david burke

The missing day

2011-12-30T22:54:00.000-08:00

I once missed Christmas Day. I was aboard aLondon to NZ flight via Los Angeles and we jumped the date line aroundmidnight. Goodbye presents! However something different happened this year – aday went missing by government fiat. In order to better align with its key tradingpartners, Samoa jumped the International Date Line and moved from 29 to 31December in a digital stroke.

There’s nothing new or alarming in allthat. Calendars are a human construct, have changed often enough during historyand at any given moment different people operate on different calendars. Forexample, the recently newsworthy Mayan calendar runs alongside the more generalwestern calendar in some societies. Or again, Singapore chooses to positionitself out of its natural time zone for reasons of financial markets.

In the ancient near east, calendars werecommonly constructed according to the reign and deeds of a king. For example,consider the Biblical formula ‘in the 8^th year etc of the reign ofKing so and so’.

This is reflected in the present BC / ADdivision of the western calendar which divides around the incarnation ofChrist. Well, not quite … for present scholarly reckoning places his birth inabout 6BC. Its interesting to see present discussion about renaming this intoBCE / CE and thus writing Christ ‘out’. Some Christians see this as an issue ofspreading secularism to contest. Personally, I don’t think its worth the fight.

Hmm .. constructing a calendar around thedeeds of a king? Now that’s worth thinking about. Put simply, it locates us inthe last days in between the ascension and the return of the Lord. That givesurgency to the task of witness and encouragement to persist in following andserving Jesus. We are indeed to ‘watch and pray’ and labour and serve, for ourmaster may return from his journey any moment.

How terrible to be ill-prepared and thus tomiss the day.

Threads of lives

2011-12-27T03:58:00.000-08:00

I first met Angie and her father Dan (not thereal names) 40 years ago. Angie was about 10 years old. Her mother had recently died,leaving she and her two siblings as orphans.

Dan had belonged to the church my dadpastored about 15 years earlier and now resumed contact after a long absence.Dan started coming to my dad’s new church and also needed someone to care forthe young children during his absence on business trips.

My dad referred Dan to my girlfriend whobecame the child carer during some uni holidays. That brought me into the scene.A year or so later I needed employment. Dan rang the boss of a firm he hasworked for and so I had a job for two years while my life reshaped.

Dan soon married a woman from my dad’s church andthen we all drifted in different directions for many years. After Dan became achurch elder involved in wider church matters I met him more often. As a young adult, Angie sister was a friend of my wifeand I and then, after a gap of decades, we became Facebook friends when shelived in the UK.

Angie’s life had ups and downs, involving tragicmoments that tested and tormented she and her family. She died last Friday aged50. I saw a Facebook message from her sister and rang Dan. Then contacted someother friends who were all part of that church and friendship network about 40years ago. And so we will soon gather to mourn with those who mourn.

In this the threads of pain and care weave throughthe Kantian categories of space and time. Or rather, they are woven for it isGod who brings people and circumstances in and out of our lives.

Something like this makes me wonder. Angiewas a peripheral part of my life yet there are the threads of about 20 peoplein direct relationship and stretching over about 60 years of my family. Andthen I think of others whose threads are woven into the tapestry of my life andI in turn woven into that of them and others. There are the known and unknown;the long running and the short-lived; the welcome and unwelcome. The threads ofmy life are beyond counting and disappear into the mists of time backwards andforwards.

As Donne says: no man is an island. Each of these threads is a person made inGod’s image and for whom Christ died. They are an opportunity for me to serveand be served with God’s love and truth.

And so I will keep in touch with Angie’sfamily through this … and resume contact with other people whose threads haveresurfaced through this contact.

A tale of two Christmasses

2011-12-25T15:52:00.000-08:00

I went to church twice over Christmas. Theservices were well attended, the feeling warm, the music uplifting and themessages were fresh presentations of the old old story. And then to a day ofindulgence. The pleasure of family, watching the excitement of my grandsonsopening presents, enjoying lovingingly prepared meals and an afternoon doze.

My brother also went to church. He is amissionary in Jos Nigeria. It was his first Christmas since his wife died onmissionary service earlier this year. He probably started his day with noelectricity and having to draw water from a well in his house. As he sat inchurch there was a bomb blast nearby: they heard it and felt a blast wave. The service continued, rejoicing in thecovenant faithfulness of God, praying for those who sought to harm them andseeking God’s peace on the city.

My brother’s Christmas gives a reminder ofmortality and eternity. So much of what most us do from day to day is trivialagainst these horizons. Oh for grace to enjoy the trivial pursuits and enjoylife under the sun, but always for wisdom to see and live under the eternitythat God puts in the heart of humanity.

The Trellis and the Vine

2011-12-20T17:07:00.000-08:00

Marshall, C; Payne T, The Trellis and The Vine, (MatthiasMedia, Sydney, 2009). 166 pages plus appendices.Available in various formats through Matthias Media: http://www.matthiasmedia.com.au/the-trellis-and-the-vine.Reviewed by David Burke.

This little book has only been out for two years but is packing apunch. Ministry leaders from around the globe and in various traditions acclaimit and the language of ‘trellis and vine’ has become a standard ministrymetaphor.

The subtitle indicates the book’s goals: The ministry mind-shift that changes everything. Talk about ambition!In summary, Col Marshall and Tony Payne call for disciple-making anddisciple-growth to be at the centre of the church’s energies and to be at theheart of pastors and church leaders. The book makes a strong case for this fromvarious Scriptures and then turns to the practicalities.

Nothing new?

In one sense there is nothing new in the book. Since Jesus took the 12aside for deeper lessons and Paul did the same for Timothy, wise leaders haveinvested themselves in the growth and training of believers with potential. AndI’d guess that most Christian leaders would speak about the importance ofsomeone who took them aside at a formative stage and invested in their growth. Inthis respect, the book is applied exposition of 2 Tim 2:2 and Eph 4:11-12.

What’s new?

What’s new in this book is the passion with which the case for trainingis argued and the careful outworking of the training agenda and process. Theministry of training is developed through a vision for recruitinggospel-partners and moving them through phases of growth and service,concluding with a vision for full-on ministry apprenticeships. Marshall andPayne write with many years experience in Christian training. This shows asthey work through the details and anticipate challenges.

Quotable quotes

Here are some quotes to whet the appetite (but you really need to readthe book to get the point):

· Is there anythingmore vital to be doing in our world? It is more important than our jobs, ourfamilies, our pastimes – yes, even more important than the comfort and securityof familiar church life. (p38)

· … what happensis the same: a Christian brings a truth from God’s word to someone else,praying that God would make that word bear fruit through the inwards working ofthe Spirit. That’s vine work. Everything else is trellis. (p39)

· To be a discipleis to be a disciple-maker. (p43)

· We have toconclude that a Christian with no passion for the lost is in serious need ofself-examination and repentance. (p52-3)

· A pastor or elderis just a vine-worker with a particularresponsibility to care for and equipthe people for their partnership in the gospel. (p67)

· We are always anexample to those whom we are teaching and training, whether we like it or not.We cannot stop being an example. (p74)

· The principle is:do a deep work in the lives of a few. (p161)

What’s good about the book?

I like the way in which Marshall and Payne puts discipling where itbelongs – at centre stage in church life and ministry. The wide scope oftraining to include convictions and character along with competence in skillsis refreshing. Likewise, its great to see the focus on gospel growth, notchurch growth – this is a timely encouragement in a day when numerical growthremains a guilt-trap for pastors. And again, the grounded practicality of thebook makes it immediately useful. It’s a book that gives a vision and thengives the small starter-steps to see it happen.

Problem areas

However there are a few problems areas. It would be easy to pick up theimpression that church is just a training organisation and that people likepastors are only trainers. Likewise, the brief discussion of what isunfortunately called ‘secular work’ will leave many feeling that their dailylabour has no significance before God (pp136-138). It would be a pity if somereaders saw these issues and dismissed the whole book as a product of alleged‘Sydney reductionism’. Finally, it would be a great complement to see even abrief discussion of what kind of trellis work and trellis workers are needed tocomplement the rightful focus on vine work and workers.

Notes to myself

I wrote a few notes to myself as I read the book:

· Gratitude for the people who invested themselves inmy training as a new Christian and helped my growth and entry to service.

· Thanks for the privilege of investing myself in thetraining of others along the way and for the pleasure of seeing God’s fruit intheir lives.

· Thinking about the ministries I now have and thepeople I touch: how can I sharpen my training contribution and vine focus?

· What can I do to help shift the focus from trelliswork to vine work in my church tradition (Presbyterian)? In particular, whatcan I do to help shift the focus of the eldership from governance to vine-work?

· Thinking about myself: what growth do I now need andhow shall I access it?

(David Burke has been in full time Christian service since 1979,including 21 years of pastoral ministry and 30 years in ministry trainingroles. He now teaches at Presbyterian Theological Centre Sydney Australia)

A distant suburb

2011-11-26T02:40:00.001-08:00

I saw a production of Julius Caesar today.

In one scene, the wife of Brutus (main plotter) spots that he has a secret. She tries to get it from him and claims a wife's privileges as one before the gods. He refuses. She pleads, asking if she inhabits but the distant suburbs of his heart.

A thought: is God in my distant suburbs or city-central?

Christmas or Christmiss?

2011-11-20T22:02:00.000-08:00

A mother wrote to a publication and asked what Christmas is all about and how to explain it to her six year old daughter in a way that would help her on the road to Jesus. I was asked to contribute a reply ..

What great questions you ask! How wonderful that you want to explain this to your daughter and help her on the road to Jesus. That’s great parenting!

I’ll start with a confession. I dislike Christmas!

The reasons are partly personal. One of my parents died soon before 25 December and the other one soon after. As well, Christmas is usually a period of heavy work for me – I spoke at 31 Christmas events one year! On top of that, Christmas was a time of separation from my family during the last 12 years. Put all that together and you can see why it’s not my favourite time of year.

However, my real dislike of Christmas goes deeper. The emptiness of the public festival that we call Christmas gives me dismay. I lived in a major south east Asian city where Christianity was a distinctly minority faith. Yet every shopping centre and public facilities such as airports and major roads were themed for some kind of Christmas. I say ‘some kind of Christmas’ for there was more of a general seasonal goodwill rather than any emphasis on Christ. Can you see that same trend happening in Australia? Public events are ‘Christmas-light’ and Jesus hardly gets a mention. Christmas is meant to be ‘Christ-mas’, or a celebration of Jesus. But what we often see is ‘Christmiss’ – anything but Jesus.

Did you know that it’s artificial to celebrate Jesus’ birth on December 25th? We don’t know when he was born, except that it was probably not December of January. Almost certainly Jewish shepherds would not have slept in their fields in a freeing December. Our 25 December celebration draws on some pre-Christian festivals associated with the northern solstice and New Year. Put simply, the celebration of Jesus’ birth on December 25th was an attempt to Christianise these pagan festivals. Given the modern ‘Christmiss’, I think that the pagans have struck back well.

Should we celebrate Christmas? That’s a serious question. I sometimes wonder if we should skip 25 December and hold our celebration at another time. Not all Christian celebrate Christmas on 25 December anyway. Some through history have not celebrated it at all.

However, I’m guessing that most of us will celebrate Christmas on December 25. If so, how can we use the day to tell our children and others about Jesus?

So what do you say to your daughter? I’d start with Christmas presents. Tell your daughter that we give them to remind us of the best present of all. That best present is God’s love to send his son Jesus into the world to be a real person like us.

That’s breathtaking. It blew the minds of the first people who heard it. Imagine the richest person in the world leaving their mansion and living in an ordinary suburb or town. We would wonder why? Now imagine way beyond that. God who made everything became one of us and one with us. As the Bible puts it: ‘the Word became flesh and lived among us’ (Jn 1:14). Jesus, who is God’s son, is that Word. When he came, it was ‘Immanuel’ which means ‘God with us’ (Matt 1:23).

Why did Jesus do this? He did it to show us what God is like in a way we can best understand (Jn 1:14,18). He did it to share our life and show us what it is to be truly human and without sin (Heb 4:15). And he did it to be the Saviour, who is Christ the Lord (Lke 2:11). As one Bible verse puts it: ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’ (1 Tim 1:15). Indeed, the very name ‘Jesus’ means that God is salvation. Or as that most famous verse says: ‘God loved the world so much that he sent his one and only Son so that whoever believes in him should not die but have eternal life (Jn 3:16).

This is a key thing to remember and teach your daughter. Put simply, Jesus became one of us so that he could go the Cross in our place and take our punishment for sin. The Christmas cradle always has the shadow of the Easter Cross.

So here are some suggestions for you and your daughter:
• Read the Bible stories of Jesus’ birth to her in the weeks before Christmas. (You will find these in Matthew Chs 1-2 and Luke Chs 1-2.) Take time to talk about these and to explain some of the significant sayings.

• Together make up some Christmas gift tags or tree decorations with some of the above Bible verses on them. Use these within your family and to others.

• Visit a Christian bookshop and buy some storybooks that are true to the Bible story and great value as kid’s books. Give these as presents.

• Make it a family priority to meet with other Christians to celebrate Jesus’ birth and maybe don’t distribute Christmas presents until later.

• Keep Christmas presents and meal modest to help keep the focus on Jesus.

• Set a good model to your daughter by yourself putting a big focus on Jesus at that time.

• Together say a big prayer of thanks for all the Christmas presents and especially for the best one of all – Jesus the Saviour.

• Echo God’s love-gift to us by taking your daughter to serve needy people with gifts of time, food or other gifts.

Hmm … maybe Christmas can become likeable after all!

A little correspondence about representations

2011-09-25T16:34:00.000-07:00

I recently visited an art gallery specialising in portraits of people who are deemed significant to Australia. (But who decides significance and on what basis?)

My interest is in the messages of the paintings. Not so much the messages of the messages as the manner of the message.

I have little interest in abstract art, beyond examining what viewer-response it evokes. Those responses seem to say more about the viewer than about the work. Such abstract art can evoke or suggest moods or general feelings, but the meaning seems to depend largely on the context of a viewer. In this sense, such works become mirrors of the self.

I suspect that much the same happens with music unaccompanied by text. The aural images are abstractions that evoke moods, just as visual images of abstract art are abstractions that evoke moods. However, the content of the mood depends on the hearer of the music – just as it depends on the viewer of abstract art. Note how this changes when text is added to the music – the text shapes the content associated with the mood.

What was of greater interest in the portrait gallery was to view portraits of people I know something about. Some were clearly representational rather than correspondence in form. That is, the artist did not strive for a ‘photo in oils’ but chose to re-present the subject in some way to bring this or that feature out and to give a message of some kind. Hence portraits of two politicians that exaggerated this or that feature to present what they stood for.

The contrast here is with what I will call ‘correspondence’ portraits. A correspondence portrait has the appearance of being photo-like in that what appears in the image has a close facsimile-like correspondence with the subject. (Of course, a photographer can choose settings that render an impressionistic or representational image but let us set that aside for now.)

Representational portraits have certain honesty about them. By that I mean that the artist intentionally signals that s/he is not attempting a photo in oils.

But what of the portraits that were presented as a photo in oils? The artist’s skill is seen in the attempted production of a facsimile. But is this truly correspondence art in which the painter is just a neutral technician? Or is there a hidden deceit?

Think about the scene:
• A particular artist asks or is asked to do a portrait of a particular person?
• The subject is dressed and posed in a certain pose and in a certain context.
• The artist chooses aspects of the person to represent and others to fade to lesser significance.

And so on.

Each of these steps involves choices. Who makes them and on what basis? The ‘deceit’ is that these choices are concealed rather than being intentionally signalled.

I’m not suggesting the deceit is malevolent or even intentional. But rather, that the ‘photo in oils’ can be taken as giving an impression of a correspondence that it does not have.

Can there be any truly and purely correspondence portrait art? Or are we left with the conclusion that all portraits are representational due to the layers of choice in making the portrait? And that these layers add up to interpretations that block correspondence. If we then add in the interpretative layer(s) imposed by the viewer(s) we seem to get further and further away from the subject. Are we left with nothing but impressions and representations?

These are all old themes in philosophy and what is said of the visual arts can be said elsewhere. Do we, and can we, know anything as it is, or can we only know our ideas and impressions of things? Locke, Reid, Kant and a hundred others have written on these themes.

The same problem occurs with words.

Correspondence theories of language hold to the possibility of a direct correspondence between our words and the reality they refer to. Symbolic, deconstructionist and perspectivalist theories of language hold otherwise. Words can only represent reality, not correspond to it. And when we add the hermeneutical issues of words shared between people and across contexts the problem deepens.

Can words ever be other than malleable symbols, representations and deceits in the sense identified above? Can we say anything about ourselves, the world and God that is other than symbolic representation?

Yet we use words and visual images to communicate and assume on a daily basis that there is significant correspondence. In fact we stake our lives on correspondence. Think of a visual image warning that something is poison or that crocodiles abound in a waterhole. Or think of the words on a Stop sign or in a recipe. Even further, I can use the above words to communicate doubt about words as do many others who write words conveying meaning about deconstructing meaning from and into words.

Is there something being missed in the whole discussion? And does it relate to God who used words to speak creation into life, whose Son is described as the Word of God, and through whose Spirit men were carried along to write words that bring God’s word into our language? In short, is it God who sustains our words and their meaning, just as he sustains all else?

And, when we stand before a portrait, is there something of a shared community of God’s image that means we can catch something corresponding to the person behind an artist’s image, even through all the layers between that person, the portrait and us?

9/11 @ 2011

2011-09-10T13:50:00.000-07:00

They say we can all remember what we were doing when we first heard of 9/11.

Interesting that. I wonder what else happened that day. Families lost loved ones. People lost love. Others found it. Some died noticed and others without notice. Some died from preventable causes of diseases easily cured, and of hunger and thirst. (What happened in Darfur that day I wonder.)

But the event that defines the day was the four-part scene in the US.

In itself just another death scene. Perhaps no other single event that day took as many lives as were lost in New York’s World Trade Centre. More (many more) died elsewhere but that’s the one we remember. Why? The intentionality. The originality of this edition of asymmetrical warfare. The graphic images. (Think of that man in the white coat falling through the air.) The sheer randomness of those who died and those who missed an appointment with their Creator.

However, of all the deaths that day, those are the ones we remember. Ten years on we can say it was a day that changed the world. The first mainland attack on the US that shattered it’s self-confidence. A trigger in the path to two Gulf Wars and to the endless Afghan campaign. The day gains its significance as much as from what followed as what happened.

I have been in the US several times since 9/11. In recent years I notice a diminishing confidence in American ‘can do’. The ‘audacity of hope’ has yielded to the collapse of hope. Grim sullenness is omnipresent about the economy, America’s place in the world and its sense of identity. Will the US be the same again?

I went to New York this June and caught a ferry out to the Statue of Liberty. It was a glorious summer day with blue sky, puffy clouds and green grass making for peaceful pleasantry. It was inspiring to see the statue close up, read the inscriptions and consider how this had been a place of hope for so many. They craved the new land in which to carve new liberties. It was, however, poignant to turn and gaze across the water to lower Manhattan and that empty space.

Whither liberty?

Wither liberty?

The loaf and the cup

2011-08-30T16:29:00.000-07:00

On my work desk today there are two everyday items: a loaf of Vienna white bread and a container of rich red grape juice. I bought them from a shop as I walked to work and doubtless the ones next to them will soon be put to everyday use.

Later today this loaf and juice will be used in a college communion service that I am assigned to lead.

There they will remain bread and grape juice (no accidental substance change here!).

However, their use will change. Hopefully they will provide pre-lunch refreshment (as we use prodigal portions not puny Presbyterian ones). They will also be presented as symbols of grace.

The loaf reminding us of the body of Jesus. Real incarnate flesh with muscles and sinews and sweat dripping from his brow. (No docetic deceit here.)

The grape juice (sorry folks, no wine in Oz land) reminding us of the blood of Jesus. Real blood, rich in red blood cells, iron and such like, pumping through his heart to blood vessels, tissues and organs. (Wonder what blood group he was?)

The loaf and the juice, the body and the blood. Reminders of the grace that led the Father to send the Son to make atonement for my sins and those of the world. Symbols of the grace that saves and enables people like to reconnect to God, start recovering creational identity, escape sin’s dread hold and to live now in anticipation and hope of resurrection to eternal life.

The loaf and the cup certainly should not be idolised (and our low church order will keep us well away from that). But nor should they be despised or neglected as some are in the habit of doing.

So, as I later break the loaf and pour the cup it will be my prayer that they lift minds and hearts to eternal things as Christ is present in his sacrament by his Spirit. And then, having been thus lifted, we go back to the everyday world of bread and juice and there live worthy of the body and the blood.

Cup of coffee?

