Ready for Death?

On the way to lunch, I heard about someone (one of the bigwigs) from the office just passed away half hour earlier in Singapore. He had been unwell, and went to Singapore for treatment a week ago. 
During lunch, my colleague told me about how he met a contractor this morning, who kinda blacked out on site, and had to be rushed to hospital. After lunch, news was he too had passed away, around lunch time.

Gee, 2 deaths within an hour, is 2 deaths too many. Life is just so fragile and fickle.

God gives and takes. As much as we shake our hands against God, declare how much we don't believe in Him, depend on ourselves and our own riches, and live our lives our own way - at the end of the day, God's in charge. When it's time to go, it's time to go - there's not much we can do about it.
Unlike things, we cannot "insure" against death, we can at best, seek compensation for our families, in case of death. Our lives cannot be replaced (like we can go buy another car).


So it got me thinking.
The question of when we will die, is not something we can answer, until it is too late.
So the question is really, are we ready to face our death?

Am I ready to die? Yes and no.
No, so many things I want to live for, I want to see my children walk down the aisle with someone who loves God with all of their hearts. I want to grow old with my wife by my side. I want my dad to come to know Jesus.  I want to learn so much more about photography! 


Yet Yes! Because I know that my salvation has been procured by the blood of Jesus. God guarantees it by the Holy Spirit he gives, as a deposit of what is to come. There's no greater comfort to know that if I go, as much as it is sad to leave behind those whom I love, I will be with Jesus, the author of life, my creator, my savior and Lord. I'll get to ask him all the questions I have (who exactly did Cain marry?). It'll far exceed anything here on earth, that I'll miss. It'll blow my mind away.

Are you ready for death? 
Don't wait for the 11th hour. You may end up dying at half past ten.

2 Peter 3:8-10

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.

Being Thankful

Today is the day I am thankful for

1. My God - that He rescued me from my life of depravity & sin, gave me the gift of eternal life that came at such a high cost, and that I may continue rest assure in his providence and plan.

2. My wife who has been a pillar of support, soul mate, life companion, and fellow adventurer!

3. My 3 kids, who although are growing up too fast, remain my pride and main ministry in life.

4. the health of my family - how blessed that we are all able and fit!

5. Opportunity to be in Indonesia again - although Jakarta was not what I had in mind before, but we're starting to get used to it. Knowing the language has been a big bonus.

6. Church - we love being part of All Saints - the people are warm, teaching faithful, a place where we can fellowship and serve in;

7. Our place to stay - that we have a roof over our head.

8. STB-ACS - where my kids go to school. They have adjusted well to the system, and made new friends, and at least have a decent education standard.

9. My job, which allows to continue being here

10. Car - use of a car, where my kids can safely go to school and back.

11. Coffee - my favorite beverage of all!


12. My hobby - which is....... photography! (in case no one noticed).

Psalm 118:24

This is the day that the Lord has made;

    let us rejoice and be glad in it.

The Switch

I flirted with doing BSF whilst in Vietnam -but the traveling demands were rough, and there was no way for me to commit.


The 2 months lull in Singapore in July/August 2011, was... a bit chaotic, and certainly disruptive. Towards the end, I felt like I lost the discipline of wanting to read God's word, and slipping on the edge of complacency.

Coming to Jakarta, besides trying to find a good church, which I wrote here, one of the 2 things I was to start a read the bible in a year, which in my 20 years of being a follower of Jesus, I never did (ok, I started just before coming to Jakarta, but details details...), and thought to; and the other was to enroll my self in BSF, also to see what it is about, and get me into the discipline of reading the Word of God.

Read the Bible in a Year

The thing I like about this, is that whilst you don't really study the Word of God in depth, you read chunks of the bible at a go. Sometimes, breaking a book into tiny bits to study, you lose the whole flow of what the author is saying. And some books are really, really long.

I do confess that after about 7 or 8 months doing this, I'm kinda behind about 6-7 weeks. I read when I can... hmm, maybe I should be reading when I should - but that's another story... I'll try and catch up next week!

BSF

BSF is interesting. You have daily homework, meet up, and over 40 minutes, go through the answers, gather for a 40 min talk, then you take home notes on that passage to read.
You go over that passage in 4 different ways. It's a great way to get someone to start reading your bible, with a "guide" along the way to help you navigate.

No "format" is perfect. Strangely, I don't think it teachers a person how to read/study the bible; maybe a bit too much ground in a week. And fellowship time is quite limited. 

Being Efficient and Effective?

It's terrible to think of ministry in terms of secular concepts of being efficient and effective - but I'm going to try and think out loud in these terms for a while.

Time is limited. Weeknights with the family/kids are precious. I think committing to something that involves sacrificing that, the limit for me now is probably 1 weeknight.

I've enjoyed being part of the church (All Saints) we go to now. The people are nice, welcoming, I see lots of potential in terms of ministry and fellowship. So the question I ask is, what can I do, be serve the body of Christ at All Saints? One of the things I've stepped up on, is to be part of the "worship" team, in leading/playing the piano. There are a few more things, I'm mulling over, which involves me to be much more involved in serving.

But at the end of the day, it's about fellowships and relationships - not about "activity". (One of my "regrets" in my time in Vietnam is to have lots of Christian activity, but not a lot of deep meaningful relationships).

So one of the things for me to be more "efficient" in my ministry at All Saints, is to build bridges/friendships/relationships. I wasn't building any at BSF (we meet once a week, go through questions, then leave). I've been praying about this for a few weeks, and realize that one way was to be part of the All Saints bible study group/cell group. Time on Sundays are great! But the way we interact is also limited. Studying the word of God, praying for each other, is a way to really get to know people and fellowship with them. It builds a bond, quite different from just meeting and saying "hi" on Sundays.
So I gave it a go last week, and I'm quite pleased to say that I did "like" "Sweddish" method of studying the bible which was used, and just getting to know others on a deeper level.

So I'm making the switch, dropping BSF, and joining an All Saints cell group. It's more "efficient" and "effective" in building relationships in my humble opinion.

Hebrews 10:24-25

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.