Timely advice in the working world

Proverbs 18

1 An unfriendly man pursues selfish ends;
he defies all sound judgment.

2 A fool finds no pleasure in understanding
but delights in airing his own opinions.

3 When wickedness comes, so does contempt,
and with shame comes disgrace.

It always puzzled me why the writer put it this way… an unfriendly person is pursuing his own selfish agenda. I thought it should read – “selfish people act unfriendly”
But on deeper examination I believe the author was making an observation – show me an unfriendly person and behind that is someone selfishly pursuing his own agenda of self gratification. People act unfriendly cos they are intent on their own plans being fulfilled even at the expense of others. We would do well to understand this motivation and keep a careful eye on such people.

Of course – the opposite may not be true. Friendly people may appear to be so – but their real motives may be hidden and we would do well to be on the alert. Yet there is something of a spirit to spirit connection that occurs when we meet people, and I believe that it is that gut feeling or intuition that may protect us from such falling prey to these people.

The other observations are also pertinent – that fools are often quick to express and opinion without carefully considering all the factors weighing on a situation. The pressure to impress or deliver judgment without all the facts is something we all need to be on guard against, if we are not to fall into the same “lobster trap” ie easy to get into but impossible to extract oneself from.

The last piece of advice links wickedness to shame and contempt. It is a timely reminder for us who can be drawn into taking unethical decisions or indulge ourselves in sinful lusts – thinking we will never pay a price for it since God is loving and will forgive us when we confess. Honor and position are the just rewards of a righteous lifestyle. God cannot be mocked – and he will certainly deal with us if we persist in trying to take advantage of His goodness and mercy. He certainly dealt with the two faced attitudes of the Jewish nation.

Have a blessed week!

Denis

Day 5: TTSHDimsum Restaurant Closing Down

Dear Readers,

With my departure from TTSH, Kat and I have decided to close down this daily email devotion. We want to thank everybody who has contributed articles and helped with the administration and distribution of TTSHDimsum. God sees your efforts and He has a record in His heavenly account book – and you will not loose your reward!

We also want to thank you dear Reader for subscribing to this. Our original intention was to encourage you to be a Christian in your workplace, and to instill Christian values and change ungodly and worldly mindsets that have been so prevalent amongst believers. Over the next 2 months, you can look out for the 40 day fast devotions that begin on 1 July and culminate on 9 Aug from the Love Singapore website:

http://www.lovesingapore.org.sg/

We hope you will continue to seek the Lord and be a stunning light where you are. As for Kat and myself, we will continue to post our thoughts on the ttshdimsum blogsite.

May God bless you richly and draw you deeper into His love!

Denis

Day 4 Establishing a new kingdom

I used to read Kings and Chronicles like a history book. So and so did this, died and was buried with his ancestors. But after I tendered my resignation and started to look at what I needed to do to make the transition to private practice, these accounts suddenly came alive in a new way. Let me explain.

While in TTSH, all I had to do was abide by the rules and comply with the hospital’s policies and guidelines. Now that I am my own boss, I suddenly have to set down the policies and guidelines on how I was going to conduct my practice. Like the kings of Israel, I could choose to either put into place things that honored God, and try to create a place that reflects His kingdom and character, or follow the ways of the surrounding nations.

The pressure to conform to the practices of other doctors and the temptation to chase after the almighty dollar is very real and actually not unlike the challenges that faced the kings of Israel. Do you act in the interest of your people, uphold justice and guard your heart from greed, or do you plunge headlong into the pool of selfishness and try to grab as much as you can when you have the opportunity.

I had to ask myself, “What is a fair price for my service?” and “How would you like to be treated if you were the patient?” There are very real bills to pay and seeing how many of doctors take advantage of their position to enrich themselves at the expense of patients tends to bring up a mixture of jealous thoughts and feelings.

