Human & Divine

The inhuman rape and murder of the Indian medical student and the senseless massacre of innocent children in the Sandy Hooks Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut are grim reminders of the depravity inherent in our human nature. The sex scandals that rocked our tiny nation this year are but a reflection of how important our sexual desires can be. But before we cast the first stone we need to recognise that there is both a saint and a devil in each one of us.

As human beings we are all living in the prisons of our fears, anger, guilt, greed, lust and pride. We are not living the life that God wants us to live but we are living in the fallen world with quiet and resigned desperation. It is so easy to miss the real message of the Advent season – a time to remember and celebrate how Jesus came into the world to help us understand our human nature and to fulfill God’s promise that we can be both human and divine and be freed from the corruption of our sinful desires. The good news is that God’s divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour (2 Peter 1:2-3).

Jesus came to fulfill the prophecy in Isaiah 61:1-2 which he proclaimed at the beginning of his ministry in Nazareth:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favour has come.” (Luke 4:18-19)

The best and most wonderful gift of God is the gift of the Holy Spirit. But like our Christmas gifts, we tend to focus on the gifts rather than the Giver. We forget that the Holy Spirit is given to us, not to ensure that we will have health and wealth, but to search our hearts and to test us - so that we can understand our anxious thoughts and recognize anything that is offensive to God in our lives (Psalm 139:23-24).

We have been set free from the prison of our egos but that does not mean everything is permissible for us. We have been set free from our sinful nature so that our divine nature may grow in and through the power of the Holy Spirit. The good news of Christmas is the revelation of the spark of divinity that is present in our humanity. We are to remember that it only takes a spark to get a fire going. Instead of allowing our tongues to set our lives on fire we can seek to make our hearts an altar for God’s fire of love so that our lives will be a living sacrifice of praise to Him.

As we enter into a brand new year, let us use God’s gift of the Holy Spirit to delight in His Word and to turn our prayers into times of joy and wonder as we rest in His unfailing love and grace. Let us seek our Lord by feeding on the written Word to develop our divine nature which Christ came to give us. Let us surrender our sinful desires to the Lord through the spirit of repentance so that we may live out the wonderful truth of Psalm 37:4 in the new year of 2013:

“Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

May the Lord fill our hearts with the love of God and our minds with the hope of our inheritance as children of God to that we will grow to be more humane and more divine in the New Year. (Romans 5:5, 8:23-25)

When Up There Came Down Here

Christmas is a time of love, joy and peace – a time when we celebrate the greatest news of all time that Love came down from heaven to earth. But this good news in 2012 is marred by the tragic and senseless massacre of 20 children and 6 adults at Newtown's Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, USA. It is a grim reminder of the reality of evil. It brings to mind the slaughter of all boys two years old and younger in Bethlehem by King Herod on the first Christmas more than two thousand years ago.

In such times it may be very difficult to proclaim "Joy to the world! The Lord has come!" Some may wonder where is God in all this. But this is the greatest mystery that we share with the world – that God came down from heaven to transform the hellish conditions of our earth. The message of Christmas is that through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we can experience the reality of God with us.

Jesus taught us to pray for God's Kingdom to come, for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. He died on the cross to answer his prayer that God's will be done. He came to show us how to make the world a better place by bringing a piece of heaven down to earth. Christmas is a time when we celebrate the greatest and most wonderful news of “When Up There Came Down Here.” When we truly have God with us, what more do we want or need?

The world celebrates Christmas with songs wishing one another a Merry Christmas. But the Christmas carols reminds us of a deeper spiritual reality of a silent and holy night; of the stillness that we need in order to experience the wonder of Christmas; of sharing our joy with the world for our Lord has come; and to tune our hearts and minds to the angelic voices in the heavenly realm.

In the Upper Room Daily Reflection on 22^nd December 2012, Beth A. Richardson shares the following insight:

“GOD COMES to the woman who feels in exile in her own marriage, for the man who grieves the loss of life dreams.

God comes to the child who lives on the street, for the parents who struggle to feed and clothe their children.

God comes to the one whose loneliness or depression intensifies every Christmas. …

Emmanuel – God-with-Us – is coming to us, to meet us wherever we are – happy or sad, joyous or grieving. God comes to stand with us, whatever our condition. And we thank God for that promised gift of presence.”

The bad news we read every day is that the world is in a mess with an unpredictable future. Our hearts are filled with fear for what the future holds. But the good news is that perfect Love will cast out all fear. Jesus came to open the way for us to draw close to God as our Heavenly Father – to relate to Him out of love rather than out of fear. A secular writer made the following observation:

"Every moment of your life, you are offered the opportunity to choose - love or fear - to tread the earth, or to soar the heavens. Fear would walk you on a narrow path, promising to take you where you want to go. Love says, 'Open your arms and fly with me.'＂

Because of Christmas, we can choose love over fear. We can live by faith that God is with us because of the birth of Jesus Christ some two thousand years ago. What is more important is how this Christmas will make a difference to the rest of our lives in the years to come.

May this Christmas awaken us to look for God's movement in the world. Let us pray that each one of us will be a part of God's work in redeeming the world. Let us reflect this Christmas on what it means to live a life of compassion so that we can bring love, joy and peace to those who are suffering and in need of God's agape love.

Where Have All Our Morals Gone?

Where have all our morals gone? High flyers straying!

Where have all our morals gone? So many lusting.

Where have all our morals gone? Something is missing!

When will we ever learn? When will we ever learn?

The year 2012 has been described as "a year of lust." Singaporeans have been entertained with R rated news this year with the juicy sex scandals involving a MP, high ranking civil servants, teachers and sadly, most recently, even our Speaker of Parliament. This is not a time for self -righteous condemnation but a time for deep reflection and self-examination for all Singaporeans. It is a time to recognise that we may be living in material prosperity but there is a famine of true love in our nation. We are in a deep spiritual poverty. It is time to understand that we need more than meritocracy in our nation – we need the spirit of compassion.

