Dear Friends,
Now that all of you are in university, I thought it good to write you. Given that our age gap is beginning to matter less and less as our ages increase, let me write as an older brother to my younger siblings. I have a younger brother 2 years my junior and I love him as any older brother would. He picks and listens to my advice, and I have learnt that he listens to those that I practice best. :) Its humbling and I thank God for that.
Let me then share with you what I noticed about many people in university and allow me, if you will to advice one more time. Many in university struggle with identity. They deal with issues like their family background, how rich/poor their families are vis a vis other people, their talents/abilities and also who would love them and who they can love in return. Essentially, many in university struggle with worth and will do many things to try and prove their value - either through achievements or through relationships. You may think this was particularly acute in ACS IB, well, in university it gets worse. University is structured such that you need to decide what your life is actually about and you would have no more mentor or older teacher to structure life for you anymore.
Two friends in university illustrate this. The first chose a life without Christ, the second did. The rest is history. The first chose to live recklessly and today continues to do so. He was upset that his family was not rich and strove to prove himself. he partied, networked and got into many relationships. In this, he lost himself and while today has a decent career, is no longer much of a man to speak of. He has lost the ability to feel, love faithfully and care for people. There is an air of selfishness, insensitive fun-mongering and ruthless ambition. And all I have for this man, is abject pity. The second is a friend who in JC was a pretty ambitious type. God found him i university and his life was quite changed. He served in church and stuck by his friends. To date, he has a wife, a stable job but more importantly,a character to love. In university, the world tells you to accrue achievements and networks. We who know Christ, should instead pursue Christ and in that to have a character to die for.
That is why my heart is concerned about many of you. I am worried that many of you would experiment with relationships or things that would leave scars on your life. I have heard people say that you need to try to know it is wrong, but that is the advice of foolish men. Once tried, scars cannot be erased and such a person must spend the rest of his life living with it. He may find forgiveness in Christ, but scars are left as painful reminders for a lifetime. Wise men learn from other people's mistakes and they refuse to go down roads that foolish men tread.
With my love and concern
Charles Ng
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Thursday, October 06, 2011
Choices we make
There are points of time when the human choice is negated, there are other times in the bible when God seems to allow some degree of autonomy to test the human being and to allow the consequences of his choices to play out. I think of Balaam who was allowed to go curse the people of Israel. Not so much because God wanted it but Balaam wanted it and God let him. Only that Balaam would be surprised by a donkey.
Choices at end of the day are when we face myriad paths, but the path of obedience is just one. We got to, in His grace, make that choice. Sometimes obedience requires suspension of logic because the path of disobedience looks so much more enticing. Like when Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son.
It tells us one important lesson. Obedience always requires trust in the goodness of the Lord. And if we fail to submit, we just show that the person we trust most is our self.
Choices at end of the day are when we face myriad paths, but the path of obedience is just one. We got to, in His grace, make that choice. Sometimes obedience requires suspension of logic because the path of disobedience looks so much more enticing. Like when Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son.
It tells us one important lesson. Obedience always requires trust in the goodness of the Lord. And if we fail to submit, we just show that the person we trust most is our self.
Tuesday, October 04, 2011
I write this post with the encouragement of someone I love very dearly.
As work and the commitments of life increase, the motions of time have subtly eased themselves along. In so much as I have had the opportunity to look back, the once young eyes, now gaze upon 27 years that have passed. Raising a hand to touch the faded photo frame, i pause to consider the emotions once felt at that place. No one told me then, that I would be holding the photo at a later stage, with sentimentality and hands more fragile.
Then I was a young army boy, with quite a fit frame and shortened hair. With a meek smile i sat amongst my church friends and after a snap of the Polaroid, we marched off for our weekly lunch. Wiping the thin layer of dust away, i recognized every person and admittedly, some names were lost to me. Of the 20 that were there, only 4 of us remained in the same church. The rest had moved somewhere else. Some had sadly not been in church for years.
Placing the frame back on the emptied drawer, I closed my eyes to feel. Memories return but the feelings experienced then can only be gently touched, never replicated in full. Yet memories are great teachers, wielded for God's great purpose. I remember the follies of a young age but what I remember most, was that God drew near and touched my young heart, motioning it towards Himself. He found me in the weakness of my heart and gently led this foe to its resting place.
It is in this that I understand why, this afternoon, in the office, a gently tug was felt in my busied soul. I paused, raised my hands and for some time felt the call to enter in. He remembered me and I did willingly succumb.
As work and the commitments of life increase, the motions of time have subtly eased themselves along. In so much as I have had the opportunity to look back, the once young eyes, now gaze upon 27 years that have passed. Raising a hand to touch the faded photo frame, i pause to consider the emotions once felt at that place. No one told me then, that I would be holding the photo at a later stage, with sentimentality and hands more fragile.
Then I was a young army boy, with quite a fit frame and shortened hair. With a meek smile i sat amongst my church friends and after a snap of the Polaroid, we marched off for our weekly lunch. Wiping the thin layer of dust away, i recognized every person and admittedly, some names were lost to me. Of the 20 that were there, only 4 of us remained in the same church. The rest had moved somewhere else. Some had sadly not been in church for years.
Placing the frame back on the emptied drawer, I closed my eyes to feel. Memories return but the feelings experienced then can only be gently touched, never replicated in full. Yet memories are great teachers, wielded for God's great purpose. I remember the follies of a young age but what I remember most, was that God drew near and touched my young heart, motioning it towards Himself. He found me in the weakness of my heart and gently led this foe to its resting place.
