plenty to do church!

I woke this morning to crying. we live in Bishan – a nice estate; but tears and brokenness are everywhere… this little boy cries often. i can hear a frustrated mother; and a very dismayed child and the words in Mandarin “I don’ want, I don’t want…” What an awful way to start the day. I lift up prayers for the family and stand at my window to trace the sound….hoping to locate where it comes from…

We live in world in pain. Romans tells us all creation groans. Even the mess we see – from crime to abhorrent acts – are like cries for help – cries for salvation. We the church know the way of salvation; for we know the Saviour.

Singapore is doing well; but she needs the Saviour. Indeed there are many pockets that may have gone largely untouched by us –

destitute elderly, delienquent and disenchanted youths, gays and lesbians, dysfunctional families, foreign workers…

This does not mean we necessarily need to organise and spend huge sums of money; indeed I applaud those individuals and families who live with a sense of mission and reach out to these needs in a sincere and gracious fashion. At last count, we have nearly fifteen percent of the population who claim to be Christian/Catholic. If everyone one and every home lived with a sense of mission to change the world; could we not reach some more?

Some of these needs require very specialised effort. So we do need organised, well planned efforts. Our churches are filled with well-educated, well-traveled, well-trained people (and in many churches, well-paid too). Surely we can get our act together to seriously address some of these needs?

There is plenty to do.

Yet God is not seeking do-ers in the end. Remember He wants our obedience and not our sacrifice? God is seeking those who will truly worship and love Him. He will transform us into the do-ers He needs for his world.

I confess that we are in this place – of learning to obey. But O how I long to make a difference in our world! How I want to be able to figure out where the crying in my neighbourhood is coming from so I can perhaps connect and get to know what needs lie behind all those tears….

So I daily learn to obey; and I daily ready myself for action.

“Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the eivl desires you had …(but) be holy…” 1 Peter 1v13f

So help us God.