Waiting by the Kerith Ravine

I have never thought of I am a man with little faith. I feel that I can stand firm on my ground and will not get affected by any worldly matter. Vice versa, in fact I feel that I am weak and also close to despair when matters strike me. I am not as strong as what I think. I have never face death and hence I am not afraid of death.What if someone points a gun at you, will I stand firm on my faith? I am not too sure now. Despair is a disease. Despair will erode your faith slowly. 

I pray to God that he will guide me through my path and sometimes the lesson of patience is not easy. I do not have much patience. I describe myself as a person who is in doubts, impatience and slightly hot temper. I do not like to lose control but I am not a freak. I understand a person can never control everything in his life. 

I have been praying that the house can be sold and I still have a buyer who is going to sign the legal document this morning. I am not entirely sure whether this is going to happen or not. See, I am a man of little faith. Last night, I prayed to the Lord that to grant me strength to go through this. If that is his will, please provide me the strength to anchor me and give me faith to see what is unseen. I know he has a plan and I just pray that I have enough courage to walk through that.

I am wounded by financial difficulties and I know I am very afraid of falling into such state again. I am not greedy, I am just wishing to provide the best as I can for my family.

In Philippians 4:4, Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

In 4:6-7 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

These are three verses which I came across this morning. Somehow, his words grant me peace and I feel better. I am not totally out yet but I trust that my Lord will walk through the path with me. I feel that the Lord is teaching me how to be patience. Like what God ordered Elijah to hide in the Kerith Ravine. (1 Kings 17:2-4)  Kerith Ravine is desolate or separation from main area. I feel like God wants me to depend on him in Kerith Ravine, waiting for his commands. We have an evangelistic service and spirit convocation coming along this weekend. I want to prepare my heart and soul to serve him better. I must remove doubts from here so that I can better equip. O Father, help me through this so that I can serve you with no anxious. Amen.

 

Counting His Grace with Renewed Strength (Lesson on Patience)

Life has been different after I truely received Christ into my life again. To count his grace and his blessings, I have received so much from our Father. Over the past four years, he brings me out of the valley of death and lead me to his dwelling place. I have a blessed marriage, a caring wife and a beautiful daughter. God has taking care of my daily needs and he has given me plenty. In fact, it is more than what I can imagine.

Sometimes, I feel that I have not given enough to him. I am glad that I can help out in interpreting. I learn a lot and many things happen in speakers' life has constantly reminding me I shall not confound to this world. There are times when I feel weak. It may due to my personal greed or over exposure in accumulating personal gain. I do not think that I am greedy. I believe I am focusing in giving the best to my family and sometimes I slip into financial constraints.

I have acquired a few properties and focus a lot on that over the last few years. No doubts, I amass a great amount of paper gains. However, when it comes to selling the property and realizing capital gain, it proves somehow more difficult than I can imagine. I learn my lesson. One shall not sell things if one does not believe in it. It is important to focus on this Christian teaching. If that is something which you do not want, you shall not sell it to the others. I am not saying that I do not like my property. I like it but I do feel that it is not a perfect home for my family yet.

To be frank, I am running into slight financial difficulties. We have put up our home in the market since last December. Our first 'serious' viewer came by on 19 May 2013. Why did it take so long ? The market just has not been very positive as well as Malaysia was having election. Things are slightly slow. Market starts to pick up slightly. To us, we are moving to a condominium which will be our home for the next ten years or so. 

'Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.' (Isaiah 40:31)

I named my daughter after this bible verse because I believe the Lord will renew her strength as well as guide her in her path. For what we have, that is the grace of God that we have health, wealth, able to live peacefully in this world. Hence, we shall not be greedy or focusing in worldly matter zealously. 

Why I am writing this sharing, my wife and I have been praying to God to help us to find a buyer. I believe God will take care of it and I shall not be worried about that. Also, back in March/April this year, I was really depressed because I have problems servicing my mortgages. However, My Lord is the provider. He provided me with a loan of RM 100,000 from an international bank. I received a call from the banker and glad that the water came in during drought.

While I am writing this, the potential buyer came back to us with an offer. It was below our expected price but I believe we will take it. This belongs to God and God will see what is right. So, I shall accept it without any doubts.

