Wrath of the Heathen

I don’t how it is where you are, but over at my part of the world I run into the wrath of the heathen quite often this season.

Psalm 2:1-3 (KJV) - Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, “Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.”

This tells me that God and the people of the world, those who do not know him or who reject him, are on a collision course. They are going to clash and there will be conflict. If you are expecting that Christians who are salt and light of the earth (Matthew 5:13-14) are always going to be welcomed with open arms by the unbelievers, be prepared for reality to hit.

It is going to hurt!

Of course, if we are going to be hated, mocked or persecuted by the world, I’d rather it be for the right reasons.  Preaching the name of Jesus, healing the sick and adding lost souls to the kingdom of God are good reasons.

When Psalm 2 was quoted in a prayer in Acts 4, the apostles had just healed a man lame from birth (Acts 3:8). As they preached the resurrection of Jesus and the forgiveness of sins, they were arrested by the priests (Acts 4:3) and threatened with all kinds of punishment. And this was a fulfilment of Psalm 2 (Acts 4:25-26).

What would be bad reasons?

1 Peter 4:15 (ESV) - But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler.

“Thief” would also include embezzlement and cheating, criminal breach of trust and that kind of stuff.  And let’s not forget immorality. The secular world may tolerate immorality from among their own people, but they should find us blameless of it.

1 Corinthians 5:1 (ESV) - It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife.

Keep Your Perspective

When you face the wrath of the heathen, and you know it is for good reasons, we need to keep our perspective. Firstly, we need to remember how transient their opposition is.

Isaiah 51:7-8 (ESV) - Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear not the reproach of man, nor be dismayed at their revilings. For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool; but my righteousness will be forever, and my salvation to all generations."

Often, what happens is that people get so intimidated by the threats and mocking that they forget the power and faithfulness of God. Now, if I were God, I’d find that rather insulting…

Isaiah 51:12-14 (ESV) - "I, I am he who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass, and have forgotten the LORD, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and you fear continually all the day because of the wrath of the oppressor, when he sets himself to destroy? And where is the wrath of the oppressor? He who is bowed down shall speedily be released; he shall not die and go down to the pit, neither shall his bread be lacking.

In this passage, we see very clearly the contrast between remembering our Maker and being intimidated, oppressed and continually fearful of men. When I look at this passage, I also suspect it tells us that if we can just guard our hearts and set them on the power of God, we will see deliverance from persecution and oppression. And it will not be long in coming, as God says that the oppressed shall speedily be released.

Then in the meantime?

1 Peter 2:12 (ESV) -  Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

We still have to behave ourselves. We still ought to trust in the LORD and do good, that we may dwell in the land (Psalm 37:3). This means we will be able to stand firm and not be uprooted.

And if we have any difficulties with our emotions, and we find ourselves fearing the wrath of the heathen more than we should, we would do well to meditate on Psalm 2 and the two above passages from Isaiah 51 daily. Read them aloud to yourself a few times a day for about a week or so (as I did) and you will find your heart and mind settled by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God.

That’s what has been up in my mind recently, so I decided to share it with you. Hope that this will inspire you and keep you grounded in the greatness of our God!

Politick Biblically

This year, I have been reading through my Bible, aiming to read through the entire Bible in one year. For those who have never tried it, all you need is 3-4 chapters a day. You can finish the entireBible like this, and the dividends can be immense! This is my 5th or 6th time through, and one thing that I found myself noticing this time is how God’s people and the heroes of the faith navigated themselves with people of influence.

In other words, how people of faith do politics!
To many believers, politics is a dirty word. Take the phrase “church politics” for example. It usually makes believers think of scheming behind the scenes, flattery, deceit and exploiting God’s people for power, money or some other selfish benefit. 

So it was quite an eye-opener for me to actually see the political side of what the characters in the Bible have done. There are a few lessons that we need to consider in order to politick biblically.

1)    Remember the Big Picture.

Proverbs 29:26 (ESV) - Many seek the face of a ruler, but it is from the LORD that a man gets justice.

Power, money and revenge are selfish motivations for participating in politics, whether in the church, secular government or any other human society. Seeking justice, whether for ourselves or for the oppressed, is the right motivation.

