Heads-up! This article discusses potentially uncomfortable topics like illness, aging and death. If you choose to proceed, do so with heart and mind wide open 🙂 I started writing this in the final week of December 2021 – as apt a time as any to reflect on topics like love, loss, decline – even what …
One of my many childhood memories is of a time my father took me to Muar’s riverbank to watch migratory birds nesting in the mangroves at the end of the year. I chased after the herons and egrets to catch them. My father burst into laughter as he chased after me! Well, I was young! …
Harriet Tubman was a 5-foot short, black, poor, illiterate, epileptic, divorced, remarried, and widowed, non-pacifist Christian who, in the 91 years of her life, was born into slavery, traded as a slave, hunted as a runaway, and called Conductor, Black Moses, Spy, General, Nurse, and Mother Tubman.
She conducted hundred of people out of slavery into freedom on the underground railway. She recruited and inspired hundreds of black men to fight in the American civil war (1861-1865) over slavery.
In this article I speak about German-speaking people who migrated from Europe three centuries ago. I discuss why they left, how they chose where to go, how the British government and public responded to them, and a survival strategy they adopted. I end by pointing out some key themes which can help us think about our responses to refugees. I provide three links to related resources and a link to a song recorded by Bangsar Lutheran Church.
Ever heard of the Masoretic Text? Know what it means? Know why it’s important? The Masoretic Text is relevant to this series on Nehemiah because the introduction in my commentary on Nehemiah says “the Masoretic notes on EzraNehemiah were not placed after each book, but after Nehemiah, a proof that the Masoretes regarded EzraNehemiah as …
The language of daily commerce and interaction in Nehemiah’s Jerusalem was Aramaic. But Nehemiah was very passionate about Hebrew. He even cursed, beat, and pulled out the hair of some fathers whose children hadn’t been taught Hebrew. Why? In Nehemiah chapter 8, we read of a day when a great crowd of people camped …
I attended church services during my last two years as a student – also my first two years as a Christian. The preacher was invariably our pastor. I later learned that the elders, who had discerned God’s voice and called him to be pastor, had been adamant that God had called him to preach and …
On the 21st of February, 1944, after 8 months in prison, Dr Alfons Wachsmann, in Brandenburg prison in Berlin, Germany, wrote a letter to his sister Minka. It’s first line is “At three o-clock I must die.” Before his arrest and incarceration on 23rd June 1943, he had served for 15 years as parish priest …
Most of us have seen the following words, often on placards at protests. Some of us know that a man called Martin Niemoller spoke them: First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a socialist.Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— …
The clothes I wore the first time I attended a service made me look like green veggie stuck in the sparkling teeth of a TV news reader. The church was packed with people in their Sunday best. The men wore suits and ties. The women were poles of elegance, topped by hats. I had on …
