GRACEWORKS: The Author: SOO-INN TAN



The extract below is taken from Graceworks as shown above. It is an interesting way of looking at God's rest comes first in a full day, and then His work in the second part of the day in co-labourship with Him. Would you like to begin your day with rest? See below the write-up by brother Soo-Inn Tan:

Commentary: Night and Day
Sometimes, something stares you in the face but you don't see it till someone points it out to you. It never occurred to me that the Hebrew structuring of a day was night/day rather than day/night. But there it is in the creation account. Genesis 1:31 reads: "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day. (NIV)" The sixth day, like all the other days, starts with the evening and ends with the morning. Never saw it till I read Eugene H. Peterson's Working the Angles.



If we structure our days as day and night, we begin the day with our work, we toil throughout the day and when night comes, we take the rest we deserve. Along the way we ask God to help us in our work. But a night and day sequence means we begin the day by going to sleep. While we sleep God does His work. When we awake the day is half over and God invites us to join Him in what He has initiated. We are called to significant work but we remember that it is God's work and it is by His grace that we are allowed to co-labour with Him.

Some of us may be slackers but too many among us take our work, should I say take ourselves, too seriously. It seems we need to be reminded daily that the world rests on God's shoulders, not on ours. We need to be reminded daily that God is the main mover in life and He does it out of sheer grace. He doesn't really need our help, but as another expression of grace, He allows us to participate in His work.

There is much that is wrong in the world. We want to see our churches renewed. We want to see our governments govern with justice and compassion. We want to see a lost humanity come to follow the Saviour who died for them. We want to see the end to wars and violence. We want to see the environment healthy and thriving. The question we need to ask is this: Is God concerned for these things?

We know the answer. Christ came announcing the Kingdom of God. With His death and resurrection and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, God has begun His programme of establishing His reign on earth. One day Christ will return to finish the job. In the meantime He is working out His purposes in history. He goes ahead. He calls us to follow.

Energy Saving Car Pool?

Extract from When Faith and Belief Collide

God never wastes pain. He always uses it to accomplish His purposes. And His purpose is for His glory and our good. Therefore, we can trust Him when our hearts are aching or our bodies are racked in pain. Trusting God in the midst of our pain and heartaches means that we accept it from Him….. An attitude of acceptance says that we trust God, that He loves us, and knows what is best for us.

Fixing our eyes on Jesus keeps the big picture ever in front of us - that God is on His throne, that we are loved, that He is at work in the present moment accomplishing His purposes. Even this situation will work for His glory and my good. No matter how strong the enemy appears or how many wounds we receive, we already know how the story will end, and there is ample cause of joy in this.

But the most substantial reason for our joy is in the delight we find in God Himself. Paul’s joy (imprisoned and suffering) was tied to a Person, for he had fixed his eyes on Jesus. He considered everything a loss in comparison to knowing God (Phi 3:8).

Pure in Heart

Matt 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

I was pondering on what it means by, ‘pure in heart’. Looked up an Open Bible and found this prize:

As unadulterated water is said to be pure, and gold without alloy is pure gold, so the pure heart is the undivided heart where there is n conflict of loyalties, no cleavage of interests, no mixture of motives, no hypocrisy and no insecurity.

It is whole-heartedness God-wards.

The reward of the undivided heart is the vision of God. No vision of God can come to the heart that is unclean because it is out of harmony with the nature and character of God.

Pure in heart is a state of heart reserved completely for God and freed from all worldly distractions. In the specialized sense purity came to mean freedom from sexual pollution, particularly in the sexual life, though the NT does not teach that sexual activity is polluting in itself and, indeed, makes it clear that rightly ordered sexual behavior is not (cf Heb13:4). Nevertheless, the NT teaches the sanctity of the body as the temple of the Holy Spirit (cf 1Cor6:19f) and inculcates the duty of self-restraint and self-denial even to the extent of personal loss. Purity is thus the spirit of renunciation and of the obedience which brings every thought and feeling and action into subjection to Christ. It begins within and extends outwards to the entire life, cleansing all the centres of living and controlling all the movements of body and spirit.
(all the above are completely taken from the Open Bible)


A very rich and lucid explanation which I enjoy reading over and over again. With understanding of the above enunciates, “No wonder I have yet to see God!”

I Still Do Not Understand

This first episode of my visa application is over. But I came to understand more about myself. I think the Lord is revealing another side of me to me which I did not see.

Besides, I did not realize I could be so emotionally disturbed and confused. I was a little distressed the night before I went to find out the result of my application. And I woke up with not much peace upon my heart, and also had a strange dream the night before and did not rest very well.

But praise the Lord He prepared me of His love and sovereignty in the morning before I left for the High Commission. With the confidence of friends' prayers for me and the assurance of God's sovereignty, I went to face the music. On the way though, I thought of not going or delaying another day, somehow there is this tiny apprehension of knowing the outcome; thank God my mind was stronger, I went nonetheless.

I received the result with calmness and courtesy (to the officer whom I went to see for the third time in two weeks). But as the reality sinks in slowly, I began to feel depressive and close to tears. I do not understand the reason behind the delay and especially my return will help to ease the busyness at the centre. I do not understand also the reasons behind the whole ordeal. First, it was like a breeze to get the visa so long as I sign up as a student with this institute though the cost was not reasonable. And after that, the letters were submitted but to my surprise, the officer rejected and requested for another letter. It then gave me a thinker that perhaps the visa is not going to come. The letter came and this time I was more prepared to know that it could be a 'no'.

