Wedding Banquet

Congratulations, Xavier and Annabelle on your wedding day (27 Oct 08). May the Lord Jesus bless you with His kindness and joy and that your household be filled with great faith and trust.

Pan Ying's Personal Testimony

FCBC is privileged to have popular xinyao singer Pan Ying at the Hokkien/Cantonese church service last Saturday (11 Oct 2008) evening, to share her personal testimony of faith and victory over depression.

Both my wife and I are fans of xinyao and her songs brought back many fond memories of our schooling days.

I was deeply touched by her conviction in sharing God's message of love and salvation to the inmates at the Changi Prison. Her unwaivering servanthood for others has been inspiring for many church-goers who are merely seat-warmers and not servants for those outside the saving knowledge of Christ. Let this message be a reminder for all of us, that we will be used by God to fulfill His purposes for us.

Do Singaporeans in general have patience and a humble attitude?

Many of us had watched or read Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's National Day Rally 2008 speech on 17 August 08. PM Lee talked about gracious living and measures the government had taken, such as service excellence and courtesy campaigns, to "make people aware of their behaviour and conscious of the impact on others". I wonder if the majority of fellow Singaporeans resonate my sentiment that Singaporeans are not getting any more gracious towards one another, especially towards foreign workers amongst us.

Take a very recent observation. My wife lamented to me that on one of her shopping trips to Parkway Parade, while trying on a pair of Charles & Keith shoes, a lady was shouting and humiliating a native mainland Chinese sales girl because of the latter's poor grapse of the English language (or Singlish). Surely better understanding and empathy could be extended to the poor sales girl, instead of openly calling her names and challenging her to return to her motherland.

Lord, I pray that Singaporeans can be more gracious towards foreign workers and accept them openly. Because they are also created by You, we are to respect and love them regardless of their backgrounds. Give us a heart of humbleness and patience in our daily encounters with one another. In Jesus' name I pray and give thanks, amen.

Let your kids fail sometimes

Let's face it. Who doesn't want our kids to be successful or have a headstart in life? When the kids are in their pre-teens, we tend to fix their problems and attend to their needs every step of their ways. I've seen parents doing that even when their kids reach adolescence!

Dr James Dobson reminded us that teens desperately want to be thought of and treated as adults ("The New Dare to Discipline", Dr James Dobson, OMF Literature Inc., reprinted 2004, pp. 72-73). Chip Ingram emphasized the importance of letting our teenage and adolescent kids face up to their own consequences in order to foster responsibility, confidence and success ("Let Your Kids Fail", Chip Ingram, Focus on the Family with Dr. James Dobson, April 2007, pp. 18-20). In other words, let our kids fail sometimes. We could try to give advice or opinions but ultimately we need to let them make their own decisions and grow up to be responsible adults. I like what Ingram said about the parent's role: "A parent's job is not to make sure a child has a smooth or comfortable life. Our role is to put safeguards around them when they're young to keep them from ultimate harm; to gradually widen those safeguards as they mature; and to help them to grow into the person God wants them to be."

Dear heavenly Father, I know each child is unique as they are wonderfully made by Your hands. I pray that I would be able to let my kids flourish in their own ways and not hamper their maturing process. May You guide me in the nurturing of my children according to Your ways instead of overly protective of them when they reach adolescence. Teach me to be a good listener and counsellor to my children when they need advice and guidance. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

Making personal prayers through scriptures

Do you have a prayer for some one but do not know which scripture you could draw upon to bless this person? It happens to me quite often!

I was reading the past issue of "Discipleship Journal" (Issue 120 Nov/Dec 2000) and stumbled upon an article "Making Scripture Personal", contributed by a reader, Sue Skalicky. Instead of ruminating on scriptures , Sue's advise was to find a scripture and apply a personal touch to it in our prayer for the person we wish to pray for. This could be done by inserting blanks where we could write the person's name into the appropriate place in the verse. She gave Jeremiah 29:11-13 as an example:

"Father, You know the plans You have for ___________. Your perfect plan is to give ________ hope and a future. If _________ will call upon You and come and pray, You promise to listen and hear. I pray God that ____________ will seek You. For You will be found when ___________ seeks You with all his/her heart."

Thanks, Sue for the wonderful tip.

Unconditional Love

Yesterday's baptism service at Touch Centre was a very touching moment for me. Pastor Paul Lee delivered the sermon on God's unconditional love, with verses from 1 John 4:7-12.

