Author: Ronald JJ Wong

Posted on

The Word of the Lord to the Church from Jeremiah 7 (2016)

3-4 The King of the Heavens, the God of the Church says to you: change your ways and I will let you remain in your place. Do not believe what some church leaders say: this is the house of the Lord, this is the house of the Lord, this is the house of the Lord!

5 If you truly change your ways, if you truly treat one another with justice, if you do not oppress the migrants, the single mothers, the poor, the marginalised, or commit violence in word or deed, and if you do not chase after idols like fame, fortune, force or fear, I will let you remain where you are Church, secure, in peace, prospering, where I gave your forefathers.

Continue reading “The Word of the Lord to the Church from Jeremiah 7 (2016)”

Posted on

Finding Rest (Jeremiah 6)

I’m tired. Where can I find rest?

“Thus says the LORD: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.'” – Jeremiah 6:16.

Rest is found on the good way of the ancient paths.

The people of Judah were judged.

Their cities were wells full of oppression, evil, violence, destruction, sickness and wounds (v 6-7).

Their people were greedy for unjust profits. People dealt falsely. Even the prophets and priests declared peace when there was in truth impending disaster which flowed from their evil (v 13-14).

Their people are stubbornly rebellious. They slander (v 28).

The word of the Lord is the object of scorn to them; they do not pleasure in the word (v 10).

This is the picture of people who turn away from the ancient paths.

Where are the ancient paths? How are they to be found?

Stop in your tracks.

Stand by the road.

Look hard with eyes not of flesh but spirit.

Ask for the ancient paths. Seek. Question. Explore.

It is right there. Before you. Beneath your noses. At your bedside. Under your bills and newspapers. In your phone.

The only question then is, will you walk in it? Or will you follow the trail of the people of Judah and say, we will not walk in it?

We need rest for our souls. Rest is waiting for us on the good way of the ancient paths.

Posted on

Letters of the Law: a letter to my 19-year-old self

Had the privilege to participate in this meaningful initiative by some law students. I hope my juniors at their crossroads will be at least a little aided by this reflection, a letter addressed to my 19-year-old self who just resigned himself to accepting NUS Law.

http://www.lettersofthelaw.org/read-a…/ronald-jj-wong-lawyer

“Dear Ronald,

It may be rough for you right now, I know. You are struggling with intellectual skepticism of just about everything. There’s a gnawing void in your heart and soul. You messed up your application to Oxford. You have neither the funds nor a scholarship to go to any of the U.S. colleges offered to you. Your fanciful idea of becoming an investment banker and earning heaps of money so you can retire early seems out of reach. And you might feel disappointed about having to take up the offer from NUS Law. Everything doesn’t make sense to you now.

Believe me. Those things are some of the best things that will happen to you. Because it is in the ashes of those broken ambitions and the intellectual and emotional vacuum of fallen mental frameworks and fractured relationships that you will soon find purpose, meaning and community.

You will finally encounter in a metaphysical way the one through whom everything will become clear. You will find enjoyment not just in studying the law but also in the justice that undergirds it. You will experience a holy dissatisfaction with the conception of justice, or injustice, you will witness. And you will dig in ancient places for the justice which satisfies. Through that, you will find purpose and significance in the one who out of justice and mercy redeems you from the injustice you are complicit in, who calls you to pursue justice and mercy among those who are often left at the margins. This will be better than money or status or whatever idea of the good life you think you could have with your silly fanciful ambitions.

Don’t fuss about grades. Instead, work hard to receive a proper education. Learn as much as you can to be a good lawyer. And when it is time, you will have to make a difficult decision, a leap of faith, as it were, to follow through with the convictions which will brew inside you after the restlessness you will experience from the dissonance between purpose and reality. Uncertainty is the best place in which faith will reap much harvest. So don’t fear the dark. Go with what has been revealed in the light.

Pursuing the things which are good and right is tiring and difficult. Friendships and community and being are more valuable than activism and fighting and working. That will help you to be faithful to whatever you are called to.

And you will have joy. It’s not the ecstatic kind of joy. It’s a quiet joy. It will co-exist with the sehnsucht which will always simmer in your heart. It is both the joy and the yearning which will sustain you to carry on.

Don’t fear. Have faith. It will all be alright at the end of all things.

Peace,

Ronald”

Posted on

Faith and Works of Transformation and Action (James 2)

“You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works” – James 2:22

The faith vs works tension has been debated by the Universal Church since its birth.

Some people think, even Bible translations like the NLT translate, works as “good works”, that is acts of kindness, charity, justice and mercy.

But the 2 examples James, the Bishop of Jerusalem, raised in the passage suggest it is not “good works”. Instead, the “works” refer to any choices and actions of a person.

