Merry Christmas and this is what Christmas is about....

Image via WikipediaIt is heart warming to read this on the morning of Christmas Day.

The headline : More volunteers helping out in charities this year 


More Singapreans are coming forward to give their time to help others. Charities across the island are seeing more volunteers helping to organise Christmas celebrations........


........Daryl Kang, team leader, said: "I find this event kind of meaningful. We actually help out needy families from Sunlove homes, and also we believe that the people who (let us) wash their cars ... are happy.".....


Read the entire report HERE.


Let's hope that the true spirit and message of Christmas is communicated to the young. I.E. the message of Peace, Hope and Love. Not shopping and partying.....


Just like Christ came to save and serve the needy and marginalised, may we also learn to serve those who are in need among us.


Merry Christmas!

Beautiful Churches

It has been a while since I updated this blogs...sorry. I'll be back soon.

In the meantime, here are some pictures of beautiful churches....

It's Good Friday

Image via Wikipedia

It's Good Friday and Christians flocked to churches to mark the day they believe Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross and died.

The Catholics churches was stripped of all decorations and no music - on a day meant for prayer, fasting and abstinence.

There will be a celebration three days later on Easter Sunday, Christ is resurrected.

Archbishop asks Catholics to give to those in need

Image by badjonni via Flickr

"The Church gives us this period during Lent to encourage every Catholic to take time to reflect on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Archbishop Chia advised. “We are called to focus on charitable deeds to help us draw closer to God and our neighbours. It is therefore important that we set aside time for prayer and spiritual reflection through the use of the Lenten booklet,” he said. “We should re-examine our ‘treasures’ in life since these determine the priorities and attitudes of our heart.”

Jesus is concerned that we build treasures that do not decrease in value and that Jesus connected giving to the poor with laying up treasure in heaven. “He Himself cared for those in need by feeding the hungry,”

In reading the above from the Bishop's message and the various readings in the past week, there is a questions that keeps popping up - are you truely converted in your heart?

A true Christian is one that is converted in their hearts....to one that is full of love. Not one that preaches hatred and anti this or that.

I have seen many so called Christians that are a shame to our faith. Are you one one of them?

Or are you one who truly live a life of what the Bible preach i.e. to love your neighbour? Do you care for those who are in need?

What is Christmas?

Image by Rio Calle via FlickrIt is that time of the year again when we are all busy preparing to celebrate Christmas. What really is Christmas to you?

In today’s world, Christmas has become very much a public holiday, a time to get away, a time to party and a time to splurge on oneself after a year of hard work.

This is what the Archbishop Chia called “consumerism” mindset. The true meaning behind Christmas is lost even to us Christians.

Christmas is about celebrating the birth of Christ and to bring the good news to our neighbour. The good news about our salvation and love of God with the coming of Jesus Christ our Lord.

As the Archbishop said: “There is no Christmas without Christ and so Christ must be the center of our celebrations. This means that our celebration of Christmas must be a celebration of love: “God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son.”

And he continued to said: “let us prepare to celebrate Christmas in the proper way. Make Christ the center of our celebration. Share Him with others by reaching out in love especially to those in need. In doing this, Christmas will truly be CHRIST-mas for us.”

So as Christians, are we ready to go and reach out to our neighbours and share Christ with them? And if you are looking for excuses such as I don’t know how, here is an article that will give you some ideas….click here to read.

Which is the greatest commandment of God?

Image via WikipediaThis is the 30th Sunday in Ordinary time and this week’s reading is as follows:
[Exodus 22: 20-26] [1 Thessalonians 1:5 -10] [Matthew 22:34-40]

This week’s reading is perhaps what we have been dealing with recently in this blog. Jesus replied to the Pharisees when they asked him “Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?” (Mt 22:36).

As we know by now, Jesus replied that the greatest commandment is to love God and the second to love our neighbour.

“On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets too.” (Mt 22:40). Why did Jesus said they these 2 are the most important?

Because there is no real love for God without the neighbour! As in Mt25:

40 And the King will answer, "In truth I tell you, in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me."

45 Then he will answer, "In truth I tell you, in so far as you neglected to do this to one of the least of these, you neglected to do it to me."

So what better way to show (and proved) one’s love for God by loving one’s neighbour?

This is perhaps the biggest challenge that Jesus has thrown to us. To be His true disciple, we need to listen and act on His words.

Loving God is easy as He is perfect. Most of the time, we associate that with professing and singing praises and worship. While that is good but many do it as a form of lip service only. There is no real love from the heart. Did I love my neighbour like like myself? It will be much harder to love one's neighbour wholeheartedly. But it is possible if we are truly converted in our hearts.

Let’s pray that we will start loving each other like ourselves so that this world will become a better place for all of us.

"Whoever fails to love does not know God, because God is love." (1Jn 4:8)

The wedding dinner continues.....

Image via WikipediaThis is a continuation from my previous post. This is my personal reflection of this week's readings.

This week, we learned that God is inviting everyone to his Kingdom and yet many turn him down because of other priorities – in general, too busy. Sounds familiar?

Jesus as we know from the Bible often shocked the self-righteous of his day because "he welcomed sinners and ate with them". Yet, these are the ones who refused the invitations as they do not want to be part of Jesus who welcomed tax collectors and sinners.

They even seized the servants send to invite them, maltreated them and killed them and proved themselves to be unworthy.

So these servants were ordered to go out onto the roads and invite “everyone they could find, bad and good alike and the wedding hall was filled with guests”.

But one guest who was without a wedding garment the King asked him why but he kept silent. The King ordered : "Bind him hand and foot and throw him into the darkness outside, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth."

As Fr Gerard Weerakoon (from The Church Of The Holy Spirit) explained, the wedding garment was the garment of love.

