HEB 11:24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the
son of Pharaoh's daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the
people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time.

I delayed the publication of this week's summary because the coming week,
there will be no session; so this will be for 2 weeks. As usual, it is not
because Dr Tong is taking a well-deserved break, but because he is holding
theological seminars this week in Taipei and KaoShiong, and the Hong Kong
Gospel Rally at Hong Hum Indoor Stadium (seating capacity 14,000) next week.
His Taipei seminar would be especially tiring because he is squeezing in two
seminars a day due to the high cost of rental. Let us all uphold him in
prayer. He is a person who does not know what rest is (the other person I
know is Dr Quek Swee Hua of BGST). One of his own favorite song is "Yuan Wo
Wei Ni Shao Jin" (May I be totally burnt for you), a traditional Chinese
hymn with stirring but pretty strong lyrics (to those English-helicopter
people), where the chorus calls for the individual to be burned to ashes for
the LORD. He often sings it with gusto, because he truly lives it.

The lesson this Sunday was once again powerful and very moving. From the
pulpit, I could see many people wiping away tears as he spoke.

Tong started by reinforcing last week's lesson on verse 24; how Moses was
able to set his personal value because he had faith, because he knew his
place as one in the eternal kingdom of God, because he had a vision from
God, and because he was utterly responsible to his people. Tong kept
emphasizing on the great luxuries that Moses could have obtained, since the
Bible described him as being extraordinary in looks, words and deeds, and
that he had acquired all knowledge of Egypt.

Tong went on to talk about the encounters of Moses. He first encountered the
Egyptian bullying the Israelite, and went on to kill this Egyptian. Again,
Tong said this episode illustrated the fact that Moses must have been a very
strong man for him to be able to kill an Egyptian supervisor of construction
(whom he believes should be big and strong as well). Moses must have thought
that he had done his people a great favour, and that there will be peace
since he has corrected racial discrimination here.

But Exodus went on to tell us that the next day, Moses witnessed a quarrel,
this time between his own people. Tong expounded on this point, and said
that many a times, we think that so long as we solve some problems here and
there, we will have peace. In reality, after we get rid of racial
discrimination, we still fought among ourselves. This of course testify to
the depravity of the human heart.

Tong emphasized that although Moses escaped to the wilderness, the whole
thing started because he had chosen to be with his people, as Hebrews 11:25
said. Moses saw the power above powers, authority above authorities, throne
above thrones to be with God, and not with man, and so he was steadfast.
Because he was so crystal clear about his role and value on earth, he was
willing to suffer with his people rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin.

Tong said that the reason why many churches cannot have true revival is
because many people simply want to do ministry without being with the
people. He said that he has heard of many people who told him that they
wanted to be theologians, or bible teachers, rather than pastors. This of
course is because it is easy to teach and lecture, but difficult to pastor.
Tong declared that clearly, the Bible teaches us that the preaching of the
gospel, the teaching of the gospel and the pastoring of God's people; all
three are interlinked and cannot be separated. One cannot simply say he is
preaching the gospel, but have no part in training and teaching. One also
cannot simply say that he only is gifted to teach, but refuses to pastor.
Preaching, teaching and pastoring are all one and the same thing in
ministry. He challenged all present to wake up and walk out of our ivory
tower, and into the masses. We are to wipe away their tears, dress their
wounds, listen to their sorrows and help them. I personally am encouraged by
this challenge. I too have met so many people who just want to talk about
ministry all day long without actually doing anything about it.

Tong then related two real incidents that were very moving.

In the first incident, one of Tong's friend resides in Chicago, and is a
pastor. This person has a son who told the father that he would want to
consider going into full-time ministry, but he is not sure how. So maybe he
will join a short-term missions trip to the Philippines and test the water
so to speak. The father agreed, and the son took off with a team of people.
The first week, he wrote back to the father and said that he is not used to
the place... the team went to minister to people who live by picking up food
and goods from rubbish dumps (some 500,000 to 1 million Filipino live like
this; the most famous dump is called 'smokey mountain'; so named because the
fermenting rubbish heaps raises smoke). The second week, the son said that
he is beginning to get used to the place. After that, there was no more
news.

