Church Camp 2012 to me

I must admit that I wasn't much prepared for the Church camp this year. However, all the sessions “came home” to me. Thank God for the speaker, Rev Dr Lim Kar Yong and those who prayed fervently for the camp, who helped to make the messages came through so strongly and relevant to me (and I'm sure I'm not the only one who benefited from this!) =)

During the last session whereby Rev Dr Lim Kar Yong talked about “Walking in the challenge to renewed lives: Romans 15:1-13”, he used the imagery of KL Twin Towers to explain how we could build our faith. All in all, the KL Twin Towers’ foundation took 2 years to complete while after the completion of the foundation, each storey of the Twin Towers only took 3 days to complete. Likewise, in our spiritual walk, we need to spend time building a strong foundation upon the Word of God.

Then Rev Dr Lim Kar Yong went on to touch on how we could build our brothers and sisters-in-Christ. He mentioned that throughout recent Church history, there are many youths and young adults between 18-29 years old leaving church. Among the many reasons as found in the book entitled “You lost me” are due to overprotecting Church and parents, Church people who rarely deals with complexity (anything just ask people to pray with no practical solution), Church is shallow (too program-oriented), Church is exclusive,  repressive and the youngsters are not encouraged to discuss their doubts concerning Christian faith in Church.

When I hear his exposition on this matter, my heart sank as many of my acquaintances which includes my close friend who left Church and got married with a non-Christian some years back came to mind. I wonder could these be some of the reasons she left Church as well…

At one point of my life, I was also disheartened to note that my Church friends who were almost the same age as me left TTDIGC one after another and I was left all alone. However, praise God who channels my mentor to encourage me and got me embarked on a few months of Sabbatical leave for me to refocus upon Him. During that period of time, I was also rather burned out, as I ran the youth activities by my own strength, instead of God’s.

Yes, thanks be to God who did not give up on me and I am still worshipping and serving at Church today and I have indeed “live” as per what God has done in my life :D

Ezekiel 16:6, NKJV“And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’

If you are one of those who felt that the majority of the Church does not understand you, would you step out from your comfort zone and seek help from someone whom you respect and is easily approachable?

If today you find the Church is boring and the world seems to be more exciting, would you ask God for help?

If today you find your quiet time is dry or your prayer life is shallow, would you continue to seek God in these aspects?

If today your closer circle of friends are no longer at Church, would you feel awkward to come to Church or would you even consider invite him / her to come back to the Good Shepherd’s fold?

If you have been grown up most of your life in Church, hanging out with Christians most of the time, would you care to offer a prayer for friends that were once fellow shipped with you?

To the more spirituality matured ones, would you be willing to spare your time, energy and other things that cost you, to heed the sermon by Rev. Dr Lim Kar Yong to be the mentor / discipler to those who come to you? Why not consider reaching out to them?

Let us not let opportunity slipped by, instead let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith (Galatians 6:10, NKJV)

In doing so, your actions are very much in sync with the purpose that Christ came to save mankind.

Matthew 18:11, NKJVFor the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.

Thank you.

In Him,
From Yit Mun, aka IP Man

Images taken from:
http://www.firstchurchokc.com/church-camps
http://aboutaburningfire.com/5-reasons-to-leave-your-church/

He who loved me and gave Himself for me!

Recently I have been going through tremendous pressure and stress; I have been working on this project for 6 months now and have involved a lot of people. The project is currently inching really near to its launch date. This project doesn't merely cost me if it were to fail; it will cost others as well in terms of reputation, their time and effort. I will have my constant deep sighs and I feel like I could break inside anytime.

Some of you must be wondering why I am writing with such “exaggerated” emotions - I write it because it’s real. I can’t deny what is really going on inside and neither do I want to deny it. But I had great difficulties doing so. I would constantly argue within myself, on one side, I would convince myself that the project will turn out as a great success; on the other side, it will be a total disaster.  Both way, I can substantiate good reasons and arguments to why it could be either way and it will never end.

I would constantly tell God that this is about His Glory, I am doing this for Him. As much as I would like to think that I am being very selfless and godly about the whole project, through time, God finally revealed my heart to me. Truly, the heart is beyond wickedness and I often tell my brother “the best liars are often ourselves”.

I was doing my quiet time and as I finally managed to steer away the concerns and deep anxiousness I had, I listened what God had to say to me. He said in His word in Galatians 2 : 19 – 20 :

“For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Paul saw what Peter did because he was afraid how others who are “righteous” would see him being amongst the gentiles, he quickly withdrew himself from them (gentiles). Paul in fact said “he wasn’t acting in line with the truth of the Gospel”. But what really hit me was in the passage as quoted above was “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” It really hit me that the source of my anxiousness and worries were really of my own selfishness. My pride and reputation, the deep desire to be vindicated in my family tree (I have the background of being the blacksheep) and amongst others.  It is no wonder why now I didn’t have God’s peace inside of me, I haven’t allowed Christ to live in me!

Having the peace of God does not mean I have tranquility in me, it means that I suffer in the surety of hope. Not an empty or shallow one (which is based on your own strength).

And then as I went deeper and as the silence of my own voice subside during my time with God, His following words cut my heart deeply, He said “…I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Paul didn’t merely stop at saying “I live by faith in the Son of God” although that may already sound very holy and righteous. He went on to write and elaborate what sort of faith in the Son of God he meant, “…who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

What a beautiful faith is that! And how much I was actually missing out in living as a fool!

It is not as though I don’t already know this truth, but when bigger trials come, we being the weak self wavers so easily and gets tossed by the strong waves that come crashing in. More than that, God reminded how much He loved me and again, the power of His resurrection from the cross.

While Jesus was crucified as He makes His way up to the hill with the rugged cross on His back, in His mind He had His Father’s Glory in focus and manifested His Father’s love for me, my very wretched soul! And what I was busy thinking of in this suffering? Myself. I was deeply ashamed and never felt so ungrateful to the One who saved my soul from eternal darkness.

But God in His steadfast love and faithfulness immediately ministered upon my soul. I was liberated once more from my own foolish suffering and now, I start to suffer in joy. Suddenly, I realized failing is not the end of the world. Even if I did fail and the world were to blame me and shame me for it, I remember the faith I should live in and suffer I must. At least, I try my best to. Of course I am saying this with caution that I do not suffer meaninglessly; meaning to say that I did a sloppy and horrible job and I tried to justify that “suffering” as to something holy and righteous. That is different, that is a deserved suffering for one’s sin.

I pray that this post may serve as an encouragement or a gentle reminder to any sister or brother who is reading this. Amen!

- Gary Heng

Images are taken from :

http://trinities.org/blog/archives/category/humor
http://www.vappingo.com/word-blog/black-sheep-of-the-family/
http://www.opgart.com/NewWebsite/Fine_Art/People/PlayingForKeeps.html

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