One Body, One Spirit, One Lord

The latest slogan or theme most used is the one made common by the Prime Mnister, Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak, 1 Malaysia - People First, Performance Now.

That 1 Malaysia, a slogan meant to promote unity and mutual respect and trust among the different ethnic communities in Malaysia, has stirred up so much heated rhetoric shows how much the tricky goal of unity in Malaysia is and how it will be a challenge for the Prime Minister administration.

Likewise the churches of today are also facing a lot of challenges such as that recorded in Galatians 5 : 19-21 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious : sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.

However, since we [Christians] belong to Christ and live by the Spirit, we should always strive for the fruit of the Spirit that is Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-control and its gifts that is Word of Wisdom, Word of Knowledge, Gift of Faith, Gift of Healings, Working of Miracles, Gift of Prophecy, Discerning of Spirits, Gift of Tongue and Interpretation of Tongue.

Just like the song : PEOPLE OF THE LORD

There is one body, we have one Lord
United in the Spirit, we are going forth
With His praises on our lips
And a sword in our hands
We are marching on with power
As we possess this land
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We are the people of the Lord
We're a holy nation
A chosen generation
Called to show forth His praise
We are the people of the Lord
We're a holy nation
Believers in Jesus
Lifting up our voices to the Lord

1 Corinthians 12 : 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

Ephesians 4 : 4-6 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called -- one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Praise God for 52 years of independence, peace and harmony. Praying that the future of this nation will be built upon justice, righteousness, fairness and integrity.

HAPPY 52ND MERDEKA TO ALL MALAYSIAN

Mum's gems of wisdom

Halimahton Yusof, the mother of wayward Mathematics genius Sufiah Yusof will be offering her advice to the Permata Negara and Permata Pintar programmes to help guide gifted children along the right path in life.
She said parents of gifted children should teach them basic values and not concentrate only on academic performance. Among the values she stressed was having respects for others, especially their parents.
[Extracted from The Star dated 25-08-09 written by Yuen MeiKeng]

Dr Alex Tang, a paediatrician in private practice offer the following suggestions for raising a GENIUS child :-
G is for Growing normally
Parents must ensure that their children are healthy and growing well.
E is for Emotional quotient (EQ)
EQ is the ability to know how to distinguish healthy from unhealthy emotions and how to turn negative emotions into positive ones. Emotionally healthy children are generally better learners with fewer behavioural problems, able to resist peer presure while resolving conflicts and building relationship with others. Children's EQ can be improved by bonding and building good relationships with them.
N is for Nutrition
Balanced and sensible diets is important for children.
I is for Intelligent quotient (IQ)
To enhance children IQ, we should expose them to challenging games, hobbies or art.
U is for Utmost potential
Children must be allowed opportunities to develop their gifting and areas of interest to the utmost potential [not utmost expectation].
S is for Spiritual quotient (SQ)
As with EQ, SQ can be developed and improved. As parents, we are to teach our children to read God's Word, how to pray and love other people. We are also to be role model for our children as our children's concept of God comes from their perception of us, especially the fathers.

Psalm 127 : 3-6 Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one's youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate.

Making Good Money

The Bible shows that wealth can be a blessing from God, it is not always dirty or crooked. Abraham, one of the Bible's heroes of faith, " was very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold " [Genesis 13 : 2]. So how did he get so rich ? Through God's abundant blessing [Genesis 24 : 35].
Job was another Bible hero whom God blessed with great wealth. Job lost everything but stayed faithful to God. Eventually '....the Lord made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before' (Job 42 : 10).
The New Testament examples included Lydia, a devout woman who became prosperous in the cloth business. Lydia trusted in Christ and offered her home as a base for missionaries to stay in and for new Christians to gather for worship and encouragement (Acts 16 : 14-15, 40).

