Sun, Apr 30th - 3:29AM

Children of God... Why not Infants, Youth or Adult?

I was waiting for the bus to my house when I saw an infant being held by his mother. Then there is this soft voice asking me, "Ever wonder why are we called the children of God and not teenage or adults of God?" I started to ponder about it and the Holy Spirit did inspired me with this thesis:

Children are innocent, dependent and humble

Seeing from the sight of the infant, children are just pure, gullible (in a good sense) and innocent. What they do will be guided by their parents and they will obey because they trust the latter. What they do wrong will be amoral (not immoral) beacuse they still do not know the actual "right" from "wrong". Then their parents will guide them and lead them to the correct path...

Jesus loves children, as parents will love their kids, as shown here...

"People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.' " - Mark 10:13-15

God wants us to come back to Him as children of His, because He wants us to depend on Him for "daily bread".

The Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians:

"Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults." - 1 Corinthians 14:20

My thoughts: we are children of God, not children of the world, as Paul highlighted. As such, we need to have the wisdom that our Father gives in our earthly life each daily through experience and the Holy Spirit.

Not like teenage, who have the ability of abstract thinking and wish to make their own decisions. The form of teenage rebellion will sour relationship with parents and will widen the gap between them and the latter. During this time, people will be using their "youthful" wisdom and energy to do things they think are correct.

Like Paul said to young Timothy:

"Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart." - 2 Timothy 2:22

Being fully adult will mean that people will think that they have learnt enough, gained enough experience and maturity and will start to be proud with themselves because they are "rich".

This will be James' reply if he is still alive...

"But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower." - James 1:10

Hence, as children of God, let's be humble, dependent and innocent in God. Then we will grow in...

"the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace in all its truth." - Colossians 1:5-6

Let us pray...

God bless

Wed, Apr 26th - 8:58AM

ArE wE tHe RiGhT RoLe mOdEL?

To be an officer in today's world is not only about command and control over our subordinates, but also to nurture them to be better workers and leaders. To be officers that can truly influence and impact the lives of our men, especially those who are much younger and are teachable at their age, one cannot deny that their actions truly speak more than words.

We must be consistent to our teachings and advice. The actions coming out from our characteristics truly reflect our values and belief. Hence, if we are teaching about Jesus Christ as the Prefect Role Model, then we must be reflections of our Lord.

"Even a child is known by his actions, by whether his conduct is pure and right." - Proverbs 20:11

Imagine one boy shouting across the room and keeps disturbing our lessons, what type of message are we transmitting if we responded, "STOP SHOUTING"? The natural person will take it as shouting is okay, because we did not follow our words.

In today's world, the only constant is change. Hence, as officers, we ought to continue working and creating new environments to keep the content of our mentoring process relevant and inspirational for our subordinates to learn. As the Apostle Paul said to the Thessalonians,

"For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow. For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: "If a man will not work, he shall not eat." - 2 Thessalonians 3:7-10

We need to be humble, life-learners and ever-changing to the teachings of our Lord through the experiences God gives us so that we will be a good, not yet prefect though, role model.

For the younger boys, we need to teach the right values that Jesus Christ has taught us to continue:

"Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us." - Titus 2:6 - 8

Our values to follow?

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." - Galatians 5:22 - 23

In this we pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen

God bless

Desmond signing off

Tue, Apr 18th - 9:59AM

Overcome... The Easter Story Message

"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God." - Revelation 2:7

I saw this verse while on the way to Jurong Point Food Court at the highest floor. Well, then came a thought...

I had been trying to overcome a weakness in my character, that is to resist temptation. Unfortunately I had fell many a times and still did not repent despite asking God for forgiveness and guidance. Like many souls in the army, there are just many more temptations you do not find in the "cilivised" world: the swearing of vulgar words, boys being boys (you know what I mean, right?) etc. Sometimes, I felt under peer pressure and did what the non-Christians did. But I knew it was wrong definitely...

Then comes Hillsong United's new song I am listening now: The Stand. To prevent breaching of copyright rules, I will just para-phrase the lyrics, something like:

"You came in front of my failure and bear the Cross for my sin, which it weighted upon Your shoulders, my soul now is saved."

Like the Lord promised Jeremiah, "They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you" (Jeremiah 1:19), I believed that the Lord is saying to those who are weak-hearted to believe that He will always be with us.

Easter had just passed and my Head Pastor said these three things that have made Easter so special to Christians:

Because of Jesus' Resurrection and He is alive today, we have:

1) His unchanging purposes from day 1 when He came into this world that:

- We can have life to His purpose and fullest, not rules and restrictions to make it a religion.

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." - John 10:10

"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." - John 3:17

2) His reliable promises

"For no matter how many promises God has made, they are 'Yes' in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God." - 2 Corinthians 1:20

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" - 1 Peter 1:3

"And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus." - Philippians 4:19

"I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life." - John 5:24

And lastly... His available power

"I can do everything through him who gives me strength." - Philippians 4:13

The message is clear: Jesus is alive today, and He is alive in all of us Christians. For Paul said to the Romans,

"That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9)

It means we must make Jesus our Number 1 and believe in Him, obeying His commendments, we will be saved.

Revelation 2:7, hence, give me the encouragement to fight on, believe in Jesus Christ our Saviour. How about you? Let me encourage you then...

God bless

Wed, Apr 5th - 10:26AM

The Restrained Passion (Part 1 of my thoughts on the Founder's inspirations)

ˇ°For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.ˇ±  - 2 Corinthians 5:14-15

I was reading this book "William A. Smith of The Boys' Brigade" by F.P.Gibbon and was inspired by the ideologies and passion of the BB Founder. These are some of the verses inside the books and my personal thoughts following each: (Today I will touch on one only)

1. Mr Smith has an "uncommon blend of fiery enthusiasm with the canny cautiousness that held enthusiasm inleash"

I had always been a overzealous officer in BB, pushing forward many reforms to revolutionise my present company. So far the biggest challenge I had was to form a worship band consisting of our boys and our sister GB company girls. Most of the GB officers are above youthful age, I will say (no offence), and they are quite particular especially of their girls. I do not blame them; they have the right to do so since they are responsible for their well being and their parents. However, the challenge started when my ideas and theirs collided. From fighting the rights of a particular GB girl to running the band student-propelled, I faced fierce resistance from the officers. It was very painful seeing most of my plans not materialising and that definitely demoralised me. Some evil thoughts I must be thinking, right? You will say... but being human, who will not blame those who give you trouble in your opinion? The Boys' Brigade Belief even stated, "we are first for youth". It's the Boys' Brigade, not the Officers' Brigade, as Mr Desmond Koh the Brigade Executive Director said to us before. Why is it happening this way?

Then again, the Boys' Brigade is still God's ministry, as Mr Smith created it to be. Youths are still youth, naive in their youthfulness and as the Bible put it,

     "The youthful vigor that fills his bones
       will lie with him in the dust." - Job 20:11

I now truly understand the meaning of what the author mean by the above phrase. It's good to sit back, pray and let God inspire us, think thoroughly of the consequences of our possible actions, get advices and then execute, learn from the aftermath mistakes. Do not be overenthusiastic and hurt God's plans along the way by our insistance to do it our way. As the Preacher concludes in my blog entry,

"So then, banish anxiety from your heart and cast off the troubles of your body, for youth and vigor are meaningless." - Ecclesiastes 11:10

God bless.

Desmond signing off