As I looked back on those days (after the first attempt failed) of reflection, I remembered that I did sense a flow of peace as I sat at His feet one morning praying about the situation. The peace seemed to tell me that He would be working it out for me and I would receive my visa as planned and I could return as planned or with a few days' delay.

I have also told my students in the centre that I will return to teach them on the 17 January. With a staff leaving the centre prematurely and a new class that was scheduled to start in the beginning of the year, it makes the staff strength doubly short-handed.

I still do not understand this situation. But I know the Lord Who is good and Who loves me and has the power to do all things. He is in control of it and knows what is good for me. Rom 8:28

A Pair of Slippers

I was having my boy students for the first time in the afternoon (I have been having boys for my morning class) and one of the boys came in with this pair of slippers.
This pair of slippers caught my attention and I was intrigued by how much it has been stretched of its lifespan. And it just caused me to think of the kids back home of the same age and their possession of branded expensive slippers and sandals that have been so much taken for granted. Or even for myself, I don’t remember possessing such a pair of worn-out slippers. It was in witnessing the survival with the minimum possible and in being content with it that touched my heart. The solution (my country people has the propensity to want to find a solution to something that is considered ‘a problem’, something imperfect or a shortfall of a certain standard) was not to be compassionate towards the owner of this pair of slippers and to replace a pair of slippers for him. Most crucially, the lesson that I can draw from is the contentment of this boy and his attitude that tells me physical comfort is immaterial. I asked myself, “How much of physical comfort do I ‘demand’ for myself?” And I wonder to what extent am I willing to let our Lord stretch me to His mould, plan and purposes for my life like the way the slippers have stretched its lifespan.

Last week I visited my students (they are brothers) at their house and saw it for myself the tiny house they are living in. These boys are very keen to learn and are bright. If they had been given a chance to study in a private school, they would have excelled. But living below the poverty line they are deprived of a good education and nutrition. The younger brother has a small body which I consider disproportional to the size of his head. The older brother (they are only one year apart) is a fine young boy who is well-mannered, a little more sensible and eager to learn. My heart breaks whenever I see him in his tight supposedly white uniform but has yellowish spots at different parts of the uniform. This time I really wanted to buy him a white uniform that fits him comfortably but refrained from doing that.

At the end of last week, the mother of another of my boy (12 year-old) student came anxiously to me to want to talk to me about her son. I excused myself from the class and listened to her revelation of her son’s poor attendance in school and that he has been running around the community and has picked up smoking and drinking. Her eyes reveal her desperation and helplessness and she was close to tears. I saw the relief in her eyes when I said I would pray for him and we will see what we could do for him.

As I revealed this boy’s condition to my colleague (local), he nonchalantly said, “It’s like that in this community because in non-private schools, the teacher does not teach or they do not turn up, so the students are easily led away by bad company and vile habits.”

Such is the condition of this community and the vulnerability of the kids in the community. But they are God’s children! We have to release them from the schemes of the evil one!

Just these few weeks, I have heard of a quarrel between two parties along the road near to where my centre is and the quarrel led to one party picking up a pole nearby and hitting the other party with it. And the victim laid on the floor unconscious! And there was another incident where someone hit the windscreen of a car and smashed it into pieces. Yet in a different occurrence, two men extorted money from a pedestrian at the same area in broad daylight and no one came to his aid.


My hope and prayer is that the glory of the Lord shines in this community and transforms it! This community needs Him.

What can I do..... ?

I was told that my boys (the group of students I teach in the morning) go among the rubbish heaps to pick up things that they can find value for in the morning before they come to my class later in the morning.

I was sad to hear that and I was wondering how I would feel if I witnessed any of them doing the pick of the litter. And indeed after three months there, I witnessed two of my boys among the rubbish holding a big empty rice bag concentrating on the heap of litter. My heart went out to them and one of them is just nine years old and the other is fourteen years old. The fourteen year old boy is a hardworking boy and good-natured, I presume he could be spending the time studying if he is not out trying to pick good out of the unwanted. I have a special touch with this boy and I do not understand why. When he is absent I tend to be disappointed. I think partly I know that though he is weak, he is hardworking and I admire him for that. I also recognize that missing one class for him is crucial because he is a little behind the other few boys and he is not as quick to learn new things and I am worried that he would give up.

It is not so simple as just giving up learning English, it could mean getting into bad company and picking up bad habits because the place is notorious for illegal activities in the evening and into the night. It could mean a ruined life. And especially at his age, things turn wayward rather easily.

I have heard and seen people who rely on rubbish picking for a livelihood in Cambodia, Philippines and now in Delhi but I never ever expect to come so close to one. And as I recall, he was down with diarrhea about three weeks ago for a few days and today he is down with vomiting and had missed classes and I just realized yesterday (after seeing him in the rubbish heap) that it is because he is exposed to so much germs and bacteria in the midst of heaps of litter.

Yet, how much can I do? I cannot possibly tell him to stop doing it and that I could render some monetary help. And I cannot deny that this is happening and numb myself and carry on with my life status quo. But what can I do




I can pray for him at least and at most and let Him show that he is loved by the Almighty.