2011-08-13T01:16:00.001-07:00

I like coffee and in fact I’m drinking a cup as I start writing this.

However, it seems that not all cups of coffee are equal.

In my early adult life instant coffee was all the rage: cheap, accessible, instant and tasty enough. Sure, there were brands that were more or less tasty (cup of International Golden Roast anyone?). However, instant coffee made its mark and was everywhere.

More and more coffee-making devices came along. When I was married in 1972 we were given a percolator that came out for special occasions (and very fancy it was too!). Then came drip-filter machines and the plunger era. More recently, fancy coffee makers have moved from cafes to homes and every dad is a barista. Old technology comes back too: my wife and I recently bought a cheap old-fashioned Italian stove-top device that makes a great cup.

The same upgrade has applied to the ingredients. Good commercial ground coffees are eschewed. We want fresh beans from the best source to process in our home grinder just before brew time.

All this is welcome and I’ll put my hand up as one who likes a decent cuppa. And again, why not pursue excellence in coffee making and enjoy the best that God’s creation offers?

However, something less welcome happened alongside the upgrades. Attitudes also changed. Its now common that instant is regarded as beneath contempt and some skip their cuppa if that’s all that is on offer. A plunger is barely acceptable and we go to great lengths and expense to get the genuine article. This sounds like a coffee snobbery and is found in surprising places. Is coffee-sophistication a new badge of Christian orthodoxy alongside having the latest book from the current guru?

Are we missing something?

What about the grace of contentment with God’s provision, even if its poor instant coffee (Phil 4:12)?

Is our disdain for poor coffee and longing for the best becoming the greed that is idolatry (Col 3:5)?

Is our search for coffee satisfaction an example of the hebel of Ecclesiastes (Eccles 2:1)?

Can we imagine a coffee snobbery in the one who had nowhere to lay his head (let along his coffee machine) and who calls us to deny self in following him (Mat 8:20; Matt 16:24)?

Do we fail to love our neighbour in poor coffee-growing lands by demanding great beans at cheap prices rather than buy through a fair trade organisation?

Hmm … maybe it’s time to brew a cuppa and think about these things.

Whose interest?

2011-07-21T17:13:00.000-07:00

Australia, like other countries, is considering how to contain its harmful impact on the physical environment.

And so the government proposes a carbon tax on heavy polluting industries and then a later emissions trading scheme.

Public discussion has started. Proponents of the tax argue point to the compensation scheme and argue that few will be worse off than at present. Opponents of the scheme argue that the general will be worse off through trickle down effects etc into the wider economy.

Consider however where the discussion is largely focused. Its on the immediate economic self-interest of the individual.

How about considering some other interests:

- Social and environmental good as well as economic;
- Longer term as well as immediate.
- Other people, and especially the vulnerable in the community.

In Christian perspective we may also consider:
- Our responsibility towards the physical creation as its God-appointed managers (not damagers) who are charged to use it and care for it (Gen 1:26-28; Gen 2:15).
- The great commands to love God and neighbour (Matt 22:37-39).

Short term, economic self-interest really is such a sub-Christian way to think about the carbon tax and many other public questions.

The Test

2011-06-25T05:33:00.000-07:00

It is a truism that all people are tested. However, not all tests are alike.

Here are two true stories.

Wendy was happily married with a loving spouse and two children. She had good qualifications and a job where they were well used and in which prospects were good. One son was expelled from school and has persistent problems in social adjustment. Another developed a life-threatening illness that was not covered by medical insurance. Wendy’s spouse died suddenly at a young age and she was forced to move countries. Wendy could not find suitable work and ekes out a living doing a job far below her qualifications and outside her key abilities. She is financially stretched in middle adulthood. She has remarried but the new family is not yet happy.

Wendy has the test of deprivation. This is a Job-like pattern, where all was taken from her and her confidence in God was tested to the limit.

Darren had a spouse who developed cancer but recovered. After some difficulties, their adult kids are on the feet. His qualifications are mid-ranking but he gained employment above his level and in a post which gave him great significance. He lost this job but another good post came knocking at his door and he had a seamless transition. He is financially secure and could retire anytime. Darren is well liked and has a wide circle of friends and contacts.

Darren has the test of success. He is like King David who won battles, gained popularity and had women falling at his feet. His test was to stay loyal to God amidst these blessings and to walk in humble obedience before God.

Deprivation or success – which is the greater test?

GE 2011 Singapore

2011-05-04T03:46:00.001-07:00

Singapore soon has a general election that is attracting unparalleled interest. Candidates, platforms, alternatives and rallies abound. Normally apathetic people are going to rallies and following the new media for their fresh and diverse perspectives.

How do we follow Christ in the polling booth?

The following Bible study uses the familiar rubric of creation / fall / redemption to give some starter questions on this issue. The study and questions arise from the conviction that there is not a singular Christian way to vote, but what matters is whether our motivations and reasons for voting the way we do reflect our confession of Christ as saving Lord.

CREATION

1. Where do institutions of government come from? How should that shape our attitudes and actions? (Rom 13:1-7; 1 Titus 3:1; 1 Pet 2:13-17)

2. What boundaries are there to Christian submission to governments (Acts 4:19)? In what ways does that reflect the first commandment? (Exod 20:3) What does that mean in Singapore today – where should our boundaries be? Are we adept at separating our Christian and Singaporean identities?

FALL

3. What sad effects of the Fall do the following passage track with respect to politics? (Deut 17:14-20; 1 Sam 8:10-17) How do we see that playing out in local politics?

4. It is often said that the US constitution has a Biblical sense of human sinfulness in a careful separation and balancing of powers. In what ways can we help maximise this separation and balance in Singapore - given a single-chamber parliament and local political realities?

REDEMPTION

5. How should our identity as followers of Jesus shape the way we vote tomorrow? How is this different to the way others may decide how to vote?

6. How do we love both God and our neighbour in the polling booth (Matt 22:34-39)?

7. How, specifically, should we pray for politics generally and specifically for local Christians in politics (1 Tim 2:1-2)?

8. 'If Christ is not Lord over our all, he is not really our Lord at all.' Discuss the implications of this for how we vote.

On not going to church

2011-04-16T07:05:00.000-07:00

Hebrews 10:25 tells Christian people not to neglect the habit of meeting together in order to encourage one another in view of the Lord’s coming. The book of Acts records Christian people meeting together on resurrection day. And, most of us can speak of those many Sundays when meeting with God’s people for worship has helped us reboot, refocus and recommit to be God’s people.

In keeping with all this, it’s my habit as a pastor to encourage church going for the sake of the person themselves (to be fed and encouraged); for the sake of others (to encourage and serve them by our presence) and for the sake of unbelievers (to witness to the priority of God in our lives).

However there are times when not going to church may be appropriate.

… I think of Christian workers who are paid to go to church but then face the danger of a professional piety in which their relationship with God is subverted and subsumed by their ministry identity. Not going to church on occasions can help resurrect that personal identity in Christ.

… Likewise with Christian leaders who are always ‘on duty’ when at church and readily occupied with institutional clutter which clamours for attention and seems so important, but which shows itself to be ephemera when stepping back.

The examples could be multiplied. For example, the believer whose soul is bruised and battered by such things as conflict at church, disappointment at bad decisions, gaps between profession and practice by more senior believers etc. In these situations, going to church may compound a problem of seething anger or disappointment that is worsened by donning a mask to ‘play’ at church.

In such situations, a ‘fast’ from church may be appropriate in order to devote ourselves to the Lord in word and prayer. These can be times of remarkable spiritual refreshment as we see him face to face unmediated by churchly clutter. This, of course, should be only for a season lest we breach Scripture by losing the habit of meeting together and retreat to ourselves with the attendant dangers of a private and introspective piety.

And so I’ll admit to times when I could have gone to church but chose not to. These have not necessarily been Godless times, but times of rebuilding and reinforcing my direct link with God and identity as a Christian person as opposed to my persona as a pastor. And likewise there have been times when I have encouraged / affirmed others in their choice not to go to church for a season.

So let us indeed encourage and keep the habit of meeting together with fellow believers. But let us stop it becoming idolatry by sometimes breaking the habit in order to meet with the Lord.

A note to a friend about both / and spirituality

2011-04-03T21:37:00.000-07:00

Why is spirituality tricky?

There's a big bunch of material whose basic strategy is to withdraw folks from this realm into the presence of God for a time with the expectation that this then charges us up to return to the world (which may be seen as a hostile and godless place). At first glance that may sound good, but taken to extremes, this is an essentially escapist spirituality.

You are smart enough to see the basic flaw. Experiential spirituality that becomes escapist easily trends towards a dualism in which creational reality is seen as evil or unimportant. Some spiritualities fall right into that nasty little hole and essentially deny the outside world. Of course, that will be to varying degrees and there are times in which withdrawal to seek God is totally apt and has great Biblical precedent (think of Jesus ducking off for a night of prayer away from everyone and everything). And there are some people for whom withdrawal into experiential spirituality is a natural disposition. That’s fine, but there’s a need to nudge such folk back to a ‘both / and’ relationship with God in which we both withdraw and engage.

(And, of course, there are others of us who need to be nudged away from our primarily objective spirituality and encouraged into the experiential and relational element.)

A better way is generally to cultivate a grounded and world spirituality in which our relationship with God arises from, is conducted within, and is directed to the everyday world in which we are called to live. This is the spirituality of an ‘engager’ who takes the created world seriously as the place where we must relate to God. Indeed, we may ask if it’s worth holding a faith that does not push us to meet and be with God in the creational greys in which we live and move and have our being.

But you are also smart enough to know that all this is another one of the both/ands with which the Christian faith is littered. A purely worldly spirituality needs the complement of experiential relationship with God and a purely experiential spirituality needs the complement of worldly groundedness. Thus Jesus occasionally withdrew, but then he returned to engage with his father’s world and will.

Whatever the mix, its good to apply this test: does this spiritual resource or practice help me know and know about God more closely through prayerfulness and the Scripture, be more Christ-like in an everyday sense, and does it equip me to engage with the world in active discipleship and service?

Lent and earth hour.

2011-03-26T13:12:00.000-07:00

On Saturday 26 of March 2011 many cities will observe earth hour.

This is a one-hour switch off for lights. It started in Sydney Australia and has gone globally viral. As such, it’s been an effective public event. However, does it raise environmental awareness to change behaviour beyond its hour?

A parallel can be drawn with Lent.

This is a 40-day time of various spiritual disciplines before Easter and is globally viral for a very long time. It is an effective public event. However, does it raise spiritual awareness to change behaviour beyond its ‘hour’?

Isaiah 58 is relevant. The context was one of religious fasting that was conducted with great display and fanfare. In God’s name he calls for what we can call a life-fast where people departed from wickedness and showed God’s righteousness in their day to day. Calvin somewhere picks up this theme and urges his readers to make the whole of life a fast to and before the Lord.

On this year’s earth hour we are urged to action ‘beyond the hour’. A life-habit of sacrifice to lessen our personal energy consumption is surely better than the hour. Likewise, a life-habit of abstinence and spiritual discipline is surely better than just the 40 days.

By all means let’s choose to observe things like Lent and earth hour. But let’s ensure that they are more than tokens by turning the ‘hour’ into the habit of a lifetime.

Home and away

2011-03-24T00:54:00.000-07:00

Exile, or being away, was a tough experience for Old Testament Israel after the fall of Jerusalem. There they were, dispossessed and far from the land promised to Abraham (Gen 12:1; 15:18f). No wonder they found it hard to sing the Lord’s song in exile and far from the place that they regarded as home (eg Ps 137).

This language of home and exile is picked up in the New Testament. Thus Peter can address his readers as ‘elect exiles of the dispersion’ and urge them to conduct themselves with fear through the time of their exile (1 Pet 1:1; 17).

Christian believers, as much as the old heroes of the faith are strangers and exiles who seek the homeland which is the city to come (Heb 11:14-16; 13:14). Our real sense of home is to be with the Lord and away from the flesh (2 Cor 5:6-8; Phil 1:23) which is to occupy our room in the prepared place of the new creation (Jn 14:2-3).

Yet we are called to be in the world rather than to escape from it (Jn 17:15). We cannot live in a ghetto of the coming age and refuse engagement with the present.

How do we put this together?

Perhaps we can use a human comparison.

Let’s imagine a person who is living in a country other than their heartland. Their citizenship, identity and love lies elsewhere, especially if they were wrenched from the heartland. Yet they recognise that they are, for the time being, in another land. Thus they strive to make a fulfilling life in the new, live responsibly there and enjoy what life there brings. However, their sense of who they are and where they are has two dimensions. There is the adopted ‘home’ of the present and the ‘Home’ of their heartland (or, as we call it, homeland). Add to that a Christian identity and we add a third sense of ‘HOME’ as the place of the deepest Christian longing.

This sense of ‘home’, ‘Home’ and ‘HOME’ can help the exile find a working equilibrium in their inner and outer life. She is at home where she is and engages with the life that God gives. Yet he maintains an interest in, love and loyalty to the Home from which he is removed. And beyond that, a sense that all life lived in this age is a homeless exile and thus a refusal to unduly attach to home or Home, lest that tear the affections from HOME.

Come you weak

2011-03-20T15:46:00.001-07:00

My wife and I went to a church service recently. As we walked in we could hear a group of people singing praise choruses with weak voices and no accompaniment.

There were about 30 of us there. About half came from a nearby home for people with mental and emotional disorders, many due to substance abuse. They would occasionally interrupt the service with odd remarks and wander in and out. The church ensured that these folk were given a worksheet to colour and complete during the service and the more regular members were careful to sit among the people from the home to help keep order. Of the rest, only one man was in modest employment and the rest were retired.

We met in a hall that had recently been renovated with the effect of a warm and welcoming appearance. All the singing was by voice alone and attuned to heaven if not to musical pitch. The preaching was workmanlike and adjusted to the audience and the fellowship cuppa afterwards was warm.

It’s a service we’d go back to despite its modest nature. Why? The caring and thoughtful welcome and reception of the weak and meek from the nearby home. The genuine warmth of welcome to us. But also the kingdom-minded heart of the congregation. This is visibly evident in their finances where this little group gave about $33,000 in offering last year and almost one third of it given to missions.

Here is a little local church in tough circumstances but with a big heart for God’s work. The open door of the church onto the street is a symbol of their heart for the community. An outpost of heaven.

A second look at Lent

2011-03-15T15:20:00.000-07:00

We are now well into the season of Lent – the 40 days before Easter when many Christians observe a fast of some kind before the Easter feast.

Observing Lent is prominent in some Christian traditions as a way of identifying with the sufferings of Jesus and preparing for the glorious release of resurrection Sunday. Within these traditions, a variety of extra practices have accumulated around the basic themes of self-denial and discipline.

Lent tends to be rejected within strong protestant traditions because of its associations with Roman Catholicism; its compulsion as a man-made practice; the superstitious practices associated with it and because of the easy slide into a view that observing Lent impresses the Lord and earns merit points in heaven.

These are weighty concerns and, put together, make good reasons to steer away from the traditional Lent observances.

However, is Lent worth a second look? Can this season be kept as a time of voluntary and private self-denial in order to give oneself more fervently to the word and prayer and to develop the discipline of self-denial and self-control?

Perhaps a pattern like this can be useful:

Word: extended daily readings in Scripture with appropriate reflection and journaling.

Prayer: extended prayerfulness with particular attention to examine our own soul before the Lord with a view to its improvement and also keeping a balance by focussed prayer on a matter outside of the normal prayer horizon.

Self-denial: choosing to deny or minimise indulgence in something that we are free to do, normally do and enjoy. Thus learning to say ‘no’ to ourselves is a help in developing the discipline to say no to things that we are not free to do but find it hard to resist.

Voluntary: there should be no sense of compulsion on ourselves or an attempt to force or pressure others to participate (eg close friends or family members). Such compulsion quite destroys the moment.

Private: Jesus teaches to keep our praying, fasting and alms giving between God and us and not make a public show. Thus someone keeping a Lenten fast may tell an accountability partner, but otherwise should discreetly keep their fast from public view.

Of course, such a fast can be observed at any time and some may wish to deliberately disassociate from Lent for the reasons above. But again, there is something to be said and gained by appropriately constructed sharing in a long-established and widely-observed devotional practice.

Praying for Japan

2011-03-13T17:59:00.001-07:00

See below for a prayer list from a mission team working in Japan and seeking to be useful for God after the earthquake and tsunami ..

ASK & RECEIVE Special JAPAN EARTHQUAKE UPDATE
MTW Tokyo Team

Dan Iverson (Tokyo MTW team leader) written 3/11/2011, excerpts below

Please pray for us as we decide where to go and help with hands, food, water, diapers, and money, etc. At this writing there are more than 1100 dead or missing, and we have the sad expectation that this number will go much higher considering how big and widespread the tsunamis were.

Where to go?
There is 130 miles (200 km) of coastal area devastation from this monster earthquake and resulting tsunamis, so it is difficult to know where we should go to help. We are looking for missionaries or churches in an area to partner with and that could be our base. Pray for wisdom: when to go, where to go, who to go to, and what to take.

So, as we and so many Christians mobilize and seek to relieve incredible suffering and pain in the name of Christ to the 5 million people of the devastated areas, pray that this will bring a turning to the true and living God, and to Christ and his grace and love. Japan really needs true hope that does not disappoint.

It needs to also break our heart that this very rich country is really so spiritually impoverished, with so many with no hope. To put the spiritual darkness of Japan in perspective, Japan averages about 90 suicides per day. It is so sad that already 1100 people appear to have died in the earthquake/tsunami, and yet a normal 12 days in Japan brings about this many suicides. Japan has grown strong economically and educationally and has "made it", with 100% literacy, longest life expectancy in the world, etc. But like in Ecclesiastes 2, so many Japanese people who sought the "abundant" life have found that "all is vanity." Pray for a new turning to the One who really does give abundant life (John 10:10b).

The stats on Japan's spiritual poverty, and especially the affected area:
The areas affected by the earthquake and tsunamis of Miyagi, Fukushima, and Ibaraki are some of the most spiritually needy places in Japan. With over 4.9 million people yet only about 9,000 active Christians (about 0.15%; about 1/6 of 1%). Fukushima has the lowest average worship attendance in all of Japan with only 19 per church. There are is one city and 44 towns with no church at all. There are 86 missionaries (adults, including husband and wife) assigned to these prefectures.

One town in Ibaraki has over 46,000 people with no church and several others have over 24,000 people with no churches. Average attendance for all the churches in Japan is the lowest in Fukushima prefecture. Ibaraki prefecture has the least number of people claiming to have any religious beliefs.

How do we help? Our plans?

We are renting a truck and preparing to go: Need to know where to go. Please pray for that.

We have rented one truck and are having people bring supplies to worship to take up north. Email and cell phone access are down in the Sendai area where things were the worse. We know OPC missionaries there who could be a base for us to help with their churches, if they and the churches are okay, but all we know is that "OPC missionaries the Cummings are okay, but have no electricity or other utilities" (word we finally got 2d hand). And, because the two nuclear power plants in the affected region are a very serious concern, we may not be allowed into some areas to help.

Please do pray for Japan, and for us!

Overall Prayer Points
• Pray for team members: to be prepared with earthquake necessities, to experience the peace of Christ that is greater than any tremor, and to be able to pass that on to others. Pray they would be able to set aside their own fears to comfort others. Pray as they seek to assemble a team of volunteers to go and help in the affected areas, that it would be in God’s timing and the location that would give Him the most glory.

• Pray for the Japanese Christians: Pray that after being jolted from their routines they would look to Christ, and as they contact family members and secure their safety, that God would fill them with a new desire and urgency to love and share the gospel with their families and friends. Pray that God would put it into their heart to give generously of supplies and food, time and labor, to reach their fellow countrymen for Christ.

• Pray against hopelessness – pray that many would not give in to the hopelessness that surrounds them, but would reach out to the true hope found only in Christ.

• Pray specifically for the salvation of our many contacts and friends as they process the “whys?” of this catastrophe. Many students have relatives in the affected areas and may have experienced death directly. Pray that they would be comforted and counseled with the love of Jesus.

My Chinese mum

2011-03-03T14:24:00.000-08:00

My Chinese mum would have turned 80 on March 5th. There were plans laid for a family dinner and the restaurant was booked. However this was not to be.

So I’ll record a few things in her memory.

She lived through tough times, including the Japanese occupation of Singapore. This meant the end of education for a promising Chinese girl. It also meant hunger and danger. For example, she spoke of a time when she and other girls were herded into a building that was being prepared for burning until a last minute order saved the day.

She became a tough one – a survivor in real life (not on a TV show). This stood her in good stead during the years of being a wife and mother, during which she also worked as a domestic helper.

