10,000 Reasons and Dying Well

10,000 Reasons (Bless The Lord)¹ by Matt Redman has become one of my favourite Christian songs. I was first drawn by its folksy, hymn-like tune. The lyrics (a paraphrase of Psalms 103) are simple. But the richness of the song dawned on me when a dear sister-in-Christ who is dying from terminal cancer requested the song to be sung to her. The last verse reads,

  

“And on that day when my strength is failing,

The end draws near and my time has come;

Still my soul will sing Your praise unending,

Ten thousand years and then forevermore.

Forevermore.”

On my visits to the hospice, I sensed her frustrations and saw that she was in quite a bit of physical discomfort. She was a missionary and an independent, strong minded, single lady. She is now completely bed bound, dependent on others for her care, including the simple act of turning herself in bed. Yet, swinging between states of alertness and confusion, she maintains her faith and witness for God. She asks for Christian songs to be sung to her. Bible verses were read to her. She shared of visions the Lord showed her. She had the Lord’s Supper with her family members and close friends. In her more lucid moment, she touched a group of medical students who visited her with her testimony. To me this was a demonstration of dying well – one in which a Christian seeks to faithfully express her hope in eternal life, confident that God will do for her all that He has promised and thus glorify God and edify man through her journey of dying the physical death.

 J.I. Packer wrote that, “Dying well is one of the good works to which Christians are called, and Christ will enable us who serve him to die well, however gruesome the physical process itself. And dying thus, in Christ, through Christ and with Christ, will be a spiritual blossoming.”²

As my sister-in-Christ spend her 6^th week in the hospice, my thoughts are drawn to what death means for a Christian and how we are called not only to live the good and beautiful life but to die well.

Rob Moll’s book³ described these aptly:

“While dying well is often a matter of living well, to live well we must come to grips with our death. It is difficult, but it can also be invigorating. "It is only by facing and accepting the reality of my coming death that I can become authentically alive," says the Orthodox bishop Kallistos Ware.

We avoid death or even fear it because death is an evil, the horrible rending of a person from her body, from loved ones, from the ability to be fully in God's image. "Death is not part of God's primary purpose for his creation," writes Ware. "He cre­ated us, not in order that we should die, but in order that we should live." Jesus wept at Lazarus's death. The apostle Paul called death the last enemy. Death is indeed evil.

Yet death is also a mercy; it is the final affliction of life's mis­eries. It is the entrance to life with God. Life's passing can be a beautiful gift of God. This riddle of death's evil and its blessing is not difficult to solve. We enact it every Good Friday as we recall the evil of Christ's death to be followed on Easter Sunday with the joy of his resurrection. We do not rejoice in Christ's death or Judas's betrayal. Yet there is no evil so great that God cannot bring joy and goodness from it. That is why death de­serves our attention in life. Because we instinctively want to avoid it, to turn our face away, it is good to look death in the eye and constantly remind ourselves that our hope is in God, who defeated death.”

Today is the first Sunday after Easter. It is also called Quasimodo Sunday in Germany. On that day in 1944, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, an anti-Nazi German pastor held a small service for his fellow prisoners where he preached from Isaiah 53.5 (“With his stripes we are healed”) and 1 Pet 1.3 (“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead) No sooner than when he said the closing prayer, he was taken away by Gestapo officers and executed by hanging at the Flossenbürg concentration camp. As he was whisked away, he turned to his fellow prisoner Payne Best, a captured British Secret Intelligence Service agent, and said, “This is the end… For me the beginning of life.”

The camp doctor at Flossenbürg was Fischer-Hüllstrung. He had no idea who he was watching at that time but years later, he gave this account of Boenhoeffer’s last minutes alive:

“I saw Pastor Bonhoeffer, before taking off his prison garb, kneeling on the floor praying fervently to his God. I was most deeply moved by the way this lovable man prayed, so devout and so certain that God heard his prayer. At the place of execution, he again said a short prayer and then climbed the steps to the gallows, brave and composed. His death ensued after a few seconds. In the almost fifty years I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.” ⁴

The music video of 10,000 Reasons (Bless The Lord) by Matt Redman was filmed on location at Zionskirche (Church of Zion) in Berlin where Dietrich Bonhoeffer served as a pastor and organised his resistance against the Nazis for their persecution of the Jews.

References

1. Matt Redman 10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtwIT8JjddM
2. J.I. Packer Only when you know how to die, can you know how to live In: O Love That Will Not Let Me Go. Facing Death with Courageous Confidence in God  Ed. Nancy Guthrie IL: Crossway2011
3. Rob Moll The Art of Dying. Living Fully into the Life to Come IL: InterVarsity Press 2010
4. Eric Metaxas Bonhoeffer-Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. A Righteous Gentile vs The Third Reich Tennessee: Thomas Nelson 2010

The Good and Beautiful God and the Problem of Suffering and Evil

Exactly 101 years ago on 14 April 1912, the Titanic hit an iceberg on her maiden voyage. More than 1,500 people were brought down with her into the icy grave at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Where was God?

