Lead them to you, Jesus.

Last Saturday, I went back my hometown church and tried to see what I can do to help them as there will be a thanks giving praise and worship event today. Getting into the church, I gave thanks to God as I can tell that the new renovation of my hometown church has been nicely done. Those old music instruments have been replaced by a set of brand new instruments. I heard that there are some brothers and sisters who donated those instruments to the church without intention to get any credits from that. Therefore, the elders of the church didn’t want to announce the name of the donor. Therefore, we shall fully give thanks to God for all these things.

Over there, I didn’t do much thing but of course I managed to make myself busy somehow. Moving back and forth in the hall of the church, I strived to reduce the burden of my dear teacher. I felt really glad to see her still being so dedicated and passionate in serving God; I shall learn from her seriously especially her passion in Christ. While bustling throughout the way, I talked to another teacher who served for years in church. We talked and discussed about how to shepherd the church by using some good guidebooks.

While we were discussing, there was a man standing beside me and staring at me with kindness. The way he made himself noticeable left me having no excuse to ignore him or overlook his existence. In the gap of silence during the discussion, I took the initiative to shake his hand and made a brief self-introduction. We got to know each other, and I just realized that he is new believer in Christ. We didn’t really talk much, what I know is that he is 30+ years old, a married guy who has a daughter of 4 years old. For no reason, he asked me my contact number and without hesitation, I gave him my contact number.

From that day onward, he reached me several times by sending me messages through phone with the attempt of trying to ask me out for dinner. Somehow I withdrew myself from meeting him and turned him down for the first time. Perhaps I have not yet identified the reason for him to meet me; there must be a reason why he tried to meet me. So one day, he called me out to have a dinner, I asked him: “Yes, brother. I am free tonight. But I wonder if you are currently having any problem. If yes, then I may figure out how to help you.” He said:” No problem. But since I am a new believer, I want to know how to be a Christian and I think maybe you can help me on this, because you have been a Christian for some years.” I said: “I see. Then okay, we shall meet tonight and I can help you on that later.”

I prepared myself with some materials and scriptures. I then read through all those things regarding the gospel just to get myself familiar with all these in order to get myself ready to teach him with the words of God so as to lead him to Christ with a heart of obedience. We finally met and had a good session of learning how God saves us through the gospel.  Basically I taught him about the beginning and the consequence of sin, and the reason why Jesus Christ is the only savior, the only gospel to the helpless humankind.

Throughout the session, I asked a question with curiosity:” why do you approach me for teaching you? What made you think that I can help you? We have just met for the first time, right?” The answer gave me a strong feeling of satisfaction. He answered:” I observed you in the church, and I think you are a good Christian because you were serving over there.” Then I straight away continued to share the gospel of God with details and the basis of scriptures. I made sure that his mind got along with me throughout the sharing by asking questions from time to time.

I felt touched that God brought this man to me. I can tell that he is really an innocent man who seeks the word of God with a lot of effort and humility that not much people possess. He is just like a new-born kid with good curiosity in Christ. Throughout the session, I tried to help him knowing our awesome God better, but I was taught by God in secret that I shall learn from him as well, especially his thirst for the words of God. I seldom met this kind of person. I have seen uncountable believers who don't bother to know God better or the words of God through reading the Bible. They live as if they have no king in their lives but meanwhile they unreasonably claim themselves as the follower of Christ by calling themselves Christian. To those people, I may not choose to spend the time to feed them with the word of God as they didn't manage to receive with joy and peace and most probably those words may not help them but trouble or harden their hearts. This makes things even worse. They find no delight in the word of God, they choose to live on their own without the fear of the God.

However, I have no excuse at all to keep the knowledge of God that I have ever known from sharing with him, because he deserves more than I could ever give. He is truly blessed because he has been given a longing heart which thirsts for the words of God. No one seeks God, not even one. It is sometimes rare to find people who claim to be the follower of Christ seeks the will of God. It is even rare to find this elder to get help from me, the younger for knowing the words of God. This humility is greatly appreciated. I will definitely pray for him, hopefully God shows him more and more His words as he keeps on looking for the words of God with this kind of thirst. I felt glad to serve him by sharing him once again the true gospel of God through our Lord Jesus Christ alone. I thank God for having this wonderful honor to shepherd his sheep as I’m truly nothing but perishable dust. So dear Lord, please bring your people to me, so that I could do my part to lead them to obey and fear you.  

The purpose of living 1

Last few months there were several sad cases happened. A friend of my friend got into a fatal accident on the road. My cousin got into accidents and was hurt very badly. In this very moment, most probably we would come to a stage where we would have some reflection on the purpose of life in this world. This is a very fundamental question to human beings. To me, it is a must to think of the purpose of living throughout our lives, because this answer determines a lot of things.

In the former times, traditionalists lived in a way to practise their traditions and cultures which were inherited by their ancestors. They practise their traditions strictly as if those are the truths of living. Traditionalists believe that tradition is the root of life. If we are to recall the condition of their lives, they were having a very tough life, for most of them were in poverty and slowly trying to rise up their children in that tough period. What mostly they worry about was to accumulate the wealth or food for the sake of their families. For those traditionalists, they live for their family and their family becomes the purpose of their life.

