Where’s Your Mission Field? (A Thanksgiving Message)

Further to my sharing on 11 January 2011, I did mention that my dad is a psychiatric patient and the family situations that I am now in. However, despite the many struggles and hard times, I must say that God has always been so faithful to me and my family.

Sometime September Iast year, my dad has gotten violent, threatening to hit me and my family. As things became critical, I braved myself to bring my mom to the nearest police station in Taman Tun. The policeman initially refused to take our complaint and advise us to bring him to the hospital. However, after I have showed the “weapon” used by my dad that could possibly endangered us and explained that we were not being able to bring him to the hospital, one of the policemen was very helpful to the extent of offered to handcuff him and escort him to hospital.

For many years, I have been praying for opportunities to ward him as he refuses to take his medication. On that particular day, it suddenly came to my mind that this was indeed God answering my prayer even though I have forgotten I did made such prayers before! I was overjoyed even though from the registration process till the warding process took approximately 8 hours though the nurses were not particularly helpful. Again, I thank God for getting a good doctor for us and bringing Church members to pray and offer practical help. The doctor that we have had was experienced and has a good heart.

Just a bit of background story: my dad did see a psychiatrist some years ago and did the usual follow-up check-up but he did not tell doctor the truth of his sickness and did not take the prescribed medication. It was to my heartaches as the previous psychiatrist wasn’t very professional, in my opinion and perhaps, unethical to some extent. For the few months that I was able to obtain leave to see that particular doctor, I did bring photographs and notes of his latest developments pertaining to his illness but the same doctor took it so lightly. At the later stage, he was even asking me to buy medicines from his clinic and the medicine that he sold to me was just a generic one.

We see and heard a lot of stories on how those chronic patients waited for hours and weeks for the appointment to see doctor in order to get medication and so many of them are not being treated properly at the government hospital. Due to financial constraint, most poor and needy and even average family like mine could not have afforded to seek medical advice from private clinic or hospital. I strongly encourage those who you who do medicines/pharmacist/any other field to go into government service as the poor and marginalise people would need your help.

Ephesians 4:1 (New King James Version) 1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 

You could be a shining light to those who have no light/dim light if you let God take charge =)

In Him, From Yit Mun, aka IP Man

Images taken from:
http://familymedia.tv/news/world/article/archive/2012/march/article/god-is-faithful/
http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1112494030/study-finds-developing-countries-suffer-from-poor-hospital-care/

David Cook: 2 comes before 3!

It was such a blessing to have David Cook to share 2 sermons with us last Sunday! Praise the Lord for such refreshing thoughts and perspectives =)

Out of the many interesting points he brought up, there's just one particular point that made a significant impact in my mind. All this while, I always tried to share with others about how our intimate relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ worked so naturally that as we fall deeply in love with Him, everything else falls into place.

Well, David Cook was mentioning that he shared about how his good friends at the gym back in Australia was astonished with one of the few things he preached to them when they were invited to one of his theological sessions. And apparently, as David mentioned - it's pretty obvious that 2 comes before 3 , but to his friend, it was such an "insight" for him!

He referred to the passage of the 10 commandments, where if we actually give a proper look into it, the Lord first redeemed the Israelite as He freed them from slavery in Egypt and call them His own and in effect of that, He only then gave the 10 commandments to them to obey as a result of gratitude and to please their Lord and Saviour.

Deut 5: 6 - 7 

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
You shall have no other gods before me.

Today, many are still struggling with that point of view, often time confusing it with trying to go with 3 first.. then only with 2. I myself personally in the past have struggled with this issue, where the moment I sinned against the Lord, I feel terribly unworthy to face Him and that I feel as if He is gravely upset with me of my "performance" and treatment towards this relationship.

It was as if, the nature of my faith depended on how well I "performed" as a Christian, which then only I can grow closer to Him. What a perverted point of view indeed!

So the 2 clearly comes naturally before the 3:

2: He's my Lord, Saviour, Father, friend, lover - 3: that's why I naturally desire to listen to Him, talk to Him, pour out my expression of love and gratitude to Him, serve others as He tells me it pleases Him so!

Hence, many people find that eventually they have many disappointed hopes and expectations, worship becoming less "entertaining",  and serving others is purely a favour to claim back from eventually. No wonder the term "hypocritical" appears frequently in the Word of God itself!

So... have we gotten our 2 first, before 3 comes into place?


- daryl 's u n d a e' heng

Images taken from:
http://mycrazylifeasanavywife.blogspot.com/2012/08/our-personal-relationship-with-god-has.html
http://whatislistening.com/blog/the-quest-of-the-mustard-seed-and-sorrow.php