"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us."

It brought back memories of how I came to know Christ and faced parental objections when I wanted to be baptised in church about 12 years ago. My baptism was postponed twice as a result of that. I thank God that I made it through after finally obtaining my parents' blessings, even though they did not attend my baptism service then.

Satan will never be able to dislodge us from God's plan and blessing unless we ourselves gave them up. It is the right given to us by God that we need to lay claim to. We are the justified children of God when we exercise our right to the sonship of God.

Nonchalance and inhospitality towards the underprivileged and foreigners

I was shakened by God's revelation of what caused the destruction of the ancient city of Sodom. Cast a vote and many of us would guess that it was the wickedness and immoral act of homosexuality amongst its inhabitants. Wrong!

God judged and destroyed Sodom because the inhabitants of Sodom were "arrogant, overfed and unconcerned" and they "did not help the poor and needy" ("40-Day 08: Beyond Words", LoveSingapore, 28 Jul 08). This is found in Ezekiel 16:49-50, and Rabbinic sources also claimed that the city was extremely inhospitable to foreigners.

In today's overwhelming pressures to be the best in everything that we do, we may inevitably become arrogant and oblivious of people around us, especially the poor and needy. Figures from the Department of Statistics put the number of foreign workers in Singapore to be more than 500,000 in the year 2006. As at Jan 2008, it was reported that foreigners accounted for one-third of Singapore's workforce ("Foreigners One-third of Singapore Workforce", 31 Jan 08, Agence France-Presse). Very often we read of complaints from Singaporeans, on the increasing competition brought about by the influx of foreign talents. Are we too, becoming inhospitable to foreigners amongst our midst?

Let the lesson on Sodom be a stark reminder for us to be sensitive and compassionate to the people around us, even to the foreigners who are using Singapore as a stepping stone to advance their career elsewhere. Here's my suggested checklist to bullet-proof our discerning hearts:

(i) Recognise God's heart for the poor and needy
Pray for compassion in us and to pray for those in physical and spiritual needs on a regular basis.

(ii) Stay accountable to one another
Be accountable to other God-fearing family members and friends in our actions towards the poor and needy, and foreigners amongst us.

(iii) Look inward and examine our hearts
Thank God daily for His protection and blessings for our nation and to take actions in serving the underprivileged in our society.

Singapore Garden Festival

My family had a wonderful time at The Singapore Garden Festival 2008, a biennial garden and floral extravaganza featuring floral creations from all over the world. We were all mesmerised by the beauty and enchanting designs of the displays. I had the feeling of being in the Garden of Eden!

Even though we may not have paid attention to the exotic names of the flower and plant species, the kids enjoyed themselves very much.

Here are some of the pictures taken at the fiesta and of course, God's wonderful creations.

Biblical Context of "Spare the Rod and Spoil the Child"

Just the night before, we had our family movie night. It was "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" DVD which we bought some months ago. Well, both Geraldine and I thought we could take the opportunity to explain the reasons on the different outcomes of the children characters at the end of the factory tour. We talked about humility, pride and arrogance, disobedience, tantrums and compassion to our children. It was to me, a great time of sharing of how there are unfortunate people around us, and how God has been blessing our family with our physical needs.

While the methods of discipline in the movie seem apalling, yet humorous, I can't help but wonder of the true biblical context of "discipline". What exactly is the definition of "discipline"? We've heard of "positive discipline" in parenting classes and literature, yet how is it different in our guiding principle for raising disciplined children?

What comes immediately to mind is Prov 13:24:

"He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him".

Dr James Dobson advocates appropriate spanking for a child's attitude adjustment in the shortest and most effective route and that there are no scientific bearings that allure to spanking by a loving parent breeding violence in children ("Solid Answers", James Dobson, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois, 1997). Dr Dobson also stresses the importance of embracing our child in love after punishment as an assurance that it is the misbehaviour that brought disapproval and not our dislike for the child personally.

Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo underscore the importance of "heart-training", that is the need for parents to reach out to the hearts of the children in shaping their hearts and characters. ("Growing Kids God's Way", Gary & Anne Marie Ezzo, Growing Families International, 2007). The scripture never refers to a child as a fool but that the untrained heart of a child contains foolishness. This is true biblical discipline.

From here, I learn that disciplining our children is to love them. Appropriate use of the cane corrects the heart conditions of misbehaviour. Encouragement and constant reassurance of our love for them is the best medicine in the whole disciplinary process!