But before we begin, we need to face the big picture. Ultimately, justice comes from the LORD. Therefore we are to conduct our political activities in this light, knowing that what we do has to meet with his approval and be conducted in faith in his justice prevailing.

2)    Work with Other People 
Oftentimes, we are unable to get what we want by directly approaching the people of influence and authority. Take Joseph, for example. He was stuck in prison and earnestly wanted to go home to see his father. But he was unable to, because of Potiphar’s charges against him that left him languishing in an Egyptian prison. 

So he approached the cupbearer of Pharaoh and asked him to intercede with Pharaoh on Joseph’s behalf (Genesis 40:14). It did not yield results immediately, but in the end it was through the cupbearer that Pharaoh came to know of Joseph. And this eventually led to Joseph’s promotion.

I remember the early days... 

... when I decided to return to worship ministry/training. Being out of the scene for so long meant that I had to network and promote myself. And that was not an easy thing to do! I had people criticise me for trying to promote myself, saying that I ought to just, pray, wait upon God for who to approach, and only approach that person. Since I did not do it that way (or even better, stay at home praying until people call me) to them I was obviously moving in flesh, operating carnally and depending on human efforts rather than trusting in God…

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t hear God as often and as specifically as I would like. That was then, and I haven’t improved much ever since. There are people who are guided THAT specifically by God, and I rejoice for them. For me, however, I have to follow the principles embodied by this Scripture:

Ecclesiastes 11:6 (ESV) - In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.

This passage takes an idea from farming, that you cannot predict the success of a specific endeavour. But you can expect that if you persevere some of your efforts will be successful. And so if you want to be assured of some results, you have to sow a lot of effort and probably make it more widespread. And this is what I did in my marketing efforts.  If you are not guided by God as specifically as you would like, this principle will stand you in good stead in the meantime!

Besides, I grew a lot from going out and putting myself in a position to be rejected over and over again. It was humbling, and I sometimes wonder if some of those stay-home-and-pray people do so because they are that spiritually astute, or if they are just deathly fearful of rejection and using spiritual-sounding words to avoid facing it!  

Sometimes we need people whom we would rather not depend on. Consider the case of Mordecai in the book of Esther. When Haman the Agagite wanted to destroy the Jewish remnant (Esther 3:6), Mordecai asked Esther to intercede for the Jews on their behalf. At that moment, there was no better person for the task. Haman already outranked everyone else (Esther 3:1), only Esther, as the queen, had a chance to persuade the king to relent.

But Mordecai was no longer the primary influence in her life, as he was in the days when he raised her. There was always the possibility that Esther had let her new-found wealth and power get to her head.  And since marriage usually leads to a woman changing her loyalty, there was always a chance that Esther no longer felt for her people. Finally, even if she chose to intercede with the king for her people, what assurance did Mordecai have that Esther was shrewd enough to do so wisely?

We all know how that story turned out. Things were so near to going wrong for Mordecai and the rest of the Jewish people. But because God intervened and subtly nudged things his way, everything all worked out in the end. The fact remained, however, that Esther was an unlikely candidate for rescuing the Jews. Mordecai had to really commit the matter to God’s hands and trust God to the utmost if he wanted peace of mind that God would work everything out!

That is also how it may be with us. A chance meeting with an unlikely person, someone who may not even be interested in our cause or in helping us, may be exactly what God planned for working out his purposes in our lives. Sometimes, our only hope is someone we would rather not depend on. And that is how we see if our ultimate trust is in God or in man.

Psalm 118:8 (ESV) - It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man.

3)    Grab opportunities to do good
One more thing that Joseph and Mordecai had in common, they did good first, and their reward came a lot later.

For Joseph, it was interpreting the dream of the cupbearer. For Mordecai, it was exposing a plot to assassinate King Ahasuerus. Both these men had the reason to feel that their good acts went unrewarded. For Joseph, he was forgotten, ignored and left to languish in jail. For Mordecai, it was even worse. The king whose life he saved had just authorised the extermination of his race. If I was in Mordecai’s place, I would have been wondering if I ought to have let the assassination proceed in the first place!