Hallelujah! I hope those who read my blog will give thanks to him and depend on him. He will guide us and we will not lose our way. Amen.

 

Till at Long Last (by Shevon Chan)

At long last…

The cries from a barren desert,

Have been weighed up and accepted.

The tears of my weary spirit,

Now covers the vessel at brim.

At last, the pockets of the skies,

Are filled and ready at Your count.

Each cloud ready to deliver,

When my Lord commands ‘It Is Now’.

‘It Is Now’! says the Lord of hosts.

Hallelujah! Praise our Savior!

The skies opened, the clouds poured down.

You showered your Grace! Thank You Lord!

Though our sins with roots deep and wide,

Your love spans beyond depth and width.

For as high as the Heavens are above the earth,

so great is Your love for those who fear You.

And as far as the east is from the west,

so far have You removed our transgressions.

You saw my heart, my weary heart.

To stay or flee, You answered me.

You saw his heart, his rueful heart.

Begging mercy, on bended knee.

Till at long last, the time is ripe,

You revealed your beautiful song.

My grace is sufficient, My child,

For when you are weak, you grow strong.

When I ponder upon the trials;

Your apostles bore night and day.

My test is but a trivial one.

Not worth the mention, I would say,

Afflictions in stripes and tumults,

Imprisonments and sleeplessness.

These your apostles bore in faith.

What have I borne for your name?

Yet Lord I am of flesh. So weak.

The trials at times seem at peak.

Betrayal haunts me in my sleep.

Loneliness attacks harsh and deep.

Regret and insecurity;

and angst sold my insanity.

Give me strength Lord, to overcome.

Give me wisdom to understand; that which is pleasing in Your sight.

For I would like for nothing more; than to be the child of Your light.

Till at long last, I meet with you, sheltered in your bosom of might.

Till at long last….

by Shevon Chan

dedicated to my beloved brother in Christ.

Words from a lost sheep (Now newly found)

The term 'Acceptance' is defined as a verb, in which it shows to have two different meanings. The first is known as the act of taking or receiving something offered. For example, if someone is giving you a gift and you receive it, than that person has accepted the gift; therefore, having acceptance.

Another definition of acceptance has to deal with positive welcome; favor and endorsement. In which, a person could like someone and have acceptance for them due to their approval of that person.

The third description of acceptance is that it can be act of believing or assenting. For instance, Christians believe (accept) that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior.
(Extracted from Wikipedia)

I have not written a blog for over a week. I was preparing my heart to come before Him for my baptism. During this period, I faced many trials both in my work place and in my personal life. I praise the Lord that He accepted me into his fold. I would like to share my thoughts on a remarkable yesterday.

I see myself as one described in Luke 15: 3-7, the Parable of The Lost Sheep; a lost sheep now found by my Shepherd. I had actually left God for more than 18 years. Even though I attended church services regularly, my heart was not with Him. So many callings had been made to me but I was too indulgent in all the worldly cares. It was like poison; pleasurable but poisonous. I drifted further and further away to a state where the existence of God was not that important at all.
The unification between God and I marked an end to my 18 years of exile. Preacher Fung asked me whether I was being chased by the Egyptians while I was crossing the Red Sea. My answer was yes. I was chased by the Egyptians while I was anxiously waiting to cross the Red Sea, to be unified in Him. The Egyptians were the surfacing of my wrongdoings in the past. Those were “the acts of the sinful nature; 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.” (Galatians 5:19-21)

Yesterday (10 May 2009), I received my freedom in Christ, I was ACCEPTED. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1)

I received my first full blown attacked straight after the Holy Communion sacrament. It was fairly messy. I could see that Satan used different means by attacking people who cared about me. It was a long day. The service finished at 5pm but the attacks carried on for another three and a half hours. Satan tried to attack those who cared about me and through that, he thought he could strike my faith. His trick was to deceitfully bring out my past and wrongdoings, and to use it to accuse those who came to God.

I tried to avoid all these attacks since yesterday when I first attended the spiritual convocation. On Sunday morning, I woke up at 6am and left for Morning Prayer session at 6:30am and prayed so hard not to fall into his trap. Baptism went well and when I thought that was a memorial day for me to celebrate my acceptance in Christ, the attacks came rather astonishingly.

