DVC - final installation

I think the movie has come and would be gone very soon...based on the reviews i am hearing.
But still i have received feedback that some of our faith have been challenged.
I decided that this would be my last blog on this matter.

DVC has many false claims. Among those is the claims that all the history and facts are real. They were quoted from historians....yet upon further checking, you would find that NO historian was consulted...those he quoted were all authors and conspiracy theoists.

Further, his understanding of Christian history and findings were erratic. He is very novice in his understanding of even basic Christianity and historic finding. And for us to allow our faith to be challenged by man who is not even proper tutored in our faith only get to show how shallow we are in our faith itself.

So if this apply to you, time to enrol yourselves in LOS. Go to church regularly and ask questions to your leaders...they would be stronger in their faith when they are able to find and answer your questions.

Have FUN!

gnostic and gospel of judas

i did my teaching on Christology. And in the process, i did some study on the gnostic bible. i discovered that the gnostic is more interested in the hidden revelation of God than dealing with the fleshly issues of marriage or intimacy with Mary. such revelation or knowledge is for selfish gain. Anyway, the claims by Dan Brown, that Jesus married/had sex with Mary as "mentioned in the gnostic" is really baseless. He, knowingly or unknowingly, was attacking the deity of God through his conspiracy theory. I pray that he would see the Light and repent of his stumbling works.

As for the gosepl of judas, i was told that we should appreciate Judas. The reason was that without him, there would be no betrayal, no cross, no redemption.
This arguement had been around for ages. The truth is with or without Judas, God's plan of redemption would still be done. Jesus had no need to convince Judas to betray Him as opposed to what the Judas Gospel suggested. If we need to appreciate Judas because of the indirect contribution to salvation....we need to thank the devil too.

God is much more power than to need mere human to help Him to complete His redemption.
Actually, Devil was caught off guard, in the redemption plan. And wanted to kill Jesus at all possible cause. as such, even without judas, the devil would still move his armies in the human to capture Jesus. Only to fall into the greatest conspiracy of all....the redemption via the cross.

Sigh...if only we could make effort to know the bible and be impressed with God's surprise move, conspiracy work, wonderful miracles.....we would always find the wordly information interesting.

Personally, i am praying for a time next week to avail myself to handle all enquries about Da Vinc code and judas gospel. i would be flying back from beijing....but i felt the need to do...any comments...,,,,

Are you there?

I have been busy with many projects coming up.....starting with preaching at the baptism service tonight, preparing for my China trip + teaching there, leading PnP next friday, teaching Christology next Sunday, completing my M Ed project, organising GCYC and NCTC...

So i may not be writing anything pastoral over the next few weeks.

However, i am open to response to any questions you may have about our faith....just drop that into "comments". i will then enter my response into this blog. i will wait for 3-4 comments before i make my entry.

Till then, do pray for me.

Are you there?

I have been busy with many projects coming up.....starting with preaching at the baptism service tonight, preparing for my China trip + teaching there, leading PnP next friday, teaching Christology next Sunday, completing my M Ed project, organising GCYC and NCTC...

So i may not be writing anything pastoral over the next few weeks.

However, i am open to response to any questions you may have about our faith....just drop that into "comments". i will then enter my response into this blog. i will wait for 3-4 comments before i make my entry.

Till then, do pray for me.

Gospel according to Judas and Da Vinci Code

I was very amused that National Geographic would make such a big wave about Gospel according to Judas. Upon further thoughts, i was no longer amused. They are all trying to cash in on the waves of the Da Vinci Code and the Easter weekend. But more than that, they were fulfilling the prophesy in Revelation that more false prophets and wrong teaching would abound in the end times.
The more i think of this, the more i looked forward to teaching my people about Christology and Revelation. I want to make sure all my people are informed of the schemes of the devil and thus be able to stay FAITHFUL WITH THE TRUTH till the END.
Gospel according to Judas cannot be taken seriously just as would you take someone, 200years later in the future, who would write about me? or would you take the writing of someone closer to me like my wife or children or even my immediate disciples? the choice is obvious, we would take the writing of those who had been with Jesus and who was closer to Jesus (the 4 Gospels book in the Bible) more seriously than those who wrote 200yrs later (ie Gospel according to Judas; which by the way, was not written by Judas).
Anyway, the Gnostic Bible has been around as a cult-teaching since the 200-300 AD. we should not be surprised that they are back in this End Times. So if you are reading this blog..consider yourself informed!

sydney Uni Blue Mountain Nature


GOH speaking
Opera House


P's mum witnessing to youth

Principal of NICE and wife @ graduation centre.