The loss of honour, status and power by those involved is heart-breaking, not only for those involved, but also for their families, friends, colleagues and even our nation at large. It is the price they have to pay for their indiscretion. We cannot condone their actions and turn their fall from grace into a badge of honour. It is foolish to think that one’s conduct in one’s personal affairs will not have an impact on one’s public service.  If one is not trustworthy in the little things of one’s personal life, how can one be trusted with the bigger responsibilities of public office?

It is critical to recognise the reality of evil forces that seek to deprive us of the goodness of life. This is the message of movies such as the Star Wars, Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings. In our common humanity, we all desire pleasure and seek to avoid suffering. Those who fear suffering and death will seek comfort and solace from religion. But those who have been through suffering and who have to face death often find themselves, together with their families and friends on the narrow path of spirituality. This is the journey to live beyond ourselves and to recognise and relate to a transcendent Higher Power.

Viktor Frankl noted that the world is in a bad state, but everything will become worse unless each of us do our best. But more important than doing our best, is being our best. We can make the world a better place not by what we do or achieved but by who we have become. The most important and meaningful goal of life is to be a channel of love to those around us. Barbara De Angelis has described Love as the magician of the Universe. She noted that “love infuses life with meaning. It performs magic and miracles. It brings light where there is darkness and hope where there was despair. It is our greatest teacher and most constant blessing.”

The good news of the Christmas season is that Love came down at Christmas. But to receive the gift of the real and unconditional Love that so many of us are yearning for, we need the spirit of repentance. There has been much talk about honesty, transparency and governance. What is perhaps lacking is a spirit of repentance in our nation. This is not a feeling of remorse but a coming to our senses. It is sad that many confuse the counterfeits of love with true and unconditional Love – the Love that does not seek to get what it can from others but to give what it can to others, the Love that seeks the welfare of others even at the cost of one’s own.

The fruit of the spirit of repentance will then be seen in our increased sensitivity to the needs of others, a commitment to justice and equality and a responsible use of power. We will be set free from a culture of blame. We will be empowered to live in a culture of gratitude and forgiveness which will make it safe for anyone to confess their greed, lust, pride and other failings that keep them from living a life of love, joy and peace.

True love is more than a feeling. It is the power that overcomes our fears and gives us strength in times of adversity. Christmas is more than a season of merrymaking and parties. May the problems of our messy world drive us to find the true meaning of Christmas. As the following Christmas carol reminds us:

Christmas isn't Christmas, till it happens in your heart.

Somewhere deep inside you is where Christmas really starts

So give your heart to Jesus and you’ll find that it is really true,

That it’s Christmas, really Christmas, for you.

The Message Of The Cross

In the times before Martin Luther, the early Christians did not have the printed bible. In our modern age, we not only have the printed bible but we can have so many versions of the bible on our smartphones, tablets and computers. We have such easy and complete access to God's truth. We have God's written Word in our hands. We may memorize verses and keep them in our heads.  But it is an exercise in futility if God’s written and spoken Word does not become a Living Word in our hearts and transform us from inside out. Our problem is not that we don't know the truth - it is that we are not living out the truth. We forget that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

As Christians we profess and preach about agape love but so often we do not practice compassion. Our society is materially rich but we have a famine of love. Jesus gave us a new commandment to love one another as He has loved us. It is a love that comes from Him and is unlimited unlike our human love which is limited. It is only with the love of Christ that we can treat others with compassion and to love ourselves even with our imperfections.

The prophet Jeremiah gave us the following promise of God:

“I will put my teachings inside them, and I will write those teachings on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will each person teach their neighbours  or his relatives by saying, ‘Know the Lord.’ All of them, from the least important, will know me, declares the Lord, “because I will forgive their wickedness and I will no longer hold their sins against them.” (Jeremiah 31:33-34)

Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead to fulfill the above promise. He opened the door for us to have a living relationship with our Heavenly Father so that He may reveal His Truth and Love for us. Jesus came to set us free from authoritarian leadership and to empower us to live authoritative lives that are rooted in His Love. Jesus was crucified by the Pharisees who saw him as a threat to their authoritarian leadership.

Unfortunately, we tend to make the bible our god instead of using it as God’s instrument to draw us to repentance so that we will come to our senses and return home to Him. We add the bible to the work of God instead of letting the bible draw us to the grace of God and awaken us to our self-centeredness and our need for transformation. We use the bible to judge others instead of using it to share the good news of God’s Love.

The message of the cross is not a call to suffering but a promise that we can find joy in suffering because we have Christ in us. The bible is to help us to declare the praise of God and to trust Him for anything. The bible is to remind us to thank God in everything. It is through trust and thanksgiving that our hearts will be filled with the steadfast love of God. We will then be set free from the fear of death and suffering so that we can worship God in spirit and in truth in all circumstances.

The message of the cross is to bring us to God’s throne of grace so that we can hear God speaking to us through His written Word.  Prayer will then become the breath of our life and our life will be our prayer.  We will not study the bible as worldly Christians to seek knowledge and spiritual power. But as the children of God, we will read and reflect on the bible as God’s Love Letter to us – to search for a promise to cherish, a commandment to obey, a warning to heed, a temptation to avoid, a sin to confess or a nugget of wisdom to share. As we do so, we will be led to Christ who is our Living Word, our Light that shines in the dark times of our lives, our Provider in times of need, a Shelter from the storms of life, our King as we live in this fallen world, our Defender in our battle against evil and the Saviour and Lover of our souls. 

Spiritual Depression - A Deficiency of Joyful Moments

We are living in depressing times. The world is in a mess and the future appears bleak and uncertain. We try to deny or bury our sorrows and we end up becoming addicted to things, pleasure, and other hedonistic pursuits. Such addictions provide us with temporary relief but leave our hearts empty and only increase our desire for more satisfaction.  We are living in a rat race and behaving more like rats and we wonder why we are not happy in spite of all the material gains we have made.

