Sunday, 30th May 2010
"We're all going on a summer holiday
no more working for a week or two.
Fun and laughter on our summer holiday,
no more worries for me or you,
for a week or two"
Those lyrics, from Cliff Richard's "Summer Holiday", sums up the mood I am in right now :-)
The kiddos have finished their mid-year exams and did relatively well, praise God! Their holidays actually started three days back.
At work, things have started to lull off a bit as well. I was pretty busy in the months of April and May and spent the weekends unwinding, so I did not have the motivation or inspiration to blog regularly.
But I think it is time for me to share yet another testimony of God's goodness and unmerited favour.
At the end of 2008, I shared how God, through a series of seemingly random events and circumstances provided me with a BMW X5 for the price of an X3. The COEs back that were less than S$5k whereas they are now going for nearly ten times that. I may be an accountant by profession but I was never taught in school or even at work how to time the market such as to catch the COE, stocks, etc at their lowest price.
For those of you who are new to my blog, you can read that testimony here.
A Blessed Most Wonderful Experience (Part 1)
A Blessed Most Wonderful Experience (Part 2)
Behold My Wagon!
I am reminded of how Ps Prince preached on Ecc 3:11 whereby Solomon concluded "I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong, neither is bread to the wise nor riches to men of intelligence and understanding nor favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all."
What this verse is saying is that the race is not always won by the fastest runner. The battle is not always won by the strongest warrier. It is not always the one with the brains and tops the cohort that ends up earning millions. What is important is being placed by God at the right place at the right time. And because I know I am God's beloved and that He loves me personally, I have a good opinion of Him and knows that He will alwaya put me at the right place at the right time, so all I need to do is labour to rest in His finished work and enjoy the ride, so to speak :-)
And that is exactly what happened to me when God blessed me with the BMW X5. Most Christians in my position would probably just be grateful and contented with the savings of S$50k and not dare to ask or expect any further blessings from Him.
Well, not me :-)
I know my God is an extravagant God. He is like the father in the parable of the prodigal son. It was not sufficient for him to just welcome the son back. He asked for (1) the best robe to be put on the boy (2) a ring to be placed on the boy's finger (3) sandals to be worn on his feet (4) the fatted calf to be killed and (5) a party to be thrown so as to eat and be merry.
Ok, back to the testimony. Sometime in July 2005, we were watching on TV how London was awarded the rights to host the Olympic Games 2012. Suddenly from out of the blue, my kids mentioned something about going to England for a holiday! Back then, my son was still on peritoneal dialysis and needed to be hooked up to a machine every night, so I did not give it much thought but did say that we would consider after their PSLE exams (which my daughter took in 2008 and my son took in 2009).
Well, since then, my son has been blessed with a transplanted kidney and is enjoying a much higher quality of life. Travelling on long holidays is no longer an issue.
My daughter has taken a liking for this English actor by the name of Ed Westwick (who plays the character Chuck Bass in a series called Gossip Girl). My son supports Chelsea, a London-based soccer team that just won the English Premier League and FA Cup.
At the start of this year, the incident of them asking to go to England suddenly came back to mind. And so, sometime in March 2010, my wife and I went to the NATAS Travel Fair to check out itineraries on visiting the UK.
To cut a long story short, again through a series of events and circumstances, we see God's hand involved in granting us this summer holiday, which I will summarise in 5 salient points (5 being the number of grace).
(1) We bought SIA tickets through Chan Brothers at $1,280 each at the travel fair. Since then, the price of a ticket has shot up to more than $2,000. God's timing is so wonderful.
(2) Initially we had applied for leave from 7 to 18 Jun, right smack in the middle of the school holiday. However, the 9-day tour of UK organised by Insight Vacations from 9 Jun to 17 Jun was fully-booked so we had to put our names down for the one that was scheduled a week later (ie. from 16 Jun to 24 Jun). What this meant was that our leave had to also be delayed by a week. Thankfully, our bosses were okay with the rescheduled leave, ie. from 14 Jun to 25 Jun.
