Spirtual insights and my daily reflections with God in my life. My life is now a shared journey with God. My story is His story.
Watch the video below of the announcement made by pastor Kong Hee during one of last weekend’s services, in regards to the acquisition as co-owners of Suntec Convention Centre (worth S$310 million) over one of last weekend services.
You can read more about it here>>>.
1. My unforgettable answered prayer
Receiving an unexpected job offer from my current employer in July. The timing and way that the job presented itself had God’s finger prints all over.
2. My greatest trial
It was during the period before I joined my present employer. I can only say that politicking does not enhance productivity and definitely deters progress for any organisation.
3. My greatest breakthrough
My career. A divine promotion and increment in a recession. But more than these, it was definitely crucial step towards where His plans for me.
4. My most impactful decision made
Proposing to my girlfriend and setting myself up for the next journey of a lifetime!
5. My happiest and elating moment
I think I’ll have to say that this was when my girlfriend said YES after I proposed. No? Ha ha
6. My lessons learnt about God
God and His kingdom is not confined within the four walls of the church. His love and power is not restricted by rules, systems or traditions. Similarly, our spiritual growth should not be dependent or measured by following rules, systems or traditions. God is Spirit and we worship Him in spirit and in truth.
Now with one foot forward or five days into 2010, I’m thankful for how 2009 has ended for me.
In particularly, I like how I was able to complete my first 21km Standard Chartered Run and go for a mission trip to Jakarta.
Both took place in the month of December.
The breakthru’ run
The half-marathon run was a huge test for me and I was pitting against myself; pushing my limits and facing my fears.
And words could not describe adequately how I felt after I had crossed the finishing line.
If I could use one sentence, I would say: I feel like a winner!
The breakthru’ trip
For my mission trip, this was my first representing City Harvest Church (CHC) and also a first going with my fiancee.
This trip was part of a series of mission trip to support an affiliated church- GPdI Lippo Cikarang Church in its first-ever Emerge Youth Camp.
In this camp, I was given the tasks of planning and conducting life-skills workshops for inter-personal skills and public speaking.
However, what was significant for me was to be given an opportunity to share my testimony to the youths during one of the bible-teaching sessions.
Besides giving God the rightful recognition, I sincerely hoped that it would have encouraged them to know the depth of God’s love and His life-transforming power.
This was a testimonial slide show presented during my Hope ‘farewell’ dinner held last year.
Looking back at it sure brings back some fond memories 🙂
This period of ‘stepping back’ (as shared in my previous entry) has allowed me to have a much needed detached view of being in a church.
For sure, I’m convinced that being the Church is not merely about doing life within the four walls of the church; it goes beyond that.
Servanthood leadership as modelled by Christ, ought to be displayed not only in church, but more importantly, in the marketplace where it is most needed.
Hence, there is a pressing need for us, the Church to exercise our spiritual authority towards establishing His kingdom in this world that we live in.
The Great Commission: our responsibility
In the Great Commission (c.f. Matthew 28:18-20), Jesus has given the Church the mandate to influence and transform our world with His love and truth.
However, it is commonly misinterpreted that this mandate rests squarely on the shoulders of churches (as an organisation) or those working full-time in churches.
Make no mistake that the mandate is the responsibility of every Christ-follower; His people- the Church, and not the church.
And it is also our responsibility for each one of us to discover our specific role to which we are called to contribute and play our part in fulfilling the Great Commission.
The example of Kenny Low
Mr. Kenny Low is a fine example. He is a Christian who’s currently the principal and CEO of City College.
But prior to his present position, Kenny grew up thinking of serving God as a full-time pastor or a missionary. But God had other plans for him.
Along the way, Kenny discovered his gifting was inclined towards education and street dancing. That led him to start O School as a means to train and befriend other street dancers.
Later on, he enrolled into a postgraduate programme and armed himself with a Master of Education. With that, he went on to set up City College as a private school to offer early school-leavers a second chance with their ‘O’ levels studies.
As most of school-leavers are from lower-income families, Kenny developed a sustainable and innovate way to help them by using profits generated from his dance school in providing financial assistance to those students.
For his efforts, Kenny was awarded the Schwab Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2007 for his creativity in solving social problems among the youth in Singapore.
However, I’m confident that it won’t be long (or maybe he has started) before Kenny will set up schools in the region to reach out other needy youths.
Establishing His kingdom
Learning from Kenny, let’s recognise that God can move against conventional or traditional methods.
God can use us beyond the four walls of the church to establish His kingdom wherever we go.
The challenge or the opportunity for us as Christ-followers is to be strong and courageous in standing firm on His truth while bringing thea love and presence of God from the church into the marketplace.
“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”
1 John 4:4
Let us not being in church limit us in being the Church.
A year has past since I had made my decision to transplant myself to another church.
It has been a humbling one-year period but yet spiritually enriching.
But I would be lying if I said that it has been all plain sailing for me. Cos it hasn’t.
