Friday, December 3, 2010
The Daniel 4 slides
Hi, the Daniel 4 sermon will not uploaded as it is not a powerpoint file. It is created in another presentation platform that allows panning and infinite zooming. This way, a greater level of continuity is achieved as compared to your traditional powerpoint's "one-card-at-a-time" way of presenting. For those interested, you may visit their website at www.prezi.com. And best of all, it's free! Unless you want an upgrade of the free version, then you'll havta pay.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
6 June Pastoral Desk Bulletin
God Holds Us, Parents Accountable
Several years back, I was invited by a church to give a talk to their pool of Sunday school teachers where I shared with them certain principles to take note of in serving as a Sunday school teacher. I remember one of the things I shared with them has to do with dealing with badly behaving students. I got wind that some of the teachers are feeling guilty or ‘blamed’ for not being able to change their student’s horrid behaviour. So I intentionally included two verses in my talk:
Proverbs 28:7 (NKJV) - Whoever keeps the law is a discerning son, But a companion of gluttons shames his father.
Proverbs 29:15 (NKJV) - The rod and rebuke give wisdom, But a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.
With these verses, I stated that the Bible assigns blame upon the parents when a child exhibits wayward behaviour. Therefore, if their students are behaving in a rude and unruly manner, the shame is on the parents, not the Sunday school teacher. And I challenge the Sunday school teachers there if they could give me a verse that assigns shame upon the teacher of a student who is known for bad behaviour. My take on their badly behaving students: never take responsibility for your students’ behavior, just take responsibility for their knowledge intake. Of course as teachers we do what we can to promote good behaviour among our students but ultimately, the major contribution to behavioural development is parental upbringing.
Throughout Scriptures, it is clear that God holds parents accountable for their children’s behavior.
1 Samuel 3:13 (NLT) says: “I have warned him [Eli] continually that judgment is coming for his family, because his sons are blaspheming God and he hasn’t disciplined them”.
Eli is a classic example of a parent whom God held accountable for his children’s bad behavior. Even in the New Testament, God is even ready to disqualify people from having a governance role in church unless their children “believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient.” – Titus 1:6 (NLT). God does not believe in having ‘public success-private failures’ to govern His people. All these indicate that God takes parenting very very seriously.
I remember a word of wisdom that my pastoral care lecturer told my class in Singapore Bible College once. He says that nobody can really say that he is ready for marriage or kids because no matter how much you try to prepare, it’s all just theory until the rubber meets the road! You’ll just have to grow into the role when the time comes! Having married; having had kids, I couldn’t agree more… we simply fumble our way through one day at a time.
Recently, Ai Cheng, my wife told me about a friend she has who is an excellent, well-respected Chinese language elective teacher who recently learnt that his own son failed Chinese. He admits that he has been dealing with the Chinese language for such long hours in his vocation that he has no heart to coach his son in it when he comes home. I suppose I can identify with his struggles as I myself struggle to do devotion with my son every night before he sleeps. Besides days that I reach home late (where he slept already), often times, I do feel tempted to skip devotional time with him especially when I am super sleepy or when I feel overwhelmed with many chores and things on my mind.
When it comes to parenting, no matter how old your child is, we are all learners. From generation to generation, there are always new research discoveries on parenting tips and that is why it is always helpful to read Christian parenting books or attend Christian parenting seminars from time to time to keep up to speed with the latest developments. On that note, I’d like to recommend ACT’s latest offering: Focus On The Family’s parenting talk. Admittedly, I did not attend it last Sunday as I need to facilitate my DTC class, but Ai Cheng went and couldn’t stop talking about it the minute we reached home. Since Ai Cheng is not somebody who give high marks to Christian talks easily, I would recommend this one to all daddies and mummies on the strength of her testimony. There is still three more sessions, so don’t miss it =)
Several years back, I was invited by a church to give a talk to their pool of Sunday school teachers where I shared with them certain principles to take note of in serving as a Sunday school teacher. I remember one of the things I shared with them has to do with dealing with badly behaving students. I got wind that some of the teachers are feeling guilty or ‘blamed’ for not being able to change their student’s horrid behaviour. So I intentionally included two verses in my talk:
Proverbs 28:7 (NKJV) - Whoever keeps the law is a discerning son, But a companion of gluttons shames his father.
Proverbs 29:15 (NKJV) - The rod and rebuke give wisdom, But a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.
With these verses, I stated that the Bible assigns blame upon the parents when a child exhibits wayward behaviour. Therefore, if their students are behaving in a rude and unruly manner, the shame is on the parents, not the Sunday school teacher. And I challenge the Sunday school teachers there if they could give me a verse that assigns shame upon the teacher of a student who is known for bad behaviour. My take on their badly behaving students: never take responsibility for your students’ behavior, just take responsibility for their knowledge intake. Of course as teachers we do what we can to promote good behaviour among our students but ultimately, the major contribution to behavioural development is parental upbringing.
Throughout Scriptures, it is clear that God holds parents accountable for their children’s behavior.
1 Samuel 3:13 (NLT) says: “I have warned him [Eli] continually that judgment is coming for his family, because his sons are blaspheming God and he hasn’t disciplined them”.
