Sermon thoughts: Submission between spouses!!

OK, I am going to put my head on the chopping board and blog about submission in a marriage! :(

Well, that’s because last Sunday, our worship sermon was on 1Peter 2:12-3:13.

This is by far the most sensitive issue for Christian marriage. I remember way back about 20 plus years ago when I was attending this young adult cell group in San Jose, California. One newly married couple spoke strongly against submission. The wife, a Taiwanese lady but raised in America claimed that the passage was “a mistake” in the Bible. Her American husband smiled and nodded. The discussion centered mostly on cultural issues, where submission was a Middle East ancient culture which women normally submit to men (father, brother, and husband). So, the group unanimously agreed that submission in marriage is subjective to culture and does not apply to Americans. Hooray!!

Back track couples of years when I was student in Polytechnic trained under the para-church, Navigators. In one of the leadership training session, my ministry leader made a profound statement which I still remember till this day. He said, “In any organization, system or animal group, there must only be one head (one leader). If there is no head, it is a demon. If there are 2 or more heads, it is also a demon. There must be only one head.” On reflection, this apply also to a family, there must be one head (one leader). Even in the Trinity Godhead, it is the Son submitting to the Father and never the Father submitting to the Son.

OK, so why can’t wife be the leader at home and husband submit to wife?

I know it is very hard for the sisters to swallow if I said that God told Eve that he (referring to Adam, her husband) will rule over her (Gen 3:16) after they sinned. Before they sinned, Eve is Adam’s helper (Gen 2:18-25). To be able to help someone means that you must be capable in order to be of help. It is only after they sinned that Adam is designated as the ruler of the home.

Frankly, I am ok that my wife wants to be the leader of the house. Since she wants to take leadership and there can be only one leader so that it is not a “demonized” home, I do my part and give love, respect and consideration to her (1Peter 3:7). But, sisters, bear in mind one day, you need to stand before God and answer Him: “Why do you want to be the leader of the home?”

Finally, to sisters who are not yet married: marry only a Christian man whom you can accept him as the leader of the home. If you can’t, he is probably not good for you.

Agape :)

Waiting …Hoping … :( or :) ?

Waiting can be daunting. Even now, I am still anxiously waiting.

I wait because I believe there is hope. Otherwise, there is no point waiting.

You see, I had ordered some crystal oscillators on 3 September 2009 for my project which must be delivered on 8 January 2010. At first, the supplier confirmed his delivery date to be November 27. Then as the day came and gone, I was told that it’s going to be December 18. So there was still hope. Unfortunately, it turned out to be false hope. They delayed the delivery date to 19 February 2010. This set me wondering, is this finally going to be real?

A week before Lunar New Year (14 Feb), I emailed them. Sadly, it was another false hope and they shifted the new date to be the first week of March. I began to get anxious and worried.

And I am still waiting and hoping, hoping and waiting. In the midst of all this kan-chong (anxiousness), I was also praying and seeking God for wisdom. But HE chooses not to speak – silence.

I took leave on 12 Feb and was at the Singapore Bible College Library. As I was browsing through the books for only a short while, one particularly book caught my attention.

WAITING – Finding hope when God seems silent

Yep, this is the book I have read during the last 4 days of this holiday period. Is this what the Almighty is directing me to do? If Abraham has to wait for 25 years to see his child born (at the age of 100!), what does waiting mean to me?

Then yesterday’s devotion from Our Daily Bread passage was on Psalm 62. I was reading from my New Revised Standard Version and verse 5 & 6 just jumped out of the text:

For God alone, my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.


Waits … in silence … hope is from him …He alone … not be shaken.

Mere coincidence?? This verse speaks volume to me today.

Roger, over!!

Moving forward or staying put?

Ever since I read what Dr Albert Ting (Principal of Singapore Bible College) wrote in the Jan-Feb 2010 edition of the SBC newsletter:

"Vision without action is only good intention."

Shall I or shall I not continue with what I have planned to do?

Devotional Thought: Who else are invited?

Whenever I received a wedding dinner invitation from a friend, my mind usually ask: “Who else are invited?”

Also, to be invited to one’s wedding is a show of good friendship and relationship. After all, we want to celebrate our joyous occasion with good friends and relatives only. So, I never, never turn down a wedding invitation unless I am oversea or in army (reservist) training.

Last month, one of my company’s former engineer invited me to his wedding dinner. He did not invite his boss (who is my colleague and peer ) to his wedding. I guess they are not in good working relationship. That is also probably a reason for leaving my company.

