PREFACE

This is my sixth Christmas at FCC and it hasn't gotten any easier. To me, one big miracle is just surviving the weekend getting the church organized to share Christmas with our family and friends. And now that the weekend and the busyness is over, I'm just amazed how God had been guiding us every step of the way to pull all the pieces together. For those who came, thank you for the opportunity to share Christmas with you guys! For those who missed it, check out the photos on facebook here and I've banged out a quick transcript of the Christmas message under the cut below, inspired by a recently minted tattoo a close friend of mine did on his back. I hope it ministers to you as much as it did for me in preparing it.

Wishing you a very Blessed Christmas!


( Sermon Transcript - 'FOUR WORDS' - 21 DECEMBER 2008 - Free Community Church )

Tags: christianity, sermon

Three months ago if you told me if I would be leaving on jet plane today to attend Seminary to do my Masters I would have laughed in your face. Yet in less than 12 hours from now, I am going to be starting a new chapter of my life doing a 2-year part-time MA in Theology and Ministry at King’s College London.

I actually thought I never would have the desire, much less the opportunity to attend a seminary. However, the dream of getting a formal theological education actually started 2 years ago when I had an epiphany that if I were going to get only one shot at life, I would want to live a life that was truly significant.

But what kind of significance? Did I want to be a famous person? A hot shot entrepreneur? Have a great career and live the high life? What kind of legacy did I want to leave behind? What did I want to be remembered for when I left this life? And what was I going to miss most when I passed on?

Over some time of reflection, I arrived at these answers:

1. I want to be able to stand in front of God when I pass on from this life to hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
2. I want to be remembered by people as an effective and credible witness for God; a person who knew God and His heart for people.
3. I want to be remembered as someone who loved God and loved people.
4. I want to be remembered as a good friend, family member and a person who made a positive contribution in the lives of the people he encountered.
5. I want to have loved deeply and passionately, and be loved as much by a partner.
6. I want to have the finances and the ability to lead and manage people and use those resources in a way that would be a blessing to those in need.

I knew that as part of the journey, I needed to be equipped theologically and vocationally. Most of my training so far has come from watching other ministers, and learning from them at conferences such as the Hillsong Conference.

While surfing the web about 3 months ago, I came across this new Masters programme that was being offered by King’s College London (KCL) this year – a Masters in Theology & Ministry – both theological and vocational – and was being offered as a part-time 2-years programme.

The more I read about it as well as the course outline, the more I felt that this programme was ideal both in my interests and to bridge that gap between where I am today and where I needed to be in my own personal equipping. But I thought it would have been an impossibility for me to attend for the following reasons:

1. Unlike miak, I did not have any savings whatsoever to be able to afford the programme, nor a scholarship.
2. I had been called up for a 25-day overseas reservist in Taiwan at the end of October, which was right in the middle of the school term.
3. I had to keep my job in Singapore to support myself and my financial commitments.
4. I wanted to be honest about my sexuality, the church that I served in and the ministry areas I was involved in – one of the main reasons why the local seminaries would not admit me into their programmes.
5. I wanted to be able to continue serving in FCC, even while I am studying.

So I made my application, only my cell group and 2 people in the Council knew about it – Clarence and Susan, as I had asked them to support my application by being my references. I kept it very quiet because I honestly did not think that I would be accepted, much less have the opportunity to go even if I were to be accepted.

After submitting the application, I prayed with my cell group over it and told God that if He produced the miracle, I would know that that was my burning bush, and I would go.

So here’s what happened since:

1. I have been given an unconditional offer to the programme – one of only six places offered this year.
2. I have been medically downgraded and exempted from my overseas reservist commitments.
3. I received the support of the Council, my family and my employer to go for my Masters.
4. I have been given permission to continue working at my current job, and have had my plan to work remotely out of the Nokia London office approved by management. As such, I would be able to pay for most of my degree programme and living expenses from my salary.
5. I had sufficient annual leave to cover my study days and did not require me to take any no-pay leave.
6. I am able to complete most of my course work from Singapore even though it is not a distance learning programme, thereby allowing me to continue serving in Church and cell group.
7. I will be travelling often between London and Singapore in order to manage all of this and friends who are members of FCC have already pledged to redeem their frequent flyer miles for me to be able to come back to Singapore regularly.

When the last approval came in 2 weeks ago, I knew that I had my burning bush in front of me and I decided to respond to the call to go. Like Moses, I’m excited by the opportunity but terrified at the same time. How on earth am I going to pull this off? I haven’t picked up a text book in more than 12 years and I don’t know how I’m going to manage work, studies, church and all that travel! I really can understand how Moses felt when He responded to God’s call in Exo 3:11 saying, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"

But God responded to Moses in the next verse saying, “Go, and I will be with you.”

And that is the promise that I am going to hold on to and brace myself for yet another step in an amazing journey ahead.