If I want my practice to be a place where people experience the grace of God and meet with Jesus – I would need to be prepared to be “different”. Eng Hseon and I decided to set aside time once a week to meet up and pray together over the clinic. I have also tried whenever the opportunity arose to pray with my patients and to encourage them in the Lord. I realized that God had made me a king and I could influence the atmosphere in the place he put me.

Wherever you are, you can do the same. Make a commitment to be a good king – and change the environment you are in – infecting it with the presence of Heaven.

Denis

Day 3 Transitions

I would like to share with you a poem I wrote to express some of the things I have been experiencing in my walk over the past 2 months. I hope it is a blessing to you.

TRANSITIONS

So many changes in my life
Learning to walk by faith
And not by sight
I leave the highway
For a less traveled road
Following a call – an unexplainable urge
Drawn by the Author of Love Himself
For You desire more of me
Than I have been willing to give
A holy sense of dissatisfaction grows
With what I have and what I am
The seeds of life eternal planted deep within

So here I am
Take all of me
I yield myself obediently
Responding to LOVE that knows no bounds
My heart cries out in passionate amazement
As I finally touch You Lord
Reaching into Your wounded side
Finished are my fears and doubts
Banished, set aside
And in it’s place conviction – true and bold
I humbly cling to You, and You alone

Denis

Day 2: Doubts arise – God reassures

I would have liked to tell you that I stepped out in faith and with great conviction – but that would not be the full picture. My initial enthusiasm for the project quickly waned as the realities and actual process of resignation and loss of privileges dawned on me. Sure I had received a clear word which I felt I needed to act on – but in the face of recession and economic uncertainty, there was also a lot of fear and sleepless nights wondering about my future. I began to understand what it was for Abram to leave his home, his family, his job and venture out into a place he did not know – only trusting that God would be true to him and bless him.

The Lord was very gracious and started to reassure me from His word in Gen 15. He said “Do not be afraid! I am your Shield and you Very Great Reward”

As I meditated on this Scripture, I realized that my security had been my job and money in the bank. God was telling me that He was the only security that I needed, and I did not need to be afraid. He was my Shield – a shield that could never be breached or compromised. His protection exists around the clock, 24/7 and is capable of handling any threat – be it physical, emotional, spiritual or relational.

As I ventured out, I actually found that my relationship with Him grew. I discovered a new level of walk with Him. Prior to this, I had become spiritually indifferent and lukewarm, cruising along with the comforts of the tent life. God’s intention was for me to grow in faith – and the best way to accomplish that was to bring new challenges into my life.

More than that, He was my Very Great Reward! I should not be too concerned about business success or the financial payout – but rather be focused on having more of God in my life! The wonderful truth is this – in having God, we possess all things through Him, and He was the guarantee that we would be successful. I rediscovered my love for Him and new zest for life.

Stepping out with God is a blast, and there is nothing more wonderful than to walk in the will of God.

Denis

Look at the stars

Fifty is too old to start a new practice. You do it when you are a rising consultant in your late 30s or early 40s. When you get to 50, you are thinking of slowing down, taking life easy and cruising along. But the decision to leave meant that I would need to actually step up and expend a lot of energy doing even the simple things – as I would not have the support system I enjoyed in TTSH.

Having worked for more than 20 years at TTSH – I did not think I would be leaving. I was already senior consultant, and was beyond most of the office politics and had tenure and protected leave. An enviable position, secure in the midst of recession and economic uncertainty. Yet I was feeling restless and I had asked the Lord if there was something else for me, and if I should leave. This happened at the beginning of 2008 and I heard Him tell me, “It’s OK if want to leave, and it’s OK if you want to stay!” Previously, the answer had always been a resounding “NO”

I was surprised. My reasons for remaining in service at TTSH revolved around the opportunity to impact and encourage my colleagues (especially junior doctors) to live for the Lord in the workplace, paid leave to go on mission trips, and not need to look after a business and worry about money. I had also thought that private practice was all about chasing after money (I have a different view now but I will get to that later). So I told the Lord, “If you want me to leave, you have to get someone I really trust to approach me.”