About 40 years ago, the Khmer Rouge regime under Pol Pot killed more than 1 million Cambodians in a misguided attempt to create a classless society. People were executed simply for knowing a foreign language or wearing glasses. Eight thousand Christians died. Where was God?

The December 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake released energy that was 1,500 times that of the Hiroshima atomic bomb. It caused a tsunami which killed more than 230, 000 people in 14 countries and wiped out entire communities. Where was God?

This month 10 years ago, SARS claimed the lives of 2 Christian doctors in Singapore. They had been treating patients infected with the deadly virus. SARS claimed 33 lives in Singapore. The first SARS victim of Singapore, Esther Mok, survived but not before infecting more than 100 people. Her father, mother, uncle and her church pastor who prayed with her in hospital died from SARS. Where was God?

Last Friday, Matthew Warren, the youngest son of Rick Warren (pastor of Saddleback Church and author of ‘The Purpose Driven Life’), committed suicide with a gun-shot to the head "in a momentary wave of despair" at the end of a lifetime struggle "with mental illness, dark holes of depression and even suicidal thoughts." ¹ Where was God?

One of the arguments against the existence of the Christian God is the problem of suffering and evil. The problem was first posed by a Greek philosopher named Epicurus. He was quoted as saying: Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but does not want. If he wants to, but cannot, he is impotent. If he can, but does not want to, he is wicked. If God can abolish evil, and God really wants to do it, why is there evil in the world? ² In other words, because there is so much suffering and evil in the world, the conclusion is that an omnipotent and good God does not exist.

However, not many lay people are aware that both theist and atheist philosophers of religion have long been in agreement that the poser by Epicurus is false.^2,3,4 Logically, it is plausible for an omnipotent and good God to exist in the presence of evil if for example, evil is allowed for a reason. The reason may not be comprehensively definable but our inability to define it does not exclude its reasonableness. The problem of suffering and evil is no longer considered a valid philosophical argument against God.

On the contrary, many philosophers now argue that evil is evidence for the existence of God. The logic of the atheist’s objection to God is based on a sense of justice - it is not right to cause people to suffer and die of hunger or oppression. On the other hand, the evolutionary mechanism of natural selection which operates in the natural world of atheists depends on death, destruction, and violence of the strong against the weak. Evolution works on the basis of the survival of the fittest - the strongest survive and the weakest annihilated. On what basis then, does the atheist judge that the natural world is unjust? If the natural world with its atoms and molecules bouncing off one another is all there is, no objective basis for moral judgement exists for the atheist. So, if the natural world is judged to be unjust, one will be assuming the reality of some extra-natural (or supernatural) standard by which to make the judgement. Evil then is an argument for God rather than against God.

All these are good and well for class room discussions but one must be psychotic to think that such cold logic can be of any comfort in the midst of suffering and evil. When suffering and evil strikes, it is intensely personal.

“Why?”
“Why me?”
“Is it because of something I did or did not do?”
And when reprieve is not evident, other questions come.
“Maybe he is not a God who cares!”
“Maybe there is no God!”
It is therefore necessary for Christians to establish strong patterns and habits of thoughts (or ‘narratives’ as used in the book The Good & Beautiful God) so that when the hardest questions batter the soul there is less wavering and more faith, joy and hope.⁵

Our God is not an angry judge who pats us on the back when we do well and boots us on the butt when we don’t do so well. He is a good God. His goodness triumphed on the cross when both love and justice were demonstrated “in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”(Rom 5:8) When we suffer we look to the cross, to a Saviour who is able to sympathise with our weaknesses, because in every respect he has been tempted as we are but yet without sin. (Heb 4:15) The book of Job teaches that there are things we will not comprehend because we are not God. (Job 38:1-42:6) We may not know what is the answer to why God allows suffering and evil. But we know what it isn’t. It isn’t because he is not there. It isn’t because he is not good. It isn’t because he doesn’t care.

 References

1.     http://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/07/us/matthew-warren-suicide
2.     Meister, C. 2009 “God, Evil and Morality” In God is great, God is good: why belief in God is
        responsible & reasonable, ed William L Craig and Chad Meister, 107-118.InterVarsity Press, IL
3.     Keller, T. 2008 The reason for God: Belief in an age of skepticism, 22-34.Riverhead Books, NY
4.     Howard-Snyder, D. 1999 “God, Evil and Suffering” In Reason for the hope within, ed Michael J
        Murray, 76-115.Wm B Eerdmans, MI
5.     Carson, D.A. 1990 How long O Lord?:reflections on suffering and evil,  InterVarsity Press, Leicester

Rich Jesus, Poor Jesus

“What Rich Pastors Teach Their Church about Jesus

That Poor and Middle Class Pastors Do Not!”