Romans 8:28 (ESV) - And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

When you are struggling with the good you do being forgotten, ignored or misunderstood, you have to trust that God would work everything out in his time. For Joseph, if he was released earlier he would not have been around to interpret Pharaoh’s dream. For Mordecai, if he was rewarded earlier it would not have the effect of finally sealing Haman’s fate when Esther finally told the king what Haman was up to. 

Please don’t let yourself end up offended or bitter. Honestly, a political or church leader has loads of stuff on his/her plate. They usually count on assistants/secretaries/scribes to help them remember things, and sometimes things just slip through the cracks. Hey, I’m just trying to manage two sons, and sometimes I forget very important matters that I was supposed to settle. How much worse a leader with heavier responsibilities?

The verse from Ecclesiastes 11:6 about always sowing also applies here as well. In the earlier days of my ministry, I was often called upon to do favours for other people. Not all those favours were appreciated, in fact, some were taken for granted. But some did help move me along. And, like the marketing efforts I spoke about earlier, I grew from doing more, not doing less! 

Conclusion:
There are still other topics we can look at when it comes to this area, such as timing, how to manage expectations and making sure we communicate clearly. But this post is already getting long enough! And besides, if we 1) always trust God as our ultimate judge, 2) work humbly with other people, and 3) always seek to do good, I suspect we are going to manage well politically anyway, right?

One of My Students

(Personal blog post)

One of my students is this little Malay Muslim kid.

He's a bright and excitable fellow, somewhat emo and angsty at times, but that's common these days. It makes teaching him the conventional way somewhat impossible, so lessons with him are more about giving more music and playing exposure rather than explaining to him the nuts-and-bolts of music in a way other 7-year-olds can understand.

He says the darnedest things. One day, in the midst of the lesson he said "We worship the normal God; you Chinese worship the Chinese God". I wanted to ask him "Are you saying that my God is not normal?" but decided that he wasn't quite ready for such exercises in logic. I wasn't offended by what he said, I found it amusing and cute.

Well, he IS only seven, right?

Recently I was working with him on a song that was stored in the keyboard he was using. Kalinka, a Russian folk song. He really enjoyed it, I guess all kids would have fun with the mood changes within one song! Just to give him some perspective, I went over to Youtube on my phone and dug up a video for him.



He pretty much went crazy over this video, and kept watching it over and over again. I was commenting to his dad that he may one day grow up to have a fetish for Russian women. His dad took a look at that video and then told me, "It's OK. There are Muslims over in Russia. It does mean, however, that one day you may get an invitation to a wedding held in Siberia..."

By this time, however the kid in question had already moved on to other videos, such as this one...

There's something weird about seeing an army of Russian soldiers passionately singing about snowberries and raspberries, right?

Anyway, that's some of the stuff that comes out during my day-to-day teaching. *shrug* I can't say life is boring!

Ferrari-Taxi Accident – Divine Protection

As you get along with life and all the things that you need to do on this earth, what keeps you from being worried and paranoid about being killed or crippled or injured?

• A mindless complacency, a blind trust in human nature or living in denial?
  
• Or a genuine trust and grounded faith in God’s protection?

On the 12^th of May 2012, Ma Chi (from the People’s Republic of China) sped his Ferrari through a red light in Singapore and killed himself and two innocent people, the driver of the taxi he hit, the woman riding in the Ferrari with him. Sobering fact: You can do your best, follow the traffic laws set by the local authorities for the safety of everyone, and yet be killed by some joker behind the wheel.

And that is why we all NEED to know how to walk in God’s protection for our lives and the lives of our loved ones.

Psalm 32:7 (NIV) - You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.

This is one of my favourite promises in the Bible; God protects me, and he does it with music (talk about style!). But what does it take to be able to enjoy his divine protection? Let’s take a look at the verse just before that:

Psalm 32:6 (NIV) - Therefore let everyone who is godly pray to you while you may be found; surely when the mighty waters rise, they will not reach him.

Living a prayerful life is what enables us to walk in God’s protection. What often hinders us from living a prayerful life?

Psalm 32:1-5 (NIV) - Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.

When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
For day and night  your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.

Then I acknowledged my sin to you  and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”—
and you forgave  the guilt of my sin.

