DAN THE MAN Part I

Introduction

Daniel was a character best known for shutting up the lions in the Lion’s den. I mean, eversince we were kids we were fed by 3 stories: Noah and his zoo on a boat, David and the giant, and Daniel in the Lion’s den. Candidates to make the hall of fame include Jonah and the fish, Walls of Jericho and Elijah on mount carmel. But Dan in the Den was probably one of the more popular ones. I mean, a hero and lions; what’s there not to like?

What do we know about Daniel?

Perhaps one of the most low key characters in the Bible, he was a lot different from the other more prominent heroes in the Bible. David was well known as exceptionally handsome and he wrote like half the psalms, and killed a Giant. Samson did all the stuff that made him infamous; Josh had his triumph at Jericho; Noah had his Ark; Moses parted the Red Sea; even Jonah had his day when he got swallowed by a big fish!

Somewhere lost between the great miracles seen in the first part of the Old Testament and the fire and brimstone and lamenting prophecies by Ezekiel, Isaiah and Jeremiah, is our Daniel. He was a contemporary of Ezekiel and Jeremiah, and Habakkuk. We don’t really know much about their characters, but I’d like to venture that Ezekiel was a guy with wild hair sprouting prophecies of the fall and restoration of Israel. I mean Ezekiel 25:17 is so well known to Pulp Fiction fans that there’s no way the guy who wrote it would not have wild hair, sprouting prophecies.

“I will execute great vengeance on them with wrathful rebukes; and they will know that I am the LORD when I lay My vengeance on them.”

Daniel, on the other, seemed like a cool guy who prayed a lot. I mean, he interprets dreams. He’s probably a well mannered guy, trained to the culture of the Chaldeans, never panics and absolutely in control of his emotions.

In fact, Dan was so cool that Ezekiel talked about him in Ezekiel 28:3. Zeke was like the man, you know, and he refers to Dan a few times in his book!

The thing was, Daniel was probably one of the most influential person in the entire Bible, and in him, we can draw parallel to ourselves, in our workplace.

He was likely a nobility from Jewish court, along with his 3 pals, Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego, and was taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzer from Babylon. They were taken to the royal courts and trained to be the king’s advisors. It’d take a whole book to do a character study of Daniel, but let’s pick up the pertinent points in his story.

A. Changes in the Workplace

It’s a myth that God uses only old dudes like Moses and Noah to accomplish his purpose. David was a kid when he faced Goliath; Timothy was a young disciple of Paul. Likewise Daniel was only about 15 when he was brought into captivity and trained in the courts of Babylon. At that young age, he begins to influence the court and the way things are done, refusing to eat food that were defiled, instead, just eating water and vege. When he was refused this request by his immediate boss, he went to higher level management and made his request (Daniel 1:8-21)

I’ve worked in DHL for 3 years. I’m familiar with most of the policies in this company and how resistant some things are to changes. I’ve been going up to the management with the same requests for months and always either turned away or condescendingly agreed but not actioned. I sometimes doubt that I can make changes at my level; but Daniel was persistent. When his boss wouldn’t give him the approval, he went to the higher level and requested politely. Noticed how he did it. He didn’t go in defensively or guns blazing. He went in with alternatives, being always respectful of authorities. He correctly approached his immediate, and when he had his discussion, went up the hierarchy.

Never bypass your superior; its an act that undermines authority, and questions his/her leadership. I learnt this once when I went direct to the HR director without consulting with my manager; and boy, I got an earful. Nobody likes to hear that the person under them have asking someone else when he should be asking his immediate manager.

From there, Daniel resolved that a change has to be made. But he was like the new guy. Shouldn’t he just shut up and do what he’s told, even if it challenges his beliefs?

I’ve heard from some that they cannot attend cell, or church or serve in anything because they need to work, or need to entertain etc every Friday or every weekends. I do believe that yes, we all have work commitments, but have you tried telling your colleagues or bosses and set boundaries in your workplace as a Christian? Case in point: We were supposed to have a big management dinner on Thursday, but I am serving this weekend so I need to practice on Thursday. I explained that I couldn’t make it and we offered an alternative to the management, Thursday lunch; and found out more people are agreeable to that time. Voila.

I always believe that we treat work as the sacred cow, or a taboo subject that cannot be questioned. It’s something that we know our cell leader, church leader or whatever will not touch. Are you free to serve? No, work-lah. Are you available to worship lead? No, work-lah. I am not demeaning work; in fact, it is a very valid reason to keep us from serving, actually; and when we travel; or get into a busy period, I understand: DO YOUR JOB! Get it done!

