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Journal Jottings and Fruit of Revival

19 May 2023 blogpastor Leave a comment

I had this big box from buying a Philips all in one cooker. I decided to use it to store all my journals because the current box was too small. Since I was transferring it I decided to specify the years on the spines of the journals. The earliest existing journal was 1982. I had journals from an earlier period but I had somehow discarded them. The earlier ones were mainly devotional notes of my Bible meditations. On a whim, I picked up the oldest and began to read it. Surprisingly I could not put it down as it was so fun to read. I put some up on my Instagram story, and sent some to relevant individuals to affirm them, and stir pleasant memories.

I noticed that 1982 was a year that displayed some spiritual fruit ten years after the revival of 1972 caused my home church, World Revival Prayer Fellowship, to be formed. The significant fruit was the number of people who heard and responded to God’s invitation to them to serve Him in different ways. My journal recorded them.

Examples of revival fruit

There was Simeon and Jacob, two brothers who joined the Discipleship Training School of YWAM. The former went on to serve in a YWAM in Taiwan, and as a leader in two big Asian regions. It has been about 40 years, with more years to come. My journal jotting on 28 July 1982: “We prayed for Simeon Siau. The Committee sat down together to pray and seek the Lord’s will. I felt that the harvest is great but workers are few and the Lord wants to thrust him forth as a gift to the nations.”

The latter, Jacob, joined YWAM Calcutta on staff (see my actual journal entry below), and then YWAM Nepal where he got arrested with a YWAM team and spent a few days in prison for “preaching the gospel”. Later on, he returned to our home church to serve in a church plant, and later to return to the workplace. This is revival fruit.

My journal jot for Thomas Tan on 27 June 1982 was a mere 11 words: “We sent Thomas Tan with the blessings of God upon him”, but he has been serving the Lord the last 40 years. He joined Operation Mobilization Pakistan land team for two years. This was followed by WEC Missionary Training College, and then seven years with Frontiers, reaching the unreached Pushtun people group in Peshawar. After that, he returned home and has since been serving in the local church as a pastor. This is revival fruit.

My sister Joyce was not sent by the church but she felt a call to enter into the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary to live in community and service. She has taken her vows and her new name is Beryl. She served in the Australian branch and returned back to the mother house in Darmstadt, Germany. I jotted in my journal on 20 May 1982: “Went to Crest book room to buy a Bible for Joyce before she leaves for W Germany next week. There was none suitable so I decided to give her the money $200 as a gift from us.” She has been serving with the sisterhood about 40 years now. This is revival fruit.

I was called into pastoral work in 1979, and that very year attended Tung Ling Bible School. However, it was in my third year of theological education (1982), that I was officially installed as assistant pastor to Pastor P.J. Johney. Later, on the 9^th March 1986, I was ordained. I served my home church for 40 years. This is revival fruit.

There are many others in my home church who went on to serve the Lord before and after 1982. Revival fruit.

Evidence of true revival

When the Spirit is poured out in mighty streams of living water, the lives of many are transformed. The desire to serve God is pervasive and is very strong and lasting in some individuals. It is like fire in the bones and it propels them into His service in the local church. Over the years of faithfulness, their spiritual gifts and strengths are identified and developed, and the passion is narrowed down and more specific. The flame does not die out, it keeps energizing them and carrying them over obstacles. When they fail it drives them closer to God and deepen their life. They respond to God with enduring faith. This is a significant fruit of true revival. Lasting fruit is one of the marks of a genuine revival. Going viral on YouTube does not qualify as revival fruit.

Journaling journey

My journaling journey seemed to have begun as Bible meditation notes. It was Rev Brian Bailey of World MAP, who encouraged this practice of writing down the insights one gathered from Bible meditation. Then it went into simple diary-like reports of what I did and what happened around me, without much reflection of where God had been present or what he may be saying to me. This was what my 1982 journal was like. I wonder how my journaling evolved. I do not know if I will go on to read a few more journals, maybe in 5 year intervals to get an overview of my journaling journey. This sounds like an interesting project, but I do not have time for this right now. God willing, I would like to do it.

Christ’s Finished Work: Providence

13 April 2023 blogpastor Leave a comment

Providence is God’s governance, care and control of the universe because he is Almighty God and Creator. God’s providence existed before the cross and the empty tomb and it moved events, people and history towards that turning point when Jesus died and rose again to defeat sin, death and the devil. Providence had always worked for the growth and the good of God’s elect, the vast family of God. It will continue to do so till the end of this age is consummated through the return of Christ to the earth to establish an eternal kingdom. For us believers, this providence that is focused on our good is one of God’s many blessings bestowed on his much beloved children.

Providence is God’s care and control of the universe, of history and of nations, of the church and its individual believers. It is his will and power to cause things to gravitate towards the end he intended. By involving himself in human history through the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God gave us an excellent model of his providential and redemptive love for humanity.

The oft-quoted verse in Romans 8:28 refers to God’s providence. “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” The “all things” is God’s ability to control all things in the universe and to cause all things to work for his good purpose for “those who love God”, that is, his children. This gives us great assurance and comfort about the past, the present and the future. We do not have to worry. Whatever happens to us, whether good or evil, all we need to do is to trust in his providential and redemptive love. He will cause all things to work for his good purposes.

