Warning Lights

“ “Now, therefore,” says the Lord, “Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” —Joel 2:12 ”

I didn’t think that the hesitation in my car engine and that little yellow “check engine” light on my dashboard really needed my immediate attention. I sang it away, saying that I would get to it tomorrow. However, the next morning when I turned the key to start my car, it wouldn’t start. My first reaction was frustration, knowing that this would mean money, time, and inconvenience. My second thought was more of a resolution: I need to pay attention to warning lights that are trying to get my attention—they can mean something is wrong.

In Joel 2:12-17, we read that God used the prophet Joel to encourage His people to pay attention to the warning light on their spiritual dashboard. Prosperity had caused them to become complacent and negligent in their commitment to the Lord. Their faith had degenerated into empty formalism and their lives into moral bankruptcy. So God sent a locust plague to ruin crops in order to get His people’s attention, causing them to change their behavior and turn to Him with their whole heart.

What warning lights are flashing in your life? What needs to be tuned up or repaired through confession and repentance? — Marvin Williams

God’s love is not some fuzzy thing
That lets us do what we think best;
It guides and warns, and shows the way,
And always puts us to the test. —D. De Haan

Conviction is God’s warning light.

Extract from : Our Daily Bread

The Great Life

December 14, 2009

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Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled . . . —John 14:27

Whenever we experience something difficult in our personal life, we are tempted to blame God. But we are the ones in the wrong, not God. Blaming God is evidence that we are refusing to let go of some disobedience somewhere in our lives. But as soon as we let go, everything becomes as clear as daylight to us. As long as we try to serve two masters, ourselves and God, there will be difficulties combined with doubt and confusion. Our attitude must be one of complete reliance on God. Once we get to that point, there is nothing easier than living the life of a saint. We encounter difficulties when we try to usurp the authority of the Holy Spirit for our own purposes.

God’s mark of approval, whenever you obey Him, is peace. He sends an immeasurable, deep peace; not a natural peace, "as the world gives," but the peace of Jesus. Whenever peace does not come, wait until it does, or seek to find out why it is not coming. If you are acting on your own impulse, or out of a sense of the heroic, to be seen by others, the peace of Jesus will not exhibit itself. This shows no unity with God or confidence in Him. The spirit of simplicity, clarity, and unity is born through the Holy Spirit, not through your decisions. God counters our self-willed decisions with an appeal for simplicity and unity.

My questions arise whenever I cease to obey. When I do obey God, problems come, not between me and God, but as a means to keep my mind examining with amazement the revealed truth of God. But any problem that comes between God and myself is the result of disobedience. Any problem that comes while I obey God (and there will be many), increases my overjoyed delight, because I know that my Father knows and cares, and I can watch and anticipate how He will unravel my problems.

Extracted from : Today's My Utmost For His Highest

Reasons People Go to Church

You can do a search of the internet and find lots of information about the excuses people give for not attending church. Some of the most common excuses seem to be that the worship services are boring, the beliefs of churches and the person has other commitments.

Some religious leaders have taken these excuses and applied them to other things. One such leader made a list of reasons why he was giving up eating based on what he considered to be the most common excuses for not attending church. Another religious leader made a list of reasons he was giving up sports based on the same list of excuses. Someone once made a list of ways that a church could eliminate all of the excuses by providing recliners and cots, etc for the people who attend.

While all of these can seem comical to people who attend on a regular basis and there may be some truth to the belief that people are offering poor excuses for not attending church, I do not find the tactic of making fun of the excuses to be very helpful. I doubt the infrequent and non-attendees are insulted by the remarks of these individuals and may find the remarks comical as well, but it is not likely that a person will start attending church after hearing or reading a comical critique of their excuses. At the best such a person will just keep doing what he is doing, which is not attending church. At the worst a person might add the excuse of being made fun of to his list of reasons he does not attend church.