But seriously, every Friday? Every Saturdays and Sundays? If you’ve got time for other things like golf, futsal, sports, movies, dinners with boy/girlfriend, yum cha and stuff like that, you’re not as busy as you make yourself out to be. Don’t use work as the sacred cow. Unless it’s a very, very exceptional job that requires a 24/7 commitment to work and nothing else every week (in which case, I seriously hope they pay you a lot of money for working you like a dog), I think there could be some spare time given for ministries, if not for cell, don’t you reckon?

Keep in mind, that serving in ministries is NOT a gauge of spirituality. If indeed, your job takes you away from cell or church, perhaps God has placed you there like how Daniel was placed in Babylon and later Persia. Sure, he couldn’t attend the revival service in Jerusalem, or couldn’t make it to his cell group back in Israel; but he purposed in his heart to serve God (Dan 1:8) where ever he was. If work takes you away from ministry, you can take ministry to work then. Either way, your service is to God, not to man. I believe that if you’re already in this position and understand that the nature of your work will give you different ways to serve God, then you have Daniel’s heart.

But the concern remains, that many of us use work and “work-related” activities as an excuse to be stagnant in our walk. Come on. Don’t throw back your work blessings in God’s face. He’s not amused by it.

Like Daniel, sometimes we just gotta voice out what we stand for the next time your boss arranges a karaoke or dinner session on a Friday evening. The thing is, if you don’t defend your schedule with God, your Christian convictions will just get walked over all the time. Daniel knew how to stand up to his belief. Do we?

This is the skit that we’re planning to do for the upcoming missions. Powerful representation of Jesus remaining faithful, when we are faithless. (2 Tim 2:13)

Download the WMV here (R-Click->Save Target As)

Angie’s Birthday!

Picture link here

Hi guys,

Just a quick update from me and more photos to share. Work has definitely picked up and I am enjoying the challenges so far. (Not sure if “enjoy” is even the right word, but you catch my drift:->). The weather, while sunny, is becoming increasingly cooler. It was about 4 degrees this morning when we walked along the canals to Central Station.

Had the opportunity to head down to Delft over last weekend. Took the train to Den Haag (the Hague) where I met up with an old high school friend, Belinda, whom I haven’t seen since 1996! (Suzan, Bel and I established that the last time she and I caught up was at your engagement party!). Delft is about 10 mins by train from Den Haag, and it was a beautiful day to just plod around the town square and visit some shops selling famous Delft chinaware (blue and white).

WE didn’t do any sight-seeing as Ching and Bel had been to Delft previously; but I will most probably return another day to do a tour of the Royal Delft factory, given that I am so fascinated with chinaware. Delft is a lovely and very pretty town, and on a day like last Saturday where the sun was out, it was nice to sit around one of the cafes surrounding the square. Ate really yummy pancakes there. I was very good…didn’t buy anything :-> I had my eyes set on lovely plates, but at EUR180 a piece, I am not even going to give it another look!

This coming weekend, Ching and I are most likely to head to Brugge, a picturesque town in Belgium. So will send more updates after. Next weekend, we are going back to London for a short trip, for Uncle Tim’s 91st b’day (can you believe it!).

Trust you are all keeping well. Take care!

Love Ange

Here’s the Golden Jubilee 2007 video presented during the AOG 50th anniversary dinner. I think it’s cool that we actually know a little about our history as a church.

Why hasn’t anyone entered Glad Tidings PJ in Wikipedia yet??

For some reason, this song has just been looping for the past week (and I suppose a good part of this week too). My car is really boring, I tend to loop a song over and over and over again and don’t hear anything else. I don’t recall the last time I listened to radio (except for the short 2 seconds when changing CDs), and I think I’ve listened to this song like a few hundred times already since last week.

Mike is a pastor in Planetshakers Church in Melbourne but has been diagnosed since last year with blood disorder. I did some research on it and it seems that he has always been faced with physical ailments, and he is still in his 20s. Some said it was stage 3 leukemia and gave him only a short time to live. The recent update on his myspace goes like this:

“HEY GUYS!!!! INCREDIBLE NEWS!!!! THE HEALING PROCESS HAS BEGUN!!!! TODAY I WENT TO JOHN WESLEYS CHAPEL IN BRISTOL. AS I STOOD IN WESLEYS PULPIT GODS POWER TOUCHED MY BODY!!!! TO CUT A LONG STORY SHORT. I LEFT MY WHEELCHAIR THERE!!!! MY BACK IS HEALED, MY HIPS ARE HEALED, MY LEGS ARE HEALED!!!! I STILL HAVE PAIN IN MY UPPER BODY BUT IT HAS STARTED!!!! PRAISE AND GLORY TO THE KING OF ALL KINGS!!!! MY SAVIOUR, MY PORTION, MY FREEDOM, MY HEALER!!!!!”