(3) When I emailed my cousin (who lives just outside London) about our trip based on the original schedule, he said he would have preferred us to visit a week later because he would be Hong Kong until 17 Jun. Some would say that this is a coincidence (we had to delay our trip because the earlier tour was fully-booked), but we again know that everything is God's perfect timing. And so, we will be staying with my aunt (who also stays just outside London) for 2 days, embark on that 9-day tour, and then stay with my cousin for another 2 days, before heading back home.
(4) The 9-day tour from 16 Jun to 24 Jun was not a definite departure at the time that we booked it . We were told that they needed at least 25 participants in order for it to be so. They did not tell us how many others had booked (which makes me suspect we were the only ones at that point of time), but we decided to step out in faith and go ahead with our travel plans. After all, the above events seem to be God's way of confirming to us that He wanted to bless us with this family vacation at this point of time in our life. And so, each day in the car on the way to work, my wife and I would pray in agreement, claiming Rom 4:17, calling things that were not as though they were. And sure enough, God answered our prayers! On the morning of 19 March 2010, we received the following email from Insight Vacations:
Pleased to advise the following tour and date is now a definite departure.
9 Days Best of Britain, starts : 16 June 2010.
Kind Regards,
Sheryl Lim
Insight Vacations (S) Pte Ltd
Hallelujah! Isn't God an awesome God! It was actually only an 18-day wait but it seemed much longer than that :-)
(5) The Sterling pound has dropped to its lowest ever against the Singapore dollar. When my wife and I went to Europe for our honeymoon back in 1993, the exchange rate was at 2.35. When I went to Villa Park back in 2007, it was about 2.97. Just last week, I managed to buy the pound at 2.04. Again, God's timing is perfect.
And so, for the first time since Mark got his transplanted kidney, we will be going on a 2-week family vacation. Thank you Lord for blessing us with this summer holiday. You are worthy to be praised, mighty God!
It's the Message, Not the Messenger
Saturday, 22nd May 2010
A couple of days ago, I was having tea at IMM with fellow bloggers Stanley (The Logical Christian) and Kenny (Blogpastor). We were discussing about how Kong Hee has gotten himself into a bit of hot soup as a result of the devotional articles on his website appearing to have been plagiarised from other sources, and how this might ultimately affect his flock.
For further details on this, do check out the site CHEAT GRACE (no, it's not a typo. it's cheat grace, not cheap grace).
At present, City Harvest claims to have some 33,000 members but in reality, attendance is more in the 25,000 to 27,000 range. They arrived at 33,000 because they keep a nominal roll of visitors, but one-time visitors do not equate to regular attendees.
On the other hand, NewCre's attendance has been steadily creeping up and is now around 22,000 to 24,000. I was there with my wifey some time last month and was amazed to see queues forming at Gallery West as well! Previously, the queue was only for those wanting to get into the Rock Auditorium. The overflow rooms at the SITEC end are so full that they now have added an extra hall on the 6th floor.
I recall back in Sep 2007 how the owner of Hexacon Construction had shared a testimony about how God appeared to him in a vision telling him that he would help build the largest church in Singapore. At that point in time, he probably thought God was referring to City Harvest. Having been appointed as the main contractor of One-North, what this would mean is that by the time One-North is ready in 2012, NewCre's attendance would have surpassed City Harvest's. And the controversy surrounding Kong Hee's devotional materials is only going to cause that prophecy to be fulfilled, sooner rather than later.
Another topic that we discussed was the phenomenal growth of The New Covenant Church (tNCChurch), a church based in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia that was established by fellow grace embracer, Peter Sze.
He used to be a Methodist layman but when he was in Melbourne visiting his son, someone prophesied over him saying that God wanted him to be a pastor. And so, in Nov 2009, after 35 years of serving in his previous church, he formed tNCChurch with just 30 members. But in a matter of just 6 months, the church has grown nearly sevenfold to more than 200!