Tags: christianity, life
Current Location: Singapore
Current Mood: terrified

I've always thought about furthering my studies and getting myself properly equipped to play a more active role in pastoral ministry and the last 3 months have been nothing short of a miracle. Without going into the details, I have accepted an offer from King's College London to do a 2-year part-time MA in Theology and Ministry starting this fall and will be leaving for London on Sunday.

I haven't had much time to process everything as the final approvals has literally just come in in the last couple of weeks. I didn't think it would have been remotely possible to do it, but since God really has made a way, I'm going to accept this amazing opportunity and run with it.

So to all my mates in London, see you on Monday. :)

Tags: christianity
Current Mood: amazed

Tags: christianity, love
Current Mood: tired

Whenever I would go to one of these big Christian rallies like I did over Easter, and I watch people get overwhelmed with the love of God, I would pray that God too would use me to be a minister of His love. Whenever I would see missionaries go to Africa to meet the needs of the people there, lifting whole villages out of the poverty trap and restoring hope to them, I would pray that God too would one day give me that chance too.

Last month when I was in Bangkok for work the entire week, I would get to and from work on foot, taking the same stretch of the “sky bridge” outside Siam Paragon each day. And each day I would see the same old lady with her kid at the foot of the stairs to the sky bridge begging for money.

As I passed her the first couple of times, I’d get a nudge in my Spirit. I knew it was the Holy Spirit prompting me, but I initially ignored it. When I finally paused and prayed about it in the evening at the end of my work day, the Holy Spirit simply chided me in the most gentle way He usually does, “you said you wanted to be a minister of my love, so here’s an opportunity for you share God’s love to another person, how are you doing that?”

I immediately hesitated. What if I gave her money and she was operating under the mafia with a kidnapped kid? Surely I didn’t want to be supporting organized crime, right? The next thought that came to my mind was – there are so many beggars in Bangkok! Why should I help this one and not the others?

Anyway, I felt guilty for not doing – which by the way, is a terrible reason to do any ministry at all, and the next day when I encountered that woman, I dropped in 20 baht to appease my guilt. That night when I went back, I again felt the Holy Spirit chide me again – I had the opportunity to show God’s love and all I could do was drop in 20 baht to appease my own guilt?

I thought long and hard. What more could I do for this woman? I had already given her money. So the next day on my way home, I stopped by the food court for dinner and bought some food and water from the nearby supermarket. With my bag in hand, I went to the beggar that evening, passed her the bag and although I really just wanted to walk away, I opened my mouth and a Thai-sounding sentence came out. I’m really not sure what I said at all, I don’t even remember what it sounded like, but the woman obviously did, and she brightened up and dug into the bag with the food.

Super pleased with myself at this point in time, I went back to the hotel all smiles. That night however, as I was praying, I again got chided gently by the Holy Spirit. Why? I had thought I had done well. I had given the money, I had bought the food and drink and I was feeling super pleased with myself. But the Holy Spirit prompted me that I could have done much more than that had I listened carefully to Him – I could have used the opportunity to build a relationship with this woman, to restore her dignity, to sit with her for a while, to simply let her know from the act that she was an equal, and loved equally by God. I had taken the easy route, dumped the money and food and walked away, and in my own pride had felt that I had done well.

I am reminded that everything that we do is really clouded my own pride and sin. If we are to be real ministers of God’s love, we would seek out a need and meet it; we would seek out a hurt and heal it; we would restore dignity to the down-trodden. That’s what real love in action is about.

So this week I’m in Sydney for work and tonight on my way back to the hotel, I saw a homeless person looking for a place to sleep on the street in front of an office building. And here was the perfect opportunity to put into practice the lesson I had been taught in Bangkok. Here was an opportunity to be a mnister of God’s love. How was I going to put love in action?

But I did nothing, and kept walking. Back to my hotel and my comfortable warm room and my TV. But then I decided to take some time to pray as I usually would at the end of the day. And the Holy Spirit reminded me again that truly, obedience is the key to being a true minister of God’s love. Simply, obedience.

I started debating with God like Moses did. “What should I do?” “Go meet that need, lift the down-trodden, show some empathy, be a friend to him.” “What would I say?” “You go, and I’ll tell you what to say.” “I’m afraid.” “Perfect love casts out all fear, I’ll go before you.”

So I got up, got changed and headed downstairs and walked to the next block where the beggar was sleeping. He stirred from his nap as I approached. Shit. I sat down beside him and began a conversation.

The ederly gentleman’s name is John. He was forced to live on the streets because he can’t claim his pension money because he doesn’t have a way to satisfy the government officer of his identity. I spent some time with him, tried to relatate to him like an equal, gave him some money and told him I would keep him in my prayers tonight.

Walking away from that gentleman, I had learnt my lesson in obedience. This time. And I didn’t feel glad I helped the guy out. I felt peace.

And I realized that ministry of God’s love doesn’t happen just in the big planned events and mission trips, it happens everyday at our doorsteps. If we would obey the call to love our neighbour as ourselves.

Tags: christianity, life
Current Mood: calm

Especially dedicated to disjecta, cottonmouth_sg, drewadrew and vengerov. I really love you guys!

