Opinion

In the past few decades, there has been an avalanche of excellent books on marketplace ministry such as Every Good Endeavour: Connecting Your Work to God's Plan for the World (2012) by the late Timothy J. Keller, and The Kingdom of God in Working Clothes: The Marketplace and the Reign of God (2022) by R. Paul Stevens.

Did you know King Charles III, the current monarch, bears the title "Defender of the Faith"? This title was first conferred on Henry VIII in 1521 when England was still part of the Roman Catholic Church, by Pope Leo X. Known as Fidei Defensor in Latin, it was granted to Henry VIII in recognition of the theological treatise Defence of the Seven Sacraments which he authored, possibly working with Thomas More and Cardinal Wolsey.

In 1947, the famous British novelist, playwright and critic, Dorothy Sayers (1893–1957), made this sharp observation:

One of Charles Wesley's most endearing Christmas hymns is surely "Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus", which was first published in Hymns for the Nativity of Our Lord in 1745.

On 7 October this year, Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel by firing rockets, invading Israeli towns and army bases, taking hostages, and killing hundreds of people, including civilians. Israel has retaliated with airstrikes in Gaza that have killed hundreds of people, including civilians.

"Don't come back a heathen!" I distinctly remember the first time I heard those words from the mouth of Rev Dr Isaac Lim who, while preaching at Covenant Vision Christian Church in February 2023, provided an anecdote of how a man once committed to serving the Lord, returned home from studies in the UK a completely changed man who now forsook the Lord.

Since the sexual revolution, which burst onto the scene in Western societies during the 1960s, the traditional understanding of marriage has fallen out of favour and many alternatives have been proffered.

Imagine this scenario: Two friends, both Christians, catch up at a Christian conference. Between them stands a stranger, also Christian. As the friends converse, they "speak through" the stranger, as if he is not there.