Raising Kids to be Wise About Sex and Relationships:
Parents are the first teachers of their children. When it comes to the topic of sex, however, it’s likely that kids have already been given an introduction by their friends, the media or the Internet. It is far better that kids gain credible answers from parents or trusted adults, rather than getting patchy or inaccurate information from peers or the World Wide Web.
(For more info, do click the link – https://family.org.sg/FOTFS/Blog/Parenting/raising-kids-to-be-wise-about-sex-and-relationships.aspx by Sophia Huang | 19th January 2023, inside FAMILY FOCUS/BLOG)
Begin Where You Are – How to Renew Your Prayer Life:
Begin where you are. This simple sentence, tucked away in C.S. Lewis’s book Letters to Malcolm, has the potential to transform your prayer life. In four basic words, it ties together a biblical vision of prayer that avoids two errors that often smother our thanksgiving and adoration of God and hinder our requests to him, especially in relation to earthly blessings and goods.
(For more info, do click the link – https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/begin-where-you-are by Joe Rigney| 12th January 2023, inside Desiring God)
When Your Spouse is Overly Controlling – Re–balancing power in your marriage:
Maintaining a marriage with a controlling spouse can be emotionally exhausting but there is no need to write them off. Some people may not even be aware they are being controlling. They may think they are being protective or helping their spouse grow in their areas of weakness. There are many reasons why people crave control: insecurity in the relationship, childhood trauma, fear of abandonment, low self-esteem, perfectionism, or irrational beliefs about marriage.
If you have a controlling spouse, it is best not to expect overnight change. However, if the power dynamics in your marriage leads to abusive behaviour, do seek professional help straightaway.
(For more info, do click the link – https://family.org.sg/FOTFS/Blog/Marriage/when-your-spouse-is-overly-controlling.aspx by Chan Swee Fen | 12th December 2022, inside FAMILY FOCUS/BLOG)
Christians for Climate Action:
From 6 to 18 November 2022, Heads of State, ministers, climate activists, mayors, civil society representatives and CEOs met at the Egyptian Coast city of Sharm el-Sheikh to discuss climate change and climate action.
This gathering known as the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – COP27 – sought to build on the decisions and outcomes of COP26 held at Glasgow (U.K.) last year.
What can the Bible say to us in this world where pollution, heat waves, floods and droughts are frequent? The Bible does not tell us anything directly about how to evaluate scientific reports or how to respond to a changing environment, but it does give several helpful principles: Care for creation, love our neighbours and witness to the world.
(For more info, do click the link https://ethosinstitute.sg/christians-for-climate-action/ by Dr Roland Chia | 19th Dec 2022 | – inside Pulse)
Same King, Different Story – How Narratives Shape the People of God:
Old Testament stories are like tours, but they are sacred tours. “All Scripture is God breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16), and God “never lies” (Titus 1:2). While ordinary tour guides are notorious for mixing fact and fiction, the authors of Old Testament historical narratives never fabricated or misconstrued history for ancient Israel. Jesus and his apostles believed this to be true, and there are no more reliable witnesses. Moreover, unlike the flawed lessons ordinary tour guides often give, Old Testament authors taught fully trustworthy lessons through their tours. They selected, shaped, and arranged their narratives to give invaluable guidance for ancient Israelites to take home with them.
To explore how Old Testament authors acted like sacred tour guides, we will look at two presentations of King David’s reign in Scripture, the first in 2 Samuel and the second in 1 Chronicles.
(For more info, do click the link https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/same-king-different-story by Richard L. Pratt Jr., Guest Contributor | 6th December, 2022| – inside Desiring God)
How to Avoid Sibling Rivalry?
What if life is not always fair?
“It’s not fair!” exclaimed the 17-year-old boy, “My mother is always siding with my brother.”
Alex* was almost in tears when he broke down in the counselling room. He had been meeting me on a regular basis to discuss various issues related to his identity and sense of self-worth.
With pain in his eyes and a quivering voice, he described all the instances when he felt that he was treated unfairly by his mother. This included extra Japanese classes, an overseas exchange programme in Japan, and even money to buy a new car – for his brother, Joseph*.
“I just don’t understand why she can give him anything that he wants. But when I ask her for anything, her answer would always be ‘no.’ It’s so frustrating.”
