A call to prayer

“Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.” – 1 Peter 5.8-9

Dear RHC

As pastor I get to hear the stories of many different people during the week and what they are going through. Somehow this week there are many stories of strange things happening to people: sickness, feelings of being downcast, repetitive evil nightmares amongst other things.

Without being melodramatic about it, the scriptures plainly teach us that we are in a war and that we do have a real enemy. We are not to be naive about this. How should we respond as a church in times like this? Piecing together a few scriptures such as 1 Peter 5 and James 4, here are a few pointers:

1. Submit yourself to God (James 4.7): Remind yourself of His ultimate authority over all things, as we have been hearing lately in our Colossians series.
2. Resist the devil (James 4.7): Yes, this does mean that we are to actively resist him. This means don’t tolerate the temptations or ungodly thoughts you are faced with. Don’t just sit by as a passive ‘victim’ of the enemies opposition in your life. We are promised that if we resist him, he will flee.
3. Draw near to God (James 4.8): It’s not just enough to actively resist the enemy. Having done that, we are to draw near to God (through His word and in prayer) and to delight in Him, drawing strength through His grace. Again, we are promised that if we do this He will draw near to us.
4. Share your struggles with someone else: You don’t have to suffer on your own. When you share with others, you realize that you aren’t alone, that your struggles aren’t unique to yourself, and you have someone standing with you.
Pray for your brothers and sisters (Luke 22.32): Being a part of a local church is also a responsibility towards our brothers and sisters. Praying for each other is one of the most effective things we can do.

I will be taking some time out this afternoon to specifically pray for those at RHC. Can I ask us all to do that? It’s a great comfort in times of difficulty to know that we aren’t on our own, and that we have others praying for us. Let’s lift up our voices to the Father and pray for those who make up RHC.

With love,

Simon

We are RHC

“you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house” – 1 Peter 2.5

What kind of a church would you dream of being a part of? What would it look like and what would it do? It’s very common for people to think of a church as a location, name, leadership, administrative staff, or worship service. Although all of these play a role in shaping a church, the scriptures make it clear that a church is actually the sum total of the people of the church. This means that you are I are RHC!

In the light of this, let us then ask ourselves: what is RHC like? What kind of a ‘spiritual house’ is being built by the living stones of our personal lives? God has called us to shine His light and be ambassadors of His Kingdom here in Singapore. Here are some questions to help us consider what kind of a church we really are:

A) Regarding our understanding of the gospel: When faced with your own failure or weaknesses, do you tend to 1) make excuses, 2) try harder or 3) thank God He’s accepted you as you are in Christ and trust in Him to transform your heart?
B) Regarding devotion to Christ: Will you do absolutely anything that God asks you to do? Is there anything that you wouldn’t do for God?
C) Regarding separation of faith from the rest of life: What does it really mean to be a Christian in your profession / role / life stage?

One of my prayers for 2012 is that God would build up this ‘spiritual house’ by setting our hearts ablaze in passionate, thoughtful devotion to Him. Will you join me in praying for this, but more importantly being this, because at the end of the day, we are RHC.

Learning more by doing less

 

I am young and I want to learn a lot. You only live once! Carpe Diem! But to a “doer” like myself those words are petrol to the flame of my driveness.

This morning I realized that I would actually learn more if I did less, because I would be able to reflect more on what is happening around me and understand the subtleties of my life and circumstances. My thoughts are often not deep enough because I immediately want to apply them. For me personally, doing more is not helping me learn more, it’s making me think less.

Now I have to learn this – because this very blog post is a symptom of my tendency to want to turn my thoughts to “action” rather than think deeper about them.

Chinese New Year

Family. Holiday. Culture. Pineapple tarts. Oranges. Ang pows. Visiting. Red. Reunion dinners. Steamboat. Joy. Dragon. Abalone.

Justified – testimony from a redeemed friend

Here’s an excellently written testimony from Chris Dixon, a man who became a good friend.

The Fall

When you are taught the story of the Prodigal Son as a child at Sunday school, you never believe it might be you later in life. The naughty son who runs away, commits all sorts of terrible sins and wastes his father’s birthright – I could never do such things, could I?

And yet looking back I can see how closely that parable applies to me.

Demonic pork and jumping to the wrong conclusions

“They have zeal, without knowledge”

Once upon a time I happened to be upon a certain Christian camp that went by the name ‘Happening’. It was certainly full of adventure, though not the type that I had expected.

One morning someone in our group asked our leader why it was that Jews were not allowed to eat pork. The leader replied rather matter of factly that it originated when Jesus had cast the demons out of the man in Matthew 8 and sent them into a herd of pigs. She went to on elaborate that for this reason they were unclean, as Jesus had chosen them out of all the animals to put the demons into.

Anyone with even a little bible knowledge knows that this isn’t correct. Various dietary laws were part of the mosaic law thousands of years before Jesus walked the earth.