What would Jesus be like if he walked among us today in Singapore? How would Jesus dress, where would Jesus live, will Jesus drive? Would he dress simply, stay in a rented HDB flat and use public transport? Or, would he be speaking to us in designer suit, stay in a waterfront house and drive a luxury car? Does it matter? Some rich prosperity gospel* pastors are teaching their churches that it does.¹

These pastors claim that, contrary to the traditional view of mainline churches, Jesus was rich, i.e. materially wealthy! They argue that Jesus was rich because he wore good (expensive) clothes. They know Jesus had expensive clothes because the Roman soldiers at his crucifixion did not tear his seamless tunic but cast lots for it. Jesus apparently also owned two houses, including one in Capernaum², a village by the Sea of Galilee. “Mary and Joseph took a Cadillac to get to Bethlehem because the finest transportation of their day was a donkey”, claimed another prosperity preacher, “poor people ate their donkey. Only the wealthy used it as transportation.”¹

The hilarious hermeneutics by this genre of preachers were matched only by their egomaniacal explanations of why it was important that Jesus was materially rich. “If you believe Jesus is your Saviour, you can be saved. If you believe Jesus is your healer, healing is yours. If you believe Jesus isn’t poor, you (will be) able to (break) out of poverty and come into God’s abundance and prosperity!”²

I almost fell off my chair!

“Because a servant can never be greater than his master,” said the preacher, “we become like whom we worship. If we worship a poor Saviour, we will always (be) poor but if you worship a Saviour who we know to be rich and prosperous, and more than enough, we will be changed from glory to glory!”³

I am on the floor.

“A poor man cannot teach you how to prosper…only a rich man can show you. A poor Saviour cannot get you out of poverty, only a prosperous Saviour can….”³

I crack up on the floor.

Because they teach wealth as a right and a sign of God’s blessing, they pursue material prosperity to show that God’s favour is on them. But any person on the street will recognise that an excessive, luxurious lifestyle is an anomaly in a spiritual leader. They then use a rich Jesus to sacralise their lifestyle.

Were Jesus and the Twelve rich?

Fig. Graphic characterisation of a 'typical'agrarian society
like that in 1st century Palestine

The bible is not explicit on this. But knowledge of the social stratification of 1^st century Palestine and a proper reading of the Scriptures gives a reasonable idea. They were not of the destitute poor. Those were the bottom 10% of society: the ‘expendables’ –beggars, cripples, lepers, criminals. Neither were they of the rich upper class. Those were the 10% of population who owned 90% of the wealth: the aristocrats – rulers (e.g. King Herod and his court), military leaders (e.g. the un-named Centurion), reli-gious leaders (priests, high priests, Sadducees) bureaucrats, scribes and merchants who provided luxury items to the ruling, retainer and priestly classes. Jesus and Joseph were described as tektōn (Mk 6:3; Matt 13:55) which mean wood worker or stone mason. These skilled artisans were thought to be at a level of what we call ‘blue-collar   workers’   today.  Evidence   suggests   that   Jesus   was   most appropriately considered lower ‘middle class’. As for the disciples, fishermen were comparable to carpenters but perhaps less well off as their work required less skills. However, James and John, sons of Zebedee, maybe better off because their family had ‘hired servants’ (Mk1:20). Matthew who was a tax collector may have had been substantially better off. The other disciples were probably Galilean peasants except for Judas who was thought to be the only non-Galilean among the Twelve.^4,5,6 

Rich Jesus, Rich Disciples

Paul in 2 Cor 8:9 highlighted that our Lord was rich and we are rich.

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”  However, this is clearly a theological, rather than a sociological, statement.⁴

Our Lord Jesus Christ was rich but made himself poor – “…being in very nature God… (he)made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross.” (Phil 2:6-8)

We were poor but He made us rich. Eph1:3 – 2:10 describe our new life in Christ. The following rephrasing of the passage attempts to distill its essence.  

God has blessed us in Christ, with every spiritual blessing,

in the heavenly places

In love, he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ

In him we have redemption through his blood,

the forgiveness of our trespasses,

according to the riches of his grace,

which he lavished upon us.

In him we have obtained an inheritance

In him you were sealed,

with the promised Holy Spirit, 

who is the guarantee of our inheritance,

until we acquire possession of it.

The hope to which he has called you

The riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints

The immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe

You were dead in the trespasses and sins

But God, because of the great love with which he loved us, 

made us alive together with Christ,

raised us up with him,

seated us with him in the heavenly places.

That he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace

For by grace you have been saved through faith,

this is not your own doing,

it is the gift of God,  

so that no one may boast.

We are his workmanship, created for good works,

that we should walk in them.