What we concluded from the above was that it is the message and not the messenger that matters. NewCre is growing because Ps Joseph Prince and his fellow pastors focus on unveiling Jesus and His finished work. tNCChurch is growing because Peter Sze magnifies the person of Jesus and the completeness of the work He did for us on the cross. When the gospel is preached in all its pure truth and unadulterated fullness, people are fed and lives are touched, and God causes the flock to multiply. Conversely, if preachers rely on their own smarts or worse yet, criticise those who have been raised by God to preach the message of grace, then the sad fact is that God cannot continue to bless their ministries (they are actually behaving like Saul in kicking against the goads) and it will only be a matter of time before their flock starts to dwindle as well.
So folks, it's the message, not the messenger. Ps Prince himself ever said that he is only the messenger boy. Having said that, do pray for Kong Hee, Peter Koh, Barnabas Chong and other law-based preachers like them. The moment they realise where they have gone wrong and start to become grace-based, there is no reason why God cannot use them for His kingdom work. After all, it's the message, not the messenger. Amen?
A couple of days ago, I was having tea at IMM with fellow bloggers Stanley (The Logical Christian) and Kenny (Blogpastor). We were discussing about how Kong Hee has gotten himself into a bit of hot soup as a result of the devotional articles on his website appearing to have been plagiarised from other sources, and how this might ultimately affect his flock.
For further details on this, do check out the site CHEAT GRACE (no, it's not a typo. it's cheat grace, not cheap grace).
At present, City Harvest claims to have some 33,000 members but in reality, attendance is more in the 25,000 to 27,000 range. They arrived at 33,000 because they keep a nominal roll of visitors, but one-time visitors do not equate to regular attendees.
On the other hand, NewCre's attendance has been steadily creeping up and is now around 22,000 to 24,000. I was there with my wifey some time last month and was amazed to see queues forming at Gallery West as well! Previously, the queue was only for those wanting to get into the Rock Auditorium. The overflow rooms at the SITEC end are so full that they now have added an extra hall on the 6th floor.
I recall back in Sep 2007 how the owner of Hexacon Construction had shared a testimony about how God appeared to him in a vision telling him that he would help build the largest church in Singapore. At that point in time, he probably thought God was referring to City Harvest. Having been appointed as the main contractor of One-North, what this would mean is that by the time One-North is ready in 2012, NewCre's attendance would have surpassed City Harvest's. And the controversy surrounding Kong Hee's devotional materials is only going to cause that prophecy to be fulfilled, sooner rather than later.
Another topic that we discussed was the phenomenal growth of The New Covenant Church (tNCChurch), a church based in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia that was established by fellow grace embracer, Peter Sze.
He used to be a Methodist layman but when he was in Melbourne visiting his son, someone prophesied over him saying that God wanted him to be a pastor. And so, in Nov 2009, after 35 years of serving in his previous church, he formed tNCChurch with just 30 members. But in a matter of just 6 months, the church has grown nearly sevenfold to more than 200!
What we concluded from the above was that it is the message and not the messenger that matters. NewCre is growing because Ps Joseph Prince and his fellow pastors focus on unveiling Jesus and His finished work. tNCChurch is growing because Peter Sze magnifies the person of Jesus and the completeness of the work He did for us on the cross. When the gospel is preached in all its pure truth and unadulterated fullness, people are fed and lives are touched, and God causes the flock to multiply. Conversely, if preachers rely on their own smarts or worse yet, criticise those who have been raised by God to preach the message of grace, then the sad fact is that God cannot continue to bless their ministries (they are actually behaving like Saul in kicking against the goads) and it will only be a matter of time before their flock starts to dwindle as well.
So folks, it's the message, not the messenger. Ps Prince himself ever said that he is only the messenger boy. Having said that, do pray for Kong Hee, Peter Koh, Barnabas Chong and other law-based preachers like them. The moment they realise where they have gone wrong and start to become grace-based, there is no reason why God cannot use them for His kingdom work. After all, it's the message, not the messenger. Amen?
Building the Team （不停的听）
Saturday, 8th May 2010
I apologise for not having not been able to blog over the past 2 weeks. Two weeks ago, I was slightly under the weather so I spent the most part of the weekend catching some zees. Last weekend, I was in Johor for a teambuilding session.
