The Logical Christian's Response to Antinomian Article

Saturday, 31st January 2009

A week ago, I mentioned that I will be making available a document containing Stanley's point-by-point rebuttal of the article "written" by Rev Peter Koh, the senior pastor of Paya Lebar Methodist Church.

His conclusion is that he is a "Christ-centred antinomian" (against the law because of Christ) and after reading his well-written arguments, I would consider myself to be one too, which is definitely better than being a law-centered anti-Christ ;-)

Well, here it is, for your downloading pleasure, so that you can be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have (1 Pet 3:15).

Speaking of which, besides being firm advocates of the grace message and Christ-centered antinomians, Stan and I have one more thing in common: our blogs have won the Best Christian Blog of the Year award.

:-D

Praise God for His affirmation!

A New Way to Lo Hei

Friday, 30th January 2009

One of the traditions that we Chinese folks carry out during the Lunar New Year is to eat raw fish salad or "yu sheng" 鱼生.

The dressing is made primarily from plum sauce, while the dish itself would typically include the following ingredients:

fresh salmon
white radish
carrot
capsicum
ginger
lime tree leaves
Chinese parsley
chopped peanuts
toasted sesame seeds
Chinese shrimp crackers
five spice powder

(Source: http://www.wikipedia.org/)

That's me pretending to wolf down the "yu sheng" :-D

In a celebration known as "lo hei" (Cantonese 撈起 or 捞起), we would gather around the table and, on cue, proceed to toss the shredded ingredients into the air with chopsticks while saying auspicious wishes out loud to mark the start of a prosperous new year.

The higher one tosses the ingredients, the greater one's fortunes. Better still, let some of the ingredients fall out of the dish as an indication of overflowing abundance.

Here is a photo of my parents-in-law, brother-in-law and nephew caught in the act of lo-hei-ing :-D

In previous years, being law-based, I would be rather sceptical about this superstitious practice and only went along with it after establishing that there were no religious connotations. I would also modify the auspicious sayings. So instead of "gong xi fa cai" 恭喜发财 (which means wishing your wealth be increased), I would instead say "en shang jia en" 恩上加恩 (which means grace added upon grace).

Well, now having been liberated and crossed over to the grace camp, I have also discovered a new way to lo hei. Read on...

At the end of last year, Ps Prince preached about "The Power of the Amen". Amen is "be it unto me" or "so be it" and that was what Mary said when the angel Gabriel told her she would be highly favoured among women and God had chosen her to carry the baby Jesus. It was also recorded in Deut 27 how the Israelites had said Amen to the curses and not to the blessings because Christ had not yet come. When we hear God's Word and we respond by saying Amen, we complete the cycle, and what is in the spiritual realm would come to pass in the physical realm.

(Do check out Terence's blog for enhanced notes on this wonderful sermon).

We can apply the same principle to these auspicious sayings by saying Amen to them, as long as these sayings are aligned with and not contrary to God's Word. And the text messages I have been receiving from fellow grace-based believers from the likes of Philip and Joshen over the past few days indicate that they do!

Check out the following, for a start...

心想事成 xin1 xiang3 shi4 cheng2
Heartfelt wishes come to pass
Ps 37:4 God will grant us the desires of our heart

万事如意 wan4 shi4 ru2 yi4
Everything ends up in success
Rom 8:28 In all things God works together for the good of those who love Him

岁岁平安 sui4 sui4 ping2 an1
Peace throughout the years
Phil 4:7 The peace of God will guard our hearts and minds in Christ

事业有成(shi4 ye4 you3 cheng2)
A prosperous and fruitful career
Jer 29:11 God knows the plans for us to prosper us and give us a future and a hope

步步高升 (bu4 bu4 gao1 sheng1)
Promotion up the ranks
Eph 2:6 God has raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus

金玉满堂 (jin1 yu4 man3 tang2)
Golden treasures fill the house
Prov 15:6 The house of the righteous is filled with treasure

So the next time you go to lo-hei and you hear these auspicious sayings, say a loud "Amen" to agree with them and see them manifest in your life. Amen?

[Afternote: I received an sms from Geri that shows that even the desserts can have Biblical significance!]

红运当头(hong2 yun4 dang1 tou2)
Tarts with cherry tops (literal meaning: red moves one to the top)
Deut 28:13 God has made us the head and not the tail (as a result of Jesus' shed blood)

笑口常开 (xiao4 kou3 chang2 kai1)
Chinese dates stuffed with sugar (literal meaning: mouth constantly opened with laughter)
Ps 105:43 God brings His people out with rejoicing, and His chosen ones with shouts of joy

Moses Lim Banned by Channel U

Thursday, 29th January 2009

Recently, I mentioned about Jacelyn Tay (郑秀珍) being a fellow believer and reproduced her conversion story which appeared in Impact Magazine on my blog. At about the same time, Blogpastor blogged about celebrities in the Lord and I was pleasantly surprised to read about how Jack Neo (梁智强) has now also embraced Christianity.