It is with this richness in Christ that we are able to say, “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.” (Phil 4:12) The Bible does not promise health or wealth as a guaranteed reward for spiritual obedience. “But we do not lose heart because our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” (2 Cor 4:17)

References

1. Passions over 'prosperity gospel': Was Jesus wealthy? Dec 25, 2009, John Blake, CNN (http://articles.cnn.com/2009-12-25/living/RichJesus_1_jesus-prosperity-gospel-teachings?_s=PM:LIVING, accessed 15/09/2012)

2. Was Jesus Poor Pt 2(1-2) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s28skvVp1PM, posted 10/04/2011, accessed 15/09/2012)

3. 9 reason y Jesus is rich (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcOEBSmZbuQ, posted up 27/04/2010, accessed 23/03/2011).This video has been taken down. Transcript available. 

4. Neither Poverty nor Riches. A Biblical Theology of Possessions. Blomberg,1999 Apollos

5. A Marginal Jew Vol I. John P Meier1991, Doubleday

6. Social Classes in Agrarian Society. Sheila E McGinn (http://www.jcu.edu/bible/205/Readings/LenskiSocialClasses.htm,  accessed 18 Sept 2012)

7. Power and Privilege: A Theory of Social Stratification. Gerhard E Lenski , 1984 The University of North Carolina Press 

*Glossary

Prosperity Gospel - the teaching that believers have a right to the blessings of health and wealth and that they can obtain these blessings through positive confessions of faith and the "sowing of seeds" through the faithful payments of tithes and offerings.(Definition from “A Statement On Prosperity Teaching.” Lausanne Theology Working Group, Africa Chapter, Akropong, Ghana, 8-9 October, 2008 and 1-4 September 2009)

Naturalism: Dinosaur Skeletons in the Closet

Ask any school kid about dinosaurs (Greek:‘deinos’=terrible, ‘sauros’=lizard) and you will be impressed by their vocabulary: allosaurus, brachiosaurus, compsognathus, diplodocus, stegosaurus, tyrannosaurus, velociraptor. They may even explain that a giant asteroid hit earth and caused mass extinction of these ‘terrible lizards’ 65 million years ago, long before humans appeared on earth. This dinosaur-mania among children is widespread; fuelled by children’s books, movies, mechanised dinosaur performances, BBC documentaries and museum exhibits. Consistently, they all link dinosaurs to the theory of evolution and promote a naturalist* worldview that is contrary to our Christian worldview.

The Raffles Museum of Biodiversity is trying to raise funds to purchase a set of 3 diplodocus (affectionately named Apollo, Prince and Twinky for its kids-appeal). Prof. Peter Ng, director of the museum, explained why Singapore should have such an exhibit, “(The scientific advisory committee) wanted the museum to tell the story of the history of life and evolution. Dinosaurs are (part of) the history of life.”1 Two weeks later, The Straits Times featured another story with the heading “I've no God- and am proud of it”; 2 highlighting a growing number of people in Singapore who do not believe in a God and have banded together, determined to be unapologetic about being non-religious. It quoted one member saying, “The questions I had about the world, about life and death- I found my answer in science, not religion.” The group registered as the Humanist Society (Singapore) last October, calling themselves “secular humanist”, united in their rejection of a theistic or supernatural explanation of reality and prided themselves in embracing only scientific inquiry and “the indomitability of the human spirit”.

With globalisation and westernisation, Christianity in Singapore is increasingly facing the challenge of naturalism. This worldview incessantly bombards our children and youths through education, media and contemporary culture.

Naturalism claims that ‘natural causes’ alone are sufficient to explain everything that exists. It denies the existence of God or a supernatural realm.3 It attributes the origin of life to evolution. According to this theory, non-living substance gave rise to the first living material. The simple organisms reproduced, diversified and through the process of natural selection, produced all extinct and extant organisms, including humans. This random process occurred over 4.5 billion years.

This naturalist worldview leads to logical consequences: if man did not originate from God, he is not morally accountable to Him. There is no moral absolute. Abortion is a choice. Homosexuality is a right. Marriage is optional. All morality is subjective preference, reined in only by the need of law and order. If man is a product of matter, time and chance, he has no intrinsic value or meaning. Man contrives his own meaning. He has attempted to do so - from communism to capitalism, heroin to humanism, sex to science.

The life of Ernest Hemingway, one of the great novelists of the 20th century, a Nobel laureate, an existentialist* and atheist, is one such example. Hemingway’s life credo described the logical conclusion of the naturalist worldview: “Life is just a dirty trick, a short journey from nothingness to nothingness. There is no remedy for anything in life. Man’s destiny in the universe is like a colony of ants on a burning log.” To give meaning to that nothingness, Hemingway set out to experience life to the hilt. Then at age 61, after a life of notoriety as big-game hunter, adventurer and womaniser, Hemingway deliberately embraced death. He could no longer prove that he was the master of his own fate by his daredevil adventures or self indulgent lifestyle, but he could prove it by controlling the time and means of his own death.3 He committed suicide by shooting himself through the mouth with his favourite gun on 2 July 1961.