I think that, when all of the excuses are analyzed, you will find that all of the excuses boil down to one word, "priority". Everyone has a list of priories that governs their actions, but many people have not considered what their priories are. Some people use different sets of priorities from day to day or hour to hour. Many people will say that God must come first, so the list of priorities for a person who is active in church might look like this:

1. God
2. Family
3. Church
4. Country
5. Self
6. Work

For some people the list of priorities might look like this:

1. Family
2. Self
3. Work
4. Country
5. God/Church

Or like this:

1. Family/Work
2. Self
3. God/Church
4. Country

There are other things that could be on the list and there are many possible orderings of the list, but let's consider the lists I have provided. You will notice that in none of the lists have self in the number one position. While it is possible that a person will place himself before all other things, most people place a higher priority on something and in my unprofessional opinion people who place themselves as the first priority in their lives are either insane or soon will be.

You will notice that in the first list I placed God first and church third, but in the others I combined God and church. Some people equate God and church. Doing so can lead to problems because it necessitates moving God from the position he deserves to a position that is below the things a person considers to be a higher priority than church involvement. Some people equate working to provide for their family with family. This may, though not always, lead to a person spending more time at work and less with his family.

A person who places God first in his life will naturally attend church on a regular basis because God has commanded Christians to continue to assemble ourselves. He will also be involved in other ways as God leads him. The order of the other priorities for such a person is not as important because God wants the best for us and if we put God's will first in our life then everything else will fall into place.

What about the other people? It is easy for us to just say that they are wrong and that they should change their priorities, but I don't believe that is what God intended. Some people have to go through some really tough times before they get their priorities straight.

Consider some of the people who attend church. Why do they attend church? Why do you attend or not attend church? It is good if you can say that you attend church because you feel that God wants you to attend church, but there are many other reasons why people attend church. Below I have listed some of the reasons people attend church and have placed the driving priority beside it.

• It is the will of God. (God)
• I go out of habit. (Self)
• My family needs to be in church. (Family)
• I enjoy the services. (Self)
• I like the fellowship. (Self)
• I go to meet business contacts. (Work)
• It's required for salvation. Isn't it? (Self)
• My family or friends would think badly of me if I didn't go. (Self or Family)
• I help in the nursery. (God or Church)

Ideally, everyone in the world would seek the will of God and churches that preach the truth would be filled to the point that every church would have to build a stadium sized building just to hold them all. While that may be ideal, our fleshly nature prevents that from happening. Even Christians who have studied the Bible for years will sometimes place their own wants in front of what God wants for them.

We don't always attend church because it is the will of God. Sometimes we attend for our own selfish reasons. Just as we do not always attend for the right reason, we should expect that those we are trying to reach will have the wrong reason. We cannot expect a lost person or a young Christian to always seek the will of God. Though I think we need to be careful which ideas we cultivate as valid reasons to attend church, I believe that we should not discourage people who are attending for the wrong reasons and teach them so they will begin attending for the right reasons.

Some people go to church because they enjoy either the services or the fellowship. Some churches have tried to capitalize on this by trying to entertain the congregation.

Entertainment is clearly a good way to draw a crowd and a preacher is more likely to be effective if the congregation is still awake by the time he starts preaching, but it is not clear that it is an effective method of winning souls. Some people try so hard to entertain their congregation that they forget to "preach the Word". I am sure that many of the people who crowded around Jesus were there for the entertainment of watching him heal the sick. Some of these people may have come for the entertainment and were changed after hearing his teaching, but many left unchanged.

It is not a bad thing to provide programs that are attractive to a person who is looking for a place for his family. A person who places his family first in his life is likely to choose a church based on what his family wants rather than whether or not the church teaches the truth. It is sad, but the person who is trying to do the best for his family may end up harming them instead.

Churches that teach the truth need to make efforts to attract people who are looking for a family friendly church. The center piece of any such program must be the Word of God. We as churches need to make sure that people who are looking for the right thing for the wrong reason are still able to get the right thing.