I didn’t think too much about it and so it was a great shock to me when Eng Hseon asked me out to lunch in Sept 08 and asked me to join him to set up Thomson Women Cancer Centre. This was 2 weeks before I was due to leave for refresher HMDP and it was too late for me to pull out of the arrangements. I decided to put out a “fleece” like Gideon in the Bible. I told God that if this was from Him, He had to ensure the following conditions were met:

I must be comfortable with all the partners in the project
I would not be required to put out alot of money (I did not want to go into debt or take a large loan at this juncture of my life)
Someone else would handle the setting up and operations of the clinic
I would not be required to do publicity or promote myself
They would have to be prepared to wait for me to serve out my bond with TTSH

To my surprise, all the conditions were met! I was still hesitant and asked God to provide me with independent confirmation from Scripture or a specific word about this. I went off to Australia for a month and returned without having heard clearly from God. I arrived back in Singapore on Saturday evening, and the next day, I had planned to skip a leadership meeting at church, except that my lunch kaki asked for a lift to the meeting. We ended up going and the Lord spoke to me through a short devotion that was shared by a visiting pastor. He shared from Gen 15:5

He (God) took him (Abram) outside and said, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.”

I felt God say to me, “TTSH is the tent you have been living in – and it provides you with shelter, but it also limits you. I want you to go outside and look at all that I have planned for you!” After that, I felt that I had no option but to leave TTSH, if I wanted to experience God’s purposes for me. Like our father of faith, Abram who left his home, his family, his comfort zone and journeyed with God to the promised land, I would have to abandon all I knew and trust Him to lead me.

Denis

EYES OF FAITH

Mark 9
2Six days later, Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, and brought them up on a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them;
3and His garments became radiant and exceedingly white, as no launderer on earth can whiten them.
4Elijah appeared to them along with Moses; and they were talking with Jesus.
5Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three tabernacles, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
6For he did not know what to answer; for they became terrified.
7Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is My beloved Son, listen to Him!”
8All at once they looked around and saw no one with them anymore, except Jesus alone.
9As they were coming down from the mountain, He gave them orders not to relate to anyone what they had seen, until the Son of Man rose from the dead.
10They seized upon that statement, discussing with one another what rising from the dead meant.
11They asked Him, saying, “Why is it that the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”
12And He said to them, “Elijah does first come and restore all things. And yet how is it written of the Son of Man that He will suffer many things and be treated with contempt?
13″But I say to you that Elijah has indeed come, and they did to him whatever they wished, just as it is written of him.”

Malachi 4
5″Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD.
6″He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.”

Peter, James and John Jesus’ innermost circle of disciples were allowed to glimpse the glorified Jesus with Moses and Elijah. They saw without understanding and wanted to do something for the situation. Peter though terrified, took the initiative and offered to build shelters for them to stay in.

God’s take on this…
“This is My beloved Son, listen to Him!”

Many times sitting and waiting for God’s perspective on a matter helps us much more than launching straight in and expending our energies on busyness that is unnecessary.

THOUGHT
We need eyes of faith to see what Jesus is doing today.
Only from this base can we truly build for the Kingdom.

Kat

TWO REALITIES.

Mark 9
2Six days later, Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, and brought them up on a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them;
3and His garments became radiant and exceedingly white, as no launderer on earth can whiten them.
4Elijah appeared to them along with Moses; and they were talking with Jesus.
5Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three tabernacles, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
6For he did not know what to answer; for they became terrified.

Two realities met,
The glory of God touched the earth.
The grind of the mundane was temporarily eclipsed by the presence of God.
With Jesus stood Elijah and Moses.

Moses the law giver.
Elijah the prophet of God who represented Him in a decadent and sinful time.

When you stand on the peak of a mountain in a mountain range and look to the left you see other peaks. When you look to the right there are still others.
In God’s economy that which has already happened serves to support that which will happen.
At the Mount of Transfiguration, for a moment in time Moses and Elijah stood with Jesus and three terrified disciples eye-witnessed it.

