In Deep Darkness, A Debtor to Mercy Alone

buoyed between open sea and ocean-floor, aimless limbs flail in empty water. the siren call of an underwater kingdom to slip off and sink further beneath. beyond where dappled sunbeams play on coral pastures in colours too friendly for life; below where the crackling of the unknown silences the crash of crude waves. in deep darkness where there will be neither salty tears nor sweet nothings, the tiresome bubbling of human breath may finally be stilled. and then will come rest: a graveyard of self, a dependence on mercy alone.

Belated Answers for Future Reference

A better reply, about 3 weeks too late, to the question: "Why must I be a Christian now? Why can't I just have fun first and convert on my deathbed?" Yes, it does show insincerity and lack of real understanding of one's situation and of who God is and therefore an absence of love for God - just as one would not say to the person with whom one was besotted:"Why don't we both have fun first and then get married on our death beds." Life would be un-fun without the purported love of one's life (to employ the marriage metaphor so liberally used in the Bible).

But more than that, Scripture demonstrates that one clear aspect of the doctrine of human responsibility-predestination is that as men refuse to love the truth and so be saved, so God also allows them to be deceived by Satan so that they believe what is false and therefore remain condemned (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12). Because they have chosen to rebel, therefore their rebellion is confirmed. The comi-tragedy of King Micaiah in 1 Kings 22 is such an example. (Of course the another aspect of the predestination bit is what the absolute sovereignty of God entails - that nothing is outside his control or cognisance.)

And the answer to fuel for the workhorse: during the last few months of overnighters, we started to compile a list of places along the North-East MRT Line to load up on half-decent grub (for that time of the day/night) before heading to/returning to work (only to find that the lawyers have gone out for a bit of stress relief at the pub).

HarbourFront MRT


Shilin Taiwan Street Snacks, HarbourFront


Soup Spoon, Vivocity


Brotzeit, Vivocity


Queen & Mangosteen, Vivocity. Dinner and dessert with Resorts World Sentosa as backdrop.


Awfully Chocolate, Vivocity. Chocolate ice-cream, warmed chocolate stack, sad chocolate truffle.


Gong Cha, Vivocity. Revival of the bubble tea craze.

Chinatown MRT



People's Park Food Centre. Frog leg porridge, pork rib noodles, wo tie etc.

Mei Heong Yuan Desserts

Clarke Quay MRT


Ramen Santouka. Pork cheeks, window seats overlooking the Singapore River and Clarke Quay.


Azabu Sabo hokkaido ice-cream.


Song Fa Bak Kut Teh



Room With A View, Carpenter Street. Ham and cheese panini with chutney. Auntie's carrot cake. Scones with good jam and real clotted cream.

Little India MRT




Mirabelle Patissier, 27 Mackenzie Road, for morning calorie boost.



The Ramen Stall, 6 Short Street.


Sing Ho Hainanese Chicken Rice, 266 Middle Road. Quite fowl/foul.


Rocher Original Beancurd and bro.

New Hawa Restaurant

Christian Tourism, Malaysia

"And they went home rejoicing" (iphone 3GS + Swankolab)

Another roadtrip, another road disappearing into the horizon. This could have been anywhere. But as it was, this was the North-South highway. We were legging it back to Singapore with a huge crack in the windscreen, having spent the night talking with an adrenaline-pumped pastor/evangelist/dreamer of godly dreams/gospel strategist. It had been 6am when we finally shuffled off to bed, ideas and plans still swirling and thankful to God for the opportunity to see His work.

The same cultural inefficiency that made it difficult to set any plan in progress also made it easy for the work to continue without raising issues of conscience. The bumi policies meant tighter minority groups within which the fires of good news could spread fast. The frustrating jams on the Federal Highway made it necessary to think carefully about the placement of growth groups and churches and vicarages.

