Tag: Religion and Spirituality

March Equinox


I think today’s the March Equinox. If that is correct, the days get shorter from today. Soon we’d have the dreaded dark-at-five pm days. I have always said to Tress and Kiddo that I didn’t mind the cold in winter. What I dislike are the short days. I think they contribute to depression for many.

I also remember 21 March for a different reason – it was the day I started work since we moved to Melbourne about 6 ½ years ago. It was also a Monday and I went in to the office of Sharrock Pitman Legal in Glen Waverley. We were living in Mount Waverley then and Kiddo was attending Mount Waverley North Primary. Tress had also started work in Myer on Lonsdale Street in the city.

We were finding our feet in Melbourne. We started to go to the International Christian Community church (ICC) in Glen Waverley. Pastor Chek Chia was there then. Other than a new life in a new city with a new job and so many other things which were new for us, we also had a very new theology to contend with in the approaches of that church towards prayer, guidance and instructions.

In some ways, the shorter days ahead reflect how I feel now. Some things appear bleak. I wish things could be different and we could unwind the clock and set things right from those early days. I know however that God is sovereign and He is also good. God’s wonderful creation included not just the March Equinox but also the September one. We’d have to live through the coming “6 months”, work on things, keep our eyes on God and look forward to the September Equinox when days will become brighter and longer again.

The creation of our God is wonderful. The cycles of astronomy and seasons are part of His beautiful creation. The ever changing weathers, life experiences, joy and pain, hope and despair and indeed even life and death – have all been “signed off” by our sovereign Lord and as the wise proverb says, we need to trust God, acknowledge Him in all things, and He will set our paths straight.

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Second Experience? Hmmm


We have been doing a series on fundamental Christian beliefs in church and a couple of weeks ago we looked at the topic of the Holy Spirit. Unsurprisingly, the issue of a second experience (of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit I guess) came up, albeit cursorily. I was thinking about it when preparing some thoughts for cell discussion on Friday and continued thinking about it on the periphery. A short while ago I came across these statements:

1. The baptism with the Holy Spirit occurs the moment a person is saved. It is not the same experience as salvation but happens at the time of salvation. It is not a second experience following conversion.

2. God has given believers everything in Christ. When we are saved we are complete in Him. We lack nothing. There is nothing else for Him to give to us.

3. Nowhere are believers commanded to receive any second blessing that would give them power. All power is already available.

4. The power of the Holy Spirit working in a persons life is something that should be desired. Some who have legitimately experienced the Spirit’s power label the encounter as the baptism with the Holy Spirit whereas the Scripture calls this experience the filling of the Holy Spirit. previously mentioned, everything has been provided for us upon conversion. We only need to appropriate what God has already done for us.

I think I agree with these statements and am reasonably at peace with not having a second experience, although who is to limit God – He can show me otherwise.

 

In the meantime, I have to contend with the historicity of the Messianic Jesus seen through the incident of the Triumphant Entry…sigh indeed….

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Cat in the Cradle


Harry Chapin‘s “Cat in the Cradle” first made its way (for me anyway) into Christian sermons maybe 10 years ago, when I first heard it from Ravi Zachariah. Yesterday Daniel Tong from the Singapore Anglican church mentioned it again.

I think this will become a stronger and stronger theme among the husbands and fathers in growing families. How does one keep the balance between providing for the family and keeping the relationship and bond alive? Pursuing work and career is often a slippery slope for many. It remains a holy grail for them.

You can watch a clip of Chapin doing a live rendition here.

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Experiential Theology is Methodist!


I thought experiential theology was the hallmark of the pentecostals. it appears the bloke this emanated from was a German named Schleiermacher, who was a Moravian Pietist – and John Wesley was a Pietist too! So way before pentecostals emphasised experiential theology, the Methodist – indeed the founder of Methodism – was already well and truly in the game! And no, it isnt the wine; I am barely half way through my first glass…

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Err… How does that go again? (signs and wonders twists)


If I cant understand something and I ask questions, I am not being dogmatic. I am being inquisitive. I am searching. If no one provides an answer, I reject that something. Again, that is not being dogmatic. That is being reasonable. On the other hand if you cant explain what you are asserting, I’d say you are the dogmatic one. You are suggesting I am not being open to new things. Maybe. If however that “new thing” simply doesnt make sense and no one can plausibly explain it to me, maybe you are the one who is not being open. Maybe you are not open to the possibility that the reason you cant explain is that you are wrong.