Alex shared that the rivalry with his brother had gone back as far as he could remember, and this has affected his perspective of himself. He had always felt inferior to Joseph, who seemed to do much better in everything that he did.
(For more info, do click the link – https://family.org.sg/FOTFS/Blog/Parenting/how-to-avoid-sibling-rivalry.aspx by Mark Lim | 13th December 2022, inside FAMILY FOCUS/BLOG)
How to Get Your Teens Off Their Screens and Into the World?
“Hooked on screens” – the phrase might be an apt description of the silent “epidemic” that has crept surreptitiously through our busy lives, straight into our homes, and smack into the faces of our children.
Getting our teens off their screens is somewhat of a modern-day conundrum. After all, they are Gen Z, the generation hailed as true digital natives and born in an age where devices fit almost like appendages to our bodies.
(For more info, do click the link https://family.org.sg/FOTFS/Blog/Parenting/how-to-get-your-teens-off-their-screens-and-into-the-world.aspx by Tracey Or| 10th NOV 2022, inside FAMILY FOCUS/BLOG)
Christmas and COVID-19:
The world this Christmas is looking to be pretty much the same as it did last Christmas. At this writing, the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases reported across the globe is over 225 million, and over 5.1 million have succumbed to the disease. Even with the drive in most countries to inoculate their population from the virus, the number of new cases remains high, averaging around 4 million globally each week.
In Singapore, the number of COVID-19 cases continues to climb despite the fact that more than 80 percent of its population has been vaccinated, and even as the government plans to treat the disease as endemic. The pandemic, however, is not the only menace that is plaguing our world. 2021 has seen some of the wackiest weather conditions in recent history with hurricanes, floods, forest fires, and extreme temperatures reported in different parts of the world. In June, the World Meteorological Organisation reported that: “2021 is a make-or-break year for climate action, with the window to prevent the worst impacts of climate change.”
Both Christmas and COVID confront us with some inconvenient truths about the world in which we live. The world as it is, is not the world that its Creator intended it to be. In other words, Christmas and COVID make it undeniably clear that ours is a fallen reality that is severely marred because of human rebellion and sin. Our earth, writes Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, is “accursed ground”. Because of sin, it is “cast out of the glory of its created state, out of the unambiguous immediacy of its speech and praise of the Creator into the ambiguity of utter strangeness and enigma”.
(For more info, do click the link https://ethosinstitute.sg/christmas-and-covid-19/ by Dr Roland Chia | 7th Nov 2022 | – inside Credo)
Identity in Christ and the Moral Witness of the Church:
Identity in Christ:
The Heidelberg Catechism (1563) aptly captures the essence of Christian identity in its answer to Question 1: “What is your only comfort in life and death?” The answer reads, “That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ.” Indeed, Christians do not have their own identity. Rather, they have discarded their old sinful identity in exchange for a new identity in Christ, who first identified with them in his substitutionary death which bore the penalty of their sins. Belonging to Christ means Christians no longer own themselves; instead, they have been transferred from a life of bondage to sin to a life of freedom in Christ.
(For more info, do click the link https://ethosinstitute.sg/identity-in-christ-and-the-moral-witness-of-the-church/ by Dr Ng Kam Weng | 7th Nov 2022 | – inside Credo)
5 Questions to Guide You in Resolving Couple Conflict – Building healthy communication habits for life:
Given a choice, most of us prefer living peaceful and conflict-free lives, especially when it comes to our marriage and families. But conflict is not necessarily a bad thing. While unhealthy conflict with lots of shouting and physical violence can cause a lot of grief and heartache, most everyday conflicts are made up of disagreements and misunderstanding, and when dealt with constructively, can help us to grow in our understanding of our spouse.
(For more info, do click the link https://www.family.org.sg/FOTFS/Blog/Marriage/5-questions-to-guide-you-in-resolving-couple-conflict.aspx by June Yong | 2nd NOV 2022, inside FAMILY FOCUS/BLOG)
The Poor You Will always Have: A Reflection on Poverty
In her book, This is What Inequality Looks Like (Singapore: Ethos Books, 2018), the sociologist Teo You Yenn gauges that ‘roughly a fifth of the resident population of Singapore could be defined as poor.’ This estimate presenting a high proportion of people in poverty is likely to raise eyebrows, given that the city-state in question has been often hailed as one of the richest in the world. But Teo’s claim is not without basis. It is made, she notes, in accordance with the poverty line defined by some international organisations and scholars—at the level of less than half the median household income of the population.
