Tan Hong Ming

On Thursday, Adriel (Loh) introduced me to this series of ads produced by Malaysian director, Yasmin Ahmad. The ads were produced for Petronas and have won several awards internationally. "Tan Hong Ming" won a Gold Andy for Film Direction and another Gold for Public Service Advertising. "Race" won a Bronze.

Recently, MCYS hired her to shoot an ad for Singapore as well. I've attached the Chinese version coz the English script is just kind've weird. Personally, I think the Petronas ads are much more impactful. Somehow the Singapore ad seems a little draggy.

Battle @ Kruger

This is a little dated, but nonetheless quite amazing!

On Bearing Fruit...

Last Sunday, Jeremy Seaward preached at my church's youth service regarding our attitude towards our relationship with God.

Amongst the points made by the 28-year old pastor (28?! I feel so unaccomplished now) was one regarding bearing fruit for Christ. He gave the example of a mango tree: a mango tree doesn't have to concentrate very hard and try with all its might to squeeze out a mango. It produces mangoes because it's a mango tree. That's just something that comes naturally to all mango trees. The same goes with rambutan trees, durian trees, apple trees, etc. That is why Jesus cursed the fruitless fig tree (Mark 11:11-22) -- it can't be called a fig tree if it didn't bear fruit.

We often react to all this teaching about "bearing fruit" by saying, "Ok, I'll go be more enthusiastic about evangelism. Maybe I'll tell 5 people about Christ by the end of the year." By doing that, we probably miss the forest for the trees coz if we were really on the same page as the Almighty, bearing fruit should come naturally. We shouldn't need to try real hard. That's not to say that there won't be challenges or that we won't be afraid. Rather, we will know what needs to be done and feel the burden and urgency accordingly. The fact that we don't speaks mountains about our spiritual condition. So we really need to get back to basics: Read your Bible, pray everyday and you will grow, grow grow.

I Saw Love in Front of Me

Michael Cho's protege, this 11-year-old kid came up with the lyrics and the music to this song. Amazing! I shall go hang my head in shame now.

Being a Neighbour

I attended a conference today called "Next Change!" organised by LoveSingapore regarding social justice and our response. The keynote speaker was Mike Servello, pastor of Mount Zion Ministries in Utica, New York. His testimonies of God's faithfulness in his ministry are nothing short of amazing, with stories of people donating buildings, food and medical supplies to him out of the blue, as well as God literally multiplying what is donated. Anyhow, I'm pretty psyched up right now, so I thought I'd better note down some of the key learning points before I forget.

Learning to Love

One of the most critical things I've learnt over the past couple of days is that social work needs to start with love and we need to learn to shift the focus from ourselves to others. In the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), the expert of the law had asked Jesus "who is my neighbour", but after Jesus tells the parable, His question to the expert is "who was the neighbour to the man?" Very often, our desire to help others springs from our own guilt or self-interest. This is apparent when we pray and ask God "So, what's your plan for my life?" Henry Blackaby argues that the appropriate prayer should be "God, show me where you are working that I may join you in that work."

Much in the same way, our ministry has to begin with love and not spring out of obligation. Be it with kids, the poor, the marginalised, your colleagues, etc. you first need to love for your subsequent actions to be genuine. People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care. Any ministry borne out of obligation is unlikely to have the legs to run very far. As William James said, "The great use of life is to spend it for something that outlasts it." Without the firm foundation of love, it's unlikely that our ministry will outlast our feeble efforts.

Noticing Other People's Pain

Another thing that was impressed upon me was that caring for the poor and marginalised is not a suggestion, but a command. There are numerous verses in the Bible that speak of our required response to poverty...

"If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered."

(Proverbs 21:13)

We often read such verses and think "How interesting... I'll go home and ponder about it." If we took the Bible seriously, we would be stirred into action! If we have two tunics, we should be out there sharing the other one with someone else, and them same goes if we have food (Luke 13:11). God is serious about helping the poor, and we should be too if we're serious about God.

Placing Reliance on God

Once we are able to hear the cry of the needy, we need to believe that God can do amazing things through us. As above, we have read countless verses of how God protects His people.

"Blessed is he who has regard for the weak; the Lord delivers him in times of trouble. The Lord will protect him and preserve his life; he will bless him in the land and not surrender him to the desires of his foes. The Lord will sustain him on his sickbed and restore him from his bed of illness"

Psalm 41:1-3

Sometimes we wonder whether God will actually deliver on what He says. I found myself thinking that if I pursued a full-time career in social work, the pay is probably not going to be enough for me to send my kids overseas to study for example, but then the Lord reminded me that "Hey, don't you trust that I will provide for those needs when the time comes?" So again, if we take God seriously, why do we worry about the outcome so long as we're sure that we are acting according to His direction?