Unconfessed sin hinders our prayer life and keeps us from enjoying the fullness of all God intends for our lives.

Don’t get me wrong. I firmly believe unconfessed sin does NOT affect our righteous standing before God. If we look carefully at the second verse of this psalm, it gives us a blanket pardon; God will NEVER count our sins against us. Paul quotes this in Romans 4:7-8 and specifies that this is a righteousness apart from works (Rom 4:6).

In plain English, that means NOTHING we do can revoke the righteousness God has given us.

But if we fall short, if we sin, if we transgress against the LORD, he will lay his hand upon us, as he did with David. Why? Because he loves us, he is committed to us and he will never leave us (Hebrews 13:5). As our Father in heaven, he is committed to raising us up to be his sons, showing the world what he is like and worthy of bearing his name.

Hebrews 12:7-9 (NIV) - Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live!

Once we acknowledge our transgressions to him, humble ourselves and trust in his forgiveness, the blockage is cleared up and we can live joyful and fulfilling prayerful lives. AND hear the songs of deliverance as God protects us from trouble!

Psalm 32:8-9 (NIV) - I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you and watch over you.
Do not be like the horse or the mule,  which have no understanding
but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you.

God himself tells us that there are two ways of doing things; the easy way or the hard way. Either we submit to God’s instruction, and are led by his Spirit and through the Word, thus maintaining our dignity somewhat, OR if we want to be as stubborn as donkeys he will treat us like donkeys. We’ll go through life yanked around by the bit in our mouths and bridle on our heads.  

Psalm 32:10 (NIV) - Many are the woes of the wicked,
but the Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in him.

If you trust God, you will obey him, even if you don’t like what he says. I, for one, am an anti-social geek, so when the Bible talks about living in community it irks me. But since God made me and knows better than me, life is better when I do things his way, whether I like it or not. And because I started to understand that over the years he does not have to yank on the bit in my mouth that often these days and life is a lot more fun!

 

Conclusion:

To sum up what I say here, it’s a dangerous world we live in. God is fully aware of that, more than we are. And he wants to lead us away from the bad stuff and to the good. LORD, teach us how to cooperate and flow with you, so that we can all enjoy this life’s journey together!

Caught Me Offguard

(Personal blog post)

Just had the weirdest occurrence. I was at a nearby shopping centre, walking to the bus stop, when suddenly this guy smoking at one corner stopped me & offered me a lift home.

I guess I couldn't hide my bafflement, so he told me my block number & said he stayed at the same block as me. So that's how I got a lift home & a new friend at the same time!

On the way back he told me he noticed me one day at the lift at my floor when my dad passed Jessiah a picture (one of those old, large ones) and he then passed it to me. He couldn't remember what I told my son, (neither could I) but he said it showed I was a good dad, at least better than the one he had...

And that made quite an impression on him as he had just become a dad himself. His baby is 4 months old!

Personally, my first inner reaction was cynicism. “I wonder what would he have thought of me if he caught me yelling at Jessiah?” Later on, however, it dawned on me that people notice me even when I am too caught up with my own world (happens very often).  Sometimes what seems like no big deal to us may actually leave a favorable impression on onlookers.

And of course, since we don’t always see things the way God does, maybe God is really impressed or very touched by what we do also? Just a thought…

Foundations of God's Provision

One major fascination I have is with divine provision. To have all you need, when you need it, so that everything you need to have and get done is settled, sounds good to me! But just a week ago, something interesting just struck me.

Matthew 6:31-33 (NIV) - So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

This can be called the cornerstone of living in God’s provision. It covers both the attitude (confident trust) and actions (seeking the Kingdom) necessary for enjoying God’s supply in every area of our lives.

But, for me at least, it did not always work. I thought I did what I was supposed to do, but didn’t get the promised supply. And I suspect I’m not the only one who ran into problems with it. Well, a week ago, I realized that there was some necessary groundwork that needed to be done first, before people are actually able to live in the fullness of this passage of Scripture.

Let’s start from the very start of the chapter:

Matthew 6:1-4 (NIV) - “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,  so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

One thing that sets Matthew 6 apart from Matthew 5 and 7 is the emphasis on reward. Jesus contrasts rewards from God and rewards from Man. We can summarize Matthew 6:1-18 simply as give, pray and fast unto God, and trust in him to reward us.

