Natural Disasters

2 years ago I came back there was a tsunami. This year there is flood in 6 states of Malaysia and Sumatra and earthquake at grandparents’ home in Taiwan. I don’t know what does God wants to show me from these incidents. I feel painful toward the victims, or the world. There are people suffering around, and there were people celebrating Christmas as they do not know anything. I feel pathetic toward both crowds. I could not do anything except begging for God’s mercy. I feel the urgency: something has to be done as soon as possible; there is no time to be wasted. If something you can do, don’t wait until tomorrow. For the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him, be watchful and keep praying, do not act like the ignorant.

Jesus answered, “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ, and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumours of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains...
Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come… Now one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen till the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of Son of Man… Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. (Matthew 24)

There is one thing I have not yet understood. If God is sovereign over all these disasters, and has predestined the salvation of His people, how should I pray? Should I pray that the gospel would be preached to the whole world? But Jesus said it will. Should I pray for the salvation of the people? Should I pray that God will take away the disasters? Or I should ignore everything as if there is nothing happen because God is sovereign? These questions have been bothering me…

Merry Christmas

Christmas

Really miss the celebration and the atmosphere of Christmas in New Zealand. Miss the advent services, Christmas carols, midnight service, potluck gathering, Christmas presents… At here Christmas is just all about shopping or dining or travelling, nothing more than commercial. My aunt from Kuching came to KL and stayed for 2 nights, I was greatly challenged by her as she is a non Christian and told me about Chakra and yoga those "mind, body, and soul" type of things. To be respectful I was just listening to her. From conversations with my mum and my aunt I can feel my family's high expectations on me. If I graduate next year (hopefully) I would be the first one who gets a university degree in my grandfather's line. I wonder what their reaction would be like if I tell them that I am not interested in building a career or being a “successful” woman but just want to follow God.

I feel lonely here, really lonely. I miss the smiles, the laughters, the hugs, the craziness, the warmth from my fellow friends in Palmerston North. Miss the bible discussions in OCF, miss the excitement to share about God, miss the time when we pray together… However I still have to thank God for showing me that glimpse of His Kingdom, so that I may have the hope and strength to wait upon Christ’s second coming and eternal life with God and His people.

Preach the Word; be ready in season and out of season

As I was grieving about the church and the world, I've learnt that I need to look at the things in a positive perspective, and put my hope and trust in the Lord. On Saturday afternoon I had a long chat with a Christian friend whom I met in New Zealand. I was so happy to know that at least there is someone that I can talk about God with in KL. We had talked about more than 3 hours in the café. I was deeply encouraged by her faith in God, and her love for people. She has made me understand that, even when the earthly conditions are not favourable to serve God and love people, I still have to do it, with passion, because deep in my heart I know who I am serving for. There is one verse from 2 Timothy that was floating in my mind at that time:

Preach the Word; be ready in season and out of season

Now I understand what it means, but I admit that it is not easy. And the next line:

reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. (2 Timothy 4:2)

Why Paul gave this command to Timothy? Because in previous chapter he mentioned that there will come times of difficulty, he will face Godless people everywhere. But he didn’t tell Timothy to give up and sit there do nothing, insteaad he told him to preach the Word, be ready in season and out of season. Also, reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. Am I expecting to serve God only when the surroundings are desirable? Am I expecting to share the Gospel only when people ask me to tell them? Am I choosing to obey God only when it does not cost anything?

Honestly I was quite disappointed at myself, I had compromised a lot, I have become lazy to pray, and spend less and less time with the Bible. But thank God He will accomplish His will, His plan, no matter I obey Him or not. And I thank Him that He is a living and sovereign God, patiently teaching, guiding, rebuking, and correcting me so that I will not waste my life on this journey to eternal life.

I am seriously considered about coming back to KL. My friend told me that she has a vision that there will be a revival in the churches of Malaysia; people will come back from overseas to serve the Lord. Yes, indeed there are many weaknesses in the churches here, but does it matter? God is powerful, He will do what he intends to do, and I just need to commit in Him, delight in Him, trust in Him, and be still before Him (Psalm 37).

Putrajaya

Some pics of KL

1 Utama Shopping Centre - Huge Mickey Christmas Decoration

Central Market

Petaling Street (Chinatown)

Contemporary Worship Songs

I used to enjoy most the ‘worship’ / singing part of the church, because of the emotional effect they created through music made me ‘feel’ that God is most near at that moment (i.e.' Spirit-filled' moment). However, this time I went to church again, the part that I most uncomfortable with is the singing part. It was a very weird feeling. Churches I attended in KL mostly emphasise on ‘filling by the Holy Spirit’ on worship services, but not hearing the word of God. The funny thing is, I feel God is most unreal, or most distance, when they do that, especially when they start lift their hands on high, and start speaking in tongues. Maybe that is just not my way to approach God anymore.

