What I have found over the years is that, while there is a place for different churches and agencies to be engaged in mission works, no one church or agency can do the work by itself. Our Lord has reminded us that “the harvest is plentiful.” The task is so huge that Christians have to work together to reach out to people who have yet to receive the Good News of Jesus Christ.

My burning bush experience (Exodus 3) some time ago was when I left the air-conditioned comfort of studying in the university library to walk the streets of Geylang with a ministry to foreign sex workers. Like Moses, I was curious to see not from afar but close.

We begin this devotional by raising a simple question, ‘What would we think of an employer who sends his workers on an assignment but does not provide the means needed to accomplish the task?’ Would we say that he is a reasonable and therefore good person? When the Lord Jesus gave His Church the Great Commission, was He asking us to serve the Father’s will and glory with our own means?

Over the years I’ve come to learn that “fulfill the Law” is a rabbinic idiom that is found not only in Jewish sayings but even in the New Testament. Some suggest that Paul’s letter was an effort to communicate how complementary the Laws of the Torah and the Love of Christ were.

My first mission trip was to Southern Thailand 40 years ago. Since then, by God’s grace and mercies, ministry has taken me to various destinations in Southeast Asia as well as further afield in China and India. Each trip was different, yet much similarities remain. If we opt for the “same old, same old”, then we will run the danger of becoming too familiar and begin to take things for granted.

About 10 years ago, the Lord led me to reside in a town in the United States where guns and drugs ruled some of these streets. A group of young people from my church wanted to make a difference by organising a block party for residents in that neighbourhood again. I decided to join them in their efforts.