Eli is a classic example of a parent whom God held accountable for his children’s bad behavior. Even in the New Testament, God is even ready to disqualify people from having a governance role in church unless their children “believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient.” – Titus 1:6 (NLT). God does not believe in having ‘public success-private failures’ to govern His people. All these indicate that God takes parenting very very seriously.
I remember a word of wisdom that my pastoral care lecturer told my class in Singapore Bible College once. He says that nobody can really say that he is ready for marriage or kids because no matter how much you try to prepare, it’s all just theory until the rubber meets the road! You’ll just have to grow into the role when the time comes! Having married; having had kids, I couldn’t agree more… we simply fumble our way through one day at a time.
Recently, Ai Cheng, my wife told me about a friend she has who is an excellent, well-respected Chinese language elective teacher who recently learnt that his own son failed Chinese. He admits that he has been dealing with the Chinese language for such long hours in his vocation that he has no heart to coach his son in it when he comes home. I suppose I can identify with his struggles as I myself struggle to do devotion with my son every night before he sleeps. Besides days that I reach home late (where he slept already), often times, I do feel tempted to skip devotional time with him especially when I am super sleepy or when I feel overwhelmed with many chores and things on my mind.
When it comes to parenting, no matter how old your child is, we are all learners. From generation to generation, there are always new research discoveries on parenting tips and that is why it is always helpful to read Christian parenting books or attend Christian parenting seminars from time to time to keep up to speed with the latest developments. On that note, I’d like to recommend ACT’s latest offering: Focus On The Family’s parenting talk. Admittedly, I did not attend it last Sunday as I need to facilitate my DTC class, but Ai Cheng went and couldn’t stop talking about it the minute we reached home. Since Ai Cheng is not somebody who give high marks to Christian talks easily, I would recommend this one to all daddies and mummies on the strength of her testimony. There is still three more sessions, so don’t miss it =)
Sunday, February 21, 2010
IMPORTANT NOTICE
The slides for the Sermon: Why Don't We Evangelize? preached on the 14 & 21 Feb, WILL NOT be uploaded as the views presented there do not reflect the official church position. Sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused.
14 Feb Pastoral Desk Bulletin
Open Wide the Doors, this CNY!
Colossians 4:2-5 says:
2 Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; 3 praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned;”
In the book of Colossians, Paul asks the church to pray for an open door.
The 2 most persuasive interpretative possibilities are:
1) This is Paul’s way of asking the church to pray that he will be released from prison so as to be able to go out and share the gospel.
2) Paul is not specifically asking for a prison break but is just asking in a general sense that opportunities for gospel sharing will come his way (regardless of whether he is in or out of prison).
I might be wrong, but I think I’ll go for option 2 because of 2 reasons:
1) Even when Paul was out of prison, he still needed doors to be opened for evangelism (1 Corinthians 16:9; 2 Corinthians 2:12).
2) Imprisonment never seemed to deter Paul’s missionary work (Philippians 1:12-13).
Yes today is Chinese New Year (CNY) and most of us are going to meet lots of pre-believing relatives in this season. As God’s redeemed people that have been so blessed by the gospel, how we wish that our kinsmen can too, be blessed by the gospel. Well, one thing we can do is to pray for open doors. Pray that God will orchestrate opportunities for us to share the gospel to them.
2 reasons why I’d like to encourage you to pray such prayers:
1) It’s scriptural (since Paul asked the church to pray it)
2) If this super anointed, miracle-working apostle to the gentiles need to (through prayer) rely on God to provide opportunities for gospel sharing, how much more we!
Don’t let this CNY go by without praying for opportunities. We all desire to share the good news; we just need God to “open up to us a door for the word”.
Colossians 4:2-5 says:
2 Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; 3 praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned;”
In the book of Colossians, Paul asks the church to pray for an open door.
The 2 most persuasive interpretative possibilities are:
1) This is Paul’s way of asking the church to pray that he will be released from prison so as to be able to go out and share the gospel.
2) Paul is not specifically asking for a prison break but is just asking in a general sense that opportunities for gospel sharing will come his way (regardless of whether he is in or out of prison).
I might be wrong, but I think I’ll go for option 2 because of 2 reasons:
1) Even when Paul was out of prison, he still needed doors to be opened for evangelism (1 Corinthians 16:9; 2 Corinthians 2:12).
2) Imprisonment never seemed to deter Paul’s missionary work (Philippians 1:12-13).
Yes today is Chinese New Year (CNY) and most of us are going to meet lots of pre-believing relatives in this season. As God’s redeemed people that have been so blessed by the gospel, how we wish that our kinsmen can too, be blessed by the gospel. Well, one thing we can do is to pray for open doors. Pray that God will orchestrate opportunities for us to share the gospel to them.
2 reasons why I’d like to encourage you to pray such prayers:
1) It’s scriptural (since Paul asked the church to pray it)
2) If this super anointed, miracle-working apostle to the gentiles need to (through prayer) rely on God to provide opportunities for gospel sharing, how much more we!
Don’t let this CNY go by without praying for opportunities. We all desire to share the good news; we just need God to “open up to us a door for the word”.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
BATS 3 alias Shadow
yeah! finally the BATS 3 - Shadow group is up and about! we had a funtastic first meeting playin cranium!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)