Francis Collis-The Language of God

"The Language of God: Intellectual Reflections of a Christian Geneticist"
February 4, 2008, at The University of California, Berkeley

Presentation by Dr. Francis Collins, head of the Human Genome Project and director of the National Human Genome Research Institute. Dr. Collins presents a case for harmony between faith in science and faith in God. He also shares about his personal intellectual and spiritual journey from agnosticism, to atheism, and to Christianity.

Followed by an interview conducted by Jasper Rine, Howard Hughes Professor and Professor of Genetics, Genomics and Development at UC Berkeley.

Followed by audience Q&A.

The Gospel Conversation

THE GLOBAL CONVERSATION Whole Gospel, Whole Church, Whole World We must believe, live, and communicate all that makes the Christian message staggeringly comprehensive good news. By Christopher J.H. Wright

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Spiritual Direction Videos

Here are some links to short videos about spiritual direction from Spiritual Directors International.

Launched October 2009

To learn from The Rev. Mary Earle, Episcopal, Texas

To learn from Joseph Tetlow, SJ, Roman Catholic, Texas

Launched September 2009

To learn from the video of Rabbi Ted Falcon, Jewish, Washington

Launched August 2009

To learn from video of Kristen Hobby, Uniting Church of Australia, Melbourne, Australia.

To learn from video of Therese Taylor-Stinson, Presbyterian, Washington, DC area

To learn from video of Pegge Bernecker, How to find a spiritual director, step-by-step

Launched July 15

To learn from video of Jamal Rahman, Sufi Muslim, Washington

To learn from video of Janet Ruffing, RSM, Roman Catholic, New York

Launched July 1, 2009

To learn from Ron Rolheiser, OMI, Roman Catholic, Texas

To learn from Mary Ann Scofield, RSM, Roman Catholic, California

Blogging is Bad for You?

October 7, 2009

Blog ... The Devil Wants You To

Why the uber-bloggers encourage fasting from their task

by Drew Dyck

For one of the first Catalyst lab sessions, three of the top Christian bloggers took the stage to talk shop: Ann Jackson (www.FlowerDust.net), Carlos Whittaker (www.RagamuffinSoul.com), and Jon Acuff (www.StuffChristiansLike.net)

So what wisdom did these titans of the blogosphere impart?

Stay away from blogging.

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Reformed Perspectives Magazine Volume 11, Number 41

Reformed Perspectives Magazine Volume 11, Number 41 (October 11 to October 17, 2009), is now available. The following articles are featured in this issue:

The Doctrine of the Word of God
What is the Word of God?
By: John M. Frame
Webpage PDF Word

God's Foreknowledge
An Article
By: Loraine Boettner
Webpage PDF Word

Befriending the Soul to Live the Good Life, Part I
An Article
By: Mark A. Pinson
Webpage PDF Word

A Basket of Fragments, Part VI
An Article
By: Robert Murray M'Cheyne
Webpage PDF Word

The Ten Commandments, Part I
Sermons from the Heidelberg Catechism
By: G. Van Reenen
Webpage PDF Word

Freedom of the Will, Part XXI
An Article
By: Jonathan Edwards
Webpage PDF Word

A Retirement and Appreciation Service

Reverend Nicholas Yeo Tai Peng

On My Pastor's Retirement
Johor's Longest Serving Pastor Retires New Straits Times (Malaysia)

Pictures taken by Li Yeo & Chng Wee Lee.

My Top 5 Books on the Emerging Movement

Christianity Today, October, 2009

My Top 5 Books on the Emerging Movement

Scot McKnight, Professor of Religious Studies, North Park University | posted 10/06/2009 10:11AM

The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier By Tony Jones This intelligent and informative book is the only insider story from one of the leading lights of the more progressive wing of the emerging movement, the former national coordinator of Emergent Village.

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The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for New Generations By Dan Kimball Kimball, who gets credit for first using emerging in a book title to describe the movement, articulates the nitty-gritty of what goes on among these Christians, and does so from an evangelical basis.

