Pastoral Message (Page 56)

By Not Known Not too long ago, Barack Obama captured the imagination of the world with his campaign slogan, “Change we can believe in.”  It gave new hope to the American people as well as the rest of the world.  So, have we seen change?  Or are we back to square one after several years? I suppose in many ways, the USA has changed but not in ways…

By Not Known We are bombarded daily with all kinds of “promises” visually and in words – in advertisements, on the menu card, from sales speeches, et cetera. When we are careful to listen or read the fine print, much of what is promised amounts to “hot air”. Some of the terms and conditions are simply onerous on the customers. Even hawker…

By Not Known On 30 July, the first-ever official Singapore family pledge was unveiled.  It was to encourage individuals to reaffirm their commitment to their loved ones.  It was about the family being the foundation of society.  As such, everyone has a part to play in nurturing family ties. This is an important milestone for a maturing society, a society…

By Not Known The birth of a child is a wonderful event, it’s raising them for the next 20+ years in the ways of the Lord that is the real challenge. When they are infants and toddlers, they mostly need physical care, but as they grow, greater attention, greater prayerfulness, thoughtfulness and skills are needed especially in spiritual aspects .  A report from…

By Not Known At its heart, the Bible is about relationships: how God relates with us (the vertical relationship), and how we relate to each other (the horizontal relationship). In fact, Jesus reminds us in John 13:34-35, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my…

By Not Known When love fails, tempers flare, hurtful words fly, fist-fights and abuses ravage our relationships… husband and wife estranged from each other over painful years… face-offs between parents and children leave another generation broken… bosom friends become sworn enemies… When love fails, so do joy, peace, patience, kindness,…

By Not Known God has not only predestined all believers to be conformed to the image of His Son (Rom 8:29), He also commanded us to be transformed into that image (Rom 12:2).  To be transformed into Christ’s image means to be holy as God is holy (1 Pet 1:14-16).  It entails much more than a change in our outward behaviour, involving a deep penetrating work…

By Not Known Preaching is an awesome responsibility. Most preachers do their best to exegete the preaching passage, carve out an outline, apply relevantly and find apt illustrations. They seek to be competent “wordsmiths” aiming to inspire God’s people to live godly lives in the coming week, and to nurture long-term spiritual maturity. All this requires…

By Not Known In a Jurong Town Council newspaper which is circulated every quarter, there was an article entitled “Love your neighbours”.  A quote by Mdm Halimah Yacob (one of our MPs and current Speaker of Parliament) followed: “Neighbours who don’t know each other, don’t care for each other, that’s the problem. If we did know…

By Not Known Many make excuses for not doing their best and not striving for excellent results but instead settle for the mediocre.  Here are some people who offered no excuses but simply gave their best and accomplished excellent results. At 19 months, Helen Keller became deaf and blind. But she was the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts…