Welcome to Relationships!

How do we solve conflicts? How do we solve differences in opinion? How do we deal with uncertainty? How do we live when there's no leader to make consensus decision and everyone's equal?

How do we keep our cool in the midst of heated arguments? How do we compromise? How do we stand for what we believe in? How do we strike a tension between the two?

Welcome to relationships!

A Taste for Food

Life is nothing without good food. It maybe the most important thing in life after God.

My maternal grandfather is particular about fishes. He introduced us with the many varieties of fishes and salted fishes. He introduced us to weekly family dinner in nice restaurants. He introduced us to fine Chinese dining in big-time restaurants and in our dinners like having abalone and sharks fin on big occasions. He introduced us to food criticism, which is indeed a lifelong skill to develop. But he has one flaw. He do not eat beyond Chinese food.

My paternal grandmother is half-Thai, which is great because it helped me to develop a hate-love relationship with south Thailand varieties Tom Yums, Pad Phet, Ken Som and Som Tam except Thai Green Curry of which she loathes very much. She’s not very picky on food like my maternal grandfather and did not have the luxury of fine dining, but she is indeed a good cook. She also introduced me to the galore of Malay food and sauces like nasi kerabu, nasi minyak, nasi dagang, budu, belacan, laksa and ulam which are still some of my favourites. But she has one flaw. She don’t like beef.

My mother started reconstructing her parent’s cookbook. While keeping in the safe boundaries of Chinese food when she’s young, she ventured out into Malay, Thai and Indian cuisine as she grew older and got married. She introduced Loh Mee, Sekaya Pulut, Curry Mee, Calong Ikan, Chicken Koorma, and a whole lot of other varieties. She is a collector of dozens of cookbooks and recipes, and together we will read through them and decide whether any of the recipes is worth trying out. But she has one flaw. She don’t like to go beyond Chicken Koorma for Indian food.

In high school, I began to develop a love for Indian spices. I memorised the whole list of Indian spices like cardamoms, cumin, fennel, masala, saffron, cloves, bla.bla. through my Indian friends and teachers. I began to enjoy eating the rich Nasi Briyani on banana leaf over many pieces of papadoms. I began to be fascinated with how the beater can make great Chiffon cake just by hitting the egg whites fluffy enough. I began to discover the creaminess of cheesecakes from Secret Recipe….

To be continued…

Problems Along The Way

I wonder why that there's always problems each time we embark in something worthwhile, while having it smooth sailing when I'm idle?

Why are there disappointments in the midst of high hopes?

Why are there people who will disagree with the way you do things and want it their way? Why I am not being able to be assertive and to confront people to state my opinion?

Why are there people who give up so easily while leaving other members of the team to continue struggling?

Why are there legal limitations when you wanted to do something? And at the same time, why are there a requirement from the law to do something when it is clearly not necessary to do so?

Why are there differing personalities, opinions, cultures? Why must they be conflicting?

Why must my lectures be at 8am everyday?

Why is the internet modem not working when the salesman guaranteed it to be functioning well?

Why are my university textbooks so thick?

Why am I fat, ugly and poor?

Why?

Eating Together

City living can be quite impersonal. People uses ATM machines instead of going through bank tellers to withdraw money. Topping up our mobile phone prepay credits is just a few clicks away. Questions over our previous lectures can't be asked over an appointment with our lecturers, but through emails. Events, and social activities are increasingly made via mass communication rather than personal invitation.


Even in city living, finding time to spend for each other is real hard since it is very inconvenient to take the hassle of meeting up with each other, to spend money for communal meals or even to spend time with our loved ones. Life becomes impersonal and detached. Activities replace fellowship. Communal meals become take-away packets. People face real loneliness. Though they may not be alone, but the lack of intimacy with one another can be a huge barrier for city folks to experience what it means to love and to be loved in a community.



Probably what we really need is to recover what it means to eat together, through the Chinese perspective. Rather than putting our rice and our dishes nicely into neat plates for each individual, we share our dishes in main dish bowls.



It is a sign of love, fellowship and sharing. It is a sign of equality, reciprocity, tolerance. It is a sharing of our joy and woes together. It is a reminder that we are not of our own. We need each other, we share our lives with each other and we put each others above ourselves.

Without falling into the sin of gluttony and without falling into the danger of using eating as a replacement for real intimacy, probably we should practise having meals together, the Chinese way. By hook or by crook, we should make time to eat with people. If possible use smaller individual bowls, and put the main dishes in the middle for everyone to share. Make a point to enjoy good meals with people. Life will become more meaningful.

The Flatfish Inc.

Jesus : The Mystic and Revolutionary

"For a Christian, Jesus is the man in whom it has indeed become manifest that revolution and conversion cannot be separated in man's search for experiential transcendence. His appearance in our midst has made it undeniably clear that changing the human heart and changing human society are not separate tasks, but are as interconnected as the two beams of the cross. Jesus was a revolutionary, who did not become an extremist, since he did not offer an ideology, but Himself. He was also a mystic, who did not use his intimate relationship with God to avoid the social evils of his time, but shocked his milieu to the point of being executed as a rebel. In this sense he also remains for nuclear man the way to liberation and freedom." -- Henri Nouwen : The Wounded Healer

What's your life mission?