However, to someone completely ignorant the story probably makes some kind of sense. I wonder how many times we make errors that may on one level seem to make sense, however are not rooted in proper biblical knowledge?

Holidays in Vietnam

Cheap, beautiful, sunny.

The truth about something new

This photo above is three and a half years old. It’s a picture of our son, Rory John Elijah being delivered by C-section. It’s a picture of giving birth to something new. It’s bloody, messy, painful and awesome.

This photo above is also three and a half years old. It’s Rory all cleaned up. It’s a picture of something new. New things are clean, fresh, unspoilt and pure.

There is a great difference between new things and giving birth to new things. Many of us want to enjoy new things, but few are willing to give birth to new things. Many enjoy holding and cuddling babies, few want to go through labor.

Christians are those who are ushering in the Kingdom. It’s more than simply observing it happen. We believe, pray, work, labor, urge, encourage, risk and lay down our lives. Of course, everything we do is totally secondary to the real work of ushering in the Kingdom that has already been accomplished by Christ’s death and resurrection, but that’s not to say we don’t have a responsive responsibility.

In 2012 I’m looking forward to seeing more of the Kingdom come to bear upon our corner of the world in Singapore. I don’t just want to enjoy the newness, I want to help usher it in.

What is “glory” in the New Covenant?

What is the glory of the Lord? The most regularly used passage in the New Testament that people refer to when talking about glory is 2 Corinthians 3, where the new covenant unfading glory is being compared with the fading, physical shine (glory) on Moses’ face.

From this it is sometimes taken that the New Testament glory is some kind of presence, manifestation, shining, cloud or any other kind of old testament manifestation. This can’t be what Paul is referring to as New Covenant glory because no (or very few) Christians walk around with shining faces. Some broaden it to mean any kind of glorious manifestation.

While I do not deny that God can do whatever He wants with his people, including all manners of shining, I believe that the glory in 2 Corinthians 3 and the New Testament is the image of Jesus that God is restoring in us in the new creation. Before we get to 2 Corinthians 3, let’s see how the scriptures generally talk about the glory of the Lord:

Christians use glory a lot in their everyday language, doing ‘all things for God’s glory’ or ‘giving glory to God’. What is the meaning of this glory? The glory of God is the bright shining of his person and character. It’s the display of his perfect nature, infinite worth and glorious splendor. Therefore to do things for God’s glory is to do things in a way that reveals his nature, worth and splendor in a way that results in praise to Him.

Now let’s have a look at 2 Corinthians 3 and what it says:

In 2 Cor 3, the glory that is coming and is permanent (2 Cor 3.11) is the same glory as in verse 18. This glory is either ‘beheld’ or ‘reflected’ (depending on your translation) and is the glory of the Lord. That glory that we behold (Christ) is an ‘image’ (v 18) and is the same glory that we are being transformed into, which is glory (‘from one degree of glory to another’). It is very clear that we are being transformed to become more and more like Jesus as we see and worship (behold) Jesus. The scriptures say that Jesus is the glory of God (Heb 1.3). The following chapter (2 Cor 4) makes it clear that the glory of God is seen in Jesus Christ (verse 4 but particularly 6).

This squares up with the rest of the NT which speaks about how Jesus is the glory of God (Heb 1.3), and by Him living in us and working in us we are being returned to the glory of Jesus Christ through the gospel (2 Thess 2.14). The glory that we had was walking before God and being his image bearers. This was mostly lost in the fall (Rom 3.23 “for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”) but not entirely lost because 1 Cor 11.7 says that we still do retain something of the glory of God, though it’s obviously diminished. This is similar language to what is spoken of as our being made in the image of God, which we have now lost in part but not in full (James 3.9).

But through Jesus we are being brought back to glory (Heb 2.10) and rejoice in hope of the glory of God (Rom 5.2), and this is through Jesus himself who is “Christ in us is the hope of glory” (Col 1.27). Indeed we have ‘this treasure’ (which is mentioned in 2 Cor 4 following on from the treasure and glory of Christ a few verses earlier which is in us (our jars of clay). Surely Christ is the glory and the treasure that is spoken about in these passages!

So a summary of this is that ‘glory’ is the original status that we had as sons of God which is basically that we are made in His image. That glory was lost in the fall (Rom 3.23). But now Jesus has come as the radiance of God’s glory (Heb 1.3) to bring us back to glory (Heb 2.10) through his death and resurrection which is the gospel (2 Cor 4.4). When we are saved we are being recreated in the image (and therefore glory) of God (Eph 4.24), and we have Christ in us who is the hope of glory (Col 1.27) As we behold his glory (2 Cor 3.18) we are being transformed into one degree of glory to another (being made more and more like Jesus). Finally, when Jesus comes back we will become like him (1 John 3.3) and will be glorified as the final stage of our salvation (Romans 8).

I would love any feedback.

Rory the magician… “Let there be STRIPES!”

So yesterday I was reading on my bed when Rory comes in and tells me he wants to show me a magic trick … Abracadabra and all!

Rory the magician

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