Matthew 6:19-24 (NIV) - “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

This is the turning point in the chapter, when Jesus talks about our inner vision. Are spiritual realities important to us? We have to make the conscious decision to lay up treasures in heaven, in order that our hearts will be set on heavenly things.

Colossians 3:1-2 (NIV) - Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

And by the way, Jesus has also already told us how to lay up treasures in heaven: give to the poor, pray and fast. And with God’s reward as our motivation.

We also see what can cloud our spiritual vision: trying to serve both God and Money. It just won’t work. Either God or Money will be your master, who do you choose? This is very important, because Jesus taught this first before he told us not to worry about provision. 

Matthew 6:25-34 (NIV) - “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

In my personal experience, people who have difficulties with receiving God’s provision usually miss out on some of the earlier points within this chapter. The question of lordship, do you live for God or Man? And the heart, is it set on things above or things below?

Finally, how real is the Fatherhood of God to you? Is God some distant deity, a harsh taskmaster, or a loving Father? Within this chapter, as Jesus is laying the groundwork for his teaching, he refers to God as Father eleven times, and as God only twice. This is significant to me. Jesus already taught that prayer is one of the ways of laying up treasures in heaven, and prayer (as Jesus taught it) requires us to acknowledge God as Father.

And over time, as our personal relationship with God deepens in intimacy and understanding, we will find that our faith (attitudes) and actions will place us in the place where we can enjoy the exciting and satisfying life of walking in God’s provision in every aspect of our lives.

Conclusion:
Ever since I noticed the details I shared here, I started to evaluate my life in the light of Matthew 6. Of course there’s so much more to consider within Matthew 6, because it has far-ranging implications in our daily lives. But I hope that you will find this sharing a useful self-check tool to see if there are any areas you need to work on a bit in order to enjoy God’s provision to an even greater degree!

Be blessed!

Parenting and Teaching

It’s barely three months into the year and I’ve been so busy, it’s crazy…

You see, this year Jacques started attending primary school (compulsory education for children aged seven and above).  In Singapore, children will usually attend a kindergarten (half-day program) or childcare centre (full-day program) for 2-3 years before that, and that helps to prepare them for what the schools will teach at primary level.

Jacques was attending a kindergarten near my in-laws. After a whole year of crazy stories about the things the “teachers” there would make him do, I finally discover that his teachers taught him what he did NOT need to know, and not what he needed for primary school. I made this discovery at the end of last year, so I really had no time to repair the damage. Oh boy…

As a prominent Singaporean politician has said before, you pay peanuts, you’ll get monkeys. And with that Singaporean parents will immediately be able to figure out the kindergarten and the sheer irony of the situation!

Maybe it’s just a Singaporean thing. When I look at how much more work there is to do with Jacques to just get him to catch up and have SOME clue of what’s going on in school, it’s easy to just panic, freak out and try to cram everything into him at one go.

And this doesn’t happen only with parenting either. Sometimes as a music teacher I face the same situation with students about to take their music exams, but aren’t ready, or “musicians” who have to ready to play for a worship set by the weekend, but need another few more months of lessons and practice instead. It’s tempting to either give up or data dump on them everything they need to know. And if they can’t absorb or use whatever I teach that’s their problem!

But that is NOT how Jesus does things.

John 16:12-13 (NIV) - “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

We see from here that even Jesus, the Master Teacher, had a sense of pacing. And that pacing was based not only what his disciples needed to know (“much more to say to you”) but also what they were able to absorb (“more than you can now bear”). Because of those factors, he did the best he could do in the earthly time he had available, but also knew that the work had to be shared with others, in this case the Holy Spirit.

So if you are a parent or a teacher, or even the head of a ministry or church, this is an important lesson for us to learn too. In our teaching and leadership, we need to be aware of pacing, what is the best our children, students and followers can manage at that moment, and how to best work within those limits.