God of the Genome

"The God of the Bible is also the God of the genome.He can be worshiped in the cathedral or in the laboratory" Francis Collins

Here I Return

Auckland City

University of Auckland Clocktower

Fuh, finally after 10 hours of snug-fit roller-coaster seat ride with Malaysia Airlines, I arrived in Auckland City, waited for an hour in the airport for Alan before we head off to Empire Apartments.

In horror I was told that they actually rented out our apartment until tomorrow when they have actually promised us that we could check in yesterday, earlier. So I have no choice but to bunk in Amin's apartment in No.14 for tonight. Hopefully we can move in proper for tomorrow.

The excitement of moving to a new place with new housemates just dies off.

Potong-stim

Weeping with the Suffering

While not everyone will live ‘simple’ lives (although theoretically everyone should, with varying degrees of simplicity), we should include ‘weeping with the suffering’ in our spirituality. We ‘weep’ for the weak in our individual and corporate spirituality, and trasnslate that ‘weeping’ into concrete practical living principles.

These are some recommendation.

1. Start our daily devotions and weekly worship services by praying and spending a time of silence to remember the poor and suffering; physical and spiritual, and to remember Christ who came in the midst of our broken world.

2. Read and preach about our call to care and serve the underprivileged.

3. Walk our talk by starting to simplify our lives; with varying degrees of simplicity. Give ample of grace and love for them in their struggle to simplify their living, and forgive those who do not agree with you as well. At least they have heard your advice even though they do nothing about it.

4. Get involved with practical missional living to the poor, which may include relocating our residence to poorer neighbourhoods, getting involved with the lower strata of the community, giving hospitality to our neighbours, helping our neighbours in need, volunteering and giving into local mission / outreach projects, building friendship and bridges with people around us.

5. Live by faith in the Lord Jesus, share the hope that we have in Him, with others, and practice love and charity with people around us. Ultimately its about loving God and loving people passionately and unconditionally.

How Simple is Simple?

So much of talking about caring for the poor and marginalised, identifying with them, weeping with them and sharing in their woes. So much of reading and writing of them, so much of conviction that God cares for the poor.

But how are we (me included) actually live authentically according to what we preach?

We still keep our possessions; houses, cars, stocks instead of selling them off to help the poor, in the name of financial prudence.

We still live in the same old middle-upper class neighbourhood, gated-community, condos in nice secure suburbs, instead of moving to the more crime prone, dirty, noise inner city or rural settlements.

We still speak English and send our kids to the best-est primer schools and lament in the newspapers of their declining English standards, while thousands of poorer and disadvantaged kids do not even have good schools, good teachers or even basic educational facilities.

We still keep our cool Big Guys Toys; our latest Nokia phones, laptops, PDAs, while many are yet to taste technology.

We still use the Broadband, send emails and BLOG! while most rural folks are computer illiterate.

While complaining about the traffic jam in Malaysia in our nice cars, many poor and working class commute everyday in congested public transports.

We sometimes unconsciously compare ourselves, Lim Goh Tong, Boon Siew, Tony Fernandez with the typical poor, and blaming the poor for their own poverty, instead of accepting the truth that poverty is not as simple as how we thought it to be.

We still have our regular dose of Starbucks latte while fully aware that each Venti sized mug of coffee can feed dinner for a family of three.

Until and unless I simplify my life, what I am talking about the poor is useless.

But how simple is simple? We are talking about practicality. How can we practice simplicity when there is no defining standard for simplicity?

Someone tell me!

Goldsmith on the Incarnation

Goldsmith said, "The incarnation of Jesus can only amaze us with its miraculous reality. We are excited at the fact that God not only condescended (sovereignly chosen) to become human like us and thus to relate intimately with us, but he also identified miraculously and totally with a sinful human society and culture, while remaining absolutely sinless and perfect in holiness. Although in his incarnation he remained fully divine, he was nevertheless entirely human in every way. He became an integral part of a corrupt human society and environment, identifying fully with us despite all our sin and inadequacy. Yet he remained incorrupt and sinless.

Jesus remained the model for Christian mission. We, too are called to identify fully with the society and people among whom we live. Our life and message are to be definitely contextualized, yet we are still to follow Jesus in godly holiness without compromise. Sinless holiness and contextualized identification do not easily go together, but that is Jesus' high calling to us in mission. Jesus' contextualized incarnation remains the pattern for our mission."

Kerepok Lekor's sings in awe:

Word of the Father

Now in flesh appearing,

O Come let us adore Him (3x)

Christ the Lord

Tough City Living

Quoting from the book, "In crowded cities, people face very real isolation, anonymity and loneliness. They may never even seen their neighbours in their high rise block of flats. Within the EU, it has been discovered that the primary problem people feel they face in life is loneliness. We might have expected people to think of financial, housing or work related issues as their main problem, but actually loneliness heads the list by a long way. Christian workers, too, are not immune from the fundamental problem in cities.