Most people want to feel needed. Nothing is worse than feeling like no one will ever ask for your advice or ever ask you to do something. Nowhere is it easier to feel lonely than in a sea of people. Many people who are looking for a church never find one that needs them.

Forgiving Ourselves

Why do we punish ourselves for old regrets long after we believe God has forgiven us?

The question stuck in my mind after a conversation with someone I’ll call "A". "A" described as being in recovery from multiple events on the very life currently on-going. A couple of times the words uttered was, “My problem was forgiving myself. I found it a lot easier to believe God had forgiven me than to forgive myself for what I’d done.”

In some ways I knew what "A" was talking about. Long after believing God had forgiven me, I have silently cursed myself for doing things that embarrassed me and hurt others. What unnerved me is that "A" seemed more willing than I was to admit that forgiving ourselves is something we need to do.

Is it up to us to forgive ourselves?

Although I was willing to beat myself up for past wrongs, offering mercy to myself seemed like playing God. If God wants us to pardon ourselves, I wondered why the Bible doesn’t quote Him as saying something like, “Even as I have released you from guilt, so you must now release yourselves.”

What surprised me is that "A" helped me see that, without realizing it, I was doing the very thing I thought I was trying to avoid. "A" said, “I have a friend who got on my case for acting like I was greater than God. This friend kept saying, ‘Who do you think you are, God Almighty? God forgives you. But you don’t. What is this you’re telling me? Are you greater than God?’”

The good-nature prodding "A" took from the friend helped me. Later, I remembered words of the apostle John who wrote in his first New Testament letter: “This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in His presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything” (1 John 3:19-20 NIV).

Why is it important to remember that God is greater than our hearts?

John reminded us that when the sin we have already confessed continues to torment us, God sees more clearly than we do. He sees everything. He sees the wrong and the regret we have acknowledged. He sees the price He has paid to release us from that sin. He sees the trust we have put in His Son. He sees the good work He has started in our hearts. And He knows that what He has begun He will finish (Philippians 1:6).

God also sees something else. He sees the people around us who are negatively affected as long as we continue to condemn ourselves. He knows we will never be good at loving others as long as we refuse to let the love and forgiveness of God flush the guilt and shame out of our lives.

Just before raising the problem of self-condemnation, John wrote, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?” (1 John 3:16-17 NIV).

John’s question prompts another. How can the love of God flow through us to those around us if we are saying, in effect, “I know You have forgiven me, Lord, but I have higher standards and expectations for myself than You do. I can’t walk with You. I can’t join You in Your mission of love, because I haven’t lived up to my own expectations.” We may think that’s humility. It’s probably wounded pride.

What does lingering guilt tell us about ourselves?

1.We may be expecting too much of ourselves. Whether we are struggling with our own wounded pride or grieving what we have lost, God’s thoughts are more reassuring than our own. Psalm 103 says, “He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities His children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust” (vv.10-14).

2.We may be limiting our ability to be what God wants us to be. Refusing to forgive ourselves as God has forgiven us does nothing but prolong and multiply our sin. Self-condemnation is the opposite of the gratitude that opens our hearts to God.

Open hearts to God and others is what the apostle John had in mind when he went on to write: “Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from Him anything we ask, because we obey His commands and do what pleases Him. And this is His command: to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as He commanded us. Those who obey His commands live in Him, and He in them. And this is how we know that He lives in us: We know it by the Spirit He gave us” (1 John 3:21-24 NIV).

Every day of self-absorbed self-condemnation is a day spent robbing ourselves of the joy of a grateful heart. Every hour of beating ourselves up is an hour spent robbing others of the good that God wants to do for them through us. By contrast, every day lived in the freedom of forgiveness is a day spent praising God. Every hour lived in gratitude for forgiveness is a day spent loving others on God’s behalf.

Father in heaven, in our thoughtful moments we know
You are greater than our hearts.
You see infinitely more than we do.
You see the work You have begun in us, the Spirit You have given us,
the forgiveness You have bought for us,
and the desire You have given us to live in freedom
rather than to hide behind past failures.
Please help us to use that freedom to love others as You have first loved us.