In today’s Our Daily Bread, as I read Revelation 19:1-9 , I know one very important day will come where I will be invited to a wedding supper. I am excited about going to this wedding supper. To miss this wedding supper is as important as Heaven and Hell. Are you sure that you will be invited to this wedding supper? And so, I will ask “Who else are not invited?”

This wedding supper is only for those who have received the blood of the Lamb, and have a good relationship with the groom, our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us reach out to those who we know and introduce them to the groom. They will then be invited to this wedding supper.

See you are the wedding supper of the Lamb! :)

'Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!'

Devotional Thought: Wealth - Sharing or Hogging?

We all like to get rich. And there is nothing wrong with it.

But then, the question is, what do I do with the vast amount of money if I am rich?

As I read Our Daily Bread this morning on Luke 12:13-21 , I can’t help but ask this question to myself. No, I am not rich, just enough to live the day, sufficient to sustain my family of 5 (I am the only bread-winner), and keep some for the children’s university education in the near future.

The rich farmer in Jesus’ parable, did nothing wrong actually. He continues to grow his wealth. However, what Jesus says is wrong with him is that he is rich only to himself and not rich towards God (Luke 15:21). How then does one become rich towards God?

Last Saturday, I attended a friend’s daughter wedding dinner. In Singapore, a wedding usually cost a fortune and guests usually give cash gift in the form of Ang Pao (red packet). As I was deciding how much to give, the words “Be a Blessing” kept ringing in my mind. It is good to have money to be able to bless someone. Perhaps, that is what Jesus means when He calls us to be rich towards God – sharing our wealth and not hogging it all for self?

Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." (Luke 12:15)

Dinner @ Crab Party

Last Saturday night, the Young Adult! ministry had a group dinner at this place called Crab Party.

About 14 of us were there. Shannen and her boyfriend came later and left shortly.

Luh Sy came, what a surprise. :) Thank you, we need more of the "older generation" to come. OK, sorry for calling you old. I am just as old (haha!!)

It was just a gathering, nothing much. We have been thinking about how we can improve this group meeting to draw more of the young adult who had left us to come back. It is tough to get them back. Seem like we have been paying the price of not spending time in nurturing them spiritually when they were younger. Now that they have left - Erina, Rachel, Faith, James, Cecilia, Eunice, ... , I wonder the church have realised the mistake some ten years back to just leave the Youth Alive! to be run by the youth themselves.

May be not. We still think we are doing well. .... :(

Devotional Thoughts: The Visible Mind

Imagine what will happen if every human mind is like a visible computer monitor or a television. Other people can see instantly what you are thinking!! Haha! :)

It will be interesting to see what a man is thinking when a skimpily dressed, sexy, gorgeous lady walks by him. Haha! No hypocrisy or pretentiousness is needed in very situations.

In one sense, we do have a visible mind, but only the Omniscient Creator can see.

Well, as you turn to our Daily Bread this morning, http://www.rbc.org/devotionals/our-daily-bread/2009/11/05/devotion.aspx and read your Bible from Psalm 139: 3

You discern my going out and my lying down;

you are familiar with all my ways.

Today devotion is more of a soul searching and self-evaluation of my life. When I try to see myself as the LORD sees and is honest with myself, then all the good things that I think I have done are really just like filthy rags.

How about you?

And so, like the Psalmist, this is my prayer:

Search me, O God, and know my heart;

test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there is any offensive way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.



Let others see what God can see in you!

Serving with LOVE! :)

Finally, someone prepared my breakfast today!

It’s always the only man of the house that prepares breakfast for the family. No, I am not complaining. :D In fact, it is always nice to serve my family – cleaning and mopping the whole house, whenever it is a public holiday or I am on leave, running around getting things fix, etc.

Yah, my second girl is always the one to volunteer and work with me, whenever I do house chore. She is also the one who will follow her mother and help carry the grocery.

So you can guess who prepares my breakfast. No prizes for that. I actually took a photo of it, but somehow I could not upload into the computer. Will try it sometime. Anyway, you can guess what it is by this google picture, haha!!

Perhaps, it runs in the blood. She is the only person in the family that has the same blood group as me. The only girl who will go jogging with me.

It's great to serve with Love.

Devotional Thoughts: Loosing & Finding Love

We all rejoice when we hear that a couple in the YA! is pairing up. :)




But it saddens me when another couple breaks up after many years of relationship. One choose to remain single, the other moves to a new relationship (seen from the Facebook photo and status). The single remains hurt; the other is probably enjoying the new relationship.