Wealth can be a blessing from God. But the Bible opposes those who "think that godliness is a means to financial gain" (1 Timothy 6 : 5). God does not exist to satisfy greed.
A faithful man will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished. (Proverbs 28 : 20)

It is not always wrong to make money, but it is absolutely wrong to make money supreme or to give ourselves all the credit for our wealth. The Bible says, "Man does not live on bread alone [material things] but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord ... You may say to yourself, 'My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.' But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth" (Deuteronomy 8 : 3, 7-18).

Money is not God, but it is not Satan either. If you trust the Lord Jesus as your Saviour and put God first in your life, then making good money can be enjoyed as a blessing and pursued as a calling. Thank the Lord for the work and the wealth He gives you. Give generously to help out people who cannot help themselves.
God tells His people, "You and your family shall eat and shall rejoice in everything you have put your hand to, because the Lord your God has blessed you" (Deuteronomy 12 : 7).

[Extract from Asian Beacon April/May 2004 written by David Feddes]

Proverbs 3 : 9-10 Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.

As God empowers us with the ability to earn good money, let us be good stewards and use the gift to empower others as well.

Out of Teenagers

For more than 20 years, our home was blessed by the presence of teenagers. But now that our youngest is in her late teens, my wife and I are all out of teenagers.
Those years were full of challenges and demands that sometimes zapped our strength and took all our mental and emotional reserves. We rejoiced the trills of success and struggled through their grieved. As I look back on our experiment in parenting, we noticed some valuable lessons :-

1) Some teens follow life in a straight line, while others zig-zag along life's pathway. It's best to 'zig' with them in love and with courage.
2) Teenagers need unconditional love because they live in a conditional world.

Romans 5 : 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
3) A love of God's Word is vital to successfully transfer faith from one generation to the next.

4) Teens need to develop a relationship with Christ that is based not on rules but on a deep love of Jesus.

John 15:5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
Proverbs 22 : 6
Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.
Psalm 128 : 3
Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your sons will be like olive shoots around your table.

DON'T MERELY SPEND TIME WITH YOUR CHILDREN - INVEST IN IT.

Love Hurts !

Sometimes love sure hurts ! But love is much more than feeling - it's a life-long commitment.

Mothers and fathers sometimes express the difficulties and heartaches of guiding their children through their teen years - " Maybe if they didn't love their children that much it wouldn't be so hard. "

Even though love brings pain and sorrow, what would life be without it ?

In his book The Four Loves, C.S. Lewis wrote :
"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully around with hobbies and little luxuries ; avoid all entanglements ; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness ...... The only place outside heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers ...... of love is hell."
To love is to take risks, to expose our hearts. Sometimes it hurts.

It hurt Jesus Christ, but He kept on loving - even at the cost of His life. And He asked us to

" love one another as I have loved you "[John 15:12].

Truly loving our spouse, that teenager, that neighbour, that colleague is Christlike, and it's better than locking your heart in the coffin of self-centeredness.

Paul showed us that LOVE is the most excellence way as being expressed in 1 Corinthians 13.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Man's Choice or God's Choice

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To err is human .....

Who can hurt us more deeply than those with whom we have created bonds of affection ? They, our siblings, our best friends or even our parents are almost part of us. We idealise them and consequently raise our expectations of them. It's natural to want our lover (or loved ones) to understand, appreciate, and make us feel secure by their commitment and constant presence.

Nothing is quite so painful as being betrayed by someone we hold in high regard - a spouse who cheats, a friend who runs us down, the colleague who unfairly takes credit for our contribution.

There's no doubt that abuse between people who have a responsibility to love each other can be counted among the cruellest and most reprehensible of offences.

Forgiveness that doesn't fight injustice, far from being a sign of courage and strength, shows weakness and false tolerance. It encourages the offender to perpetuate the crime. Forgiving is not the same as excusing them from their moral responsibility. How can we even consider forgiving when we are continuously subjected to abused ?

When someone close hurts our physical, moral or spiritual integrity, we feel assaulted, bruised, violated ... the offender's malice touches the most intimate parts of our being. The offence shakes our innermost peace and harmony, shatters our tranquility and threatens our diginity. Our shadow side emerges.

