Make time for Food

Malachi 1:11

My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name, because my name will be great among the nations," says the LORD Almighty. 

 It has been busy two weeks. It also makes the inspiration level lower when I was trying not to download the daily bible podcast into my old handphone because I was planning to upload only in my new handphone. But that never materialised because I needed to sync my bluetooth, get my sim card inside it and heaps of other lazy reasons. As usual and expected, life went on in the midst of busyness and nothing was ever achieved.

2 weeks ago, I was challenged with this point from the pulpit, "If you go up to heaven and the prophet Malachi asks you if you have read his book, what would be your answer". It dawned upon me that I have not read most of the minor prophet's books, so as usual, I challenged myself to do so without hesitation, but.....

Life does move on and there are so many mundane things to do even in the busy, maddening hours. Somehow with the advance of technology and all these social media, there's always a few minutes to check my personal email, facebook account, browse through articles in yahoo..etc. But, never is there time for just reading the bible. What a shame.

No wonder, I find myself either so bored, drained, frustrated or irritable. All the wrong traits that comes from the sinful human in me and nothing of the spirit-led life that I'm called to live. Indeed, without my soul being fed and watered by Godly food, there is nothing that causes me to want to live a good, righteous, and Godly life.

Today, just 10 minutes ago, I kick started the attempt to read Malachi chapter 1. Quite short, able to complete in a short while. I was tempted to read more given the free time and boredom I had at work, after lunch. But similar to eating of real nutritious food, there's no point trying to eat more healthy stuff than the required portion because more does not equate to better.

So, I shall start making time for spiritual food instead of wasting too much time on inane online stuff. I shall also learn to chew slowly on what I read, so my stomach can filled sufficiently and be satisfied. Oh! I also downloaded the podcast into the old handphone until the time I actually get myself motivated to bring the new phone to use at work.

M.

"...For I am a great king," says the LORD Almighty, "and my name is to be feared among the nations." (Malachi 1:14b)

God sees the invisible and does the impossible

2 Corinthians 4:17-18

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 

Just when everything in life seems to be going back to a sense of normalcy, there's always a disturbing piece of news that crops up. This results in me being disturbed and distracted. I must admit that it takes a really long time for me to deal with bad news and I believe it is because I often end up being told because others feel that I can do something about it, but I find it a bit too much to bear since I don't have a significant other to offload it to.

However, today I am reminded to stay focused on what I am tasked to do because of what Ps Rick Warren says as he expounds the passage above:

"Keep your eyes on the goal, not the problem. Only God who sees the invisible can accomplish the impossible. To be a winner in the marathon of ministerial service, we need trust God even when things don’t make sense. If we run from problems, we’ll never mature into who God wants us to be." 

I must really remember that I am only tasked to do what I can and all the issues, problems and challenges are just temporary and will be accomplished by my great God, not through whatever good I can ever do.

Thanks God that He never slumbers nor sleep!

M.

When we will not submit

Psalms 81:10-12

I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it. “But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.”

These past 2 months have been spent going to the airport to send off many of my RA's. It's an inevitable thing as they reach adulthood and either pursue their education or careers overseas. For one thing, I'm really a believer that they should go overseas to live it out, see the world and be independent. Rather than stay back home in the safety and kiasu environment that I believe does not benefit them.

But it does brings up a tinge of envy because I always wanted to be overseas to study or work, but never got the go ahead. So here I am, wallowing in envy, stuck back home and sending others off.

However, as I stoically stand and witness their respective departure, a part of me cries out for them to be safe and be covered from any conceivable sin and corruption. The world outside of home is fraught with distractions and possible harm. Afterall, they are old enough to make adult decisions and left alone in a foreign land, I'm concern that I'll lose them should they mix with wrong friends or be tempted to partake in a sinful lifestyle. 

Such is the irony of my emotions as I stand at the airport. Having seen through the life of my ranger kids and being a strong advocate for them to go overseas to gain experiences that would stretch them, yet wondering about the consequences of this act because of the fear for the potential loss of a soul. I can only hope for the best and cover them in prayers. 

As I shared with the Choo missionary family during my dinner with them in Hong Kong, I had a moment of revelation that even though I was unhappy with the fact that I was unable to pursue my overseas aspirations, I am now glad that God did not give in to my stubborn heart and let me go as I wanted. I now know that if I did not submit to His will and He allowed me to do as I desired, I would have never gain the blessing of seeing many of my rangers grow up and to be able to send them off with a blessing. I'm almost sure, if I had gone off in my own will, I won't even be found in the house of God.

Therefore, 16 years later, even with a little tinge of envy, I can testify that the plans of God for me are truly better than what I desired. 

 M.   

Beware the spirit of offense

Matthew 24:10

And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. 

When you harbor a grudge over what someone has done, it is like eating a bitter pill that refuses to be digested. 

I know because I am one who minds what people say of me, especially when it's personal attacks at me. It replays in my mind and something brews in me. Often it is a dramatic response that I envision will happen if the person next crosses my path.