If the gospel is to attract lonely people, it must demonstrate the reality of Christian relationships of love. As Christians, we seek to follow the model of Jesus himself, who related in love, humble service and unity within the Trinity. In our study and teaching of Christology, we should no longer be restricted to the traditional divisions of the person and work of Christ, but should also add the relationships of Christ.

In the Gospels, Jesus made a point of eating with various people. HE gives us a model of enjoying fellowship and companionship over food (spot on! :D). In this way he demonstrates his love for them and draws them into a close relationship with himself and with each other. Perhaps we need to add a biblical theology over food to our systematic theology!

...Most of us were brought up in suburbs, small towns or the countryside. The call to minister in the loneliness, violence and bustle of the inner city or in the anonymity of blocks of high rise flats will involve very real sacrifice...

It is clear that Christian mission must increasingly be located in cities... "

For your prayers, Flatfish Inc. is a missional living initiative by Melanie Cripps, Natasha George, Alan Collins and John Wayne aka kerepok lekor in the heart of Auckland City. In the midst of our mundane city living, working and studying, may we be a light that shines through the darkness and brokenness of the city.

Get a Grip on Mission

One of the good books that I have read recently is this book by Martin Goldsmith. Bought it when I was in Sydney, Australia for the International Christian Medical and Dental Association World Congress (before you exclaim fuiyo! let me tell you that it was 'boring' and was almost a waste of my AUD500 if I did not meet a bunch of great friends over there). Will blog about the event some time in the future.

I do not want to comment much about the book, but I am very impressed by the way the writer wrote about changing trends in world missions and how we run our ministries, in a post-modern context, while protecting our evangelical heritage. Its worth buying and reading it for only £9.99 (about RM70, very 'cheap' loh). One of the reviews can be read here.

One section that I like is "Goldsmith points out that although the world has changed, this creates both new challenges and new opportunities. Thoughtful Christians should recognise that God is on the move in new places, embrace the possibility of new technologies, seek out the mission field in the great cities and the overseas student population – and then proclaim Christ as the way to salvation."

Intentional Community

Many of us tend to live individualistically. We make decisions based on our felt-needs, our aspirations, our goals and dreams, our security and our fears. While we are responsible for our own survival, we certainly have human conscience that defies Darwin's theory of natural selection. A trend shift from communal living in kampongs to urban living in our society makes people even more individualistic.

My mom and I tend to lament over individualistic decisions made my some of our friends and relatives. For example, I have a relative who uses to work in his hometown. He could have stayed on to work, while living nearby his old sickly mother and other relatives. But he chosed to apply for transfer to bigger cities for better work prospect. Another example will also be the choices certain younger couples made to go for holidays during festive season like Chinese New Year. Instead of balik kampung to visit their parents, family and friends who miss them, it is more convenient to grab an a holiday deal and go to Europe for vacation. One JPA scholar, due to his own selfish gain, deny others their chances for securing admission to a particular Medical School, just because he wants to get every opportunity available for himself.

Although I have no rights to say whether their actions are justifiable or not, but certainly urbanisation, competitive and hectic lifestyle, greater purchasing power, and greater travelling ease makes it busy and inconvenient for people to spend time with each other, especially in a family and community context, besides putting them in a situation where they need to be selfish in order to survive. There's a tension between spending our resources (money, time, energy) in a context of community or spending our resources individually.

But as Christians we should realise that our God is a God of community.

Sherman Kuek puts it precisely "If God has existed in all eternity as Father, Son and Holy Spirit – COMMUNITY – then the impartation of his “image” must mean the communication of his Trinitarian communal nature. We are made in the image of God such that we possess the capacity and the desire to live in community.

The human race has forgotten that it was created for life in community. The remnant of the distorted image which John Calvin talks about is observable in our inclination towards having a “social life” or sorts. So in that sense, we are still the “social animals” Aristotle spoke about. But the brokenness of the image is distinctly vivid in the way we draw boundaries between ourselves and other people for the sake of our own emotional, physical, and mental survival. It is also made apparent in the way we feel a sense of intrusion when others invade our private space.

We have forgotten that we were created by community for community. And we have forgotten how to live in community. The norm for communal living has shifted from intimate Trinitarian communities to one of superficial non-threatening relationships..."

How then shall we live?

Bruce Patrick, from Auckland Baptist Tabernacle said, "Our community in a urban context MUST be intentional. We must be intentional to meet with each other, to have meals with each other, to visit each other, to encourage each other, to help each other and to pray for each other, to worship together and to reach out together".

We should have all these things done, with community-building in mind. A counter-cultural community in a fragmented society.

Shall I introduce you to our new phrase for today, "Intentional Community"

Don't Eat, Love!

Chinese New Year is often associated with abundance and prosperity, which is often resembled in the availability of food. Food has been associated with prosperity and wealth in the olden days. The type of food that you eat determines your social class (rich people eat abalone and shark fin, medium income people eat fish or pork, while poorer people eat vegetables and salted fish (sorry for the generalisation). Over time as the society become more egalitarian, the choices of food become more culturally conditioned than limited by affordability.