We have made money our god – we measure our success by how much we have or achieved. We pursue happiness by getting things or people or activities to fill our lives.  We read news reports about “top-earning dead celebrities” – Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley have been named by Forbes as the richest dead celebrities!

Unfortunately, we are blind to the truth that many of the celebrities do not have happy lives.  We fail to see that money, fame and pleasure are the very things that can become robbers of our joy.  We spend our lives pursuing happiness and end up with frustration and despair when death reminds us of non being, non doing and no where. 

Barbara De Angelis, a secular writer, has described the phenomenon of “real moments deficiency” as the cause of our being deficient in peace, contentment and joy.  We are in fact suffering from a deficiency of joyful moments which results in spiritual depression. Jesus came to bring joy to the world. When we receive Christ as our Saviour, we have the joy of salvation and the wonderful promise of an intimate relationship with God as our Heavenly Father.

In his testimony in November last year, Dr.  Richard Teo who died recently shared the following:

“True joy I discovered comes from interaction. Over the last few months I
was so down. Interaction with my loved ones, my friends, my brothers in
Christ, my sisters in Christ, and only then was I able to be motivated,
able to be uplifted. To share your sorrow, to share your happiness – that’s
true joy.”

It is sad that so often it is only when we are faced with a terminal illness that we discover what true joy is. How simple life becomes when we pay attention to the joyful moments that God sends into our lives when we enjoy the wonders of God’s creation and the loving encounters with our loved ones. Our task is to become more aware of the things that rob us of joy – when we live our lives through the lives of others, when we are judgmental and critical, or when we are too busy with pleasing others instead of being true to ourselves.

It is inevitable that we will have spiritual depression when we are slaves of money in our materialistic world.  The prescription for spiritual depression is to understand the truth that God sent His Son Jesus Christ to deliver us from the “Egypts” of our lives. Only then can we pray for God to take our lives and make them the instruments of His love and grace. As we do so, our moments and our days will flow in ceaseless praise to God.

Spiritual Amnesia

After the Jews were delivered from their slavery in Egypt, they were warned of the danger of forgetting God when they enter the Promised Land. We read in Deuteronomy 8:11-14, 17-18:

"But that is the time to be careful! Beware that in your plenty you do not forget the Lord your God and disobey his commands, regulations, and decrees that I am giving you today. For when you have become full and prosperous and have built fine homes to live in, and when your flocks and herds have become very large and your silver and gold have multiplied along with everything else, be careful! Do not become proud at that time and forget the Lord your God, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt…..

He did all this so you would never say to yourself, "I have achieved this wealth with my own strength and energy." Remember the Lord your God. He is the one who gives you power to be successful, in order to fulfill the covenant he confirmed to your ancestors with an oath."

The story of the exodus of the Jews from their slavery in Egypt is a graphic description of our own spiritual journey. God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to set us free from slavery to greed, pride and the fear of death. But in our materialistic and successful world, we have forgotten God - we are suffering from spiritual amnesia. St Paul has described our human condition as follows in his letter to the Romans in Chapter 1 verses 21-24:

"Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn't worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles. So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired."

We have forgotten that we are but creatures endowed with the special ability to create and not the Creator of our amazing and wonderful world. We have lost the original simplicity of man.  We need to reflect on the five enemies of true life described by Chuang Tzu:

"Love of colors bewilders the eye

And it fails to see right.

Love of harmonies bewitches the ear

And it loses its true hearing.

Love of perfumes

Fills the head with dizziness.

Love of flavors

Ruins the taste.

Desires unsettle the heart

Until the original nature runs amok.

These five are the enemies of true life.

Yet these are what "men of discernment" claim to live for.

They are not what I live for:

If this if life, then pigeons in a cage

Have found happiness!"

We have been brainwashed and corrupted by our consumeristic society that success and happiness comes from satisfying our five senses. In fact it is only when our five senses are directed towards the appreciation and awe of God's creation that we will find love, joy and peace.

The cure for spiritual amnesia is to recall what Jesus has done for us on the cross – to restore our identity as the children of God so that we can pray, Our Father Who is in Heaven.  As we do so, we will return to our Heavenly Father just as the prodigal son did when he came to his senses (Luke 15:17).  Without repentance, we cannot receive the salvation that God has given us in Jesus Christ.  But when we receive God’s gift of salvation, we will rekindle the fire of Love in our hearts.

Without the love of God, our pursuit of sanctification will lead to arrogance. Without the love of God our acts of sacrifice will only give birth to bitterness. Without the love of God, our service to and for others will become burdensome chores. Without the love of God, we turn scripture into our god and we fail to seek and obey the God of the bible.

We  need to pay attention to the Presence of God around us so that we will enjoy the beauty of God’s creation and to our listening ears, “all nature sings and around me rings the music of the spheres.” As we learn to live by the Holy Spirit we will become more aware of His activity working through and amongst us. Let us cultivate the discipline of silence and solitude so that we will abide in Christ and reap the fruit of a life that is totally surrendered to His Lordship and a mind cured of spiritual amnesia.

Reprogramming Our Minds To Change The World

”Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.” (Romans 12:2)

"The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven" wrote John Milton. This echoes the truth of Romans 12:2 which highlights the importance of letting God transform our lives by reprogramming our minds. There is a tremendous power of Love that is in each one of us. All of us have the potential to change the world. We don't need unusual training or ability to change the world.  All that is required, according to Matthew Barnett, is "a heart that cares, a mind that’s determined, a spirit that’s willing, a cause that matters, and a person to help."

What we need is a radical change in mindset to recognise and understand the critical difference between happiness and joy. Happiness is a transient feeling of pleasure that depends on our external circumstances. Happiness has been described as the “unseen dollar” and is increasingly seen as an important factor for the health, well being and progress of the people.

