Not sure about you, but it is becomingly increasingly clear to me that as a person gets older, it becomes harder to reach out to people around him. It’s not a matter of how old I am, but a matter of how old the people around me are.

I remember when I was in my secondary school, when I was full of fire and zeal for God (now more tampered, unfortunately), it was so easy to invite friends to church and to christian events. Speaking to them about God also came naturally and easily and they were generally more receptive and less hostile. It was fun and easy to evangelize then. Is this still the case for students?

But now as I try with the colleagues around me, more often than not, I’m met with a stone wall of discomfort and doubt. The mere mention of the word ‘religion’ is almost taboo in the workplace. Is it true for you too? Trying to invite them to church becomes an almost impossible feat and even broaching the subject is a huge challenge by itself. Above that, it appears that the older they are, the more hostile and less receptive they are. It seems almost like the years have slowly hardened their hearts more and more, which actually makes perfect sense.

The Bible says, ‘If you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.’ Think you know that as one continues to harden his heart to anything, sooner or later the heart is going to be a concrete wall to that thing. Take any sin and you will understand what I mean. The first time you cheat, you feel very guilty. The second time, there is still guilt but slightly less than the first. As you continue to cheat, slowly these feelings of guilt no longer have any impact on you and you have grown cold in your heart. I believe that it is the same thing for non-Christians.

As they continually reject the voice of God, their hearts grow colder and more distant. As the years go by, layers and layers of obstacles get build up between them and God and so it gets harder to reach out to them. Could this be perhaps the reason why it is so much more difficult to reach out to adults than youth or children?

Whatever the case, I would strongly encourage all students to seize the opportunities they have to bring their friends to Christ. If my hypothesis is untrue, you have not lost anything but become more passionate for the lost. But if I’m right, then all the more, we should reach out to the people around us as passionately as we can, as it gets harder with each passing day.

What do you think? Do you agree?

It has been a very challenging week, which explains why I have not been updating my blog. I am not proud to say this, but the busy-ness of work and business has drawn me further from Him this week. Perhaps that is also the reason why things have not been going so smoothly at work.

Anyway, as I was trying to return to His side and doing my quiet time, I read this passage about Issac and Abimelech in Gen 26. In this story, Issac was told to stay in Egypt even though there was a famine in the land (v1 -2). Issac obeyed. However, he lied about his wife being his sister, for fear of being killed because of her beauty. YET, read on in verse 12 -13.

Then Issac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him. The man began to prosper and continued prospering until he became very prosperous;

- Gen 26:12-13

Isn’t that amazing? God continued to bless Issac despite his lies. More than that, God blessed Issac with so much that others became jealous of him as you will see in subsequent verses! And all Isaac did was to be obedient and remain in the land. Perhaps God is trying to tell me something here?

Of course, I know that God can choose to bless His people in many ways and prosperity is just one of them. But the important thing is, God continues to bless us despite our sins. I believe that God looks at our hearts and when our hearts have a desire to be obedient to Him, He honors that even though we may fall occasionally. That brings great encouragement, knowing that we do not have a Father that is hovering over us all the time, waiting for us to slip and to give us a whack on the head. In His love and grace, He still continues to bless.

I am truly encouraged by this story, seeing that as we continue to trust and obey, He will bless us and prosper us as He deems fit. I really need to set aside all my other stuff and to give Him the attention He deserves.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I’m currently embarking on reading the book of Genesis. Tonight, I came to the story of Abram or Abraham. You may already know the story, but God drew my attention to one part of the story and I never took much notice of.

God had promised Abram that he will have descendants as many as the stars in the skies, but he was still without child at about 90 years old. Thinking that they will help God along, Abram slept with Hagar, his servant, with the consent of Sarah, his wife. Consequently, Hagai became pregnant and gave birth to Ishmael. But it brought unrest in Abram’s household as Hagai began looking down on Sarah.

Then one night, God again reaffirmed His promise with Abram, that he will have a child with his wife Sarah. God even went so far as to change Abram’s name to Abraham as a promise that he will be the ‘father of many nations’. Of course, Abraham reacted like any of us would do. “How is that possible, Lord, I am already 90 years old.” Then let’s read the Bible to see what happens:

Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” And Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!”

Then God said: “No, Sarah, your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Issac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him.”
             Gen 17:17-19

Did you notice that Abraham was very much like many of us? The man whom God had called faithful. Abraham saw that Ishmael seemed like the very solution to his childless problem. Doesn’t matter what God thinks, it seems almost obvious that Ishmael should be his descendant. Already at 100 years old, it was almost unthinkable to have another child and here before him was Ishmael. Seems like the perfect solution isn’t it? Thus, Abraham asked God, why can’t Ishmael be the descendant you promised?

Abraham, for a moment, had fixed his eyes on what he could see and he was content to accept what he knew was not God’s best plans for him. How many of us are like that? How many of us may have fallen into this same trap? We are presented with a solution to our problems, maybe its debt, maybe its a relationship, we know its not the best solution, but it seems like the easiest and most workable solution. Though deep-down, God may have already convicted us to wait and be patient, but our earthly eyes sometimes preferred to accept God’s second best instead of trusting in Him.