There are the skeletons (of dinosaur proportions) in the closet of naturalism. Yet naturalism claims science as its authority and uses science as its proxy against Christianity. Naturalism is portrayed as reality, facts and rational; while Christianity is relegated to the realm of values, subjectivity and even superstitions. In truth, naturalist scientists have chosen to restrict, a priori, the observable facts of the world to ‘natural causes’ (by which they mean excluding God). This bias leaves them with no alternatives but to appeal to evolution, no matter how unreasonable it may be. Evolution has been challenged by Christians and non-Christians4. It is an unproven theory and lacks scientific, statistical and philosophical evidences for its claims.5,6 The many controversies surrounding evolution have prompted scientists to propose other novel theory of origin of life.

Francis Crick, Nobel laureate of DNA fame, proposed that life on earth may have sprung from tiny organism from distant planet- sent here by spaceship as part of a deliberate act of seeding! This bizarre theory is called “directed panspermia.”7 He is not alone with this fantastical speculation. Variations of “panspermia” have been proposed by scientists from different renowned universities.8 Scientists view the world from their chosen perspective. They wear “spectacles behind their eyes.”9 This explains why naturalist scientists are willing to accept even the most absurd theories, so long as it does not require them to believe in God.

Our battle is not with science. The Scripture is inerrant. Scientific facts are dynamic. When the Bible is interpreted correctly and scientific facts are appropriately evaluated, there will be “No Final Conflict”.10 The battle is for the mind, a worldview. We are commanded to “love the Lord your God....with all your mind” (Lk10:27). This is a mind so controlled by the Word of God that it changes our whole outlook on ourselves, our family, our friends, our society, our country and the world. This outlook is reflected not only in personal piety, corporate worship and works of charity but also onto the totality of life and reality which includes science, education, economics, culture and politics. With a Christian worldview the ‘terrible lizards’ can be ‘missionary lizards’, a bridge through which we explain the magnificence of the Creator, the fall of man and God’s redemption. I hope to have the dinosaurs in Singapore. Tonight, I made a donation to the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity at http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/dino

*Glossary

naturalist - a person who adopts philosophical naturalism

existentialism – the theory that humans are free and responsible for their own actions in a world without meaning

 

References:

1. Tan Dawn Wei. The Sunday Times, 10 July 2011

2. Yen Feng. The Straits Times, 23 July 2011

3. Charles Colson. How now shall we live? (Tyndale House Publishers,1999) p.20, p.260

4. Michael Denton. Evolution: A Theory in Crisis (Adler &Adler,1986)

5. Philip E Johnson. Darwin on Trial (InterVarsity Press,1991)

6. Robert E Kofahl. The Creation Explanation: A Scientific Alternative to Evolution (Harold Shaw,1975)

7. FHC Crick, LE Origel. Directed Panspermia. Icarus 19 (1973):341-346

8. J Madeleine Nash. Was the cosmos seeded with life? Time, Aug 19, 1996

9. N R Hanson. Perception and Discovery: An introduction to Scientific Inquiry. (Freeman, Cooper & Co 1969)

10.Francis Schaeffer. No Final Conflict (InterVarsity Press, 1975)

Note: ST Wed., 7 Sep 2011.The Raffles Museum of Biodiversity has since secured the purchase of the dinosaurs, thanks to the last-minute multimillion dollar donation from a mystery donor.

                                       

                    

Seven Days to Live

Article condensed from Seven Days to Live. What can we learn from Jesus' last week on earth? by Bill Hybels, which first appeared in Today's Christian Woman. March/April 1999,Vol 21 No2 pg64

What if you knew you had only one week to live?

Passion Week—the last week of Jesus' life, before he faced a criminal's execution on a cross—was an extraordinary week. Jesus knew he was going to die in seven days. He knew it would be an excruciatingly painful death. But there's much we can learn from what Jesus taught and from how he acted in the week preceding Easter Sunday.

Saturday
The weekend before his death, Jesus stayed at the home of three of his closest friends in the small town of Bethany, about two miles outside Jerusalem. These people weren't among his 12 disciples; they were personal friends—Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Jesus chose to spend his last days of freedom with them.

Throughout Jesus' teaching ministry, he emphasizes the importance of community. Jesus continually told all who would listen, "You were created for community with God and others. You were created with a yearning to know and be known, to love and be loved, to serve and be served, to celebrate and be celebrated."

Have you found this kind of community in your life? It's more than good relationships with your family. You need an inner circle of friends who are fellow believers—just as Jesus had—with whom you can be honest, with whom you can "do life" together.