I think Satan had miscalculated one thing: "Now I live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law." (Galatians 5:16-18)

I held on to the true gospel that I believed in. I prayed to my Lord. I asked for strength in this spiritual battle. The wrongdoings starts from our thoughts, our thoughts leads to acts, and acts leads on to sin. Our sin leaves ground for the liar to use as a weapon to attack us. He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short. (Revelation 12:12)

I made my testimony in the name of Jesus Christ. I knew that I was forgiven and accepted to the Kingdom of God when I received my Holy Spirit. I could understand my father’s will. The trials are to mould me into becoming His faithful servant. I love reading the bible. I love studying His words. Over the last few months, I read more of His words than I have ever done in the past 18 years. To my surprise, I read more than 20 books of the New Testament. I believe I will read His words over and over again until the day I reunite with my Lord in Heaven. What changed me? The Holy Spirit. Now, I can claim and announce loudly to everyone, ‘I AM A REBORN CHRISTIAN.” I went through the baptism of blood, water and fire.

Before I end, I want to remind myself and fellow brethren about God’s Love 1 John 4:7-21.

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. We know that we live in him and he is us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

Maybe we have too many hatred in our hearts. That is why we cannot totally submit ourselves to God. That is why the Holy Spirit does not dwell in those who can’t surrender their past burdens and bondages. God wants a simple heart to come before Him. God heals the wounded. My dear brethren, come to Him and let go of your burdens and bondages. You will receive your healing. You will change. You will have a new life to live on and you will have a clear direction to move in. I wish I had not done so many wrongdoings. For now, I will only want to cling onto His path and live out His testimony. May His name be glorified.

Swing while you're winning

The weather over in KK had been really hot lately with average temperature hitting 33 ‘C. The morning rain brought sprinkle of coolness, ousting away the hot air. I had a flight of 4 this morning and it was amazing. I am a beginner and my swing has not been really consistent.

In the game of golf, strength is most often associated with distance, how far you hit the ball. Although it feels good to send your tee shot high and far, strength training for golf is important for reasons other than extra distance. First and foremost, strength (together with flexibility) provides the foundation for a more efficient, reliable golf swing, two qualities better players share.

An efficient golf swing, or any athletic movement for that matter, requires some degree of stability, power, balance and coordination. Strength training provides a foundation for these. In other words, you can’t improve your club head speed without first increasing stability and power. And you can’t optimize your power without sufficient balance and coordination. And in order to maintain it for 18 holes, you need endurance. A comprehensive, golf specific strength training program, when combined with flexibility training, will therefore promote a more efficient and reliable golf swing, increase your endurance, and not to be overlooked, will reduce the risk of injury.

As a beginner, you try to grab the club and swing as hard as possible and hoping to hit the ball dead hard. What we hope for is the distance. When you are seasoned, you know the right techniques is to hold the club gently, swing constantly with moderate speed and let the body movement carry the ball away from the tee. You will realize the distance it carries is so much further away and consistent.

It is a simple technique but it takes years of practice to perfect your skill. Our muscles will memory our swing and that forms part of our skills. In life, as a Christian, it is important to learn how to let go of control of my life and surrender to God. Being a Christian does not mean we will have less temptations or trials in life. In fact, ‘successful’ or ‘blessed’ Christians are those who have encountered numerous of trials in life and being able to hold onto HIS promise.

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” (1 Peter 4:12-14)

When we surrender ourselves to God and let the Holy Spirit rests upon us, there are changes being done to us. It is not saying once we are baptized and dwelled in him, we will not fall. In fact, Belial will find ways to deceit us and make us fall. That is why it is very important for us to endure the trials with his words.

It is just like letting go of our control in swinging and let our body takes charge. It is just like giving the helm to Jesus Christ and let him take charge of our life. In the end, you will see a beautiful swing with virtually effortless but lifting the ball to a new height and great distance. It applies to our journey on earth, being able to live against the trials with comfort and glorify his name by his grace.

Now, are we going to swing in victory?