* * *

Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures By Eddie Gibbs and Ryan K. Bolger A richly documented survey of what emergent churches believe and practice, this book sketches emerging congregations around the globe.

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Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church: Understanding a Movement and Its Implications By D. A. Carson Carson offers the first thorough critique of the movement; he demonstrates where some have wandered from biblical revelation and focuses on the postmodern threat to the biblical concept of truth.

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Why We're Not Emergent: (By Two Guys Who Should Be) By Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck This hard-hitting analysis of the liberal tendencies of some in the emerging movement is theologically informed, biblically alert, and pastorally concerned

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A Good Day for Books

Recently I was feeling a bit weary and indulging in a bit of self-pity about not being appreciated. Suddenly, all on the same day and out of the blue, I receive...

these two books from a dear fellow spiritual pilgrim who is journeying with me




and from the mail, arrived a book from someone whom I do not know but who is interested in spiritual formation. She came to know me from my blog and website. I think we are going to be good friends.



and this is also from another friend who came to know me from my blog and website. We have corresponded and, gracious me, she sent me a gift card which arrived today.



and the final surprise, MPH Bookstores sent me a voucher for a certain sum based on what I have spent at their stores from Jan-July 2009 and the amount is enough to pay for these two books!




What a good day for books.

Spirituality and Culture

Sister Joan D. Chittister, a Benedictine nun, discusses how culture changes and the implications those changes have for contemporary spirituality. She focuses on the stages of revitalization, global definitions of the seven capital sins, and American society as it moves into the 21st century.

Learning for Transformed Living

SFI Seminar 2009/2

Learning for Transformed Living

Learning strategies for disciples of Christ, and relevant approaches for those who teach them.

Speaker: Dr Allan Harkness

Date : 2.00pm- 9.30pm, Saturday 3 October 2009

Place : Berea, Holy Light Church English (HLCE)

Synopsis of Seminar

1. Learning that transforms: the nature, features and ecology of life-long and life-wide learning to be a disciple of Christ; and strategies to enhance that learning.

2. Teaching for transformation: principles and strategies for those who encourage others to be effective disciples of Christ, whatever age they are.

3. The Bible and prayer as transforming agents.

Speaker

Dr Allan Harkness, from New Zealand, has lived in Singapore for some years. A member of OMF International, he is currently heading up AGST Alliance, a SE Asian regional post-graduate theological study venture. Allan has a passion to see God's people of all ages formed and equipped together for effective service through the creative expressions of the Christian disciplines and through informed educational strategies which enable life-long and life-wide learning.

The 100 Best Business Books

Apparently 11,000 business books are published in the United States every year. These books pile together will stand as tall as a nine-story building. So what do busy executives do? Read a condensed 'Reader's Digest' version of these books. What do really very busy executives do? Read the abstract of these condensed books. And what do a busybody like me do? Read a book of abstract of 100 best business books of all time.

This 2009 book offers the best summaries of many of the business books I have read. Hey, don't ask me why I read business books. I am just a ignorant provincial doctor in a small town. It also make accessible to me, many of the business books I have wished I have read.

check out their website to download an extra chapter not found in this book.
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Human Character Under Fire

Courage Under Fire is a 1996 film directed by Edward Zwick, and starring Denzel Washington, Meg Ryan, Lou Diamond Phillips and Matt Damon. It is one of the first films to depict the 1991 Gulf War. The film uses the same cinematic concept as the 1950 Japanese film Rashōmon, wherein the truth of an event becomes difficult to verify due to the conflicting accounts of different witnesses.

Synopsis of the movie plot is (spoiler)

Lieutenant Colonel Nathaniel Serling (Denzel Washington) was involved in a friendly fire incident in Al Bathra during the Gulf War. He was an M1 Abrams tank battalion commander who, during the nighttime confusion of Iraqi tanks infiltrating his unit's lines, gave the order to fire, destroying one of his own tanks and killing his friend Captain Boylar. The details were covered up (Boylar's parents are told that their son was killed by enemy fire), and Serling was reassigned to a desk job.