She was tough, but not bitter, as some become with adversity. Her throaty chuckle, open smile and welcoming eyes spoke of a heart that stayed warm. Or was it warm because of her suffering?

From her suffering she became sensitive to the suffering of others. This made her sympathetic and a giver to others. She was also sensitive to the suffering of Jesus. And thus I recall one Good Friday service where she saw a clip from the Jesus Film and sat weeping.

It was not natural for her to become a Christian as she was raised in traditional Chinese beliefs. Although coming to church for several years she resisted conversion because it meant abandonment of her other gods and their rituals. When she did convert it was thorough. In the week she was to be baptized she took the paraphernalia back to the temple and left it there, never to return. Even in some later tough times when the Lord was slow to give what she sought, she kept her trust in him alone.

Her faith was simple and uncluttered. She loved coming to church and sat in a favourite spot. She prayed in dependence on God’s provision and learnt hymns of praise well enough to sing when her eyes faded. She enjoyed the company of the people around her, made shrewd assessments and embraced others with love.

My guess is that earthly birthdays are not celebrated in heaven (why would you?). But she is at a far better table than Imperial Treasure in Great World City. She is at the Lord’s table in the heavenly banquet. That is a better place by far and that is a great comfort.

Is it time to ditch traditional marriage?

2011-02-27T01:33:00.000-08:00

The debate over gay marriage is commonly presented as a choice between including permission for homosexual and marriage and something called ‘traditional’ marriage.

However, we may ask what is ‘traditional’? It sounds like an attempt to steal the argument by a definition that implies outdatedness. Besides, which tradition is being referred to and at which time and place? It seems that ‘traditional’ is in the eye of the beholder. And thus in this present debate a straw image of ugly, domineering, patriarchal marriage can be constructed, labelled ‘traditional’ and then subjected to disposal.

Is it time to ditch the word ‘traditional’ and its vague historical reference?

Instead, let’s reconsider the Biblical ideal of marriage as a mutual, equal, permanent and exclusive heterosexual union formed under God. Maybe that’s more updated than ‘traditional’.

Please sir, I want some more!

2011-02-26T20:32:00.001-08:00

I went to a church service recently as just one of the crowd.

The welcome was warm, the building inviting, the seating comfortable and there was a good cross-section of people creating a positive atmosphere.

We were called to order and the service began. The music was well presented, with competent musicians, a non-intrusive song leader, singable tunes and solid lyrics. The kid’s talk was a little self-indulgent by the presenter but, once again, Biblically solid.

The sermon was announced as the first in a series that would take the congregation through a particular book of the Bible. It was well enough presented (and with good slides to watch) and not unfaithful to the text. But I’m not sure what the take-away was: what was I to know, believe or do in the coming week? We heard about the context and structure of the book, a summary of a scholarly issue, the breakup of the coming series and what the home groups were to do with it in the coming week. But I heard nothing much to feed me then and there.

I went away with certain warmth from the gathering but still hungry. It was like being at a meal where you are served starter snacks, shown the menu and then served nibbles with coffee, but no main.

Meanwhile I was reading ‘The Work of the Pastor/ by William Still. Still may overstate his case that the main and (almost) only work of the pastor is to feed God’s sheep with God’s word. However, his point is well made for any age and certainly for the ‘Sunday light’ mode that seems now widespread. What else he does, a pastor needs to feed the hungry ones.

In the words of Oliver: ‘Please sir, I want some more.’

Five words from a new teacher

2011-02-08T22:26:00.000-08:00

As I am formally installed as a theological college lecturer I make the following observations that express how I approach this post.

1. Regret.
Left to my will, I would have remained a pastor in Singapore to the end of my days. This was the calling that I learned to love and in a setting that gave me great joy. Thus I come to the teacher’s post with a measure of regret at that which was, but which is now no more. I do not come because I chose this post, but because God placed me here.

2. Thanks.
There is a lifetime of experiences, opportunities and especially people that lie behind this appointment. Each has contributed a part of the whole, like the threads of a tapestry. The greatest debt is due to the people who have provoked, stretched, tested and disagreed with me: friends, colleagues, fellow Christians. But most of all it is family that have given me space and support in the twists and turns of life. Chief among these is my wife Glenda who is remarkably patient and generous towards me.

3. Integration.
I will teach at two ends of the spectrum within PTC: the department of Christian thought and the department of ministry and practice. This suits my nature well. It also sits well with a distinctly Biblical and reformed world view. To paraphrase Kant: theology without action is empty and action without theology is blind. In that sense I seek to teach within the PTC vision to foster integration between the different classes within the college and between the classroom and the ministry actions of students and graduates.

4. Responsibility.
It is a great privilege to be a teacher in a theological college. But also a great responsibility to the students, to the college and to the Church that owns it. Before and beyond that is a sense of responsibility to the Lord of the church, his gospel and his mission. I thus pledge myself to strive for faithfulness to him in all my teaching and actions in this post.

5. Commitment.
I said above (point 1) that I come to the post against my will and with a measure of regret. However, I acknowledge the clear and evident will of God that has marked me for this post and brought me here. And so I join my Lord and pray: ‘your will not mine be done’. Because I recognise that it is God’s will that brings me to this post I give myself to it in a very positive way and pledge my energy, hard work, enthusiasm and indeed love for this post.

(Response delivered at my setting apart as the lecturer in ministry and practice at Presbyterian Theological Centre Burwood on 9 February 2011.)

Singing in a strange land

2011-01-22T20:41:00.000-08:00

A strange land

‘How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?’ (Ps 137:4)

I write this just one week after arriving in Australia after 11.5 years living elsewhere.

There are all kinds of things that presumably seem normal and unremarkable to the native population but which stick out in my view. They will doubtless soon enough become unremarkable to me, thus I record them while I still notice them.

Shops and businesses that open and close early.
I am used to offices opening at 9am (but don’t expect too much then) and shops not open until 11am. But the other side of that is the difference between everything closing at 5pm and offices that are open until 6pm+ and shops until 10-11pm.

Restrictions on alcohol sales.
Australian alcohol sales are restricted such that it is available only from controlled venues and not until certain hours. I’m used to seeing alcohol available at any supermarket, servo or mini-market and anytime they are open. Yet beer is sold and consumed in ‘slabs’ of many bottles or cans in Australia as compared with people buying what they want to drink at the time. I wonder is these well-meant restrictions are not helping foster binge drinking and over-consumption?

Free parking and many parking spaces available.
I’m used to paying for parking almost everywhere and expected to queue and squeeze for parking lots. What a welcome contract to have much free street parking or long fee-free parking in malls etc and to drive straight into a parking spot.

Shaky communications.
Mobile calls drop and fade here and likewise with wireless internet signals. Thus landline phones and cables internet assume greater significance. That’s an irritating change from a place where handphones are strong almost anywhere and likewise for wireless national net signals.

Flag-showing patriotism.
National flags are only allowed in Singapore for a restricted period around national day and with controlled exposure and handling. Flag-displays were quite uncommon for private Australians when I left. But now every second car / house seems to be sporting a flag and there is much more flag merchandise for sale in this present season of Australia Day. But guess where the flags and merchandise are made? Yep – mainland China!

Broad Aussie accents and idioms.
The Australian accent seems pronounced in its broad vowels and also in its distinct idioms. Eg, a preacher who described something as being ‘bonza’. I’m self-conscious, when speaking, of how my accent has neutralized in 11.5 years away and how Australian idioms are much-removed form my speech. It will be interesting to see if I revert to a more local accent and idioms over time.

These things indeed seem strange to me and at times I feel a stranger in this land of my birth. I’m not saying better / worse, just ‘strange’ for the present.

And yes, I will learn how to sing the Lord’s song in this strange land.

Bonhoeffer on the Bible

2011-01-13T08:50:00.000-08:00

Bonhoeffer on reading the Bible

First of all I will confess quite simply – I believe that the Bible alone is the answer to all our questions, and that we only need to ask repeatedly and a little humbly, in order to receive this answer. One cannot simply read the Bible, like other books. One must be prepared really to enquire of it. Only thus will it reveal itself. Only if we expect from it the ultimate answer shall we receive it. That is because in the Bible God speaks to us, and one cannot simply think about God in one’s own strength, one has to enquire of him. Only if we seek him will he answer us. Of course, it is also possible to read the Bible like any other book, that is to say from the point of view of textual criticism etc, there is nothing to be said against that. Only that is not the method which will reveal to us the heart of the Bible, but only the surface, just as we do not grasp the words of someone we love by taking them to bits, but by simply receiving them, so that for days they go on lingering in our minds, simply because they are the words of a person we love, and just as these words reveal more and more of the person who said them as we go on, like Mary, ‘pondering them in our heart’, so it will be with the words of the Bible. Only in them we will venture to enter into the words of the Bible, as though in them God were speaking to us who loves us and does not will to leave us alone with our questions, only so shall we learn to rejoice in the Bible. …

If it is I who determine where God is to be found, then I shall always find a God who corresponds to me in some way, who is obliging, who is connected with my own nature. But if God determines where he is to be found, then it will be in a place which is not immediately pleasing to my nature and which is not at all congenial to me. This place is the Cross of Christ. And whoever would find him must go to the foot of the Cross, as the Sermon on the Mount commands. This is not according to our nature at all, indeed it is entirely contrary to it. But this is also the message of the Bible, not only in the New but also in the Old Testament.

And I would now like to tell you quite personally: since I have learnt to read the Bible in this way – and this has not been so for very long – it becomes every day more wonderful to me. I read it in the morning and in the evening, often during the day as well, and every day I consider it a text which I have chosen for the whole week, and try to sink deeply into it, so as to really hear what it is saying. I know that without this I could not properly live any longer.

(From: Bonhoeffer, Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. Eric Metaxas, Thomas Nelson, 2010. pp136-7)

Miango Ministry

2011-01-06T03:09:00.000-08:00

I was in Miango (Plateau State Nigeria) from 4-10 January 2011 doing some Bible talks for the SIM annual Spiritual Life Conference. What follows is a daily blog from those days.

Sun 2 Jan.
Left Singapore at 11pm for London. Slept well and watched Agora which is an interesting movie re the spread of Christianity in Alexandria C5.

Mon 3 Jan.
Largely spent in the luxury of the Qantas lounge in London – frankly indulging myself. Overnight flight to Abuja: asleep before take off and waking just an hour before landing.

Tues 4 Jan
First day on this second visit to Nigeria. A vehicle breakdown meant a long wait in Abuja (during which a guest house hostess thoughtfully provided a bed for some catch up sleep) and then a late trip up in the company of the youth ministry team. Settled into a sparse but adequate ‘villa’ which I had to myself. Slept before 10pm and only woke once before arising at 6am.

Wed 5 Jan
First day on the job.

As people arrived for the conference my brother Peter arranged for three Nigerian friends to take us on a district tour. This included the site where Christianity first arrived among this tribe, a hydro-power station in the middle of nowhere – but non functional since July due to a blocked water intake and a picturesque but polluted waterfall. Also did my first talk (Jer 1). My theme title is ‘Confidence in the Lord, confidence in his word’ and I’m looking to encourage people to persist in word-based ministry.

Before I spoke an American doctor gave testimony to his experience during a home invasion during which he was shot and held for 48 hours until ransom was paid. After treatment, he returned to the field to keep serving as a surgeon. But then the doctor who prayed for him had also been shot in such an invasion. These people know suffering for the Lord in a way that I do not. Yet I will speak on suffering for the Lord in a talk from Jer 20 on Friday.

I think there’s about 200 all-up at this conference. For many, it’s the annual spiritual tonic much as Spurgeon Sabbatical at Gordon-Conwell has been for me. That motivates me to push myself and prioritise so I feed them from the word as well as I can.

Meanwhile at home: Glenda dealt with the movers who came to take our goods for shipping to Sydney and then started the clean up. Her heroism is quiet and supportive.

Thurs 6 Jan
Second talk, making two back to back evening / morning. The pace now steadies to one a day, leaving plenty of time for one on one talks plus some of my own projects. Its dry season here which means dryness and lots of airborne dust. That’s irritating my sinus as well as leaving my tropics-adapted skin needing plenty of moisturizer.

Fri 7 January 2011
People tell me that I’m being useful in the talks. One evidence of that to me is that good one on one conversations are opening up on issues arising. I guess this is so, but I’m also conscious of the privilege of being here and listening to these people.

There are so many rich stories of grace in people’s lives and being worked through them. Eg: at testimony time last night ‘Ray’ spoke of an early life of abandonment and crime being now turned into usefulness for the Lord in prison ministry in Nigeria. And heroism ... eg, any number of these folk staying here despite being victims of home invasions, robbery and shootings. Eg, an 80 year old man still serving on the mission field even after his wife died some years back.

I spoke on suffering today from Jeremiah 20. But these people are the ones who speak from experience, not boastfully but just with a sense of this is what happens and this is how God stood with them through it. I guess that my role is to help give a Biblical framework in which to understand and especially to cope with their sufferings.

I’m glad I came and consider that I gain more than I give.

Sat 8 January 2011

A cold wind blowing dust off the Sahara desert at night means an early evening retreat from outdoor activities for me and delaying my morning emergence.

Fourth talk today, from Jer 52 and tracing the theme of confidence in God’s word. After morning tea I attended a general briefing and discussion on security issues. There are real and rising concerns and I especially feel for the young families and single women.

I also wandered through the graveyard attached to the conference centre. The silent wander between rows of graves from new borns and infants makes me appreciate the cost that some pay to fulfil their calling. Likewise with the graves of adults in their 30s and 40s. Jesus warned about taking up our cross to follow him and I guess this is the other side of it. How many of us waste our lives in temporal trivialities when the eternal cause awaits our best years and energies?

Sun 9 Jan

Final talk linking Jer 31 to the new covenant in Heb 8 etc. The Korean pastor who conducted the communion made a nice link from the sermon to the sacrament. Farewells etc and was touched by a number who came and spoke of my material being Biblical, relevant, within grasp and useful. Slow trip to Abujah by road (2-7pm) due to an enforced doubling back. Several road blocks along the way slowed things even more and a there was a soldier’s gun near my face a few times over. Spent the night in a church guest house with no dinner available. Glad to be still and have an early sleep before the flights up to London and down to Singapore. Thus end my first mission trip for 2011 and thus also ends my last preaching until late July.

Heard that ten people were killed yesterday in violence near the area where I was staying. A grim reminder of the daily realities for those who stay behind.

Christless Christmas and Christless marriage

2010-12-25T02:36:00.001-08:00

Christian groups typically invest much effort trying to keep Christ in Christmas or to put him back there.

This is in view of the relentless squeeze from secularism on one side and commercialism on the other.

Why bother?

Why don’t we just walk away from the public festival and leave it to its pagan roots as a solstice festival? (Think Constantine and his reasons for dating the Christmas celebration as he did.)

We can then have a distinctly Christian festival to mark Jesus’ birth, if we so choose, at a time of our choosing.

Let the unbelievers have their ‘Xmas’ and debauch it as they will!

Can this principle be extended to marriage?

In several western countries the fundamental Christian character of marriage is being undermined by easy divorce on the one hand and permission of homosexual marriage on the other hand. Thus Christians may find themselves hand in hand on the marriage register with persons of multiple marriage partners and with same-sex partners.

Once again, Christian groups invest much energy trying to preserve or restore the basically Christian character of marriage. Is it worth it?

What would happen if Christians simply opted out from the legal marriage system? Why not start a register of Christian marriages which is kept by the churches (as in previous times) and then have Christian couples register a civil union with the government for the sake of orderly property etc matters?

Let the unbelievers have ‘marriage’ and debauch it as they will!

Let Christians be Christians and the world be the world!

The Test

2010-12-24T09:39:00.000-08:00

Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realise that Christ Jesus is in you – unless of course you fail the test. (2 Cor 13:5)

Some in our congregation have the habit of a personal AGM to examine themselves before God. Here are some questions that can be used ….
Do I trust the mercies of God in Christ for my salvation or do I still try and impress God with my goodness?

Am I listening to God by regular deep reading of Scripture and meditation on it?

Am I talking to God in regular, deep and varied kinds of prayer?

Do I depend on God to meet my needs and bring them to him in prayer?

Am I turning my profession of faith into good works by doing what God says?

Do I act on the great commandment by loving God with all I am all the time and in all parts of life and do I love my neighbour, my enemy and strangers?

Do I play my part in the great commission by showing and sharing my faith on a personal level through involvement in some kind of outreach ministry?

Do I serve by giving generously of my time talents and treasure?

Do I allow others to serve me?

Am I transparent and accountable to at least one other person who is able and willing to ‘tell it like it is’?

Which of the above areas most needs my attention now and what will I do about it?

These questions useful in a year-end time with the Lord. They can also be used to track our progress or regress: ask if you are showing more or less of these qualities as time passes.

Let’s do as the Scripture says and examine ourselves as to how we are going with the Lord.

POSTSCRIPT: this is my last ministers message as senior minister of Orchard Rd Presbyterian Church Singapore.

God’s Big People – Jesus

2010-12-15T22:25:00.001-08:00

When it comes to God’s ‘big’ people there is none bigger than Jesus. And that is why the Bible is centred on him and why the western calendar measures time based on his life.

Jesus is …

• … the son of Adam who alone displayed true humanity and thus was enabled to break the first Adam’s deathly hold and make those who believe into children fit for heaven (Gen 3:15; Rom 5:12; 1 Cor 15:45-49) …

• … the son of Abraham, through whom the promise of a ‘great nation’ was actualised and through whom Jew and non-Jew are alike blessed (Gen 12;1-3; Rom 2;29; 4:12-17) )..

• … the son of David who sits on the long-promised eternal throne (2 Sam 7:12-16; Is 9:6-7; Matt 4:13-16)

• … the virgin’s child who is Immanuel, God with us (Is 7:14; Matt 1:23)

• … the one from little Bethlehem who is Israel’s ancient ruler (Mic 5:2; Mat 2;4-6)

The links roll on and on. In short Jesus is the one in whom all God’s promises are ‘yes’ (2 Cor 1:20). Thus he rightly taught his followers to get into the habit of reading the Old Testament with respect to himself, and especially with regard to his death and resurrection (Lke 24:27; 45-47; Jn 5:39-40).

The centrality of Jesus is why the two major Christian festivals of Christmas and Easter centre on him and on the key events of his incarnation, death and resurrection.

It is also why Jesus is the ground and object of Christian faith, hope and love. Our faith is in his redemptive life and death. Our hope is in his glorious return to usher in the fullness of the kingdom which he inaugurated. Our love arises from his love for us and is expressed to him before our neighbour.

Let’s be sure to keep an uncluttered faith, hope and love in Jesus and Jesus alone as he is the one whose name is given by God as the only means of salvation (Acts 4:12; 1 Tim 2:5).

Let’s use this Christmas to rekindle our focus on Jesus and to help others do the same.

The Test

2010-12-15T22:24:00.001-08:00

"Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realise that Christ Jesus is in you – unless of course you fail the test." (2 Cor 13:5)

Some in our congregation have the habit of a personal AGM to examine themselves before God. Here are some questions that can be used ….

Do I trust the mercies of God in Christ for my salvation or do I still try and impress God with my goodness?

Am I listening to God by regular deep reading of Scripture and meditation on it?

Am I talking to God in regular, deep and varied kinds of prayer?

Do I depend on God to meet my needs and bring them to him in prayer?

Am I turning my profession of faith into good works by doing what God says?

Do I act on the great commandment by loving God with all I am all the time and in all parts oft life and do I love my neighbour, my enemy and strangers?

Do I play my part in the great commission by showing and sharing my faith on a personal level through involvement in some kind of outreach ministry?

Do I serve by giving generously of my time talents and treasure?

Do I allow others to serve me?

Am I transparent and accountable to at least one other person who is able and willing to ‘tell it like it is’?

Which of the above areas most needs my attention now and what will I do about it?

These questions useful in a year-end time with the Lord. They can also be used to track our progress or regress: ask if you are showing more or less of these qualities as time passes.

Let’s do as the Scripture says and examine ourselves as to how we are going with the Lord.

God’s Big People - David

2010-12-08T19:58:00.000-08:00

There are some people whose names keep getting mentioned in the press. They make the headlines and major events cannot be understood without them. They are key to their era or nation.

The Old Testament figure of David is one of these. His rise from shepherd to king fascinates us. Likewise with the rise and rise of his kingdom whose true dimensions are best seen in his son Solomon. His psalms provide a vehicle for our praise, pondering, confession and lament. His sins make us shake our heads as we ourselves in his mirror. The history of kingship in Israel is the story of David.

‘David’ is a big name in the Bible. This continued so 1,000 years after David’s death when Jesus walked our planet. Thus the New Testament has almost 60 references to David. These invariably centre on his kingship and this is what connects him to Jesus.