Whether the poverty line adopted by Teo is too high or too low is a question which is best left to the social scientists, economists, policymakers, and other experts. A related and perhaps more basic question to ask would be whether a poverty line is needed, and it is with this that I wish to begin.
Some people may find it surprising that Singapore is among the few developed countries in the world in which there is no officially agreed upon poverty line. Renewed calls to establish one have been rejected by the government. Explaining the stance taken, the then Minister for Social and Family Development (MSF) Chan Chun Sing writes, ‘A poverty line does not fully reflect the severity and complexity of the issues faced by poor families, which could include ill health, lack of housing or weak family relationships. If we use a single poverty line to assess the family, we also risk a “cliff effect”, where those below the poverty line receive all forms of assistance, while other genuinely needy citizens outside the poverty line are excluded.’
(For more info, do click the link https://ethosinstitute.sg/the-poor-you-will-always-have/ by Dr Lim K Tham | 5th Oct 2020 | – inside Credo)
Developing Complexity:
The Covid-19 pandemic illustrates a complex issue which requires many disciplines to understand and tackle. Broadly speaking, it is a public health crisis which requires medical knowledge to treat; the use of mathematical models to understand how the virus mutates and spreads; economics to calculate the impact of lockdowns; and psychology to mitigate the negative impact of a pandemic on human behaviour while still attempting to build healthy people and communities.
(For more info, do click the link https://ethosinstitute.sg/developing-complexity/ by Dr Kwa Kiem Kiok | 3rd Oct 2022 | – inside Credo)
In Every Season:
Making your marriage the best it can be
“Anything in life that truly matters can be boiled down to relationships.” – Gary Smalley
Marriage is a living thing. As with every relationship, it grows, evolves, and requires nurturing.
Like a tree that undergoes different growth phases, a marital relationship goes through different seasons of growth – each with its own set of joys and stresses.
In his book “The Four Seasons of Marriage”, Gary Chapman helps us to understand the changes in our marriage using the analogy of the natural seasons – spring, summer, autumn and winter. While we may not experience the natural seasons on our tropical island, we are familiar with their characteristics.
(For more info, do click the link https://family.org.sg/FOTFS/Blog/Marriage/in_every_season.aspx by Focus on the Family Singapore | 22nd May 2020, inside FAMILY FOCUS/BLOG)
Annihilation or Restoration:
What will be the fate of our planet earth at the end of this age? Will it be annihilated or restored? This is not only a stimulating theoretical question, but also one with significant practical implications for our life and ministry.
(For more info, do click the link https://ethosinstitute.sg/annihilation-or-restoration/ by Dr Leow Theng Huat |16th Nov 2020 – inside Credo)
Combating A Culture of Criticism in the Home:
Renowned couples therapist John Gottman studied more than 3,000 couples in his Love Lab, and discovered four factors – criticism, contempt, defensiveness and stonewalling – that predicted divorce and separation in marriages; he dubbed them “the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse”.
Considering the devastating impact of the Four Horsemen on a marriage, how then does this apply to the parent-child relationship? I believe that these four ingredients can also adversely affect our relationship with our children.
(For more info, do click the link https://family.org.sg/FOTFS/Blog/Parenting/combating_a_culture_of_criticism_in_the_home.aspx?utm_source=comms_headlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Oct2020 by Mark Lim | 21st Sept 2020, inside FAMILY FOCUS/BLOG)
Righteous and Inclusive (Isaiah 56:1-8):
How do you respond when you hear the word ‘inclusive’? Does it make you uncomfortable? Do you find yourself mentally putting up your defences? We may know people in Christian circles who are fond of words like ‘accepting’, ‘welcoming’, ‘loving’, and, not least, ‘inclusive’. On closer examination it may turn out that their aim in using such language is to push the envelope: they want the church to modify its teaching in particular areas (for example, the uniqueness of Christ or sexual morality). In effect, they use the language of inclusiveness to undermine the church’s traditional teaching. Is it surprising that we are wary when we hear the word ‘inclusive’?