Bhutan is seen as the “poster child for happiness” but many Western journalists fail to recognize and understand the underlying spiritual foundation of happiness in that country. Joy is an inner state of being that we can experience even in pain, suffering and sorrow. We can try to find happiness in hedonistic pursuits but we can only receive joy for it is a gift. In fact, it is through pain, suffering and sorrow that we often receive the gift of joy.  In a world that is increasingly becoming hungry for money, the people are experiencing a famine of joy,

Happiness is when our desires and wants are met but joy comes through what we have given of ourselves to others. When we pursue happiness, our energies are spent on earning external and materialistic rewards for ourselves. When we seek joy we embark on a journey to discover the potential for love that is within each of us. As we become channels of God's love, we receive the inner rewards of joy, hope and peace. The gurus of the world promises us many ways to find happiness but Jesus Christ came to bring joy to the world. Hence we sing the Christmas carol:

“Joy to the world! the Lord is come.

  Let earth receive her King.

  Let every heart prepare Him room,

  And heaven and nature sing”

We may experience happiness in this world but we can only find joy in the Kingdom of God. Our struggle is to live in both the world and in God’s Kingdom. But the good news is that when we confess Jesus as the Son of God, we have God living in us and we live in God (1 John 4:15). How then are we living out this good news?

Unfortunately, many of us Christians often end up becoming Pharisees who “crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden." (Matthew 23:4) We read the bible and focus on the rules on how to please God instead of reading God’s love messages to us so that we will be witnesses of the reality of having Christ in us and sharing the love of Christ with others.

In her devotional, Jesus Calling, Sarah Young makes the very important observation that when we feel driven to serve God we may see Him as a harsh taskmaster instead of a loving Heavenly Father. 

We often forget that God is sovereign and that His ways are higher than ours.  Our love for God becomes lukewarm and we lose our desire for His loving Presence. 

The worldly attitude of seeking happiness will lead us to lose our love for God. It is only when God is our first love that we will filled with His goodness and find the blessed assurance of the inexpressible joy of being lost in the wonder of God’s love. Before we can change our feelings, we need to change our behaviours. To change our behaviours, we need to change our thought patterns. And to change our thought patterns we need to change our beliefs. Psalm 13:5-6 gives us the secret recipe to cope with the times when God seems far away:

“But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.

  I will sing the Lord’s praise, for He has been good to me.”

When we are born of the Spirit and truly believe that we are the children of God, we will learn to trust God when we face the storms of life. As we put our trust in God, we will change our responses to negative circumstances in our lives from complaining to thanksgiving. And when we are filled with thanksgiving, we will be filled with joy.

The hymn, We’ve A Story To Tell To The Nations, spells out our calling to change the world by sharing the message of God’s love through the story of our lives. Our lives are to be the songs of God’s love that will conquer evil and to lift up the cross of Christ. When we do so, all the world’s great people will come to know the wonderful truth of God’s Kingdom of peace and light. We have the potential to change our world but it all begins with the inner journey into our own hearts. May our Lord reprogram our hearts so that we can sing:

“For the darkness shall turn to dawning and the dawning to noon day bright

  And Christ’s great Kingdom shall come on earth, the Kingdom of love and light.

The Adventure of Discipleship

Discipleship is not the boring and joyless burden of bible study, prayer and attending church services until we are called home to heaven and fighting the temptation to find happiness and pleasure in the ways of the world.  It is the exciting journey of being in communication with our Heavenly Father - it is the abundant life filled with unspeakable joy and the peace that is beyond human understanding.

The good news of salvation is not only that we will go to heaven when we die but that we can live in heaven here on earth even when it feels like it is hell at times. Jesus died a horrible death on the cross to give us the power to overcome our fear of death and suffering. This is graphically described to us in Hebrews 11:34-40

“But others were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be set free. They placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection. Some were jeered at, and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in prisons. Some died by stoning, some were sawed in half, and others were killed with the sword. Some went about wearing skins of sheep and goats, destitute and oppressed and mistreated. They were too good for this world, wandering over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground.

All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised. For God had something better in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection without us.”

We owe a huge debt to these heroes of faith for showing us that the gospel is not about having a good life of happiness health and wealth here on earth but about bringing God’s Kingdom of Love, Joy and Peace from heaven to earth. To follow Jesus is to learn to live fully in God’s presence trusting that the God who gives us life is in the midst of all that life throws at us. We are called to be living witnesses of God’s power and love by putting all our trust in Christ.¹

But all of us are imperfect creatures who are being made perfect in love. Each of us is empowered to live in the presence of God by the power of the Holy Spirit through our faith in Jesus Christ. And through our example of faith we are to lead others to be similarly empowered.

Each of us is the greatest miracle for we are the children of God with the power of love to heal the world. The problem is that we tend to be the mirrors of one another’s fears, anger, greed, lust and doubts instead of being the windows of God’s love, mercy and grace. We are comfortable to remain children of God instead of growing up to become soldiers of Christ in the spiritual warfare raging around us.

Let us encourage one another to develop the full potential of God’s love in each of us and to refrain from criticizing, comparing or competing with one another. There cannot be any sibling rivalry in God’s family. Each one of us has a special and unique relationship with our Heavenly Father. We will all experience God’s love differently and in different ways. Let us cultivate the joy of sharing stories of our adventure of faith as we follow Jesus Christ our Shepherd of Love.

References:

1. Matthew Charlton, Upper Room Reflections, 22^nd May 2012

i-Problems & i-Prayer

Life is often punctuated with intrusions by death, interruptions by ill health, and irritation by difficult people. Such i-Problems are stressful but we have the choice to turn them into ideal opportunities to develop new insights and to see them as invitations to pray and draw closer to God.

