Centre for Transformation and Development

Nowadays, many Christians tend to evaluate a ministry based on its works. People flock to churches where there are prophecies, casting of demons or various miracles. They see these works as proof of God’s presence. So whenever there are some popular speakers in town, they would go for their meeting. I was surprised at the turn out of one meeting in Thailand even though the speaker was well known for preaching prosperity Gospel and even misuse of funds. I realized that our faith has been reduced to looking for what works rather than looking for what’s true. To many, if there are signs and wonders present, then it must be true. Deep within our worldview, we are still concerned about what benefits us rather than what is really true. We forget that even the magicians in Moses’ time could perform lots of miracles and wonders. Jesus made it clear in the Gospel of Matthew that not everyone who calls Him Lord would be allowed to enter the kingdom of God, even if they prophesied, cast out demons or performed miracles. The authenticity of our ministry is not by our works but by our belief. Is our belief rooted in the word of God or do we manipulate them for selfish gain? Are we really building our faith on the solid Rock or on shaky sand? Let us renew our minds, do not just get excited by the external works. We must get the truth of God into us and let it bear the fruit of repentance in our lives. Do not blindly follow those leaders who exalt themselves but are so clever with their words that we are taken in by them. We should always check them based on the word of God, even if we can derive some benefits from them out of their preaching or their miracles.

There are many things that can happen to us in our lives. Some of which we may feel that it is not fair. These result in doubts or bitterness. Some of these things can also result in uncertainty and change in our living conditions too. These circumstances can actually result in points of contention with the Lord. When we allow these contentions to accumulate, they would subtly but definitely affect our faith in God. They distort the views we have about God. We usually end up seeing God as One who is stingy and One who is always making things difficult for us. But our God is actually not like this. He is a generous God who blesses us more than we can imagine. His loving plan continues to unfold His goodness in our lives despite our failure to follow Him closely and to understand His good and perfect will. Therefore, let us not be ignorant when we face trials, they are for the purification of our faith, so that we may experience more joy and hope. Instead of contention, let us ask God for a heart of contentment. Whether rich or poor, good or bad, smooth-sailing or rough-going, we can be contented in the Lord. Our faith rests not on circumstances, but on God Himself, who never fails us. He is greater than what we experience. He is more loving than what we think of Him. He is more gracious and merciful than what we expect of Him. Let our contentment in God overwhelm our contention with God. Sing to the Lord a new song and  rejoice in Him.

One of the greatest challenges in making disciples is transforming lives. But life transformation cannot occur if there is a lack of understanding of our own worldviews. Worldviews are basically embedded mindsets which we truly believe in. These are the things that shape our lives. Even when we become Christians, our old worldviews will not be totally displaced. These old worldviews can only be displaced at a rate of our discovery of them and at the same time, be open to God by believing in His kingdom worldviews. Many believers actually live their lives without transforming their worldviews, as such, their lives remain unchanged even after years believing in Jesus. No one loves to change anyway, especially changes that inconvenience them.
Most people tend to focus on other things. They tend to focus on outward actions and service to God. They even use these outward activities to provide a mask to their inner lives. But by doing so, it only complicates matter. We can end up with a hollow and shallow spirituality that cannot stand the tests of God. Therefore, transforming worldviews should not be avoided. We should take up this challenge and be transformed by God.
However, it is not easy to surface our worldviews. Most of us would usually tackle the symptoms rather than tracing the roots of the symptoms. We actually need to meditate on the word of God and search our hearts in greater depth in order to know our worldviews. When we get to know what is within ourselves,  we can then ask God to remove our bad roots and replace old worldviews with new ones. Let us therefore allow God to transform us at the root of our beliefs.

Neil Andersen has shared that humans’ greatest struggle is for three things: significance, security and acceptance. At the heart of these three things is actually the struggle for self-worth. When we do not find our sense of worth, we would always struggle to find ways to prove our worth. As such, we are concerned about how important we are in the eyes of others. We are worried that we are not well accepted. This results in insecurity in our lives.
The proof of our worth can impact different areas of our lives. It is not just something that we struggle for in the world. Yes, we may be more familiar with such a struggle in the world, but it also exists in the church as well. One of the most common area is Christian service. Many believers actually use service to prove their worth in God. They want to be noticed and be appraised by men. They feel jealous when others have more opportunities to serve than them or assume a higher position that they think they should assume.
There is actually no need for us to prove our worth simply because our worth is never meant to be attained this way. So no matter how hard we try, our worth can never be increased. The truth is that our worth is never about attainment, it’s about reception. Our worth is bestowed upon us by God as His lovely creation when we reconciled with Him through Jesus Christ. Our worth is given freely to us by His grace and not something earned. Our worth never changes in the eyes of God, no matter how much we serve Him. Let us, therefore, find rest in Him. Don’t worry too much about how others look at us or how we think others look at us. Don’t even be imprisoned by the way we look at ourselves. We are forever precious in His sight.

