BLOGPASTOR – blogging since 2004

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Pray for Healing or Self-control?

3 April 2025 blogpastor Leave a comment

It was hard for me to accept the doctor’s diagnosis. I came back from Lanzhou. I had a sharp pain at the joint of my large toe on my right foot. It looked inflamed and sensitive to the touch. It was so bad I struggled to walk to the clinic. My wife had to support me.

I was puzzled. I had been travelling. No sports, no tennis. Where did this injury come from? I shared my bafflement with the doctor. The doctor asked pertinent questions, looked at the inflammation and with a deadpan face, said, “You have gout”. I was stunned. Wasn’t this a rich man’s disease? I wasn’t.

I tried to recall what I ate during the trip. I remembered that during our goodbye meal with friends in Lanzhou we were in a Hui Muslim restaurant and we had their lamb. It was so good that we ordered an additional large serving. I had never tasted such delicious lamb and walloped. It was the most memorable dish of the trip! Later when I checked on foods that caused gout, red meat like lamb was one of them.

This was my first episode of gout. Attack is a better word. First attack of gout. It would not be the last because over the past decade or more I have been having gout attacks, usually at the end of Christmas or Chinese New Year.

This week I had been confined to an office chair to move around the house or walking with a hiking pole. I have been praying for healing, and testing the limits a few times this and last year. The result is I broke the average number of annual attacks in 2024.

Gout attacks is like a shadow. It follows me and appears when the sunlight is strong. I have reflected on this and begin to think that this is God saying “No, I want you to live with this because it is good for you!” God saying No to healing is nonsense to most Pentecostals. Am I giving up on praying for healing? Maybe I should be praying for self-control instead?

Jacob struggled with an angel and ended up with a permanent limp. He needed a staff to help him walk. Perhaps the Lord knows something I do not know. Perhaps I needed more self-control in my diet. He may be protecting me from careless eating in order to answer my prayer for divine health. Real health. He may be teaching me to fish instead of continually going to him for fish.

What do you think?

Interesting Developments with my Book

1 April 2025 blogpastor Leave a comment

It has been my sincere wish and prayer that my book, “The 26 Gifts of Christ’s Finished Work”, would be used to help Third World country preachers, pastors and church planters. I was pleased when Pastor Thomas mentioned that a Myanmar pastor who runs a Bible School in Yangon can translate, and would check whether he would be willing to translate my book. I was glad to hear that. If this works out, it has to be God at work to further the work of the gospel.

My book gives a better understanding of the gospel, which is what Christ has done for us through his death and resurrection. I always remembered that John Stott said, “The greatest need of the church is to have an enlarged vision of Jesus Christ”. I pray that God will enlarge vision, strengthen faith, deepen love and establish hope for all readers and hearers. With the scarcity of understandable writings about the vastness of salvation, such a book, I pray, will bless the believers as well as the workers in the harvest field.

I praise God that surprising people have asked if they could help me sell my books. I met one last Sunday. Her name is Suzanne. She helps organize the Academy of Prophets for Prophet Amos Jayaratnam. She offered to help me promote my book to her WhatsApp chat group, and I was surprised at her kindness.

A secondary school classmate ordered a book, which I posted to him. He, too, offered to pass a copy of my book to someone in church linked to a Christian bookstore. I felt so encouraged that the Lord is opening doors for me, and I pray this book will bless many.

I have to pray because many books are bought and not read. I have many books on my bookshelf that I have yet to read. Therefore, “Lord, I pray that those whom you move to buy will also be moved to read, and that you will strengthen and enlighten them as they do so. Amen.”

On Sunday, I preached about the history of Pentecostalism as requested by the church staff. It included an account of how the Revival of 1972 had impacted the Singapore church and resulted in the formation of World Revival Prayer Fellowship. The older members were enthralled and enjoyed recalling their personal experiences and filling in missing pieces in the story. A few of them suggested I write another book about that revival. What did I feel? I felt how a new mother would feel after she had just given birth and somebody asked her, “How about having another baby?”

MFIS Pastors Consultation: The Teacher

17 March 2025 blogpastor Leave a comment

I was early. I was graciously granted a book table to share a book I wrote, “The 26 Gifts of Christ’s Finished Work.” The Full Gospel Assembly(FGA) staff were very welcoming and helpful. Ps Maureen and Josefa helped me set up the table and helped me “man” it.

The focus of the consultation on 13^th March 2025 was on the ascension gift of the Teacher. The MFIS have consistently continued their series on the five-fold ministry of Ephesians 4:10-12. The speakers were Rev Calvin Lee, Rev Rhordan Wicks, and Rev Chua Hock Lin. Calvin Lee gave an overview of what it meant to be a teaching church: the what, the why, the how. Hock Lin spoke out of the burden the Lord laid on his heart. He preached passionately about the need to unleash the supernatural in the church through preaching the Word and allowing for the manifestations of the Spirit, particularly the gift of tongues, which is the doorway to the supernatural gifts. It was appropriate that he took the final session because it culminated in corporate heartfelt prayer.

Rhordan Wicks gave a practical and helpful teaching about teaching. He is an eloquent and articulate communicator and shared seven practical and vital principles of communication from the pulpit. Each principle was illustrated with analogies and examples that made them crystal clear. The seven principles were:

Relevance brings resonance – use language the audience understands

Build bridges not walls

Fillers drain power from your message

Your voice is an instrument -play it well

Your body speaks before you do

Your notes should support, not script your delivery – scaffolding brings freedom

Slides should support, not steal the spotlight.

To top this off, he demonstrated how to design impactful and elegant slides based on a sermon outline he had prepared earlier. He did it on the spot without prior preparation. Thus, we were let in on a real-time demonstration. His mantra is “LESS IS MORE!”. I loved the demonstration and it inspired me to try out some of his practical tips for my slides when I guest preached on Sunday.

I thought it would be wonderful if this impactful presentation about practical communication and presentation skills could be uploaded onto YouTube for a wider audience to benefit. Sadly, it was not recorded.

The consultation ended with prayer and some announcements about future events:

MFI Conference 2025 (17 July 2025 9.30am -4pm) – VFC Tampines

Thanksgiving Dinner (20 Nov 2025 5.30pm -8.30pm) – to be confirmed

Combined Fellowship Teams Gathering (15 May 12noon -2.30pm) – The New Church

How did the book sales go? Not good. Even with the moral support of my two Tung Ling friends, Dr John Sim and Benjamin Foo, my publisher. I brought 100 books and I sold only 10 books. For sure, I am not Rick Warren. However, I was at peace about it as I wrote not out of the need for money or an ego boost but simply to obey the Lord’s word. God will work things out for good. This book sale was disappointing compared to the launch in my home church, when 150 books were sold. I am always thankful for the support of members of my home church, World Revival Prayer Fellowship.