Beyond mere study

i had time to visit the great ocean road and of course to see the 12 (7) apostles and the London Bridge.

Worldviews - my learning in M Ed

Dualism
This is a view that all of life can be splitted in 2 ways eg Secular and sacred split.
This is promoted by Plato which taught about the body (can be seen) vs soul (cannot be seen). Of course, the further addition was that what could be seen is evil and what could not be seen is good. This kind of worldview crept right into the church father as well. St Augustine classified things as eternal vs temporal. ANd given his past, he condemned sex as always an act of lust; he could be see sex as from God ie a Fall-Redemption mindset. Aquinas added to St Augustine with Nature vs Grace. When this thinking flowed into the Institutional Church, grace was exalted above all of life. Nature was reduced and removed from the church agenda. As a result the church lost touch with the rest of the world and became inward looking.

Rise of Secularism
Interest in Nature (actually a God-given interest) was widespread and soon secularism became more exciting for people. And the institutional church was left into the private domain of one's life. In fact, it was viewed that only the weak need to have faith. But our gospel is a gospel of All things; we should never have left secularism to rob the nature out of the domain of our faith.
Schaeffer – “Nature began to eat out grace”.

Rise of Science
Science came into the forthfront since it was able to explain and empower man to provide "dominance over creation again". only this time, it is done without God's intention.
This god-less movement brought forth Empiricism and Rationalism – science revolution. there is nothing wrong with Science. But when Science beame Scientism (absolute claim over nature) it became a worldviews that set us apart from true worship of God.
(Worldviews are incarnated in our lives. They are more than mere concept.)

Affirmation of Creation
Renaissance – glory of man
Reformation – glory of God

Idols of Modernism
Scientism – omniscience ; There is nothing I cannot know
Technicism – omnipotence; There is nothing I cannot do
Economism – sovereignty; There is nothing I cannot have
We are encouraged to bow down to these “idols”.

Worldview Crisis
Attack from post-modernism
Modernism reduces humanity; that man is only rational
The dream has failed. “Worldview” of despair.
It’s all about power and coercion of people.
No Worldview is true.
Opportunity for Christian
We need to leave reservation ; time to claim that there is absolute
“the world can now put up with Christian so long as we stay in reservation. The moment we step out of reservation and speak, the world benign smile to savage stare.” – RC Sproul

Pastoral reflection

I read the many nice cards given to me since the tabernacle weekend. they are very encouraging indeed. but upon further reflection, i realised that i should be very wise in handling such affirmation and praises.
why?
they can create a false sense of spiritual accomplishments. i have come to know, after 14yrs of serving, that the person who praises you today can curse you tomorrow. thus, cards and notes are good for the moment but they are not representative of effective ministry.
what then is?
The heart of obedience.
The litmus test of an effective ministry is to see if your people truly obey the teaching you gave in the Lord. some can cleverly cover their disobedience with excuses and delay. others can be swamped by personal struggles and preferences. some simply bo-chap.
Thus, as a leader, we need to exercise obedience to the Leaders over us...we must also discern the heart of obedience in the lives of our members. if we have to make verbal demand for obedience, it will only mean that we are not there yet with them relationally and spiritually....The best outcome will be they obey you when you teach/challenge/admonish/correct/inspire in the LORD.
Thus enjoy your cards when you do receive ...especial when your friends or leaders had watched "I not stupid too". But don;t let them get into the head....discern the heart > than the cards...

Multiply us LORD!

Praise God

The Lord is my provider!
I heard about how someone decided to start giving back his tithing that he owed the Lord and how God provided twice the amount back. I was very happy for the member.
But God is a God of humor...he asked if i dare believed Him for that too. i was hesitant..yes hesitant but i trusted and gave. The Lord showed me that He is indeed my provider. within a week, someone surprised me with a gift more than 50times of what i gave. it was an answer to a prayer for family overseas trip. but what blessed me more was that the Lord prepared the person 2mths back to give! Meaning God knew there and then i would be skeptical and i would be giving still....and He would be ready to surprise me. I am very humbled and blessed to know this God...who loves me despite my human weakness and ever so ready to show me His love....do you know Him as such? Ask God for a miracle for your lives and start to give/bless Him. you will be surpised and blessed.
The righteous shall live by faith......stretch your Christian experience....move in faith.

i want to encourage all of you to stretch your faith to believe God for lives to be given to you to disciple. If you are discipling nobody yet, ask God for your 12 by Dec. If you have 2-5, ask for 12 still. But don;t evaluate your goal only at Dec 06. Set a goal by end of March....close enough for personal evaluation and mid course correction if need be.