So let’s not force God to accept our man-made solutions as His best plans for us. Let’s remember to continue trusting and waiting for what He has promised us. If you know that God has promised you with a happy marriage, running to another woman may give you a brief respite from the daily troubles at home, but it’s not God’s solution to you. Are you accepting the ‘Ishmaels’ in your life as though they were God’s answer to your prayers? But rather, seek Him with all your heart, have faith and wait for His time.

Today God reminded me of the song ‘In Christ Alone’, a song that has spoken to me more than a couple of times. The part of the song that speaks to me most is this:

In every victory, let it be said of me, my source of strength, my source of hope is Christ alone.

Think this reminder came very timely just as we are on the verge of launching Christianhub, to place our trust and confidence in Him alone and not on human hands. When we start looking away from Him and on ourselves, the load becomes too much to bear. Even as I was doing my quiet time, I had decided to read the book of Genesis a few days back and came to this verse:

“And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
       Gen 11:4

Guess you should know the rest of the story. God came down and changed their language so they could not understand each other and scattered them all in order to stop them building the tower.

Lofty ambitions. Great dreams.

These are not wrong things. In fact God wants us to have such vision and desires. But what was wrong was where their dreams came from. Pride. They wanted to build a structure that they can call their own, one that will challenge God and make a statement that they have built it with their own hands. They had ambitions not placed there by God.

The Bible says that unless the Lord builds the house, the labourers labour in vain. In the same way, I was reminded of how it relates to Christianhub and all our other websites. Sometimes, it’s so easy to get caught up in the details that we completely leave God out of the equation and what first started as a dream for Him, becomes a dream only for ourselves. We need to be careful and watch our hearts. God can and should never take second place and if this project should cause us to be too busy to seek Him, then like the Bible says, it is much better to cut it off.

After finishing my quiet time, I came away with a sobering reminder and a load lifted off my back. I can trust God in all our ventures and projects. As long as we continue to seek Him and His ways, God will always be for us and not against us. I had many worries and concerns about my projects, but I can find strength and hope to sing ‘In Christ alone, I place my trust and find my glory in the power of the Cross.”

As I was reading Genesis again, I realized something I didn’t notice before. It was the story of Noah. God had decided to destroy the earth because of its wickedness but Noah found favour with the Lord. Thus, the Lord told Noah to build an ark. Sound familiar right? But read on in Gen 6:18-19:

“But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark - you, your sons, your wife and your son’s wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of eveyr sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female.”

Sounds like God gave Noah quite a task isn’t it? But look at what God said before that. He established a covenant with Noah, or an ever-lasting relationship and promise. Only after that, God required Noah to do some work. Alot of work in fact. He wanted Noah to bring two of every living creature onto the ark, not just any two, but a male and a female. Why? In order to preserve their species.

Now the question is: Couldn’t God have simply recreated them after the flood?

Sure He could. But He chose not to work that way. He deliberately chose Noah to accomplish the same result. A much more difficult and tedious journey to say the least, but that was how God chose to do it! This demonstrates a fundamental principle of how God works. There will be much easier ways of achieving the same results, but God seldom chooses the easiest way out. He chooses the way that is most beneficial for the training of His children.

Do you think it was easy for Noah to gather a pair of EVERY living creature into a small ark? How much effort did it take to feed everyone of them in the ark? What about the noise? Even worse, the smell? I really don’t think the ark was anything like a 5-star hotel. It was probably more like a farm, except enclosed, stuffy and packed. Do you think Noah might have asked himself the same question: Why couldn’t God just made the animals again after the flood? I’m sure he did.

However as with any calling of God, it comes with commands that sometimes we don’t understand or appreciate. But Noah did it anyway. He recognized that God has given him a sacred responsibility of maintaining the survival of every living creature created before the flood. So Noah fulfilled his calling obediently and trusted God.

We will never know what God hoped to accomplish by choosing to work through Noah. But one thing is sure, He had a plan, a great and perfect plan and Noah was part of it. Not a small part but a major part of it. Was Noah indespensible to God? Surely not. But He chose to use him regardless and I know that God still continues to use us to work out His perfect plans even though He could do it by Himself. At the end of the day, I believe that Noah came out of the ark with a greater measure of patience, obedience and faith in God if not anything else because of the animals living within the ark.

Allow me to speak to all teenagers and all who are still looking for their partners in life. You may already have struggled with this question, ‘Is it ok to get attached to a non-Christian?’

The funny thing is, the answer is probably also already extremely clear in your conscience and your hearts. There is that irritating inner conviction about what the answer to that question should be. So why is the answer so difficult to accept? Yes, the answer is a clear no. Let me repeat, no.

Before you try to launch into a flurry of arguments about why it SHOULD not be a no, let me first stop you and tell you that my reason for believing it to be a ‘no’ is not because of some high and mighty theological argument. It stems from basic common sense and experience. So hear me out.

First, religion forms the core of our being (or supposed to be). What happens when the core of our being conflicts or is not in-sync with our spouses or future spouses? What happens when our convictions, drive and desires do not go hand-in-hand with our partners’? You know the answer surely as I do. Disaster.