People are mostly concerned whether we have done something and neglected the part about how we do something. Both parts are equally important. For instance, besides asking ourselves whether we have loved someone, we also need to ask ourselves how we are loving that person. Some assume that it is all right as long as they have started doing something. But if we neglect the part about how we are doing it, we may actually get a negative result. For example, our children may know that we love them and do things for them, but they are going to feel it if we do so unwillingly or grudgingly.
I share this because this is a very important lesson in spiritual formation. We do so many spiritual things every week. We assume that we are all right. We assume that we would grow. But we don’t,  why is this so? This is because we only focus on doing something and neglect how things are done. Concerning prayer, we may be praying everyday but the prayers did not make us more Christ-like. Why? It’s because we only know how to pray for the things we want, the needs we have and the problems we need to solve. We might not have prayed for others and for ourselves to have greater faith or to be more obedient to God. We end up having a lot of self-centred prayers which will only make us more demanding, from God and our friends.
Concerning Bible reading, we might have read the Bible everyday, but how we read it is important. Do we read the Bible just to satisfy the questions we have or also to know God better in the process? Some people just read the Bible to feel good. But in reality, reading the Bible do make us feel uneasy because we are confronted with our sins and wrong mindsets we are holding to. We are challenged to be transformed.
The list goes on. This applies to our service, fellowship, worship and cell group as well. It is good that we start doing something but do not stop there. Pay attention to how we do things too. It is this process of ‘how’ that really helps us to grow in the Lord. It is not about how long we have been doing those things.
Pursue authentic Christian living, not a superficial one. We might have done many things. But what good is it if it is a prayer without discernment, a Bible devotion without depth, a service without devotion, a fellowship without edification and a cell group without feeding?
These things are happening in the church today. We need to restore the ‘ancient paths’ of God, especially when in the last days, Jesus said that our hearts would turn cold. It is time that we awaken the church so that we may guard our hearts with all diligence.

The correlation between personality and spirituality should not be neglected. This is because our personality can affect the way that we build our spirituality. Based on Tim Lahaye’s model of 4 main personality types, we can briefly say that the cholerics tend to focus on doing. The phlegmatics are more passive, so they focus more on waiting. The melancholics tend to focus on thinking. While the sanguine tend to focus on talking because they are more outgoing. The implications on spirituality is that the cholerics may actually focus more on serving God more than building their inner lives because they are people of actions. The phelgmatics would tend to wait upon God which can possibly end up in procrastination because they tend to wait for others to take the lead. The melancolics tend to think too much and become too detail in which they may fail to see the big picture of what God is doing. The sanguine may be talking too much. They may be good at bringing friends but they may be shallow in their relationship with God.
Each personality may have its pros and cons, but we must not just build our spiritual lives based on what we are good at. We need a balance of all personalities when we are building our spirituality. We need to learn to do, to wait, to think and to talk. Why don’t we take some time to think how we have been building our spirituality?  Has it been lopsided, just focusing on what we already are, or do we dare to move out of ourselves and build a more balanced spirituality?

Deep within our hearts, we may know that there are two sides of missions – the giving and the receiving ends, yet we tend to focus on the first. As those going out to do missions in another country, we tend to think that we have more to give to others than to receive from them. While I do not doubt the genuineness of our actions, some do have a warped mindset.
I would propose that missions is an interaction of cultures that results in learning experiences for both the mission team and the local church. It is never a one way thing. As we go into another culture,  we should adopt a learner’s mentality. Do not think too highly of ourselves as though we have a better technique, a more complicated teaching or a more systematic administration, etc. What works in our culture may not work in others. Even if ours are really better, let us be humble enough to consider others better than ourselves. There are bound to be areas where we are lacking in and we can actually learn from them. Missions is not just about output, it’s a time of great input too. Our reliance on techniques and technology may be redundant and irrelevant to them. If we only know how to make the teachings of Jesus sound more complicated, what good is it to them if they do not understand? If we only know how to play mind twisting intellectual games, where is the fun of simplicity? Let go of those “colonialistic” mindsets and stop the “tyranny” of missions. Even if we are pouring our money in, please do not use money as a weapon of missions to control others. It is just a tool for missions to help accomplish the will of God on earth. Let us do missions with a humble heart: to give and also to receive.