I remember watching his earlier movies such as Money No Enough and Just Follow Law and how he and others from Raintree Productions would dedicate them by burning joss sticks and offering food to his previous gods. Now that he is a Christian, I look forward to seeing him saying a prayer and dedicating his movies to Jesus Christ :-D

I am also moved to see so many celebrities rising up to confess their faith publicly. While previously they used to be more secretive about their beliefs, increasingly they are now bolder in declaring their stand.

Besides Jacelyn Tay and Jack Neo, other MediaCorp artistes who are known to be Christians are Aileen Tan (陈丽贞), Jesseca Liu (刘芷绚), Chen Li Ping (陈莉萍), Rayson Tan (陈泰铭), and of course, Chew Chor Meng (周初明).

Speaking of Jack Neo, how many of you remember a weekly comedy series called Comedy Night starring him and Moses Lim (林益民)? Well, it just so happens that Moses Lim is also a Christian and came to speak at my church's Mandarin service on 29th June 08.

In his sharing entitled "This Life's Most Beautiful Blessing" ("这一生最美的祝福"), he talked about how he was banned by Channel U and how God vindicated him several years thereafter. I found his testimony to be simple yet effective because he speaks colloquially in a mixture of Mandarin, English and even the occasional Malay. In fact, there were about 80 persons that went forward to accept Christ as a result of hearing him.

I have been making copies of the "sermon" and distributing them to friends such as Stan, Angie, Geri and Jeff, my PLMC cell members from Goodness, Chinese-speaking colleagues, the BMW sales rep Christina that I bought the X5 from, the 2nd hand car dealer Richard that I sold the Grandis to, and Chinese-educated drivers of taxis that God divinely appoints me to take back home on those days I happen to be working late.

And now dear readers of ROOTSS, here is a Chinese New Year treat for all of you. Thanks to Box.net, you can download and listen to it and be likewise encouraged and ministered to. Feel free also to share it with your circle of pre-believing friends and believe that the seed of the Word of God that is sown in their hearts will not return back to Him void. Amen?

Tay Clan F1 Circuit

Wednesday, 28th January 2009

Back on 28 Dec 08, my mom's siblings and their descendants had its annual year-end gathering.

My cousin Chris mentioned that we should meet up more frequently, and what resulted from that suggestion was:
(1) CNY Visitation on Tue 27 Jan 09
(2) CNY Potluck (which will be held on Sat 31 Jan 09)

The CNY Visitation is what we affectionally call the Tay Clan F1 Circuit (where F1 stands for "Family 1st"), in which the entire clan would visit each of my mom's siblings household in turn.

For the inaugural F1 Circuit, we ended up visiting 4 out of the 7 homes. Hopefully we can make it 7 out of 7 next year.

We started out with lunch at Chris' place in Marymount, where this photo of the Tay Clan was taken.

After lunch, we proceeded to my (dad's) place in Braddell for a time of Wii games, and then to Bernard's place in Queenstown and finally to Ivan's place in Tampines for dinner.

P.S. Those of you on Facebook can view the other photos taken at the Tay Clan F1 Circuit 2009 at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=57590&l=fc450&id=751059341

The Chinaman and The Nonya

Tuesday, 27th January 2009

My wife is a 100% pure Teochew descended from Swatow, while I am a 3/4 Baba (my mom and paternal grandma are Peranakans).

This Chinese New Year however, we decided to switch culural roles, so I ended up dressing like a Chinaman while my wife decided to dress up as a Nonya :-D

After two days of visitations, my daughter remarked that in spite of the economic downturn, she has collected more hongbaos in terms of quantity and quality as compared to last year.

It did not come as a surprise to me however because Ps Prince has declared 2009 to be a dektos year of the Lord where His free favours profusely abound. I have said Amen to that, as a result, my entire household is going to see that coming to pass. Hallelujah!

Speaking of which, I recall how my parents would bring my siblings and I to visit their friends and relatives back in the 1970s/80s. There were 4 of us, so I can imagine how some of them would rather we *not* visit them during the Lunar New Year :-D

Anyway, there were 2 households which my 3 sisters and I looked forward to visiting each year. One was a neighbour who lived a few doors away from us, and the other was my mom’s eldest sister (Chris' mom). While most other hongbaos we received ranged between 20 cents to $6, we would get $12 from these two homes (which would be the equivalent of at least $30 in today’s terms!).

By God’s grace, it is my prayer that my wife and I would be able to leave the same kind of legacy that the children of today will remember fondly when they reflect back upon their own hongbao-collecting years, and give Jesus all the glory because He is after all, the source, and we are merely His stewards. Amen?