My Son's Wedding

I am just about to walk to the Hall where I will serve in my dual capacity as father of the groom and officiant in the wedding ceremony. It is a sunny day near a Beach Resort. The Gospels have a number of parables whereby a king prepares the wedding of his son and also a parable or two about the coming bridegroom and his bride. Every day is a new experience and today is not the same as before. I have preached many wedding sermons before in my 30-year full-time ministry but normally another celebrant will officiate in the exchange of vows and rings.

The Child Jesus Grew in Wisdom

In the Gospel of Luke, it is written that the child, Jesus grew in wisdom and found favour in the sight of God and men. I quoted this verse when I prayed for an infant who just turned 1 year old last night. I prayed that the parents be granted wisdom to teach the child the words of God and specifically I added “found in the Bible”. I thought if parents really teach their children the words of Lord for 10 years, say 3 to 13 years old there is a chance that the child will be totally illiterate in the Bible.

God's Famine of His Words

One notable observation in my three Christmas services was that hardly anyone (in fact I saw not a single soul) brought with him or her a real Bible. When I asked them to open the Bible in their hand phones, a few did but a majority did not even bother. Either, they were hoping that it is being projected onto the screen or that they are content with the preacher reading it aloud from the pulpit. Either way, I felt rather depressed over the whole thing, and a fellow pastor who texted me said the same things. It is indeed a famine of God's Word. The urgency is real. Next time, I will cry aloud to insist everyone owns a hard copy of a Bible. If they don't open the Bibles in church, don't expect them to read it at home.

A Famine of the Words of the Lord (Amos 8:11)

I just sent out my course outline for “Exegesis & Biblical Hermeneutics” for the January-May 2024 Semester. It is less than 3 weeks before the teaching Semester starts on 17th January. My course covers the whole of the Bible and that’s why I set out the passages and chapters of the Bible books that I will cover in the course. It’s basically to teach how to exegete and interpret the Bible in its entirety. And alas I realised how little people know the Bible besides what is taught in generalities in Sunday school and sermons.

The Family of God

As usual I received Christmas greetings from near and far. Most will accompany the greetings with a family photo. This year is blessed as I have my family with me, all four of us worshipping the Lord and listening to Christmas Eve’s sermon. My family is precious to me and God’s family is precious still. So when I posted a photo on my Seminary’s group I posted a photo taken just after the Christmas service with the church members and mu wife, son and his wife too. But that photo is God’s family and it is God’s family the church that is the most important and I represent Him as Lord of the church, celebrating His family and to God’s family I am dedicated to His service, the ministry of the church.

Preacher & Professor

More one is given more is expected. If you are given five talents you have to multiply five more and make it ten. I was standing with two of colleagues as I was packing my stuff just prior and both were enjoying their Christmas break without preaching. They are senior Professors, but I am also a preacher. Hence, every Christmas since 1994 I have received invitations to preach though I must have taken at least two years off preaching when I was in Singapore to visit my son in NZ over Christmas and one time to just have a break from speaking in Singapore.

Year in Review

Winter Solstice is a good time for reflection and review. It marks the shortest day in Northern Hemisphere and it marks the day when darkness becomes shorter and daylight begins to increase. Darkness and sorrows of 2023 are passing away and many look forward to a brigthter 2024, though wars in Ukraine and Gaza continue to take its horrific human toll. Wars are instruments of Satan to kill destroy and annihilate human beings created in the image of God.

Is it self-promotion?

The only planned launch of my latest book was cancelled in the last minute and I cared less for that. I have sold my other 4 books without much fanfare and the fifth book that I published (it is my 6th book as the first is published by T & T Clark in 2005) has already sold 100 copies in six churches that I had preached it since 29th October 2023. But yesterday on Sunday I shared about how I came to write all my 6 books in 10 or 12 minutes and after some reflection last night I thought it might have been a bit excessive and felt some conscience pangs as self-promotion. Then on further reflection in the past 12 hours, I also realized that often times, an author would launch his or her book and if it is a public event the author will usually speak for 30 or 40 minutes about the book with another 20 minutes for Q & A.

Preparing for “Prepare the Way” (Mark 1:1-11)

 I had a good sleep last night. I did not get up even once until 3.55am and I did not go back to sleep but got up for my morning devotions and then prepare the messages for tonight and tomorrow’s Christmas services. John was sent to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord Jesus. He was sent to prepare the way for the people so that they might be ready to welcome the King. And only the people who would come to John is ready to face Jesus Christ. 

"Strangers & Exiles on the Earth" (Hebrews 11:13)

I read the passage from Hebrews 11 for my evening devotion. I was struck by a number of verses, "God has prepared for them a city". An unseen, unknown and unreachable city, humanly speaking. No wonder one needs faith like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. So much of our time is taken up to take care of our earthly interests. Where we live, what cars we drive, what cloth we wear, how many gadgets we own and the list goes on, but do we dwell in tents like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? It speaks of the impermanence of this world, the transient nature of life. When I come to "strangers and exiles on earth", I was given a massive boost in my spirit. I am preparing to move for my 22nd or 23rd time in the last 30 years.

Love Story in the Song of Songs: How Does it End?

I just wrote a 500-word abstract for my proposed paper to be presented in an Old Testament Conference in Europe. It will either be presented at the SBL International Meeting in Amsterdam or the joint meeting of the Society of OT Study (UK) and the Dutch OT Society (OTW) in Tilburg University. I plan to attend both meetings since it is only two days apart during which I could spend a couple of days in Geneva or Rome before flying back to Amsterdam for the SBL. It is something I had planned for a long time, more than 15 years since I wrote a paper in 2007 for the IOSOT meeting in Slovakia or was it Slovenia?