Amazing song, amazing testimony!

“Healer” — Mike Guglielmucci

You hold my every moment
You calm my raging seas
You walk with me through fire
And heal all my disease

I trust in You
I trust in You

I believe You’re my Healer
I believe You are all I need
I believe You’re my Portion
I believe You’re more than enough for me
Jesus You’re all I need

My Healer, You’re my Healer

Nothing is impossible for You
Nothing is impossible for You
Nothing is impossible for You
You hold my world in Your hands

Jon started by noting that the 4 worship leaders each represented a different set of generation in Glad Tidings. Angeline represented the newest and youngest graduates from youth to young adults. Jon represented the young adults growing up in GT while David represented the growing number of people from outstation coming into GT and becoming leaders.

I represented the generation that the church ‘lost’ (hence began our prolonged discussion on why we are not the ‘lost’ generation but a generation that was lost). I suppose I stood representing the timeline from my brother’s era to my era. And if you think about it, there is some truth in it. Of all the main characters from my brother’s time, Sanjeet, Sunny, Charlie, Henry, Richard, Clarissa etc, not one of them remained in GT. Few of them remained in church and some are serving full time in other churches. Once it reached our time, it became more apparent as our youth group struggled with numbers. We didn’t really have the direction, nor the strategy to bring young people back to the church. Worship was stagnant, leadership was non existent, and the leaders were basically cracking our heads on how to grow the ministry.

We never did.

We all just left. And when PJK came in, she had to work with a new brood of youngsters; people she called the Thirty, I suppose there were 30 of them who graduated from Junior Church to the then nascent Youth Group void left by us.

Kevin, our ringleader, went to the US. A few of us headed over to Australia. And some completely left the church. Those who remained graduated over to the main service, and for a long while, our generation looked towards the youth and young adults group with growing condescension; and the topic became “When will they mature and grow up to join the main service?”

I think we all failed to see something. That the youth group and young adult were incubating leaders in a way we could never imagine. We never had a training ground, so a lot of us were left to fend for ourselves in college, in university. Perhaps that’s why some of us think the younger group has it easy these days, with PJK overlooking them, with the help of a host of helpers. Some of us came out of the growing years with a few scars: Kelvin, Luisa has gone on to become leaders, Kevin also, a leader in the states, and I suppose I have somehow meandered through the growing years with a lot of help from a lot of people. I could have easily have gone wayward during my uni years: but God put a few people in my path that yanked me back, notably my cell leader, Mabel. I could write a whole book about her.

Did I ever feel bitter towards the other generation of young adults? No, definitely not. It would be strange to feel bitter over such wonderful growth in our church. I do sometimes wish this happened during our years, when Kevin, Kel and the rest were still youth leaders. But everyone has a different role to play, and in the history of our little church, we’ve played our role. Were we a generation lost? I think we are, in a way that many of us, who had had a taste of God’s goodness have decided to forsake it. Many of us, who went through severe heartache and tragedy, losing friends along the way, made promises to stick together, to serve together and yet fell away.

Sometimes new people come to our church and find it difficult to integrate or be part of us. Perhaps the bond that our youth group had will always be there, because of what we’ve gone through. Despite not being in contact with each other, we’re still friends, well, forever, as the song goes, as our promises to each other goes. But what about our promise to God? Shouldn’t that matter so much more?

Should we always look into the past? Should we always bring up our generation as an example of what happens when the youth group is not well taken care of? I think it’s good to look into past lessons and learn. Not dwelling in it but learning.

In Joshua 22, it relates how Reuben, Gad and the half tribe Manasseh built an altar near Jordan. The israelites were peeved by this and sent a group to demand an explanation on why there was an altar built there and they were ready to fight. However, the other tribes explained that the altar wasn’t made for worship, from v26 - 28

That is why we said, ‘Let us get ready and build an altar—but not for burnt offerings or sacrifices.’ 27 On the contrary, it is to be a witness between us and you and the generations that follow, that we will worship the LORD at his sanctuary with our burnt offerings, sacrifices and fellowship offerings. Then in the future your descendants will not be able to say to ours, ‘You have no share in the LORD.’

28 “And we said, ‘If they ever say this to us, or to our descendants, we will answer: Look at the replica of the LORD’s altar, which our fathers built, not for burnt offerings and sacrifices, but as a witness between us and you.’