What I Have Missed
Two things I missed most and have had to come to terms with:
First was the close ties that I shared with people in Hope, especially my cell group/care group.
Second was the loss of ‘privileges’ that I had as a pastoral leader where I was in a position to disciple others towards loving God and fulfilling their God-given destinies as Christians.
Now at where I am, I have to re-establish ties with a new group of people from scratch and re-build the trust as well in earning the ‘privileges’ to disciple.
However, through this period of ’stepping back’, I’ve gained a paradigm shift in how the church is commonly perceived and about servant leadership.
True Kingdom Living
For instance, too often we quote “seek first His kingdom and righteousness” from Matthew 6:33 with the emphasis on prioritising church-related activities as “seeking His kingdom”. In my opinion, this is unbalanced and flawed.
The kingdom of God does not equate to the church. The kingdom of God encompasses not only the church but also beyond the four walls of the church. God is not only alive in the church but in our world that we live in.
As He dwells in us, the kingdom of God can only cover as much as we allow it; in our family or community, at our workplace or campus, and with our finances or health.
Though this shift towards kingdom living might seem to appear obvious or insignificant, but if so then it ought to drastically change the way we live our lives in representing Christ accurately.
Right Living for Right Fruits
To further explain my point, let me share a brief testimony from a local pastor.
He shared how he and his wife had struggled to decide whether she should resign from her job after they discovered she was pregnanted with their second child.
What made the decision a challenge was because the wife was a long-serving personal assistant to the senior pastor of their church. Hence, her role was considered important to the leader and the church.
But with faith rooted in kingdom-living, they were convicted of their intentions in desiring to fulfill their role as godly parents and believed that having more time with their children would be the right thing for them to do for the kingdom’s sake (and not the church’s sake).
Obviously, they had their senior pastor’s support and blessings, and today they have four happy children.
I can’t imagine how things would have turned out if they had adopted the unbalanced ”seek first His kingdom” approach in making their decision.
As another famous local preacher said, “The right believing will produce the right living.”
Question to ask ourselves: “Is our walk and faith based on kingdom-living or church-living?”
Let’s pray that we will be able to differiente one from the other.
I am a firm believer in the universal principle of sowing in the aspect of finances.
This principle of sowing is biblical and similar to that of contribution- an overriding principle of societal trust.
It’s the intent to create value instead of destroying, and to give back instead of take.
We are owners of nothing
It is a fact and reality that all of us are born on this earth with nothing and eventually, we will also leave this earth with nothing.
Nothing on this earth ( which includes our finances) truly belong to us as we will leave them all behind upon our demise.
Since that is true, it leaves with us with a logical response to use whatever we have, especially our finances wisely and purposefully during our lifetime.
Our approach in living life should be one that aims to take advantage of our God-given “window” of opportunity to make difference and impact in our generation by readily giving back.
Going against conventional wisdom
For most of us, this principle of giving clearly goes against conventional wisdom that teaches us to hoard and splurge on ourselves.
This has led us in becoming willing slaves to consumerism in our modern society.
Evidently, we have allowed consumerism to define who we are; which equates to our personal happiness with the consumption and the purchase of material possessions.
Therefore, an effective cure towards unhealthy consumerism is adopting the principle of sowing in one’s lifestyle.
Living a life of giving
William Colgate, the founder of the Colgate-Polmalive Company, maker of soaps and dental-care products was a regular giver.
Throughout his long and successful business career, he gave not merely one-tenth of the earnings of Colgate’s soap products; but he gave two-tenths, then three-tenths, and finally five-tenths of all his income to the work of God in the world.
During the later days of his life he revealed the origin of his devotion to the idea of tithing.
Since his death in 1857, he left behind a company that is successful to this day and a college that bears his name.
In 2006, Warren Buffett announced that he would give $37 billion (85 per cent of his net worth) to charity.
Two years later in 2008, Forbes ranked him as the richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of approximately $62 billion.
Clearly, his net worth did not deplete with his generous giving, instead he reaped more from what he had sowed and remained massively wealthy.
This is the universal principle of sowing at work.
Reaping from the giving
Many of us (including myself) are no where near Warren Buffet’s net worth, but I believe we can still start sowing whatever little ‘seeds’ of finances we may have.
Personally, I started sowing nine years ago. My main practise of this is in the form of a monthly tithe to my local church.
Since then, I have experienced steady and accelerated growth in my personal finances with promotions and salary increments.
I know I’m have been blessed as I do not have any material lack. Now I also do not need to borrow on occasions like I had to in the past, just so that I could tide through the rest of the month.
A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.
Proverbs 11:25
I had also experienced many miracles of practical providence from various avenues that helped me to be where I am today.
For instance, my fully-sponsored degree education and love offerings when I was unemployed whilst transiting between jobs.