Food is a symbol of fellowship and social capital in Chinese culture. Families who have meals together tend to enjoy more satisfying relationships. Not having anyone to enjoy a meal with seems to indicate loneliness or the lack of social network. Reunion dinners are meaningless without good food, and people take great pains to get the freshest and best ingredients and cook them in excess, so that there will be leftovers as this symbolises abundance. My grandfather, an ex-salted fish trader, take great pains to travel 20-30 kilometres just to buy the freshest Kerapu, Tenggiri, prawns and crabs from the fishermen in Penarik Beach everytime there’s a family dinner. Besides, reunion dinners are incomplete without a bowl of shark fin’s and abalone soup, and crab cake (local Terengganu Chinese delicacy).

While I thank God placing me in a family that is so obsessed with food, there are cases where families become disintegrated due to food. There's one family that I knew of that do not longer have reunion dinners after the mother (usually the family cook) died, since there is no one left to take the trouble of preparing for the dinner. Younger generations tend to be over-pragmatic that we do away with extra trouble for the sake of convenience, which sometimes can be harmful to our family and community life.

Such emphasis on food as a basis for fellowship can be dangerous if it replaces real fellowship and relationship building between family members and friends. We can always think of food as a bonding agent, but actually bonding requires more than just having meals together. It is a deliberate attempt to communicate and understand each other, to affirm each other and ultimately to love each other unconditionally.

I remember having meals during school recess with one particular friend in high school everyday without fail. Most of our conversations are mostly superficial, and centred around food and studies. We do not talk much about ourselves, our joys, our pains, our inner thoughts and life. At the end of our schooling years, we went apart with our ways, and lost touch until today. There is no longing or effort to meet up again because our relationship has very little ground to stand with time. Food without relationship is wasted away, food with real relationship is eternal.

Therefore friends, beware of such tendency to replace the real for the superficial. Food is great and everyone loves good food, but food is not an end in itself. It merely helps us to fellowship deeply with one another and to love each other. After all we are called, as Christ followers to love, not to eat.

Good Boy

Many people will read this blog and thought, "Hey, Kerepok Lekor is a good Christian boy!". Hey come on, what is good anyway?

Not having sex before you are married?

Never taken drugs?

Never got into gang fights?

Never swear?

Never got expelled from school?

What is Good? Be the nice little kid and stay at home wearing all sorts of amulets and saying all kind of prayers fearing that I might catch a flu if I don't pray enough?

How narrow is our definition of 'good'!


"Why do you call me good?" Jesus asked him. "No one is good except God alone. (Mar 10:18)

Ties to buy?

In line with our PM's call for us to appreciate local arts, I plan to don a batik tie for my coming formal wear. Which tie should I buy? I like the last one.

Beer and God?

One friend told me "the church has been feminised". People in church today are talking about "their feelings to the Lord". I have heard of a church where "they colour their emotions on Sunday on a response slip, and paste it on the wall". The popular imagery of men being wild, macho, and detached seemed to be foreign in some churches I visit. I remembered one instance where I tried so hard to cry during altar call, wondering why I can't cry as easily as a few other ladies in the same row.

Men in churches, in Malaysia as far as I have known of do not drink, smoke or womenise. We become domesticated. There's a widespread saying that goes on in certain Malaysian communities, "If you want to find good husbands (that do not drink, smoke or womenise), grab the guys in Christian churches".


Though I affirm that it is true that in the Bible that it is strictly a sin to womenise, the Bible did not condemn drinking and smoking. After all in the past century, smoking is not something queer as it is a common thing among British men after World War I & II, although in the latter years we knew about its health hazards. According to Mark Driscoll, in his Radical Reformission book, said that "a number of God's people down the years have greatly enjoyed alcohol'. St. Gall was a missionary to the Celts and a renowned brewer. After Charlemagne's reign, the church became Europe's exclusive brewer... Pastor John Calvin's annual salary package included upward of 250 gallons of wine to be enjoyed by him and his guests.... Martin Luther's wife Catherine was a skilled brewer, and his love letters to her when they were apart lamented his ability to drink her beer. When the Puritan's landed at Plymouth Rock, the first permanent building they erected was a brewery."



He longed for the glory days of Christian pubs where God's men gather to drink beer and talk theology and suggested brand names for brews like 'Lord's Lager, Holy Hefeweizen, Pastor's Porter, Alleluia Ale, Saintly Stout, and Lucifer's Light.'.



I personally feel that if we are to identify with our Chinese community (or certain Indian communities), we need to recover our Christian appreciation for liquors. After all, the Chinese in the ancient past have been great makers of liquors. Tsing Chao wine is often used in cooking, Red Wine is used widely in Foochow cooking (especially their wine mee suah), DOM wine (invented by a French priest) is consumed widely by Chinese women during their maternity. Besides XO, Tiger Beer, Guiness Stout have been favourites by the Chinese community during festivities.

