally, they have to embrace the fear of the Lord.

Joyful Toons

Friday, 6th March 2009

I happened to be checking out Stan's blog and noticed that one of the stuff he has placed there is a link to Joyful 'toons.

Upon clicking on the link, it brings you to a site that has cartoon drawings with Christian messages done by a guy named Michael D. Walters.

I browsed through some of them and particularly like these two entitled "Grace Cafe" and "Tailor".

I don't know about you but it appears that Mr Walters has caught the message :-D

No Longer Defeated

Monday, 2nd March 2009

Yesterday, Rev Peter Koh preached on Joshua 8 and entitled his sermon "Recovering From Defeat". That would be true of those living under the Old Covenant. We see this cycle of defeat followed by recovery, followed by defeat and then recovery especially in the book of Judges.

For us as New Covenant believers, defeat is not in our vocabulory because the devil has already been defeated by what Jesus did on the cross 2,000 years ago. And then, recovery is only relevant for those who have been defeated. Hence, I have entitled today's blog entry, "No Longer Defeated".

Anyway, here are the 6 questions that we are supposed to discuss at our cell meetings this week, and the suggested answers to them.

1. What is the one"come-from-behind victory" in your life you still remember fondly?

There are so many "come-from-behind" victories which I have blogged about such as how God restored my marriage, my finances, my career, gave my son a new lease of life, etc etc. Just do a search on these topics if you want to read more about them.

But if I have to mention just the one, then it has to be how God led me, via an ex-colleague, to discover what the true gospel is really about. I was looking for the answer to my son's healing and God more than met me at my point of need. He also gave me the answer to a strong marriage, abundance in finances, rewarding career and healthy family relationships and that is found it in the person of Jesus and what His finished work has accomplished for me.


2. In Chapter 7, the first attack on Ai ended in defeat. What does the Lord say to Joshua now to encourage him in a second attack? How is this attack different from the first?

This 2nd attack was different from the 1st because sin was dealt with and the camp was cleansed. That ensured that there was no more of any hindrance to victory over the enemy. But let us also remember that this took place when the Old Covenant was still in effect.

We who live on this side of the cross, the "1st attack" would be when we were not yet believers. As such, any battles with the enemy would end in defeat. He will kill, steal and destroy our finances, health, relationships, etc. The moment we become believers, the Holy Spirit comes and dwells inside of us. He that is in us is greater than he that is in the world, and so we now fight FROM victory because Jesus has already given Satan a PhD -- permanent head damage. Sin has already been dealt with and the camp has already been cleansed by Jesus' finished work. So it will always be the "2nd attack" for us where victory is ours for the taking.


3. What do you think was the attitude of Ai's king and soldiers when the battle began? How did this attitude lead them to defeat?

In Col 2:17, Paul tells us that what was recorded in the Old Testament was a "mere shadow of what was to come, but the substance belongs to Christ". We also read throughout Hebrews that the Old Testament contains types and shadows, which are substantiated in the New.

By the way, I used to struggle when I read how God would ask Israel to wipe out entire cities of their people -- "innocent" women and children included -- until I realised that they are to be seen by us as "types and shadows" of what the enemy has positioned to prevent us for possessing what is rightfully ours. The substance today are tools the devil uses such as poverty, illnesses, anxieties and fears. We should be equally uncompromising in dealing with them and not even allow a small teeny-weeny, innocent portion of it to reside in us, lest they fester and grow into something bigger.

We read of how the Israelites would at times spare a certain beautiful maiden, only for her to ensnare them and turn their hearts away from God and to idol-worship. Or they might spare a little child, only for him to grow up and become a thorn in their side. Likewise, in today's context, we may perceive certain things that the devil is trying to put upon us as not a big deal (eg. a tiny headache or a platonic relationship with someone of the opposite sex), but it may become a bigger deal if not dealt with from the start.

And so, while the Israelites had to deal with Ai's king and soldiers, we of today have to deal with something the enemy positions to prevent us from our rightful inheritance. For example, shalom peace of mind is something Jesus has given to us. The devil tries to rob us of this peace by putting fear into our hearts, pointing us to the natural circumstances around us like how companies are downsizing and how the current financial crisis is going to be a long-drawn one.

His tactics have not changed, like how he put fear in the disciples' hearts, pointing them to the winds and the waves that were beating against the boat. But let us take heart and remember that Jesus is with us in the boat and He has declared already, saying "let us go over to the other side". When we exercise faith by taking Him at His Word and standing upon all His promises which are yes and amen (2 Cor 1: 20), the king and soldiers of Ai that the devil place in our path will end up defeated!


4. In your opinion, how much of the outcome was due to the Lord's direction and how much was due to human planning and effort?

Again this must be seen in the light of the finished work. The outcome of our daily battles with the evil one depends on whether we understand that Jesus has already overcome and that we are more than conquerors through Christ.

If we think that Jesus' work is not quite complete, we end up trying to add to it by doing our own part, and the outcome will be disastrous even with the best of planning and effort.

On the other hand, if we know that Jesus has already done it all for us and rest in His finished work, somehow God will put us in the right place at the right time and the outcome will also be victory and success.


5. Have you ever had an occasion when your self-confidence led you into danger?

Paul says in Phil 3 that we are to put no confidence in the flesh. But what is very interesting is that he said that he had more reasons than others to be self-confident because he kept the Law! He was a Hebrew of Hebrews who prided himself that he was "faultless in legalistic righteousness", viz:

4 though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more:
5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee;
6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.

Previously, before I discovered the grace gospel, I would try my best to be a good Christian but end up feeling discouraged and condemned whenever I fell short. For example, I would start each year with a resolution to finish reading the bible in one year only to find myself burnt out before reaching the book of Deuteronomy. Having now caught the grace message, I just enjoy my daily relationship with my Abba Father, with the blessed assurance that He just enjoys me wanting to be in daily communion with Him.


6. What great thing might you attempt now in your life if God assured you of success?

It is no longer a matter of "if" God is assuring me of success but rather a matter of "since". After all, God has already assured all of us of success and given us the victory. We just need to walk by faith and not by sight.

As far as I am concerned, since God has assured me of victory and success, the great thing that I have been doing over the past 3 years is to share this discovery of the grace message with others that God has placed around me, and hence this blog :-)

Oh come, taste and see that the Lord is good.

Happy 123!

Sunday, 1st March 2009

Exactly 123 years ago today, on 1st March 1886, a Methodist pastor, Rev William Oldham founded a mission school which would in due time become one of, if not the most renowned institutions of all-rounded education here in Singapore.

Just like how being in a Methodist church is a tradition that is passed down from one generation to the next, so too is attending a Methodist school.

My dad was from ACS. So was I, and so too is my son. Pictured on the right is a souvenir that his school gave out to each boy to commemorate our 123rd Founder's Day.

Fellow ACSians located all around the globe, let us celebrate 123 years of God's goodness and faithfulness in producing godly men who make a difference in society.

Indeed, THE BEST IS YET TO BE!