National Day of Mourning

22nd August 2014 - A day of National Mourning for the victims of MH17. We stand together as Malaysian in sharing our grief on the loss of our compatriot regardless of background.

Partial Obedience is Disobedience

In 1 Samuel 15, we read about King Saul was given a clear instruction through Prophet Samuel to destroy the Amalekites and everything that belong to them. God was not vague in His command. God called Saul, very specifically, to destroy the Amalekite nation. Saul does most of what God instructs him to do through Samuel, but he does not obey completely. Samuel sees this incomplete obedience as sin.

Saul only obeyed God’s command to the point that it made sense to him. Probably King Saul figured out it was unreasonable to destroy the fine livestock. He probably thought that was just an oversight on God’s part. Perhaps King Saul assumed that God wouldn’t mind if he spared Agag, the king, as a trophy of his great victory. Whatever the reason, King Saul deliberately put his own agendas ahead of God's plan.

When Prophet Samuel confronted King Saul on this, King Saul tried to cover up his action. First, Saul doesn’t even see what he did as wrong.  In verse 13, he says “I have carried out the Lord’s instructions…”  Has he? Second, in verse 15, he shifts the blame onto the soldiers.  Then he reaffirms that he totally destroyed the rest.  How could he have “totally destroyed” some, but not all?  He’s admitting that he didn’t completely carry out the task, while at the same time saying he did carry it out. Thirdly, Saul again says he obeyed and refuses to repent.  After Samuel calls him out in verses 17-19, in verse 20, he says, “But I did obey the Lord.”  He’s still not willing to admit he’s done anything wrong.

King Saul even offered "godly" reason for his actions. He hadn't done what God told him, and yet he tries to portray himself so wonderfully. When Samuel asked about the presence of the spoils, Saul blamed the disobedience on his soldiers, rationalizing that they were preserved for sacrifice to the “LORD your God. The Road of Disobedience is littered with Excuses. Saul had lots of excuses. Some of it seems to be so religious.

Can we make the same mistake? Can we offend God yet convince ourselves that we have honored him with our obedience? It’s a sobering question. Was God pleased with the good "fruits" that Saul spared? After all, Saul "spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God". John Woodhouse wrote the following in his book titled “1 Samuel” - "Has it ever crossed your mind that you might compensate for some disobedience to God's word with regular churchgoing or generous giving or even disciplined praying and Bible reading?"

Samuel had continued to listen to Saul’s litany of rationalizations as he attempted to justify his disobedience to the LORD. Finally, Samuel simply interrupted Saul with one of the most notable and well-known statements of his prophetic career (Verse 22) in a four-line Hebrew-styled poem:

o    Does the LORD Delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD?

o    To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.

o    For rebellion is like the sin of divination (witchcraft) and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.

o    Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king.

Saul’s partial obedience not only brought grieve to the Lord and Samuel but it also lead to Saul’s downfall.  Partial obedience is also classified as rejecting the Word of God (verse 26). To know what God commands us to do (or not to do), and then to disobey, is to willfully rebel against God. No ritualistic worship, no ceremonial activity, overrides the evil of such sin.

May we obey God with all our heart.

A Blessed Man or a Rich Man?

Jeremiah 17:7-8: “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green.It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

I choose the path of being a blessed man rather than chasing after the riches of the world. Because a blessed man put his hope in the living God knowing that God alone is His source of providence.
Don’t place your faith in nouns. Sooner or later every person will disappoint, every place will lose its luster, and every thing will wear out, become outdated, or lost. But there is One who will never disappoint. That’s why the person who puts his trust in God will be blessed. When I place my trust in the Lord, I can enjoy constant nourishment to my soul, constant protection and yield constant fruit.

Mark 8:36 says "What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?" A hundred years from now very few of us will be remembered by anybody living at that time. So if we focus all our attention on the successes of this world what will it have gained for us. When we die our money, fame, and honors will be meaningless. We own nothing in this world. Everything we think we own is in reality only being loaned to us until we die. And on our deathbed at the moment of death, no one but God can save our souls.

That does not discount the fact of giving your very best at your work place. Colossians 3:23-25 says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving." Life is fragile, live the moment for His glory. The book of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes contain some wise sayings regarding work. Proverbs 14:23 says, “All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.” Proverbs 6:6-11 says, “Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest – and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.” Ecclesiastes 9:10 says, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.” A strong work ethic is confirmed, with warnings concerning slackness.

