A Man Reaps what He Sows (Gal 6:7)

Today I preached in an SIB church in Kota Kinabalu. It was a small church but to my pleasant surprise a number of good friends were there plus four first-time visitors from the Phillipines. I preached on the topic "A man reaps what he sows" from Galatians 6:7. First I talked about the context of Galatians on how Paul admonished the Galatians not to fall back into legalism or allow themselves into subjection to the Law. I talked about the brand or kind of legalistic Christianity that focuses on the don't and "thou shalt not", but neglect the two greatest commandments framed in the positive, i.e., to love God and others. Christianity is not even about doing something, less so about refraining from certain sinful behaviour but it is about loving someone called Jesus and through him worship and serve the one true God and Father of us all.

Then I proceeded to enlarge on my theme that a nation reaps what it sows, in fact the world reaps what it sows. I spoke about the recent economic crisis, about the world or people of the world in their greed and rapaciousness consume all kinds of goods and world leaders entralled with the number games of economic growth (a.k.a GDP figures). This leads to my point on climate change, again a stark example that the world reaps what it sows. It sows to the wind but reaps the whirlwind. The world seeks after growth and prosperity with little regard to the environment and God's creation, our planet earth and we are reaping the consequence of climate change in terms of rising temperatures and sea levels that will have dire consequences to the human population in not too distant future. I pray that the leaders of the world to have the courage and conviction to do what is right for the earth during the forthcoming Copenhagen Climate Change Conference 7-12 December.

I concluded with some advice about the formation of Christian character and the need to constantly guard against the desires of the flesh. If we sow to the Spirit, from the Spirit we will reap eternal life. I spoke about the practical applications of this "sowing in the Spirit", namely in prevailing in prayers, communion with the Lord without interruption and distractions of this modern tech-savvy world, and also reading the Bible regularly to feed the spirit. Unless we are strong in the Spirit and our spirits are nourished thereby, we will have no impact in the world. If we are strong in the Spirit, we will be a blessing to others, to the church and to the society at large.

Dreams for my Son

It's about two weeks since we moved back into our house. My wife has had the larger share of the work of cleaning up. I did a few things around the house, especially dusting my books left on my old shelves. I plan to ship a few more boxes of books to Singapore in a week or two.

It's strange for me to stay home most of the time and practically doing almost nothing except spending time with my son, talking and chatting. It's time to catch up. I do not know whether I will ever have the time just devoted to my son. I took him around town every other day. He had a dental cleaning done a few days ago and today I took him to his driving lessons. He began to take up the lessons two years ago but before he could finish he had to return to New Zealand. Two days ago I took him to register in the driving school and lo and behold he had other plans in mind. His friend was enrolled at the same time and for the rest of the day I chauffered them around, took them out for lunch and waited while they went for a movie and then drove my son's friend home. It is good to be a father "again", knowing that over the years due to the hectic ministry schedule I got myself into, time for the family was always sacrificed for church work and caring for the needs of church members. Anyway, it is always good to get to know who your son's friends are even as the Scripture says, Bad company corrupts good morals.

President Obama when he was in his 30s wrote about his father, Dreams from my Father. I am in my mid-40s and writing Dreams for my Son. Parents sometimes (I would say fathers as my wife is always cool and not a worried type of person) are more anxious than their children on how they fare in exams. More so in government exams, University entrance, etc. My son's results for his first year study at University came out yesterday. It was posted online. I was thrilled that he did better that I thought he would (much better than my first year law results; I had an excuse - I read my Bible more than my law books). He will be majoring in Finance in a Commerce degree, but I hope he will also do an economics major as my dreams for my son is for him to be an economist. Perhaps I am influenced by the fact that in the past year or so, international news have been dominated by news on the global economy or financial crisis. Anyhow, I thought telling my friends one day that my son is an economist seems to sound better than a financial analyst or a financier (nothing against any profession for that matter).

