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Men who watch porn double the chance of divorce while women triple theirs. “Wives who know that their husbands access porn consider it adultery,” said Pastor Randy Khoo from The People's Bible Church. How do we resist it? How can we break free from the addiction? Join Salt&Light Family Night tomorrow on Zoom as we talk about how to protect our relationships from porn. Date: Tuesday, September 15, 2020 Time: 8.30pm–10pm Cost: Free Pre-registration is required Click "Register now" in our story highlights for the registration link.
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When the Lims – Suat Khoh, 66, and Teck Seng, 65 – retired, they told the church leadership they could not serve in committees anymore. But they were not "retiring" from service. Instead, it was a move towards service of a different kind – community work. An associate professor at NIE before she retired, Suat Khoh channelled her love for teaching into tutoring underprivileged children at a family service centre and mentoring them. “At our age, we feel blessed to have the time and the health to be able to help others,” she said. The couple also delivers meals to the needy every week – something they did even throughout the Circuit Breaker. “You know what the Bible says about whatever you do for the least of these you are doing for Jesus? (Matthew 25:40-45) That’s what we want to do.” Teck Seng lives by this verse as well. The elderly have a special place in his heart. He was one of a few who reached out to a lonely old man who had turned up in church one day. When the man went to a nursing home, Teck Seng had Bible Study classes with him weekly and was the last person to see him before he passed away. “These are the things I can do. A little here, a little there.” Last year, the couple spent three months in Timor-Leste teaching the teachers and children in a school run by missionaries. “I always felt that missions was something at the heart of what all Christians should do. But I wanted to do more than a short-term mission trip," said Suat Khoh. The Lims said the trip opened their eyes to the goodness of God. “It was very fulfilling seeing the work there,” said Teck Seng. Suat Khoh added: “We usually think we are sacrificing so much, spending months on the field. But when I see the missionary couple there, they gave up years and years. “Now, we’re still healthy. So, while I still can, I want to do things for God because there may come a day when we may not be able to.” (For the full story, click the link in bio)
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A heart that is divided in its loyalties is subtle and difficult to detect, yet extremely destructive to true discipleship, warned Rev Edmund Chan in a plenary session at the Intentional Disciple-Making Churches 2020 conference on Sept 4. Highlighting 2 Kings 17:33, where Israel “feared the Lord but also served their own gods”, Rev Chan urged the online audience of 5,000 to repent from this “double-mindedness”. “This spiritual syncretism of serving the Lord, fearing the Lord, and yet serving our own gods … is subtle and dangerous, and it’s in the Church of Jesus Christ today,” he said. “We must turn from that which displeases God, to follow hard after Him … There should not be a double love in our lives, a double loyalty in our lives.” However, Rev Chan acknowledged that being a wholehearted disciple of Christ is easier said than done. “Many aspire, few attain. And those who attain know it is not by their own strength. It’s out of a spirit of contriteness and brokenness, out of that understanding and that conviction of the duplicity of their lives, out of the understanding that double-mindedness destroys discipleship,” he said. Shifting his focus to Numbers 11:1-9, where Israel was complaining in the desert, Rev Chan pointed out two sins that can hinder true discipleship. The first is a lingering longing for the past, which can be “a joy robber, especially when we ignore present opportunities and future redemptions in the living for the glory of God”. The second is a deep discontentment with God, which comes from “a spirit of entitlement and a profound lack of gratitude”. Cautioning against being “prisoners of our own passions”, he added: “It is time for Christians to drop their spirit of entitlement and that lack of gratitude, to take a fresh delight in God even through the wilderness. “For even in the wilderness, God’s love never ceases, His faithfulness never comes to an end. “What is needed in discipleship today is a whole-life discipleship that moves us from a double-mindedness to a single-hearted, single-minded devotion in every arena of our life.” (For the full story, click the link in bio)
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Porn. It's everywhere. No one – male and female, adults and kids – is immune from temptation. How do we resist it? How can we break free from the addiction and be restored? Join us this Tuesday night to learn more about how we can deal with the problem of porn. Hear from hosts Carol Loi and Alex Tee and guests Quek Shiwei, Director of Kallos, and Pastor Randy Khoo, The People’s Bible Church. 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: Tuesday, September 15, 2020 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞: 8.30pm–10pm 𝐂𝐨𝐬𝐭: Free 𝐏𝐫𝐞-𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐝 You can find the registration link in our Instastory Highlights under 'Register Here', or in the link in bio.