Let’s listen to a crowd that was hostile to Jesus (Jn 7:41-42). They thought that they where he came from (Nazareth in Galilee). They also knew that the Messiah would come from David’s family and Bethlehem (Mic 5:2). Their logic was simple – the gap between Nazareth and Bethlehem proved that Jesus was not the Messiah. We shake our heads as we read of this for we have Matthew and Luke’s accounts of his Davidic ancestry and Bethlehem birth.

Paul is explicit about Jesus: as to his human nature (he) was a descendant of David (Rom 1:3). The same is reflected in the common Gospel title Son of David.

Jesus’ links to David are significant for our understanding of Jesus and of what God was doing in his advent. Let’s listen to words that a prophet had said to David centuries before:

I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father and he will be my son (2 Sam 7:11b-14).

The coming of Jesus was according to promise and vindicates the faithfulness of God. As for Jesus, he is God’s ruler over God’s people in God’s place. When we submit to the gospel of Jesus we enter God’s kingdom and become heir to its blessings. Of course, we must then give our wholehearted loyalty to Jesus. Even more so than his earlier namesake, Jesus is the king whose worthiness deserves our full loyalty.

Let us celebrate and submit to Jesus who is David’s son and our good king.

The pool of sin

2010-12-08T07:19:00.001-08:00

Recently I read Cornelius Plantinga’s well-written chapter on the fall into sin (in ‘Engaging God’s World’).

He is vivid in tracing the dynamic destructiveness and infectiousness of sin.

It was an odd sensation as I read. I was sitting by a hotel swimming pool in the early morning by myself. The water was clear and just right for a swim. The gardens were lush green and well kept. The solitude prompted deep and welcome thoughts. Good friends would soon join me and we would go together for a choice breakfast buffet before returning to the pool.

In short, themes of God’s good creation abounded.

It was hard to square all that with the dark chapter on sin.

Or was it?

I felt compelled to bring my key valuables pool-side rather than leave them in the room unattended. I was careful not to display them to anyone but kept them covered at the pool. And then at breakfast, one of my companions was concerned lest a possession of little value was taken and thus kept it in view.

And thus the fall was in evidence.

God’s Big People - Abraham

2010-12-01T01:47:00.000-08:00

Every story line has a cast of characters. Many of them play important but smaller parts – they add ‘colour’ and detail and are a necessary part of the plot. There are also the larger characters whose actions ‘turn the hinge’.

This is equally true in the story that we call the ‘history of redemption’. This is ultimately the story of God’s eternal choice to save and how it worked out in Biblical history. God’s story is worked out through significant people as well as through the little people of his kingdom.

Matthew shows clearly in the introduction to his Gospel (Matt 1:1-17). He presents a family tree of Jesus which is summarised at both its beginning and its end in terms of the line of Abraham / David / Jesus Christ (Matt 1:1:17).

Let’s look at Abraham.

We first meet Abraham as an idol-worshipping man from Haran and then Ur in modern Iraq (Gen 11:27-31; Acts 7:2-3). Abraham became significant by God’s choice. God made covenant with Abraham with the promise of him becoming a great nation, occupying vast lands and being both blessed and a blessing (Gen 12:1-3; 13:14-17 etc). This was not only true for Abraham but also for his descendants, as symbolised by the old covenant sacrament of infant circumcision (Gen 17:1-14). Abraham’s part was to trust God sufficiently that he would leave the comforts of Ur and go to a yet-unseen and unknown land. That’s faith on the move!

Abraham’s significance is shown in the number and importance of his mentions in the Old and New Testaments. Consider, for example, the importance of claiming Abraham as ‘father’ in Jesus’ day (eg Lke 3:8; Jn 8:31-40). Paul takes this a dramatic step further when he asserts that all who believe in Jesus are Abraham’s children (Rom 4:16-17). The claim that Abraham was put right with God by his active faith and not his works is even more startling – Abraham was a gospel man who anticipated the era of Jesus (Rom 4:1-11).

All this reshapes the way we think about Jesus and ourselves.

Jesus was not an accidental hero who stumbled into his decisive role against the flow of history. Rather, Jesus was the intentional conclusion to the story that began when God chose Abraham.

As for us, we are the ingrafted and adopted children of Abraham (Rom 11:17-24; Gal 3:26 – 4:7). Let’s thank God for our father Abraham and for his descendant Jesus who makes this possible.

God’s little people – Phoebe and Her Friends

2010-11-26T00:13:00.001-08:00

Romans is Paul’s most weighty letter. It gives a systematic exposition of the Christian message and includes a tough section on the issue of Jews and Gentiles (Rom 9-11). This weighty letter has been pivotal at some great turning points such as the sixteenth century Reformation and the turn from theological liberalism in the early twentieth century.

Readers of Romans may be forgiven for wilting under this weighty material and abandoning the read. However, it’s worth pushing on to the quite tender and personal closing words of Ch 16.

This is typical of most of Paul’s letters. He has a strong sense of being God’s appointed Apostle, yet in the end he is just a man. As such he values the people who loved and cared for him in very practical ways.

Hence his mention of Priscilla and Aquila (note that the wife comes first) who pop in and out of the New Testament story as a married couple who opened their homes, hearts and business to Paul and others over many years. Thus also the ‘mother of Rufus’ (v13) who had been a substitute mother to Paul. Paul’s language makes it clear that his ministry could not be undertaken without these little people of God playing their part.

Let’s look at one of these people ... Phoebe (Rom16:1-2). She belonged to the church at Corinth. Several things are interesting about her. Firstly, that she is mentioned first in the list of Paul’s helpers. Indeed, some have suggested that this marks her out as the one whom couriered this letter to the Roman church. Secondly, she is labelled a servant. The Greek word is the term for deacon. In our terms, Phoebe is among the elected lay leaders. Thirdly, the concern (v2) that she is well-treated in Rome as befits a person so useful to the non-Jewish church. We know nothing else about her, but these references make it plain that she is a ‘little’ person of God’s kingdom who packs a punch.

Phoebe, along with the others who are mentioned, challenges our sense of who is important in church. As we have seen, churches need all kinds of people doing all kinds of things. Men and women; young and old; majority and minority culture people; left brain and right brain; practical and conceptual; high and low born; well-educated and less-educated; taxi driver and theologian – all have their place in God’s church.

Let’s welcome and celebrate the diversity in our church members. This is Christ’s church – a kaleidoscope of Paul, Phoebe and the rest.

The Genesis of Christian World View

2010-11-20T07:54:00.000-08:00

'In the beginning God' and therefore ontology grounded in the prime reality of God.

'God said' and therefore epistemology grounded in God’s self-revelation.

'God saw that it was good' and therefore axiology grounded in God’s standards.

Youth Gangs?

2010-11-19T17:16:00.000-08:00

Singapore media presently have a preoccupation with youth gangs (Nov 2010).

But is the problem so bad?

Yesterday I was walking on a footpath when a group of five mid to late teens came riding by, on the footpath and mounted on pushbikes. They were in black Ts, with unkempt hair, course language and apparent indifference to other people. A gang?

We all came to a set of traffic lights. Some walkers (including me) crossed against the lights when there was evidently no cars. The teens on bikes waited meekly until the lights changed and then rode off .... all that training in social compliance showing its fruits!

God’s Little People – Barnabas

2010-11-17T19:45:00.000-08:00

Many people want to be the ‘number one’. The ‘number ones’ are the key leaders who drive agendas, decide directions and set the pace. They also tend to be more prominent. We need great number one leaders, even though misplaced ambition can lead some to seek this position from base motives (eg, Mrk 10:35-45).

Barnabas challenges our sense that we must always move to a higher position.

Barnabas was a Levite from Cyprus whose real name was Joseph (Acts 4:36-37). He was later called ‘Barnabas’ because he was an encourager. That’s the person who gets alongside others, especially when they are stumbling or new at something. The encourager builds others up and then steps back so they can be their best. We see this coming out in the ministry of Barnabas.

Barnabas showed early promise and was a good man and full of the Holy Spirit (Acts 11:24). Thus he was sent from Jerusalem to inspect the burgeoning work at Antioch, was co-commissioned with Paul to the great western mission work (Acts 13:1-3); was instrumental in turning that mission to work among non-Jews and later in defending the standing of non-Jewish Christians (Acts 13:46; 15:1-12). So far he is looking like a great number one gospel worker.

However, Barnabas’ role was to be a great number two. At first Paul depended on Barnabas. Thus Barnabas introduced him to the sceptical leaders at Jerusalem and then recruited him to help with the ministry at Antioch (Acts 9:27; 11:25-26). Paul soon outgrew his encourager and emerged as the key leader. (Note, for example, how Paul is soon mentioned first when their names are paired – eg Acts 13:2,7, but then 13:42,46 etc.) Paul even criticised Barnabas for being misled by peer pressure and compromising on a gospel issue (Gal 2:13). These two had a later disagreement over a cousin of Barnabas who once deserted the cause (Acts 15:36-39), but their affection remained.

Do we see the pattern in Barnabas?

It takes the grace of the Spirit for a more senior leader to step aside for his acolyte. Likewise it takes grace to encourage and nurture another person into their more prominent ministry. Barnabas did both.

It’s easy to criticise others and thus to feed our ego with a sense of superiority. However, encouragement is the far more useful ministry. Who can you encourage in faith and service during this week? Be a Barnabas!

Publications

2010-11-14T19:05:00.000-08:00

TO 1980

• ‘The Early Hebrew Monarchy: A Sociological Study of Charismatic Leadership’. Binah 1,1, 1977.

• ‘The Covenant in Puritan Thought’. In Evangelism and the Reformed Faith Christian Education Committee, 1980.

1981 - 1990

• Regular articles and book reviews in Australian Presbyterian Life 1981-99, including article series on church history, cults, and a Christian view of current events.

• Occasional book reviews and articles on general religious matters in New Life, 1989.

1991 - 2000

• Regular articles on Christian education matters in EQUIP, a publication of the NSW Christian Education Committee – 1983 - 1999.

• God's Own People - a set of Bible studies on 1 & 2 Peter, co-author with Sue Mackenzie, GAA Christian Education Committee, 1985.

• Understanding and Sharing Your Faith - a distance course for Presbyterian Special Religious Education Teachers, NSW Presbyterian Christian Education Committee, 1989.

• Introduction to Presbyterian Doctrine - a distance course in the Certificate of Christian Studies, Presbyterian Theological Centre, 1991.

• Basics for Believers - a set of studies on basic Christian doctrine, GAA Christian Education Committee,1992.

• ‘Adult Education in The Christian Churches’, Interlink, 3, 1992.

• ‘World View, Philosophy and Theology’, M2M Academic Supplement, Feb - Mar 1994.

• Church History Introduction - Distance Education Notes, Presbyterian Theological Centre, Burwood, 1995, 2nd edition 1998.

• The Presbyterians in Australia, co-author with P Hughes, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1996.

• Introduction to Church History - a distance course in the Certificate of Christian Studies, GAA Christian Education Committee, Sydney, 1997.

• At the Coal Face - studies in the Presbyterian eldership, editor and co-author with Philip Campbell, GAA Christian Education Committee, Sydney, 1997.

2001 - 2010

• Review; ‘Dictionary of Asian Christianity’; Reformed Theological Review, 61,1, April 2002

• Quarterly columnist in The Express, magazine of the English Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in Singapore, 2003 –2007.

• Should the Teaching of Pastoral Ministry be Church Based or Seminary Based? Paper presented to Icthus Research Institute, Singapore Bible College, October 2004.

• Introduction to the Westminster Confession of Faith. 2009. Revised version of 1995 publication Understanding Presbyterian Doctrine.

• Time to Leave the Wilderness? – The Teaching Of Pastoral Theology In South East Asia, in Tending the Seedbeds (ed. Allan Harkness, Asia Theological Association, Quezon City, Philippines 2010).

• Review: The Westminster Assembly: Reading its Theology in Historical Context; Reformed Theological Review, 69:2, August 2010.

ONGOING

• Blogspot: davidburke51.blogspot.com

The musical mite

2010-11-12T01:02:00.001-08:00

The other afternoon I passed by a room where a group of older saints were singing hymns.

The pianist was struggling with the tune. The saints were not many and their voices struggled and quavered. Technically, they were far below our church’s regular music ministry.

But I know those people.

They are the people of God. They sang the songs of the saints from the hearts of saints. Theirs was a musical mite, but it was the widow’s might for they gave all they had.

God’s Little People – “_”

2010-11-10T19:38:00.000-08:00

There are no little people and no little places. Thus spoke Francis Schaeffer, a twentieth century Christian philosopher and theologian. I first heard those words while driving to preach in a little place where the sheep in the surrounding paddocks outnumbered the little congregation. What an encouragement! The smallest deeds and the least of God’s people matter.

Let’s meet someone so little that she is not named. We read about her in 2 Kings 5.

“_” was a young Jewish woman who was a domestic helper to the wife of a man from Aram. The husband was a senior military officer . “_” had been captured in a raid on Israel and sent to his home.

This big shot soldier had a name, but so did his disease: leprosy. In popular view, this was like being HIV AIDS positive today. And that’s where “_” came into the picture. She spoke up and pointed her mistress’s husband to seek help from the one true Lord who was his enemy’s God. It was a big blow to the husband’s pride, but eventually he accepted the help provided through God’s prophet. Thus he was healed and the fame of the Lord’s name spread in Aram.

It is a thought provoking story. “_” is so small that she is not named, yet the Lord’s name was lifted up because of her. Perhaps unintentionally, she sets an example for all of God’s people as she did her best but remained anonymous. There are several lessons for us here:

• Like “_” we all have our part to play in the story of God’s deeds.

• We are to play our part rather than to be silent and leave our task undone, for there are no deeds so little that their absence makes no difference.

• Further, we are to play our part as well as we can, for God is the ultimate audience and not the soldier whom “_” served nor the people whom we serve.

• Yet again, what matters is not that our name is even remembered, but that the Lord’s name is exalted. Thus a Christian leader of vast influence left instructions that he was to be buried in an unmarked grave lest he be exalted and God’s glory be robbed.

Who are we making a name for? “_” made a name for the Lord. Let’s copy her so that his name is hallowed amongst us and through us.

God’s ‘Little’ People – Baruk

2010-11-04T02:48:00.001-07:00

The history of the world is but the biography of great men. Thus speaks Thomas Carlyle, a nineteenth century Scottish philosopher. On his view, history is made by great people doing great things.

Carlyle has a point. Where is broader history without the heroes who ‘turned the moment’? Where is the story line of the Bible without Abraham, Moses, David, Paul and such like? However, there is a balancing truth. The spaces between the deeds of great people are filled by ordinary people faithfully playing their part with ordinary deeds. Furthermore, the deeds of these people enable the deeds of the great.

This is a great encouragement, for most of us are the ordinary people or little people of God. In the language of Paul (1 Cor 12) we are a fingernail or a minor blood vessel in the body of Christ. Yet, Paul also reminds us of the necessity, importance and honour of every part including the smallest (1 Cor 12:21-26).

Baruch is one of God’s little people. According to the Jewish historian Josephus, Baruch was of noble birth. According to the Bible, his brother held a staff officer’s post under King Zedekiah (Jer 36:4; 51:59). However, we remember him in more humble roles as the personal assistant and note-taker to the Jeremiah.

Thus Baruch witnessed a land transaction of Jeremiah (Jer 32:11-15) and hand-wrote a scroll of Jeremiah’s sermon notes which he later read in the temple precinct(Jer 36:4-9). But this tedious note-taking was in vain! King Jehoiakim did not like what he heard on the scroll and burnt it and thus Baruch had to repeat the task (Jer 36:11-32). He was later accused of treason (Jer 43:1-3) and he and Jeremiah went together to exile in Egypt (Jer 43:6-7). Josephus records that both Jeremiah and Baruch were then taken to Babylon after the 583BC invasion of Egypt by Babylon.

Jeremiah was certainly one of the great ones of his day as he bore faithful to the Lord over 40 or more years of preaching in difficult circumstances. However, Baruch seems to have been the ‘enabler’ who made Jeremiah’s ministry possible. Further, in all likelihood we would not have the book of Jeremiah without Baruch’s labours to write, re-write and then safely secure his record of Jeremiah’s sermons. Without Baruch, Jeremiah would be a silent prophet to us.

What is your part in the ordinary works of God? We are not all called to be a ‘number one’. Most of us will be a ‘number two’. Let us strive to be the best ‘number one number two’ that we can be.

Past, Present and Future

2010-10-27T20:49:00.000-07:00

Christianity is essentially an historic faith. Some world views have a mainly cyclical sense of time, but ours is linear. Thus we see a story line where the present is shaped by the past and lived in the hope of the future.

This is true for us as a church. On our anniversary we have a sense of gratitude for the past and a consciousness of how the Lord has protected, provided, blessed and used the women and men of this church since October 31st 1856. It is folly to forget our past and thus be condemned to repeat its errors.

But it is also folly to be ruled by the past. Our calling is to build on the past by faithfulness in the present as we adapt the changing circumstances in our witness to the changeless gospel. In this we always look, and always move, forwards with an eye to God’s future.

The past, present and future of the church takes its place within the broad flow of redemption’s story. For Christians, this is measured by the end-markers of the first creation and the re-creation when Jesus returns. This story is punctuated mid-point by the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus.

This sense of redemption’s story gives our sense of ‘when’ we are. It is our privilege to live in the last era after the reality of forgiveness and power for life through the new covenant of Christ and his Spirit. The technical term for this is that God’s kingdom has been, and is, inaugurated in Jesus.

However, the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus are not the end of the story. Thus we await the kingdom’s consummation in the Lord’s return. This future hope should shape life and witness now.

We catch a glimpse of how the future invades the present in today’s passage (2 Tim 4:1-8). At one level it’s a very ‘present’ passage in which one Christian leader urges his successor to keep the work going and gives instructions as to the ‘how to’. It’s a timely and orderly handover.

However, this present is shaped by the future (vv1&8). The up-and-coming leader is to act in the light of Christ’s coming, his judgement and his kingdom. This gives a sense of urgency and importance, for our faith and witness are on an eternal horizon. On the other hand, the departing leader has the immense reassurance that it has not all been in vain - God’s crown awaits.

Let us neither ignore the past nor be ruled by it. Let us be faithful in the present but not trapped by it. Let us be conscious of God’s eternal future and work towards it.

Survivors and heroes

2010-10-27T18:44:00.000-07:00

One axis for leadership is the scale of survivor / hero.

The survivor adapts, lives to make another contribution on another day and will tend to achieve change over a longer time frame in an incremental manner.

The hero crashes through or crashes out. This leader can be divisive and a wrecker, or can be the one who lifts a group of people into a new era and new realities in a short time frame.

Both kinds of leader are needed in their time and place.

The survivor is probably the more common style and the one that is needed in most settings at most times. This kind of leader is the salt of the earth.

The hero is more likely to be useful at a time of crisis or a time when significant change is needed quickly.

The extremes of either style can be dangerous.

A typical leader will be on a continuum between the extreme form of each type and may swap between them depending on circumstances. That being said, an individual leader will tend to display a leaning for one style of the other and hence the idea of 'preferred style'..

A wise leader will:
(a) Know their preferred style
(b) Not glorify their preferred style and denigrate the other
(c) Correct the imbalance in their preferred style
(d) Choose wisely what style and balance of styles is needed in this and that moment
(e) Be able to move between styles and be skilful in both
(f) Be true to themselves as they do all this.

Christmas 2010

2010-10-24T18:57:00.001-07:00

Christmas 2010

As I write this it is two months to Christmas 2010.

Christmas is usually a difficult time for me and I expect this year to be worse than usual.

Here’s why:

1. Christmas is a time of heavier work load in pastoral ministry, yet much of it seems very light and without effect.

2. It’s usually a time of family separation for me rather than family reunion.

3. My mother died on December 13 and my father on December 30. It’s thus a season of lingering grief.

4. This years Christmas carols are the funeral songs for my ministry and time in Singapore which ends soon after.

All that being said, it is the season to remember that the word became flesh and that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners such as I. That gives a quiet and deep significance which fights against the difficulties.

The over-planned church

2010-10-20T21:05:00.001-07:00

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great for churches to plan their activities and then to work to plan and review against it. And, I also think that many churches can do with better planning.

Of course, its important that our planning dovetails with God’s revealed will for his church, otherwise our plans are just hebel – a passing puff of noxious wind.

But that’s not the issue here.

I’ve seen churches that are over-planned. What I mean is that there’s a very detailed plan of ministry activities in which every calendar block is filled for 12 months or so ahead. If this plan is treated as prescriptive rather than descriptive or indicative problems can come ...

… there’s no room for new activities to be added or existing ones changed as circumstances change and as the Lord leads differently;

… meeting the plan becomes the criteria for success or failure in evaluation. That takes the focus off doing effective and appropriate ministry.