Over the past two weeks I attended five funeral wakes - a patient, two old friends, the mother of a close friend, and my uncle. It was a time for deep reflection on the meaning of life as well as a time in which I experienced the truth that in praying for everything we do not need to worry about anything.

In our grief we can mourn and rejoice in the Lord at the same time. We cannot rejoice at the death of our loved ones but we can rejoice because of Christ's promise that He is with us always - especially in times like these. As we do so, we can find joy in the midst of sorrow.

My late uncle had shown me over the past few months, that "no life is so hard that one can't make easier by the way one accepts it."  He was not religious but his life was filled with contentment and a quiet joy even in the midst of his suffering. Through his life and death, God showed me the truth that His steadfast love never ceases and His mercies never come to an end.

It has been said that suffering is inevitable but misery is optional. Many see the Christian life as a burden rather than a joy. We try to please God by own human efforts instead of living the life of peace with God by the power of the Holy Spirit.

We struggle to enjoy life instead of finding the joy of discovering the love that God has filled our lives with. We want to know the answers to the problems of life instead of learning to live out the questions that life presents to us.

The psalmist expresses in Psalm 89:47-48, the feeling that many of us share:

“Remember how fleeting is my life. For what futility you have created all humanity!

Who can live and not see death, or who can escape the power of the grave?”

Og Mandino when he was stricken with prostate cancer, found that one must learn how to die in order to teach others how to live. He drew attention to the importance of our attitude as the deciding factor between suffering hell or enjoying heaven here on earth. We can choose to let our i-Problems conquer us or we can overcome these i-Problems with i-Prayer by rejoicing in the Lord and giving thanks in all circumstances.

G.O.A.T. OR S.H.E.E.P.

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”   Ephesians 2:10

It is encouraging that our Prime Minister has called for a National Conversation to chart the future of our tiny nation, Singapore. Indeed, we stand at a very critical time of history. The winds of change are blowing and our choices will determine whether Singapore becomes a cancerous red dot that is doomed for destruction or a bright shining red dot which is a beacon of light in a dark world of greed, lust and pride.

But what is critically needed in Singapore is not a National Conversation but a nation that is in conversation with our Creator. Towards this end, Christians have the awesome responsibility to become citizens of prayer. For our calling is to be faithful witnesses of the truth that we are the children of God. Not only are we fearfully and wonderfully made but we are God’s masterpieces, new creations in Jesus Christ, created for good works. We are called to be ambassadors of God's Kingdom. We are the imperfect instruments of God's perfect will through the power of the Holy Spirit so that peace will come on earth.

We need a spiritual revival so that we will not seek to become G.O.A.T. – the Greatest Of All Time, but we will become people who are S.H.E.E.P. – Seeing Heaven Everyday in Every Person. When we die, what will count is the love we have sown in the hearts of others rather than the achievements we have attained.  Recently I attended the funeral wake of a 96 year old lady and was touched by the testimonies of her grandchildren and great grandchildren of the love she had given them. It was a love that flowed from her faith in Jesus Christ. She left them with a wonderful testimony of God’s providential care for her and the family.

Og Mandino, who has been described as a most widely read and inspirational and self help author in the world, made the following observation in one of his books:

“If all our lives are truly plans of God, someone had better call a meeting soon to remind us, once more, what great miracles we really are.”

Indeed, the most wonderful secret is that there is a miracle in all of us – Christ in us, our hope of glory (Colossians 1:27). The problem is that we tend to focus on our pain, suffering, failures and defeats rather than the opportunities to grow in our knowledge of God and His perfect plans for our lives in such times. 

We are all looking for answers outside of ourselves instead of cultivating the spiritual disciplines to help us increase our awareness of the presence of the Living Christ in our hearts. It is through the disciplines of devotional reading of the bible, prayer and meditation that we can learn to die to self so that we can be filled with the love of God. We need to cultivate these good habits to overcome the bad habits of consumerism, materialism and elitism.

The greatest miracle is not what we can achieve in our lives but what God is doing in our lives each day.  The writer in the Upper Room devotional on 2^nd September 2012 reminds us that “living for God’s purposes makes us holy, and we are all special in our own ways. God created each of us different, for a unique purpose.”

So let us encourage one another to be S.H.E.E.P. – Seeing Heaven Everyday in Every Person.

The Apple and the Cross

We live in a world that is obsessed and addicted to knowledge. We are feeding from the Tree of Knowledge and becoming spiritually malnourished. In her book, The Four Levels of Healing, Shakti Gawan described spiritual emptiness as the root cause of most of our social, political and environmental crises. When we lose contact with our Creator, we become alienated from one another and from the beautiful world that God has created. We pollute, overconsume and destroy the natural resources God has given us. The story of Adam and Eve is a picture of our human condition – like Adam we are alienated and afraid of God. We hide from God and need to hear God calling out to us, “Where are you?”

We are in need of spiritual healing for we are spiritually dead. In Christ, God has invited us to return to the Tree of Life and to feed our souls with the Living Bread so that we can begin a new life through a loving relationship with Him. We have been reborn again in Christ and we are to grow into the likeness of Christ. Unfortunately, many of us may have begun a new life only to remain in spiritual infancy as we seek only spiritual milk instead of solid spiritual food (Hebrews 5:11-14).

We need to grow up in order to live as citizens of heaven and shine like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. But we cannot live in God’s Kingdom in the here and now if we see heaven only as a place that we will go to when we die. Solid spiritual food is feeding on God’s Word that has been revealed through Jesus Christ.

But there is a big difference between seeking biblical knowledge and feeding on the Bread of Life. The bible is but a map to guide us in our quest to live in God’s Kingdom – it is not our destination. We are to apply the spiritual truths from the bible in our lives so that we will not conform to the world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds in order to know God’s will for our lives.