Yah! Can sense it mah! Read and see their FaceBook posting, lah.

We who are friends are still wondering, questioning, and learning from the episode. And praying for them also.

Do you?
Well, at least, I am

Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh! Lost and found … emotions are often triggered when I loose or find something. Just a few days ago, I picked up a ten cents coin early in the morning while walking to the HDB car park. It is not the amount, but the sudden small impulse of hilarious feeling is enough to brighten the outlook of a new day. (naïve feelings?)

As I turn to today’s Daily Bread devotion, http://www.rbc.org/devotionals/our-daily-bread/2009/10/29/devotion.aspx
(Luke 15:4-24)

my mind just wanders to those couples who have lost or found love, relational love.

In the 3 parables, what cause the shepherd to loose a sheep, the lady to loose a coin, and the father to have a prodigal son? Perhaps they are careless?

But the point of the parables is to rejoice when a sinner repents and come to Heavenly Father, whose name is LOVE.

So when you find something, treasure it and don’t loose it again, especially love.


TREASURE the things that you have found, especially LOVE! :)

Claustrophobia? !#@ :((

It was so cramped!!

Like craps all squeezing inside a basket.

I guess the youth themselves feel it. All 25 of them (or more?) cramp into a room meant for 10!!

This was my first visit to the BCPES youth sing-piration yesterday since they shifted to this place. And got a shock!

Why is it that the youth has never given a proper place to fellowship and run-wild, and be creative with their time together?

If I were to invite my lecturer, Dr. Koh who taught me on Christian Education from SBC to give a talk to these youth, I will surely get a scolding from her.

“Mark, didn’t I teach you that facility and environment is important to learning?”

“The size of the room is inversely proportional to the age of the student.”


Our youth need space!!


OK, just abit Kay-Poh here.

Mask?

It's kind of hard to see through people, ... until the mask is down :(

People see us as goody goody and maybe spiritual when we start serving in church ... BSG leader, Sunday school teacher, committee member, worship leader... but really are we getting right with God?

Serving in church becomes our mask! Recently heard something sad. Had to pray really hard.

If it is true, it is scary.

Very likely, it is true, from my own discovery.

How sad, the mask is there and I miss it.

Devotional Thoughts: Having my Sword ready at all times

“Every good Christians bring along their swords!” My Bible study and follow-up leader used to tell me when I was young.

Indeed, the sword of the Holy Spirit which is the Word of God (Eph 6:17) is the only offensive weapon that Scripture tell us how Jesus Christ defeat the temptations of Satan during his 40days fast in the wilderness. If the LORD uses Bible verses to overcome temptation, how much more I need to follow in HIS steps.


Today’s Quiet Time from the Daily Bread (Psalm 119:33-40): http://www.rbc.org/devotionals/our-daily-bread/2009/10/22/devotion.aspx

reminds me again of Scripture Memory and its power to shape my life. I remember when I first started Bible study with my leader, the first thing he did with me was to memorise Bible verses. We did that for one year, covering over more than 60 verses. These verses are the pinnacle of my Christian foundations which become my sword ready for all times of need. Since then, I have moved to keeping important passages like Psalm 1, Psalm 23, Psalm 121 and 1 Cor 13 into memory. They are in my sub-conscious mind. Often times, they surface in my thoughts unknowingly and suddenly to remind me to take a certain cause of action. I take this as the Holy Spirit using His word to prompt me to move towards His direction.

It is a pity that I see the younger generations of Christian not being trained in Scripture memory. In our Singapore education system, every students must memorize the 26 alphabets, the multiplication tables, the periodic tables (Chemistry), and if you are good at mathematics all the differentiation and integration in Calculus. I still remember them till these days.

How much more as Christians, we need to memorise the names and order of the 66 Books, important verses like John 3:16, 1John 1:9, Prov 3:5-6 and many more.

Have your sword ready at all times – in the head and heart!

Are there any Nazirite youth in BPCES (Amos 2:11)?

Does today's sermon speak to you?

Not much. But the sermon passage on Amos 2 showed me that maybe God is still working in Bethany PCES. Or was it just my imagination? Wonder how many of the congregation felt as I did?

When the Scripture reader was reading the passage, a verse seemed like leaping out of the page to me:

"And I raised up some of your children to be prophets and some of your youths to be nazirites. Is it not indeed so, O people of Israel? Says the LORD" (vs 11, NRSV)

Perhaps the NIV version uses "young men", so those who are reading in NIV may not feel as deeply as I do. I was anticipating that the speaker would speak abit about these nazirites youth that God has raised in Israel and how we Bethany can also raised some nazirites youth. But it was totally pass off :(

You see, for the whole week, I was thinking and praying about why we didn't reproduce our own disciples. I remember when we were studying the book on "Experiencing God" we learnt that God is always at work around you. So shouldn't we be on the look out how God is working at Bethany PCES? My prayer is "Lord, are there any youth who want to give themselves to you?" No answer for the whole week.