Sunday
On Palm Sunday—six days before Jesus' death—people lined the streets, waving palms as he entered Jerusalem. Jesus' popularity was at an all-time high; his teaching had astonishing power. Jesus had changed people's hearts and healed them physically. He'd even recently brought someone back from the dead! By far, Jesus was one of the most popular people in the entire Middle East.

But everyone who lined the streets had a different reason for waving those palms. Some were political activists; they'd heard Jesus had supernatural power, and they wanted him to use it to free Israel from Roman rule. Others had loved ones who were sick or dying. They waved branches, hoping for physical healing. Some were onlookers merely looking for something to do, while others were genuine followers who wished Jesus would establish himself as an earthly king. Jesus was the only one in the parade who knew why he was going to Jerusalem—to die. He had a mission, while everyone else had an agenda.

Monday
On this day, Jesus did something that shocked people. Jesus came into the temple and saw all the little arcades set up for commercial business. He overturned the merchants' tables and kicked them out of the temple.

Why did Jesus act with such passion? Because he saw worship at the temple in Jerusalem going awry. Jesus knew he had to straighten out the situation before he died, was resurrected, and returned to heaven. The message of his transforming power was going to be left in the hands of worshiping communities. Jesus couldn't afford to have any church get distracted and caught up in questionable activities. They alone would possess the message that would change the world. Jesus sent a signal: Don't get sidetracked. Stay on target. Stay on the mission of spreading God's love.

Tuesday
Jesus taught from early morning till late at night. When the sun went down on Tuesday, his earthly teaching was done. As dusk approached, Jesus taught the Parable of the Talents. In those final moments before his teaching ministry came to an end, he told his listeners, in essence, "You have one life. That's it. Some of you have all kinds of gifts and abilities; some of you have less. But don't squander the one and only life God's given you; do something noble and great with it." How poignant it is that as Jesus talked about this, he knew his life was almost over.

Wednesday
Most scholars believe this was a day of solitude for Jesus. He was doing the most important thing he could—getting alone with God. As he quieted himself, he heard the still small whisper of his Father say, "You're on a mission, and it's going to be difficult, but I'm asking you to endure. I'll be with you."

We live in a culture that no longer values solitude. We go from one meeting to the next, one deadline to the next, one activity to the next. Too often we fail to quiet ourselves enough to hear what God would say to us—if only we were listening.

Thursday
This day, Jesus took a normal Passover meal and changed it forever. All the arrangements had been made, but then the foot-washer didn't show up! The disciples came to dinner with dusty feet, and stood around asking who messed up the arrangements. It never dawned on them that maybe one of them could humble himself to do that for anybody else.

Jesus came, took off his robe, put a towel over his arm, filled a basin with water, then knelt down and started washing the disciples' feet. They couldn't believe it! The Son of God, the Savior of the world—and he had the humility to wash their feet.

In today's words, here's the lesson: True fulfillment never comes from a life of self-gratification. The way to the top in God's economy is through serving. It's finding God's mission for your life and engaging in it. It's finding people you can humbly serve in daily, down-to-earth ways. And when you find God's purpose for your life and pursue it in a spirit of humility and servanthood, your heart spills over with love and gratefulness.

Friday
On Friday, Jesus voluntarily submitted to be nailed to a cross.

The Bible says at noon the skies got dark. There was an earthquake. The temple veil was torn. People suddenly realized that when Jesus cried out, "It is finished," and then died, he was no ordinary man. Jesus was taken from the cross, prepared for burial, and put in a tomb.

Thankfully, the story doesn't end there. But what follows next—Saturday—is most difficult of all, because it's the day between the promise and the fulfillment of the promise. Jesus had predicted he'd be crucified, and that he'd rise from the dead. He was dead all right. But would he come back?

On Sunday, Jesus burst forth from the tomb exactly as he'd predicted. The guards at the tomb saw him, went back to tell the officials, "He's alive!" and were paid to keep quiet about it. Jesus appeared to more than 500 people—cynics as well as believers—before he ascended into heaven. There was no question about whether or not Jesus was resurrected. With his resurrection, Jesus proved he is the Son of God.

Mummy (or Daddy), please don’t scream!

If you go to work tomorrow and your boss screamed and yelled at you, you would feel pretty bad. In fact, you may even yell back, resign and walk out if your livelihood did not depend on it. Yet when parents scream at their kids, they seem to think that they can do it with impunity.

ScreamFree Parenting. The words jumped off the pages of Straits Times1, even as I grappled with the issue on how kids should be raised. Hal Runkel, the founder of ScreamFree Parenting, wrote in the preface to his book of the same title, “I believe God is the original ScreamFree Parent to us all, and his way of relating with himself and with others is the model I teach and try to live. These ScreamFree principles are biblical principles.”2

Since his book is so popular, I guess I am not the only screaming parent around.