Widespread Effects of Sin

The last thing that learnt today was that the effect of sin in my life has an an influence that goes beyond me. Previously, I thought that if I sin, it hurts my relationship with God, and so I lead a less fulfilling life (which sucks, but the bad stuff stops with me). The reality is that when I sin, I feel ashamed, and so I shy away from God's work. Coupled with the fact that my spiritual ears would probably be impaired as a result, I would not be blessing as many people as I should be. The result is that my sin prevents others from receiving God's blessing, which sucks big time! So there's no such thing as a private sin. [For more on the effect of individual sin on the community, see Joshua 7]

So that's it. Hopefully, as I've said many times, these principles will spur me to take action on my own part :P

Vision Driven Life

Here's a quick summary of my small group's study of Matthew 16:21-17:27 last Thursday.

This passage comes immediately after Peter correctly identified that Jesus was the Christ. From this point, Jesus begins to explain to His disciples about his impending death and resurrection, but they don't seem to get it, especially Peter, who just 1 chapter ago was given the "keys of the kingdom of heaven". Now, all of a sudden Jesus calls him "Satan". That's quite a fall from grace.

Some of the key takeaways for us is not to be complacent about our faith. We may know some of the key themes and principles, but it takes alot more effort to actually internalise those concepts such that they are then reflected in our word and deed. This requires constant meditation on the Word, as well as active application through the exercise of our faith in obedience to God.

It is only through such active engagement that we can even hope to catch hold of the vision of God and serve Him accordingly. While an initial reading of Peter's response to Jesus' words may suggest concern or righteous indignation, I believe that it was a statement driven out of fear. In the same way, how much of what we do today springs from our fear of loneliness, ridicule, loss of status, etc. We strive to please the people around us because we want acceptance. We work hard to earn tonnes of cash to gain the admiration of (or at least not lose out to) our peers. Arguably our lives would be much more fulfilling if we aligned it right from the onset with God's purposes and vision. We would waste less time chasing things that don't actually make us any happier in the long run.

Let's set our sights on pouring our lives into something built to last, a vision that is so much bigger than our little agendas that our fears and insecurities would simply fade away!

One a lighter note, here's a short vid to show what would happen if we don't have a proper concept of Christ...

You're a Number 4!

Today my small group went through the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-23). In summary, the parable talks about 4 types of seeds:

1. Those that fall on the path and were eaten by birds
2. Those that fall on rocky ground and were scorched by the sun
3. Those that fall among the thorns which choked the plant as it grew
4. Those that fell on good soil and produced a crop

I shall not go into the interpretations of each one coz you can read it on your own. Previously when I read this passage, I always thought of myself as probably a Number 3, choked by "the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth". Tonight, I felt that God was saying that we are all Number 4.

We probably think of Number 2 or Number 3 as a position of humility, recognising our weakness and striving to be the elusive Number 4. I think that rather than being humble, we short-change ourselves and God by having such an attitude because we are in effect saying, "Look, let's be realistic... there's no way I can be a Number 4. How can I possibly produce a crop 'a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown'?"

When we say that, we negate the power of the Holy Spirit and fall into the trap of thinking that we can buy our way into heaven. Jesus has already made us Number 4 by dying on the cross for our sins and freeing us from sin and death. And by the Holy Spirit we are empowered to be God's agents in this world. And if the God of the universe is backing us, the sky's the limit!

This doesn't mean we all chill out coz "it is finished." Instead, it opens our eyes to the huge potential of what is possible. Yes, you could be the next Billy Graham. Yes, you could be the C.S. Lewis. "Why?" you may ask. But why not? If we become truly conscious of what is possible with God when we surrender our lives into His hands, we would probably stop wasting our time and energy indulging in sin and thus jeopardise the most important relationship we will ever have.

To quote from a book entitled "The Salvation Equation" written by a friend of mine, Adriel Loh:

"For the starting point of freedom, we return to the Cross. In faith appropriation, we affirm that through the Cross, the dominion of sin in our lives has been broken (Romans 6:6,7). This is a past even that has already taken place. We no longer need to pray for God to break the power of sin and bondage in our lives because it has been done. We have been set free. The prison door has been unlocked. All that remains is for us to stand up in faith, push the door open, and step out into the light of the reality of freedom. We therefore pray daily for the Holy Spirit to convict us of the reality of this freedom. We then confess with our mouths that we are dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus Christ (Romans 6:11).

To confess and claim is only the first step of faith. This of itself is insufficient for lasting freedom. Many Christians make the mistake of claiming and confessing, and do little else. While our victory over sin took place once for all when Christ died on the Cross, to translate this into our human experience requires a continuous process of faith to appropriate it in our lives."

It's kind've like the Matrix, only that you've got to remind yourself daily that you've been set free and are more than a conqueror in Christ. As the dude who tells stories on FM 93.8 in the morning says, " change your perspective, and you could change your life." So what are you waiting for, you're a Number 4! :D

The Perennial Question

This evening, I watched an "inspired by true events" movie entitled Lord of War, which stars Nicholas Cage as a gun runner smuggling weapons into war torn countries. On particularly memorable scene in the movie was when Nicholas Cage's brother persuaded him to abort an ongoing arms deal in order to postpone (if not prevent) the massacre of an entire village.