It is really a painful thing to believe fervently in one thing and yet being able to share it with your husbands/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend. I love playing badminton. I can play the sport everyday if I can. But my wife does not. How I wished that she did so we could share our passions of the sport together. When I had a good game, I wished she was there to enjoy it with me. When I am playing lousily, it’s great to have someone understand the frustrations. Even a simple thing like sports can invoke such feelings, what more about the love of our lives, God? By the way, we both like tennis too, so we share that together now.

Anyway, my point is this, the future of a marriage built upon 2 separate foundations of belief is definitely shaky. You may have a passion for winning the lost, but you cannot share your joys and discouragements with your husband. You love to spend time reading the word of God, but your wife wishes you can use the time to spend with her instead. How can a relationship like this be good in any sense? Without a common ground on spirituality, everything else will fall apart easily like a house of cards.

Secondly, I’ve seen the effects of such relationships in close friends. Almost all would tell you that in retrospect, it was such a foolish thing to do in the first place. The funny thing? They all had the same answers in their hearts when they were questioning. I believe you will be hard-pressed to find someone who has been there and done that, who would encourage you to do the same. Try it and let me know if you find someone. Many will tell you of their struggles and pain and the immense difficulty of breaking away after fully committing your emotions in a relationship that is doomed to continually conflicts and dissatisfaction.

Even if your partner is easy going, the joy of sharing your love for God is never going to be possible. That in itself, is probably one of the greatest torment you can place yourself in.

Thirdly, please don’t mention about the excuse of trying to bring that person to salvation while being in a relationship. It may have worked for some, but how many success cases have there been? In all my years, I cannot remember any. Ask yourself, is he/she likely to be converted anytime soon? If so, then why don’t you bring him to Christ first? If not, then are you sure your relationship is going to last that long? Are you prepared to enter into a relationship knowing that you cannot share the same convictions and passions? Are you prepared to not be able to have your closest friend pray with you through your difficult times?

I know what I say is probably what you already know. But I do hope that somehow, God will use these words to remind you again of what He has already spoken to you. He is not in the thunder nor the storm, but He is usually in the still small voice in your heart, telling you, that this is not His best plans for you. Are you willing to accept that?

Forbes recently announced the top 20 women in the entertainment industry. Reading such an article brings many thoughts to my mind. First and foremost, is why God can seemingly bless some so much more richly than others? While you can say that these people probably worked very hard to reach where they are now, but you cannot ignore the fact that they have also been gifted with amazing talents in order to make it so huge. Just look at the soccer superstars like Beckham, who makes more money in a week than I do in a year. Their talent is what got them where they are, while many others struggle just to make ends meet.

To me, these people literally seems to have life handed to them on a golden platter. They have everything to enjoy here on earth and their greatest suffering comes from figuring out whether to drive the porsche or ferrari today.

Of course, you will say that world wealth is not everything and we can be blessed richly in other aspects like relationships. True, but these people seems to be equally blessed in relationships and in all areas of their lives as well. Perhaps I won’t know, but I figure that they would unlikely be doing too badly in all other aspects unless they choose to bring sufferings to themselves through some stupid mistakes.

Think I am not the only one who has entertained such thoughts right?

Nevertheless, I have no doubt that our God knows what is best and He loves me as much as he does beckham or any of these top 20 women entertainers. He has given me gifts and talents to be used for His glory and even if they don’t lead me to worldly wealth, I know that I have a divine calling to fulfill. I also know that even though I don’t have the millions of dollars that these celebrities have, God has been good to me and has richly blessed me with many things.

Why does God give others with gifts that will give them such wealth while others with gifts that do not seem to bring any wealth at all. I don’t know. One thing is sure, God’s gifts when used for the extension of His kingdom brings the ultimate blessing of fulfillment and walking close with Him. It is unfair that these celebrities have lots to enjoy on earth, but I know that I can still find joy and contentment with what He has given me. Perhaps not a porsche, but even a car seems a pretty good blessing regardless.

Well, after much effort, we have finally launched ChristianHub.com.sg in Jun 07.

I am very excited with the potential of this website seeing that our christian population does not have a place to hang out on cyberspace. I also believe that this tool can serve to extend God’s kingdom by drawing fellow believers closer together.

My prayer is for Him to show us how to get this website established and recognized and frequently visited by Singaporean christians. This is going to be an uphill battle, and we will constantly have to remind ourselves to trust in Him to lead us. We believe that this is God’s calling for us to start this site and it will be by His strength that this website is going to fulfill His purposes.

The road ahead is long and we will need to constantly fight off the temptation to spend time developing the site rather than seeking Him. Please pray for us as well that we will continue to walk closer to Him in order to His guidance and directions for ChristianHub.com.sg. This website can be so powerful in harnessing the ideas, experiences and unity of our local christian community. Church leaders and ministry workers do not need to make the same mistakes made before and together we can develop a stronger church for His kingdom.

So this marks our very first blog post ahead of thousands more to come in the future. We hope you will support our efforts and help build up a strong, vibrant, active and loving community in our cyberspace church.