On that mountain top God poured out for a brief moment a panoramic glimpse of the mountain peaks in His Kingdom.

That which was promised in Malachi is happening, the fullness of which is even more glorious than can be imagined.
There stood Jesus in His rightful glory, so magnificent that it terrified those who lived with Him

Malachi 4
4″Remember the law of Moses My servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel.
5″Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD.
6″He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.”

THOUGHT
We serve an infinite God whose mission is to restore all things to Himself.
Let us live in this reality.

Kat

TRANSFIGURATION GLORY

Denis and myself run an intergenerational cell from home.
This cell comprises family groups and in it are many mischievous and energetic boys.
On one of the cell days I had a particularly trying work day and came home emotionally tired.
That night the boys seemed particularly active and disruptive and in my discouragement I wanted to give up.
“Why am I doing this?” I asked myself.
As I slept over the matter I woke up the next day knowing that the source of my discouragement was not because the cell was not effective but because I was not feeling appreciated.

The remedy for the problem was not to give up, or even to have better materials but to have a changed heart. Teach me to love them I prayed for if I loved them then any teaching or correction I bring will be with the right spirit.

Change my heart Lord I prayed…and as I prayed I reflected that what I was going through was nothing like what Jesus went through.
He went through purposeful slander, malice, persecution and death.

The little boys meant no harm, they were just engrossed in their own world and at this point in time have not the maturity to know better.

Jesus too knew that those who killed Him did not have the maturity to know better and He prayed as He hung on the cross for God to forgive them for they did not know what they were doing.

There are times in our lives when God turns His face away from us so that we can better represent His love to others.

Jesus was soon to go through such a time.
On the Mount of transfiguration before Jesus’ last journey to Jerusalem God stepped in and clothed Jesus in all the glory that was His due. God soaked Him in glory, in affirmation and in love.

Our Father does not turn His face away from us lightly.
In fact He never not sees us. He always knows where we are.
It is just that at times He chooses to be silent. To allow us to walk through seemingly hard terrain, to be misunderstood, slandered or not appreciated. He does this not to neglect us but to mold us into His image and to allow others to see Jesus’ love in us.
After all love without context is meaningless.

As I prayed so the Lord answered, and He brought me up a mountain to see His Son clothed in splendor prepared to forfeit all for me.
He showed me that any temporary lack will never be forgotten and as He poured into Jesus the hope and perspective of His glory so too He poured into me this truth.

Mark 9
1And Jesus was saying to them, “Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.”
2Six days later, Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, and brought them up on a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them;
3and His garments became radiant and exceedingly white, as no launderer on earth can whiten them.
4Elijah appeared to them along with Moses; and they were talking with Jesus.
5Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three tabernacles, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
6For he did not know what to answer; for they became terrified.
7Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is My beloved Son, listen to Him!”

As I waited I received a glimpse of the glory of God, a taste of the hope of that glory and I knew that the fatigue of the day was just that fatigue and rest was all I needed.

THOUGHT
The Lord makes all things new.

Kat

LIFE EXCHANGE

Mark 8
34And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.
35″For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.
36″For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?
37″For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
38″For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

I have been to quite a few airports and I still think that Singapore’s Changi airport is the best I have been to.
If life were a transit lounge I would spend it at Changi Airport.
It has clean loos, working cool air-conditioners, good ambience, comfortable clean lounge chairs, food, happening shops, free internet and much much more.

I have been to airports that you can smell before you can see and which have more mosquitoes than planes.
These airports however do lead to interesting destinations.
If the destination matters then perhaps we should be more forgiving of the airport.

Jesus asked the crowds and His own disciples these questions…
“What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?
“What will a man give in exchange for his soul?

What do we value so much that in its pursuit we forfeit our souls?

It is better to bear with inconvenience and hardship now than to forfeit all.
It is better to choose our course by our destination than to go no where and stay forever in the best transit lounge we can find.

THOUGHT
Let us follow Jesus and not be ashamed of what He stands for, for Jesus is surely coming again in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.

Kat