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Life expectancy and faith expectancy

2 June 2013 blogpastor 1 Comment

He is the father of one of our church leaders.

His name is Andrew and he shared with a glint in his eye about what the Lord has been doing. He had gone on mission trips for years and had seen the Lord’s hand in miracles of healings and in salvation. He had gone with teams and other pastors and missionaries and had seen the word of the Lord spread in Pakistan. In the last few years, his attention shifted to Palawan in the Philippines. He couldn’t stop talking about the Lord. He went up the mountains to reach out to the people in the northern part of Palawan. He later went south to survey the needs there too. And he wants to go back there – alone if he has to. And he is 72 years old.

Life expectancy of Singaporeans is now about 85.

Sir Alex Ferguson, age 72, retired from managing Manchester United.

Jupp Heynckes, age 68, successfully coached Bayern Munich to the German treble, including the Champions League victory over the other finalist.

Lee Kuan Yew is nearly 90.

Andrew reminded me of Caleb of the Old Testament, who said to Joshua, ‘I am this day 85 years old. I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me…give me that mountain…” (Joshua 14:11ff). At 85, he was still appropriating the promises of God and the challenges of faith that God laid before him.

Financial experts may say most Singaporeans do not have enough saved up for retirement. I do not want to dispute that. But I want to remember the experts who talked about the giants in Canaan, the high and mighty walls, and the veteran warriors guarding the cities. The experts all died in the wilderness. So I will keep my eyes on Jehovah-jireh, God my provider.

I am inspired by Andrew and Caleb and I want to grow old with my eyes on a faith project.

Encouraged to keep blogging

31 May 2013 blogpastor 4 Comments

On Sunday a guest in church asked if I was the one who wrote a blog and she mentioned reading it. I did not have the presence of mind nor cleverness to ask what she read or to inquire as to what interested her or whether she found it helpful.She must have read one of those posts that were probably from a period when I wrote about twice or thrice a week.

On Tuesday, I was in the car with a colleague talking about the thesis I have to write. I had a few ideas I was exploring. He strongly felt I should write something about the use of social media in learning and discipleship since he knew blogging was something I was enthusiastic about. In passing he mentioned that he had met quite a few friends who reads blogpastor.net.

On Thursday, I was having lunch with a pastor who mentioned occasionally reading my blog too. Hmm.

Three affirmations within five days is not normal. Something is afoot. As I reflected on this I remembered how I felt after I came back from my study module in Bangkok. My target had been to blog once a week. But I was tired from the intensity of the course. I had sermons to prepare. I had post-campus assignments to do. I felt like maybe I should just stop blogging. It is like you are jogging at a good pace and an anxiety fills you and all of a sudden you simply stopped in your track. All those incidents, so surprising, are probably the Lord’s gentle pat on the back to encourage me to continue on this writing journey. It will lead somewhere. It does me good. It helps people. Blogging sounds like slogging but I want to write as fulfillment and delight but is this possible all the time…..I wonder.

Dr Tan Lai Yong: a prophetic sign of kingdom life

27 May 2013 blogpastor 2 Comments

Preaching is not about words alone. It is refreshing if you are a wordsmith and use words that are not tired, and fire up the imagination, and stir and move holy feelings. However it is more powerful when your words are simplicity itself, but the way you lived your life conveys torrents of life-changing meaning. It conveys an eloquent grace that invites you to change, to follow.Our church had the joy of sitting under such a preacher. Well, he may not be trained in the conventional way: seminary, but he has been so mastered by the Lord over his many decades of following Christ in His way, and this is what really makes a preacher. It’s not about preaching techniques in the final analysis, though certainly this should not be ignored. It’s essentially about imparting life. So our preacher this Sunday was Dr Tan Lai Yong and he poured out not an eloquent sermon, but his life: a spirit of kingdom counter-culture; a prophetic sign of the kingdom life that has already come to us in Jesus – one that is missional, joy-filled and compassionate. I was blessed not with words and a three points outline, but was enriched in spirit. Even after the sermon, in our hearts, there is that continuous invitation to live the kingdom life that Jesus died to offer us freely.

Watch some of his videos here in this Google link, or you may prefer reading about his life (featured in Singapore Medical Association October 2011 magazine issue).