Church News (Page 55)

By Not Known This year Singapore marks 30 years of “Total Defence” which was initiated to remind us that there are 5 pillars which support Total Defence: military, social, civil, economic and psychological.  On the TD logo which is shaped like a hand with 5 fingers, there is a handwritten tagline: “It’s personal.  Play your part.”  It is a…

By Not Known Recently I found an old video of our eldest daughter.  She was a year old, sitting on her baby chair, singing “Itsy, bitsy spider climb the water spout.”  Watching that clip brought a smile to my face and the realisation that I have been a parent for five years and eight months. Parenthood has been a most rewarding yet terrifying journey,…

By Not Known “Excuse me, are you a leader?”  When somebody inquires of you in this manner, it can mean one of several things: (1) You have exhibited what it takes to be a leader; (2) You are unbecoming of a leader; (3) I’m looking for a leader.  Similarly, when people privately ponder about us or publicly probe us about our religious identity, they could also…

By Not Known Like the foolish Galatians, some of us cannot accept the fact that we can gain salvation by just taking God at His word!   Believing in Christ Jesus Who died for our sins and rose again from the dead for our salvation just isn’t good enough!  Surely it can’t be that simple and that alone — there must be a catch somewhere.  Surely there…

By Not Known They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.   When I first drove through the south side of Chicago many years ago, I was struck by the ugliness of the place.  Boarded-up shops, graffiti-filled walls, overgrown weeds, abandoned playgrounds, wheel-less cars propped up on bricks, etc., were the signs of a neighbourhood that had seen better…

By Not Known Every church must evangelize or fossilize.  Grow or die.  Those are the stark options.  Some churches may increase in number, but has it been biological growth (children of believers/members), transfer growth (transferring from other churches as they marry or move from one part of Singapore to another) or is it conversion growth (increase in…

By Not Known Paul said in Romans 10:15, “And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent?”  This was actually part of a series of rhetorical questions that Paul was posing to the recipients of this letter.  For him, there must be some sequence of events prior to anyone coming to the saving knowledge of Christ.  One of which is this: how can…

By Not Known From antiquity past to the present, “peace” was and still is being bargained for and traded like a commodity between opposing tribes and peoples at a price.  In Genesis 12, Abraham traded his wife Sarai for peace with the Egyptian Pharaoh so that his life might not be threatened (vv12-13).  In Joshua 9, the Gibeonites deceived Joshua and his leaders…

By Not Known One of my favourite Biblical passages is Isaiah 6 when Isaiah had a personal encounter with Almighty God.  What intrigues me is Isaiah’s vision of God’s majesty and holiness.  Through that vision which came about in a year of great significance for Isaiah, the demise of his beloved King Uzziah had occurred  (Isa 6:1).  Perhaps for Isaiah,…