Then this morning, this verse in Amos leap out of the page to me. Nazirite (Number chapter 6) is someone who consecrate himself (or herself) to serve God.

Can we find any of our Bethanians who will set apart themselves for God??

Devotional Thoughts: Preparing For Christ’s Returns (1Thess 4:15-18)

“How prepared are you to face Christ Jesus at His 2nd Coming?”

Last Saturday, three of us turned up at the Drifter’s BSG. That was a question in our BSG on 2Timothy chapter 4. Both of them shake their heads.

“I don’t think I am prepared. :( “

As we sit there in silence for a minute or so, my mind was pondering: “How do I measure my preparedness for Christ’s return?”

This morning as I look into the Daily Bread website: http://www.rbc.org/devotionals/our-daily-bread/2009/10/16/devotion.aspx

The passage is definitely talking about Christ’s return and not about victory in death. (Perhaps the writer of the Daily Bread has gone a bit off tangent, but, never mind.) Christ can come even when we are still alive! Am I ready to meet Him in the air (1Thess 4:17)?

As a Boy Scout, who live by my motto: “Be Prepared”, I know I am ready to meet my master and Lord. I stand free of guilty conscience, doing what I believe a faithful Christian should do – obeying what the Bible commands as sins, helping the need of others, sharing Christ with unbelievers …, Moreover, I strive to live a Christ-like character of love. But I am still a sinner, with occasionally clashes with the old self within me. I believe all Christians face the same struggle. And so, we and I need the prompting of the Holy Spirit day by day in our daily routine, controlling our emotions, creating that awareness that HE is there to counsel us (John 16:7).

This preparedness is never ending.

BE PREPARED for Christ’s Coming!

Devotional Thought: The Handbrake in my Life (Psa 46:10)

I was quite agitated, yesterday.

Max, the new technician seemed hard on learning. I had to repeat a simple instruction a few times. And he showed doubt on my explanations.

“Frequency is inversely proportional to wavelength. This is PHYSICS. IF YOU DON”T KNOW THIS YOU CAN’T BE A MIROWAVE or RADIO FREQUENCY ENGINEER!”

He is on probation. We had a few clashes before and he does not take my instructions easily. Is this an obedient or teachable problem?

As my feeling was boiling inside me, suddenly something within me whisper: “Cool, man!”

Last night, I had a soul-searching time evaluating my emotion and the whole situation. God has gotten my attention. Or was it just my imagination that He is restraining me? Am I just trying to spiritualize the whole incident? Not sure who stop me, but it is good to have a handbrake that when “an accident” is going to happen, someone just pull that handbrake.


This morning, as I turned to the Daily Bread for my quiet time (Psalms 46):

http://www.rbc.org/devotionals/our-daily-bread/2009/10/14/devotion.aspx

The passage just hit right on to my thought that still linger from last night.

10 "Be still, and know that I am God;

I will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth."


Thank you, LORD for pulling the handbrake in my life. Amen!

Devotional Thought: Thankful or Complaining?

We Singaporeans like to complain!

Parents are again complaining about the PSLE examinations questions!

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/cna/20091010/tap-464-parents-arms-psle-mathematics-pa-231650b.html


And it is usually the top students who are complaining when they stumbled on a few difficult questions for fear that they will miss out the top few position. This is the Singaporean “Kiasu” mentality.

There was this problem sum posed:

According to posts on an online forum for parents, one example of the problem sums given was: "Jim bought some chocolates and gave half of it to Ken. Ken bought some sweets and gave half of it to Jim. Jim ate 12 sweets and Ken ate 18 chocolates. The ratio of Jim’s sweets to chocolates became 1:7 and the ratio of Ken’s sweets to chocolates became 1:4. How many sweets did Ken buy?"

I tried solving this question. Usually, it takes a while to understand the question. Once I know what the question is talking about, the solution comes easily.

Top students can solve it easily, lah!

Why Complain ah? If cannot solve, cannot be top students already lah, so no need to complain.