”For many are invited but not all are chosen” (MT22:14) - Are you the chosen one?

I cannot help but think of testingblog (for those who do not know, you can refer to the post about anti-Christ and some comments he made here) and his version of Christianity through his words and actions.

One may become a Christians and yet, if one does not live a Christian life as Jesus taught us (to love God and to love our neighbour), one can still be thrown out of the Kingdom of Heaven. It is good to refer also to MT 25:31-46 about the last judgement where Jesus clearly tell us that love and charity is the key to Heaven.

We become Christians because we have accepted God's invitation and our search for love and happiness is the search for God!

God is LOVE!

Image by freestone via FlickrThe action of anti-Christ was a real shame and leaving some non-Christians friends having the wrong impression that Christianity is evil. However, the truth is - God is Love (Jn 4:16). Christianity is about faith, hope and love and nothing is greater than love. I will tell you why.

This is what the often quoted John 3:16 said : “For this is how God loved the world: he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

So who did Jesus die on the Cross for?

Even the blind knows that Jesus died on the Cross for the entire human race “as for God loved the world” – not Christians only but everybody including people from ALL other faith.

Did God create only Christians? Of course NOT….ALL human are created by God and ALL human regardless of race and religions are God’s creation and God’s children.

Most of us are converts and if God is kind only to Christians, there will be no conversions since we are non-Christians first (and God hate us first). The truth is exactly opposite as it was God who love us first – not hate.

As I mentioned many times, Jesus said (in MT 22:37-40): 'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets too.'

So again, Jesus NEVER teaches us to treat others differently but to love. And throughout the gospel, Jesus is telling us how much God love us and why we must be obedient to God and follow His teachings I.E. to love one another as how I love you.

At Novena services, we see how people from all walks of life come to pray and how God answer their prayers through the petitions of our Blessed Mother. It was God’s grace that people (regardless of faith) have their prayers answered . It was such grace by God that many (non-Christians) was converted because they know and felt the love of God. This is undeniable fact from the amount of thanks giving letters and many more petitions received.

Therefore, any claims that Christians are different from others will NEVER stand. 1Jn 4:8 says "Whoever fails to love does not know God, because God is love."

To put God in a bad light by claiming that it was God’s idea to treat people without love (such as cursing, swearing, wild allegations and treat people of other faith differently) can only be work of Satan and his disciples.

Anti-Christ is alive and lurking around us.

True Disciple Of Christ

Image via Wikipedia If you believe in Christ, you would want to be His true disciple. So, what make one a true disciple of Christ?

Certainly not with vulgarities, curses and swearing.....That's the teaching of DEVIL!

I am sure all will agree that to be a true disciple of Christ, we need to listen and follow his words and teachings.

So what does Jesus teaches and tells us to do?

In MT 22:34-40, Jesus clearly sum up the commandments for us into 2. That is to love God and to love our neighbour. And St Paul further reinforce that teaching telling us that every commandment is about love RM 12:9

And love is about giving - not receiving. Like Jesus said, He is here to serve and not to be served. He also called on His disciples to do the same – to serve. Are you willing to that?

In MT 7:21-27 , Jesus also warned us that not all who call “Lord…Lord…” will enter into Heaven. It is not lips service that He wants. He said a true disciple are those who hear the words and act on it. Not those who hear but do nothing.

Our words amount to nothing if we do not live by them or if we do not follow God’s will in our daily living. It is easy to profess what we believe in, yet our actions are not always in line with our profession. It is not the professing that God wants but we are called to remain devoted and faithful to God’s Word in our lives.

The Last Judgment account in MT 25 reminds us that it is our actual deeds of love that matter, not mere words. Through our deeds, then we are a light to the world and messengers of Christ. We may not know that the people we know may be looking at us for some guidance or direction as they know that we are Christians.

Again, in The Last Judgement, Jesus clearly tells us that the entire human race will be grouped into Sheep and Goats. So who qualify for Sheep? Sorry it is NOT ALL Christians (who profess their faith) BUT anyone who has done actual deeds of love and all His TRUE disciple will qualify. Roman 2:13 says “For the ones that God will justify are not those who have heard the Law but those who have kept the Law.”

So not ALL Christians will be saved but only those with faith and deeds (true disciples of Christ).

So, are you a true disciple of Christ?

Should all Christian tithe ?

I came across this interesting forum where the discussion on "Should Christians tithe?" was thoroughly discussed.

There are many quotes, misquotes and quoting out of context from the bible.

In the end, the truth prevail and all mis-quoting and quoting out of context was explained and exposed. More importantly, they are debunk using the bible.

I strongly encourage all to read through all the posts (I know it is very long - 9 pages at this time of my posting) but you will learn a great deal.

Find out the truth about tithing HERE.

If you believed that you must tithe or you are in sin, you must read this thread.

God Bless All Of You!

What Is Christianity ?

Image via WikipediaThere are lots of discussions on the forums on Christianity....more accurately, which is the true Christianity.

Well, lots of arguments out there and many Bible verses quoted. For people who do read such arguments, take note when bible verses are quoted and then proven that they are mis-quoted by someone else....it almost always happened that people who quote them are from particular denomination.

Why are there so many denomination in the first place?

Christianity is about believing in God and his son Jesus Christ. In particular, that God send his only son to save the world. Jesus was born a man and lived like one of us and among us.

If you truly wants to know what is Christianity, I think we should turn to Jesus Christ for answer.

For that, I suggest that one focus on the 4 gospel in the New Testament namely : Mathew, Mark, John and Luke.

In these 4 books, you get to learn what Jesus is teaching us.

You will realised that Christianity is all above faith, hope and love.....