(Photos: A huge rainbow just outside the house when I started this blogpost

My mango tree and first fruits)

2012

2012 the movie provided most of the thrills I expected. I watched it with my wife and son last night. How the world can change in a moment's time. 2012 is already out-dated. G8 portrayed in the movie is now G20. It's interesting that the two heroes of the story are African Americans, the geologist and the President. And the other lead act was not so great but believable, with the well-worn story line of how a father saved his family from destruction of the world. The worst line in the movie was when the half-mad broadcaster (how ironic that he was one of the few that knew the end was coming) said that end of the world is called "Rapture" by the Christians. How rapture theology has dominated the eschatology of mainstream America, I wonder.

Despite all the Hollywood entertainment and dramatics, the movie does have some semblance with how the world will end. Christians, though, do not talk about the end of the world. It is the end of one age leading to a new age. In a way it is the end of the present world as we know it. The end of the world is associated with the return of Jesus Christ (Matt 24:3). And this time it is not going to be by flood or tsunamis though tsunamis will no doubt happen in various parts of the world as a result of great earthquakes, but the destruction of the world will be by fire as "the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that in it will be burned up" (2 Pet 3:10).

After 10 Days

Experiencing a 10-day break from blogging and reading blogs has been good for the soul. You realized that there are many more important things in life than just updating one's blog. Though, after 10 days home in Sabah, I encountered many people who mentioned that they read my blog.

My last ten days have not been idle. Everytime I returned to Kota Kinabalu, for the first two or three days I would get up very early. At the cool of the early morning hours, one could hear the voice of the Lord ever clear and calm. My sermon in my denomination's Bible College went well despite the fact that it was my first sermon in Malay for nearly two years. I spoke about the need to continue learning to those who were graduating. You learn then you teach. Teaching other faithful men who in turn can teach others (2 Tim 2:2). To be an effective servant of the Lord, it is not only a matter of learning and teaching but more so the readiness to suffer for the sake of the Gospel and the ministry. No one enters the ministry of God's Word with the false hope of security, financial or otherwise. It is the least secure of all jobs but the rewards are great, says the Lord for no one who has left houses and wives and children for My sake will not receive a hundredfold now and in the age to come life eternal. My trip to the Bible College was made much more meaningful as I traveled with my President and we had plenty of time to share many things of God's work in Sabah.

A pleasant surprise was to find out that my good friend from Sarawak is now the President of SIB Sawarak. SIB Sarawak is even a larger entity than SIB Sabah. They have 680 churches and in Sabah we have about 480 churches. It was a good time to catch with friends and colleagues in the ministry after more than a year away.

Finally

I am now at Changi Airport waiting foy my flight back to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. I attended the Closing Communion Service at TTC Chapel. The reading of the day was Mark 13 about the End of Time. I was mentioned in the Principal's sermon, a reference to my Revelation Class which ended last night with a final exam.

Yesterday, Mr Stephen Green, the group chairman of HSBC gave a talk about financial markets, the economic crisis, globalization and urbanization. He was very passionate about the environment and climate change. He mentioned Borneo (where I came from) and how in 20 years the forests were depleted and the satellite pictures prove it. It is sad that Borneo is mentioned in such a light but may God grant us Borneans mercy and may Sabahans rise up to put things right and care for God's creation.

I tried to rush to finish some of my tasks, but to no avail. I met with my MTh candidate for a last time and encouraged her to push on in her research. At 5:30pm yesterday, I went home to pack and then by 7:30pm I went for my last class of the Semester. It was great that a couple of staff and a student helped out and they took care of the students in exams and I left after a few minutes.

When I think of this Semester, I can only think of God's wonderful grace for me. I will take a long vacation and spend a few weeks with my wife and son. I know when I return to Singapore my work will begin again. But God's grace abounds and I will serve in the strength of His Majesty for it is the Lord Christ I serve.

