The recent Bud Light (a beer brand) boycott was a reality check for the “woke” supporters in the US. The US had caused a lot of controversies, both within and without, by their advocacy of “wokism”. This ideology is too extensive to discuss here, suffice to say that it is totally against the word of God in nature. Examples of its beliefs include LGBTQ+, abortion rights, YAP (Youth Attracted Person, basically pedophile). You get the idea. The last thing you want to be complacent about is that US is far away. The strong influence of social medias and the tenacity of the US pushing such terrible messages cannot be underestimated. The only counter to such influences is a strong church, and a strong church needs to know the word of God well.

Biblical literacy within the church is very low, even in Singapore. The desire to know God’s word had gone down. It is all about experiencing the feeling of God. Sing a few uplifting songs, listen to some uplifting motivating messages, feel good. That’s all that matters. Modern Christians are getting soft, really soft. The superficial understanding of scripture and its demands will put many into the wrong side of heaven. This is not helped with the weak culture of the churches today.

Part of the problem is weak pastors who dare not speak the truth with conviction. They are more interested in quantity than quality of members. Of course, both are important but not helping people to live right with God is an abomination.

The other part of the problem is the members. Many treat the church as a community center rather than a place to grow in holiness. We can understand that living a holy life in the context of today’s world will definitely disadvantage anyone. At the end of the day, a strong church culture is built on simply ‘read the bible, pray every day, live it out, love one another.’ It is simple but extremely difficult.

Brothers and sisters, it is easy to quote ‘I had fought the good fight” but let us work hard to live it out.

God bless,
In Christ’s service,

Barry Leong

最近百威啤酒（Bud Light啤酒品牌）遭受抵制，对美国“觉醒”的支持者是一个真实的检验。美国因为鼓吹“觉醒主义”，对内和对外都引起很多的争议。这种意识形态太广泛了，无法在此讨论，却也足以说明它在本质上是完全违反了上帝的话语。例如，其信念中包括支持同性恋社群、堕胎的权力、YAP（Youth Attracted Person恋慕年幼者，基本上就是恋童癖）。你明白了。你最不愿意沾沾自喜的就是美国太遥远了。社交媒体的强大影响力，以及美国顽强推动这些可怕信息的态度是不容小觑的。唯一能够应对这些影响的是一个强大的教会，而一个强大的教会必须深入的理解上帝的话语。

即使在新加坡，在教会以内对圣经的认知是非常低的。对认识上帝话语的渴慕也逐渐消失了。这主要是在于经历上帝的感觉。唱几首挑旺的诗歌，激励人心的信息，使人感觉良好，这才是所在乎的。现代的基督徒越来越软弱，真的软弱。对圣经及其要求的理解很肤浅，这将会把很多人置于天堂错误的一边。今天教会的脆弱的文化对此却毫无帮助。

一部分原因是软弱的牧者不敢坚定的说出真理。他们在乎会友的人数多于会友的素质。当然，两者都是重要的，但不能帮助人与上帝和好相处却是可憎的。

另一个原因就是会友本身。很多人把教会当作是社区中心过于一个在圣洁中成长的地方。我们可以明白要在现今的世界里活出圣洁的生命，肯定会对一些人不利。但最终，一个强大的教会文化是建立在“阅读圣经，每日祷告，活出生命，彼此相爱”。这看似简单却是极为艰难。

弟兄姐妹，要引用“美好的仗我已经打过了”是容易的，但让我们努力把它活出来。

上帝赐福，
在基督里同工的，

Barry Leong