Even in the face of seeming betrayal, suffering and abandonment, Joseph of the Old Testament, found God’s faithful providence in action in his life. Out of jealousy his brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt and virtually destroyed his life. However, God’s care and governance over the circumstances of his life, propelled him to the office of Prime Minister of Egypt, second in authority only to the Pharaoh. His long trial and experience of God’s intervention and control of events led him to say to his brothers: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Gen 50:20). This is God’s providence towards those he chose to covenant with.

Philip the evangelist experienced God’s providence when the Spirit transported him supernaturally to the desert road to catch sight of the Ethiopian eunuch, who while on his way back to Ethiopia, he happened to be reading a scroll of Isaiah’s prophecies, precisely when Philip approached his chariot. He explained to the eunuch the prophecy the eunuch could not understand, and he preached the good news about Jesus to him. The eunuch confessed his faith in Christ and was baptised in water. Tradition has it that he spread the gospel when he returned to his homeland.

God’s providence is often confused with God’s provision. God’s provision is God’s supply of our needs – material and spiritual. Apostle Paul confidently declared that God would supply all the needs of the church in Philippi according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Phi 4:19). To the church in Corinth, he wrote: “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work” and “You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God” (2 Cor 9:8,11). God’s provision is one of the many ways we experience God’s providence but it is “technically” distinguishable from it.

What does providence look like today? That job vacancy that opened up right after you quit your job and the interviewer was somebody who was impressed with your integrity in his past work dealings with you. You bumped into an old friend who was as keen and passionate in starting a similar business that you have been praying about. That unplanned meeting with an uncle who shared with you a verse that resolved an issue that deeply troubled you in prayer. “The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives” (Ps 37:23 NLT).

This is part of a planned series of writings on the topic, “The A to Z of Christ’s Finished Work”. I am writing it alphabet by alphabet. Thus far the others that I have written can be found HERE.

Visiting Nepal

10 April 2023 blogpastor Leave a comment

It was a good sixteen years ago, in October 2007, when I last visited Nepal on a trek with friends on the scenic Poon Hill trail. You can see the old video HERE. Things have changed considerably in Nepal. We paid toll to communist insurgents to trek through the areas they controlled. Now they are a legal political party currently in power. Once the beloved royal family was in power, but not anymore. Then there was the great earthquake in April 2015, a very painful scar in the memory of the Nepalese. Over 8000 lost their lives, thousands were rendered homeless, and the World Heritage sites I had visited had been damaged severely.

This time round, I visited Kathmandu, a rural village and hiked up to a remote mountain village. The conditions were starkly contrasting. Shopping shelves were filled with all kinds of foods and goods in the city, but in the village there were only tiny family-run provision shops selling essential foodstuffs. Cafes were abundant in Kathmandu, and you get a wide variety of cuisine, but mostly Western, to cater to the tourists, and oh at so affordable prices for us foreigners: SGD$1.80 for decent coffee latte. Taxis were easily hailed in the city but in the small village only two vehicles were available for hire…. and forget about cafes. Opportunities for good schooling and jobs are better in the capital then in rural and mountain villages. The differences were obvious to me.

It’s a beautiful country of grand mountains, golden grains, and abundant rivers and streams. The people are beautiful too: a hospitable people albeit weighed down by systemic poverty. This became evident when I travelled outside Kathmandu and talked to locals about the standard of living for the majority of Nepalese. It became clear when I shared in their meals, slept in their mud-houses, and used their squat toilets in the outhouse. I have not known such conditions in my childhood. I was born into the era of SIT apartment living, precursor to HDB flats. As much as I felt uneasy, the inconveniences were bearable for it was for a mere two nights. I recall looking at the young people in the remote mountain village and bemoaning the lost potential if they remained stuck in the mountains. This convinced me that student hostels in Kathmandu are a key help for rural young people to have a better education, increased chances of employment, and some hope of helping their family break free from poverty.

I also met with committed Christians and we were mutually blessed as we shared with one another. I learned several things:

Casteism exists in Nepal (despite its ban) and those in the lower castes are responding to the good news of Jesus Christ.
Nepal has a largely Hindu population of 30 million and proselytizing is forbidden by law. However, there are people turning to Christ, and suffering persecution from family and community is not uncommon.
The sharing of the gospel was at times accompanied by remarkable healings and deliverances, leading to whole families coming to Christ.
The Nepalese Christians were hungry to know God and his word. Their worship and singing were infectious and inspiring even though I could not understand Nepalese.
Sadly, casteism is so ingrained in the culture, that Christians have generally not completely broken free from it, especially when it came to marriage.
The people of God in Nepal need the help, the come-alongside partnerships with the churches outside of Nepal. They need humble spiritual input and prudent financial support, without donor conditions of wanting control and naming rights.
I was inspired to hear about God’s grace among the unreached people, to witness the deep commitment of the gospel workers, and the simplicity of a movement free from institutional barriers. It felt like the book of Acts has come alive in Nepal.