Final Three Days

I can't remember working for such a long period without even a break over the weekends. The End is nigh, but not soon enough. Today 35 students sat for their Greek exams. I expect the numbers to drop for the next Semester's Greek 2. Greek is a subject that you simply cannot take short cuts. Unless one is truly committed to learn this NT language, really the most important language which one can learn even more important than Hebrew since we are now in the new covenant and the New Testament corpus is written in Greek and the fact that almost 90% of the NT's citation of the OT also comes from the Greek Septuagint (LXX) makes it imperative that one must know Greek before undertaking exegesis of any NT passage or book. Like last year, one student wrote to me straight after the exam to say thanks (did he read my post on "Saying Thanks?") and such a gesture makes teaching worthwhile.

During the three-hour invigilation, I read one chapter of the thesis of my MTh candidate on "Gender Distinctions in 1 Cor 11:3-11". I thought enough ink has been spilt on this issue but my student shows great creativity and tenacity in the pursuit of her thesis. Her chapter on the Roman context of women's attire especially veiling is illuminating with reference to many primary and secondary sources. I think it will make an interesting contribution to scholarship though this is only a Masters level thesis. I will be meeting her tomorrow morning and after that I will set my final exam on the Revelation & the End-Times. I have another doctoral candidate whom I am supervising but I am somewhat glad that she is taking her time to come up with a thesis proposal, knowing that I can only do as much and anything more will be beyond any human capability and ability no matter how skilled, efficient and hard-working one tries to be.

I don't think I can finish marking even half my NT 1 exams scripts let alone Greek and Revelation exams before going back to Kota Kinabalu in 3 days' time. My weekend schedule is packed. Early Saturday morning I will leave KK at 6:30am morning to speak at a graduation service in Namaus, at the foot of Mount Kinabalu and on Sunday evening, I will attend a dinner at a restaurant on the occasion of the commissioning of the Women's ministry of my home church. I look forward to meeting my friends from my home church, the church I pastored for five years (2003-2008) and renewing fellowship with my brothers and sisters in Christ and together as one family of God in one Spirit worship the Father through the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Saying Thanks (2)

I wrote a blogpost about saying thanks some months ago. I am reading David Pao's Thanksgiving: An Investigation of a Pauline Theme (Apollos, 2002) and a number of things came to mind. Pao singles out ingratitude as one of the distinguishing marks of non-believers (p. 21). Pao cites Romans 1:21 where unbelieving Gentiles were condemned since "they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him." Further as Pao noted, "ungratefulness" is one of the characteristics of the fallen world in the last days (1 Tim 3:1-5). Are we grateful to God? I think if we are truly thankful to God, we will show it by our appreciation of others as well. It means that we do not only give thanks to God but also to those from whom we have received some benefit or grace. As the Scriptures says, "How can you say you love God whom you have not seen; but do not love your brother whom you can see?" In the same manner, how can we say that we give thanks to God while we do not even say thanks to those whom we have derived some blessings. Whoever offers thanksgiving glorifies me, and to him who orders his way aright I will show the salvation of God (Psa 50:23).

One problem of the lack of thankfulness to others is that we live in a culture of rights and entitlements. We think that just because we pay for something, the service rendered is our right and therefore there is no need to say thanks. In some Western countries it is common to hear people alighting from a bus saying thank you to the driver. Yes, we have paid our fares, and the bus driver is paid to do his job. Thus one can easily justify that there is no need to say thanks. In a materialistic and self-centred world, perhaps not. The teller or check-out cashier is just doing her job and we are paying for our goods and services received, thus there is no reason to say thanks. But how wonderful it will be if Christians become a gracious people, always giving thanks. First to God for He is our benefactor and all that is ours belongs to Him and from him comes all good things, and then to others around us, especially those whom God has used to bless us one way or another.

APEC CEOs Summit

Mr. Steve Green, the Group Chairman of HSBC Holdings PLC who is in Singapore to attend the APEC CEOs Summit 2009 will be giving a talk here at Trinity Theological College this Thursday, 12th Nov from 12:00noon - 1:30 pm (see the announcement here). I was really hoping to see President Obama in his first visit to Singapore on the 14th Nov, but on the 13th I will be leaving Singapore for Sabah.