Love and Time

Once upon a time, there was an island where all the feelings lived: Happiness, Sadness, Knowledge, and all of the others, including Love. One day it was announced to the feelings that the island would sink, so all constructed boats and left. Except for Love.

Love was the only one who stayed. Love wanted to hold out until the last possible moment.

When the island had almost sunk, Love decided to ask for help.

Richness was passing by Love in a grand boat. Love said, "Richness, can you take me with you?"
Richness answered, "No, I can't. There is a lot of gold and silver in my boat. There is no place here for you."

Love decided to ask Vanity who was also passing by in a beautiful vessel. "Vanity, please help me!"
"I can't help you, Love. You are all wet and might damage my boat," Vanity answered.

Sadness was close by so Love asked, "Sadness, let me go with you."
"Oh . . . Love, I am so sad that I need to be by myself!"

Happiness passed by Love, too, but she was so happy that she did not even hear when Love called her.

Suddenly, there was a voice, "Come, Love, I will take you." It was an elder. So blessed and overjoyed, Love even forgot to ask the elder where they were going. When they arrived at dry land, the elder went her own way.

Realizing how much was owed the elder, Love asked Knowledge, another elder, "Who Helped me?"
"It was Time," Knowledge answered.
"Time?" asked Love. "But why did Time help me?"

Knowledge smiled with deep wisdom and answered, "Because only Time is capable of understanding how valuable Love is."

KNEE - How Ma?

It was 7:15am and the alarm rang. I was searching to snooze the alarm on my good-old-nokia-handphone. I got it snoozed and slept heartily knowing that it would ring again in another 15mins. It didn't as I'd pressed the STOP instead of SNOOZE on my good-old-nokia-hphone. So ...when I was actually up awake, it was already 8:00am. Now if I'm working, it would be no problem for me as it only take about possibly 15-20mins for me to reach my office from home. But today, it is different, as I am on leave and I am supposed to be at HUKM, Cheras for an assessment on my knee injury by the Orthopedic Department. The letter from the Orthopedic Dept of HUKM stated that the appointment is from 8am - 11am.

So now ....sudah 8:00am dah ....I rushed up from bed, took a quick shower and brushed my teeth at the same time. Got into my what-I-wanted-to-wear and dashed out while my mom was like wondering why am I in shorts and T-Shirts when it was a working day.So ...had to do-the-15seconds-explanation to her that I am goin to the Hospital like I'd told her about b4.

Thank GOD the journey to the HUKM was not as bad I had perceived before. Well, traffic was not bad even though there's lotsa cars but thankfully as I was going thru the way that is against the normal traffic of those rushing to work. Reached at HUKM at about 8:45am ...phew ...but still I am LATE.

YES! LATE and the parking was so FULLLLLLL, "....my goodness, what are all these people doing at the hospital so early in the morning", was my thought. I'd to make my way around the parking twice. In the end ....as there was no parking space available, and I was so late d ...parked my car at the side of the curbs for which I'd made sure it is not blocking anyone in all possible way. Took a mask (H1N1 preventive measure) and made my way to the Orthopedic Dept. Was blurry as usual due to the fact I was not sure of the procedure over there ...had to ask around then only able to get my application done.

What was peculiar at the application counter was that there was this Big-BLUE-box for us to put in our appointment letter ....and it is situated right in front of this fellow. I'd passed my letter to him directly as I did not notice the Big-BLUE-Box. He kinda chided me for not following instructions ..I chuckled and slot in my appointment letter into the box. Right after which another chap put in his letter ....for which his letter would be on top of mine. And it dawned upon me that surely they would serve First-In-First-Out ...right? NO!!! The chap's letter got processed first and not mine ....hmmpphh!!! Luckily, there was only one fellow ...if there was 20 ...then I would be very FARRRRR behind.

