The Differences between Cultural Modesty and Biblical Humility:
The 1989 novel The Joy Luck Club follows the travails of four Chinese-American women as they grow up between East and West. One memorable clash of cultures occurs when Waverly, one of the four, brings home her eager-to-please fiancé Rich (who happens to be Caucasian-American). Waverly’s mother brings out her signature dish from the kitchen and laments, “Ai! This dish not salty enough, no flavor … It is too bad to eat!” Rich misses this cultural signal to praise her cooking and instead drenches the delicately steamed pork and vegetables with soy sauce!
This scene illustrates the important principle of modesty (Chinese kèqì) which distinguishes Eastern styles of communication from the directness of Western styles. Though modesty is rooted in commendable Confucian values, modern Asian culture has often seen it devolve into a form of reverse psychology, as when Waverly’s mother expects her dinner guests to reciprocate her self-deprecation with praise. Christians in Asia are hardly immune to conflating the cultural trait of modesty with the genuine virtue `of humility, of course. Second Samuel 9 points out the differences between modesty that lowers oneself for self-interest, and humility that does so genuinely without expecting anything in return. In this narrative, King David desires to show kindness to the remnant of Saul’s family (2 Sam. 9:1). The now-deceased Saul had repeatedly tried to kill him (e.g., 1 Sam. 18:10–11), but David responded by making a covenant with Saul’s son Jonathan that they would always seek one another’s good (1 Sam. 20:5–17).
(For more info, do click the link – https://ethosinstitute.sg/culturalmodesty-biblicalhumility by Rev Dr Jerry Hwang | 17th Feb 2020 | Credo)
Live for Days You Will Not See – The Beauty of Christian Legacy:
Imagine that you receive a word from a trustworthy prophet. It begins hopefully enough: “You will live long and die in peace, and your name will be remembered for centuries.” But then comes a turn: “A few generations after you die, devastation will visit your family and your church. Your descendants will lie in ruins.”
How might you respond?
(For more info, do click the link – https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/live-for-days-you-will-not-see by Scott Hubbard, 20th July, – inside Desiring God)
Did Jesus Pursue His Own Glory? The God–Centeredness of the God–Man:
While the God-centeredness of God might lead us to expect a simple Christ-centeredness of Christ in his earthly ministry, this is largely not what we (yet) find in his state of humiliation. In End, Edwards points to John 7:18 (one of several statements from Jesus renouncing the pursuit of his own glory) as characteristic of Christ’s humbled state: “The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.” The incarnate Christ does not “[seek] his own glory” but the glory of his Father, “him who sent him.” Jesus sought his Father’s glory, says Edwards, “as his highest and last end.”
In Freedom, Edwards observes that “the words [of Isaiah 42:1–4] imply a promise of [Christ’s] being so upheld by God’s Spirit, that he should be preserved from sin; particularly from pride and vainglory, and from being overcome by any of the temptations he should be under to affect the glory of this world; the pomp of an earthly prince, or the applause and praise of men.”
So, to be clear, the God-centered God becoming man in the life of Christ does not produce one who is, in essence, a self-centered human. Jesus’s preservation from sin, says Edwards, is “particularly from pride and vainglory.” As demonstrated in rebuffing Satan’s temptations in the wilderness, Jesus did not pursue “the glory of this world.”
(For more info, do click the link – https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/did-jesus-pursue-his-own-glory by David Mathis, 11th July, Executive Editor – inside Desiring God)
The Cross and the Sword: The Church’s Relationship to the Government
Without resorting to the other extreme of having either Church or State rule over the other, Bonhoeffer refined the “two kingdoms” doctrine by emphasizing the importance of divine commission. God has given several human institutions the mandate to function in the world as a means by which the world is preserved until the Last Day. In Ethics, a book that remains unfinished due to his unfortunate martyrdom, Bonhoeffer lists four such mandates: Work, Family, Government, and the Church. For clarity, “Government” is capitalized in this essay without the definite article to refer to the mandate, and not to any specific government in power.
For Bonhoeffer, none of these mandates stand in authority over the others (not even the Church!). Instead, reflecting the harmony of creation, they relate to each other as accountability partners, mutually holding each other accountable to function according to their divinely appointed task; In other words, the Church, whose role is to proclaim Jesus Christ (1 Cor 1:23-24), should not interfere in politics. However, it can and should speak up when Government fails to operate according to its role, which is to restrain evil and maintain order through the sword (cf. Rom 13:1-7; 1 Pet 2:13-14). This distinction between roles is important in our present context since we live in a post–Christendom world. The erosion of Christian values from the laws of the State are not inherently an attack on the Church, but more a reflection of the existing state of societal values as discerned by our elected representatives. Such a reflection is what should happen in a functioning democracy.