So let’s indeed plan but not become the over-planned church. There’s a balance somewhere in between the chaos of the unplanned church and the rigidity of the over-planned counterpart.

When love is not enough

2010-10-20T20:54:00.001-07:00

I recently attended a community group meeting where someone declared that ‘love is all we need’. This is an admirable sentiment. However, is a simple call for love sufficient?

‘Love’ is one of those words that means everything and therefore means nothing. ‘Love’ is a word that needs definition. What or who do we love? Why do we love? How do we love?

2 Timothy talks about people who loved much. Trouble was, they switched the tags. They loved what they should not have loved and did not love that which they should. Their false loves were as follows:

• Egotism, or love of self (2 Tim 3:2a). This is the ultimate idolatry – worshipping the image of God (Gen 1:26-27) instead of God whose image we are.

• Materialism, or love of money (2 Tim 3:3b). Money is essential for life and we should not despise it. But, love of money – well that is a root of all kinds of evil that can take us from God, for mammon is a demanding deity (1 Tim 6:10; Matt 6:24).

• Hedonism, or love of pleasure (2 Tim 3:4b). This is a slightly tricky issue. As John Piper says, there is nothing wrong with loving pleasure when it is pleasure in God. Hence his term ‘Christian hedonism’. The problem is that these people did not love God (2 Tim 3:4b) and thus their love of pleasure was in apposition to love of God. We can guess that their pleasure was in wordly delights, not heavenly.

To cap it off, these people did not love God, the ‘good’ or other people (2 Tim 3:2-4). Instead they were proud, abusive, ungrateful, unforgiving, slanderers, brutal and such like. It is an ugly picture and shows the terrible outcomes when our loves are inverted.

These are not only ancient errors, for these three false loves and their consequences are evident all around us today.

Of course, we know the loves that God does call us to. It is a whole-person, whole-of life love of the Lord coupled with a generous love of neighbour, stranger and enemy (eg Matt 22:37-40; 25:40; 5:43-47). This is true love.

Let us hate the evil that God hates and love the good that God loves.

Toxic Sludge

2010-10-13T20:52:00.000-07:00

Have you seen pictures of the October 4 sludge spillage near Ajkar in Hungary? The spillage is indeed colourful but it is also highly toxic. Eight people have perished, the river Marcal is ‘dead’, an area equivalent to 5% of Singapore’s land mass is covered by red muck and the Danube is being polluted. The blame game and cleanup will doubtless continue for some time.

Hungary’s toxic sludge is highly visible and presents a largely technical challenge. But what of the spiritual toxic sludge that pollutes the life of a church, chokes its streams of living waters and slowly poisons its people?

Today’s Bible passage (2 Tim 2:14-24) identifies several aspects to this sludge:

• Foolish and ignorant arguments that turn into quarrels (vv14&23)
• Irreverent babble that spreads like ungodly gangrene (v16)
• False teaching on important matters such as the resurrection (vv17-18).

It is interesting to note how careless and unwise words feature in this list. As James notes, the small tongue can have powerful effects for good or ill (Jas 3:5). Let’s all ask ourselves if our tongue is toxic, producing whispered gossip and such like instead of words that build others up.

Such spiritual sludge requires decisive action to minimise its polluting effect. On a personal level we do well to flee besetting passions (such as those of youth), avoid the silly quarrels and cleanse ourselves so we are fit for God’s use and depart from evil (vv22,14,16,19,21,23). The positive side of all this is work to present ourselves as approved workers who pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace and such like with a pure heart (vv15,22).

Church leaders have particular responsibilities when it comes to spiritual sludge. Thus Timothy is to charge his congregation to avoid silly quarrels (v14). All leaders are to act with kindness and gentleness in the hope that the polluters will come to their senses (vv24-26).

Pollutants like the sludge spill and India’s Bhopal gas disaster tend to come without clear warning. Likewise in the church. Church pollutants may quietly accumulate until they burst into action and it is too late for preventative measures.

Now is the time for a clean-up. Let’s all ask ourselves whether we contribute to a pollutant-free church life or distract from it. What can we do to maximise the cardinal virtues of faith, hope and love in our own life? How can we promote these virtues in others?

The Faithfulness of the Lord and His People

2010-10-07T00:06:00.001-07:00

2 Timothy is an occasional letter designed to give encouragement amidst the discouragements of church life and leadership. The following words are amongst its many gems (2 Tim 2:13):
If we are faithless,
he will remain faithful,
for he cannot disown himself.

This is an unexpected saying. The logic of the preceding lines (possibly taken from an early hymn) leads us to expect something different. It is also a remarkable saying. Think about it. It is teaching that the faithfulness of God to himself does not depend on our response to him.

This is quite different to our normal human behaviour. We tend to have a transactional shape to qualities such as love and faithfulness. That is, if we love someone or are true to them, we look for a matching response. If they love us and are faithful, we continue in our love and faithfulness to them. However, if they do not respond with love and faithfulness we change our behaviour.

God is not transactional in his love. In his very nature he is love, faithfulness, truth, justice, mercy and such like (eg Ex 34:6-7). His faithfulness means that he is always consistent with his own character and words. This means that we can depend on God to always be God. He is not like the capricious gods of ancient mythology who could be bad-tempered one day and indulgent the next, with no warning of which was when.

This consistent faithfulness of God is an anchor for us. He is predictable and dependable and we can confidently build our lives within this frame.

God’s consistent faithfulness is also a model for us. We are not only to love because he loved us first but we are to love in the manner with which God loves (1 Jn 4:7,11,19). This means that we do not tie our love to the responses that others make to us (transactional love) but we tie our love to the character of God. That is, we don’t love because people are loveable or love us, but because God is love and we draw our identity and character from him. This is a remarkably powerful and transforming approach.

The Cross of Jesus demonstrates the faithfulness of God, irrespective of our faithlessness. Because he was faithful to himself he was just to judge sin. Because he was faithful to himself, he was merciful to himself bear the judgement penalty. We cannot presume on the faithfulness of God but we can rely on it.

May we have grace to understand and to reflect the faithfulness of God.

Sharing in the Work of the Gospel

2010-09-29T23:14:00.001-07:00

During recent days we have hosted several visitors from one of our regional mission partnerships. These people came from a difficult and remote area where to be Christian is to be in a distinct minority and to be under a real and constant threat of persecution. They are humble folk who had not had the life opportunities common to most of us. But they are our brothers and sisters in the Lord and thus we welcome them as equals and count it a joy to be identified with them.

It has been our privilege to host these people. Some ORPC worshippers have taken them into their homes. Others have hosted meals. Others again have given their time and everyday professional expertise and experience to help train these visitors in various self-help projects. This fits with a wider pattern where a number of both younger and older church members give of themselves to go to this remote area and serve our brothers and sisters in the faith. This partnership has been, and remains, a rare hands-on mission experience for the congregation at large.

This is a positive experience on both sides as we are blessed by contact with these folk and as they are blessed by us. As such it links with some themes as the Scripture talks about the work of the gospel.

Gospel work is suffering work (2 Tim 1:8,12). It is a shared work in which we stand and suffer with brothers and sisters from other places. Far from being ashamed of the gospel of Jesus, or of suffering fellow-believers, we are to be shameless and proud. The reasons for this are clear: the shameful and foolish message of Christ crucified and raised for our salvation is God’s power for salvation (1 Cor 1:22-24).

Gospel work is difficult and sometimes dangerous in places such as those our visitors come from. However, we are to persist for the gospel brings life and immortality (2 Tim 1:10). In all this our confidence is in God’s enabling, for it is he who gives the grace of the gospel, who sent Jesus to enact it and who is more than able to guard the gospel trust (2 Tim 1:9,10,12).

The difficulties and dangers of gospel work mean that we sometimes share the discouraging experience of seeing people desert the field (eg 1 Tim 1:15). Let us be like the largely unknown figure on Onesiphorus who remained a loyal gospel partner (1 Tim 1:16-17).

The Lord will give us gospel opportunities. So let us be sure that we guard the faith and remain heralds, apostles and teachers of the sound words that bring life (2 Tim 1:11,13,14).

Missions in Motion – the People Who Go

2010-09-08T01:14:00.001-07:00

God’s mission is done through people. There are those who stay where they are to sacrificially pay, pray, promote and publicise. Then there are those who go.

This going may be a sacrificial leaving of what the world calls ‘prospects’ and serving in some kind of full time missionary service in the home country. We have two examples of that in our congregation. Others will ‘go’ in the sense of leaving kith, kin, culture and comforts for varying periods of time.

What kind of people are called to ‘go’? Overwhelmingly they are ordinary people. Think of the 12 apostles who were rather average men. Listen to Paul’s word: Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. (1 Cor 1:26-27). Think also of his reference to people like himself who were hard pressed, perplexed and persecuted (2 Cor 4:7-8).

Think also about some of these people used by God in his mission:
• A domestic helper serving a powerful family in a foreign land
• A church deacon taking a surprising opportunity to witness
• A new graduate giving up party and holiday time for a short term trip
• A professional person using their annual leave and their own money to serve short term with specialised skills
• A farmer leaving his farm to a manager and going to serve a remote indigenous people
• A widow making her first trip abroad to settle and serve in a poor country
• An early retiree being a self-funded missionary using pre-retirement skills in a difficult environment
• A promising scholar going to an arduous field, forgoing career, disappointing his family and facing an early death
• A mid-career person walking away from their pension to be a missionary
• An 85 year old going to a stubbornly hard people in Jesus’ name.

Perhaps we excuse ourselves from a lack of missionary skills? Read 1 Corinthians 12. All kinds of skills are needed and can be used. Further, we can all readily learn new skills to be of greater use.

Get the point? All manner and kinds of persons can be used on the mission field. We often speak as though missions are an ‘opt-in’ activity? Maybe it should be the reverse and we should ask ourselves: why am I not serving in missions? Most of us are not called to go. Some of us are. Are we listening? Are we available: Lord, here am I, send me (Is 6:8).

From Mission-Minded to Mission-Motion

2010-09-02T00:57:00.000-07:00

Today is the start of our mission’s emphasis month. Being ‘mission-minded’ is on every church’s lips and in our statements of core values, ministry plans and such like. However, it is one thing to say we are mission-minded but another to embody ‘missions in motion’. It’s sometimes true that the more we assert we are mission-minded the less motion we have for missions.

What is mission-motion? It’s going beyond talk to actions to fulfil the command that we make disciples from of all nations (Matt 28:19). Three mission actions come to mind:

1. Pray for missions. Disciple-making is spiritual warfare on the front line. Only God can move people to believe in the Lord Jesus (1 Cor 12:3). We need action to pray consistently and specifically for this work. This includes praying for more missionaries and for missionary workers to be protected. Just today I received an email from my missionary brother speaking of his underlying weariness from serving on a field where 1,000 plus people have been killed in the last 12 months. This work needs prayer!

2. Pay for missions. Most mission works and missionaries need to be entirely supported by people outside that mission field. It’s expensive. Missionaries need to eat, educate their children, have medical attention and travel to see their folks just as much as any of us. Their costs in all these things are often higher than for those who stay at home. And there’s the cost of the mission projects themselves. This work needs money!

3. Go for missions. There are mission fields at home and we need to be intentional about going to them. Think about the many non-believers among our fellow-Singaporeans and also the outreach opportunities among foreign workers and students here. However, the larger and needier mission fields are abroad and we also need intentionality to go to them. This includes short-term missions exposure visits (such as our PaCE trips) but goes far beyond that. We need people who make a long-term commitment to go from home comforts and familiar things and serve the Lord in strange lands. This work needs people!

Because God is mission-minded, all his people should be mission-minded. God also shows mission-motion. The prayer of his heart is that all are saved (1 Tim 2:4). He paid the price of sending his one and only Son to the mission field (Jn 3:16). The Son left the comforts of his heavenly home to go and then come among us as a servant on the father’s mission (Phil 2:6-8). Let’s imitate our father God and add missions-motion to our talk of being mission-minded. Let’s pray, pay and go!

The Waiting of Prayer

2010-08-29T22:27:00.000-07:00

Prayer is waiting on God with our heartfelt desires.

But prayer has another waiting. It is to use our waiting moments to pray.

Consider how often we wait in life (go on, track your day). Waiting for a bus or train. Waiting in a queue. Waiting for people.

Waiting moments are often wasted moments. We sink into a semi-comatose state of mental nothingness. Or worse, waiting moments become frustration moments. Our patience is tested, blood pressure arises and we became angry at that or those who make us wait.

Why not cultivate the habit of making waiting moments praying moments?

Carry a prayer list on a notepad, electronic gadget or in your head. When its clear that this is a waiting moment, make it a praying moment.

Consider the outcomes: time well-used rather than wasted; praying ministry conducted; frustration avoided.

Power for Change

2010-08-25T22:51:00.001-07:00

Self-improvement books and DVDs are some of the hottest items to fly off the shelves in bookshops. It seems that we all want to lift our game in some area or another and are looking for tips and techniques to help us get there.

Some of these resources are great. I’m a fan of the Dummies series with its no-nonsense approach, clear layout and plenty of practical applications. Other self-help resources dig deeper and address more basic issues such as how we see ourselves and the world (framing techniques) and especially to address the area of our attitudes.

However, there is a limit to self-help. Self-help can assist us to map the direction of change with precision and even to map the steps to getting there. But, what of the power to change ourselves, especially at the most basic and inner levels? Maybe you can identify with this. Have you set out to effect change in some fundamental aspect of who you are and how you act? Maybe you succeeded for a time by a massive exertion of the will, but then relapsed to the old default ‘you’? The direction and desire for change were there, but not the power. It’s so frustrating.

The Christian message promises power for change at the most basic level. As Paul puts it, the gospel is the power of God for salvation (Rom 1:16). Let’s look at those words.

‘Salvation’ refers to the most basic change possible. It’s much wider than some narrow idea of saving a ‘soul’ from judgement. In its rich Biblical use, it is about the restoration of whole people to human wholeness in its richest and fullest sense. As Jesus said, he came to give life in abundance. That’s salvation to the max!

What kind of power is involved? It’s a massive power – our word ‘dynamite’ comes from the underlying Greek word. It’s massive power because it is God’s power. This goes way beyond the power for self-change that we find within ourselves. Instead, it’s the same power that was there when God created all things with a word and when he raised Jesus from the dead.

This power for salvation comes through the ‘gospel’. The gospel is the message about Jesus and especially how he died and was raised so that people like us can reconnect to God. All this is ours if we put our faith in Jesus. It’s not faith in faith, or faith in ourselves, but faith in Jesus who is God’s Son.

Do you want real power to change for lasting good – look to Jesus. We are dummies if we try self-help here!

Pity Pakistan

2010-08-18T21:56:00.001-07:00

Pity Pakistan

The recent monsoon has cut a disastrous swathe through Asia. China has been badly affected but seems to be handling it well. Not so Pakistan. Imagine a land area 343 times the size of Singapore under water. Imagine double the total population of Singapore being displaced by floods and now facing the danger of disease. And all this in a country ill-equipped to cope with normality, let alone a disaster on such scale.

Pity Pakistan!

Some may see the floods as God’s judgement for the increasing persecution of Christians in Pakistan. It is not our part to presume on such conclusions. Jesus rejects the grim logic that draws a necessary connection between suffering as judgement for sin (eg Lke 13:1-5; Jn 9:1-3).

Others again may see these floods as a sign that the end times are upon us and that Jesus is about to return. Well, Jesus may return any time (Matt 24:36-44). However, we have been in the end times since Jesus’ resurrection, and, natural disasters such as floods have been part of the warp and woof of human experience since the Fall (Gen 3:17b; Matt 24:6-8).

Pity Pakistan!

Donor fatigue is a real danger in situations like this. The world wearies of giving again and again to needy people in distant places. Let it not be so among the household of faith (Gal 6:10). Let us consider the unwearied love of God for his world and respond by a ceaseless care of the needy for his sake (Matt 25:34-40). Let us give as Christians: secretly (Matt 6:2-4); according to ability (2 Cor 8:3); willingly (2 Cor 8:12); generously (2 Cor 9:6); and cheerfully (2 Cor 9:7).

Let us give not just with our hands. It is good to give with our hands and we should do so. However, if we only give with our hands there is a real danger of a detached heartlessness in which we do no more than a charitable duty. So let us consider the heartfelt giving of the Lord Jesus for us (2 Cor 8:9) as we excel in the grace of giving (2 Cor 8:7). Let us give from the heart. And let us give our heart, through earnest prayer that the world will be generous to Pakistan; that the relief effort will be effective, that the donated money and supplies will get through. And let us also pray for the beleaguered Christian community in Pakistan: that it will not be discriminated against in the relief effort and that Christian people there will open their hearts and hands to their neighbours.

Pity Pakistan!

Tending Seedbeds: Educational Perspectives on Theological Education in Asia

2010-08-14T04:17:00.000-07:00

Tending the Seedbeds. Educational Perspectives on Theological Education in Asia. ed. Allan Harkness, Asia Theological Association, Quezon City, Philippines, 2010. 306 pages.

This volume is a series of various papers published to recognise the 40th anniversary of the Asian Theological Association.

Allan Harkness has done a fine job of commissioning these papers and then sequencing and introducing them as a coherent whole.

The publication of the papers is a symbol of two things. First, the emerging sophistication and strength of the church in the Asian part of the two-thirds world. Secondly, the ongoing western impact on the Asian scene. As Harkness notes, six of the 12 contributors (including this reviewer) are western males.

The papers in this book are all written within a broadly Asian perspective and to an Asian audience. However, there are universals here and these give the book a currency beyond its immediate context.

Heroes and coaches

2010-08-14T04:10:00.000-07:00

We need a hero.

Jesus is the hero who goes out to win for us and do what we can never do for ourselves.

Our part is to recognize our need of Jesus as hero and to accept his heroic act on the Cross.

We also need a coach.

The Holy Spirit is the coach who comes alongside to cheer us on, encourage, say the sharp truths in love, empower, enable and push us to growth rather than infantile dependence.

Our part is to accept his coaching; to lean on him and to grow in him.

Hey … this is also a role we have to give other people and to accept from others.

To ‘accept’ means facing our need of others to do things for us and being humble enough to accept their service as they do that thing that God puts them there for, be it hero or coach,

To ‘give’ means knowing whether the hero or coach role is needed at this moment. And, not to stroke our own ego by being a hero when we should be a coach. Nor: to duck the need of the hour by not giving ourselves as a hero when that is called for.

‘Lord, give me the insight to know the difference between a hero and a coach. Give me the wisdom to know which is needed in the moment. Give me the wisdom to k now when I should be hero or coach. Give me the humility to let others serve me as my hero and coach.

Choosing a church

2010-08-12T17:13:00.001-07:00

I am sometimes asked for help in choosing or evaluating a church.

Here are some questions that may be useful. Of course, they need to be modified depending on just what kind of church is under consideration.

1. Is Christ effectively central to all aspects of church faith and life?

2. Is apostolic and historic Christian doctrine maintained, especially with respect to Trinity, Christology and the means of salvation?

3. Is there a well-balanced doctrine and practice of the Spirit, or is there a neglect of the Spirit or an undue emphasis on certain aspects of his work?

4. Is the Bible warmly regarded as God's Word and well-taught, or is it undermined by an emphasis on interpretive traditions or by human reasoning?

5. Are the sacraments administered in a way that keeps focus on Christ as the source of grace, or do the sacraments effectively become the means of grace?

6. Is the church mission-minded in reaching out with the truth and love of the gospel?

7. Are the opportunities for fellowship with people who will accept you as you are and promote your Christian growth?

8. Is there opportunity for you to serve with the gifts with which God has endowed you?

9. Is there a pattern of healthy relationships within the church, especially between leaders and led?

Singapore Idols

2010-08-12T02:08:00.001-07:00

Idols are ever-present in human affairs, but they take many forms.

Jeremiah and others mock the folly of hand making an earthly object then worshipping it. As he says, the idols are like scarecrows in a melon patch - there is nothing to be scared of for they can do neither good nor harm (Jer 10:5). That’s something to ponder as we see plenty of old-fashioned idols around us in Hungry Ghost month. The problem with this kind of idolatry is the attempt to render the immortal and invisible in mortal and visible form.

Greed gives an extra dimension to idolatry (Col 3:5). Consider greed for pleasure (hedonism) or possessions (materialism). Both these idols are well-represented in our local pantheon. In both cases the object of greed becomes a God-substitute. This is an underlying problem with all idolatry. God is pushed from his place as the object of our worship, dependence, centre of our life, source of truth and values.

There is yet another form of idolatry which is the idolatry of people. We first idealise someone into a flawless being and then we make them an idol. In our eyes they can solve every problem and do no wrong. Their every move is photographed and their every word is fawned on.