What does crossover mean? Individually we all have our borders to cross over. But even as a generation, we need to step forward, and move together with one spirit: the youth, the young adults and the adults; and only then will we see our church grow to numbers we can only dream of. Each generation had a part to play; perhaps we sowed the seeds in the hearts of the leaders, which caused them to build the next generation up to what it is now, looking into the past as lessons learnt. From our side, perhaps the best way to Cross Over is no longer being detached about the young adults, or the newer generation of our church but support them in any way we can.

Let’s move on.

If you look properly, notice the number of young people serving and we can be sure that the future of the church doesn’t lie in the hands of elders, or people fixed on the old ways of doing things, or people who cannot see beyond their own prejudice against younger leaders, or people who constantly squabble over the slightest thing that the church does that they do not agree. Oh, the music is too loud, oh, the worship songs were too new, oh, that speaker was too fancy, oh, the church demands too much of our time, oh, the cell leader is so annoying, oh, there is too much boundaries, oh, this and oh, that.

Move on.

In the background, a host of young believers, nurtured properly, developed to be faithful by leaders of the same vision, these younger people are slowly serving more and more in the church, becoming the very back bone in which all ministries will eventually depend on.

Move on.

Because the wave of the next generation has crossed over.

They have arrived, not only for the church; but for the nation, for the world.

We went up for a 3 days 2 nights retreat to Fraser’s. It was a Young Adult retreat, but really, the distribution of ages there was quite diverse, from the young to the, well, older folks. I was among the 5 who went up there the night before to prepare for the camp. The others were Hwee Yen, Andrew, Michelle and Sue. I recall while we were looking through the camp booklet and we went like, why isn’t the camp speaker listed in the front page? Instead it just read “SPEAKER:”

Boy, we should have guess then that God’s gonna do something.

Even from the first session, we knew that the flow of the camp was all His. When worship songs change on the fly, and the songs we practise the hardest end up not being sung, when the schedule goes out the window, when people, young and old, knelt and wept: it was the kind of scene you’d imagine in a missions trip or the last day of a crusade.

We were still in our first session!

I’ll try to post up the notes from Pastor Julie, but the lessons taken from CrossOver were tremendously impactful.

On the second day, after the morning session, Pastor Julie (or PJK, more affectionately) came up to Kenneth and a few of us and said, “Tonight, it’s yours.”

You know those moments when you want to smile at a joke and have your smile freeze when you realise it wasn’t a joke?

PJK mentioned that the night session was for the brothers to step up and preach. We obviously started looking at each other: Sean, Kenneth, Andrew, Daniel, Daren, Danny, Jon, myself. Just kind of blankly. I mean, we’ve all preached before, during missions, or youth church or saturday service or somewhere; but the final session of the final day of a camp? It’s like putting the Malaysian youth team vs Brazil in the World Cup Finals.

Before the night session we spent more than an hour together, just praying and sharing about what’s in our heart. Even then, we didn’t exactly know what was going to happen, who would be sharing, how, when. We just kinda got an idea and said, ok, let’s start it and see where it goes.

David Lee led worship and the spirit just moved remarkably. When he sang the first words, “Give us clean hands, give us pure hearts,” that was it. Tears flowed down, and I couldn’t sing anymore, I just stood there, almost petrified in His presence. The realisation of sin hit me so hard that I understood now what the prophet Isaiah meant when he said, “Our righteousness is like rags” (Is 64:6) . Before His Holy Presence, there is no one righteous.

It was those sessions when time almost stood still, and we’re so enveloped in His presence, it can’t be explained. At these times, there is no doubt that there is a true and living and loving God, and suddenly all the world’s wisdom to explain about the human pysche, about how we create our own delusions of God, about evolution, about God not existing: everything that is reasoned by man, is suddenly so stupid. There is no other word. It is impossible to deny the existence of God when you feel His presence, His love: and please, cut the nonsense about the music or the human mind creating an emotional need and fulfilling it with an illusion of God, it is so, ultimately, extremely stupid. It is the delusion of man, the hatred for anything that conflicts with our own lust, our own desires that cause us to reason like that.

Kenneth stepped up and preached on crossing over, challenging the congregation. Sean stepped up and moved the flow to how he struggled initially with a family, with finances and ultimately crossing over.

I was up next, but I told Danny that I wanted Jon to go first. It wasn’t me, but it was one of those things where you think it’s better that another person fill in first. And Jon really set the foundation of crossing over.

Hair long, unkempt, rebellious in style
Eyes that squint, no hint of a smile
The sour look, just out of school
These were the code of cool

Lecturers beware, colleges take heed
Where such students will meet
Revolution! Anarchy and chaos ensue
These were the code of cool

Oh, for such a time like that!
Oh, the life that he has led!
The late nights out, playing pool
These were the code of cool!