Start sowing your ‘seeds’ of finances
Having experienced this principle at work, I realised that my earning capacity and value-add does increase with my desire and my readiness to give generously.
However, please do not be misunderstand that I’m promoting giving to help others with the intent to gain something back or to expect financial returns.
My reasons for citing those examples including mine is to attest that giving isn’t that horrifying as one might think.
In fact, it is so…ul rewarding.
Even if one is not a Christian, I believe this principle is universally applicable. And for instance, anyone can start sowing regularly (a tithe or one-tenth) towards a humanitarian cause or some charitable programme.
True living comes from real giving. We make a living by what we get but we make a life by what we give.
Let’s start sowing!
Last Sunday, I visited the “Dead Sea Scrolls & the Ancient World” exhibition at The Arts House.
It was a good platform to gain a condensed overview of the bible’s history spanning over 5,000 years which included four fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest—known Hebrew manuscripts of the bible.
The Bible- God’s word
Growing up as Christian, I was taught that the bible was the word of God and the authority to which man should abide as their life and moral compass.
However, these claims remain both controversial and debatable. I guess this lies on the reason that the bible though inspired by God, was written through man.
But for me, I believe and I’m equally convicted of the bible’s claims as I have experienced how it has provided me much needed knowledge and insights to shape and transform my life for the better.
Personally, I think the bible is a living legacy that has been left for us to discover His promises and to understand His will towards a successful and powerful life.
The Bible- Eternal word
I found the exhibition rather helpful in appreciating the rich history that has went into the bible that we presently know and have today.
Indeed, the bible has endured the tests of time and prosecution (and will continue to).
In the past, only few elites had the privilege to read the bible. It was not not easily accessible to the common people for various practical and political reasons.
Things only change because of the many unseen and untold sacrifices (to the extend of death) of those that have gone before us. And today, all of us are able to freely read and learn the word of God.
But the irony of today’s reality is that majority of us neglect the reading and studying of the bible.
I mean if there are so many people who were willing and actually sacrificed their lives in order for us to read it, then there must be something in this book that is so important for us to know. No?
The bible, dead or alive? That’s left for each one of us to discover and decide.
Funny as this may sound, but I do find myself feeling guilty or embarrassed when I think I have received too much of God’s blessings or favour.
Have you felt the same way?
Responding to His blessings
I would also find myself in an uneasy situation where I would feel embarrassed to share those awesome testimonies with others when required to.
The common struggle would be my overly concern about what others might think of me and perceived that I am boasting or bragging.
This is especially so when it happens to be in the aspect of material/practical or financial prosperity.
I guess this might have to do with a wrong self-image or being rooted in a wrong theology towards finances that had not been addressed before.
However, I have being unlearning, re-learning and learning these matters and realised that I should neither deny nor be ashamed of His blessings and favour over my life.
By doing so, I would be de-valuing who I am as His child and not allowing Him to be fully and accurately reflected in my life.
Learning from Joseph
I read in the Bible that among all of Jacob’s sons, he doted and loved Joseph the most.
When Jacob gave Joseph a beautiful robe, he put it on despite knowing that it would have incurred the wrath of his brothers.
But he still did it because he was more interested in honouring his dad than gaining the approval of his brothers.
Likewise, I recognised that God loves me unreservingly. And His blessings and favour are bestowed upon me undeservingly. This is for His glory, not mine.
More importantly, my self-image and identity are held up in God as His child; His beloved and anointed son.
As He is, so am I.
Last week, I celebrated my 31st birthday.
Yes… I’m now officially over 30, and I’m proud of it… Yeah!
Personally, this year is a significant year for me in many ways.
A year of significance
With this being the first year after my 30th year, I am experiencing many new frontiers in various aspects of my life.
This year is the first birthday in a new church with a new group of friends and new ministry.
This year has ushered me towards a new phase of life and commmitment with someone whom I love and can comfortably call as my soul mate.
This year has led me to a new organisation with a new position and new portfolio.
This year has brought me and my family members to a new level of intimacy especially with our first road trip together as one big family.
This year has also provided me with a new level of reach with my network of friends.
Out of a sudden, I’m re-connecting with friends that I have lost touched for years and making new ones in the strangest circumstances as well.
Lavished with His goodness
Having used to living my life in the past that was full of chaos, instability, lack and self-centredness, I’m still learning to fully embrace His ever-increasing peace, stability, prosperity and love in my new life.
Frankly, I do not know how to begin to thank God. But I know I owe everything to Him.
He took me in when I was in my lowest. And not only that, He loved and nurtured me as if I was worthed the effort and time.
From where I was then with totally nothing, to where I am now with at least something. I know that He has been unreservingly good to me.
Looking back at an old entry that I published three years ago on my birthday, I’m grateful that most of what I had mentioned has made significant progress and that includes the expansion of my tummy. Ha ha…
God is good, and I’m looking forward to another 31 years (and beyond) of His goodness in my life!
Andrew: Inside & Insights 