This may be a sporting or entertainment identity, or someone who is famous for nothing more than being famous. Or maybe we idealise and idolise our beloved. All this takes a more sinister form if the human idol is an influential leader. This idolatry can happen to a Christian leader, be they a pope or a persuasive pastor, and it even happened to Paul (Acts 14:11-15). It can also happen to statesmen when they set themselves up against the Lord of heaven (Dan 5:22). This happened to the all-conquering Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar and his son Belshazzar who reigned around the time of Jeremiah (Dan 4-5).

A moment’s reflection exposes the folly of this. The celebrity, religious leader or statesman is just a person. They may have remarkable ability, discipline, strategic focus, vision and drive but they trim their toenails like the rest of us, will grow old and die, will make mistakes and will sometimes be wrong. They are mortal, finite and fallible. Further, our idolisation may inflate their hubris and hasten their decline – as happened with Nebuchadnezzar.

Let us remember who our God is and what he has done, then resolve that we will have no other god alongside or before him and make no idols of him or anything and anyone else (Ex 20:1-6).

National Day 2010

2010-08-04T23:17:00.001-07:00

First of all then I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may live a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way . This is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God who desires all people to be saved .. (1 Tim 2:1-3).

As we celebrate the 45th anniversary of independence it is natural for Christian people to pray for the nation. Is there any better way to be good Singaporeans than to pray for the Lord’s blessings on the nation?

The above Bible passage focuses our prayers on our President, Prime Minister, cabinet and other senior leaders.

Why pray to the Lord in this matter?

• Because government is too important to be left just to politicians.

• Because God is sovereign over all earthly rulers, even over those who do not acknowledge him.

• Because God is the source of all blessings and it is from his hand that we must seek further national blessings.

• Because prayer is our consolation and remedy when governments are bad or take bad decisions.

How should we pray in this matter? We are urged to two kinds of prayer.

We are to give thanks. The history and progress of Singapore since 1965 is breathtaking and we should thank God for it. Let’s thank him for this and for the leaders in all sectors of national life that have enabled such progress.

We are to intercede. The object of this is that we may leave peaceful and quiet lives. In context, this is a prayer that Christian people will have a free and stable environment in which to do the gospel work of encouraging one another in the faith and commending it to others. This prayer is important in the light of some recent measures affecting Christian groups in Singapore.

Let’s indeed bless Singapore this National Day – by praying as we are told to.

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2010-07-23T17:56:00.001-07:00

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Making the Most of Every Opportunity

2010-07-22T01:49:00.000-07:00

In our time-starved lives we want to squeeze the most from every moment. The Apostle Paul says … make the most of every opportunity (Col 4:5b). We may rejoice at this apparently shrewd advice in time management. This is all the more so when we hear that the word he uses for opportunity is the Greek word for special or opportune time. Seen this way, Paul is another coach urging another surge of greater time efficiency.

Not so fast! As Don Carson says, a text without a context becomes a pretext, and that is certainly so here.

Paul’s immediate concern is not general time-management but a prayer for the spread of the message of Jesus. This is for himself and also a concern that we readers make the most of our opportunities with outsiders to the faith (Col 4:3-6). It is neatly complemented by his word that ... as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers (Gal 6:10 – same word for special time again).

This saying has both intentional and opportunistic aspects. We are to consider and plan how we can intentionally make the most of openings to do God’s good, and especially to bring God’s gospel to the people around us. We are also to be sensitive to opportunities that unexpectedly open up for such good.

Consider the examples of both Jesus and Paul. Jesus was intentional in his purposeful move towards Jerusalem and the words that he said at different times (eg Lke 9:51; Jn 12:23-27). Yet his was also open to the casual opportunities to do good and to speak a kingdom word when he went for a funeral, a meal or met people for a drink (eg Jn 4:4-10). Likewise Paul with his intentional strategy of moving between major centres in his missionary journeys but then also using the opportunity of being in prison to speak for Jesus (eg Acts 13:5-6; 28:16-23).

What openings do we have to do God’s gospel good in our everyday life? How can we best use these for God rather than squander them in trivialities?

Here’s something we can all do. Let’s sit down with a friend and look over our week. What are the typical situations we encounter and who are the people that we meet? How can we best use these to do good to people in God’s name? How can we use them to do the best good – which is to introduce people to Jesus and help them on the path to faith?

Our time is short. Let’s use it well for God.

Global junk mail?

2010-07-08T20:35:00.000-07:00

My wife and I, who live in Singapore, made contact from Canada and organised for junk mail from our houser in Mittagong Australia be cleared by two Mittagong residents who are in Florida on behalf of another Mittagong couple who will be in the UK at the time.

Yet, to all of us, this seemed all quite ordinary.

Can anything prepare us for heaven's glory?

2010-07-06T19:08:00.000-07:00

I recently visited Niagra Falls.

I had read about them.

I had seen pictures.

However, nothing in this prepared me for the overwhelming grandeur, power, majesty and beauty of the sight and sound of the Falls 'in the flesh'.

How much more for heaven, of which the Falls are as but a leaking faucet?

The Problem of the Will

2010-07-06T18:25:00.000-07:00

The human problem is sometimes to know what the will of God is in this or that situation. This is a situation where no one option is more or less godly or another and where the Bible is silent or unclear.

At other times the problem is that God’s will is quite clear, whether through revelation or circumstances. This will may even be submitted to as a godly action. However, there may be a problem in graciously accepting it.

This is the problem of a disconnect between the mind that recognizes God’s will, the soul that submits to it but the will and emotions that do not like the will of God that is thus recognized and submitted to.

What is the remedy for this?

The audacity of hope?

2010-06-28T11:20:00.000-07:00

I have visited the USA several times in the last eight years to attend a Boston conference. This follows visits to other parts of the US in earlier years.
Below are some cumulative observations from my more recent visits.

• More foreign-made cars, comments on their superior quality and pessimism re local car manufacturing

• Pessimism re the economy and the prospects for the next generation (eg, folks talking about the US being on the Greek road of sinking under government indebtedness)

• People commenting on the inability to solve the of Mexico spill as a symbol of the limits to a hitherto ‘can do’ spirit

• Fear re the rise of China as the world super-power but one with no Christian heritage

• Conservatives opining that Iraq was a mistake and Afghanistan is a never-ending quagmire

• Conservative Christians saying that they were taken for a ride by the Republicans in the 1980s Moral Majority era and having no hope in the political process or parties

Is this the audacity of hope or its end?

iphone 4

2010-06-25T10:49:00.000-07:00

Today I held an iphone 4.

It feels and looks good.

I’m told it’s faster, has better battery life and has a video-cam.

I admired and returned it, then turned to my iphone 3. It looked and felt old.

Until iphone 4, I delighted in iphone 3 – wonderfully useful and far superior to my old phone.

What is it that holding 4 breeds discontent with 3?

You shall not covet ..

… greed which is idolatry

On Coming and Going

2010-06-23T11:30:00.000-07:00

Things have changed when people come and go.

Once-distant people looked anticipated meeting – real time for unknowns to become known.

But now most of us are in constant and close contact in virtual time. The only unknown is that which we don’t want to be known. There is no catching up, for that which is desired to be known is already known.

And thus departures and returns are also diminished, for those who go and those who stay need never lose contact.

All Things Good?

2010-06-16T20:48:00.000-07:00

It is most encouraging thing to know that God not only works all things according to his big and good plans in Jesus (Eph 1:11) but he also works them for the individual good of his beloved people (Rom 8:28).

This gives consolation that the worst of times are also the best of times. When life seems overwhelming and the valley of despair just gets deeper and deeper we can comfort one another with the knowledge that God knows, God cares, God is in charge and God is working for our good and his good.

This teaching is known as providence. Here is a summary: God, the great Creator of all things, does uphold, direct, dispose and govern all creatures, actions and things … by his most wise and holy providence … to the praise of the glory of his wisdom, power, justice and mercy (Westminster Confession V:1).

However, providence gives problems. God … makes use of means, yet is free to work without, above and against them at his pleasure (West Confess V:3). The problem is that God may work through the ‘means’ of the sinful behaviours of people. Does this make God the author of sin? Does this condone sinful behaviours and make them ‘good’ because God uses them to achieve his good purposes?

Such problems arise in the cases of David and also of Jesus. David’s son Solomon was a product of his sinful relationship with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband. Yet from this sin came the family line that led to the ‘good’ of Jesus (Matt 1:6. Note how Matthew draws attention to the sin). Jesus’ death was an evil act of Roman and Jewish officials who defied God, yet it achieved the immense ‘good’ of redemption (Acts 2:36).

God is not the author of sin (2 Chron 19:7; Jas 1:13,14,17) but rather sometimes allows it and works through it. That is encouraging. Sin and evil did not have the first word and will not have the last word. God’s good is both the first and last word of creation and the word of sin is woven into good by his providence.

We cannot use God’s providence to condone or excuse our sin. God did raise Jesus from the line that worked through David’s sin with Bathsheba, but it was still a sin for which David was accountable (eg 2 Sam 11:1-13; Ps 51). The Jewish and Roman officials who sent Jesus to die were part of the good redemptive propose but were likewise accountable for their sin (eg Acts 3:36).

God indeed works all things for good, even the bad things that we and others do. That does not excuse or condone sin. Rather it ought to encourage and comfort us as we see his good triumph through and despite evil.

I don't get it

2010-06-14T21:07:00.000-07:00

I don't get it ...

Tens of thousands sit on their backsides in a stadium while a small number of super-fit men kick a funny ball around trying to get it between some sticks at the other end. Meanwhile millions around the world sit transfixed eating and drinking unhealthy stuff while watching the spectacle.

A website offers random web-chat conversations with people anywhere in the world randomly linked. Meanwhile we neglect talking to the real people who are closest to us and with whom we are linked with filial and other bonds.

And on it goes .... its an upside-down world

A Son and the Son

2010-06-08T00:54:00.001-07:00

Have you tracked your family tree? It can be interesting to see where our ancestors came from and to have a sense of where we fit it. Many in our congregation are of immigrant stock – with ancestors who came from the southern Chinese provinces or via a time as Straits Chinese. My ancestors are also immigrants: from Celtic stock in Ireland and Cornwall.

King David of Israel also came from migrant stock. His grandfather was the child of a Moabite immigrant who moved to Israel in the tragedy of young widowhood and then married a local boy after an interesting courtship (Ruth 4:13-20). David was the youngest of eight sons and, as the youngest, was given the lowly job of looking after the family herd while his brothers had the glamour of military service. (1 Sam 16:8-11).

The Bible tells us that David was good looking (1 Sam 16:12) and apparently presumptuous – a typical youngest son? Thus he asserted that he would do what his older brothers and the rest of the army could not do, namely defeat Goliath the Philistine (1 Sam 17:26-32). His brothers were not amused!

However, there was more to this episode that a presumptuous youngest son and sibling rivalry. For David was not only Jesse’s son but was also destined to be ‘son’ of God. Put simply, he was the one chosen to be God’s king – a choice that was validated when he was the Lord’s anointed servant to defeat the enemies of God’s people (1 Sam 17:34-47). Psalm 2 makes much of this as it speaks of how God vindicates his son (Israel’s king) and establishes his rule.

At this point David’s sonship to God overshadows his sonship to Jesse.

The New Testament traces Jesus’ earthly line back through David (eg Matt 1:1; Rom 1:3) and explicitly applies Ps 2 to him (eg Acts 4:25-26; 13:33; Heb 1:5; 5:5). This has big implications for God’s people. David’s parents and brothers took shelter from their enemies under his protection in later life (1 Sam 22:1-4). In the same way, Christian people gather under the protection of Jesus, God’s Son and our big brother. As the son of Jesse’s son and as God’s son, Jesus is our protector from our enemies.

David and Jesus both came from odd family lines. Both had special places in God’s salvation plan. Both were to be trusted and followed as the one sent from God for his people’s deliverance. It must have been hard for David’s father and older brothers to submit to him as king. Likewise, pride can make it hard for us to trust Jesus and submit to him. However, let’s swallow that pride and keep our faith in Jesus who is God’s son and saving king for us.

Our Families: Pain and Pleasure

2010-06-02T19:44:00.001-07:00

Many find that people bring us our greatest pain and pleasure. Both pain and pleasure increase as the distance between people diminishes in our families.

Why is this so? The answer is simple. God made us for relationships (Gen 2:18). This is no surprise, since the ‘us’ of the triune God is essentially relational (Gen 1:26). It is his gift to place the lonely in families (Ps 68:5-6a) and most us find it true that there is strength in numbers when it comes to family (Eccles 4:9-12).

The Bible holds out a high ideal for family life with its picture of devoted and lifelong monogamous marriage complemented by wise and godly parenting to which children respond with respect and faith (Gen 1:18-25; Ex 20:12-14; Matt 19:1-9; 1 Cor 7: 1-16; Eph 5:21-6:4). Phew!

Is your family like this? Mine isn’t and I have yet to meet a family that is. It was a wise person who said: Every family has its shame and every family is hiding something.

Consider these families:
• A husband and father took extra women to his bed and then committed murder to cover up yet another acquisition.
• One son of the same man raped one of his sisters and another son publicly slept with one of his father’s ‘other’ women.
• A respected leader of the eighteenth century revival didn’t attend his own wife’s funeral.
• Another leader’s wife left him and he said: I did not ask her to go and I will not ask her to return.

The first two stories are especially interesting because they concern King David from whom Jesus was descended and who is the model king of which Jesus is the fulfilment. Even David’s origins are a little murky in his maternal great-grandmother’s behaviour with the man who was later her husband.

What’s the point? The point is not to lower our aspirations for our family away from God’s ideal. Nor is it to condone sin. But the point is to encourage us.

What’s the encouragement? God was and is present in our complex, messy and less-than-ideal families. Our family is the place where grace is mediated. There is hope as his good purposes are worked out there.

Let us always strive to lift family life closer to the ideal. But let us not despair when they are places of pain as well as pleasure. God is still there.

The Prize

2010-05-26T01:42:00.001-07:00

There’s something about a prize that makes us want it. Whether it’s the door prize at social function, an academic award or a sporting trophy – we want to win. Our desire for the prize can push us to amazing acts of focus, self-discipline and self-sacrifice.

But what if we can’t see the prize? What if all we can see are the challenges and difficulties – along with a besetting distraction that is at least visible, as compared with our hoped-for prize?

This can be a real spiritual problem. The Bible holds out the promise of sins forgiven and eternal life in God’s presence if we believe in Jesus (eg Jn 3:16). But, what does forgiveness look like? And just what is eternal life and what are the alternatives? Part of our problem is that we cannot see God’s prize.

Meanwhile, we are called to pay visible costs of discipleship. Some in our church have been ostracised or banished by their families because they left the traditional religion. Others have their careers held back because they refuse to tell lies to clinch a deal or because they leave the work place at a sensible hour for family or ministry priorities. As for the rest of us, we pay the price of repeatedly saying ‘no’ to temptations that wider society indulges in and the cost of giving our time, talents and treasure to follow the Lord.

It can be hard to keep on track with Jesus when the costs are visible and the prize is invisible. The danger is that we become, weary and then fall by the wayside. For a time we may go through religious and churchly actions, but our heart is not with the Lord any more.

We are not the only ones who face these issues. The book of Hebrews is designed to encourage people like us to hang in with Jesus. It does this by highlighting the dread cost of abandoning him (eg 6:4-7), by holding out the secure reality that we already have in Christ (eg 10:32-29) and by mentioning the prize that awaits those who persevere (9:11-15) .

Ours is not a tatty earthly prize. We await the glittering heavenly Jerusalem with its vast company of God’s people and the company of God himself (Heb 12:22-24). This is a kingdom that cannot be shaken by political disturbances. It is a treasure that the markets cannot snatch away (12:28). And this is why we must now be outsiders. We are a people who go outside man’s city to bear the shame and disgrace of Jesus in the hope of his heavenly city (13:13-14).

Let’s stay with Jesus – the prize is worth it.

We Are Not Alone

2010-05-19T20:38:00.001-07:00

When life seems tough it’s easy to go into a downward spiral. We may look at our problems (and only our problems), complain that no one has it as tough as us and whine that we are all alone. All this takes an added dimension when our complaint is about the toughness of following Jesus. It’s no wonder that others abandon us when we wallow in such self-pitying misery!

The first readers of Hebrews had grounds for such self-pity. They had found that following Jesus was tough going. Wearying years of self-denial and paying the high costs of discipleship had taken their toll. Ostracism, and even persecution, from their former co-religionist at the temple left them isolated and vulnerable. Where is God in such tough times?

We are not alone! For starters, we have the company of woman and men of faith and courage who also have it tough. Thus the readers of Hebrews are told to look around at the great cloud of witnesses (12:1). We can do the same. Who are the people of great faith and encourage around us and what can we learn from them? Such inspiring examples help us to throw of entanglements and run God’s race with perseverance. They should help us be stickers and not quitters with God.

Further, and more importantly, we are to consider Christ. He is the trailblazer who went ahead to make our life of faith less tough. He is the one who now sits at the right hand of God’s throne to intervene on behalf of his people (12:2; 4:14-16). The fact that he suffered to the point of death for us should help set our problems into perspective – we have not yet suffered as he did (12:3-4).

Rather than complain when the life of faith is tough, we do better to ask what we can learn and how we can grow. This is not mere wishful thinking, but is based on a Christian world-view. Our tough times are not the products of a universe ruled by mad or bad forces to whom we are playthings for their amusement in our sufferings. Rather, the universe is ruled by our good father-God and our tough times are his fatherly discipline for our good (12:5-7).

This dramatically reframes our view of tough times. They are an opportunity for God’s good to be done in our lives and for us to grow in healthy directions. Many of us find that personal growth happens more in tough times than in easy times. Such times are unwelcome, but they are an opportunity for growth. Let’s not waste it!

Finally, the Cross of Christ is the most powerful evidence that we are not alone in tough times. God was there in the vortex of suffering. He is still there. We are never alone.

The Faith That Moves People

2010-05-12T22:21:00.000-07:00

Faith works! That’s a simple statement to make after walking through the ‘portrait gallery’ of faithful men and women in the era before Jesus (Heb 11).

Christians have long discussed the relationship between faith and works. Technically, it’s a discussion about justification and sanctification. The modern discussion has been running for over 30 years and is associated with a view called the ‘new perspective’ on Paul. However, whether it’s new or old perspective, Luther, Calvin, Paul or James – one point is clear. Faith is far far more than mental assent to propositions about God or the Cross of Christ.

Faith is a life-changing certainty of what we do not see and is essential to our pleasing of God (Heb 11:1,6).

Look again at Hebrews 11. These women and men did remarkable and risky things because of faith. Abel sacrificed his best for God, Abraham left home and family then became a father, Moses’ mother hid him from infanticide, Rahab changed sides and sheltered enemy spies ... and so on and so on.

There’s a deeply personal challenge for all of us here. What risky deeds have we done simply because of our Christian faith? What big life-changes can we point to? We say we have faith, but where are the faith-works?

Note something else. The faith that works is not faith in faith (positive thinking) nor faith in ourselves (egotism). It is faith in God. Faith can be compared to an electrical lead. The lead must be intact, but what matters is the power source to which it is connected. God in Christ is the object of Christian faith.

Our faith is in the same God as the heroes of Hebrews 11. As the writer points out, they did not see the things that they trusted God for (eg Heb 11:1,13-16, 39-40). However, they did trust God. The faith that moves people is a faith that trusts the faithfulness of God. This is key and it is amplified for us after and in Jesus. In Jesus we see the character of God in a personalised and human form (Jn 1:14; Col 2:9). Thus we are called to be faithful in Christ Jesus (Eph 1:1) and it is faith in the gospel concerning him that brings salvation (Eph 1:13).

There’s another personal challenge here: to what extent is my faith focussed on Jesus rather than elsewhere?

Finally, it’s humbling to read Hebrews 11. These people did so much by faith, yet caught only glimpses of God’s nature. How much more do we see of God in Christ Jesus? How much more should we be moved by faith. How much greater should our faith-works be?

The Problem of Evil - a forethought

2010-05-10T06:13:00.000-07:00

The problem of evil is classically formulated in terms of three propositions.

Any two, but not all three, are held to be compatible: ...

God is all good
God is all powerful
Evil exists

Now to the book of Job.

The 'resolution' in the closing chapters is a revelation by God of himself.

The 'why?' question of Job's suffering is never answered to Job (although the reader of Ch 1-2 is well aware if the 'why?' and how it is the inversion of the theodicy advocated by Job's friends).

Note however the resolution: God reveals himself in precisely those attributes that are seen as problematical in the classic formulation of the 'problem'.

Thus, as with the Cross of Christ, the 'solution' is in the puzzle and the problem.