10 years on, and the hair has gone
Memories yet linger on
Different now, no longer a fool
Perhaps now, the end of cool

He now sits inside his cubicle
A little place, in the corporate world
He obeys and submits to rules
He comes now to the end of cool

He answers Yes to his bosses tone
He smiles and bows and answers phones
He is now led like a docile mule
Oh how tragic, is the End of Cool!!

Couldn’t resist this when I took my Visa pic. The contrast is just so hilarious!

Only the Paranoid Survive is a book I read sometime back, written by Andrew Grove, the one time CEO of Intel. He was the Time’s Man of the Year in 1997. For 11 years, he led Intel through times of great changes, from moving away from their core memory modules monopoly to the nascent microprocessor market, as well as handling flawed products and recovering to make Intel one of the most profitable company in the world, and the most recognisable brand in history.

I’m not a big fan of management books, I think some are too scientific and theory-driven, but books by CEOs and not professors, at least have some credibility even if this book is almost 11 years old.

Grove talks about Strategic Inflection Points, or SIPs.

The concept refers to an event or time period during which the underlying fundamentals of a situation have changed and the future is altered in a meaningful way. The key lesson is that these events occur all the time and the challenge is to recognize as many strategic inflection points as possible, in advance, and proactively develop a plan to address the changing situation.

How companies adapt and act during these inflection points will determine the future longevity in their industry. All companies go through such inflection points, no matter how big or small. Disney went through their inflection point when they had to decide whether to act with their current formula of cartoons or adapt new 3d technology and new character based stories. We don’t see cartoons now with songs in it like Beauty and the Beast and other classics. Instead now we have plot and character driven, original stories like The Incredibles and Ratatouille. Disney struggled and now reached another inflection point in acquiring Pixar. In the home front, Giant adapted itself to compete against Carrefour and Tesco, recognising the market for hypermarts to eventually take over the neighbourhood sundry shops.

But SIPs are not limited to the realm of business. Personal Inflection Points also occurs; either direct decision made, or an event that occur that got you to your current situation, good or bad. Careers are built with inflection points, chance meetings that becomes lasting partnerships and so on. Decisions to move countries or jobs or to stay: These are all inflection points of our lives.
With this in mind, we talked about Spiritual Inflection Points. Exodus 3:1-22 details the calling of Moses, the famous burning bush scene. But right from the start we identifed the inflection points that occurs:

1) Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

I am wondering why did Moses lead the flock to the far side of Midian to Horeb? Was there water there? It was about 2 days journey from his camp and it was rare that shepherds would take their flock more than a day. There could be water but Horeb traditionally is a dry area, in fact the name implies dryness, drought or heat. It was divine appointment I am certain but the Bible said that Moses led the flock. He was probably directed by God somehow, but it was he who decided to go to Horeb, and the first inflection point occured.

2)So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

Moses has a chat with himself, he probably saw the burning bush from a distance and decided to leave his flock and see it. He disengaged himself from his occupation and turned aside to focus on God’s calling. Notice the next verse after:

When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
And Moses said, “Here I am.”

Moses could have run away, or simply not go over to have a look. Instead the fact that he went was the inflection point and from there, God had him where He wanted.

We went through a cell activity where we drew a timeline of our spiritual inflection points over the years that has led us to cell. We found an amazing cache of history behind our members. Chance meeting with so and so, decision to go up and talk to so and so, events that happened, introduction to a particular person, even one, an email to a wrong person! Inflection points always occurs, everyday, continuously. We need to recognise the significant ones before it occurs or while it has occured and react to it because it will determine where we are or what we do in the future.

I believe the CrossOver camp will be an inflection point for many. Mine came during a camp like this when I accepted Christ and later, in another camp when I was spirit filled.

Sometimes, God puts these inflection points in our lives to steer us. But at times, like Moses we need to make our decision to determine where we will be in our spiritual walk. Are we contented to be mediocre in our walk and refuse to move forward, ignoring these inflection points? Don’t blame anyone if you feel ‘dry’ or ‘tired’ or the gospel not being relevant anymore. You didn’t react, and opportunities to serve has passed. Blessings you would receive in the missions field are passed because people are too reluctant to move. People are too comfortable.

As ministers, we need to recognise these SIPs as they occur not only in our spiritual walk, but our cell group and our ministries as well, and react to it. There is no formula to success, no matter what other management books will say, because success today might not be success tomorrow. I believe also, the Young Adults Ministry is going through a strategic inflection point now, with the lay ministers stepping in behind the pulpit. It’s a new way to do something , it changes the underlying fundamentals of our services, but all SIPs are like that.

What future spiritual inflection points are we prepared to react to, in order to progress forward in our walk with Christ?