And that is what I wanted to blog about :-)
About two months back, my COO asked me to see her to tell me that she wanted me to co-chair a teambuilding ("TB") session involving both the sales people and the admin support people. There had been teambuilding sessions in the past but they were always held separately; this would be the first time whereby both groups of people would be participants.
Having decided on and recommending the Mercure Palm Resort in Senai, Johor to the TB chairman (who happens to be the Head of Training), he then requested for a total of 12 members to form the committee -- 4 from Sales, 3 from Finance, 2 from Trainiing, 1 from Corporate Services, 1 from Marketing and 1 from Human Resources.
[Here is a photo of the 12 of us, just after being treated to an appreciation lunch by the Chairman two days ago.]
We had a total of 7 meetings leading up to the event and although this was above and beyond our normal scope of work, I have to say hand on heart that it was more fun rather than work! The Head of Training is a person full of creativity and wild ideas, whereas I (and my 2 Finance team-mates and the one from HR) am more the type that work quietly behind the scenes. Anyway, it was a good mix of people -- both extroverts and introverts.
The theme of the inaugural joint Sales-Admin Support teambuilding session was "Building the Team", transliterated into Mandarin as 不停的听 (bu ting de ting) which means "don't stop listening". Hence the title of today's entry.
A dear brother said "this wil make good preaching too... lol.. to build a great team, one must have a hearing heart..."
To cut a long story short, the TB was a great and fabulous success. The overall feedback given was that this was the *best* teambuilding ever organised, the very same accolodes given about our D&D held in Feb 10 being the *best* D&D ever organised! And I, of all people, have the God-given honour and privilege to be part of both organising committees!!! :-)
[Oh by the way, you can read about the D&D here.]
And so I want to give all glory and honour again to my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ for the unmerited favour bestowed upon me, His beloved, yet again. Just like how Joseph found favour and had success because God was with him.
Thank you Jesus for your undeserved and unearned favour. Hallelujah!
Here is a video montage of the highlights of "Building the Team", which has been uploaded to YouTube:
And here are some of the photos that were taken, uploaded onto Facebook for your viewing pleasure:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=167407&id=751059341&l=1978f6025f
I apologise for not having not been able to blog over the past 2 weeks. Two weeks ago, I was slightly under the weather so I spent the most part of the weekend catching some zees. Last weekend, I was in Johor for a teambuilding session.
And that is what I wanted to blog about :-)
Similar to how I felt back in Dec 09 when asked to chair the D&D committee, my initial response was that of inadequacy. But then I remembered nothing happens by chance and that this would be yet another God-given opportunity for Him to manifest His unmerited favour. And so, I quickly roped in my secretary (she will always be the first one to be "arrowed" when projects are given to me, just like how it was with the D&D) and we started looking for a place offsite to hold the teambuilding session.
We had a total of 7 meetings leading up to the event and although this was above and beyond our normal scope of work, I have to say hand on heart that it was more fun rather than work! The Head of Training is a person full of creativity and wild ideas, whereas I (and my 2 Finance team-mates and the one from HR) am more the type that work quietly behind the scenes. Anyway, it was a good mix of people -- both extroverts and introverts.
The theme of the inaugural joint Sales-Admin Support teambuilding session was "Building the Team", transliterated into Mandarin as 不停的听 (bu ting de ting) which means "don't stop listening". Hence the title of today's entry.
A dear brother said "this wil make good preaching too... lol.. to build a great team, one must have a hearing heart..."
To cut a long story short, the TB was a great and fabulous success. The overall feedback given was that this was the *best* teambuilding ever organised, the very same accolodes given about our D&D held in Feb 10 being the *best* D&D ever organised! And I, of all people, have the God-given honour and privilege to be part of both organising committees!!! :-)
[Oh by the way, you can read about the D&D here.]
And so I want to give all glory and honour again to my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ for the unmerited favour bestowed upon me, His beloved, yet again. Just like how Joseph found favour and had success because God was with him.
Thank you Jesus for your undeserved and unearned favour. Hallelujah!
Here is a video montage of the highlights of "Building the Team", which has been uploaded to YouTube:
And here are some of the photos that were taken, uploaded onto Facebook for your viewing pleasure:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=167407&id=751059341&l=1978f6025f
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