As a young adult in my early 20s, I was taught that the feeling of offense is such a corrupting spirit because it goes the opposite direction as love. Love envies not, forgives and endures. The feeling of offense is self oriented. All about feeling that we are correct, everyone around us is wrong or we are wronged. 

Just before I left for Hong kong, I received an sms from my secretary to keep my own nasty comments to her to myself and that evoked a range in me. The incident that led to her messaged reply was due to the fact that I asked her, before I left, why she did not note my leave application despite being informed in an email months earlier. Clearly unhappy, I threw a couple of caustic statements at her for not doing her job. Having received this sms, I was clearly more unhappy that she dared to make me the accuser.

However, the last thing I wanted was to ruin my own holiday and brood over the situation. so I told myself again and again to let go and not be bothered because even though I feel I'm in the right, sparring via sms or confrontation would not do anything more than make me feel even more offended.

Everything goes wrong once we allow the feeling of offense into us. It often is the first step of a spiritual decline and also an outward manifestation of aggressive, self-righteous behaviour is an evidence of a person who is corrupted and estranged from God. Sadly, over the weekend, I was told of a nasty incident which spoke so much of the wrong spirit in individuals as they arose in offense instead of enjoying the fellowship with the right spirit of love. 

In these days of the end times, let us not push our rights and entitlements as individuals thoughtlessly. The church is not perfect, neither is anyone of us. But because we are of God, selflessly redeemed by the blood of Christ, we no longer live for ourselves.

 M.

Off for a holiday, but my heart's staying

Luke 12:34

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 

In a couple of hours, I do what I really like best with my single life. Fly off to Hong Kong for a personal holiday because I have the long weekend and love to be overseas to enjoy life. In Hong Kong, I'm not doing much but at least I get to wander around in a different environment, eat and drink different stuff and mostly to fellowship with a couple of friends.

The airport is one of my favourite places, especially the inside of it because it makes my heart alive with excitement because it brings about the realisation that I'm going overseas and able to escape to somewhere else and avoid the boring routine of home. I guess I've always had a strong inner desire to travel. The dictionary defines this emotion as "wanderlust".

So, once again I'm flying away. My fourth flight of the year and I'm excited to sit in the plane to watch my TV and anticipate waking up in another land. However, truth be said, every time I burn a long weekend overseas, a part of my heart is left behind.


It is a weird feeling of excited expectancy and yet tinged with a feeling of regret and missing out something important. Time and again, as the plane starts its take-off, I'll mutter a silent prayer of journey protection and in my mind a flash of the teens and kids that I'm not going to be meeting over the weekend. Somehow, they have been such a part of my life that part of my heart wishes I could be there with them or they with me in the holiday. Moreover this weekend, there's a farewell party for one of my RA's before he goes off to France.

I grateful for the opportunities to satisfy the wanderlust in me, but I must say that it also reveals the treasures of my life.So bye-bye for this weekend, teens like YongEn, Jerome, Bennett and Ivan whom I enjoy spending a fair bit of time with and my ever noisy, adorable RKs and of course, my Sunday dinner RA companions.

To quote one of favourite quotes "where my heart goes, it goes with you."

M.

Build the house of God

Haggai 1:3-8

Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: "Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?"

Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it."

This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored," says the LORD.

On Saturday, a call went out to the church members to contribute to support the house of God. My heart really went out as I sat in the service and was bowled over the sum of money needed. Simply because I was stunned by the monthly amount needed. My own church had the luxury of owning our own land and did not have such a huge financial strain.

In the natural, when the church has financial obligations, many would shy away from looking it in the eyes and digging deep into our pockets to support the cause. Especially since we can provide lots of reasons why we need the money ourselves. It does not help that sometimes there does not seem to be much light in the end of the tunnel and we may well wonder if the monetary obligations were perpetuate because we aren’t sure if this call for contribution is going to be a permanent solution.

The economy has picked up over the past twelve months. I recall the gloomy times of 2008 where it seemed that everything was destined to crash and companies were just slashing anything to limit their costs. Today, we now have a situation of booming house prices. Even the stock market, though moving laterally with the occasional poor economic news, is experiencing an upward trend.

The news reminds us again that the current economic momentum is still fraught with uncertainty. We may think that we do not have sufficient money to pledge to build the house of God. However, it does seem certain that many working adults are still investing in the hot property market and trying to pick up a good bargain for future capital appreciation. Similiar for the young, even though they don't seem to have much money, however there's always money readily available for a coffee, dessert or nice dinner on the weekends. Money that can be sacrificed to build the house of God for this season.

As I stay and witness the call to give, I am reminded of the fact that God's purposes shall prevail. As the senior pastor pointed out, even if individuals withhold their finances from God, there will be avenues opened to serve the purposes of God.

Today may we remember that all we have is not ours but what is awarded to us to manage. As a demonstration of good stewardship, I pray many will heed the call, as the Jews did in the time of Haggai. 

The house of God shall be built because God deserves a house worthy of His name.

M.

Should you not fear me?" declares the LORD. "Should you not tremble in my presence? I made the sand a boundary for the sea, an everlasting barrier it cannot cross. The waves may roll, but they cannot prevail; they may roar, but they cannot cross it. (Jeremiah 5:22)