The father got anxious and tried hard to contact the son, but could not. In
desperation, he flew to Manila and went to the missions agency to look for
his son. They told him the son has been seen in a certain location, and the
father had a very difficult time tracking him down because there is no
address, streets or numbering system in the slums. When he finally found the
place where his son lived, he found himself in the midst of a flooded slum
dwelling. The place is flooded because there is no sewerage system, and
human waste was floating all over the places. He had to wade through the
dirty water to reach his son's hut, where he found his son, living in a
place with a bed just inches above floating human waste.

The father could not take it, and asked the son why he stayed there instead
of returning back to Chicago. He could enrol intot he seminary if he wanted
to be in full-time ministry and have a decent life. Why would he spend his
days here? The son replied that the Holy Spirit has moved him to stay, and
suffer with the people of God.

Tong said that the father related this story to him, and although the father
is a pastor, he still cannot get over this, and cannot understand why the
son would rather suffer with the poorest of the poor than to have an easier
life.

The second incident was related to Tong by another of his friend, living in
Boston. This person was a pastor in China, and had gone to jail because of
his faith. He left China with his wife, using his wife as an excuse because
she had TB and needed treatment. Together, they started a small church in
Boston. They have a son, who was brilliant in school. The son told the
father that he wanted to be a medical missionary, and completed his medical
studies dutifully. After that, he went to Bangkok to work among the people.

When his father went to Bangkok to visit him, the father discovered that
actually the son is working about AIDS patients in the slums. The son's work
was so good, that there were certificates of commendation hanging on the
wall of his slum clinic, issued by the US Whitehouse. The father does not
even know that the son's ministry was so well-regarded, because he never
said anything. So the father witnessed the son working day and night with
AIDS patients.

On the day of his departure, the son spent alot of time bringing the father
to the airport because of the traffic jam.. At the airport, the son asked
the father to forgive him, because for the past few days, the son did not
tell the father that the bed he slept on was used for AIDS patients, because
he has no other beds, and could not afford to put the father in a hotel.

The father told Tong in tears that he thought that he loves the LORD and had
suffered for him in jail in China. Now he knows that his son loves the LORD
more than he does, because he is willing to suffer with God's people in
order to preach the gospel. He is convinced that his son will receive much greater reward in heaven than he does.

Tong said that these people are like Moses, for they all caught the spirit
of Christ. Tong concluded by saying that one of the key problems of the
church and church leaders today is that we only associate the guidance of
the Holy Spirit to situations when we go from suffering to success, from
poverty to wealth, from a ministry in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand to a
ministry in Europe or America. Did the Holy Spirit not guide Jesus Christ to
come and suffer with His people? Did the Holy Spirit not guide Abraham to
live 100 years in tent, moving from his luxury in Mesopotamia to a normadic
lifestyle? Did the Holy Spirit not lead Moses to go suffer with his people?
To have the spirit of Christ is to be willing to suffer for Him. We should all aim to suffer within His will, especially together with His people.

Tong of course have an unique theological understanding of suffering. One of
his key seminar is the theology of suffering, and I believe that his
understanding in this area is significantly unique, and will in due time be
recognised. One of the things I remember most would be his illustration that
few people realise it, but Jesus Christ was led by the Holy Spirit to be
tempted by the devil (Matthew 4 and Luke 4 both say this), so simply
classifying the guidance of the Holy Spirit as necessarily prosperity or
health inducing is dead wrong.

The session was very charged up, as it ended with a powerful singing of the
song I mentioned earlier. The audience seemed to be caught up by the
preaching. The preaching must have affected Tong himself, as he went into
deep prayer behind the pulpit while we sang. After the closing prayer, he
shook my hand and insisted that we exchange pens as souvenirs. I gave him my
free-sample pen, and he gave me his Mont Blanc, ignoring my strong protest.

END

Disclaimer: This summary does NOT represent the official position of STEMI (Stephen Tong Evangelistic Ministry International), and is the personal opinion of the author, expressed without prejudice. Expressed opinions are meant for academic discussions only.