Worship

Girl with folded hands in prayer. beautiful sunset.   “I have now entered upon a new year, little knowing what it shall bring forth. A great burden is laid upon me; perplexity and difficulty lie before me, but I hope God will carry me through.”[1] This is an excerpt from the memoirs of the late […]

An illustration of a dark Bethlehem illuminated by the Christmas star of Christ. Vector EPS 10 available. EPS contains transparencies. “Learn and understand the life of Jesus by walking where he walked. When you have seen where Jesus ministered, you will never read your Bible the same way again!” This is one of the many […]

On 28 Aug 2016, the Ministry of Health and the National Environment Agency confirmed several cases of locally-transmitted Zika virus infection, and thus officially announced the Zika outbreak in Singapore. Many were fearful, especially pregnant mothers, of being infected by the mild disease transmitted by the Aedes mosquito. As I was writing this article, I […]

  At the age of 15, George Matheson (1842-1906) was told by doctors that his shadowy eyesight would soon become total blindness. However, that setback did not stop the teenager from enrolling in the University of Glasgow, Scotland, in 1857 where he graduated with a Master of Arts with first-class honours in 1862. Matheson eventually lost his eyesight during […]

As a dissolute youth coming from a poor family, and who was apprenticed as a boy to a London hairdresser after his father’s death, Robert Robinson (1735-1790) had an unpromising beginning to life.1 Without a father to guide him, Robinson mixed with a notorious group of hoodlums and led a life of debauchery filled with […]

Cross and dramatic sky   We don’t usually link hymn-writers to politicians. As such, it is hard to believe that the author of the hymn ‘In the Cross of Christ I Glory’ was written by a Member of Parliament of Great Britain and a governor of Hong Kong. Knighted by Queen Victoria in 1854, Sir […]

“Why should this happen to me, of all people, why me Lord, why?” This is a very natural response for someone who has met with a terrible tragedy and is experiencing a time of great sorrow. This was the reaction of Elizabeth P. Prentiss when she and her husband, the Rev George L. Prentiss, lost […]

Besides Ash Wednesday, I think Ascension Day is the next most uneventful day in many churches of the Methodist tradition. Year in, year out, Ascension Day – which occurs 40 days after Easter Sunday, and hence is always a Thursday – comes and goes quietly with no one in the congregation even knowing it. For […]

  Following the Easter Sunday celebration, the church enters into the Easter Season or the Great Fifty Days. The Scripture lessons in the lectionary for the Sundays that follow reveal the accounts of Jesus’ appearance during the 40 days between His resurrection and His ascension, and a further 10 days of waiting for the coming […]

Picture by Photosebia/Bigstock.comWe are now in the season of Lent, and our thoughts should be focused on the sufferings and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes referred to as “the Fast” or as “the Forty”, the season of Lent can be a time for restitution and restoration.1 Sad to say, some Christians live each […]

Transfiguration Sunday (7 Feb 2016) is the last Sunday of Epiphany, which is the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, andmarks the beginning of the Lenten journey.1 Though not universally observed, the Roman Catholics retain this day on its original date of 6 August. The Protestant Church, however, moved the commemoration from a weekday to the Sunday […]

  Epiphany is celebrated on 6 Jan, 12 days after Christmas Day. It is a great day of joyous celebration for all Christians as the church observes the manifestation of God’s Word made flesh, made known to all nations and people. For the Western churches, 6 Jan has come to be celebrated as the coming […]