It’s difficult, because we are often pulled in two directions – the present or the future. If we are stuck in the present, we don’t strive for improvement. We just make do with how things are. The kid can’t manage his maths? Blame the teacher and complain to other parents. Your students can’t perform? Blame their previous teachers or label them as lazy. Your congregation doesn’t worship God the way the Bible wants them to? Just ignore it or gossip about it with other church members…

On the other hand, if we see the future but have no plan or vision of how to get there, we get frustrated and impatient. We pressurize and berate our kids, students and congregation. We try to guilt them into conforming to our expectations and lose patience with them if they do not immediately get what we want them to know or perform as we want them to.

This is a sure-fire way to burn out and wear out ourselves and the people around us!

Recognizing Good Teachers

How do you recognize good teachers? Knowing this will help you identify people you can entrust your children or congregation to, as well as give you insight into your own teaching ability. With such insight it’s easier to decide on what you may need to work on in order to get the results you need.

• Lowest Level Teaching – “You want this? Do that!”
  
• Low Level Teaching – “You want this? Do that, which is made up of A, B and C…”
  
• Mid-Level Teaching – “You want this? Do that, which is made up of A, B and C. Usually people do them in that order, but you may have to switch them around if you…”
  
• High-Level Teaching – “You want this? Do that, which is made up of A, B and C. I noticed you already have A, but you are very weak in C, you should spend more time on that for the moment…”
  
• Higher-Level Teaching - “You want this? Do that, which is made up of A, B and C. I noticed you already have A, but you are very weak in C, you should spend more time on that for the moment. Work especially on C1, C2 and C3…” And it can go on and on, depending on how deep is the subject and the specific needs of the student/child/congregation.

Of course, you won’t need the highest level of teaching for everything all the time. If you are naturally inclined towards a particular field, such as music, art or a language, lower level teaching may be all you need. But if you or your child has serious difficulty in something, or your congregation finds it hard to live the life of worship (or walk in divine healing, freedom from strife, etc), then you will need a teacher who is capable of higher level teaching.

And what if no one else is available?

Sometimes we find ourselves in a place when higher-level teaching is needed, but we are the only ones available. We don’t know how to get the people to where we want them to be, but we are stuck with the job and we can’t just hand it over to someone else. At that time, what can we do?

Pray.

Ask God, “What is the best thing I can do, say or teach for NOW?”

Sometimes, all God wants of us is to just manage the now. Jesus taught what he was supposed to teach, and then left the rest to the Holy Spirit. And sometimes, what little we can do may just be enough for God to accomplish what he wants to do.

John 6:9 (NIV) - "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?"

The Bible records that the five loaves and two fishes worked well enough when entrusted to Jesus!

Conclusion:

I’ve always had a heart for teaching. It’s how God has wired me. But that doesn’t make it any easier to do things the right way when it’s my own son! So I pray that the insights from my own experiences will be helpful to you the next time you need to teach anyone something or make any decisions about getting teaching for yourself or others.

Be blessed!

The Missing Piece

(This is Part 03 of my story. If you missed it, you can read Part 01 and Part 02 now)

Back to the story…

So there I was in my Christian life, enjoying results and fruit in my worship ministry, knowing that as long as I can play the guitar I can successfully lead worship almost all the time. I had some interesting experiences because of that ability. There was once I visited a friend’s church’s prayer meeting and was asked to lead worship with just one song. OK, I took up the guitar, asked if they knew the only song I could think of (the group was almost entirely made up of strangers), and then not only led them in worship, but also flowed from there into prayer and intercession as well.

Hey, it was a prayer meeting, right?

But what was missing? Imparting that ability to others, so other people can successfully do what I do.

2 Timothy 2:2 (NIV) - And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.

You see, I had invested hours and hours of time into my personal devotions, music practice and all that in order to do what I did. And that was fine when people are younger and have less demands on their time. Try telling a harried mother of 2-4 kids that in order to fulfill God’s calling upon her life she has to spend an hour a day on the Bible & prayer, and yet another on a musical instrument.

That’s NOT going to work!

So if I wanted to have people able to do what I did, I had to distill everything I did down to its barest form, the most essential elements. I had to show them principles that could guide their decisions and choices, and those principles had to work even without people having to put in the same kind of time and effort I had already put in.