If we can only appreciate the beauty of drinking liquor, having a toast of beer as a sign of friendship, fellowship, equality, and celebration can be very much a spiritual activity, if done in moderation and not lead to drunkenness.

Why can't we see Christian men flock the pubs to talk theology and to plan their men's fellowship outreach activities? Why can't we see our churches run Christian cafes and pubs as a healthy avenue for the community to have a healthy, moral social outlet? Why can't we see our men go watch football and toasting beer, forming friendship and fellowship between men in churches?

My last words, the beer and the love for God can go along, side by side, like this, hehe. Probably we can start our own 'Lion of Judah Beer' or 'Guiness Holy Stout', Maranatha Tapai or even Hallelujah Toddy.

Kuala Terengganu Chinatown

My mother grew up in Kuala Terengganu Chinatown. Most peranakan Chinese live here, and everybody here knew everybody. Most of those who stays here are of Hokkien descent. Some of them are filthy rich, some of them are moderately rich and some of them are very poor. One of my relatives happen to be one of the poorer ones, contrary to common belief, living in our ancestral home.

Lets name her Mrs. K (nothing to do with Siti Norhaliza). Her story is worth knowing. She has a husband who works as a manual labourer who travels to Ipoh every now and then to find odd jobs to support his family. They have 3 daughters A, B and C. Mrs. K had a tough life raising up her daughters while her husband travels to work. She can't find employment due to depression at one point of her life, while receiving very little money from her husband. Thus, she had to depend on the compassion of her neighbours to help with her household expenses (sometimes begging from her neighbours), and her daughters did not receive much parental care and good upbringing. Her well-to-do relatives did not do anything to help her. She died in a car accident many years ago.

Daughter A met a guy from Ipoh, and got married. Few years after her marriage, her husband had an affair with his sister-in-law, and divorced her. She is now left with two sons. She went to Kuala Lumpur to work, while leaving her sons to a caretaker in Ipoh since she can't afford bringing them along. She visits her sons once in a while.

Daughter B met a guy from Kuala Lumpur, and got married too. She always had a dream of opening a beauty saloon, and saved several thousands to realise her dreams. Sadly, her husband knew of her savings, cheated her to lend him the money to do business, and finally dumped her together with her children after having an affair with an immigrant woman from mainland China.

Daughter C stayed in Kuala Terengganu for many years, working at different places to support her living. She's lonely at home since her mother had passed away and her father is not at home, working. She longed for companionship, but lacked communication, social and educational skills to fit into the society. She happen to meet a guy recently, and had sexual relationship with him hoping that the guy would fall for her and eventually marry her. Now, she's married, yet living a hard life with her in-laws without any emotional and social support from friends, family members and relatives.

All ended up with broken families, broken relationships, dissapointments, financial hardships, sexual temptation and immorality, lack of educational opportunities, lack of social and family support, lack of social and communication skills, mental illness etc.

All of these portrays the evil of systemic physical, emotional and spiritual poverty. The lack of economic opportunities due to lack of working skills and education in a family lead to family breakdown and broken relationships, which leads to emotionally affected individuals.

These emotionally affected individuals, can't function healthily in their career and relationships, which will eventually lead to financial hardship and dysfunctional families. This end up in a cycle.

The lack of social and family support also worsen the situation as these individuals do not know whom seek help when they need it.

This is the reality of our broken world. Shall we weep and remember them in our prayers?

Come to the Father,

Though your gift is small,

Broken hearts broken lives,

He will heal them all,

Because of His great love,

He gave His only Son,

Everything was done

So You would come

Am I?

I feel like a religious geek. Those religiously obsessed, superstitious, fundamentalist, extremist, anti-social, introverted, boring, priest-in-training, pedophile (oops!), speaks 'heavenly' language, ugly guy who reads the scripture 24/7 and babble about nothing except God, thinking that everyone's bad and he's good, women-hater, homophobic, yucky guy.


Am I?

An Inconvenient Truth

Lets remember

During Chinese New Year, even as we wish goodwill and prosperity, Gong Xi Fa Cai to our friends, neighbours and relatives, let us not forget that we are called to be God's own people who called out of darkness (1 Pet 2:9). Let us celebrate the joy of our salvation in Christ Jesus. Let us not live as the world lives, with its superficial love, materialism, moral decay, over-pragmatism and hopelessness.

Let us remember to love our neighbours as we love ourselves; the Malay Muslims, the Buddhist and Taoists, the Indian Hindus, the Bahais, even the Cults. Let us share our joy with them, to stand with them in their pain and suffering, to show unconditional love and compassion to those who need it.
Let us remember the poor and the suffering in our midst. Let us weep against social injustices like how the prophets of old did. Let us weep against systemic poverty. Let us weep with the disabled, the handicapped, the queers, and the forgotten.

Ultimately, let us remember Jesus Christ in His glorious throne above, emptied Himself to come to this world to share with our joys and sufferings, and offered Himself as a sacrifice to pay the penalty of our sins (Phi 2). Let us remember this sacrificial lamb who redeemed the world. Let us then imitate Him, to be agents of love and transformation to our broken world.

