Queen's Road Cell

The past weekend I attended a worship symposium organized by the Methodist School of Music, titled “Life As Worship”. Below are some brief thoughts about what I learnt. 1)     Worship as our offering to God demands sacrifice Bishop Chong Chin Chung preached during the first opening service. This was one thought that struck me. In Romans 12:1, we are called to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, which is our spiritual worship. The idea of sacrifice implies cost, and as it is a “living” sacrifice, we are called to present our life and being before the Lord. My own takeaway as I reflected on my own journey in service to the Lord in the past half year is that the things that I ‘sacrifice’ in my service to the Lord e.g. my time, my sleep, my energies, my leisure constitute the cost to me, which I offer to the Lord as my worship. In recognizing that what I give is as worship to the Lord, I am able to better not feel resentful, especially during the moments of dif...

We considered how as loving Christians we should be thinking of the upcoming Pink Dot event, one that celebrates "the freedom to love" "Attendees of Pink Dot events gather to form a 'pink dot' to show support for inclusiveness, diversity and the freedom to love" (Wikipedia). Christians may be divided as to whether we should be supporting/attending this event. I thought that it would be helpful to consider some theological and pastoral perspectives to help us as we consider how to think and feel about our LGBT friends, colleagues and relatives. Romans 1 teaches that mankind in general has "exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images" (v. 23), i.e. idols made in our own image ("mortal man"). Homosexuality is described as involving "impurity" (v.24), "dishonorable passions" (v.26), "shameless acts" (v.27). More to the point, homosexuality also represents an aspect of God's judgement on fallen human...

We spent time looking at the story of Jesus, Mary and Martha in Luke 10:38-42 and noted the following: Martha's fault was not in that she was serving per se: she probably wanted to do her best for Jesus when He came to visit. She scolds Jesus for not seeing how she was unable to cope with her service ("Lord, don't you care...?", v/40). Jesus tenderly ("Martha, Martha...") reproves her not for her work, but for her attitude. She was "worried and upset about many things" (v.41). Edmund Chan has this insight into the story - if Mary had a similar worried and upset attitude, she would have told Jesus to ask Martha to quit all her unspiritual serving and to join her at Jesus' feet as a disciple before her Teacher (c.f. Acts 22:3). So the issue is not what we are doing - it has to do with the inner state of restedness before Christ. We are asked to have a spiritual focus on Him regardless of our outward activity, whether in Christian service or in ...

We discussed Selwyn's question from his friend whose dentist wife was thinking of going overseas for some time for higher education. And the question was, "Is it right for the wife to prioritize her career above her husband's?". He mentions Piper's point (http://www.desiringgod.org/messages/lionhearted-and-lamblike-the-christian-husband-as-head-part-2) that husbands should be the primary providers in the home. We said that, although the usual model is that husbands ordinarily provide for their wives, the clear Scriptural mandate had to do with authority and responsibility of the husbands for the family, not with issues of financial or career security. So we affirm that husbands may have lower-paying jobs than the wife without feeling that they have not fulfilled their God-given role.It may be that the wife chooses a lower standard of living by giving up their job in order to be a housewife and mother, but we do not see that this is mandated in Scripture. In Selw...

33  “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ 34  But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35  or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36  And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37  All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.(Mt 5:33-37) This is the 4th of 6 examples how Christ radically fulfils the law (anger, lust, divorce, oaths, retaliation, enemies).   “You have heard it said” (not, “it is written”). This is not an exact, but not an inaccurate transcription of Mosaic Law. The passages in view here are: ·          Nu 30:2 “When a man makes a vow to the Lord or takes an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not br...