What Matters - 8 May 2010

2010-05-07T20:53:00.000-07:00

What matters?

Global; stock markets are in turmoil.

Who knows who governs the UK.

Greece is broke and there are fears for Spain.

Thailand continues with a political crisis.

Headlines in Singapore's Straits Times: 'World Cup TV deal in on'. Yes, locals can watch the soccer world cup (for a fee)

Let Us Not Give Up Meeting Together

2010-05-05T23:35:00.000-07:00

Someone has identified loneliness and social fragmentation as a feature of our times. We busily pursue our own agendas and make only passing connections with others – and many of those are electronic and fragmentary anyway.

This can also happen in church. Let’s face it, church gatherings are sometimes dull and church people sometimes ‘impossible’. Meanwhile there’s a great Bible talk that we can download from somewhere elsewhere and absorb through our headphones in a solo experience. Why meet up with real people who are less than perfect when we can create a perfect virtual church of our own tastes?

The Bibles urges that we not neglect ‘meeting together’ (Heb 10:25). The word used is the common term for a synagogue – which was a place and occasion for God’s people to come together.

How can Christian people meet together? The basic meeting is our Sunday time for gathered worship and the associated activities. It’s a great habit to be in church every Sunday. This meeting is complemented by small groups and our gathering at occasions like prayer meeting and church camp. Of course, we can also ‘meet’ through the new e-media, especially in its more interactive forms. However, it remains true that there is no real substitute for meeting face to face (2 Jn 12).

It is one thing for Christians to meet together, but another to use the time well. We sometimes use the word ‘fellowship’ for any occasion when Christians meet up. However, fellowship is more than some believers meeting, eating and having general chit-chat. Fellowship happens when our meeting has a spiritual focus, whatever the immediate topic of conversation. As Hebrews 10:25 puts it, we are to meet to encourage one another in the faith and especially in view of the Lord’s return (Heb 10:25).

There are some timely challenges for us in this:
• Do we individually make it a priority to meet regularly with God’s people, or do we minimise such contacts?
• When we meet with other Christians do we make it an opportunity for spiritual encouragement, or do we fritter all the time away in trivia?
• Do we only meet with people who are less ‘senior’ to ourselves and thus avoid accountability where it is needed?
• Do we, as a church, organise our meetings such that they promote fellowship with one another, as well as a vertical relationship with the Lord?

Let’s heed the encouragement of Scripture to meet together regularly.

Comfort in Suffering

2010-04-28T21:09:00.000-07:00

Suffering is part and parcel of life. In varying ways and to varying degrees we all have experiences and moments that perplex our minds, break our hearts and prompt our tears. Life is often a vale of tears. What comforts us in our suffering and how can we comfort one another?

Let’s start with what does not comfort.

• False hopes. A well-meaning person may say ‘don’t worry, all will be well’. It may, or may not, be so. Further, such a remark may say more about the speaker’s discomfort with suffering than anything else.

• Problem solving. When we hear of another person's problem it’s common to offer a ‘solution’. Men are especially prone to doing this. There is a time for solutions, but it’s not the first need of a suffering person. Further, it is often best to wait until someone asks before offering our ideas.

• Shared despair. Another ‘comforter’ may climb into the pit of suffering with us, reinforce how bad things are, then lead us into a downwards spiral. Thus Job’s wife urged him to curse God and accept death (Job 2:9). Far from helping, this may breed self-pity and depression.

• Theologising. When Job suffered, some friends came to sit. When they spoke it was a lengthy theological discourse about how only the guilty suffer and therefore Job had best confess his sins and lift God’s curse. His friends were wrong. Moreover, their many words only exasperated Job (eg Job 16:1-3).

What does comfort in suffering? Let’s go back to Job. When his friends first came they sat silently with him for seven days (Job 2:13). That seems to have been their most useful contribution and it’s worth pondering. Consider the comfort of someone who simply attends a Wake service and gives a silent handshake as they greet the family. Their mere presence means so much. Our silent presence is a great gift when someone suffers.

However, our greatest comfort is to look at God and to God. The many words of Job and his friends end with God’s self-disclosure (Job 38-41). Job’s response was effectively to repent of his words and bow his heart (Job 42:1-6). Who was he to question and doubt God? The New Testament takes us a step further. It urges us to consider the sufferings of Christ (Heb 12:2-3). Not only was his suffering greater, but its redemptive effect demonstrates forever that God is sovereign and working for good even in our suffering.

Let us, too, also find and give comfort in looking at God and to God.

An End and the Beginning

2010-04-21T23:57:00.000-07:00

Have you ever been in a plane during a hard landing? It’s uncomfortable and even frightening. The end of a journey can be a time of fear and uncertainty as the era of the familiar yields to a new unknown.

It was like that when Jesus came. Each Gospel makes that point rather forcibly in the introductory section. The coming of Jesus was a decisive end to the era of earthly temple, priests and sacrifices - shadows fled before reality and God’s promises became fulfilment. The wilderness years of the old covenant were over and change was upon the world.

Mark begins with some important Old Testament references (Mrk 1:2-3). The selection of passages is explosive as the coming of Jesus is linked to the three great ‘movements’ of the exodus from Egypt (Ex 23:20), the return from exile in Babylon (Is 40:3) and the coming day of the Lord (Mal 3:1). It’s as though Mark is saying ‘the former things have passed away and the new is here and now’. This is integral to the gospel of Jesus Christ (Mrk 1:1).

Endings and beginnings may be resisted. The keepers of the old order in Jesus’ day resisted the new era of God’s dealings and adopted defensive behaviours. Many of Jesus’ initial followers were confused about his message and eventually sank back to ‘business as usual’. Others were angry and vented their wrath on the one sent to be God’s Christ. However, the end had come. The beginning of the era of the new covenant was irresistible, for God’s will is done.

As we read on through Mark we see the nature of that new era as love and mercy filled the space once occupied by religious formalism; as mercy and forgiveness replaced the grim accounting of human merit; and as a new familial ease with God replaced distant fearfulness. Only those with vested interests were the losers in this end and new beginning. For those with ears to hear it was the best news they could ever hear. And so the crowds flocked to hear the message (Mrk 1:5).

In all this the mysterious ways of God were much on view. However painful the end, the beginning was sweet indeed. As William Cowper puts it:

His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.

Let’s hear Mark as he announces an end and the beginning. Let’s follow him as he points us to Jesus as God’s Christ and Son.

Moving on

2010-04-18T07:15:00.000-07:00

This is a personal message.

Glenda and I are moving on from Singapore where we have been since mid 1999. It's been a great stint living and serving in South East Asia and we shall miss it greatly. Deep and welcome changes have happened in us as a result of being here.

Family wise its been a time when two grandchildren have been born, one son has migrated to Canada, David's mother passed away and our last child left home.

Personally, its been a time of stretched horizons, rich experiences and the heartaches, joys and opportunities common to all ministry assignments.

God-willing, and subject to confirmation by the July 2010 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of NSW, David will be teaching at Presbyterian Theological Centre Sydney from January 2011.

Meanwhile, ORPC remains our church and Singapore is definitely ‘home’. We seek God’s honour and good for the church, the nation and for ourselves. We covet your prayers to that end.

For further information visit the ORPC / PTC websites: www.orpc/org.sg; www.ptcsydney.org/home.

Note: this post has been edited since first posted.

Knowing The Will Of God

2010-04-15T01:11:00.000-07:00

God’s will is sometimes clear. Thus, when Jesus was in his garden agony he knew full well that it was the father’s will that he go to the Cross (Lke 22:42). The only question was whether he would obey this revealed will. It’s the same when we have a temptation to sin. If we know our Bible, we know God’s will. The only question is whether we will bend our will to try and do what God wants.

God’s will is sometimes unclear. These are times where we face decisions of spiritual significance, but they are not questions of (dis)obedience to God’s will as revealed in Scripture. A decision one way or another could be godly. We pray ... not my will but yours be done and then we add ... show me your will.

How do we know God’s will in these situations? Sometimes we may have a powerful and clear impression that is quickly given and which we interpret as God’s leading. More commonly, God’s will is sought through careful and prayerful decision-making. Here are some elements of that process:

• Sanctified common sense. Draw up a list with the plus / minus for each option. Which decision gives the best objective ‘fit’?

• Listen to your heart. What is the ‘inner voice saying? This is not the same as asking what we most desire, but desire is part of it.

• Prayerful conviction. Soak the whole process in prayer and do not take a final decision until we have a settled conviction before God.

• Know God. Know God so well through prayer and Bible that our mind and heart are deeply in tune with him.

• Open and closed doors. God may lead by closing a door we expected to find open. We may then turn and find another door open.

• Godly counsel. In the end we must take responsibility for our own decision, but there is benefit in talking things through. Let’s seek people who know God, know us, know the situation and who speak the truth in love.

• Be open-minded. God may lead us against our expectations, desires or our sense of what is best. As we were reminded at prayer meeting, God’s answer to our desires may be ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘not yet’ or ‘something different’.

In all this, let us remember that God is sovereign and moves all things according to his purposes (Eph 1:11). Our choices and those of others around us may be finite and flawed but God works his good purposes through them anyway. The Bible has many examples of this and it is an immense encouragement as we look at the realities of human decisions and actions.

I have often found these processes useful in taking decisions. What do you find helpful? However we do it, let us always strive to know and to do God’s will.

Review: A Day's March Nearer Home

2010-04-07T21:06:00.000-07:00

Graham Miller; 'A Day's March Nearer Home', Banner of Truth 2010. (editor: Iain Murray)

Graham Miller was a notable NZ born servant of Christ in New Zealand, Vanuatu (formerly New Hebrides), Australia and elsewhere.

This book is an edited autobiography which tells of his life and ministry as a pastor, missionary and teacher.

The intrinsic value of this book is in its subject, especially for those who knew Rev Miller and were blessed by his ministry. Graham Miller held a warm-hearted Biblical Christianity in which his reformed theology was always visible but with such graciousness of character.

The book is of interest not only for its revelations about the author, but also for the backdrop of Australasian church life through a significant period that impacts on the present.

There is a certain quaintness in Dr Miller's language and in some particulars of his ministry. However, in a day when the basic nature of pastoral ministry is again under criticism and revision, this book is worth reading for its insights into the core of pastoral ministry. The enduring themes are abiding prayerfulness, Bible-centredness and a deep love for God's work and God's people - coupled with a readiness to make big personal sacrifices.

The Communion of Saints

2010-04-07T20:39:00.001-07:00

Where is our sense of belonging and who are our ‘kin’? Many of us will point to our earthly family or maybe to a tight-knit workplace, club or such like. For Christian people, that sense of belonging is expressed in a phrase ‘the communion of saints’. We affirm our belief in this every time we say the Apostles’ Creed. However, what does it mean?

Let’s start with the words. ‘Saint’ is a common Bible term for people who are full of faith in Christ as a result of God’s initiative to choose and save (eg Eph 1:2-7). ‘Communion’ refers to the bond between believers and it’s a word synonymous with ‘fellowship’, ‘sharing’ or ‘participation’.

The ‘communion of saints’ is thus the fellowship that is shared between Christian people because they share the faith of Christ. This communion exists on three levels and each is important.

Firstly, there is the sharing between members of a local church. As we come together, each with our individuality we combine into the one body and coexist, co-suffer and co-serve with one another (eg 1 Cor 12:12-13,20,25-27). This is powerfully symbolised in the one table of the Lord that we come to in the communion service (1 Cor 10:16-17). And this all rests on one Lord, faith and baptism (Eph 4:4). What can we do to foster this communion within ORPC?

Secondly, there is the sharing with Christians elsewhere on earth (the church militant). Thus Paul writes of the shared bonds with Christians whom he had never met (eg Rom 1:11-12) and organised a collection from a group of Christians for other needy believers of a different culture, race and language (eg 2 Cor 8-9). When we hear of Christians in other places who are needy or being persecuted, our sense of communion with them should mean that we feel their sufferings as though they are ours (eg Heb 10:33; Rev 1:9). Do we do this when we hear of believers in Iraq or Pakistan being driven to exile by violence, or killed in their hundreds as in Joss, Nigeria? How can we express our oneness with such people?

Thirdly, there is our partnership with believers in heaven (the church triumphant). Although absent from us in the flesh they are a living and ever-present cloud of witnesses to encourage our life of enduring faith (eg Heb 12:1) and they are people to whom we have now come when we join ourselves to Christ (Heb 12:22-23). As we sit at the Lord’s table today, let’s remember that they sit at the same table in heaven (eg Ps 23:5-6; Matt 22:1). Let’s celebrate and be comforted by that fellowship in our communion services today.

Let us be thankful to Christ who makes the communion of saints possible and who is its root, head and purpose.

The 'Isaac test'

2010-04-04T22:53:00.000-07:00

In Gen 22 we read of a significant test of Abraham's faith.

He was asked to sacrifice Isaac. Isaac was his only son (and at his age, with few prospects of more). Isaac was thus the expected means by which the Gen 12 of a great nation would be realised. In earthly terms, he was also the expected means by which Abraham’s name would endure.

Abraham is thus asked to surrender that which is most precious to him. Would he submit to God at this greatest test, or would he give all but this one thing and in doing so make an idol of it and push the Lord to second place?

The test of our faith is whether we will surrender that which we treasure most to the will of God.

The ‘one thing’ will vary from individual to individual.

For Abraham it was Isaac. For the rich young man of the Gospels it was his wealth.

What is my ‘one thing’? Will I surrender it?

Easter Hindsight

2010-03-31T21:54:00.001-07:00

There is an old saying that talks about having 20/20 vision with hindsight. That is, when we look back at something after the event we can see and understand with greater clarity.

This appears to be the case with Jesus. The four Gospels tell of Jesus’ followers stumbling and fumbling in the understanding and responses to Jesus. Yet, after the Easter events there is clarity in their perceptions and resolution in their actions.

We have a little sample of this in John 2:19-22. Jesus spoke about his raising of the ‘temple’ in three days and the disciples misread it as a reference to the temple building in Jerusalem. John then adds a note how the meaning became clear after the resurrection of Jesus and they understood that he was speaking of himself as the new temple or point of meeting with God.

Some of the first Christian preaching and writing show how the Easter events turned everything upside down for the early Christians. For example, see the ‘sermon notes in Acts 2:15-36; 3:12-26. Both of these sermons have their climax in the dying and rising of Jesus. Or consider Romans 1:1-6; 1 Corinthians 15:3-7. Easter changed the way they looked at the world, at themselves and at Jesus.

However, Easter hindsight is not just a changed mind. It is meant to result in a changed life. ‘Death to sin and resurrection to life now’ is a good summary of Paul’s message in Romans 6:1-14 and Colossians 3:1-17. This is important. If our faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection is not changing the way we presently live, it is not a true Easter faith.

There’s another area in which Easter should change our thinking and behaviour - death. Denial, anxiety, fear and superstition abound in human responses to death. A Christian response is very different, because of Easter. Thus, Christian people may, or should, grieve at death, but it is a ‘bounded’ grief in which we encourage each other with the hope of meeting with the Lord (1 Thess 4:13-18). Or again, our sense of the finality of death’s sting and power is to be reshaped with the knowledge that death is swallowed up in resurrection victory - and thus we stand firm (1 Cor 15:51-58). It is a truly inspiring thing to be with someone who is dying and to see their unwavering confidence in God.

Easter hindsight changed the way the first believers looked at reality and behaved in it. How about each of us? We celebrate Easter Sunday with a joyous service today – but is there also an Easter celebration with our life? That life begins by putting our faith in he who died for our sins and who was raised for our justification (Rom 4:25).

Ajith Fernando: Spiritual Living in a Secular World.

2010-03-28T22:37:00.000-07:00

Ajith Fernando: Spiritual Living in a Secular World. Monarch, UK 2002 (Earlier version in 1993). 192 pages. (Review copy miss-bound after p160).

Ajith Fernando has been national Director of Youth For Christ in Sri Lanka since 1976 and is a widely regarded speaker within south and south-east Asia. His talks and writings typically have a heartwarming godliness, a gritty realism, directness and a great deal of common sense.

'Spiritual Living' is written not so much for Christian workers as for believers whose calling is in the everyday world of professional practice along with the cut and thrust of business and government service. Hence the title 'Spiritual Living in a Secular World'.

The book draws deeply from the Old Testament book of Daniel. Hence the subtitle, 'Applying the Book of Daniel Today'. However, it is neither commentary nor exposition and should not be evaluated as such. Rather it is a series of sequential reflections, responses and challenges drawn from issues raised in Daniel and then applied with vigor to today’s scene.

There are big emphasises on personal holiness, Bible reading, prayerfulness, personal witness and dealing with persecution. While some of this has its most direct applications to the writer’s region, there are plenty of transferrable lessons that should make the book useful elsewhere.

There are the inevitable quibbles to be made here and there but this is a book to be enthusiastically positive about. Above all, it is a book that should motivate and help Christian people to present their whole selves as living sacrifices which are holy and pleasing to the Lord.

Here are a few samples from the chapters on prayer:

‘If you have lost the taste for prayer, begin praying today. It is too important an activity and too joyous an activity to postpone any longer.’ (p135)

‘Prayer is the supreme expression of our love-relationship with God.’ (p140)

‘So when we are faced with a big challenge, it is wise to stop our busy activity and give time to fasting and prayer.’ (p145)

‘Praying is the most powerful thing we do on earth.’ (p153)

‘If you are out of touch with prayer, it is unlikely that you will get back in touch after retirement, unless you seriously repent of your prayerlessness.’ (p153).

A Pastor's Reading

2010-03-28T22:34:00.000-07:00

Biographies of well-used pastors show that they are typically readers – big time readers.

Why should a busy pastor invest time to read amidst all the demands an opportunities of ministry?

UPDATED Consider the non-reading pastor whose knowledge is fossilised at the time he left seminary or college. He will gradually become stale and his ministry characterised by hackneyed clichés and too-familiar ‘lines’. In time, he runs the danger of becoming a museum piece himself.

NOURISHED Pastors typically give and give again in their ministry. Hopefully, others are nourished for spiritual life and growth by his ministry. But from whence is the pastor nourished, especially if he is in a solo-pastor situation? Among the several helps, good reading can bring rich nourishment to the pastor’s soul, mind and emotions.

MENTALLY ACTIVE Depending on the setting, it’s easy for pastors to slip into a mental rut where there are lots of ministry challenges to sap their mental energy but not much to keep their mind ‘fit’. Sermon preparation can slip into a familiar template and the pastor’s theological and other frameworks can become unexamined and undeveloped ‘givens’. Careful reading can help keep a pastor’s mind open, flexible and growing as the years pass with obvious benefits.

How does a pastor read?

A pastor’s reading can be categorized as follows:
• Christian: theology and Bible; ministry; devotional
• Non-Christian: various subdivisions within fiction and non-fiction.

Here’s a pattern that seems common.

PRE-SERVICE: The burgeoning pastor typically reads heavily in theological college, both in materials necessary to pass through the studies and in associated areas of interest. At this stage there is likely to be little interest in reading on pastoral practice. There may be some devotional reading.

INSERVICE: Anecdotal evidence suggests that reading soon slows and also becomes quite functional. That is, the pastor reads why is needed for sermon and other ministry preparation. Commentaries come high up the list along with materials on pastoral ‘tips and technique’. How many books on leadership are being read by pastors? Some devotional reading is common, to help support a soul that is under stress. Likewise with biographies of Christian leaders. Wider Christian reading shrinks and as for reading non-Christian materials – that may be replaced by collapsing in front of the TV at a wearied day’s end.

How could a pastor read?

Here’s some wisdom gleaned from experience.

PLAN
Have a reading plan of what to read and keep a record to help stick with it. A plan helps keep us reading and keeps the balances that we seek. Is a target of one book a month reasonable for you? What is reasonable? Set your own plan and stick to it.

SCHEDULE
Book up reading times into the diary. Is there a quiet hour somewhere each day that can be used for reading? First thing in the morning? Straight after lunch when work energy is lower but the mind is reflective? Later at night when meetings are done, our family is in bed and a gentle wind down towards sleep with a book is better than TV? Whatever time works for you, block it out and guard it by telling people that you have an activity scheduled.

BALANCE
I try for a balance of reading 50% non-Christian material and 50% Christian. (This excludes reading done in specific ministry preparation and thus the final result is a greater share of Christian reading).

Non-Christian reading might take in biography, hobby-related material, cultural analysis, current affairs (can you get someone’s just-read Economist or other quality magazine); novels; the current fad book or whatever takes our fancy. Quite apart from the pleasure of it, such reading helps the pastor keep a little more in touch with the world of the people whom he serves. In the longer view, it will help with illustrations, examples and applications for his ministry.