Downloads of Memoirs of An Ordinary Pastor: The Life and Reflections of Tom Carson (free pdf), Letters Along the Way (free pdf) and D.A. Carson's For the Love of God (free pdf) on the iphone on the way to work have made for fantastic starts to workday mornings - how gloriously humbling to be reminded of where we stand in the vast sweep of God's work in human history, how encouraging to be running the race with people of every nation/race/colour/era, and how seriously we are duly warned of the gobsmacking sinfulness of God's own people, who returned again and again to their own vomit.

So it was brilliant to speak with so many new Christians at Christ Evangelical Reformed Church (CERC) delighting in their first taste of good solid bible food and to hear how their delight overflowed in their lives in evangelism and gospel service in translating Two Ways to Live into the Chinese vernacular, speaking at CFs in private schools, training and preparing for Whitewater Summer Camp and various Gospel Growth Fellowship ministries. And there was much muttered thanks that God gave to some the gifts of both strategy and courageous faith so they would be able to put a finger to the pulse of local culture and be cognisant cross-cultural difficulties in assessing godliness, boldly start nationwide initiatives, identify congregational crown jewels, think not just exegetically but theologically and doctrinally, and say, stabbing a dirty fork for emphasis, "You Singaporeans really need to get your shit together".

But history and the Scriptures tell us what often happens to the well-laid plans of mice and men, and how sin often stumbles the runner. Perhaps our prayers for them should be less about a good harvest (though surely, one desires and must ask for that, yet at the same time, the harvest is the Lord's and the crop will grow in his perfect timing, according to his will), and more about the godliness and perseverance of all involved, that at the end, God our Father may say to them,"Well done, good and faithful servant."

Extremely tasty dark hokkien mee with pork lard bits

Entering The Promised Land - The Partial Kingdom

In the repurposed utility room at the back of the house, past the hanging brooms and cleaning equipment and empty planters, there is a pastor preparing his Sunday sermon. In the living room, someone is working on church accounts and someone else has laid out bedsheets over some old sofa cushions and fallen asleep. The children are watching a group of Sunday school teachers prepare the craft while making up songs about the Ten Commandments. A 2 minute walk away, music practice is going on in a shophouse lot in Bandar Sunway that CERC is rapidly outgrowing.

It seems that God is working as he worked in those wonderful times of old, calling people to himself.

How did the Israelites end up in Egypt?
- Jacob and family needed to escape the famine in Canaan (Genesis 45-46)
- God's will: wanted to preserve a remnant through Joseph (Genesis 45:7), instructed Jacob to go and promised that that would be where he would fulfil the people promise to Abraham ("great nation").

Was this a good or bad thing?"
Good - preserved the Israelites through the severe famine, Israelites could be fruitful and multiply (Exodus 1:7)

Bad - because there were too many people and because this was not their land, the Pharaoh felt threatened and oppressed them and also carried out an official infanticide progom (Exodus 1:8-22)

How did this threaten the people promise?

What did Moses attempt to do for his people? How successful was this?
Exodus 2:11-15

How different was this from what God wanted to do for his people?
Exodus 2:23-25ff

What do we know about God so far from our study of Genesis?

How does God identify himself? How does God's name encapsulate what we know about God so far?
Exodus 3:6 - I am the God of your fathers
Exodus 3:14 - I AM WHO I AM
a God who will be known by his actions

...but not only that but we will come to know God by paying close attention to what he does in the future.

What does God promise to do?
Exodus 3:7-10 - I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

Exodus 3:17-20 - I promise that I will bring you out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.

I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it

I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians

Exodus 4:11-12 - I will be with your mouth and teach you shall speak

Did Moses believe him?
No
Exodus 3:13
Exodus 4:1
Exodus 4:10
Exodus 4:13

What sign did God give Moses that the promises would be fulfilled?
The confirmation comes after obedience.