Meanwhile, we have also establish our tribe blog at www.makeourlivesmanymiracles.blogspot.com.
Go and post your remarks or comments or photos or whatever that is edifying. my blog will be link to this as well.

SO much for now....sow in Faith....

it is February - a time to sow

So quickly we have entered Feb 06. i was blessed to be reminded that we will have a NEW beginning last week at the service.

i was also been reminded separately that God will give us a new anointing ONLY when He is giving us a new assignment. We don’t need a new anointing for an old assignment. We may need a fresh anointing to continue an old assignment. ….. BUT the rhema word is NEW…God is giving us a NEW chapter, a NEW anointing for a NEW assignment….and a NEW YOU! I pray that God will have His ways in your life and that you will be indeed NEW (relative to now) in Christ by Dec 06.

Let's continue to sow in tears before God for both personal and corporate revival. We want to see the EXTRAORDINARY POSSIBILITIES OF GOD BY DEC 2006. BUT the process must start NOW........

So…start sowing….
“Teach me to pray with groanings so that there are earth quakes in hell.
Teach me the groaning of the Spirit until angels stand in awe.
Teach me Spirit-born intercession that changes history.
Teach me the birth pangs of the Holy Spirit until hell shaking revival is born.
Lead me into travail that will hold back divine judgment from the nations for a little season.
Let me be the living sacrifice on the altar of prayer, “bleeding to bless”, until flood tides of mercy sweep the nations.
Lord break my heart in intercession until my eyes, like those of Jeremiah, are a fountain of tears weeping for the slain of an educated, but spiritually dead, people.”
- Leonard Ravenhill”

The biblical principle is that when we sow in tears we will reap with joy. We cannot expect to reap in joy without any sowing; there is no reaping if there is no sowing.

Start S.......O........W.........I.........N..........G! We want to see our tribe reach 2000 Lord!
(picture is from GCYC. a picture to remind us about the nations...about expansion for His kingdom!)

a pastoral concerns - The Da Vinci Code

I did a simple teaching about what was wrong about this book sometime last year. i was surprised by so much interest among our students at LOS. we literally packed the room. Since then, we knew about the production of the movie, more illustrated books, etc to promote this distorted fiction book to the readers.
Do we just sit and let Dan Brown has his "distorted" say about our faith?
Certainly NOT!
I am glad that Campus Crusade for Christ and Covenant Evangelical Free Church have come together with several other concerned agencies to launch the DVC project. We were invited to participate so that the Body of Christ can turn the movie into a time for TRUTH to prevail.
As a stater, i will encourage all of you who are reading this blog to go to www.davincicode.org.sg
to read more for your personal information. We in Youthnet will work out something for all of you soon. Have a Blessed Chinese New Year.

Pastors' Summit 06

Dear family,
You would have heard pieces of news here and there…I thought I will write some for your prayer direction.

Indeed this is a summit of difference….not so much solid teaching but solid call for us back to prayer.
We are reminded to return back to prayer habit of our past ie prayer walking, warfare prayer, personal prayer.

But personally, I was encouraged that the word I released about multiplication and focusing on leadership development for our 12/144 was reaffirmed many times in the summit.
Yes, we need to talk more….essentially, we need to believe that God wants us to be fruitful and that includes bearing fruits through birthing and building of our 12/144. what it means for all of you is that we need to believe God that you can be a leader of 12/144. don’t give discount and make excuses…but ask God for wisdom and His ways to see this Extraordinary Possibilities for everyone of us in SJ tribe.

Go for God’s Glory.

MOL outcome

MOL Network Salvation Assurance Re-Dedication Others TOTAL Grand Total
Men 81 7 14 13 115

Women 140 10 12 28 190

Youth 163 14 34 30 241

TOTAL 384 31 60 71 546

What does these numbers mean to you?
It means something BUT not everything. The greater issue is what are we doing with who we have build relationship. Harvesting and consolidating are both equally important agenda in our quest for discipleship. we cannot be merely absorbed in the numbers and failed to see the constant needs to service and care our prebelievers and new believers into Christlikeness.

So if you are in my tribe, praise God for what He has done...but we need to press on in what we need to do ie continue to build relationships and point people back to God. for those who happened to read this blog, go and make disciples.....for this IS God's commission for all.