It is in this that I understand why, this afternoon, in the office, a gently tug was felt in my busied soul. I paused, raised my hands and for some time felt the call to enter in. He remembered me and I did willingly succumb.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Should all of time paused and I were given the chance to return to any moment before, I would wish to return to the place where my Saviour was hoisted upon the tree. There I would wish to bow and worship in deserved contrition, for love kissed the wretched and offered perfection as a sacrifice.
For the longest time, I knew little about the vulnerabilities of love and lamented the lack of men whom I could model after. Yet the faint but delightful knowledge of Christ, withholding nothing, sharing everything, including his struggles gives me hope. Hope that it is possible for the human being to share his weaknesses with a people who probably would not appreciate it. For in weakness, and especially in its boasting, is Christ demonstrated to be truly awesome.
So come Lord, come and whisper into my weak heart, the song i will be singing for eternity. the songs about your love and forgiveness.
For the longest time, I knew little about the vulnerabilities of love and lamented the lack of men whom I could model after. Yet the faint but delightful knowledge of Christ, withholding nothing, sharing everything, including his struggles gives me hope. Hope that it is possible for the human being to share his weaknesses with a people who probably would not appreciate it. For in weakness, and especially in its boasting, is Christ demonstrated to be truly awesome.
So come Lord, come and whisper into my weak heart, the song i will be singing for eternity. the songs about your love and forgiveness.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Humility
Now O Lord, if you are willing grant me humility, so that You might give me grace and a deeper revelation of Your glory.
Saturday, March 05, 2011
Community
As I begin to consider the past, in particular my friends and all the communities that I have been a part of, I begin to realise that none of them were perfect. I have to state categorically that many of these places like being in ACS and BB in particular were some of the best places to build a community. But Human beings are human beings in the end. I am far from perfect either. The reality is that we live in a charred world and there is no perfect place of belonging.
As age catches up and I am exposed to an unkind world, I begin to see how human relationships are in danger of becoming transactional. Mutual benefit - whether monetary or emotional - characterize friendships, marriages and working relations. The pained truth is that every human being searches for place to belong and yet succumbs to the primal/sinful instinct of gaining leverage over those around him. The world is unfortunately a place where human beings compete for worth and value. Such then is why there is a certain despondency when I consider all of this, because while we are the products of the race, we are also its victims.
Can love then flourish in this place? can it ever become unconditional? I think more and more, that while it can, it demands sacrifice. To be like Christ, one has to be assured of one's worth. One has to have hope in a place where his/her belonging is not on the basis of works but is on the foundations of unconditional grace. You see, I was reading Moses. Moses was a horrible man for the longest time. He murdered, lacked confidence in God. It was so bad that when God appeared in a burning Bush, he looked at himself and had no faith in all that God said. He felt detached from community because of his sins and lacked confidence because of all his inadequacies.
But I thank God that though there is no perfect community on earth, there is a perfect one in heaven. And while our sins may be amassed against us on the Day of power, we can boldly proclaim the blood of Christ. We belong to Christ and that is enough. Like Moses, the grace and power of God will become so apparent that we can daringly ask "Show me your glory (Exo 33:18)". And when God finally shows His person, all the imperfections around us will fade into the dust, and the heralding of all our hearts deepest longings will be fulfilled in the worship that will ensue.
When God finally came before Moses, this is what the bible says "Then the Lord came down and proclaimed His name, the LORD. and he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming,"The LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. yet He does not leave the wicked unpunished..." (34:5-7a)
As age catches up and I am exposed to an unkind world, I begin to see how human relationships are in danger of becoming transactional. Mutual benefit - whether monetary or emotional - characterize friendships, marriages and working relations. The pained truth is that every human being searches for place to belong and yet succumbs to the primal/sinful instinct of gaining leverage over those around him. The world is unfortunately a place where human beings compete for worth and value. Such then is why there is a certain despondency when I consider all of this, because while we are the products of the race, we are also its victims.
Can love then flourish in this place? can it ever become unconditional? I think more and more, that while it can, it demands sacrifice. To be like Christ, one has to be assured of one's worth. One has to have hope in a place where his/her belonging is not on the basis of works but is on the foundations of unconditional grace. You see, I was reading Moses. Moses was a horrible man for the longest time. He murdered, lacked confidence in God. It was so bad that when God appeared in a burning Bush, he looked at himself and had no faith in all that God said. He felt detached from community because of his sins and lacked confidence because of all his inadequacies.
But I thank God that though there is no perfect community on earth, there is a perfect one in heaven. And while our sins may be amassed against us on the Day of power, we can boldly proclaim the blood of Christ. We belong to Christ and that is enough. Like Moses, the grace and power of God will become so apparent that we can daringly ask "Show me your glory (Exo 33:18)". And when God finally shows His person, all the imperfections around us will fade into the dust, and the heralding of all our hearts deepest longings will be fulfilled in the worship that will ensue.
When God finally came before Moses, this is what the bible says "Then the Lord came down and proclaimed His name, the LORD. and he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming,"The LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. yet He does not leave the wicked unpunished..." (34:5-7a)
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
I yearn to touch a morning which will never set, where the whispers of love are no longer drowned out by the noises of everyday life.
And I do think that it is well that our soul yearns for a place which we know can never exist while evil and sin roam amidst us, but if men do not hope, men cannot live.
And I do think that it is well that our soul yearns for a place which we know can never exist while evil and sin roam amidst us, but if men do not hope, men cannot live.
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