Form & Content in Revelation

Teaching the book of Revelation to a group of 120 students has been a learning experience for me. From young Christians to pastors with MDiv, it has been a challenge to teach it at a level understood by all. Among the professional men and women were doctors, lawyers, financial analysts, CEOs, and teachers. A student with an agenda (seventh day adventist I think) distributed a number of books. I prayed that they would also be open and the Lord would grant them grace to understand His Word. It's amazing that there were some who had been following the course for 7 weeks but remained stuck in their opinions. I am glad that most students responded very well. I had to apologize several times in class that I could not reply to all the emails I received on my course and lectures. Before last night's class I gave a 3-hour lecture on the Targums and Apostolic fathers to two MTh students at the Faculty Lounge as the lectures halls and rooms were all locked for the end of the Semester.

Unless one is skilled in Hebraic rhetorical compositional techniques like parallelism, parataxis, chiasm, and a number of other Jewish interpretive techniques such as gematria (the no. 666), one will come to the text of Revelation like the blind. For this book, indeed to many it is a book sealed and when one is asked to read it, he would say, "No. I can't." It's a shame the some of the most recent commentaries (I know of 4 English commentaries published in 2009) that knows nothing or very little about some of these Hebraic rhetorical devices utilized by John throughout the book of Revelation. Hence, these commentaries fail completely to appreciate the structural patterns that John used to put his vision into writing, a composition so creatively and marvellously structured that one cannot fail to be impressed by John's artistry in composing this prophetic book. A commentary that pays some attention to some of these literary devices is James Resseguie's The Revelation of John: A Narrative Commentary (2009).

Revelation is one book that understanding the form is vital in interpreting its contents. Like no other book of the NT, form and content fuse as in the book of Revelation. If we follow the literary markers used by John, then these patterns are not difficult to figure out. If we follow the temporal and chronological markers throughout the book, it is not difficult to figure out that John is concerned not only with the what (events) but also with the how and when these events will unfold leading to the coming again of Jesus Christ (cf. Rev 1:19; 4:1; 8:13; 9:12; 10:6-7; 11:14-15).

Prosperity Gospel is No Gospel

Many teachings of the New Testament consist of reversals of conventional wisdom, often including truths taught in the Old Testament. For instance, wealth and riches are seen to be a sign of God's blessings or as rewards for obedience (Deut 28). But the NT reverses this conventional understanding. When Jesus taught that "How difficult it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven", the disciples steeped in the Scriptures and of conventional wisdom responded with surprise to Jesus' statement: "Who then can be saved?" (Luke 19:23-26). For the disciples, the rich and wealthy appear to be the favourite candidates for God's salvation/deliverance seeing that according to conventional wisdom if you obey God, you will prosper financially.

But Jesus reverses this conventional wisdom of equating God's favour with wealth and turns it on its head and warns that riches are in fact hindrance to entering God's kingdom. With this reversal in Jesus' teaching it is easy to explain why in the Lukan beautitudes, Jesus' sayings begin with: "Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God" (Luke 6:20) You can bet that this verse is never preached by prosperity gospel preachers. Today, too many preachers are peddling this prosperity gospel and the crowds flock to their meetings and churches. The whole message hammers on this one point. If you come to Jesus, God will bless you. For these peddlers, the no. 1 blessing is wealth, all the rest are peripheral. The promises of wealth are seductively persuasive for many, for who does not want to be rich? Thus, the prosperity gospel is welcomed by the gullible, the greedy and the worldly whose god is their belly and to those who set their minds on earthly things (Phil 3:19) . Yet, Jesus says that you can only serve one and hate the other: God or money? "No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money." (Luke 16:13)

I haven't heard for a long time anyone preaching that we should hate this other god, Money or Mammon in order that we could serve God wholeheartedly. Again Jesus says, referring to the Pharisees' love of money, "What is highly esteemed by men (money) is abomination in the sight of God" (Luke 16:14-15). Prosperity gospel is no Gospel.