We need to make the choice between the apple and the cross – to feed on the Tree of Knowledge or the Tree of Life to find the answers to spiritual questions such as “What am I here for? How can I make this world a better place? How can I turn the ordinary events in my life into great opportunities to use the gifts that God has given me?”

Let us hold fast to the truth that we are new creations in Christ and that we can do all things through Him who strengthens us. Og Mandino made the following observation:

"We expect mastery without apprenticeship, knowledge without study, and riches by credit. Born in an age and country in which knowledge and opportunity abound as never before, how can you sit with folded hands, asking God's help in work for which He has already given you the necessary faculties and strength?”

The good news is that we are not to work FOR our salvation but to work OUT our salvation with the excitement of having God’s power working in us.  We need to cultivate new habits of paying attention to God in the world around us, to practice the awareness of the Holy Spirit working in us and to be a better “Mary” by abiding in Christ so that we can become more effective “Marthas.”

As we do so, let us share how God is working in the mundane events of our lives for His glory to encourage each other and to be accountable to one another.

Living A Life Of Significance

Many of us are struggling to live a life of significance. It is part of our human nature to seek meaning for our lives. Unfortunately, in a materialistic society, significance is often equated with money, status and power. Success is measured in terms of what we possessed rather than in the love and care we have given to others. Even in the church, success is seen in terms of how big the church is and the size of the congregation rather than the difference the church is making in caring for the poor and marginalized in society.

Many Christians try too hard in their own strength to be a blessing to others. Time and again we fail and we are discouraged. Some are successful but unfortunately human based success invariably leads to the sin of pride. Yet others feel guilty of not having done enough to be a blessing to others.

It is therefore critical to understand what it means to live a life of significance. A life of significance is not a life of success but a life of service to those whom God has brought into our lives. It is not what we have done but how we have lived in this world as the children of God and as ambassadors of God’s Kingdom.

Jesus came to show us how we are to live a life totally emptied of self so that the fullness of God’s love can be seen in us. It is a life that is totally submitted to God’s will – a life that is humble and obedient.

But our human nature is to seek control over our lives and those of others. Our addiction to control drives us to seek knowledge rather than God’s wisdom. As a result, we fail to create “miracle spaces” for God to work in our lives. A miracle space has been described by Matthew Barnet as the gap between what we can accomplish on our own and what can be accomplished when we allow God to work through us.

Unlike the Olympic Games, we do not have to compete with one another to be significant in God’s sight. Each and every one of us is unique in God’s sight. He has created each one of us for a  special purpose in life which only we can fill. A life of significance is simply becoming the person God has created us to be – to be fully human and fully alive for the glory of God.

A life of significance is a simple life that is rooted in the Lord’s Prayer. It is a life lived as a child of God seeking to honour God. It is life with a mission to bring God’s Kingdom to earth. It is a life that is totally surrendered to the will of God. It is a life living on God’s promises of providence, purification and protection.

It is a life that is prepared for suffering. It has been said that suffering is inevitable but misery is a choice. When we embrace suffering as an opportunity to experience God’s love and grace we can choose to rejoice instead of being miserable.

Life can be exciting when we are freed from living up to the expectations of others and filled with the expectation of God’s power in our lives. And such a life will be a life of significance to God even in the face of suffering and death.

The Truth Shall Set Us Free

Earlier this week, I attended the memorial service of Dr. Lim Hock Siew. In the prime of his life, he was imprisoned for 20 years. Dr. Lim was rightly acknowledged as a freedom fighter of Singapore. He sacrificed his personal freedom to uphold his moral conscience in his fight for freedom and democracy for Singapore.

Though he was physically in prison, his spirit was free. In contrast, many of us may be physically free but we are emotionally, psychologically or spiritually, in the prisons of pride, anger, greed, lust, addiction to power and the desire for control.

We try to live in a world in freedom from our Creator but only to find ourselves enslaved by our primitive emotions. It is thus not surprising to read Chris Hedges’ most perceptive analysis of the current state of our world:

“We now live in a nation where

      doctors destroy health,

           lawyers destroy justice,

               universities destroy knowledge,

                   governments destroy freedom,

                        the press destroys information,

                            religion destroys morals,

                                and our banks destroy the economy.”

All the bad news of political, religious, financial and sexual scandals reported in our mass media are but symptoms of our increasingly spiritually impoverished world. When we lose our faith in our Creator as our Heavenly Father, we live in a Fatherless world. We forget that we are creatures of a Creator of Love. Everyone seek to do what is right in their own sight and worship their own idol.

We have no answers to the devastating illnesses such as cancer, natural disasters like tsunanmis, horrific tragedies of war and the suffering of the innocents. But we can choose to respond to all the difficult situations we face in life as an invitation to draw us back to the embrace of our Heavenly Father or to use them as an excuse to draw away from God and to live our lives in our way.

We need to seek the Truth for it is the Truth that will set us free. Jesus told His disciples that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. But what does it mean to see Jesus as the Truth?  During his trial before Pilate, Jesus responded to Pilate’s question, “so you are a king?”  with the following answer:

“You say I am a king. Actually, I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true.”

Unfortunately, Pilate was unable to understand what Jesus was trying to tell him and asked, “What is truth?” Henry and Tom Blackaby made the point that in the presence of Christ, the truth of every situation differs from the purely human perspective. They noted that the world’s perspective on any situation is suspect because the world does not understand the truth. Furthermore, the world cannot understand our faith in Christ who is the Truth.

The cross of Christ echoes the lament of the prophet Jeremiah and shows us the heartbreaks of our Heavenly Father:

“I hurt with the hurt of my people.

I mourn and am overcome with grief.

Is there no medicine in Gilead?

Why is there no healing for the wounds of my people?”

