Eyes wide open

I’m living in a time that I never imagined would or could happen in my lifetime. For everyone, most constant activities have ground to a halt. Many people live in fear of going outside. Plans are disrupted, priorities like time spent with loved ones and caring for one another come to the fore. Uncertainty rears its head at every corner you turn. It’s distressing, and we long for clarity not only about how the pandemic can end, but also about whether there are things to truly enjoy when all around us there are only dire sighs from strangers stood outside at a distance. This is an ironic time for anyone seeking faith. I have friends who have reclaimed nuggets of their Buddhist or Taoist upbringing in this trying time: reflecting on ways to live a good and flourishing life amidst the suffering by living at peace with others and with the world around us; some reaching out to a hope of reincarnation or a final state of being promised in those teachings. I also know of people who have t...

These are very quick jotted-down thoughts on Ephesians 1 , which convince me of the security of my salvation and help me stand up tall in Christ's merits even on days when I fail, or am tired, or generally just feel unworthy of any right standing before God.  1 /    Trinitarian Aspect Ephesians 1 brings across the beautiful Trinitarian aspect of salvation: ‘the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ ( v.3 ) … When you believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of His glory ( v.14 ).’ This emphasises that salvation was both divinely planned and also entirely divinely executed. God carried out the roles of Judge, Advocate, and Counsel, yet also the Lamb who paid the penalty; it was entirely done by God the Trinity, requiring no...

“Nothing is so well fitted to put the fear of God … into the heart, as an enlightened view of the cross of Christ. There shine spotless holiness, inflexible justice, incomprehensible wisdom, omnipotent power, holy love. None of these excellencies darken or eclipse the other, but every one of them rather gives a lustre to the rest. They mingle their beams, and shine with united eternal splendour: the just Judge, the merciful Father, the wise Governor. Nowhere does justice appear so awful, mercy so amiable, or wisdom so profound.” (John Brown,  Expository Discourses on I Peter,  2 vols. (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1975), 1:472–3, as quoted by Jerry Bridges,  The Joy of Fearing God  at 76) “For the message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”  ( 1 Corinthians 1:18 ) North-South Highway, some way between KL and Ipoh Reading the quoted excerpt...

Preface: Th anks to Dan Strange for delivering a great seminar on Salvation in the Theology Network track of Word Alive 2019! I learnt a lot, and that's reflected in my thoughts on Psalm 18 here. As you read, I pray Psalm 19:14 "May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer." Also note that you'd probably have to read Psalm 18 before reading this piece... [Photograph: Pixabay] It’s rare to kind of confuse characters in a story and actually be quite right about being confused. That’s much the case in parts of the Bible, particularly the Old Testament. Our confusion of the characters is a sign of the incomprehensible wisdom in God’s saving work: passages that were foreshadowing the work of Jesus redeeming us, can often be applied similarly to us who have died to ourselves and are now bound to him, receiving the promises of God through him ( 2 Corinthians 1:20 ).  The common passage u...

[Spoilers ahead] [Photograph: Ian Routledge] For the first half of I Am Mother I was convinced it was just another generic, un-insightful, waste-of-time dystopian thriller that I was just watching for the lol’s after a tiring day out. But it turned out to be one of the more insightful of dystopian movies I've watched (though insightful for all the things that I think it got wrong). The premise was a robot, Mother— who turned out to be a whole conscious being enlivening all the robots in the film—that sought to solve the problem of humanity by killing all human beings and engineering the perfect human being; this perfect human would then become the mother of all humanity, inaugurating a fresh start for human beings. Ultimately Daughter passed this intricate test that Mother set up, excelling even in the difficult final hurdle. The film ended there. It was a fine ending for a short film, because it purported to address such a difficult premise: solving humani...

[Disclaimer: I always hotly oppose people who say Ipoh is a ulu small town. “It’s just spread out,” I always say. That is still true and I stand by it 😤 . But obviously Ipoh is smaller than KL/PJ. And it does have the slow, small-town feel. So I’m calling it a small town here.] Ipoh is such a happening place. Making the local rumour headlines: new kopitiams open, old kopitiams close, older kopitiams stay around unbeaten; mamaks increase price and start making new roti’s; Chatime opens in the newest shopping complex; there’s a new big (actually small) hotel. I'd say we're happening, but in a very small-town way. I grew up in Ipoh and I absolutely adore it. I’ve also been thinking, though, about how doing church in a small town might be different, compared to a big city. Do we bring our sleepy, slow, anything-goes, don’t-need-so-hype-la small town mind and heart to church? Is that how church should be? Not an Areopagus Having experienced bigger cities than Ipoh now...

(A hasty written-in-iPhone-notes thought... so not very in-depth. I’ve decided that my blog shouldn’t just be for more polished posts, but for more raw reflections too!) I have recently binged* Vox videos—the ones on international relations and politics. Particularly from the videos of the weaponisation of the Arctic, China’s colonisation of the South China Sea, and powers in the Middle East, I realised how much of our society is determined by those in positions of power, shaping foreign policy, vested with the power to issue decrees and press buttons that can change the course of history. At the same time I’ve been going through the book of Daniel: so inspiring is his life of faithful, worshipful service within one of the world’s greatest empires in history, the Babylonian Empire. He has many visions looking forward to the coming Messiah, and they are distinctive among the OT prophecies because of their direct contact with political power. (Edinburgh, January 2019) Today I read Da...