What is your choice today? In whom or what do you trust? In whom or what do you place your confidence? The MH17 incident taught us that Life is fragile, live the moment for God's glory.

Anger Management - Learning from #CDM25

A Malaysian young woman made headlines recently when a video of her bashing a helpless senior citizen’s car was caught on camera and released to the social media. The video went viral with lots of comments made in the internet. The two-and-half minute video showing the woman, enraged that her Peugeot 208 had been hit by a car driven by an elderly man, alighting from her vehicle, armed with a car steering lock. Despite the old man repeatedly pleading that he hadn’t intended to hit her car on purpose, the woman continued to yell at him, and even “deployed” her steering wheel lock at his car.

The woman’s temper and behavior leads to series of “discussion” in cyberspace, with almost unanimous agreement that the woman was bad-mannered. The #CDM25 hashtag trended on Twitter and Facebook both locally and internationally since the video was published. Overnight, the woman has turn into Malaysia’s latest “public enemy #1″, for obvious reasons.

What can we learn from this whole incident? I think anger management is a key lesson point here. When we fail to control our anger, then obvious reaction takes place such as being disrespectful, uttering racist statement and violent. In our moment of uncontrolled anger, we flares up like a match-stick when a friction is applied.  It is always important to remember a good old quote that says a match-stick has a head but it does not have a brain. Let us learn from this analogy between match-stick and a human brain. All of us has head and a brain as well. Let us resolve to use our brain and not to react on impulse. The great management guru, Steven Covey address this issue with a brilliant statement, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response. In those choices lie our growth and our happiness.” We can’t control all of the stimuli that comes on our way on a daily basis, but to a large degree we can choose what our response is going to be. We need to be responsible on how we respond in a given situation.

To the young woman in this latest fiasco, here is one advice for you quoting from Saint Ambrose: “A good youth ought to have a fear of God, to be subject to her parents, to give honor to her elders, to preserve her purity; she ought not to despise humility, but should love forbearance and modesty. All these are an ornament to youthful years.”

Peace in the midst of the Storm

Psalm 91:1-2 - Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” 

Psalm 91 is probably one of the most favorite chapters in the book of Psalm. We are not sure who wrote the Psalm, but we can assuredly say it was written by someone who truly knew God and had experienced His faithfulness in the good and bad times of life – in sunshine and in storm.
 

It is a guarantee that storms will come in our life but surely they will pass. It is what we do in the middle of the storm that makes us victorious. If fear tries to take over, we can just look unto our Heavenly Father and we will gain the peace we need to go through any storm.

Psalm 91 speaks of God as the Protector of those who trust in Him. The promise is for those who has trusted in God, who has fled to Him for safety, will be delivered.

Be Blessed.

Random Act of Kindness

Life is a journey and at times it’s hard, frustrating and lonely. Sometimes when everything seems to be a smooth sailing, something may strike us and bring us through a roller coaster experience. In moments like this, a random act kindness would encourage us and elevate our spirit. Random acts of kindness don't have to be huge, well-thought-out events or actions. They can be as simple as smiling at a passerby. But the one thing that an act of kindness does require is for it to be given from the heart without expecting anything in return except the possibility that you've made someone's day better.

I experience the value of random act of kindness today. A colleague came back to work after 7 months of break. She walks to my office and gave me a hug and say thank you for supporting her during the difficult period of life. Both of us shed some tears during that moment. The only thing I did was sending her encouragement through Whatsapp and SMS. Today I realized the impact of simple encouraging words using simple medium. An American politician by the name of Bob Kerrey says “Unexpected kindness is the most powerful, least costly, and most underrated agent of human change. Who knows how a simple act of kindness on our part may change the lives of others.

Sometimes we get caught up with wanting to do big things for the people we love, to show them how much we care.  Buying them big gifts, giving them money; we need something tangible to give to them.  I think it's so easy for all of us to get caught up with showing our love through objects.  Sometimes all it takes is to check up on someone and ask "How are you doing?  I miss you".  And what about showing love to people we don't know? What if all it takes is a smile?  A concerned glanced? I think in order to truly be present and live in the moment; we have to be aware of our surroundings and the people in it. A small and random act of kindness will indeed go a long way.