Much have been said about being driven. Though it is a very much accepted word in churches today, but it is still my hope for churches today to move from our drivenness to being motivated.
The world is very much driven today. People are often driven by many external factors such as wealth, fame, power, family and  even friends. We can be driven by more than one thing at a time. Even when we have God, it can just be an add-on to those things we already have on hand. Actually, we can be driven by even more things. Many Christians today are driven by their service because it gives them a sense of worth.
Therefore, we can see that drivenness is an external force pushing us to do something. It is like our pastor keeps bugging us to do our quiet time. But when he is not around to check on us, we would skip it. Our relationship with Jesus is just the opposite. Jesus is never like a slave-driver, trying hard to get us out of our comfort zone to serve Him. Instead, He draws us from within, into a most wonderful relationship with Him. Jesus changes us from inside out so that we may experience the true joy of serving Him rather than trying to prove our worth. Within us, we are deeply touched by His grace. We are motivated by His love. This experience gives us the strength to walk with Him without the need of being pushed all the time. My dear friends, have we understood the cross correctly? Have we mistaken our Master to be a mean old man trying to pick faults with us? It is time we change our theology. Don’t be driven by the world and not even God, but be motivated by God.

It’s great to grow our church, especially to see more people coming to know the Lord. However, to grow our church must be taken as a purpose for our church rather a performance. The purpose gives us direction, motivation, and meaning. However, church growth today has become a challenge of wit, techniques and strategies. It is measured by management tools with regard to its effectiveness and efficiency. While these tools and techniques can be a guide, we must be careful not to let ourselves fall into the performance trap. God never calls every church to be big and pastoring a small church does not make us a failure. For that matter, we might not have considered Jesus’ ministry to be very effective or efficient if we were to measure Him by today’s standard. The greater question is whether we have done what God calls us to do. If God calls us to be like Paul who could lead thousands of people to God, praise be to God. (By the way, Paul was not successful in every town that he went to.) But if God calls us to a stubborn and stiff-necked generation like Ezekiel, praise God and be faithful to our call too. We praise God in both situations because we are fulfilling the will of God. If everybody is going for people who are easy to reach, then who would then bring the love of God to those whose hearts are hardened. I know we may have problems with our sending church, sending organization or our sponsors even, because they want to see results. But I would suggest that we stick to our calling and trust God to provide. It’s a sad thing, but it’s true. This performance trap has jeopardized the work of many. Some even ended up making up results just to secure the funds. Yes, we might say that they are dishonest, but how truthful are we to God if our sponsorship is based on performance. God’s ministry is not a transaction. Though it is similar to running a business, it cannot be run like a business fully. At the end of the day, we must ask ourselves whether we have done what God has called us to do, even if we do not see the performance we desire. We may not be fruitful in the eyes of many, but the Lord has borne His fruit in us already. The Lord will still say to us, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Let us persevere even when our ministry is tough. Pray that the church today would have a greater sense of purpose rather than a pursue for performance. Amen.

Seeking transformation in the Lord requires us to understand about active passivity. We have to be proactive in seeking God such as spending fruitful devotion time with the Lord, actively reflecting on the word of God and His ways, cooperating with God by yielding our lives to Him and actively doing and living out our Christian lives. Yet this activity is not something we do out of our own strength, it requires that passivity from us too. As we seek God, we are to passively wait upon Him. As we read the word, we have to be patient for God to reveal His will for us. As we cooperate with God, we have to surrender and submit to Him and subject to His sovereign control. As we serve Him, we have to wait for His directions and strength. These activity and passivity must be held in balance and in tension. I suppose we often mix up the two. When we should be active, we get passive and when we should be passive, we actually run ahead of God. Let us keep these two elements in check as we grow our Christian life.