When Government removes a law that has been a flashpoint for fractures in society, while implementing measures to constructively engage with the issue, it fulfils its role. Government cannot be expected to proclaim Christ through the laws it makes – that is the function of the Church.
(For more info, do click the link – https://ethosinstitute.sg/the-cross-and-the-sword-the-churchs-relationship-to-the-government/ by Rev Benjamin Fong | 5th June 2023 | inside Featured Articles)
Seoul stadium overflows for 50th anniversary of Billy Graham's historic Korea crusade:
A crowd of about 70,000 people overflowed the Seoul World Cup Stadium on Saturday as Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, gave a passionate sermon on the 50th anniversary of his father Billy Graham’s historic outreach in Seoul. Graham’s address occurred on a significant day, mirroring an event that drew 1.1 million people to Yoido Plaza on June 3, 1973. Known as Billy Graham’s largest crusade, attendees predominantly made the journey on foot, showing an extraordinary devotion and eagerness to engage with the spiritual message.
The Korean churches and Dr. Billy Kim, the pastor who translated for Billy Graham during the original 1973 outreach, extended the invitation to Franklin Graham. The event sought to offer solace and inspiration, echoing the profound effect of the original gathering.
(For more info, do click the link – https://www.christianpost.com/news/billy-graham-korea-crusade-anniversary-event-draws-70k.html by Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor, 5th June 2023 inside Christian Post)
Love Your Children, Love God More – Lessons from Sarah Edwards:
Sarah Edwards (1710–1758), wife of the great theologian and revival preacher Jonathan Edwards, is most often remembered for her lifelong devotion to God. She had experienced God’s grace even as a little girl. At age 16, she confided in her journal that she had been “led to prize nearness to Christ as the creature’s greatest happiness” (Sarah Edwards: Delighting in God, 27).
In addition to being a devoted Christian, Sarah was the mother of eleven children. Having married at the age of 17, she gave birth to her first baby the next year, and had ten more children at more or less two-year intervals until she was 40. In the eighteenth century, childbirth was still painful and risky. Rates of maternal (and infant) mortality were high. Sarah’s life was in danger at least once during childbirth. We should not romanticize the physical and emotional burden of bearing and raising eleven children.
So how did she respond to the challenges of motherhood? What might her example teach us today?
(For more info, do click the link – https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/love-your-children-love-god-more by Sharon James, 13th May, Guest Contributor – inside Desiring God)
Ageing Well: Gift and Growth
Singapore faces the daunting reality of an ageing population. Advancement in medical care, a greater awareness of health issues, as well as earlier illness detection and intervention have given rise to a higher life expectancy of around 80 years in Singapore. Coupled with a low total fertility rate, it is projected that one in four Singaporeans will be above the age of 65 by 2030. This has led some to call this phenomenon a “silver tsunami”. This, however, tends to carry a negative connotation. It gives the baleful impression that the elderly will flood the country and overwhelm the system. Underlying this is the more pernicious insinuation that the elderly have nothing to contribute to society and only drain limited resources.
(For more info, do click the link – https://ethosinstitute.sg/ageing-well-gift-and-growth/ by Rev Dr Jeremy-Joe Tan | 1st May 2023 | inside Feature)
Fighting Fake News:
In Singapore, local websites such as ‘Truth Warriors’ have posted misleading and unverified information about Covid-19 vaccines. Some of these websites have also published articles which made the baseless claim that Ivermectin is a safe and effective drug for early treatment of Covid-19. In a study published in Nature, researchers used data from Twitter, Facebook, and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to study the link between online misinformation and vaccine hesitancy in the United States. After analysing 55 million tweets, they found a direct correlation between misinformation and vaccine uptake – when misinformation rose, vaccine uptake decreased.
(For more info, do click the link – https://ethosinstitute.sg/fighting-fake-news/ by Dr Roland Chia | 1st May 2023 | inside Pulse)
End of the Global South – Updating the State of World Missions:
Evangelicals are serious about missions. To crib a quote from the American historian Douglas Sweeney, “Evangelicals care about nothing more than evangelizing the world.” Sweeney may be speaking in hyperbole, but not by much. We are passionate about doing and well-known for our activism. This is an evangelical strength. What evangelicals, as a group, have not always taken seriously is the life of the mind. As Mark Noll wrote in his epistle of a wounded lover, “The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind.” We have not been as passionate about thinking and are not as well-known for our erudition. This has been an evangelical weakness.
(For more info, do click the link – https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/end-of-the-global-south by F. Lionel Young III, 25th April, Guest Contributor – inside Desiring God)
A Woman’s Value and Identity, Beyond Motherhood:
Like an intense, encompassing first love, motherhood comes with an enveloping heady-ness and focus.