Oh Kalam yang menjelma budi dari syurga,
Pancaran sinar mulia kupuji nama-Nya,
Oh Kebenaran benar yang tetap bercahaya,
Terang seperti pelita tetap selamanya

Oh Tuhan, jadikanlah sidang-Mu pelita,
Yang menyatakan terang-Mu kepada dunia,
Dan ajarkanlah anak-anak-Mu menurut jalan-Mu,
Sehingga satu masa nanti berkumpul di hadapan-Mu

Dark Desires

“Stars hide thy fires, shine not on my dark desires” - Shakespeare

Sometimes you feel as if you just don't want to live out Godliness. You try to hide the light away. Dark desires.

Global Warming

Brilliant Video!

Why should we care for the Poor and Hungry?

excerpt from 'World Hunger and Us' by John Piper

1) It is included in the Great Commission, which says we should teach the nations to do all Jesus commanded. And Jesus commanded us to give to the needy (Luke 12:33) and to do good even to those who hate us (Luke 6:27). So the Great Commission is not complete until the people we evangelize are giving generously to alleviate hunger. And we can be sure they never will if we aren't.

2) Active concern for the hungry and homeless validates the reality of God in our lives. Men will glorify our Father in heaven not because of what we say only, but because our lights are shining and they have seen our good deeds (Matthew 5:16).

3) Concern for the hungry helps us feel the spiritual lostness of men. For if our hearts break for their temporal physical suffering, will not our theology drive us to see the inconsistency of not being broken-hearted because of their spiritual hopelessness.

4) Concern for the hungry creates witness opportunities. If Christian ethics means for us primarily avoiding bad behavior and staying home in our comfortable houses, we will meet very few non-Christians, and when we do, our words of witness will be weak because they are backed up with no labor of love. But if our love of Christ and his for us drives us into action to meet the needs of refugees and the world's hungry, then we will cross paths with unbelievers and our witness will have great power because it will be certified by active love.

So never play off evangelism against other biblically mandated acts of love, namely, feeding the poor and doing good to all (Galatians 6:10).

A song by Graham Kendrick, 'God of the Poor'

Beauty for brokenness
Hope for despair
Lord, in your suffering
This is our prayer
Bread for the children
Justice, joy, peace
Sunrise to sunset
Your kingdom increase!

Shelter for fragile lives
Cures for their ills
Work for the craftsman
Trade for their skills
Land for the dispossessed
Rights for the weak
Voices to plead the cause
Of those who can't speak

God of the poor
Friend of the weak
Give us compassion we pray
Melt our cold hearts
Let tears fall like rain
Come, change our love
From a spark to a flame

Holiness of God

"If God is holy at all, if God has an ounce of justice in His character, indeed if God exists as God, how could He possibly be anything but angry with us? We violate his holiness; we insult His justice; we make light of His grace. These things can hardly be pleasing to Him." -- R.C. Sproul's The Holiness of God

"How little is it realized that there is an immeasureable gulf between God and sinner. And little wonder that so few have even the vaguest idea of the same. ... The religion of present-day Christendom is but a studied effort to hide the awful truth that man has forfeited the favor of God and is barred from His holy presence. ... The religion of today proceeds on the assumption that God is favorably disposed even unto those who spend most of their time trampling His commandments beneath their feet." - A. W. Pink

"The loss of the traditional vision of God as holy is now manifested everywhere in the evangelical world. It is the key to understanding why sin and grace have become such empty terms. What depth or meaning, P. T. Forsyth asked, can these terms have except in relation to the holiness of God? Divorced from the holiness of God, sin is merely self-defeating behavior or a breach in etiquette. Divorced from the holiness of God, grace is merely empty rhetoric, pious window dressing for the modern technique by which sinners work out their own salvation. Divorced from the holiness of God, our gospel becomes indistinguishable from any of a host of alternative self-help doctrines. Divorced from the holiness of God, our public morality is reduced to little more than an accumulation of trade-offs between competing private interests. Divorced from the holiness of God, our worship becomes mere entertainment. The holiness of God is the very cornerstone of Christian faith, for it is the foundation of reality. Sin is defiance of God's holiness, the Cross is the outworking and victory of God's holiness, and faith is the recognition of God's holiness. Knowing that God is holy is therefore the key to knowing life as it truly is, knowing Christ as he truly is, knowing why he came, and knowing how life will end.

It is this God, majestic and holy in his being, this God whose love knows no bounds because his holiness knows no limits, who has disappeared from the modern evangelical world. He has been replaced in many quarters by a God who is slick and slack, whose moral purposes turn out to be avuncular [as from a friendly uncle] advice that we can disregard or negotiate as we see fit, whose Word is a plaything for those who wish merely to listen to themselves, whose Church is a mall in which the religious, their pockets filled with the coin of need, do their business. We seek happiness, not righteousness. We want to be fulfilled, not filled. We are interested in satisfaction, not a holy dissatisfaction with all that is wrong.

This is why we need reformation rather than revival..." --David Wells

What is Worship?

