Category Extra Thoughts

Just some of my many thoughts…

We need His power

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I’ve started driving recently and learnt something from this new experience.

It is instinctive for drivers to search for a petrol kiosk for a fill-up when the car indicates that it is running low on fuel.

Naturally, drivers do so because cars rely on petrol for power and to operate.

Without power, cars are almost useless.

Holy Spirit is our source of power

Similarly, we humans need power. And as Christians, we’ve acknowledged and embraced the Holy Spirit as that source.

We draw power being in His presence; renewing our visions, purposes in life and reviving our souls as we basked in the love of God.

But how many of us can truthfully say that we instinctly approach the Holy Spirit when we feel dry or low in our ‘fuel tank’?

And unlike, a car which has an fuel indicator to precisely alert us, we do not have such a mechanism in place.

Hence, many burn out and crash spiritually before even  realising that they are low in power.

Drawing power from the Holy Spirit

Today, make it a habit to plug into the presence of the Holy Spirit on a regular basis to draw power and to avoid any case of a burn out.

Equally important is for us to recognise our personal tell-tale signs of a low ‘fuel tank’ in our lives. So when the signs appear, instinctively we will look to Him for a fill-up.

Jesus said, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 

All of us, regardless if we believe in Him or not, need His power for a successful and purposeful life. Without Him, we are almost useless.

And the amazing truth is that His power is ever readily available and accessible anytime and anywhere.

So what are you waiting for? Get your power up today.

Saluting a true champion

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After his team was defeated by a sensational Barcelona team during the recent European final, many expected Alex Ferguson to throw in the towel and retire.

But he did not.

Instead, this 70-year old manager has been busy getting his team ready to mount another challenge in the new season.

“You shouldn’t be afraid of a challenge. We’ve got better and better. We want to improve. Of course, next season, we must improve even more,” said Alex Ferguson after the defeat.

Indeed, champions are not those who do not fail but they’re those who do not quit.

It is safe to say that Manchester United are the champions they are today because of their manager’s winning mentality.

Alex, is one person that readily admits that he does not enjoy being second best and his team not only understands that but adopts his winning mentality.

If his 24 years at the same club and winning 12 championship titles is not convincing proof of his insatiable appetite for winning, I do not know what is.

I truly take my hat off and salute this true champion of a man.

Top 5 regrets of the dying

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A lady who worked with the dying for years posted a list of the top 5 regrets she has heard from people on their deathbeds. I’m reproducing parts of the post here and hope it encourages you just as it has for me; to take action in living a life without regrets.

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

This was the most common regret of all. When people realise that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled.

2. I wish I didn’t work so hard.

This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children’s youth and their partner’s companionship. Women also spoke of this regret. But as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners.

3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.

Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
Often they would not truly realise the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years.

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realise until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called ‘comfort’ of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives.

Read the full article here>>>.

GE 2011: What is God doing?

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This year, the general elections in Singapore looks to be a watershed one!

Since independence, this is the first time all (87) seats are contested except 5 seats namely from Tanjong Pagar GRC. And this was due to a controversial incident.

Nonetheless, this remains a significant progress for Singapore’s political scene especially with majority of Singaporeans voting for the very first time after countless walkovers.

From the last election that happened in 2006, I’ve observed two key factors that are distinctive in shaping this election.

First is the increased numbers of young voters or Gen-Ys who are eligible above the age of 21 years old, and the other is the influence of social media, in particularly Facebook that is shaping the opinions of Singaporeans.

These two are inter-linked because it is the Gen-Ys that are more savvy or in tuned to such online social media platforms. And together, they prove to be a lethal force to be reckoned with.

It has contributed in addressing the general lack of apathy among the average Singaporean towards political issues and appealed to more citizens to join the opposition parties.

Because information is now no longer just confined or belonging to the higher echelon of society or baby boomers. The Internet has levelled the playing field where vital information is easily accessible and shared among people.

That said, amidst all the buzz and excitement, I’m trying to discern what is God’s agenda or move in this overall political situation.

I strongly believe that He’s taking Singapore to the next level where this nation and the Church can fulfill its full potential towards advancing His global redemptive plan.

So in this elections, let’s pray and vote wisely.

Achieving our goals

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Most of us will undeniably encounter obstacles as we plan and set to achieve our goals.

More often than not, these obstacles are psychological (and spiritual) and cripple us in forms of procrastination and intimidation.

Lesson from my marathon

For instance, when I ran for my first 42km marathon last year, I was intimidated by the excruciating stretch that the extensive distance demanded of me.

That fear would also lead me to procrastinate in sticking to my regularly regime of training.

But while running, I realised that my goal of reaching the finishing line was static and was not the threat.

The actuality was that I or rather my negative thinking was the real threat coming between me and my goal of completing the marathon. 

Overcoming the barrier

Similarly, the key to achieving our goals is primarily overcoming the psychological barrier between us and our goals.

As mentioned, our goals whether to lose weight; to earn that first million bucks; to snag that promotion; to get attached or to rid off of a bad habit, they are static and just waiting for us to reach them. 