Among Christian reading there are several balances. It can be good to read in areas of particular interest. New pastors might give some time to reading more on areas that caught their eye in seminary but for which there was no time to follow through. It’s also good to watch for areas of comparative neglect. For example, to read through a systematic theology if this has not been done for some time. Likewise with current approaches on apologetics. Arising from the patterns notes earlier, it may be helpful to restrict reading on pastoral ‘tips and techniques’ to a reasonable balance and never to let it crowd out reading on the substance of the faith.

A final balance. It’s easy to slip into a pattern of reading mostly within your own ‘frame’. That is to read people with who you agree, who are trusted authors, whose general approach mirrors your own. That’s helpful to reinforce and fill out your frame. However, might it also be helpful to test and examine your frame by reading other materials? This may indeed reinforce the frame, or perhaps modify it and maybe take us in a new direction altogether.

The Sounds of Easter

2010-03-25T00:39:00.000-07:00

Consider the sounds of the Passion ….

Glad shouts as the king came to his crowd’s acclaim

Rustling as branches and cloaks were strewn

Secretive mutterings as the conspiracy was tested and refined to evil’s perfection

The breaking of bread and pouring of wine

30 clinks as silver poured to the betrayer’s hands

Clash of swords as the soldiers followed their orders

The spewing lies of the trial

The denials by the one called ‘the Rock’

Roars as the baying crowd sated its blood lust

Pained and gulping breaths as the cross was borne up Calvary’s hill

Clang of hammer upon nails and the crunch of bones and body

Silence … the awesome sound of his silences

The last words
My God my God, why have you abandoned me?
Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.
It is finished.

Earth’s curtain torn to open Heaven’s door.

May we have grace to hear God’s gospel in Easter’s sounds.

The Champion

2010-03-18T00:40:00.001-07:00

The champion is a popular theme in books and movies. The champion is someone who acts on behalf of a whole group of people to overcome opposition, to win the day and to bring peace.

There’s a current movie example of this theme as Alice faces Jabberwocky in ‘Alice in Wonderland’. It is her unlikely and unwanted destiny to face the dreaded creature on behalf of the White Queen and the forces of good and thus to bring a fairytale ending of sweetness and peace.

The champion theme is also present in the Bible. Think of Samson and his single-handed defeats of the Philistines (Jud 15-16). Note however whose champion he is. Samson is nothing but an immoral braggart and oaf without God’s choice to restrain his vices, set his destiny and empower him for action (Jud 13:4-5, 24-25; 15:14; 16:20). God made a hero our of Samson.

David is another champion sent from God to save his people. This is seen in his many battles against the Philistines and especially in his defeat of Goliath (1 Sam 17). David did not defeat Goliath through of the triumph of his faith but was the means of the triumph of the Lord. Thus he discarded the weapons of earthly might and went forth to slay and thus demonstrate that the battle and the victory is the Lord’s (eg 1 Sam 17:38-40; 46-47).

Jesus can be interpreted through this theme. He is the supreme champion from God. He was a priestly champion as we are seeing in the morning series from Hebrews (Hebs 7-10). As priest, he could go when none had gone before (the heavenly sanctuary) and make the one effective sacrifice that ended the era of defective priests offering defective sacrifices. He is the champion who disarmed the rulers and authorities and nailed our sin-debt to his cross where it is forever harmless (Col 2:13-15). He is the ‘author’ or ‘founder’ of our faith – the trailblazer of the path to God (Heb 12:2).

Alice is a typical fairytale champion, without flaws or failure. Earth’s champions are flawed with imperfections and eventually overcome by feebleness or a superior foe. This was true alsp for Samson and David. It is true by the champions we may see today in sport, politics, religion and other roles.

Jesus is neither a fairytale nor a flawed champion. He is the son of God who was like us in every way except sin (Heb 2:17-18; 4:15). As such he is the only, and the last, champion that any of us every need. Let’s enjoy the fantasy champions in movies and books, but let’s put our faith in heaven’s champion and keep it there.

A Supper Unworthy of the Lord

2010-03-10T20:41:00.000-08:00

The Lord’s Supper should be an occasion of spiritual delight and a rich reminder of the generous grace of God. It’s an occasion when we can all face our sinfulness with a sense of the burden that is lifted from us by the Cross of Christ.

However, the Lord’s Supper can be a perilous occasion. Thus Paul speaks of people falling ill and even dying because they participate in the Lord’s Supper in an ‘unworthy’ manner (1 Cor 11:27,30).

What was the problem? People were coming to the Lord’s Supper without ‘recognising the body of the Lord’. Scholars divide on what exactly that means.

We know that some people came to church in Corinth and saw only the opportunity of free food and drink. Thus some would arrive early, gorge themselves and go on their way leaving only crumbs for others. The only body they were concerned for was their own. Paul encourages such people to eat at home and only then to come to the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor 11:20-22, 33-34).

There seems to be two issues. One is that they don’t see the bread and wine as symbols of the body and blood of Jesus (Matt 26:26-28). Thus they do not ‘recognise’ the symbols of the person of Jesus. The other is that they don’t ‘see’ their fellow Christians who are also described as the body of Jesus (1 Cor 12:27). Quite possibly both meanings are intended. In short, they are unmindful of both the crucified and the living body of Jesus.

Maybe none of us today come to Communion for free wafers and wine. However, do we see Jesus and do we see our fellow-worshippers? It’s easy to sit in our corner of the church building, receive the wafers and wine with little attention to Jesus or to others and then to pass on our way.

The Scripture tells us what to do: A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup (1 Cor 11:28).

This is not self-examination to see if we are in a sinless state, for we all fail that test. Rather it is self-examination to face our sinful state and to ensure that we throw ourselves on the crucified body of Jesus for relief. Arising from this we are to recognise the people who sit around us at the Communion service. Like us they are sinful, frail and needy. They too need the grace of the Cross and the care of God’s people. They are not nobodies, but are the body of Christ,

It’s worth slowing down as we approach the Lord’s Table to ensure that we see Jesus and our fellow worshippers. Let’s not look at the ‘sign’ but at the one who is signified and at those who sit with us.

What matters in a Church?

2010-03-09T19:09:00.000-08:00

There's lots of literature around on church growth and how to achieve it.

But do we pause to ask what lies close to the heart of God for his church?

Look at the prayers in some of Paul's letters and look at the remarks to the churches in Rev 1-3.

What is mentioned?

What is not mentioned?

The heart of preaching

2010-03-03T22:32:00.000-08:00

In this day it is tempting to say that preachers don't need to do their own hard heart work on th text of Scripture. Through a thousand and one sources, preachers can access easily accessed and highly digestible summaries, analysis and commentaries on the text along with neat homiletical packages.

But, can there ever be a substitute for a preacher who ...
Sweats the hard stuff with the text until he uncovers the message from the heart of God that disturbs and comforts his own heart?

Labours prayerfully for the 'line' and application that speaks the word of the Lord to this people?

Pours his heart into careful and prayerful preparation and practice with the script?

Preaches from the heart of God whom he loves, to the heart of these people whom he also loves?

Pastors as he preaches and preaches as he pastors - the heart of God through the heart of a man and to the hearts of God's people?

Divine Yinyong (鸳鸯)

2010-03-03T22:31:00.001-08:00

Love and truth seem to be like tea and coffee – you have one or the other, but not both. Let’s think about the possible combinations.

Truth – love = insensitive Perhaps you know someone who is free with their opinions but delivers them in an ugly way. They may well speak truth (and at lengthy detail) but they do it in a graceless way with respect to timing, audience, manner and purpose. Perhaps they are trying to ‘score’ a point against you, lack EQ or are unknowingly trying to bolster their insecurity with a ‘win’. This is ugly and never more so when it is religious truth. God’s cause is invariably harmed, not helped, when someone pushes their truth about God on us without love.

Love – truth = indulgent Others may go to the opposite possibility. This is the person who avoids certain topics, withholds their real views or presents a false view in an effort to make and keep peace. Perhaps this person craves acceptance or avoids conflict so much that it’s a case of peace at any price. Or perhaps they are repelled, or have been bullied, by graceless truth. Or maybe they have a mistaken idea of what tolerance means.

Whatever the roots, love without truth is bound to end in tears. A peace created without truth is apt to be short lived for truth invariably comes out. Again, if we start avoiding certain topics to preserve peace we may end up with nothing to talk about apart from the weather. Something else: is it really loving to suppress the truth that makes people free and whole?

Where do we go with this? Let’s go back to tea and coffee. Have you tried yinyong? It is a Hong Kong mix of tea and coffee that makes a delightful combination. Likewise, godly love and truth make a delightful combination.

Love + truth = inspired Consider these words: instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the head, that is Christ (Eph 4:15).

These words were written about relations between church members, but they apply more widely. Our personal integrity, our love for others and our love for God compel us to speak only truth, even if it is uncomfortable truth. However, those same forces should compel us to speak the truth in love as to audience, manner, intent and timing.

None shows us this better than Jesus. His dealings with people show a consistent combination of love and truth. Let us do the same and thus show ourselves to be children of he who came to bring ‘grace and truth’ from God (Jn 1:14).

MAKING ATTRIBUTIONS

2010-02-25T01:54:00.000-08:00

Do you know this experience? You say or do something. Someone talks about your motives or purposes and you hear of their views. As you see it, they are wide of the mark, but then they and others go ahead to act and react on the basis of their mistaken ideas. Or, perhaps you are the one doing the talking about other’s motives and purposes.

It’s common to make attributions about the motives and purposes of others based on our ‘reading’ of their actions. However, do we test our attributions by with the person concerned? It’s surely their right to first tell us what their motives etc were. An untested attribution may be wide of the mark and quite dangerous when we act on it.

How do we feel when people make untested and wrong attributions about us? Most of us are annoyed – and rightly so. We wish the person had come to ask questions and listen to us before making their attributions.

Now let’s apply this to God. We sometimes use phrases like this: I can’t believe in a God who …. ; or, I know what the Bible says, but I think... . Do you see what we are doing? We are taking our ideas of God and attributing them back to him. Ultimately this is the idolatry of us making God after our own image instead of him making us after his own image (Gen 1:26-27).

Like all misattributions, this is insulting to the one of whom it is made and dangerous to the one making it. It also misreads God’s nature. God revealed himself to Moses by a Hebrew name YHWH which we render as ‘Yahweh’; ‘LORD’ or even ‘Jehovah’. It means ‘I am what I am’ (Ex 3:14). We don’t define God with our attributions, but he defines himself in his works and his words.

Do you notice something else about the attributions we make to God? We generally emphasise one aspect or another of God’s character and omit others. By contrast, God defines himself with multiple aspects that complement each other. For example, consider these words:

The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but i who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” (Ex 34:6-7)

Let’s stop making untested attributions about other people and especially about God. Let’s instead listen as God tells us who he is and relate to him on his terms.

A prayer

2010-02-21T01:30:00.000-08:00

Ascribe to me glory and strength.
Ascribe to me the glory due to God’s name;
Worship the splendor of my achievements, look at my face in the mirror – it is the face of beauty, success and self rule! I am in charge!

Forgive us, O Lord, for trying to usurp your throne, everyday. In words we say you are God, but in deeds, we prove we are God, until trouble comes.

You are Lord over all creation and life. Forgive us for inverting it all: Forgetting your power and authority, we seek to bend your will to ours.

You are our King. We exist for your glory and pleasure. But, we treat you as our subject. We call you when we need you. But have little time for your word, your presence and your voice otherwise. Forgive us.

You are the righteous judge. But we take it upon ourselves to judge others. Forgive us. Remind us that You will judge, and all will be called to account.

Thank you Father, for tempering your righteousness and power with mercy and love, so we are not destroyed for our impertinence.

Thank you that Jesus made amends for our sins once and for all, and now continues to intercede for us at your right hand.

Soften our hearts O God.

We know that nothing can be hidden from you, and your word discern the thoughts and intentions of our hearts.

Teach us to give you the honour and glory due to your name.

Remind us that man made idols are destroyed at your whim. Help us to treat you with proper reverence as our only God, and to fear your wrath.
Humble us to bow daily before you with contrite hearts and spirits.
Teach us to worship you by reading your word often, confessing our sins, and showing genuine repentance. Convict our hearts to see the hidden sins that grieve you. Strengthen us to move beyond lip service, to make a willed decision to change and obey you.
Help us to make time to rest in you. Satisfy us with holiness and joy. Quell our restlessness that we may hear your voice and receive your blessings.
Keep our eyes on the cross of Jesus and help us to number our days a right, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Show us how to love what you love, that our lives may be a fragrant offering to you.

Grant us strength and peace as we live in confidence of your salvation promise. Help us to persevere in faith and fruitfulness that we may make our place in heaven sure.

(Prayed at ORPC on 21 Feb 2010 - based on Ps 96)

The Gambling Game

2010-02-17T19:58:00.000-08:00

It is common for people to gamble and Singapore has plenty of opportunities. Offshore gambling cruises, Genting bus tours, card games, lucky draws, and now casinos are all available.

The nation’s churches, with other local religious and community groups, have been vocal in opposing further gambling facilities. Why? After all gambling creates employment, attracts foreign exchange, stimulates expenditure and swells tax revenue.

Christian opposition is not because we are killjoys who take pleasure in denying others their pleasure. Rather, it is based on love of neighbour and of God.

Firstly, love of neighbour.
• Profit without honour. Gambling is not a charity but a highly profitable business. The operators win and gamblers lose. Unlike other providers of goods and services, there’s no real benefit to most gamblers.
• Individuals suffer. Gambling is addictive to some whose lives slip into a downward spiral of desperate measure to get yet more money to play, hoping against hope that the next roll of the dice is their big win. Further, gambling fosters irresponsibility, with it’s promise of wealth without work.
• Families suffer. Many a mother and children sit at home in relative poverty while dad goes out yet again to gamble. Then they feel dad’s rage when he comes home; again a loser and again looking to vent anger.
• Social sleaze. Gambling attracts prostitution, drugs, loan sharks etc. Sophisticated gambling attracts sophisticated sleaze, but its still sleaze.

It’s good to see local measures to head off some of these ill-effects by regulative controls. However, the regular arrests for gambling-related vices reinforce the problem. Gambling fosters social harms from which we need protection. Why allow it in the first place?

Secondly, love of God.
• Gambling treats life as random or subject to superstitious fate. The Bible teaches that the world is ordered under the hand of its creator-Lord (eg Eph 1:11). Gambling insults God’s providence.
• Gambling is a false and cruel god. The adrenalin rush of high expectations and the ‘buzz’ that go with gambling can be an empty ‘hebel’ that distracts us from seeing our need of God. (Eccles 2:10-11).

Let’s stay away from gambling ourselves and encourage others to do the same. Love of God and neighbour bids us say ‘no thanks’.

New Year, Old Person

2010-02-10T22:50:00.001-08:00

A quick search shows more than 12 different start dates for the new year among different groups of people. Think of that – 12 plus annual chances for a fresh start with new resolutions, new hopes and new plans.

However, it’s not that easy. We may spruce up our homes, buy new clothes, start a new diary but one thing remains the same. That’s us. And there’s the problem. It’s the same old person under the new clothes.

My recent reading includes a book called The Consolations of Philosophy. It’s a well-written book that harvests the thoughts of some ancient and modern western philosophers as they offer wisdom on various life issues. There’s much that makes sense in this advice. It also fits well with the tao that we find in eastern thought and with the wisdom literature of Biblical books like Ecclesiastes and Proverbs.

However, all this wisdom literature has the same problem of our new year clothes. It lacks power to effect change within and to enable people to do the things that the way of wisdom commends.

The apostle Paul ran up against this problem. In Colossae there were people who sought to harness ancient and modern wisdom to produce rules that would enable people to be lifted up to a higher plane. But the rules were impotent, for they could give the direction of change but not the power for change (Col 2:23).

The power for change lies in reconnecting to God through faith in Jesus. That produces so dramatic a change that it can be described as death and resurrection (Col 2:13; 3:1). There’s now scope for a new focus on things from the realm of God rather than grovelling in the lower and worst elements of fallen humanity (Col 3:1-2).

Paul uses the imagery of new clothes to explain what this change means.
Christian believers can be told to take off a range of old behaviours because their old self has been discarded and we are being renewed in our creational likeness to God (Col 3:9,10). This results in the ‘new clothing’ of changed behaviours such as compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience (Col 3:12). Not surprisingly, this also opens up whole new possibilities for relationships across the normal lines of human division (Col 3:11).

It really doesn’t matter when we celebrate the new year or how often. However, it really does matter that we become new people by connecting to God through faith in his Son Jesus.

SON-LIGHT OR LUNAR-SHADOW?

2010-02-03T23:15:00.001-08:00

Lunar calendars have been used in the past and are now still used. For some, a lunar calendar is merely a different way of measuring time.

For others, a lunar calendar has deeper significance. This is found in pre-Christian Celtic religion, in some traditional societies and in some forms of contemporary paganism. This sometimes has a very dark side, with the moon’s shadows contrasted with the sun’s brightness and the moon’s hours seen as the time when evil reigns. We catch a glimpse of this in Ps 121: the sun will not harm you by day nor the moon by night (v6). The sun’s harm is through heat, but the moon’s harm is that of spiritual evil. The old word ‘lunatic’ (for a person with a mental illness) also reflects the idea of the moon as a source of dark forces.

For others again, the motion of the heavenly bodies is seen to rule affairs on earth. Hence the fortune tellers who consult almanacs based on planetary positions at our birth or people who rely on the zodiac-based horoscopes for day-to-day predictions. It’s a fun exercise to compare several horoscopes for ourselves on the same day and laugh at the ‘gaps’. I did that when writing this minister’s message and wait for the various and contradictory predictions to be fulfilled.

The Christian Scriptures point us in elsewhere. Our individual lives and the world’s history are not ruled by bad lunar forces or by the mechanical motions of heavenly bodies. The heavenly bodies do not make history, but were made in history by the creator-God (Gen 2:14-19). This creator-God is also the Lord-God who moves all things according to his purposes (Eph 1:11). John Calvin summarises these Bible truths in his quip that it is not the stars that rule, but God who made them.

God’s world is not planetary and mechanical. Instead it is personal and relational, just like the Lord himself. As Paul reminds us, God’s fullness is seen in the person of God’s Son, Jesus Christ (Col 2:9). He is the person where all wisdom and knowledge is found (Col 2:3). Not only that, but he is the personal reality against which all human religious traditions are but fleeting shadows (Col 2:17). He is the power of God for life and the one in whom the body of God’s people grows (Col 2:11-12,19).

Let us therefore not submit to the rule of the moon, the stars or other planetary bodies. Nor let us be fearful of their influence as determinative of our fate and thus approach the new lunar year with uncertainty. Let us instead leave the lunar shadow for the Son-light of Jesus. Our help is above the hills, sun, moon and stars – it is in the Lord who is the maker of heaven and earth (Ps 121:2).

When love is not enough

2010-01-27T21:24:00.001-08:00

A lady was almost ready to convert to Christianity after an outreach service. She asked if becoming a Christian meant giving up her existing faith. The answer was ‘yes’. This stopped her in her tracks and her conversion was delayed. When she did become a Christian her testimony was clear. She cited the first commandment (You shall have no other gods besides me) and has never looked back or looked elsewhere.

God calls people to love him. All else flows from that. Our services of worship, our acts of obedience and our giving of time, talent and treasure are all expressions of that underlying love. The call to love God was powerfully stated well before Jesus and also by him (eg Dt 6:4-5; Mrk 12:28-30).

Note, however, that it is not enough just to love God. He wants us to love him with all of all that we are.

We are to love God with all that we are. Thus Deuteronomy speaks of loving God with heart, soul and strength. Jesus adds ‘mind’, thus clarifying the meaning to people with a Greek background. The point here is that the whole person is involved in love of God. It is not just an inward matter to love God (heart, soul, mind) nor a purely outward matter (strength). God made us as whole and unified people and every aspect of our being is called to love him.

Further, we are to love God with all of all that we are. All our heart, soul, mind and strength is to be devoted to God. And this is why God insists that we have no other gods before or even besides him (Ex 20:3). In this sense, a choice for the Lord becomes a choice against every other deity, whether the gods of other faiths or the secular gods of family, possessions, pleasure, ambition and such like.

Of course we all have other loves besides the Lord. Family is an obvious one. However, the point is that these other loves are to be within and subordinate to our love for the Lord. If he is not loved before all else, he is not loved at all.

Those who are not yet believers need to be like the lady mentioned above. The Lord is not to be loved alongside other gods but in place of them. Those of us who are believers need to regularly examine ourselves to ensure that no other loves threaten our devotion to the Lord.

Finally, note that loving the Lord with all of all we are, is nothing more than a response to his great love (Ex 20:2; 1 Jn 4:10). Our love to him is but an echo of his love for us in the Lord Jesus.