This brings me back to Yesterday Devotion from the Daily Bread on Col 3:12-17.
http://www.rbc.org/devotionals/our-daily-bread/2009/10/11/devotion.aspx

In this passage, I learn about 4 things:

(1) The Love of Christ (vv 12-14)
– my actions and behavior towards others

(2) The Peace of Christ (v15)
– be in harmony and at peace with others.

– BE THANKFUL in all situations.

(3) The Word of Christ (v16)
– dwelling in me richly

(4) The Name of Christ (v17)
– whatever I do, I carry it out in the LORD’s name

Be Thankful, not complain-full.

Things don't turn out the way it is!

I woke up early these morning and discovered that my crop in my "farm" in farmville was blue berries instead of tomatoes!! Moreover, they have all withered. Tomotoes take 8 hours to grow but blue berries take only 4. I felt very cheated because farmville changed my crops and killed them all.

In life, there are many instances that things happened to us beyond our control, even though we are very meticulous and do things carefully. I know very clearly I planted tomatoes because tomatoes like grapes, need sticks to support their climbing branches. Also, the coins are doubled - tomoto cost 100 coins each, while blue berry cost only 50 coins.

Even though it is just a game, it reminds me that we cannot be fully in control of our life, the environment can also change our course in life.

Only God is full in control.

Different sexes solve problems differently

When a man encounters a difficult problem, he will analyze and think about how to solve it. When a woman faces the same problem, she will ask for help. In the end, the woman find the solution, while the man is still thinking of the problem!

I see this happen many times in Amplus. I have ladies engineers - Yang Ling and Xu Fan, and guy engineers - Resmond, Andrew, and now Max. All of them do the same thing. The guys will not approach me for help and will always try to show that they can do it. The ladies will almost immediately come to me for help and learn how to solve the problems.

Man has a big ego! He trys to show that he can do it without help :(
This apply also to me. It taught me to ask and be open to discuss. I don't need to show that I know everything and so I usually ask around from those who have done or experiment with certain engineering areas before, to get some knowledge.


Presently, only Max is now working under me. All the other engineers have left the company. After 3 weeks, I still see him struggling with his project. And I am still waiting to see if he will approach me to ask for help. Before him was Xu Fan. The moment she faced some problem, she would ask me for help, just like Yang Ling.

I always tell my engineers - "There is no penalty in askig questions." "Always ask if you don't know." (For those who are Christians, you will know Matt 7:7 - Ask and it will be given to you)


Watch my ego!!

BPCES Church Planning retreat briefing

Does it really make any difference year after year to this church even if we don’t have any planning retreat?

After last Sunday (4 Oct) briefing by Pastor, which was more like assigning what job to which people (hope I am wrong), I feel like “here we go again, looking for people to get things going”. The church is like going on a “maintenance mode”.

We have nearly come to an end of year 2009. But, do we see any transformation of people lives? Do we see more people getting more eager to know God – Bible study, talking about spiritual things, … Do we see more care and concern for one another? Do we see an increase in church attendance? Or do we see more slackers, more people not coming for BSG, same old people doing the “job of the church”?

The answer is - yes, and no to some extent.

Which boil down to one thing more personal to me (since I am being appointed to be the BSG coordinator), have we achieved what we want to see in the BSG in 2009?

Sorry, ah, what is the objective for the BSG in 2009? (forget already lah!)

Ok, in 2008 BSG planning retreat, I talk about this:

It has been said:
A leader is a person with a magnet in his heart and a compass in his head.
- Vance Hainer.

If this is true for a leader, then,
A Christian leader is a person with a Cross in his heart and a Bible in his head.
- Mark Lim

(1) Have our BSG leaders develop the Cross Mentality?
(2) Have they grown in the knowledge and love for the Word of God?
(3) Have we found the “Mary” – who have a heart to learn, the “Martha” – who have a heart to serve, the “Lazarus” – spiritually dead or lethargic but can be made alive ; the “Zacchaeus”, the “Bartimaeus”


Think about these 3 questions as we move into year 2010.

The most difficlut relationship

In life we have many relationship. The most difficult one is the husband and wife relationship. We see each other everyday. We even sleep at the same bed, that is how close the relationship is.

Last night, a relative talked to me about her daughter's Boy-Girl Relationship. This relationship has intertwined to the extend that both the familys are very much closer. They had been receiving gifts like moon-cakes and festive goodies from one another, attending family dinners and special occasions. However, the boy friend is not a Christian, and is just not ready to consider Christ at this moment.

The daughter is talking about breaking up. This hurt her family.

Marriage is like putting two very different people into a burning furnace. Either they slowly burn to ashes or being purified.

Don't rush into it if you are not ready!!