Suddenly, your time, sleep and energy all go towards that one person – your bundle of joy. Even as they grow, your permanent role as mother means they remain a perennial focus. But wait, besides being a mother, you are still a wife, a daughter, perhaps even a doctor, writer, or teacher. Especially when motherhood seems to override every other role and interest, how do you reclaim your own identity?
(For more info, do click the link – https://archive.family.org.sg/FOTFS/Blog/Parenting/A_Woman_Value_and_Identity_BeyondMotherhood.aspx.html by Skye Tan| 3rd March 2023 |inside Family Focus)
A Christian View of the COVID-19 Pandemic (Part 1 & 2):
The word “plague” in Greek is θανάτῳ (thanato) which is also translated “pestilence” and “disease”. According to Jeremiah Jaques of the Philadelphia Church of God, the pale horse “is a personification of disease epidemics—sickly, haunting and unyielding.” He believes that the COVID-19 pandemic is the harbinger of the biblical apocalypse. And he is not alone. COVID-19 is not the only plague in recent history. We overcame HIV/AIDs (1981), the pneumonic plague (1994), SARS (2003), Avian flu/H5N1(2006), Dengue fever (2006), swine flu/H1N1 (2009), Cholera (2010), MERS (2013), Ebola (2014), Measles/Rubeola (2014), Zika (2016) and Measles again (2019).
Going further back in history, there was one plague that fitted the end-time apocalyptic descriptions in the Bible. The Black Death (bubonic plague) devastated Europe between 1348 and 1350 killing a quarter to half of the region’s population. It struck again and again in 1362, 1368 and 1381 as it would intermittently into the 18th century. In most parts of Europe, it took nearly 80 years for the population sizes to recover, and in some areas more than 150 years.
The disease was so lethal that some went to bed well and died before morning; some doctors caught the illness at the patient’s bedside and died before the patient. The symptoms include continuous fever and the spitting of blood, coughing, and heavy sweating. Everything about the victims smelled foul. The mortality rate ranged from 20 to 90 percent. Depression and despair descended on all who contracted the disease.
What are the Lessons for Me as a Christian?
The COVID-19 pandemic is not a sign the world will end soon. It is a reminder that the world is vulnerable and we are not in control. It is not permanent, and will ultimately give way to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And He might come at any moment.
In light of this, what are the lessons for me as a Christian?
(For more info, do click the link – https://ethosinstitute.sg/christianviewofcovid19part1/ & https://ethosinstitute.sg/christianviewofcovid19part2/ by Dr William Wan | 6th Apr & 4th May 2020 | inside Featured Articles)
Train Them Up in Jesus – The One–Verse Vision for Dads:
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:4). Following the negative charge to fathers — “do not provoke your children to anger” — Paul captures a positive vision for Christian parenting with two key terms: “discipline and instruction” in the ESV. The Greek words beneath them have been the subject of much discussion and have led to a variety of translations. We might capture the meaning just as well, if not better, with training and counsel — which might help both our clarity of vision and practical application in parenting.
(For more info, do click the link – https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/train-them-up-in-jesus by David Mathis (Executive Editor), 25th May 2023 – inside Desiring God)
Number of Americans attending in-person church services is rising:
At the same time, the share of Americans who mostly elect to attend worship services online has consistently decreased over the past three years. While nearly half (45%) of Americans attended church services primarily online in 2021, that figure dropped to 30% in 2022 and decreased further to 21% in 2023. As the percentage of Americans who primarily prefer one method of worship service over another has seen wide fluctuations in the past three years, the share of respondents who say they chose both methods about equally have remained relatively steady. Measured at 17% in 2021, that figure decreased to 14% in 2022 and 12% in 2023.
When asked why they prefer attending church services online, 9% of those surveyed characterized virtual worship services as “more convenient to my schedule.” Seven percent pointed to “concerns about getting exposed to sickness” as the reason why they prefer online church services, suggesting a lingering effect from the COVID-19 pandemic. Additional reasons listed for favoring online church services include appreciating the “freedom and comforts of home” (7%), fewer distractions (5%), an inability to physically attend in-person services (3%), a belief that online services amount to “a more effective way to connect with God” (3%) and the fact that their “online church or temple is too distant to attend in person” (3%).
Broken down by generation, the increase in in-person church attendance from 2022 to 2023 was most pronounced among Generation Z. In 2022, a bare majority of those born after 1997 (52%) attended church services in person. That figure skyrocketed to 72% in 2023. A sharp decrease in the share of Generation Z attending church online, from 40% in 2022 to 16% in 2023, accompanied the large increase in in-person church attendance.