Continue reading “Faith and Works of Transformation and Action (James 2)”

Posted on

Explanation of Some Proposals to Changes in Singapore Copyright Law

A writer friend wanted some clarification on the proposed changes to Singapore’s Copyright Law. Yes, the Singapore Government is proposing changes and these have impact on many of us, whether professional or amateur creatives; whether a blogger, a novelist, a song writer, a performer, a film maker, a teacher, or a visual artist, etc.
 
 
Posted on

Book Review: Dev Menon, Stirring Stale Waters: How Martin Luther Helps Us Find Joy In Our Baptism

Dev Menon's Stirring Stale Waters: How Martin Luther Helps Us Find Joy In Our Baptism
Just finished reading Dev Menon‘s “Stirring Stale Waters: How Martin Luther Helps Us Find Joy In Our Baptism”. 
 
I dare say this is the best treatment of baptism I have ever come across (well, I haven’t come across that many).
 
It is accessible: at only 80 short pages, I finished it in less than an hour.
 
It is pastoral: I finished it feeling like having gone through baptism was one of the best things that happened to me. He addresses various typical attitudes to baptism: (i) those who feel they are never good enough for it; (ii) those who were confident of their faith, fell away, and now wants a restart; (iii) those who think baptism is unnecessary; (iv) those who question child baptism; and (v) those of us who sit through baptism services feeling like it’s completely irrelevant to us.
 
It is theological: Dev draws from the wells of the Reformation dude, Martin Luther (incidentally, it’s the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation next year) but simplifies it for us.
 
I shamelessly plug for him. Read this book. You will cherish your baptism. You will want to be baptised. You will rejoice at every baptism service. Because you will know the promise of God that you are His beloved.
 
It only costs S$10. Get a copy from him at dev@zionbishan.org.sg.
Posted on

Case Update: Success Elegant Trading Limited v La Dolce Vita Fine Dining Company – SGHC upholds pre-action discovery order in aid of foreign arbitration under O 24 r 6

Singapore Law; Legal; Lawyer

Success Elegant Trading Limited v La Dolce Vita Fine Dining Company [2016] SGHC 159

The Singapore High Court, per Andrew Ang SJ, upheld the Assistant Registrar’s decision in La Dolce Vita Fine Dining Co Ltd v Deutsche Bank AG [2016] SGHC 3 in ordering pre-action discovery of customer bank account information against two banks in respect of their customer’s alleged fraudulent misrepresentations.

Continue reading “Case Update: Success Elegant Trading Limited v La Dolce Vita Fine Dining Company – SGHC upholds pre-action discovery order in aid of foreign arbitration under O 24 r 6”

Posted on

Case Update: ACTAtek, Inc v Tembusu Growth Fund Ltd: SGCA holds wrongful call of event of default as anticipatory repudiatory breach of contract

Singapore Law; Legal; Lawyer

ACTAtek, Inc and another v Tembusu Growth Fund Ltd [2016] SGCA 50 PDF

This case concerned a venture capital fund, Tembusu Growth Fund Ltd (“Tembusu“), suing an investee company ACTAtek Inc., which is part of a group of companies providing identification management solution, under the tort of misrepresentation in relation to two convertible loan agreements and its plan to list on the New Zealand stock exchange. The Singapore Court of Appeal reversed the High Court’s decision below, holding that the venture capital fund was in anticipatory repudiatory breach of the contract by wrongly calling events of default such that the investee company’s plan to list on the NZ stock exchange was derailed. The Court considered the interesting point of law being “what are the legal consequences that flow if an event of default is found to have been wrongly declared and damages are suffered as a result?” ([at [2]). The decision also traversed other issues of law including misrepresentation and the application of Sembcorp Marine Ltd v PPL Holdings Pte Ltd [2013] 4 SLR 193 principles regarding implied terms in contract.

Continue reading “Case Update: ACTAtek, Inc v Tembusu Growth Fund Ltd: SGCA holds wrongful call of event of default as anticipatory repudiatory breach of contract”

Posted on

Advocating for Survivors of ISIS’s Genocide of Christians and Yzidis in Syria and Comforting the Oppressed and Trafficked in the Middle East

Advocating for Survivors of ISIS’s Genocide of Christians and Yzidis in Syria and Comforting the Oppressed and Trafficked in the Middle East

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ALf_6FLNg44

This short film tells the stories of many Syrian Christians who watched their loved ones tortured and killed at the hands of men who hated their religion and their God. The martyrs were unfazed at the hands of their tormentors. “I am blessed because I am persecuted for my Yeshua,” cried a lady who was tied to a pole in the middle of the street in Aleppo, spat on and punched day after day. A man was crucified in the city, having the glory to die in the same manner as his own saviour. These were the stories I heard tonight from Jacqueline and Yvette Isaac, a mother-daughter team of Egyptian Christians who started Roads of Success, a humanitarian NGO which provides support and care to the downtrodden and oppressed, and advocates for those whose stories have been suppressed.

Continue reading “Advocating for Survivors of ISIS’s Genocide of Christians and Yzidis in Syria and Comforting the Oppressed and Trafficked in the Middle East”