Then One Fateful Day…

As I shared before in my book Invisible Worship Musician, I was engaged by a music school to teach a course on playing the piano for worship. It was during the lesson on playing intros for worship songs that I suddenly realized the purpose of worship music: to unify the praises of the people.

2 Chronicles 5:12-14 (NIV) - All the Levites who were musicians—Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun and their sons and relatives—stood on the east side of the altar, dressed in fine linen and playing cymbals, harps and lyres. They were accompanied by 120 priests sounding trumpets. The trumpeters and singers joined in unison, as with one voice, to give praise and thanks to the LORD. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, they raised their voices in praise to the LORD and sang: “He is good; his love endures forever.” Then the temple of the LORD was filled with a cloud, and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the temple of God.

So I shared this passage with the very first class taking that very lesson. And from there I showed them how to create song intros that start to do exactly that. It worked very well for the class, they were happy that they got something simple that they could use after 3-4 lessons.

As for me, I continued to meditate on the implications of that very same passage for many years after that. It explained to me why what I did worked, and allowed me to give good reasons for why I would lead worship and play for worship the way I did.

If you do NOT have this understanding…

You end up with one of two extremes.

1)      You have people blindly copying EVERYTHING from someone who inspires them. At one point of time, as a certain Christian singer inspired many lady worship leaders in Singapore to dress, sing and pose in a certain way (one arm held out at a particular angle). Even though she was supposed to be a worship leader, she was more a lead singer, as she would sometimes pitch songs in keys 180 degrees away from what was suitable for a congregation. And she wasn’t good at leading the congregation…

I sometimes wonder if those Singaporean lady worship leaders ever caught on to the fact that what they were copying didn’t really help their church congregations in worship very much. If they did, did they ever figure out what went wrong? Or did they just blame their church congregations for being lukewarm?

2)      You have NO discipleship whatsoever. There may be one good worship leader in the church, someone who can make things work, but the other worship leaders want to do their own things in their own way. And those things and ways don’t work. After some time, some of the congregation may walk out or skip worship when they see who is scheduled to lead worship that day.

I’m not saying that is the right thing to do, but it is better than these people totally changing church because they are frustrated during your worship time, right? Of course, these days quite a number of believers don’t recognize well-led praise and worship because they have been misled into confusing a song-and-dance routine with true worship. If they leave your church because you are not giving them the show they want but what they really need (a genuine encounter with the living God) that’s understandable.

What is unacceptable is when you know you can give them the real deal but choose not to…

Conclusion:

I’ve now shared with you the core story, why I do and teach what I do. I hope that sharing my journey will help you understand me a little more, and maybe help you on your own journey also. Be blessed!

Quarrels Late At Night

(Personal Blog Post - modified from my Facebook post)

‎1.30 a.m., and there was loud quarreling from the void deck area below my flat.

In the past I would have been irritated, judgemental or amused. Now I find myself sad. Especially over the past 7 years or so I've learned firsthand what it is like to face provocation by a fool, what the Bible says is a heavier burden than stone or sand. 

Proverbs 27:3 (NIV) - Stone is heavy and sand a burden, but provocation by a fool is heavier than both.

It is heartbreaking to realize that someone you geniunely want to resolve conflict with delights in prolonging the strife. You wonder why you hold back the insults and barbs while the other person doesn't, in fact, delights in giving you a double portion...

Psalm 120:6-7 (NIV) -  Too long have I lived among those who hate peace.
I am a man of peace; but when I speak, they are for war.

So now my heart goes out to those who have to live with contentious people in their lives, the agents of strife who delight in war when others desire peace. Is there a way out? The Bible says:

Psalm 37:37 (NIV) - Consider the blameless, observe the upright; there is a future for the man of peace.

God, bring me to that future you have prepared for me, and not me only, but also those who love peace!

The Turning Point

As I shared before, I served in the worship ministry before I had ever encountered God in worship. Or maybe I did, but thought that it was just the effect of really cool music. So coming from that perspective, I ended up assuming worship=music.