If someone continues to claim he heals and that healing took place but I ask why the supposedly healed person continues to be sick, I am not being dogmatic. I am being sensible. If you claim a person has been healed in spite of his continued state of being sick, You are not being open. you are being dogmatic. You are being in fact and quite frankly, stupid. If you claim that supposedly healed person is sick now because he ceased believing and that it was a an issue with his faith, you are even being cruel. That person wants nothing more than to be healed. To say he has no faith is to cast an indictment on him (how dare you) which is cruel simply because you are being dogmatic about your claim that healing took place.

If you explain that to me I will cease questioning and I will cease, in your words, being dogmatic. I will start, in your lingo, to be open.

I dont think God meant for us to be blind and stupid. That to me sums up why I think the signs and wonders movement has a huge hole. Plug that hole and I’m all yours.

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Goodbye, Dad


Got that dreaded call this morning – my father, aged 68, passed away. I battled the notion that it would be cold to blog this but again, this blog is for posterity. Hopefully, some day, someone in future generations would read this and remember Teh Seng Beng. I hope to put up a eulogy at some point.

“So, I commend the enjoyment of life.” (From the Bible – really. Eccl 8:15)

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Screwtape Revisited


One of the yellowest and most tattered books sitting on my shelf is CS Lewis‘ “Screwtape Letters“. I first came across this gem more than 20 years ago, gave away a couple of copies and the old fragile copy is one of the many CS Lewis books I brought with me from Malaysia 2 years ago.  

         

Letter Eight of this book has this:

“Humans are amphibians – half spirit and half animal… As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time. This means that while their spirits can be directed toward an eternal object, their bodies, passions, and imaginations are in continual change – for to be in time means to change.

Therefore, their nearest approach to constancy is undulation – the repeated return to a level from which they repeatedly fall back. It is a series of valleys and peaks. Ifyou watched your patient carefully you would have seen this undulation in every area of his life: his interest in his work, his affection for his friends, physical appetites, all go up and down. As long as he lives on earth, periods of emotional and physical prosperity will alternate with periods of depression and poverty. The dryness and dullness through which your patient is now going are not, asyou fondly suppose, your workmanship. They are merely a natural phenomenon which will do us no good unless you make good use of it.

To decide how to best use this unstable condition, you must ask what use the Enemy wants to make of it and then do the opposite. Now it may surprise you to learn that in His efforts to get permanent possession of a soul, He relies on the valleys even more than on the mountain tops. Some of His special favourites have gone through the longer and deeper valleys than anyone else…

You must have often wondered why the Enemy does not make more use of His power to be physically present to human souls in any degree He chooses and at any moment. But you now see that the irresistable and the indisputable are the two weapons which th every nature of His scheme forbids Him to use. Merely to override a human will (as His felt presence in any but the slightest degree would certainly do) would be for Him useless. He cannot dominate them. He can only woo. For His idea is to eat the cake and have it; the creatures are to be one with Him, but yet themselves. To neutralize or assimilate them will not serve His purposes…

He leaves the reature to stand on its own feet – to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost their enjoyment. It is during the peak periods, that they are growing into the kind of creatures He wants them to be. It is the prayers offered in the state of dryness that please Him best.“

I dont know why I took that book out again. I have borrowed a book called “Daughters of Galilee” and have been toying with Alex Ferguson’s autobiography again so I certainly have entertaining stuff to read for now. CS Lewis’ work however, has always provided a solid intellectual basis for my beliefs and the above passage somehow struck a very rational chord in my mind. I wont try to articulate it for now (and would appreciate anyone assisting with that task) except to say it has centered me, at least for now.

“So, I commend the enjoyment of life.” (From the Bible – really. Eccl 8:15)

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