Joie de Vivre A Wretched Man’s Quest To Follow Jesus Christ

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out which country in the world just did both those things in a matter of days.

Israel.

On August 16, The Jerusalem Post reported that the Israeli authorities have asked an evangelist pastor Ron Cantrell, 59, and his wife Carol, 54, to leave Israel within 2 weeks. This was after first turning down their request for permanent residency even though both have been working in Israel for nearly 20 years.

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I came across this article by a certain Rabbi Shraga Simmons at aish.com, a Judaism web site, which rather discouraged me.

There are so many points he brought up that I want to rebut point for point, but it’s the working hours here so I must resist and wait till I get home later this evening.

In the meantime, if you were to read it and feel compelled to rebut as I do, do post it on your blog.

I have always wanted to minister to the Jews in Israel, so if I were to look at the article from a different angle, this presents a great opportunity for us to learn why they reject Christ.

And therefore learn how we can better share the Good News with them.

Shalom Aleichem.

Photo by premasagar.

How many of us Christians pray and always say “Let it be your will, Lord, not mine” and really mean it?

I truly examined that yesterday afternoon, as I took steps to pray more like I mentioned I would a couple of days ago.

There are some problems in my life now that are due to a period where I was without a job and found it hard to make ends meet with the meager amount of savings left. Just yesterday, I had to get a matter settled which I really worried about.

I finally decided that I shan’t worry anymore and just leave it up to God and His will.

However, right after I prayed, I began to seriously ask myself “Did I really mean it when I said that it is in God’s will?”.

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This is not an attack on any church or denomination. I am going to simply tell my story as it is, about my experience in a Pentecostal church and why I stepped out of it.

Back in my youth, during college days, I started attending Charismatic/Pentecostal church services as it was the natural thing to do. Natural because back then I was in a college run by the Anglican Church of Singapore and the school’s chapel was skewing towards the Pentecostal movement.

Moreover, I wasn’t attending any church on a regular basis as I was looking for one where I could really find the form of worship I would be comfortable with.

It was easy to step into the Pentecostal movement and feel part of the community immediately. Most of the friends I made in college were of the same inclinations — Christians who were looking a church to attend. So when seniors of the school who were also members of the church started inviting us to attend the services on Sunday, it didn’t take much to say ‘yes’ to the proposition.

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I have always held the belief that blogs aren’t just for documenting one’s daily existence and the associated mundane events through the course of a day. Blogs can do more than that, like raising social awareness of issues and be catalysts for change for the greater good.

Which is exactly why I think BlogCatalog’s “Bloggers Against Abuse” initiative that’s happening September 27th, 2007 is a marvelous idea that I hope everyone with a blog will participate in.

Do help to spread the word around, either by writing a post about the event or putting up one of many banners available (you can find them on the discussion thread this post is linked to) on your blog with a link to the announcement.

Join up today and blog for a good cause.

Coming across other Christian blogs and getting to know some of the authors, there’s one thing I realize that I come up short when it comes to my walk with God.

Prayer.

I am not comparing myself with them in some kind of weird competition to see who has more favor from God or something but I realize that, from reading their blogs on a regular basis, that they are prayer warriors who have a real desire to communicate with God.

And that’s one aspect of my walk with God I want to improve on. Paul exhorts us to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17, KJV) but that’s what I never do, not even sporadically.

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Interesting reads for the week past:

High Cost Of Living In Singapore Unbearable Even For Expatriates

So it’s finally a proven fact that we Singaporeans aren’t just the only ones with the grouses on the incredibly high costs of living here on this island state. Even the angmoh FTs, local speak for Caucasian (angmoh, or red-haired) Foreign Talent, who usually arrive in Singapore as expatriates and enjoy bigger pay packets and higher standards of living than locals, are beginning to complain about the rising costs.

As one comment goes:

“Singapore Inc is all about money. The people are obsessed with it, and you can’t do anything without spending some of it. Most conversations here involve money and you will find that even if you think you came here to experience the ‘culture’, your life will be consumed with the thought of money.”

Sad but true.

Is it therefore any wonder that we cannot grow beyond our bread-and-butter concerns and have at best a generally apathetic populace?
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