built for ministry.
I’ve been tremendously busy (an understatement) leading the REAL programme and playing the role of G2 youth community overseer (amongst other 6 other roles) but I’ve never felt more fulfilled in my working life than now. I consider it a wonderful privilege to be able to marry work and ministry into the same hours. I’m basically doing for a living what I’ve always loved and getting remunerated for it.
Each time I see a young person take positive steps towards becoming more Godly, each time I witness a young person change for the better, I thank God that He’s doing His work through me. It’s an amazing feeling to wake up each day knowing that you may have an opportunity to impact the life of a young person under your shepherding. These experiences cannot be purchased with money or substituted by material gains. Besides, God has more than provided for me in the last few months. Of course I could always have a little more but I am more than contented with what I have.
On a daily basis, I look forward to meet my beloved REAL 2010 super kids and on a weekly basis I look forward to meeting my RLs and CMs. It’s time to buckle down to seeking God and interceding seriously for these precious ones. I thank God for how my sheep have responded to me so far – open, honest and teachable – and I truly believe that that’s God’s grace and favour upon me.
I’ve been telling HY of late that I’m more and more convinced that I’m designed and built for ministry. I thank and praise God for allowing me to be a part of what He’s doing in the lives of the young people under my care.
I will try to update more regularly. Please bear with this period of inactivity. Thank you.
P/S REAL Super Kids – As promised, I’ve updated my links so you can find the links to your fellow super kids there.
the first rewards of full-time.
REAL Lock-in Camp 2010 will go down as one of the biggest highlights and achievements of my 12 years of serving God in Grace Assembly of God.
I am reminded of the changing power of God’s presence, the massive potential of young people, the victorious satisfaction of a breakthrough, the immense delight of obeying the Holy Spirit’s guidance and amongst many others, just witnessing how these 15 young souls are surrendering themselves to Jesus. WOW!!!
Now, this is what I came into full-time ministry for. I love you all, I’m so proud of each and everyone of you, I believe so much in you all and I can’t wait to invest even more of myself in every one of you. The next two months, we’ll go into Holy Spirit overdrive.
(Okay, I know this post is kinda like a outburst of emotions and very unlike the typical way I write on this blog, but hey, it’s something worth shouting out loud for. God did such a miraculous work of restoration during the camp that I just HAVE to testify of it! More to come in later days. For now, I need to break the non-writing inertia.)
meritocracy is unbiblical.
Jesus looked at [the rich young ruler] 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.” (Luke 18:24-25, NIV)
Singapore is a great country to reside in – it truly is. I can say this because I’ve lived in Shanghai for nearly two years. We take pride in our credible and proven governance of meritocracy – where, by dictionary definition, “people [are] selected on the basis of their ability”. In other words, if you do well enough, you’ll probably get by. However, I’d like to think that meritocracy is poisonous, especially for a Christian making an honest attempt to live his life relying on God.
I’ve always lamented about the overly rigourous and demanding education system here. A young student is forced, whether voluntarily by his own will or involuntarily by unhealthy peer pressure, to do well in Singapore. Sadly, sometimes it’s not about doing well for his own good, but about doing better than someone else. We have produced countless outstanding people because of how (insanely) competitive we are. After all, it’s a known fact that Singapore’s greatest resource is her people.
Hence, existing in an environment as such, we have been continuously engineered to believe that we just need to do well enough, and we’ll be able to get what we want – chiefly wealth and status amongst others. Unfortunately for us, we have also allowed this secular mentality to creep into the Church and worse, into our walk with God. More often than not, we’d rather sort ourselves out first before going to God rather than going to God first to get sorted out.
We approach God thinking that if we have ticked the checklist boxes of praying, doing quiet time, worshipping, reading the bible, etc., we’d be accepted and be presentable before God. How scarily distorted that can be! Having a checklist may not be wrong, don’t misunderstand me, but it is severely inadequate.
A classic example is how we typically go to God in prayer only when we take our exams with insufficient preparation or when we commit a major mistake at work. It’s like we consider getting God involved only when matters are completely out of our control and domain of influence. Or sometimes when we ask for good results or work promotion (or even dating success), we use “I promise I’ll spend more time with You, Lord” or “I promise I won’t visit those sites again anymore, Lord” as stakes, thinking that it may actually move God to accede to our “requests”.
How dangerously misconstrued that is!
In a society where meritocracy calls the shots, we start to tattoo in our hearts and minds, “I CAN DO IT“. Great optimism and confidence, don’t get me wrong. But it may lead to one thing – that “GOD CAN DO IT” will slowly and steadily be obliterated from our operating system. We need to be extremely cautious because this swelling pride can mislead us – from trusting in God to trusting in ourselves. We constantly wage war between societal and biblical reality.
Now, may I beseech you to be alert and to quicken your spirit to this, that you do not draw confidence in your flesh but in God. Don’t become complacent when you exit an exam hall after a good paper because it doesn’t mean that you seeking God ends. In the same way, don’t become overly concerned about beefing up your resume just to raise your chances of getting a good job. Place not your confidence in yourself but in our faithful God who never fails to deliver! Be excellent but not wrongly/overly-confident.
For those with average grades, do not be discouraged – our God can operate with Bs and Cs (and even Ds and Fs!) and still give you success and a good future, only if you seek Him wholeheartedly. For those with soaring on societal favour and success, do not get complacent thinking that all these achievements arrived by your own merit – God can give but He can also take away, and what we are constantly challenged to say is, “Blessed be Your name”. Keep your eyes on Jesus, my friends!