In other words, there is no reason why we cannot achieve our goals if we are willing to invest what is necessary and work hard towards reaching it.

Our goals may be static, but we are not. We have the ability or power to act and align ourselves to achieve our goals.

As a child of God, we need to know our birth right and His promises for a full life in Him. Our goals are only impossible to achieve unless we think and say it is.

Strong Marriages for Strong Families

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No one can deny and undermine the significant role of marriages in building a strong society.

Strong marriages provide children with a safe and secure environment where they can find support and develop uprightly. And studies have shown that children from broken homes or dysfunctional families are more likely to become young offenders.

When families breakdown, society pays a heavy price. This is clear to see with the recent occurence of gang-related fights that erupted in Downtown East and Bukit Panjang.

However, the opposite end is also true- strong families lead to a strong society.

Marriage versus ministry

Sadly, I think the health and longevity of marriages in the Christian community have often been overlooked among churches in general, with ‘ministry’ often taking more priority.

This narrow-minded and erroneous thinking is stemmed in a belief that God and His ministry (which often refers to church-related work) are closely intertwined and their priority should never be compromised.

Hence, it is not uncommon for couples to feel as if marriage is in conflict with ministry. The attitude seems to be: “Marriage is important, but my ministry is for God, and He deserves 100 percent.”

Perhaps the bluntness of the above statement is something that we would never say in a blatant manner.

Normally, this type of thinking creeps in subtly, especially among church leaders and members that are considered committed to a church’s vision and mission.

Because of ‘ministry’, very often our marriages are left at the back burner. And our spouse and children are the unfortunate casualties due to our negligence.

Marriage is ministry

Early this year, a Barna survey revealed that Christians suffered the highest rates of divorce when compared with other groups of religion. That is both alarming and disturbing.

“Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.

He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect. (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?)”

1 Timothy 3:1-7 (NIV)

In the light of scripture and understanding God’s heart, I’m against that old thinking and order of priority. If not, how different are we from non-Christians who pursue careers at the expense of their marriages?

As the above scripture suggests, the biblical order of priority ought to be our relationship with God first, followed by our marriage and then ministry (which can refer to our church or secular work).

Personally, I believe that marriage is a ministry like no other; a God-given platform to impact lives within our families and the best opportunity to leave a lasting legacy for generations.

When our marriages are thriving, we can truly be “salt and light” in our society by building a strong social foundation through our families to make a lasting change with the next generation.

Sync-ing with God

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I’m a user of the remarkable and revolutionary iPhone.

I absolutely love the Apps and iTunes that are available to make daily life more convenient and enriching which distinctively sets it apart from an average phone.

However, I discovered that the iPhone becomes an average phone when under utilised. And this happens when it has never or is not regularly synchronised for updates.

Apparently, the iPhone needs to be updated with newer versions or entirely fresh ones to serve new needs and be constantly relevant.

Likewise, the same can be said of ourselves. We are like iPhones- His remarkable creations that were destined to lead revolutionary lives.

Unfortunately, many of us either ignore or forget to synchronise our lives with God regularly. That usually leads us to living a life of discontentment and  mediocrity.

Being in sync with God, allows Him to meet our needs as bio-psychosocial and spiritual beings.

This enables us to grow holistically; not living life under ‘utilised’ or a life of mediocrity. But one enriched with distinct fullness.

So have you sync with God today?

If you have not, don’t wait any longer. Plug in and sync with Him and receive new downloads of visions and dreams for a new life of relevance and purpose!

Capitalising on the Global Trends

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If we take a quick glance at the past global trends, we can easily traced the Hand of God behind each of these emergence of new technology that had enabled His word to spread exponentially.

Below are some of these past major breakthroughs of existing technologies:

  1. The invention of the first alphabet around 2000 BCE. That came in time for His word to be put in scripture.
  2. The arrival of the printing press around 1440 that allowed the Reformers led by Martin Luther, to place the bible into the hands of the people.
  3. The discovery of the electronic means of mass communication- radio and film in the late 1800s. This gave birth to the evangelical movement, allowing believers to use these mediums to spread His word.
  4. TV and satellite transmission were developed in the early 1900s. This was just when the charismatic movement begun and allowing all kinds of gospel television to spread around the world.

And today, we can observed how the emergence of the Internet in the mid 1990s has tremendously shaped our world into a global village; greatly accelerating the speed of globalisation through the easily-accessible exchange of information for economic or social reasons.

With the Internet, we’ve seen how businesses have adopted and leveraged on the Internet by further expanding their reach and operations across the globe.

Governments are also slowly realising that the old model of central governance is becoming almost impossible to lead a nation in this 21st century as the Internet has given more ‘power’ to the people th an ever before.

What about His Church? How have we capitalise on the opportunities of the current trend of globalisation? Are we still stuck in old ways?

Uniting the Church as one

Today’s globalised world has opened new doors of opportunities for churches within a nation and around the world to unite as a body to collaborate towards fulfilling the Great Commission.

No church, denomination or movement is the best or has the best strategy or method in accomplishing God’s work. As the saying goes, “Together everybody achieves more”. And may I add “faster” too.