What is worship?
What is adoration?
What is 'sembahyang'?
What is knowing God?
What is magnifying God?
What is imitating God?
What is meditation?
What is burning joss-sticks?
What is bowing down?
What is lying prostrate?
What is prayer?

What does it mean to 'worship in Spirit and in Truth'?

What does it mean to love God with all your heart mind and soul and loving our neighbours as ourselves?

What does it mean to adore the Incarnate Word?

What does it mean to offer burnt-offerings and thithes?

What does it mean to know God and enjoying Him forever?

God reveal it to me!

'Mari menyembah Dia
Mari menyembah Dia
Mari menyembah Dia Kristus Tuhan'

How do I get true happiness? Get wisdom!

Read from Celest's blog.

She asked, "Why is it that sometimes, everything seems to be going great. But something is just nagging at you, preventing you from being happy. Why is that?

What IS happyness? Is it the feeling you get when u're drunk? Is it always temporary? How do i find true happyness? Tell me."






John Piper answered, "Get wisdom!"

"Finally, there is one last, absolutely essential thing to do if you would "get wisdom": you must come to Jesus.

Jesus said to the people of his day, "The queen of the south will arise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold something greater than Solomon is here" (Matthew 12:42). What an understatement.

Greater than Solomon indeed! Solomon spoke God's wisdom. Jesus is the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24, 30). Others had spoken truth; he is the truth. Others had pointed the way to life; he is the way and the life (John 14:6). Others had given promises, but "all the promises of God find their yes in him" (2 Corinthians 1:20). Others had offered God's forgiveness; Jesus bought it by his death.

Therefore, in him are "hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:3). To know and love and follow this Jesus is to own the treasure of ultimate and eternal happiness. Therefore, the command, "Get wisdom," means first and foremost "Come to Jesus! Come to Jesus!" in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom."

Choon Wei sings (beware: Kindergarden Song),

"I got the joy joy joy joy down in my heart.
Where? Down in my heart.
Where? Down in my heart.
I got the joy joy joy joy down in my heart. Today

For I am so happy, so very happy,
I am so happy because Jesus is in my heart. (2x)"

Happy Chinese New Year

In ease and peace, we need to be thankful to the Lord

In troubles and woes, we need to remember His grace

Happy Chinese New Year

Gong Xi Fa Cai

Wisdom of God

One of the attributes of God is wisdom. Indeed wisdom is something that has been spoken widely in the Bible especially by King Solomon, in his book Proverbs. Knowing God is said to be knowing wisdom and vice versa, which leads us to the conclusion that our God is a God of wisdom. Let us consider the encounter that King Solomon had with God while he was in Gibeon (1King 3:5-12).

..............................

Solomon : Yawn, let me sleep... zzz

God : Hello Solomon, your name is kind of long, what shall I call you?

Solomon : Hi God, I think You can call me Sol. Short and simple :P

God : I want to give you something here, ask anything you want!

Solomon : (excited) Really ah? No strings attached?

God : Yes, no strings attached.

Solomon : So good one ah? Okay loh. My daddy David, Your servant was honest and folllow whatever You said. You kept your promise with him and give him a son, which is me loh. So now I am also your servant and you made me a king. But haiyo, very pening kepala-lah become king. So young some more dono how to become a leader. So many responsibility so many rakyat, everyone got their own problems. See and listen to them until bored dy. Dono what to do with them lah, so many of them.

I got only one request, let me become WISE so that I can know the difference between right and wrong, then only I can master the art of politics, hehe. If not-ah, mati loh, cannot rule this great country.

God : Like that-ah? Okloh, since you asked for that, I am very pleased with you. You might have asked for Ginseng and long life, or could have asked for big house, big bungalow or big lands or you could have asked for your enemies to be destroyed. But instead you asked for wisdom to make right decisions. Wow, very profound-lah you.

So now I will make you wiser than anyone else who has ever lived or ever will live. Ok or not?

Solomon : Oklo, as if I got choice. You are sovereign-mah.

..........................

So as we can see, Solomon as asking for wisdom to know what is right and wrong. Even in the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve was craving for wisdom, so they go and eat the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, which left them ousted somewhere else.

What is so good about wisdom that even Solomon, Adam and Eve were longing for? What's so good about wisdom that the Greeks philosophise about? What's so good about wisdom that every Chinese in ancient china long to take up the infamous imperial court examinations just to ace it and serve as a eunuch?

What's so good about wisdom that we too are caught up in the tuition-class-craze in Malaysia? Though it is not purely for the sake of obtaining knowledge, as it is more of economical gain in the future, it is indirectly using education as a means for success and future happiness. If all good things come from God, can't we say that education and the economic prosperity it may bring is from God too?

I have one hypothesis, but dono true or not lah, let us test out.

We are created in the image of God. Since God is a wise God, thus we are wired to long after wisdom and to embody wisdom. To know God is to know wisdom, to know wisdom is to know God. To hate wisdom is to hate God (don't stone me if it is heresy).

Do we love wisdom?