PREFACE

I was away for work in Bangkok the past week. Clarence asked me last Sunday to take over preaching this week as he had to be away in London this weekend. So I grabbed my Bible and some material I wanted to review and my work gear and boarded the plane. And it was both a good week and a bad week for me.

A good week because being away in Bangkok meant that I would have time in the evenings without the usual social commitments and distractions to spend time with God and I felt very ministered by His presence during this time as I was looking to Him for the message for today’s sermon.

It was a bad week because the laptop with all my work and my sermon that I had prepared was stolen on Friday evening from the hotel I was staying in so yesterday was a mad rush to rebuild the sermon from memory. But God is faithful, and I believe that someone doesn’t want you hear this sermon, because if you really grabbed hold of some of the truths in today’s message, it will have the power to radically change your life.

Clarence asked me a year ago ironically while in Bangkok with him if I could only preach only one sermon what would it be? I don’t really remember my answer then, but I honestly think that today’s message would be that one sermon.


( Sermon Transcript - 'NO LONGER STRANGERS, NO LONGER SERVANTS' - 16 MARCH 2008 - Free Community Church )

Tags: christianity, sermon

I've agreed to help organize the upcoming HOPE Concert which will be held on 13 December 2007 at 7.30pm and I really hope that you guys will bring your friends along to support this show!

The objectives for the concert are several fold: to promote awareness and understanding of AIDS problem in Singapore to combat this deadly disease, to raise funds for the Action for AIDS Medical Subsidy Fund, and to encourage non-discrimination of HIV-positive people amongst us.

The two-hour show will feature highly-acclaimed American pop-duo Jason & deMarco, who will be singing inspirational original compositions filled with lush harmonies from their latest albums, "Till the End of Time" and “Spirit Pop”. They will be accompanied by popular local artistes, including Hossan Leong, Selena Tan, John Lee of Vocaluptuous fame, Eunice Olsen, Chua En-lai and many others as they take to the stage to raise money and promote a very worthy cause.

Last but not least, the HOPE Concert aims to bring an encouraging message of hope and love during the Christmas season to those inflicted with wounds of hate and prejudice.

It has taken a lot of work to put this together and get the licensing finally approved! So please buy a ticket or two for your friends and loved ones, and come be entertained by this amazing duo and our local acts while doing your part for a very important cause.

Thank you for your support and see you there! =)

Tags: aids, hope concert
Current Mood: busy

A little known fact about me is that now and then I enjoying writing a tune or two. Usually they are just melodies, but sometimes, I would pen some lyrics too, and they would usually come out from my own personal worship time.

So yesterday I got a message from matt_inamorato to encourage me to record down the stuff I come up with, so here's a little something that I wrote last night and just recorded down on my iMac.

The song's called "There is no other" and it's just rough draft and I hope you excuse the tired and shaky vocals but the song lyrics really speak to me at this moment and I wanted to share it with you guys. I guess it came out of a really bad week with the death of my dog, a crushed heart and a broken down car.

Anyways, hope you enjoy it and have a good week ahead!

Tags: christianity, music
Current Mood: sleepy

Was at shaoann's lovely housewarming earlier and something he said struck a chord. He had invited all his family, colleagues, Christian and gay friends to his housewarming and said they had to just learn to get along with one another, or something to that effect.

As I reflected in the media reports, and the events of the year, and the disparaging remarks made by some Christians, especially in relation to the issue of homosexuality, have painted such bad light of Christians.

As miak reminded us this morning in his sermon, Christians should be marked by their love. I want to add that they should be marked by their grace as well. But it almost seems that in many circles, Christianity is the anti-thesis of grace.

What is grace? In Christianity, it is taught that grace is the unmerited favour of God - that unconditional love that we receive not because of who we are or what we do. It is undeserved. And somehow, when we receive this grace in our lives and become Christians, we're taught to reflect that grace in all our relationships.

And somehow, Christians today seem to be the least gracious people as seen by the world. And so for all the evangelistic campaigns and prayer meetings, the most important thing that people need to do to live that life of sharing that grace, we don't do.

And suddenly, Christianity becomes this exclusive, homogenous members-only club.

We certainly have a long way to maturity.

Forgive us, Jesus, for constantly marring your image.

Tags: christianity

Preparing this sermon was really an incredible experience. As we are currently doing a series on the minor prophets, I had originally wanted to preach from the book of Malachi and had spent a week doing the ground work for it. I had thought Malachi would be a nice and safe topic, and I could teach on something familiar, like worship. But on the Friday this sermon was delivered, I had this increasing dread that this wasn't what I was supposed to be preaching on. And it was confirmed at 5pm that day when I found out that another preacher had already booked Malachi for his slot, and so all I could do was to surrender to God and ask Him to provide the sermon.

Which I should have done much earlier.

Anyway, this sermon from the book of Haggai speaks to me as much as it speaks to the people in our church, especially in such a season as we are in now. Hope you will be edified by it. God Bless!

Tags: christianity, sermon