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In Matthew 6, Jesus called the religious leaders "hypocrites" as their outward shows of spirituality were dishonest and untruthful. How do we know if our prayers are honest? Here are two things that Jesus said prayer is not. 1. Prayer is not about being seen The whole idea is to pray such that you will not be purposely seen as religious. This simple doctrine is based on the fact that God the Father is “unseen”. God’s invisibility sets the foundation for the manner of our prayer life. Not one else needs to know, only God knows and will reward or respond accordingly. The most invaluable reward is from God. He who “sees what is done in secret, will reward you”. 2. Prayer is not about repetition or eloquence The principle is the doctrine of God’s omniscience – He knows, and God the Father, being a father, knows and cares lovingly. With this in mind, a person who prays need not be heard praying nor is there a need for his prayer to sound elaborately eloquent. True prayer, in any form, begins by realising that we are praying to an Invisible God, to a God who is omniscient, adding to the fact that He is a personal and loving Father who cares for us, because we believe our Father “knows what you need before you ask Him”. Only when we understand these doctrines correctly can we begin to pray in honesty and truthfulness. Seek the deeper, quieter, unseen ways of pleasing God the Father, because we know in our hearts that we are His dear children. (via @scriptureunion) (For the full devotion, click the link in bio)
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Left for dead in a ditch. Electrocuted. Stabbed by a swordfish. Huang Zhongzhu, 42, has cheated death. Thrice. “When something like this happens to you, you have to believe God stepped in,” he told Salt&Light in Mandarin. The first time Huang was left for dead, the native of Henan, China, was just two years old. He was suffering from a high fever, and the village doctor gave him a wrong injection that left him semi-conscious. On the way to the hospital, Huang stopped breathing. His family left his limp body in a ditch, but a rag-and-bone man chanced upon him and realised he was still alive. The second time Huang almost died, he was eight. Electrocuted by a low-hanging wire in his village, he woke from the shock miraculously unharmed. His third brush with death happened in his 20s. By then a Christian working the seas as a fisherman, he would find a church at every port he stopped at. While hauling in a catch one day, a swordfish lunged at him. “I felt the swordfish touch me but then it was like a hand suddenly pulled it away and threw the fish back into the sea. It had to have been God’s hand," he said. Moved to repentance, Huang asked to be baptised the moment his vessel hit land. Four of his colleagues who had witnessed the miracle also joined him. But it was as a chef in Singapore that he truly experienced God’s love. A fall at work left him unable to work for nearly a year, and he worried about supporting his family. Feeling hopeless, he decided to end his life. As he stood on a bridge overlooking a busy highway, he heard a voice in his ear: "You have given Me your burden, why do you still take it back?” It was a turning point. He was later introduced to @healthservesg, a non-profit organisation that helps migrant workers, which gave him shelter and food. They also found him a new job. These days, he journeys with other migrant workers who have been injured, sharing his story and hope. “I have learnt through the many incidents in my life that you can still praise God even when you’re in difficulty.” (For the full story, click the link in bio)
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Porn is no longer just a male problem. 70% of porn sites are geared towards women and children. How do we resist temptation? How can we break free from the addiction? Join Salt&Light Family Night "live" on Zoom this Tuesday as we talk frankly about the problem of porn addiction with guests Pastor Randy Khoo from The People’s Bible Church and Quek Shiwei, Director of Kallos, who have journeyed with those battling porn. 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: Tuesday, September 15, 2020 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞: 8.30pm–10pm 𝐂𝐨𝐬𝐭: Free 𝐏𝐫𝐞-𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐝. You can find the registration link in our Instastory Highlights under 'Register Here', or in the link in bio.
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Singapore has always been multi-cultural, but we are now a melting pot of many nationalities. With many churches reaching out to new friends in our backyard, it means that the average church member also needs cross-cultural communication skills, or better cultural intelligence (CQ). CQ is about growing in our ability to be multi-lingual and agile in our cross-cultural relationships. It involves having the insight, understanding and skills to relate to people from other cultures. The common human tendency, however, is to assume our culture’s way of doing things is the “normal” way. In his book, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell touted and popularised the 10,000-Hour Rule. The rule asserts that the key to achieving excellence and mastery (or, in his words, becoming “world class”) in any endeavour is to practice effectively for 10,000 hours. Other writers quibble about the actual 10,000 number, claiming that it is the quality of the practice that matters more than the quantity, but we can reasonably conclude that more quality engagement in a skill and context will give us greater competence. Friendships are bridges for the gospel. If there is low CQ, cross-cultural friendships will struggle to form. If there is no friendship, how will opportunities for conversation rise? If there are no conversations, how will the gospel be shared? And if there is no sharing of the gospel, how will they believe? Swipe to read a cross-cultural team's discussion on cultural faux pas, and how you can hone your CQ. (Contributed by Dr Mark Syn, director of missions agency, @pioneersinasia.) (For the full story, click the link in bio)
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Joyce Lye’s life changed forever on a slippery road 35 years ago. On the way to supper with her husband, George, their car skidded and turned turtle. Her husband died instantly. When she woke from her coma, his funeral was over. She was left to raise her two little girls – then aged three and 14 months – alone. Anger, grief and depression were her constant companions. She took it out on her girls. “I would beat them, scold them, push them away real hard," Lye, now 68, recalled. Beyond the pain of losing her husband, Lye was also deeply anxious about being a single parent. To make ends meet, she would go door to door selling insurance after putting her daughters to bed. One day, nearly a year after the accident, Lye was flipping through a Bible her friend had given her. The page turned to 1 Timothy 5 – a passage about widows who prayed day and night to ask God for help. “I was so shocked. It was like the verse was talking to me. I really cried and I knelt down and I gave my life to Jesus.” As the years passed, requests would come for her to talk to and connect with other widows. Still hurting, Lye did not have the courage to relive her pain. But when the requests kept coming, Lye arranged a tea session for them. Too poor to afford much, she bought one ice kachang for all five of them to share. “When they looked at one another, they began to pour out their struggles ... I said: ‘It really works. They long for other meetings. They can get connected’.” That modest meeting in 1993 was the genesis of Wicare, a support group for widows. Today, Wicare – which celebrates its 22nd anniversary this year – have helped over a thousand widows through their self-help programmes. “Actually, there is no need to counsel. Just put a widow next to another and there is healing. They understand one another. They have similar backgrounds," said Lye. Though she has walked with many who see her as role model, she remains modest: “They actually made me stronger. They are the ones who changed me.” Through it all, Lye admitted: “The calling is very painful. It has never been easy. But God provides.” (For the full story, click the link in bio)