At the same time the cross of Christ brings us the good news that we can be freed from the prisons of our egos. When we crucify our egos on the cross and enthrone Christ in our hearts we will live as new creations with Him as our King. We will then understand that to live is to love and to love is to lose but to lose is to live. Only then will we will be able to get our priorities and values right.  Only then will we be able to get our priorities and values right. Only then will we be able to see God’s ways in the events of life that seem so unjust or does not make sense. Only then will we rise up to the challenge to be the light and the salt in a messy and decaying world.

Help us, Lord! There is not a good person left

“Help us, Lord! There is not a good person left; honest people can no longer be found. All of them lie to one another; they deceive each other with flattery.”

This cry of King David in Psalm 12 seems so relevant for our world today. We are living in a world that is becoming not only economically bankrupt but one that is increasing in spiritual poverty. World leaders are struggling to stabilize shaky economies, religious leaders and high ranking civil servants have been charged with corruption and sex scandals. We are all still infected by pride, greed and lust that threatens to drag us down into moral bankruptcy.

Henry and Tom Blackaby have described the world as being in “desperate need of those who can stand in the gap and prevent its destruction.”  They noted that God has put His Spirit in our lives to guide and teach us so as to give us the power and wisdom to serve Him each day. As Christians, we are called to represent God as His ambassadors to a people who no longer hold to absolute truths. They espoused the view that “if we are not preventing the deterioration of the world, the problem is not with the world, it is with us.” We cannot blame the darkness for acting like darkness for that is its nature. But darkness cannot exist in the presence of light. And we called to shine as bright lights as children of God in a world full of crooked and perverse people. (Philippians 2:14)

We are living in a time of crisis and in need of repentance. We need to cry out for revival. But revival must begin with us. As the Blackablys rightly noted, revival is for those of us “who have once experienced life but are lifeless or wasting away.” Instead of seeking to “save” others, we need to first turn back to God to purify ourselves of pride, greed and lust.

Let us follow the example of King David’s prayer in the psalms by putting God first in our lives and to affirm His justice and sovereignty in all the events that is happening in the world.. Let us pray to ask God to open our eyes to see what He is doing in our nation rather than praying for God to do what we think needs to be done. We can stand on the promise of Psalm 12:6:

“The Lord’s promises are pure, like silver refined in a furnace,

                 purified seven times over.

             Therefore, Lord, we know You will protect the oppressed,

                 preserving them forever from this lying generation,

                 even though the wicked strut about,

                 and evil is praised throughout the land.”

In these times of struggle, challenges, anxiety and confusion, let us encourage one another by holding tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, trusting that God will keep His promises. For our fellow Christians who are going through difficult times, let us seek our Lord’s wisdom to provide comfort and support as well as to speak the truth in love.

When Dark Times Come

When we hear about missionaries being afflicted by cancer or killed by terrorists or when Christians who have been faithfully serving God are struck by unexplainable tragedies, we are tempted to ask, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” When our own lives are darkened by the storms of life, we are also prone to ask, “Why me?”

The tribulations and trials of our lives make sense only when seen through our relationship with God. We are living in a "cuckoo culture" in which we are encouraged to seek power over other people in order to be successful in life. We live in a godless world where power is abused by selfish desires; where people are motivated by money through their greed; and where sex becomes an addiction through lust. We become heartless, mindless and addicted to pleasure. We need to recognize  that there is a judgment against the evil of selfishness, greed and lust. We live in a world that is darkened by evil and in need for the light of God's mercy and grace. When we live godless lives and troubles come our way, it is not unexpected that we will see our misfortunes as God's punishment.

But when we see life from God's perspective we will understand that life is not about our happiness but the joy of living in God's presence through our faith in Christ. Such faith is not mindless, heartless or fearful. True faith is a covenant relationship with God which involves our mind, heart and soul, expressed through a trustful obedience to seek and do God’s will, as a grateful response to God’s amazing grace that is revealed through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Only then can we count it all joy when the dark storms of life come upon us. When we are straying away from God, we will see our problems as God’s way of keeping us from evil and drawing us back to Him. Problems are then not seen as God’s punishment but as God’s discipline.

Then as we seek to be God’s instruments of love, we need to be equipped to handle the blessings of fame or fortune. God may need to lead us into difficult times to refine our character flaws so that we will not fall into the temptations of the evil one. Jesus was led into the wilderness for forty days to face the temptations of Satan. Our minds need to be renewed and we need to be more tender-hearted. We need to learn to see our life challenges as God’s refining fire to purify our hearts.

Finally, as we surrender our lives to be soldiers of Christ, we will be the targets of the evil one. But the good news is that the battle belongs to the Lord. We have the victory because Christ is in us. And as we die to our selves, others will see more of God in us. So we need not be afraid of dark times for they are God’s ways to protect us, to equip us and to use us for His glory. Let us thank God for the wonderful gift of His Holy Spirit:

“So we can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. “  (Romans 5:3-5, NLT)

Reflections on Psalms 1 & 2

The psalms have been described as the prayer book of the Jews for 3000 years and the Christians for 2000 years. Dr. Bill Creasy noted that “in the Psalms we encounter every possible response one can have to God, from profound love to deep disappointment, from great joy to heartbreaking sorrow, from soaring praise to quiet adoration. In the Psalms we probe the depths of our own hearts as we seek to understand both God and ourselves. In the Psalms we look into a mirror and we see reflected back the very depths of our own souls.”

Psalm 1 had been described by St Jerome as the ‘gateway of the psalter” with the “blessed man” forming one pillar and the “godless man” the other. The rest of the psalms capture the experiences of man’s relationship with God in the grey area between the blessed man and the godless man.

The most important lesson of Psalm 1 is the warning not to walk in the counsel of the godless but to walk by the Spirit. Instead of standing with sinners, we are to be singing with the saints. Instead of sitting and grumbling with scorners, we are to delight in the Word of God and fill our hearts with gratitude.