Did Pharaoh believe God?
Exodus 5:2

Why not?
Exodus 7:13 - Pharaoh's heart was hardened
Exodus 7:14 - Pharaoh's heart was hardened
Exodus 8:15 - he hardened his heart
Exodus 8:19 - Pharaoh's heart was hardened
Exodus 8:32 - Pharaoh hardened his heart
Exodus 9:7 - heart was hardened
Exodus 9:12 - LORD hardened heart of Pharaoh
Exodus 9:35 - heart was hardened

What was the point of the ten plagues?
Exodus 6:1-8
Exodus 7:16-18
Exodus 10:1-2

What do Israelites need to do to be saved?
have faith in God's word in Moses that the firstborn of all would indeed be killed and demonstrate their trust by doing what God instructed would save them from the tenth plague

Why are they also affected by the killing of the firstborn?
They were as sinful as the Egyptians because they too rejected God as God. This taught them that a sacrifice was needed to pay for their sins.

What does the institution of the memorial of an event before that event actually occurs demonstrate about God? (Exodus 12:14-27)

Why does God allow the Egyptians to pursue the Israelites?
Exodus 14:17-18 - "And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen."

Exodus 14:30-31 - "Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great power that the LORD used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in his servant Moses."

Where did God bring the people after their rescue from Egypt? Why the pitstop?
- it was the sign that he was trustworthy (cf Exodus 3:12)
- escape was not the main aim, relationship with God (= blessing) was
- the law did not give them a way of being right with God but taught them how to live in relationship with the God who had saved them for this purpose (God's rule promise)

How were the people right in their response?
Exodus 20:18-20 - "Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses,"You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die." Moses said to the people, "Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin."

Exodus 24:3 - "Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said,"All the words that the LORD has spoken we will do.""

What was the point of all the instructions on interior decoration and blood splattering?
- seeming fulfilment of the God's rule promise (Exodus 29:42-46). Great comfort and assurance to have God himself with the people!
- implies that despite prior positive response, people will still continue to sin and have to make atonement for sin

How soon do the people demonstrate their need for atonement by blood?
Exodus 32. They are really no better than the Pharaoh, and much whinier.

What surprising thing does God do?
Exodus 34

What was the role of the tabernacle?
God's presence with the people

What was the role of purification rites?
Demonstrate that God was holy and need to be clean to meet God (Exodus 40).

Why was Leviticus so important (and not a boring old book to be skipped on the way to Numbers)?
Detailed instructions how to live under God (relationship rules) and to make things right with God when they inevitably sinned. Atonement, holiness.
Blessing for obedience, terrible curses for disobedience (Leviticus 26).

How is God upping the stakes in being able to fulfil his promises?
Israelites' short track record not terribly good.

How long were the Israelites at Mount Sinai before they set off?
Numbers 10:11

How long did it take for them to distrust God again?
Numbers 11:1-9
Numbers 12

What effect did this have on being able to receive the land that was promised to them?
Numbers 13:1 - so close!

How do the people, even at this juncture, manage to shut themselves out from the land?
Numbers 14:1ff

How else could God have fulfilled his promises?
Numbers 14:11ff

Why does God make the concession he makes in Numbers 14:20-25?

What demonstrates that the people haven't truly repented?
Numbers 14:39-45 Did not trust God's word!

How was even the method by which the people could make atonement for their sin jeopardised?
Numbers 16

What hope was there in all the law-giving that the younger generation would inherit the land as promised?
Numbers 33:50-35

In Deuteronomy, Israel is again on the brink of entering the promised land after wandering in the desert for 40 years. How does Moses warn the people?
Deuteronomy 7:6
Deuteronomy 10:12-13
Deuteronomy 28:15
Deuteronomy 28:63-64

Was the promise of land fulfilled?
Joshua 21:43-45

What the repeated warning? Why is it given?
Joshua 23:12-13

What have we learnt about God through his actions since that is how we are to know him?

What have we learnt about man?

Having this in mind, what is the outlook for the Israelite's continued enjoyment of the land and God's blessings?

Return Ticket on a Runaway Train (John 20)

Right way on a one way track. Tanjong Pagar Railway Station.

The penultimate study in the "Just Looking" series on the Gospel of John.

John 20
Q: What event occurs in this chapter?
Jesus is raised from the dead.