Blessed New Year to all readers.

praise items for Big Move and Max Pavilion

I am glad we have moved and we are ready for the 2nd service. in this last 7 days, i have heard great reports of God's working over the weekend. From miracles of healing to breakthrough in Christian walk, from feeling of stagnation to revival again. WoW!
i am happy for the many positive reports for the 1st week.

Of course from the church end, we saw great growth in term of numbers ie from usual 9000- (in previous year) to 10 800 just for this week. More than the numbers, i am excited about the change in the climate. People are more excited about God and His business.

If you are there, and God has blessed you somehow, please drop me a mail.
REALLY! HELP me to know what God is doing can? PLEASE.....
Haha. Give glory to God la.

what is next after the 1st move

We are reminded, at staff worship, that beyond the physical move, we need the personal revival! In Neh 8, we are reminded of the need to ;
Return to the assembly of the saints; promote unity, let the faith of others spur us.

Restore the priority for the Word; one read and one interpreted. the people cried upon hearing the word. the word cleansed us.

Rediscover the feast of tabernacle; what is the feast about? 2 harvests celebrated by feast of pentecoste (former rain-spring time) and tabernacle (latter rain-) - it is about the Holy Spirit.

Thus personal revival - call to community, to the Word and to the Holy SPirit.

We need personal revival because there is a difference between going out faith and going ON faith. We cannot rest on the fact that we have gone out. we need to going ON through Prayer. There must be prayer of Agreement - in the Assembly.
There must also be prayer of Appropiation - Apply (> hear) the Word
There, finally, must also be prayer of Anointing - joy (celebration) of the Lord is our Strength; Act with the Spirit.

The season is on....we need to ENTER the season! Don't stay out! Don't just observe! Jump In!

Specific Applications for my tribe;
Come early for service; be @ Max Pavilion by 1.15pm
Gather for processing of word; after service
Do BIG (believe in God) with HS.

Activities or the Almighty? part 2

i decided to comment further on this because of my pastoral concerns. i have seen and known of many pastors, leaders and serious christians who gave their lives in service but failed to take time to reflect on God and His dealing in our lives. I cannot help but remembered the life of Martha. She was busy looking into how to make Jesus comfortable but missed out the one thing that is most important! to be with Jesus. She is in the bible not for us to feel that she was a reflection of someone else. i believe God wants to warn all of us that we are potentially a Martha. we can serve, give, work, commit and fulfil many many more Christian's challenges... and yet miss the very heart of Christian life. We are called to worship! We are made for worship! We are destined to be worshipper. Yet, we can be excited about the music and missed the Master, aborbed by the mood and missed the Maker, consumed by the lyrics and missed the Lord (for which the words decribed). Why? How so? BEcause we are caught by the activities and missed the Almighty! We are interested in the task rather than the heart. It is easier to deal with the "no brain" activities rather than to face up with the ugliness within our soul. the heart is not a nice place to be at. sometimes, we are appalled by our heart conditions. sometime, we are so sick of our sickness in our heart. sometimes, we cannot believe we are so evil in our hearts. and precisely for reason like this....we need to ask God to help!
We all need a new heart! Change my heart O Lord!

Activities or the Almighty?

I enjoyed a few conversations lately.
they were not about great accomplishments or great signs and wonders....
they were about reflection....................
reflection on our hearts intent. our motivation in service, our struggle with sins, with selfish desires, with lust......
authentic confession. real people. real struggles. real GOD that they were conversing with. WE came out of the meetings, refreshed....we knew God was there with us in our conversation, our confession.
Authentic Discipleship is about dealing with the matter of the heart. the heart of the matter is always the heart! So Take HEART my reader!

ARE YOU READY FOR EXPO

8 more days to EXPO. 8 more days to experience EXtraordinary POssibilities. 8 more days to see more of God.
EXPO is big, we are small but God is BIG!
EXPO is far, we are inconvenienced but God came from Heaven to Earth!
EXPO is new, we are unfamiliar but God's way is always new to human!

Am i ready for EXPO? are you?

Beyond the physical move, God wants to deal with our spiritual state. He does not want us/FCBC to stay the way we are! He wants to stretch our faith to believe in the Big God who came near and dwelt among us.

The option for all of us, to flow/obey with God! It will be foolish to try something else when God has specific journey for us. it will be like Jonah running in the opposite direction only to be eaten up by the whale of God.

So what are you waiting for? it is a time for change! time to flow! time to obey! time to see the BIG MOVE OF GOD!