Later, he is assigned to determine if Captain Karen Emma Walden (Meg Ryan) should be the first woman to receive (posthumously) the Medal of Honor for valor in combat in the First Gulf War. A Medevac Huey commander, she was sent to rescue the crew of a helicopter that had been shot down. Finding them under heavy fire from an Iraqi tank and infantry, she had her men drop a fuel bladder on the tank and ignited it with a flare gun. Shortly after, her helicopter was also hit and downed. The two crews were unable to join forces. The survivors were rescued the next day, but Walden had been killed in action. More here

Aside from a very thoughtful 'what really happened' movie, it is also a movie about forgiveness. Is there a crime you can commit that is so hideous that you cannot forgive yourself? That what Lt. Colonel Nathan (played excellently by Denzel Washington) thought he did when he accidentally blew up his best friend's tank in the heat of battle. It was classified as 'friendly' fire when there is nothing even remotely friendly about it. On reassignment back to the States, Nathan is haunted by dreams, driven to drinks and neglecting those he loves. Investigating Captain Karen Walden proved to be a cathesis for him. It is surprising to see Meg Ryan in this role. One always associate Meg Ryan in a romance, superbly attired with not a hair out of place. Seeing her dirtied in combat fatigue is as surprising as seeing Roger Moore in a German Colonel's uniform in Escape from Athena (1979).

In his investigation of Captain Walden's death in a combat situation, he comes to know of the evil in the hearts of men and the subsequent consequences of these men - hardened or guilt ridden and driven to drugs, severe emotional suffering and even suicide. In doing so he is forced to face his own demons of self-guilt. Although all actions have consequences, Nathan learns that he has a choice in how he deals with these consequences. Forgiveness, even self-forgiveness is a choice. This is especially true in situations where one have no control over.

Redemption or atonement is not something that we should take lightly.

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Longest Serving Pastor in Johor Retires

New Straits Times (Malaysia) 2 October 2009

State's longest serving pastor retires

Roger Tan
2009/10/01

YESTERDAY saw the retirement of Johor's longest-serving pastor, Reverend Nicholas Yeo, 67, after more than 35 years of faithful service in one of Johor's oldest churches, Holy Light Church (English) (HLCE) at Jalan Gertak Merah, Johor Baru.

Reverend Nicholas Yeo with his wife, Lee Swee Keng, who faithfully supported his ministry for more than 30 years.

Reverend Nicholas Yeo welcoming Colonel Mustaffa Awang for the Boys Brigade Awards Day on March 20, 1976.

The Holy Light Church was founded by a young missionary from the Presbyterian Church of England, Reverend John Cook in 1886. Then, Cook was much assisted by a Scotsman, Datuk James Meldrum, who was the son-in-law of Reverend Benjamin Keasberry, a tutor to Sultan Abu Bakar.

The church grounds in Jalan Gertak Merah were given by the late Sultan.

At the time, the Sunday worship services comprised Chinese (Teochew) and English sessions, and many British civil servants and servicemen based in Johor Baru attended them.

However, when Meldrum passed away in 1908, the English service also came to a halt. It was not until August 1952 that the new resident moderator of the church, Reverend George Hood, revived the English service.

Between 1952 and 1973, foreign missionaries -- Hood, Richard Shad, Robert Elder, Derek Gill, Gilbert Lum, Cecil Gracey, Donald Elliot and Robert Irving -- continued to minister the English-speaking congregation as it was difficult to find an Asian who was prepared to serve as a pastor.

Their prayers for an Asian to take over the ministry were finally answered in December 1973 when Yeo, then 31 years old and a former secondary school teacher who had just graduated from the Singapore Bible College, was inducted as a preacher of the English service.