This scene reminded me of a line from The Constant Gardener, where the aid worker played by Rachel Weisz tells her love interest to slow down their vehicle, wanting to drive a woman, her baby, and her brother who are walking 40 kilometers back to his home. The boyfriend protests, "Be reasonable. There are millions of people, they all need help. It's what the agencies are here for," to which she replies, "Yeah, but these are three people that we can help."

This line has stuck in my head ever since I watched the film and ties in quite well with the whole "Acts of Random Kindness" preached in Evan Almighty. [I'm starting to sound like I get my theology from movies...] I guess it really does challenge us to think about what are we doing about the social injustice we see around us. When we open the papers and read about war and genocide, do we care, or do we think of it as some far removed problem in some remote place that we cannot influence. I've said this before, and I regret that I have to keep saying it to remind myself not to be apathetic.

Some pundits would advise us to not look so far, but to turn instead to our immediate community and help those who we can. But is that a cop out answer meant to help us avoid having to think about murder and starvation that happen on a daily basis in parts of the world that we have the luxury to ignore?

One of the passages which will be used for the Sec 2 curriculum at church next quarter is taken from Exodus 2:11-25 and describes Moses' initial attempt at pursuing 'social justice' by murdering an Egyptian who was abusing one of his people. Certainly, that was a rash act and Moses then had to spend the next 40 years in the desert for God to mould him into a man fit to lead the Isrealites out of Egypt. In this regard, it appears that what may be the most obvious thing to do at first may not be the best thing after all. In the book The Anti-Politics Machine, James Ferguson documents how Western attempts to develop Lesotho through the construction of roads ended up making things worse for the people as the government then used the roads to extract more taxes from them. So before we jump onto the next crusade to help our the world's marginalised, we also need to take time to really think about our motivations and whether we even can presume to know what's best for them.

I know this all sounds really disjointed, but thus was the nature of the conversation I had with my brother following the movie for it's not immediately apparent what our next step should be: "prayerful consideration" or "less talk, more action". I doubt this conundrum will be solved easily, but I guess as a first step, we need to be able to extract meaning from whatever it is we are doing, be it at work or at school, for if we labour purely to earn the extra buck, it seems like we labour in vain.

The following is the 1976 version of a poem entitled "First they came..." attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) about the apathy of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power:

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

How to die rich

During my quiet time yesterday, I read the Parable of the Rich Young Ruler which got me thinking on a number of issues...

A certain ruler asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.'"

"All these I have kept since I was a boy," he said.

When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. Jesus looked at him and said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

Those who heard this asked, "Who then can be saved?"

Jesus replied, "What is impossible with men is possible with God."

-- Luke 18:18-27

If you ask any professional about financial planning, the first thing they are likely to ask you is to do is determine the type of lifestyle you desire and figure out how much that is going to cost you per year. From there, you look at how much you're currently earning, and what kind of investment returns are necessary to help you achieve those financial goals.

Most of us would probably not mind if we retire with money coming out of ears and not have to think twice about buying a new car/house/boat or going on an exotic holiday every other week. Yet the law of diminishing utility tells us that the more we have, the more it will take to make us happy. Just look at all the celebrities with money up to their eyeballs, but have to visit therapists to get over their latest bout of depression. When we earn $2000 a month, we need a $20 tie to make us happy. When we earn $10,000 a month, we need a $100 tie to make us happy. Our standard of living has improved, and so has our cost of living, but our "happiness level" (i.e. utility) doesn't really go up all that much in relation to our new-found lifestyle.

So the thing is, we spent much of our lives trying to earn more money so that we can buy more stuff, so that we can be more happy. Yet when we finally earn more money and buy more stuff, we find that we're not actually more happy. The bar has been raised and now we're no longer happy with the Toyota coz all your friends have the latest BMW.

Bringing all this back to context of the Rich Young Ruler, as we chase the next big pay check and shoot for the 10 month bonus, are we not digging ourselves into a deeper hole such that when God says, "Ok, drop this and follow me!" it's going to be so much more difficult for us to climb out?

Think about it... chasing money is a losing proposition: you work harder, to earn more, to save more, to invest more, so that you can continue spending more, but you're not proportionately more happy, and at the same time, your making it all the more difficult for yourself to follow Christ, which in turn could cost you eternal life! Sounds like a pretty crummy deal to me.

That doesn't mean that all rich people are stupid, but rather if you are chasing money as an ends in itself, then you're likely to be in for a huge disappointment. As John Wesley said, "Earn all you can, save all you can, and give all you can." I can only hope to live up to that mantra.

Elijah: Baal Buster

I just spent the past hour or so trying to reconcile how we're supposed to reconcile Elijah's showdown with the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:16-40) and Matthew 4:7 where Jesus answered Satan, "It is also written: `Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"

Since it's late and I've got work tomorrow, in summary, I think it's helpful to consider if it was Elijah who was testing God, or rather God testing whether Elijah had the faith to stand people everyone to issue a seemingly ridiculous challenge considering the physical odds stacked against him.