However, people realized many traditions or so-called superstitious beliefs do not bring practical advantages to the society. Then, the modern era arrived. Science and technology was introduced into the society and they brought a lot of development and convenience. From that time onwards, the productivity and efficiency was well concerned. Human welfare was being concerned better than ever. For that period of time, people search for practicality and reality principle. They did not imitate the traditionalists concerning about the past “the culture and tradition”; rather they care about the future, the development of science and technology for the sake of the human life quality.

Furthermore, slowly people realized that science and technology brought a lot of harms to the earth and human life is being threatened consequentially due to the abuse of technology and ethical problems of users. Pollution became the main concern to the nations and slowly we embraced environmentalism on that stage. Of course, slowly we got into the era of post-modern. Nowadays, people from post-modern generation would not pay much concern on tradition or development. Most of them would tend to enjoy their lives as long as they manage to do so. The motto of them should be “Life is short, enjoy your life!” They care nothing, but the feeling they have at that particular moment and location. This is what we call “Now & Here”. This kind of feeling and thought is honored and highly concerned among them. Nothing does really matter, neither the future nor the past. The purpose of living to them is to enjoy to the fullness in their limited lives in order to live without regrets.

It is very interesting to see how the concept regarding the purpose of living changed from time to time.

However, there are of course many special purposes of living for somebody which are not mentioned here. A knowledgeable guy who believes in Science and Technology told me that: “The purpose of life is that you live and take whatever that comes to you throughout your life, that’s all.” Certainly, different people would have different opinions on this topic. However, if we really want to discuss about it properly, first of all, we shall ask a question, why do we exist? Due to what reason do we manage to exist in this world? Please be aware that the way we answer this question determines the way we look at the value of life and the purpose of living. (To be continued) 

My Lord is the Humblest Servant

In this hot weather without any hot girls around, I spent my time with my grandmother. Nothing would be more valuable than this. As we know that this coming Monday is a public holiday, a smart guy like me wouldn’t want to be stuck in the potential traffic jam on the highway road. I chose to meet my grandparents at Rawang to see what I can do to better some days in their lives.

Right now, writing this post and sitting beneath a traditional old fan, I naked my upper body as how I did at my home and hostel wondering the exact room temperature right now. I seldom feel hot in my daily life because the temperature seldom troubles me. For that, I assumed that my heat receptor underneath my skin should be located deeper than others ordinary people.

Guess what? I am going to write something in this hot afternoon. This is the fourth week of my study week in this semester. Time flies without hesitation as usual and nothing can stop it to pass by. Thank God for giving me such a wonderful semester in which I am damn busy of doing all sorts of ministry. There are many tasks given to me this semester as my brothers are trying to give me more opportunities to serve. And I am grateful of that.

However, this is also a very tough semester in which I have a final year project to do. This topic of project is not familiar to me because there are some softwares I have to use for doing my work, and I never use them before. It is considered quite a stressful semester I would say. Pray harder and harder so that I would be able to handle both works properly as I don’t want to fall short of the glory of God.

I thank God that I have been sharing with many friends of mine about the gospel of the Bible. Some of them are my course mates. It is indeed exciting and wonderful to share with them the gospel of God, how Jesus Christ died for our sin and paid for the wage of sin which is death. Recently, I am planning to organize an open fellowship in my church for the non-believers in order to let them know more. May God grand me the wisdom so that good work can be done through him.

Recalling the past, I have been very lazy of serving Him in my daily life but yet slowly He brought me to serve Him more at my church and even at some points of time in my daily life. I never expected it can happen that way, but it did miraculously with the love of God. Really give thanks for this wonderful mercy on me because I know I am unworthy for serving this almighty Lord of the world.

Right now, I am struggling with another type of temptation – pride. At some points, it is really tempting to boast about what I do in front of God instead of giving thanks to Him alone with humility that I am supposed to show. What kind of stupid mindset and sinful nature that I have in me thinking that I deserve so-called salvation just because of the goods I did? Didn't I remember that I was saved by His grace and love when I am totally helpless of my salvation status all the time? Didn't I know that serving Him is a must because I am free and no longer the slave of sin but the servant of God? May the Lord punish me and teach me how to be humble in Him as how our Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated the greatest humility to us in the Bible.

Philippians 2:6-11
who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

This is a big contrast between Adam, the first human, and Christ, the Lord. The former as a creature, didn't want to obey the commandments of God but try to grasp any possibility to have the same equality with God and therefore his disobedience brought death to the whole world. However, our Lord Jesus Christ as the creator of the world didn't choose to grasp the equality with God even though he has, but empty himself by becoming into the form of creature he created, and obey to the point of death and through this obedience he brought us a brand-new world and a brand-new life. For all these, I need to repent for my arrogance and imitate His humility, because I am doing what Adam did, instead of being obedient with my actions and my heart. Bless me by showing my unworthiness and revealing your worthiness in my life my dear Lord. And you are indeed praiseworthy! Cus you are the Humblest servant of all.