And that meant that getting better worship required getting better music. Whatever “better” means…

When I believed that, and didn’t have any conclusive encounter with God through worship, it led to two problems:

1. My own personal worship life was very weak. Why invest time in it if I believed I had to be in a large congregation with a hyper-cool band for it to work? Worship in your own personal prayer time does not always feel good immediately. If you don’t believe in it you will give up easily.
2. I became frustrated with small group worship sessions. I didn’t encounter God in worship there, so I didn’t believe it was possible. Looking back, I realize that it was because most of the worship leaders in the small groups I attended didn’t have enough understanding to stay on a good song long enough for the singing to be unified. A technical issue. And also, they would shy away from the presence of God and choke down everything before things got really intense. Probably a sin-consciousness issue.

But one day…

The leader of my worship team sat us down and said “We’re a worship band, so we’re going to worship God!” And he proceeded to lead us in a worship session that honestly felt like being brought to heaven and back. This session shattered all my wrong ideas just like that. It was a small group (5-6 people) and had simple music (one acoustic guitar). And I KNEW, deep in my heart, that I had just met God in worship.

And I was hooked. Totally hooked!

Not only that, I also wanted to share that same experience, encountering God in worship, with every believer I could. I became totally obsessed with worship and worship ministry; I kept bugging the band leader for his ideas, concepts and opinions.

Now he wasn’t that much of a teacher; he just kind of stumbled across what works, but he couldn’t really explain to me how or why it worked.  So I continued with the smartest thing I ever did: I copied him wholesale. He led worship on solo guitar and it worked, so I started learning how to play the guitar. He would use certain songs and lead them in a certain way, so I would work on the same songs and do them the same way.

And it worked for me too!

Of course there were refinements I needed to make along the way. Things like what key to pitch songs in, how to use music to properly support what I was doing, and nitty-gritty things like that. But I had already achieved what many other worship leaders I knew could only pray and dream about – consistent success in leading worship. I would be able to bring the worship as deep and as intense as it could go that session, and the worshippers would encounter God, be blessed by him and want to seek him in worship more and more.

So, is that it? Was that all? Did I live happily ever after, end of story? Not quite. There still remained one more important step to reach and milestone to achieve. But it’s getting really late for me now, so I’ll share with you the story next time. In the meantime, be blessed!

How I Started in Worship Ministry

I still remember how I got started in the worship ministry…

I received Jesus as my Lord and Savior when I was young (less than 12). Because I wasn’t attending church after that, my faith took a backseat to role-playing games and music. But there was always this nagging feeling at the back of my mind that God deserved a lot more seriousness than what I was showing him during those years. So when I finally had a chance to attend church services I jumped at the opportunity.

The pleasant surprise for me was discovering that church had music!

One thing about me, I’m quite capable of going on with something if I was convinced it was good for me. I didn’t need it to be entertaining, exciting or enjoyable, it just had to be meaningful. I was ready to not enjoy any aspect of the church experience but just keep turning up anyway.

So having enjoyable music at church was an unexpected benefit!

Because I didn’t know the songs, I couldn’t join in the singing. But I did appreciate the music. Unfortunately, that became my habit – paying more attention to the music than what people (and I) ought to be singing to the Lord. It’s not that I was a total reprobate during that season; I would seek God in prayer and in the Scriptures. And I would encounter him there.

But encountering God during the worship? No, it didn’t really happen.

And that meant that, if I was put in charge of a team of musicians at that time (I wasn’t, thank God!!), any decisions would be made based on what would sound good musically, rather than whether it would be spiritually pleasing to God or helpful to the congregation.

The Point of What I Am Saying…

… is that if your church has decent music, it’s quite likely that there are people like me in the congregation. And this means:

1. Your pastor may have to regularly preach and teach on encountering God in worship, yearly or half-yearly if your congregation has regular growth; AND 
2. People like me may apply to join your church worship team. And you have to start thinking and praying about how God wants you to handle such people.
   

Of course not every church musician is like how I was at that point of time when I first started serving in the worship ministry. Some knew God first, before they discovered their interest and talent for music. You may encounter different challenges with these people, compared to my sort.
Then again, I wasn’t exactly the most mature and easy-to-handle person in those days either!

So that was how I started serving in the worship ministry. I have another two major milestones to share, but those will have to wait for future emails and posts. So in the meantime, be blessed!