Date: February 26th 2010

GRACE@WORK MAIL 8/10
February 26, 2010 Edition.
(Grace@Work Mail is a ministry of Graceworks: www.graceworks.com.sg)


"It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple." (Isaiah 6:1 NLT)


Commentary: Counting the Years
By Soo-Inn Tan

On the first Sunday of the year, my friend Mark preached on Psalm 90. When he reached verse 10, he asked us to do a little arithmetic. If the verse were to be taken literally, how many years do we have left? I will be 55 this year, so 80 - 55 = 25. Still some time left, but not all the time in the world. The exercise was a good reminder of our mortality. Maybe there is something to be said for how Isaiah marks the years, by identifying a year with the death of a prominent person.

1963, the year that John F Kennedy died. 1997, the year that Mother Theresa died. 2009 was a difficult year for many of us. For many it was the year that Michael Jackson died. But for many of my friends, it was the year that Yasmin Ahmad died, the year that Anthony Yeo died. Some of us are still recovering from the many friends that we lost last year. When will it be our year? How do we confront the fact of our mortality? Isaiah gives us two suggestions.

First, root your life in God. Isaiah 6 finds Isaiah in the temple, worshipping the Lord. We are mortal. God is immortal. And God has made us this offer:

[Jesus told her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this . . .?" (John 11:25-26 NLT)]

I believe. I have believed for some time now. The passing of the years reminds me that the central reality of my life is my relationship with the Almighty, "Immortal, Invisible, God only wise. (Walter C. Smith)" Indeed I know this God as Abba. My life is in His safe hands. I need not fret about my departure from this life. Dad knows best. And nothing in this life or the life to come can separate me from His love (Romans 8: 35-39). In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah is in the temple. May 2010 find us similarly rooted in our Lord.

To be rooted in the Lord brings us to the other thing that Isaiah teaches us about how we can face the passing of the years --- be faithful to your vocation. Isaiah 6: 1-8 is the record of Isaiah's call to his prophetic ministry. It reminds us of the vocational nature of life. If my time on earth is limited, I do not want to waste my days. I want to invest my life in what God has called me to do. Frederick Buechner puts it nicely:

[ . . in the year that King Uzziah died, or in the year that John F. Kennedy died, or in the year that somebody you loved died, you go into the temple if that is your taste, or you hide your face in the little padded temple of your hands, and a voice says, "Whom shall I send into the pain of a world where people die?" and if you are not careful, you may find yourself answering, "Send me."

. . . a man's vocation is a man's calling. It is the work that he is called to in this world, the thing that he is summoned to spend his life doing. (The Hungering Dark, San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 1969, 27.)]

What is my vocation? For some time now I have believed that my calling is to teach God's Word with "relevance, accuracy, and passion" so that lives are transformed for Christ. In more recent times, there has been a further fine-tuning of that mission. I seem to be tasked to teach about the importance of relational transformation, how God's primary way of changing lives is through relationships. This year, I will be teaching on Spiritual Mentoring in two seminaries in Singapore, and leading workshops on the same subject in Malaysia and Canada. And we are receiving many invitations to teach on the subject from churches and Christian organizations. My 2010 planner is filling up fast.

There are many things I can do and many things I would like to do, but with the passing of the years, I must be focused on what I must do --- what God has called me to do. What has God called you to do?

Will I have 25 more years to live? More? Less? God knows. But in the year that _____ died, may I be found rooted in the Lord, faithful to my vocation.





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Ministering this Sunday

February 28
Evangel Christian Church
Sunday Morning Worship
Thank You Lord! (Psalm 40)
10:00 - 11:30 am
211, Henderson Road, #04-02
Singapore 159552

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Graceworks workshop on Spiritual mentoring in PJ, Malaysia

Graceworks is committed to seeing lives changed through truth and love. Therefore we are delighted that we are able to offer the following workshop on Spiritual Mentoring in PJ on March 13th, in partnership with our friends at Canaanland. Please help by planning to come, praying, and encouraging your friends to come.


Spiritual Mentoring Workshop

Speaker: Rev Dr Tan Soo-Inn

Date: 13 March 2010 (Saturday)

Time: 10.30am - 3pm

Venue: Canaanland @ NZX HQ
No. 25, Jalan PJU 1A/41B,
NZX Commercial Centre, Ara Jaya,
47301 Petaling Jaya
Tel: 03-78850540/1/2

Email: larry@canaanland.com.my

Investment: RM30 per pax (including materials - excluding lunch)


Descripion:
The greatest need of the hour is not better programmes or more sophisticated technology. The greatest need of the hour is for a transformed community, mature followers of Jesus who will bring Godly wisdom and grace into a needy world. But how do we help followers of Jesus grow in Christ-like maturity?

We will see that spiritual mentoring is a primary "method" that God has provided to help people grow in Christ-likeness. This is the model that Jesus Himself gave us. He developed people through close personal relationships.

This seminar will take a biblical and practical look at questions like:
What are the basic components of spiritual mentoring?
What are the three directions of mentoring?
How can I give and receive spiritual mentoring where I am?

Specific strategies will be suggested as to how you can do spiritual mentoring whether you are starting out or adapting fresh insights to existing programmes.

Our ultimate goal is for participants to grow in their capacity to give and receive spiritual mentoring so that we can be the people that God wants us to be for the times we live in.

For more information, please refer to the Canaanland website at:
www.canaanland.com.my/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=27403

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