The magnitude of the problem
In a survey3, 150 children between 9 to 12 years old were asked to write their answers to two questions:
• What do you like most about your mother?
• What do you dislike most about your mother?
Although the answers the first question varied, the answer to the second did not. Almost all used the phrase ‘her screaming’ in their answers to the second question.

In a seminal4 paper to document the extend of psychological aggression (the psychologist’s term for screaming and yelling at your kids) by American parents, researchers looked at the self-reported prevalence of 5 different levels of psychological aggression (shouted/yelled/screamed; threatened to spank; swore/cursed; called name e.g.lazy,dumb; threatened to kick out of house – the latter 3 being categorised as severe psychological aggression) in a nationally representative sample of 991 parents with children 17 years and below. They reported that by age 5, 98% of parents reported using one or more forms of psychological aggression and the rate remains in the 90% range up to age 17 years. The rates for severe psychological aggression however differed according to the children’s age groups. It was less common in the younger age group (10-20% for toddlers) and increased progressively to 50% for teenagers. The average number of overall and severe episodes was 21 and 8 respectively over the last 12 months. Given that this is a self-reporting survey, these figures are expected to be an underestimate of actual rates of prevalence.

There is no local data but given the cultural characteristics of contemporary Chinese parent-child values and practices, the rates are expected to be greater than in Western cultures5; my experience and gut feeling tell me that Christian families are not spared.

“If it is so common, it must be OK”
Disciplining a child is a parental responsibility and biblical injunction. However, screaming and yelling is not an acceptable disciplinary tactic. As far as I know there are no advocates of screaming as a parenting style. To say that it is unchristian is to put it mildly. There are at least 3 reasons why you should not scream when dealing with kids:

1. A screaming parent demonstrates that he/she has lost control.
There a many valid reasons why a parent may ‘lose it’ but if the parent is not in control, he/she cannot be in charge. Each parent is solely responsible for his/her emotional response. Prov 29.11 says, “A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.”

Hal Runkel2 defines being in charge as the ability to inspire your children to motivate themselves; a radical shift from controlling their behaviour and decisions. Parenting is not a set of tricks for manipulating the child into obeying but the building of a special relationship between parent and child. When a parent screams, the tone does not inspire and its content tears down relationship.

2. Psychological aggression has adverse effects on children.
Parental verbal aggression is associated with negative effects on children’s self-esteem and school marks6 and higher rates of physical aggression, delinquency and interpersonal problems with other children7. Dr Ketterman3 describes it graphically- To a child, screaming is like a cancer. When that screaming enters a child’s ears, it quickly spreads, killing the child’s fragile cells of growing self-esteem. Without healthy self-esteem, the child cannot achieve his or her God-given potential and will become increasingly anxious, insecure and often angry.

3. Screaming and yelling at our children is contrary to biblical teachings on speech and conduct.
The Bible has clear teachings in this area. Col 4:6 says, “Let your conversation be always full of grace.” Jas 1:19-20 admonishes, “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.”

The Bible uses striking metaphors to warn of the immense power of the tongue. Words are weapons- spears, swords and arrows (Ps 57:4, 64:4, Jer 9:8). It is a bit in the horses’ mouth, the rudder of a ship and the spark that can set the forest ablaze. Its influence out of proportion to its size and should not be underestimated. (Jas 3:2-12)

Screaming at our kids is wrong. Many parents do it because it seems to work. It then has a way of becoming a habit and these parents continue to do it even when it no longer works. Habits are difficult to break. Stop it before it becomes a habit. If it has become a habit, acknowledge that it is wrong and take personal responsibility for your emotional outbursts. That is the first step to discovering the many other Christ-like alternatives to screaming and yelling at your kids.

References:
1.The Straits Times, 24 July 2010;p.E1-2
2.Hal Edward Runkel, ScreamFree Parenting (2007); Colorado: WaterBrook Press.
3.Pat Holt, Grace Ketterman, When you feel like screaming: help for frustrated mothers (2001); Colorado: WaterBrook Press.
4.MA Straus, CJ Field, Psychological Aggression by American Parents: National Data on Prevalence, Chronicity and Severity. J Marriage and Family (2003);65, p.795-808.
5.CSK Tang, Adolescent Abuse in Hong Kong Chinese Families. Child Abuse & Neglect (1996);20, p.873-878.
6.CR Solomon, F Serres. Effects of parental verbal aggression on children’s self-esteem and school marks. Child Abuse & Neglect (1999);23, p.339-351.
7.YM Vissing, MA Straus. Verbal aggression by parents and psychosocial problems of children. Child Abuse & Neglect (1991); 15, p.223-238.

Christian Response to Homosexuality

(This article was written in July 2007. It is posted here because of interest arising from current events.)