But above the call of duty to fulfill the Great Commission, isn’t it the prayer of Jesus that His people may be one just as He and the Father are one? (c.f. John 17:20-24)

Hence, I believe that in this opportune era, we as the Church ought to make deliberate initiatives to walk in His heart beat as one body so that the whole world may know that we’re truly His disciples (c.f. John 13:34-35) as God is love.

And I think there’s no better way to spread the message when we become the message!

Debunking some myths about Money

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When it comes to the subject of money, there’s no denying that many Christians and even churches expressed divided views and adverse attitudes towards it.

It seems that this subject or the biblical relationship we ought to have with money, is mostly and widely misunderstood.

I believe that this misunderstanding or misconceptions arise as a result of us having tainted personal perspectives towards money that are largely shaped and influenced by our different upbringing and environment.

The common misconceptions

Before we uncover more truths related to money and us, let us first address some of the common myths about money that can be found in the Church.

The following are the common myths or misconceptions about money that majority of the Church has:

  • Money is the root of all evil
    God is never against us having more money. He just doesn’t want money to have us and rule our lives. Money is a good servant, but a bad master.

    Whether rich or poor, it will be impossible for us to serve God wholeheartedly when money becomes our master. It is the love for money that is the root of all evil (c.f.     1 Timothy 6:10).

  • Desiring to be rich or prosperous is sinful
    Our motive for desiring to be rich is the most important factor in receiving God’s intended prosperity upon our lives. It has to be stemmed from a “receive so I can give” motive where we desire to be blessed to be a blessing (c.f. 1 Chronicles 4:10).

    Therefore, desiring to be rich is not a sin. It is our motive that determines if our desire to be rich is sinning against God. Make no mistake that God delights in prospering us. The better financially positioned we’re, the better we’re positioning ourselves to help more people.

  • Being rich makes me less spiritual
    This belief that a true Christian should be poor has been with us for a long time, and it is a deception from the enemy to keep the Church feeble. Without financial resources, much of our efforts to accomplish God’s will are impeded.

    In other words, being poor doesn’t make us more spiritual than if we’re rich. Our spirituality is primarily determined by our obedience to God and not whether we’re rich or poor (c.f. Matthew 6:33).

Money is a spiritual subject

Money is a very spiritual subject. The fact that it actually represents our lives; how we manage and use it does matter to God, makes it an important spiritual subject. And our enemy knows this.

For too long the Church has been deceived where we’re now mostly living in insufficiency, poverty and debt. This has resulted in us being displaced from our rightful position where we’re not fully experiencing His abundance.

Though money or rather prospering financially is just one of the aspects in our development in God, but it is nevertheless a key aspect. And I think this is especially so living in today’s modern world.

Therefore, if we truly desire to live out our fullest potential in advancing His Kingdom, then we need to learn how to adopt a biblical IQ in handling money.

Without it, we can never be a master to money but a slave; constantly susceptible and limited by it.

My learning points from Pastor Rony Tan’s incident

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No one had expected that the recent incident of the insensitive comments by Senior Pastor Rony Tan from Lighthouse Evangelism Church would have resulted in such a severe public backlash.

That said, I do believe Pastor Tan never did intend to be demeaning or insulting towards the beliefs of Buddhism or Taoism.

Nonetheless, lessons can be drawn from this incident. And below are some of my personal learning points:

1. The influence of new media

Pastor Tan subjected himself to the online community when the videos with his inappropriate remarks were uploaded on the church’s website.

Unknown to many, he was hauled by the Internal Security Department (ISD) after it had first appeared on Hardware Zone’s online forum which eventually escalated to the authorities.

This incident is a fine example how the new media has become a powerful tool that can either work for you or against you. And it is imperative that we as Christians learn how to use it effectively and strategically with the purpose to engage as salt and light.

2. Be a responsible communicator

I believe being responsible is a better description than being careful when in comes to communication. We not only need to be mindful with what we communicate, but how we communicate. And this is especially so when there is a wide audience who are listening, watching or reading what we’re communicating.

Whether it is on the pulpit, through the media, in a group or with your spouse and even through social media sites like Facebook or blogs, we need to consider the impact of what we want to communicate. And more importantly, as best as we know how, reflect Christ in us with our communication whether in words or in deeds. (c.f. Colossians 4:6, 1 Peter 3:15-16).

3. Let the Church be known for what She stands for

This is another unfortunate incident that has not helped to mitigate the negative perceptions that people have towards God, the Church or Christians in general. You may read this as a reference to some of the general perceptions.

It is time that the Church of Jesus Christ gets to be known for what She stands for rather than for what She is against. And what the Church stands for is LOVE. We need to be known for loving people radically just as how Christ did so and does so.

Till now I can recall how I was won over and reconciled to God, and it was not theology that persuaded me. It was LOVE.

I was drawn to God by Christ’s unconditional love in spite of my sins. He literally love me out of sin and darkness, and I believe that this is how the Church ought to demonstrate His word and be known for, in order to truly advance His Kingdom.