Emotions we thought we had under control suddenly begin to run amok. Our first reaction may be revenge or to build a wall to dull our self against the pain.

It's impossible to go back after we've been wronged. Either we try to make ourselves believe nothing happened, in which we re-establish the relationship in the context of a lie, or we take advantage of the conflict to review the quality of the relationship and renew it on more solid footing. Can we do this if our partner feels no remorse ? What does pardon consist of ? Not making someone pay. Decision made not out of grim determination, but because we want to heal and grow. We choose to believe in the dignity of the person who hurt, oppressed, or betrayed us.

Behind the spiked veil, we see a fragile person ... like ourselves, capable of changing and evolving. That's why I think forgiveness is the rainbow connecting humanity and the Divine, impossible without Spirit.

To free our offender, we must be free ourselves. What do we forgive ourselves for ? For putting ourselves in situations where we let ourselves be hurt, for putting ourselves down by buying into our attacker's insults, for feeling vulnerable and wanting to stay in love.
[Extracted from Sunday People by Tessie Lim dated 28June 2009]

Philip Yancey listed 3 pragmatic reasons to forgive :-

First - Forgiveness halts the cycle of blame and pain, breaking the chain of ungrace.
Second - Forgiveness loosens the stranglehold of guilt in the perpetrator.
Third - Forgiveness creates a remarkable linkage, placing the forgiver on the same side as the parity who did the wrong.

Matthew 6 : 12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

He is Enough

In Christ, God proclaimed once more that the good life He wants for us is not about rules or material possessions but a relationship.
While having wealth is not condemned in Scripture as long as priorities are in order and the needs of others are addressed, those of us with relative wealth must remind ourselves that Jesus - not riches - sustain us.
The purpose of blessing from God is so that we can be the channel of blessing to others.

God's love does not keep us from trials; it helps us get through them.

God hasn' t promised to keep us from problems & trials BUT He has proven that He is always " for us " as Christians by what He did through Jesus (Romans 5 : 8-9). Nothing, not even death, can separate us from His love (Romans 8 : 35-39).

Does God Hate ?

You may have read that " God is Love " [1 John 4 :8 ].
But did you know that God also hates ?

God loves people, but He hates their wicked deeds.
He hates seven things, and these things are :-
1) Pride
2) Lying Tongue
3) Murder
4) Wicked Thoughts
5) Mischief
6) False Witness
7) Troublemaking

Proverbs 6 : 16-17 There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him : haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.

Facebook

Tonight [07-08-09] I finally joined facebook with the help of my daughter.

Now to start keeping myself busy with more networking !!

Monk with the 5C's

A Buddhist monk for 25 years, former Ren Ci Hospital chief, Ming Yi [a.k.a. Goh Kah Heng] who is on a criminal trial achieved the Singapore dream of the five Cs. He had cash - at one stage, he had S$570,000 (RM$1.39 million) in his personal bank account, credit cards - at least nine from various banks and condominium units - he bought and sold at least six private properties in Singapore and Australia over 20 years.
He had cars - he bought at least three BMWs in six years and a prestigious country club membership.

That is his journey of faith ! Then what is ours ?

I believed as a follower of Christ, ours should be Conversion, Communion, Conviction, Contentment and Character.
We are converted to have communion with God our Creator. We must always have the conviction of sins beside being contented with the blessing bestowed on our lives. Lastly, our character should be always improving to be more Christ-like as we journeyed on.

The treasures of Egypt [Hebrews 11:26] such as Cash, Credit Card, Car, Condominium and Club Membership [Prestige] are just temporal in nature. They can be destroyed by moth and rust, and also stolen by thieves. [Matthew 6 : 19-20]

The temporal promises as we journey on earth are to bring us closer to God. It is not wrong to have it but it is no longer important as we set our focus on God.
James 1 : 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

There is nothing good coming to us without God being the source.
Job 1 : 21 "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised."

[Extract from article written by Carolyn Quek]