(For more info, do click the link https://ethosinstitute.sg/righteous-and-inclusive/ by Dr Philip Satterthwaite | 17th Aug 2020 | – inside Credo)
Worship, Music and Theology:
Contemporary evangelical Christianity has rightly placed much emphasis on the Church’s worship and the music that brings that worship to expression. Bach’s challenge to the modern church is to recognize that the theology that undergirds the worship of the church, especially the hymns and songs it sings, is of paramount importance and should never be neglected or compromised.
(For more info, do click the link https://ethosinstitute.sg/worship-music-and-theology/ by Dr Roland Chia | 17th Aug 2020 | – inside Pulse)
One Saved, is the Entire Family Saved?
Question: “We frequently say the phrase “when one is saved, the whole household is saved,” and examples like the Philippian jailer & his household, and the salvation of Cornelius’ household are often cited. It is often taken as one of the promises that God made through scripture. Is it accurate to take it as such?”
Household salvation is the assertion that the saving of an entire family can be accomplished through the faith of one member of the family. At times, it is more specifically framed as through the faith of the leader of the family that the whole family is saved.
(For more info, do click the link https://ethosinstitute.sg/one-saved-is-the-entire-family-saved/ by Dr Tan Loe Joo | 7th Sept 2020 | – inside Credo)
Growing Even More in Love with Your Spouse:
“A good marriage is one which allows for change and growth in the individuals and in the way they express their love.” – Pearl S. Buck
My husband and I turned 12 as a married couple this year.
With three children in primary school, and both of us working (albeit part-time for me), it can be challenging to find the time to tend to our relationship.
But still, we try.
I remember our first year of marriage quite vividly. As I got pregnant shortly after our honeymoon, we barely had enough time to get used to being known as “Mr and Mrs” before becoming “Dad and Mum”.
We got mad at each other often, had cold wars, and disagreed over the habits that we each brought into our marriage.
Thankfully, with some work, lots of conversations, and tonnes of understanding and forgiveness, we navigated our way through the minefield of early marriage and parenthood.
Healthy marriages allow room for negotiation, change and growth. If we had entered into marriage thinking that life would be just the same as it was before we said “I do”, we’d have been blindsided, and thoroughly disappointed.
(For more info, do click the link – https://www.family.org.sg/FOTFS/Blog/Marriage/growing_even_more_in_love_with_your_spouse.aspx by June Yong | 14th Sept 2020, inside FAMILY FOCUS/BLOG)
Sharing God’s Earth: A Christian Vision of the Environment, Justice and Human Flourishing:
This
essay is a slightly revised version of a talk that I gave at the East
Asia Region 2020 Electronic Pre-Assembly of the Council for World
Mission on 2 April 2020.
Let me begin with some words from Scripture. From the sixth chapter of Micah:
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require
of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your
God (Micah 6:8).
In this passage, the prophet Micah, addressing
the covenant people of God in the midst of the injustices and violence
of 8th century Judean society where political oppression and economic
exploitation was rife, asked a most crucial question, one which remains
ever so pressing today: ‘What does the Lord require of you?’ The answer,
supplied in the very same verse, is crystal clear: ‘to act justly, to
love mercy, to walk humbly before God’. To ‘act justly’ has negative and
positive implications and connotations. Negatively, it is to avoid
oppressing our fellow human beings, especially the weak and the
vulnerable. Positively, it is a call for a sense of responsibility
towards others and to ensure that their basic rights are not violated.
Justice, however, must be always be tempered with mercy, which includes
compassion, love and kindness, if society is to truly flourish. Only
when we learn to ‘walk humbly’ Coram Deo, that is, with or before God,
can we treat our neighbours with justice and mercy. For to ‘walk humbly’
in this context means to be ever so mindful of the needs of our
neighbours and to be willing to be at their service; Such service
requires a measure of sacrifice, which in turn is possible only with
self- forgetfulness and denial in the interest of the welfare of our
fellow human beings.
(For more info, do click the link https://ethosinstitute.sg/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/SHARING-GODS-EARTH.pdf by Dr Roland Chia | 6th July, 2020|)