Movie Trailer : Amazing Grace

Rebel in the Making

My New Image

Model in the making

Before

After

'Hip'ness for me is admiring things that are of old.

Sahabat dalam Perbualan

If you can only afford your time and money to one Christian event, then I would recommend you to Friends in Conversation, a forum by Emergent Malaysia with guests like Brian McLaren and other local Malaysian Christian leaders in conversation of what it means to be a 21st century Malaysian Church. Click here for more information.

Rediscovering the Gospel, the Church, Discipleship and engagement with the World. Where do we stand?

I am particularly saddened that I couldn't attend it. Lets hope that they sell DVDs of the whole event.

My Roommate

Let me introduce to you my new roommate of whom I am going to share a room with for the whole year, and one of my close friends in Auckland.

Alan Collins...

We met near church, Auckland Baptist Tabernacle on the way back after the night service. I was surprised that we were staying at the same hostel (O Rorke Hall). Thus, we made a decision to go to church together every Sunday after dinner.

Our interaction and time spent together weren't much, its usually over a meal in the dining hall or walking together to church or sipping hot chocolate after church or we will visit each other's room. But most of the days we don't meet due to our different schedule, different interests and different involvement.

He's doing Engineering while I'm doing health sciences. He don't go online often but I go online 24/7. He's involved in the Tab's youth group, student group and young adults group, while I'm involved with BSF, OCF, Student Life and UMSA. He's Kiwi while I'm Malaysian. He speak English well, while I speak err... Malay well. (lolx, ironic... I can't speak Chinese, English or Hokkien very well, so I guess my BM is my best bet). He's the easy going type while I am the nervous-domineering-planner type.

Yet I do hope and pray that God will give us a great time together in the apartment this year. A fruitful year where we can live and work together as partners in Christ. Despite of our differences, I hope that we can find common grounds to live with, and learn from each other. May love be our motivation to press on towards greater Godliness, like iron sharpens iron and greater love for people, especially the city-dwellers and students who will be living around us.

Dear Alan and my other housemates Mel and Natty, if you happen to read this post, I am now very excited and at the same time grateful to know you guys. Simple ordinary people who want to make a difference in your lives and the lives of people around you. "You guys rock!".

Hope to see you soon, and together we shall rock Empire apartments!

Valentines Day Sermon

More on the Valentines Day uproar... read "Much ado about nothing" by Raja Petra Kamarudin

Should Christians celebrate Valentines Day?

There has been some uproar about the celebration of Valentines Day in the dailies, exhorting people not to celebrate Valentines day firstly because it is thought to be a 'Christian Festival', secondly it may lead to couples engaging in prosmiscous activities beyond just having candlelight dinners and thirdly, probably a more rethorical one, why should we express love on this particular day when we are called to love everytime and everywhere? Probably there are more reasons not to celebrate it, but I shall rest on this three.

While I wish not to engage on an elaborate debate why should we celebrate Valentines Day, I would like to note that

1) 'Valentines Day' in Malaysia and in other non-Catholic societies is a commercial festival, not religious. It is similar to other celebrations like New Year, Mothers Day, Labour Day, Merdeka Day. So the premise that it is a 'Christian Festival' is inappopriate.

2) Not all form of celebrative activities lead to sexual misconduct unless it is intentional. Bluntly speaking, having a family buffet dinner in Holiday Inn for Valentines Day might not lead to an orgy at the end of the day.

3) Why shouldn't we express love by using healthy approaches on Valentines Day, New Year Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day and every day of the year?

Should Christians celebrate Valentines Day? I have no rights to issue a Papal Bull here, hehe. But depending on individual and collective conscience within a local church, Christians should not overdo the celebrations beyond cherishing love with our loved ones and our family members, and ultimately God Himself. Of course, we are always to guard ourselves from temptations and flee from sin, not only on Valentines Day, but on Merdeka Day too.

What about the pagan origins of Valentines Day, Christmas, or even Easter? Should we shun these festivals just because it has some connection with ancient pagan festivals?

Read here

Blogging as Spiritual Discipline

Imagine PRAYING for God to reveal your future spouse before you sleep every night...

Imagine SINGING worship songs every morning before you leave your home to work...

Imagine READING the Bible one chapter per day together with your ODB booklet...

Imagine CHURCH-ing every Sunday...



Imagine BLOGGING and READING Blogs every now and then in front of your desktop at home and at work...

Are these spiritual activities/disciplines equal in its essense? Can we incorporate blogging as part of our new spiritual experience?

Paul Fromont wrote,
"Blogging can be a contemporary spiritual practice, a creative component of a personal (or communal) “rule” or rhythm. It creatively recovers and re-mixes several traditional “practices” such as: study, journaling and self-examination, discernment, community, lectio divina (meditating on the Word of God), spiritual friendship, pilgrimage, the sharing of resources, encouragement, guidance and prayer. Like more traditional formational practices, blogging too requires intentionality and discipline."(emphasis mine)

Interested in blogging for the Glory of God?
Check out more!

Laksa Penang

Had laksa penang for tea just now!