For only the second time in our history, Singapore hosted the Pope, who spent three days in Singapore for the final leg of an Asian tour after visiting Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Timor Leste.
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Faith in life
As we enter into a new year, some approach the year with a sense of foreboding and fear, others with a sense of opportunity and excitement. Still others look at the days to come with a certain coolness of spirit — a disinterest and detachment — that is neither excited nor anxious, because we cannot tell what tomorrow will bring. Truly as James 4 reminds us, we are merely a mist, and we should neither say with certitude that we know what tomorrow will bring, for only He that is eternal, unchanging and enduring can speak of tomorrow with certainty.
This past month, we’ve been reading about developments in Israel and the region. There is every reason to believe that this conflict is only just beginning, and will lead to severe unrest in the Middle East.
But taking a few steps back — how did things get here? And how should the thinking Christian, trusting in the God who keeps His covenant promises, think about these matters with wisdom?
In the "Sermon on the Mount", we see the Lord Jesus' preaching to His disciples of the life and culture of the kingdom of heaven. Where the holy God reigns and rules over His people, people have repented of their old way of life and turned to a new way of living. How then can we be perfectly righteous?
We've closed the chapter on this Fellowship series on love, sex, marriage and relationships. In the series we presented the central Biblical teaching on what it means to be single, date, marry and have children -- all in the context of a relentless pursuit of Christ according to His Word. To this end, we referenced opposing worldviews, and the way that secular culture is unravelling traditional views and positing new lifestyles, which are increasingly gaining traction with young adults.
I was asked to share my “testimony” on the topic and I was stressed about what to share. There are many struggles when it comes to gender but perhaps I should stress that the most important but neglected struggle is with what the Bible says rather than the struggle to find an answer that will satisfy my assumptions. So while I’m far from perfect, let me share how I’ve struggled with what the Bible says at different points in my life.
I’ll share my struggles under three statements:
The series when we studied Isaiah 13-23 took place at a strange time. Global events churned fiercely and we were reminded, almost in an unprecedented way, of how important it is to connect our Bible reading with our reading of current affairs. Though the events of Isaiah 13-23 largely revolve around the rise of Assyria as the major power in the ancient world, how keenly we felt the indictment against human pride, and the emptiness of international alliances, forums and military coalitions in our day!
Google “deconversion” and a whole bunch of people’s accounts of leaving Christianity will appear. One high profile former Christian leader, now “deconverted”, reads “I don’t view this moment negatively. I feel very much alive, and awake, and surprisingly hopeful.” These testimonies of faith, doubt, decision and clarity invert what we know to be the traditional testimony of conversion where someone publicly bears witness to faith in Jesus Christ: sin and doubt, decision (repentance and faith), faith and clarity. A string of high-profile examples can be found coinciding with the Trump era as a strong erosion of confidence in the Gospel’s power and the straightforwardness of the Christian life has taken hold. As one article observes, the power of this new wave of stories is not “the actual arguments themselves…[that are] so persuasive. It’s the people behind the arguments.”
We have resumed studies in person on Wednesday nights but more important that our gathering, we hope that you are attending your own churches in person and not substituting watching online with physical presence. Here are at least three arguments why you should leave your house and assemble with God's people for worship as a church (not with us).
Isaiah chapters 13 to 23 plainly deal with the oracles of the prophet to the Gentile nations around Israel and Judah. These are God's words to the world spoken by the man he chose. We'll be studying them under the title "Lessons from the Nations". So why should we make time for these lessons? Here are five suggestions:
Into this complicated world of speaking loudly to no one and everyone, how should we steward influence and leadership, especially for those of us who occupy a position, both formally and informally in communities and organisation which bear the name of Christ?
Jonathan Edwards in his 1741 publication ‘The Distinguishing Marks of a work of the Spirit of God’ based on 1 John 4, lays out the marks of a true revival.