(For more info, do click the link – https://www.christianpost.com/news/number-of-americans-attending-church-in-person-is-rising.html by Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter, 15th May – inside Christian Post)
It Takes a Church:
“It takes a village to raise a child.” This African proverb, the origin of which remains a mystery, has become widely known and loved. Its broad appeal is no doubt due to the fact that it rings true, that is, it conveys an earthy wisdom that contemporary society finds uncommonly refreshing and challenging.
Equally true is the proposition that it takes the Church to raise a godly child.
From its earliest beginnings, the Church has understood the important role that it—as a Christian community—plays in the nurture of children. This is instantiated in a number of practices that are an inseparable part of the Church’s liturgical and communal life: infant baptism, children’s catechism, children’s communion, etc.
These practices reveal the way in which the Church, shaped by the teachings of Scripture, regards children. Unlike the Greco–Roman society of the second century that often deemed children as mere property, the early Christians saw them as bearers of the divine image (Gen 1:26–28) and therefore as possessing an inviolable dignity.
(For more info, do click the link – https://ethosinstitute.sg/it-takes-a-church/ by Dr Roland Chia | 4th May 2020 | inside Credo)
The Least of These…
The greater tragedy however, isn’t that some don’t experience complete recovery, but that they are met by a host of well-meaning persons in the Church who make their suffering more isolated than necessary. I have personally heard a pastor conclude: “If Christians appropriate the truths of Scripture, there would be no need for full-time counselors in the Church.” Another more humble Christian leader remarked: “Christians active in service can still be depressed?”
The real danger in the Church however, lies in the belief that we already understand all we need to know about why people suffer mental disorders, and the erroneous conclusion that practicing Christians should not suffer any mental afflictions.
(For more info, do click the link – https://ethosinstitute.sg/the-least-of-these/ by Dr Eliza Lian | 2nd Mar 2020 | inside Featured Articles)
Covid-19 and the “Health-and-Wealth Gospel”
Covid–19 has been a cause of fear for many people recently. News of church members being infected have been reported in the headlines. On the other hand, messages of some pastors claiming that ‘No virus can come near you’ have gone viral in social media. How then are we to make sense of the fact that Christians have been infected? Do they not have enough faith or spiritual understanding, or are they not truly Christians?
(For more info, do click the link – https://ethosinstitute.sg/covid19-healthwealth/ by Dr Andrew Loke| 2nd Mar 2020 | inside Featured Articles)
“We are Beggars. This is True.”
It has been almost 30 years since Stephen Covey helpfully introduced into the business world the concepts of scarcity and abundance mindsets. An effective person, with a mindset of abundance, strives for a win-win situation, always rejecting a zero-sum outlook which breeds unhealthy competition, envy, and ingratitude (Covey 2013).
A quick Google search would show that this psychology of success has been uncritically co-opted by certain sectors of Christian popular writing. Disciples of Jesus are counseled to view the world not as a place of scarcity but abundance.
There is nothing theologically objectionable to understanding our infinite, generous God as the overflowing fount. But it is presumptuous and irresponsible to conclude that the world’s resources as non-zero-sum. Species extinction demythologizes that notion.
Much more hazardous is the modification of Covey’s oppositional pair into the poverty versus abundance mindsets. With such a stark choice, it is not hard to fall down the slippery slope of a first world, prosperity gospel.
Instead of pitting abundance against poverty, we should rather see this as a dialectic functioning within a theological anthropology. In the light of human beings created in the image of God (imago Dei), there are five motifs for reflection: property, agency, natality, receptivity, and poverty.
(For more info, do click the link – https://ethosinstitute.sg/we-are-beggars/ by Dr Tan Seng Kong | 15th Jun 2020 | inside Credo)
Is It Normal For Me to Be So Angry With My Kids?
At some point of your journey in parenthood, you may have found yourself grappling with intense feelings of frustration with your children, and wonder how to overcome the angry outbursts that come along with it.
While it may be uncomfortable, experiencing a range of emotions, including anger, is normal. There are also ways to help us identify if we are managing angry feelings well, together with practical handles to ease our frustrations in this aspect of parenthood.
(For more info, do click the link – https://archive.family.org.sg/FOTFS/Blog/Parenting/is_it_normal_for_me_to_be_so_angry_with_my_kids.aspx.html|by June Yong| 13th May 2020 |inside Family Focus)
Raising a Responsible Child Does Not Need Harsh Methods:
Cultivating good habits in our children take time, patience and hard work. As we teach our kids to be responsible from an early age, they will start practicing good habits and take ownership of their day-to-day responsibilities.
How can we help our children develop healthy behaviours that will carry them through life?
(For more info, do click the link – https://archive.family.org.sg/FOTFS/Blog/Parenting/raising_a_responsible_child_does_not_need_harsh_methods.aspx.html by Mark Lim | 31st January 2020 |inside Family Focus)
