Paving the Wei

In the series of "Life after..." by the Straits Times published 14 Sep 2026, producer/director Desmond Tan, 51, was commenting on his Stage 4 cancer diagnosis. Due to his workload, he would survive on 2 hours of sleep, 2 cups of coffee and 2 cans of Red Bull. In his interview, he mentioend that there was a prominent director of commercials also had the same type of cancer, who has since died.  Not only that but the list included other colleagues with breast, pancreatic, lung and colon cancer. In his own words, "many of us are relatively young and healthy. That really got me thinking that there is something wrong with the industry." He continued that, "I actually think that sleep is very underrated and people do not talk about (it) enough." In the same newspaper, there was another article with the title "Weighing a promotion against work life balance". The question that was asked if whether it is worth to give up a promotion for better...

Sermon by Pastor Daniel Khong at the Faith Community Baptist Church baptism weekend on 12 Sep 2026. Becoming a Christian is a journey...it is an ongoing walk, some with big steps,  some small and some missteps. The important is we progress. One important step is baptism or water baptism. In the verses  Matthew 28:19-20, Scripture  asks us to go and make disciples and also to baptise them in the name.of the father, son and holy  spirit. The origin of the word baptism means "covered with fluid". Before Jesus started his public ministry, Jesus got baptised. Why is it important, and significance of baptism? 1. Baptism is an act of obedience We are commanded to get baptised and teach others to obey everything Jesus has commanded. The idea of being cleansed by water was in the Torah - where the priest has to clean himself. When Jesus approached John, he insisted that he is baptised by John. When John refused, Jesus replied that it should be done for he must car...

Recap: in the previous  post I wrote about how we  should start reading to our kids as early as possible to ensure success in their future. This is to make reading into a lifelong habit while they are still at a point where we can very much control or influence their lives. For those who say they cannot control their kids at this age...well, wait 'til they grow older. Trust me, it gets tougher.  The unfortunate fact is that many parents are lazy and chose to make the handphone or iPad into a habit. Yes, I get it - we are all tired after work, and we want somentime for ourselves. The issue is that this becomes convenient and when it is already a habit, it is almost impossible to wean because let's be honest - our mobile phone is our life.  If we as adults cannot stop putting down our phones, how can our kids who grew up on phones do it? So, what are the other pitfalls that parents can do (or not do) that can be a showstopper for our kids' success?  These are the...

Sermon on FCBC's 40th anniversary by Ps Daniel Khong. Now that we have passed 40 years, how can FCBC remain faithful? 1. Hold on to our childlikeness As Ps Daniel looked back, the conclusion is that a lot of things that were done in the last 40 years were done in naivety, with a childlike faith. There was no experience but they did it anyway.  In Exodus 14, Moses cried out to God after leaving Egypt. He saw the Red Sea in front. When he cried out to God, the answer from God is, "Why are you cryingnout to me? Raise your staff...." And God parted the sea. It happened again when Joshua crossed the river Jordan, and again where God caused the walls of Jericho came down...all by marching and blowing trumpets. What do children do? They do first, ask later. They do without thinking about consequences. They believe everything the parents say. God wants us to be like a little child.  2. Keep on growing maturity Growing old happen naturally, growing up is no...

I am a first-time parent of a young child. What is the one thing I must do now to ensure the success of my child? Interesting question, and a very common one for first-time parents. I asked the same question over twenty years ago. Obviously, the most common answer is "it depends" but after seeing some success with 2 kids going to the top 10 universities in the world (and speaking to countless parents with the same experience), I probably can answer this with a reasonable confidence that it is the correct answer. The answer: read to your child.  To many, this a pretty obvious answer, but knowing does not equal to doing. When I say read to your child, it means to do this on a regular basis and to set up a cadence for doing this for years. For me, it starts with 5 minutes at first and then extend this to 10 minutes, then 15 minutes and then even for 30 minutes. As your child progresses, you can then point to the word and have your child repeat what you have read. There will come...

Sermon by Pastor Daniel Khong at the Faith Community Baptist Church on 15 Aug 2026. In celebrations, we often reminisce, recall and remember the past things, the good and bad experiences and how we went thru it. Scripture: Psalms 78 talks about remembering what God has done so that we would put our trust in God, we would not forget and keep his commands.   We all know we would forget, but we will often say "I will not forget" that we would take notes nor write it down. Deut 6:12 warns us to beware, lest we forget the Lord who brought us out of the land of Egypt. Dietrich Bonhoerffer wrote that Satan does not here fill us with hatred of God, but fogetfullness of God. What must we do to avoid forgetting God's works in our lives? 1. Recall God's works To recall is to delibrately and actively think of past things. In Psalms 78, Asaph wrote how about the good things God did such as providing food and water, have manna and birds. While Asaph did not experience t...