All the songs they sang were about ‘me’- ‘How much I love God’, ‘How much happy I am after believed in God’, ‘God can comfort me’, or ‘God can heal my pain’. I don’t see how God’s glory is revealing, instead people worship because of its therapeutic effect. And these songs repeated week after week, the leader emphasised that the Holy Spirit is in among the congregation, and people come week after week to seek comfort and healing, instead of spiritual growth. This is just my own opinion. I feel 'resisted' when singing worship songs, I wasn't sure which God I was worshipping. Was He the God of creation? Was He the God who died for us? Or he just an imaginary 'god' who everyone longing for: 'God who can bless you, give you, comfort you, love you when you need?'

The reason I still keep going to this church is because they have good guest speakers for the past 2 weeks. At least my parents feel ok about it, and willing to go to church even it is so early and so far from home, before I found a truly Scripture based, God centred church, it is better than not going to church at all. I haven’t hear pastor from the church speak yet, will see if the truth is spoken. Another thing that I don’t feel comfortable is after the speakers finished their speech, and prayed for everyone, and sang closing song, the church leader still wants to come up and do another altar call with long prayers. Church elders will pray for the people stepped forward personally, mostly for healing. They do altar call every week, and many were saved. And that’s a good thing.

The church here operates very differently than OCF. In OCF, people believe in God and accept God because of what they learnt through the Scriptures and friendship (community) with other believers. For the church here, they share the gospel every week, and if only you believed and accepted Christ, you belong to the community, and start your ‘active Christian life’ – to serve, share testimony, and get others to believe as well. This progress is faster and efficient to convert non-believers. People believed because of the life testimonies and the gospel. Who knows what happens later on in their life? As long as many are ‘saved’, does it matter if they lack of biblical knowledge?

TV

Because I have nothing much to do at home I watch almost 5-6 hours of tv programs per day! I watch Thai, Taiwanese, Chinese, Hong Kong, Korean, Singaporean, and Malaysian drama series everyday. Although all produced in different countries and from different producers, the main themes are not that different. All of them talks about love and suffering, good and evil. Good people who love are always suffering; suffering for their lovers, family, friends, or social injustice. Sometimes there was a happy ending, sometimes not. I was questioning why they have to produce so many dramas that are full of suffering? Why don’t produce more comedies or positive programs so that people can laugh and feel better? My answer is of course people like to watch them. I think when people watch others suffering it will reduce their own pain because there is a kind of soothing effect. I think the cross of Christ has the same effect too: Jesus not just heals, but He suffers himself so that you might be comforted. However, there were many times I think if Jesus is in that situation (in the drama) or they know God, much sufferings were unnecessary. For example, people who suffers from cancer or terminal illness gives great pain for people around who loves him/her, but if they know God, and put their hope in Christ, they won’t need to despair, but have the hope of eternal life instead!

10 reasons why KL is good

1. More chance to bump into strangers and if you dare, more chance to share the gospel.
2. Get ready cooked, yummy food at anywhere and anytime (remark: you can get breakfast as early as you want and supper as late as you want)
3. Cheap, latest computers and its accessories
4. Shopping paradise
5. You go everywhere can see Chinese, Malay and Indian work together
6. Beautiful nightview
7. You can speak broken English and nobody will laugh at you
8. Weather is nice and predictable
9. 6 Free tv channels: programmes with original languages and English/Malay subtitles from local, Korea, Taiwan, China, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, USA, India... and news with at least 3 different languages
10. Easy to pass the custom in airport (don’t even need to X-Ray scan my luggage) and electronic passport

10 reasons why Palmy is good

1. NO traffic jam
2. Free parking (most places) or cheap parking meter
3. Plenty of parking spaces
4. Wide, smooth roads
5. Bike lanes and pedestrian walkways
6. Walking distance into city centre
7. Quiet
8. No air pollution
9. Bigger personal space ( do not have to squash with strangers)
10. Free bus for Massey students and has a TIMETABLE and ROUTE MAPS!

God is faithful to my family

God is faithful indeed. Sometimes I just need I little bit more courage and trust in God and He will accomplish what He intend to do. I was praying hard that my family can find a good church to attend and willing to commit. I don’t really care about myself that much, I mean I can go back to NZ and have my fellowship there, but my family need a good church to be involved in. I hope that they can see the truth more and more and delight in God. My parents had brought me to church because I wanted to, and we never been to that church before. It was a Chinese service, and many old people were there. The worship team was not the best, but people were praising God wholeheartedly, although the congregation was not big, but everyone came to shake our hands and welcomed us. The pastor was not a good speaker, he cannot even speak fluently in mandarin, but the teaching was from the bible and the word of God penetrates people’s hearts. Today’s sermon was about John 15:5-8, it was very relevant to our current situation. He says we need to desire God with our hearts and worship God everyday (include prayer), have fellowship with other Christians, and read His Word. And God has 3 blessings for us: His grace, His providence, and His strength. And we need to pray frequently to let His grace flow through us, and strengthen us. We are like branches, and Jesus is the vine. Without drawing nutrients from the vine, the branches can do nothing. I was glad, my mum likes it, and she wants to go there again. The church people were a bit shy but they were very friendly. Besides, on 15th the church is going to have a musical drama about the story of love among the aboriginals in Sarawak (my homeland), I was eager to go to watch even before the church offer free tickets for our family! God was working, He is faithful, even we failed and remain faithless for so many times.