Amanah Saham Nasional Wawasan 2020 – 10% Investment Return

ASN Wawasan 2020 is a government unit trust fund with the objective of providing regular distribution of dividend between 6-10% to investors. With the current interest rate of fixed deposit at 2.5%, this fund no doubt has been a sought after scheme to hedge against inflation. With a limitation of maximum investment of no more than RM 20,000 per person, the fund is selling like hot cake.

My mom called me early in the morning to ask me to invest into this fund. I normally invest into stocks and shares, and funds has never been my cup of tea. This morning, I thought it might be a good idea for me to have some decent savings with the government. I arrived at CIMB Kampung Air branch by 9:30am and realized all forms had been taking up. I had to look for a Maybank branch nearby to obtain an account opening form. My number was 85. At the time, the system was either offline or slow. For those who didn’t have an account, they had to queue up! Heard that the person who got the 1st place came at 6.00am and a young man at position 5 came at around 7.00am.

After queuing for about an hour, I decided to leave. I was patient enough to carry on waiting but I believed my chance was rather slim. I thought... I had invested in a much better bank with supernormal returns. However, I was amazed at the enthusiasm of the 5% difference in returns.

I wondered... if somewhere was willing to offer 10% return per annum, how long would the queue be? What about somewhere that offers 50% return on your investment? Or100%? I think people will think that is a scam rather than an investment.

I have a scheme, by giving 10%, you will receive more than 10 times, 100 times. The return is mathematically ridiculous. You may want to ask me, where can I find this bank? My answer is simple.

“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.” (Malachi 3:10)

I truly believe that when we invest in our heavenly account, the returns and rewards are far greater than the investment that we make on earth. Returns are guaranteed, totally risk free. There is no such case as that of Lehman brothers. Our Lord is the provider; you will not be in want as in Psalm 23:1.
Besides that, this place is safe and totally thieves-free. Have you ever worried that the thieves will break in and steal your treasure when you are away on holiday? Do you put all your treasures and belongings in the safes with layers of password and protections? Are you worried that your investment will go in vain due to wars or political uncertainties? We worry that our treasures will be lost in all above scenario.

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matthew 6:19-20

If we place our treasure in heaven, our heart will be there. We will live our life not to worry that we will lose everything. Imagine, when you are walking by the beach without any valuables, just a bottle of water to quench your thirst and a clear mind to enjoy God’s beautiful creation, will you worry that someone will come to you and rob your belongings? I believe you will not because you have placed all your money in the bank, and valuables in the safe. That is exactly how you will feel when you place your treasure in heaven, it is better than anything because you know your blessings will more than your room can accommodate.

Do you still think queuing for a 10% return of ASN Wawasan 2020 is still such a good investment?

The Purpose of Life

He said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I shall return there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD." (Job 1:21)

Have we ever truthfully asked ourselves what is the purpose of our presence? I believe many of us do not even bother with this question. We have too many worldly issues that we need to tackle and asking a hypothetical question is out of reach. This question has been purposely crafted for us to live our life.

Our existence is because of his grace. We are given by God. Our presence is beautiful because we are his offspring.

“Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” (Genesis 2:7)

It is his grace that we present. Our purpose of life is to glorify him. We are unique to God. He has special purpose for each of us. Sometimes, we are born with defects; we are born in poor; we are porn in weak. The Imperfections of our life is to glorify the perfection of God. Look at everyone around us, no one is perfect. Look again at our life journey, don’t you think our path is full of miracles. It is God who has given us everything and we should be thankful.

We feel despairs, upset when we lose something. If you understand that it is from God and given by him, then you will know it is alright if God has taken it away. When God takes it away, he may want us to learn a lesson, go through a test, equip us or mould us. Remember, he loves us and he will not let us suffer without purpose. He knows how much we can take and he will not let us suffer more than what we can bear. When we are desperate, you know he will save us.

When was the last time you spoke to your parents? When was the last time you had a quiet personal moment with God? Knowing him and understanding him, then you will know your life journey is not alone. Things are actually rosier than you think. He loves us, and he wants his children be blessed and joyous to bear his testimony in life. Have you found your purpose of life now?

“Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you will revive me; you will stretch forth Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, And Your right hand will save me.” (Psalm 138:7)