Perhaps this is why the apostle Paul declared quite famously in 2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV),
“But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.‘ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”
When we rely on ourselves, we may fail. But when we rely on God, He will deliver! Let us declare that we can’t and that God can!
what does it mean to give?
I snapped this picture at the 777-feet Seoul Tower, located on the summit of Namsan Mountain, South Korea, where stalls upon stalls displayed little knick-knacks for sale. I aptly titled this photograph, “Useless”, simply because (almost) everything in this picture is. Why do we even bother buying gifts of little or no practical use? This reminds me of what it means to give.
Christmas is a time of giving and receiving. The gift of God is in His Son, Jesus Christ. The gift of Jesus Christ is His own life. I’d like to think that Jesus could have chosen not to die even though He was sent to die, hence I refuse to take for granted His sacrifice for me on the cross. With Jesus, it was solely Him giving and us receiving. So, what could we actually give to Jesus?
Try as I may, I am unable to find anything worthy to give to Jesus as a form of reciprocation. Even if I were to give my life – and that’s about all that I can give – it is still an unworthy gift. To better grasp the unparalleled gift of Jesus, I realise that I could neither out-give my mother’s 26 years of sacrifice nor HY’s gift of purity; regardless of what I do now, I will never be able to give my mother or HY the equal value of their gift to me.
I cannot imagine being born to die. That statement may be extreme, but even if I were to water it down, I still cannot imagine being born to give. I’m inclined to think that we have been wired to receive, regardless of how generous we have been raised to be or innately are. Every fibre of my being longs to receive more – pleasure, love, happiness, etc. It takes effort to give – at least for me it does.
And so this Christmas, I’d like to give to Jesus the best gift, still unworthy as it may be, that I can ever give right now – my future – because it is unknown to me and out of my control. Join me then, in rededicating and surrendering your life to Jesus once again as He dedicated His whole life to you. It is my earnest prayer that you will find new faith, hope and love in the Lover and Savior of your soul. And just to put the icing on the cake – He’s also the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and He lived to die just for you.
I conclude this entry with lyrics from two Relient K songs that made me tear the first time I heard it – “Give” and “I Celebrate The Day”.
“I’ll give, give, give – until there’s nothing else
Give my all – until it all runs out
Give, give – and I’ll have no regrets
I’ll give until there’s nothing left
I’ll give”“And the first time that You opened Your eyes
Did You realise that You would be my Saviour?
And the first breath that left Your lips
Did You know that it would change this world forever?And I, I celebrate the day
That You were born to die
So I could one day pray for You to save my life”
Have a blessed and meaningful Christmas, dear readers. (:
i’ve waited 2 years to say this.
To my dearest, one and only, Lee Huiyi darling,
HAPPY TWO YEARS ANNIVERSARY!!! (((:
I am loving you more everyday; a little more than yesterday and a little less than tomorrow.
Already looking forward to 22nd December 2010! I love you!!!
systematic propagation.
God’s love is not created to be contained or kept selfishly. It is necessary for the good news of the Gospel to be preached – so that it can spread. And our role in evangelism is to propagate it!
Paul instructs us in a systematic step-by-step process in Romans 10:14-15. And this passage is obviously talking about sending out preachers of the Word – but not just pulpit ministers but anyone who proclaims the good news of the Gospel – that’s us!
“But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!'”
The Father has sent Jesus. And Jesus sent His disciples. Get this – we are sent! It’s not a choice, really, because it’s already part of our “contract” when we became Christians. It is a pre-existing responsibility that we cannot and should not shirk.
How can people believe God if they have never heard of Him? And how will they ever hear of God if we do not tell them about Him? For most of us in our youth, our occupation would either be as a full-time student or a young working adult – but don’t forget that our pre-occupation is first as an evangelist! There comes a time for good deeds and meeting the needs of our friends, but we must never neglect to tell them about the God who has changed our lives.
As evangelistic Christians, let’s challenge ourselves today in our rightful duty to give others the opportunity to hear the good news, so that they have a chance to believe in God!
a need to lead.
I thoroughly enjoyed sharing at the workshop I conducted today, prepared together with HY. We hope that those who were in attendance went home with new knowledge and perspectives! Here’s the executive summary:
First and foremost, we need to acknowledge that leadership, while predominately carried by the guy, is also a shared responsibility. A failure to communicate this will lead to a mismanagement of expectations, which can be dangerous if issues are allowed to drag, get ignored or be swept under the carpet. The gal has to remember that she’d have to take on certain leadership responsibilities as well.
I commenced the workshop with a deliberately tricky activity that proves two assumptions:
- The guy naturally knows and understands how to lead, how to be a(n ideal) leader and does not consider the gal for a leadership role in the relationship.
- The gal is naturally confused about her leadership responsibilities in a relationship, left leadership to the guy and is uncertain about her involvement, if any at all.
We defined courtship this way:
- a continuous process,
- a journey of empowering, enabling, supporting and understanding one another,
- a two-way partnership, and
- that it begins with marriage in mind.
We believe that leadership is about:
- serving one another
- taking responsibility for things already done
- bringing out God’s best in each other
- taking initiative for things that are yet to be done
I concluded the workshop with another activity that exposes the guys’ understanding of the gals’ needs and their understanding of their own needs, and vice-versa. With this, I introduced the five love languages (made famous by Gary Chapman) and stressed the importance of understanding the love languages of their partners.
I encouraged the participants to go on a paradigm shift with me:
When you know the need, you will know how to lead; only then will you be able to show one another how to love each other.
Finally, I presented a biblical yardstick for everyone to refer to, in any event of uncertainty:
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8, English Standard Version)
Disclaimer: the contents above are original and does not represent anyone else’s opinions except our own.
joey asher | misunderstoodsunshinekid 