Hood, 92, who now lives in Scotland, later wrote that when the hopes of getting an Asian pastor were realised, it was like rain falling on dry ground, bringing new life and growth of the seeds that the foreign missionaries had planted.

Then on Aug 31, 1979, Yeo was officially ordained as the church's first Asian minister.

In his more than 30 years of ministry at Holy Light Church (English), the Batu Pahat-born Yeo was ably supported by his wife, Lee Swee Keng, who hailed from Klang, Selangor. Apparently, the couple met in 1969 at a Teachers' Christian Fellowship Conference and soon fell in love and were married on July 29, 1971 in Batu Pahat. In 1977, Swee Keng also gave up her teaching career to assist Yeo in their ministry at HLCE.

Even though he does not undertake aggressive proselytisation, nevertheless the depth and breadth of Yeo's impact on the lives of the many who came to know him is a testimony of the pious life which he leads and a role model which he plays as an exemplary pastor to his colleagues as well as a religious patriarch to his congregation.

Yeo possesses a multiplicity of gifts. He speaks and writes impeccable English, and has a mellifluous voice that always warms the hearts of the congregation whenever he sings.

I find Yeo to be extremely humble despite the many honours and accolades paid him over more than three decades of ministerial service. I still remember how I once informed him that I should write to the authorities to nominate him for a Datukship especially when he was also instrumental in setting up the English Speaking Presbytery (ESP) within the Presbyterian Synod, and was the ESP's first moderator. Yeo declined, for he always seeks to please the God he serves rather than men.

I also remember Yeo as someone who does not retaliate or speak evil of those who disagree or criticise him. Faced with a litany of accusations against him during a church crisis in the 1990s, there was never a single moment when defending himself did Yeo retaliate or attack his accusers -- a virtue of forgiveness which many of our politicians today seriously lack and ought to emulate.

Perhaps his life and service at HLCE are best summed up by Elder Dr Koh Seong Kooi.

"If you look at his life, he is a patient guy. He is kind and does not envy. He is not rude. He is not self-seeking. He is not easily angered," said Dr Koh, 56.

"He does not delight in evil. He rejoices with the truth. He keeps no record of wrongs. He always protects; always trusts; always hopes and perseveres. As a shepherd looking after the flock in Holy Light, we have the best pastor with us."

Paul Juby, 77, a captain of the Johor Baru 1st Company of Boys Brigade in the 1970s and who now lives in England, agrees.

"I well remember when Nicholas came to Johor Baru when I was the Captain of the Boys' Brigade. He gave whole-hearted support to the Boys' Brigade and I know full well that he has been a great pastor for more than 30 years. He is a wonderful man who has done so much for so many people," said Juby.

In his last official sermon to the congregation as their pastor, Yeo reminded them this: "While we move along with change, there are absolutes which we should not let go of. The absolutes are those of God -- do not change His Word which is steadfast as our life manual."

In appreciation of their services, HLCE will hold a special retirement service and appreciation dinner for Yeo and Swee Keng at New York Hotel, Johor Baru, at 5pm on Sunday.

To Pastor and Swee Keng who have been a great inspiration to many as well as my family and I, we thank you and wish you happy retirement and many, many more years of good health and happiness.

A New Addition to My Family

My new pet. A solid black German Shepherd (Alsatian) 4 months old puppy.





Black Shepherds are rare.

I shall call him...Kuro Beowulf!

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Measuring the Immeasurable

Goleman et al (2008), Measuring the Immeasurable (Boulder, CO: Sounds True, Inc).

This is a collection of essays by many writers about science and spirituality. There is a wide range of articles from using the scientific methods to measure spiritual experiences to understanding the spiritual experiences itself. Some of the writers are well known while others are not. Some essays engaged the subject seriously while other are pure baloney. The main thesis of the book failed not because of the use of science but in the use of a generic spirituality. A genetic spirituality is utterly meaningless in that it can be taken to mean anything. That is precisely what many of the writers did. A serious engagement of science and spirituality needs to define what both science and spirituality are.

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