Q: From last study, we know that Jesus really died. How do we know he really rose from the dead?
Tomb emptied under unusual circumstances - in itself sufficient for belief (John 20:8)
Appearances to eyewitnesses
Not a ghost but solid flesh still bearing marks of crucifixion. (And certainly not a metaphysical, metaphorical, "Jesus lives on in our hearts" resurrection.)

Q: Resurrection was not a cool party trick, nor a shock and awe tactic to gain friends and influence people. Why does Jesus have to rise again from the dead? (John 20:9)
Because Scripture had spoken hundreds and thousands of years ago about a promised king who would rule forever and also that God's suffering servant would rise from the dead. Therefore, if Jesus was these promised people rolled into one, he needed to do so.
[Because it was not possible for Jesus to be held by death since he was sinless and therefore did not deserve the judgement of death.]
Isaiah 9:6-7 as well as the numerous times God tells David that he will establish his throne forever.
Psalm 16 (cited Acts 2:25-31, Acts 13:35)
Isaiah 53:10ff.

Q: What message does Jesus tell Mary Magdalene to convey to the disciples?
'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' (John 20:17)

Q: Why is it important for them to know that Jesus is ascending to God?
Q: What has Jesus told them previously about his coming to earth and returning to the Father?
John 3:13-16 - "No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

John 13:3 - "Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God..."

John 16:28 - "I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father."

John 17:4-5 - "I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed."

Q: What does Jesus' ascension demonstrate about him?
What he says came true - he is not a false prophet. And so what he says about the condition of men, about himself being the only way to be saved, about how his death pays for sins, about his divinity (being equal to the Father) is all true. Jesus' work on earth was done and he would now be glorified.

Q: What does Jesus' ascension tell us about the Father?
That God really loved the world. Jesus' death was the accomplishment of his eternal plan to rescue his people.

Q: What does Jesus' ascension mean for his disciples and the world?
That all who believe in him will have eternal life.

What word does he use to describe his disciples?
brothers

Q:Why does Jesus call them "brothers"?
Q: If brothers, who is their Father?
"my God and your God, my Father and your Father". Not only is there merely salvation from judgement to eternal life, there is also intimate relationship with God! Mindblowing bonus! See John 14, John 16:25-27.

[Q: What is the significance of Jesus' greeting?]

Q: When Jesus appears, what does he give the disciples (John 20:21-23)?
Sending out - commission, Holy Spirit

Q: Jesus promised the Spirit several times while he was alive. Why would the disciples need the Spirit?
To be reborn, to not be condemned, to enter into the Kingdom of God (John 3).
John 14:26 - "the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you."

John 16:13-14 - "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you."

Q: How will the disciples be able to carry out their commission?
Q: What exactly were they sent out to do?

Q: Why do we now, more than two millenia later, not need to see Jesus' physically resurrected body or his miracles to believe?
John 20:28-31

Q: How do we know that John the disciple's testimony is true?
Because it is Spirit-aided.

Q: Why do you not believe these words of eternal life?

Where else have we to go
We have come to see,
To know and understand
Things the very angels long to see.
God, who owed us nothing,
Has spoken to us all.
Christ the word of God himself has been.

Chorus
Where else have we to go,
When you alone have words of eternal life?
Where else have we to go,
When you alone have words of eternal life?

2. Words of truth passed down
To those entrusted few
Who witnessed and proclaimed him,
‘Christ the Lord’.
We are their descendants
On us the light has dawned,
Standing in the gospel we first heard.

3. Come all you who labour,
You who are weighed down,
You who thirst and hunger for the right
There is truth and meaning,
Mercy, rest and hope.
True salvation comes through Jesus Christ.

Words and Music: ©1998 Nicky Chiswell

Just Looking Studies
Just Looking Study 1 (John 20:30-31, John 1:1-18)
Just Looking Study 2 (John 3:1-21)
Just Looking Study 3 (John 4:1-30) - from-a-Christian-family version
Just Looking Study 4 (John 5:1-29)
Just Looking Study 5 (John 11:1-57)
Just Looking Study 6 (John 18:28-19:16a)
Just Looking Study 7 (John 19:16b-42)
Just Looking Study 8 (John 20)