Caught in the Middle: Homosexuality

Amendments to the Penal Code will soon to be debated in the Singapore Parliament. This includes Section 377A, which deals with ‘carnal intercourse against the order of nature’.This section criminalises homosexual acts. Many pro-gay groups are taking this opportunity to lobby for homosexual acts to be decriminalised. This has lead to widely publicised comments from journalists, MPs, Ministers and a former Bishop of the Methodist Church who openly declared their support for homosexuality and homosexual acts.

The Minister Mentor has been quoted as saying, ‘homosexuals are mostly born that way’. A senior journalist wrote, ‘Two factors would favour homosexuals in the long run: One, the growing evidence that homosexuality has a genetic basis. And two, the growing cosmopolitanism of Singapore….homophobia renders Singapore a less attractive place to the talented and creative, both local and foreign…There is a reason why some of the most creative cities in the world - San Francisco, Boston and London - are also among the most accepting of gays.’1

These assumptions are widely embraced, especially by youths. The Singapore Polytechnic survey involving 800 people between 15-29 years old reported that 44% of male respondents and 57% of female respondents found homosexuality acceptable. Unfortunately these views are not limited to unbelievers. There is a homosexual ‘christian’ group in Singapore contradicting the evangelical Christian view. The former Methodist Bishop is an honorary pastoral advisor to the group. We are caught in the middle!

Is homosexuality a sin?
The biblical basis for rejection of homosexual acts can be found in the following scripture passages: Gen1: 27-28 describes God’s design for humankind – male and female. Gen19 described the homosexual perversion and destruction of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lev18: 22 and 20:13 record God’s injunction against homosexual acts. Rom 1:26-27 described homosexuality as a manifestation of God’s wrath as the result of man’s rejection of God and God’s abandonment of man to their own devices. In 1Cor 6:9 Paul described homosexual offenders (Gk: arsenokoitai - arsen = male, koite = bed, i.e ‘a male bedding a male’) as one of those who are wicked and will not inherit the kingdom of God. In 1 Tim 1:10 arsenokoitai (translated homosexuals in NASB and perverts in NIV) is described as the antithesis of a righteous person.

Homosexual acts are condemned in the scripture (as are adultery, fornication and other sexual immoralities). Hence, Christians cannot support groups that condone or seek to promote this behaviour in the name of tolerance or progress. However, we do not despise the homosexual person. Jesus included into his sphere of friends, prostitutes and tax collectors. The church necessarily must extend her love to the homosexuals so that they may turn away from the sin of homosexual behaviour.


Is homosexuality genetic/biologically determined?
Proponents of this theory imply that homosexuals are ‘born that way’ and they have no choice in their sexual orientation and change is not possible and should not be pursued. This impression popularized by the media can’t be further from the truth. Science is politicised for a homosexual agenda.2

The fact is that homosexuality is influenced by genes as much as playing basketball is. If you have a height gene that makes you tall, you may make a good basketball player but the gene does not turn you into a basketball player. You can choose to play volleyball. Genes are but a facilitating factor, interacting with other psychological, social and environmental factors, that ‘opens the door’ for some into homosexuality. A boy born with a sensitive temperament and a less athletic physique, subjected to peer isolation, a dominant maternal figure, an absent or abusive paternal figure may develop homosexual orientation. This effect is different from proclaiming that homosexuality is genetic in the way genes affect our inheritance of black instead of blonde hair and brown instead of blue eyes.

Homosexual orientation can be treated and corrected.3 Homosexual act is a choice, just like adultery and fornication for the heterosexuals. Our genes don’t make us do it.

How should we response?
We need to view the issue of homosexual orientation seriously and with compassion. During a small group prayer meeting in my university days, a brother requested prayer because he was struggling with ‘an affinity for someone of the same sex’. I was thrown off. I don’t think any of us in the group took him seriously. “He was such a devout Christian. He will get over it.” I thought. I chanced upon this brother two weeks ago after about 15 years. I praise God that he is still in church and although our conversation was brief I sense that he still has the struggle. Few of us know how to minister to such a person because we fail to appreciate their struggle.

We need to prevent homosexuality. No one is born gay. Experts believe there are early signs of a pre-homosexual child and intervention will prevent the inclination.4

We must not allow our society to evolve into one where homosexual behaviour is endorsed, encouraged and promoted as an acceptable lifestyle. We do this by first educating ourselves, our children and our church.

We need to pray for our leaders, our country, our community, our children.

Reference:
1. Janadas Devan. Can mum, mum and kid make a family? 7 July 2007, Straits Times.
2. W Byne, E Stein. Ethical Implications of Scientific Research on Causes of Sexual Orientation. Health Care Anal. 1997; 5:136
3. R Spitzer. Can Some Gay Men and Lesbians Change Their Sexual Orientation? 200 Participants Reporting a Change from
Homosexual to Heterosexual Orientation. Arch Sex Behav 2003; 32:403
4. J Nicolosi, Linda A Nicolosi. Preventing Homosexuality. IVP