It is foolish to ignore or underestimate the reality of evil. In John 10:9-10 Jesus tells us he is the gate to the sheepfold to keep the sheep safe from thieves who steal, kill and destroy. From her experience with her husband's addiction to pornography, Laurie Hall found that evil is not “an abstract intellectual concept but a bone chilling reality which more real than intellectual.”

Many people do not understand that the bible is a record of the spiritual warfare between good and evil. It is a story of God's love for mankind who has rejected Him. It is not a book of rules that we must follow in order to please God. It is a treasure of the principles of truth to live by so that we will not live according to what we feel is right. Hence it is a delight to meditate in the law of the Lord day and night.

The written Word of God is to also to draw us to Jesus Christ the Living Word and the Shepherd of our souls. We are to feed on the Word of God to grow in our relationship with our Heavenly Father so that we will be transformed from inside out.

We will then be evergreen trees planted along the river of life which will beat fruit in all seasons of life. For God will be the Gardener of our souls carefully watching over our paths. We will not be blown away like chaff in the wind of God's judgment.

In Psalm 2, the psalmist warns against the futile rebellion of those who see life as slavery to God and seek to live without God. When we turn away from God, we will face the anger and fury of God against evil. But God’s anger and fury is from the depths of His compassion as He seeks to deliver us from evil. We read in Paul's letter to the Christians in Rome of God's anger against evil:

"But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness." (Romans 1:18)

There is also a warning to rulers and kings for them to act wisely. In the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of Queen Elizabeth, she was described as a queen who reigned as a servant of God. She is not a figure head of Parliament but the symbol of God's sovereignty of the lives of the people in the United Kingdom as well as the Comnonwealth.

Laurie Hall has drawn attention to the important difference between positional authority and functional authority. Those in positional authority have the responsibility to earn the respect of those who are under them and to avoid the temptation to abuse their authority. At the same time those under authority needs to choose to honour those who are in positions above them - their parents, bosses and leaders of government. We will not be able to subject ourselves to the sovereignty of God if we do not learn to honour our human leaders by seeing their position as being ordained by God. They will be accountable for their actions to God just as we will be accountable to God for ours.

But more importantly, the psalmist points us to the Kingdom of God where Jesus the Son of God reigns. In God's kingdom we all have the functional authority of servant leadership. This is the authority, to quote Laurie Hall, that comes through act of caring and kindness we do for others. Jesus has given us a very clear picture of true leadership:

"You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. “ (Matthew 20:25-27)

True leadership is inspiring people to want to do what their selfish human nature do not want to do. Hence everybody in God’s Kingdom is “a leader without a title” for we will be encouraging one another to be kind to one another. As we live in God's Kingdom in the here and now we will find refuge and unspeakable joy. Our lives will be filled with songs of praise that will lift the hearts of many to God and deliver our nations from evil:

                                 "We have a song to be sung to the nations,

                                  That will lift their hearts to the Lord

                                  A song that will conquer evil

                                  And shatter the spear and sword

                                  And shatter the spear and sword.

                                  For the darkness shall turn to dawning

                                  And the dawning to noonday bright

                                  And Christ's great Kingdom shall come on earth

                                  The Kingdom of love and light.

Hearing the Voice of our Shepherd

Many of us struggle to hear from God whom we cannot see, hear, feel or touch. But the good news is that we have a Risen Saviour who is our Shepherd and that we can hear His voice. Before we can hear our Shepherd calling us, we must first recognize that Jesus is our Shepherd. We need to choose to direct all our desires and aspirations to honour God. When we do so, we will be led to the pasture of the abundant life of God's pasture.

John Kramp shared some of the ways by which we can hear our Shepherd's voice which I have found to be true and relevant in my life. Firstly, we are created as emotional beings and so we can experience God's presence through our emotions. Our feelings and emotions about certain situations is one of the ways God can speak to us. The Psalms provide us with a model of prayer in which we can vent our feelings to God. We can use our feelings to draw us closer to God instead of listening to our feelings and allow them to draw us away from God.

Secondly, we will learn to see the opportunities and roadblocks in our lives as the ways by which our Shepherd redirect and protect us. We will then to be able to discern more clearly God's direction in times when we need to make important decisions in our lives.

Thirdly, our weaknesses and failures are often the means that God uses to communicate truths that we can hear more clearly when we fail than when we succeed. John Kramp rightly reminds us that "many times God leads us into difficult situations so that He can get our attention and guide us in new directions."

Fourthly, we need to reflect on our abilities and successes and offer them as our sacrifice of praise to God.  To discern God's plans for us in the future, we need to see our capabilities as God's gifts to prepare and equip us for what He is calling us to do.

Finally, God's will is accomplished only through the Church which is the Body of Christ. It is essential, according to Henry and Richard Blackaby, for Christians to find the place in the church body that Christ has assigned for them so that they and those around them can hear and respond to God’s voice. They are of the view that facets of the Christian life can be fully experienced only in the midst of God’s people – “believers who choose to set themselves apart from an interdependent relationship with other believers will not be in a position to hear all God has to say.” They will also be holding back a blessing from other believers when they isolate themselves.

It is a struggle to understand and even appreciate the viewpoints of other Christians but John Kramp pointed out that we cannot isolate ourselves from them as we may lose a perspective we need in order to understand what God is doing around us.

But the above subjective experiences must be tested against the teachings of the Bible. Dietrich Bonhoeffer believed that “the Bible alone is the answer to all our questions and that to receive an answer from it, we only need to ask with persistence and a little courage. Dietrich Bonhoeffer gives the following wise advice:

“Only when we once dare to read ourselves into Bible as though it really is God who speaks to us here, the God who loves us and will not finally abandon us to our questions, only then will reading the Bible become a joy.”

The truth is that we often asked the questions that we don’t really want to hear the answers. But when we listen to the voice of our Shepherd, we will be able to live through the questions in our lives - our lives will then be our psalms of praise - our poems and songs of God's love and care for us.