Anyway ...the dumbness did not end there. Later, I heard my name ....being called like those days at school ....CHOW WAI LOON ....En CHOW WAI LOON. I had to like make my way to the counter quickly to minimise the idea of my name yelled like the-school-days. The dumbness here was as soon as I'd made my way to the counter, that fellow at the counter handed me a form and said to me " Sila isi borang ini ". I was like ...duhh ...can't you like hand it to me when I send in the letter????!!!!!!

Well, nevermind ....filled in the form and hand to them again. Apparently the form do have a running number slip stapled on it. My number was 5040 and the number of the prompter was like 3012, 5009 and 2044. I was like ...."what the fish...??!!!". So I went back to the sitting/waiting area and took out my book to read (Next Door Saviour - Max Lucado).

The Prompter went berserk for a moment I think ...as the numbers being announced or called was like jumping here and there. Sigh ....I didn't think much on that and indulged myself into the book. Noticed quite a number of ppl who was there ...limping due to the injury. My injury was like 2months old ...? If not 2months then it could be a little bit more like 2 and a half month old. Anyway ...the prompter went into light-speed for a moment as I had to attend to some calls (yea ...on leave also had to work!!!). A few SMS to/from Mei Sheen as well. Called her too to let her know of the situation lo.

Then the highlight of the day, while the prompter was like at 5022, I'd heard my name being called again ...this time by some young chinese chap dressed in white doctor's what-you-call-that-thing ...a robe? Anyway ...he called and I'd responded in a comical way ....raising up my hand ...hahahaha! Macam saje like at school. This young chap led me to a room whereby a bunch of the same uniform waiting. There were about 6 of them there ....suddenly I realised that there are INTERNS ...young learning doctors-wannabe. Oh Yah ...a few chicks too ...haha. In the room was two separate sections, the other section was where the real doctors are at ...whereas at my section ...those INTERNS surrounded me.

I WAS THEIR TEST SUBJECT ......!!!!!
In the earlier stage, these INTERNS instructed me to walk about as they each like tengok animal and studying them. Aku macam binatang yang dijual di pasar. They spoke to each other like how CSI personnel would conclude to each other while finding the details of any matters or items that are being investigated. Then ....one fellow said ..."lets proceed to examination" ..I was like ....WHAT???!! EXAMINATION???!! This gal instructed me to lie down on a bed ...told me to undress ....hahahahha! No la! ...only told me to lipat my pants for her to look at my knee. She did some checking and then the thing starts ....each of them do the SAME-&*#%&@#-CHECKING on me ...over and over and over and over AGAIN. What was annoying is that they would look straight to my eyes to see whether I am in any pain whenever they engaged in some twist or press or compressing my knee/leg. The look is not like just to see ...as they was so many of them ...I got fed-up ...I gave them a straight DULL ( -__-) look ...hahahah. They treat me like a dumb-ass-fellow as each time any one of them check/test on me ...they would like speak to each other in those medical jargon.

This went on for more that half an hour. More INTERNS popped in ....more chicks too ..hehe. One of the INTERN addressed me as UNCLE!!!! Sigh ...no problem la ...since I know they are like so YOUNG. Then ...after being "molested" for more that 45mins ...they told me to wait outside again ...duhhh. Time is 10:50am like that d. SO ..took my PSP out and continued on my career as a MANAGER in FIFA09 ( ^___^).

Then about 11:35am, at last the prompter announced my number ...lima ...kosong ...empat ...kosong ...sila ke bilik 5. Went into the room 5 and saw this malay-woman-real-doctor ...macam QUEEN ...cuz she is like listening to the interns explaining the cases to them but her face macam like I-dun-care-what-you-say-to-me. So ..now I know those INTERNS bukan main-main tadi. There have to debrief the real-doctors above the patient's condition. Well ...I was asked to sit down and in came another male-doctor ...real-one ...hahahaha! He looked like one who did not have a good sleep ...or even looked like never slept for 2-3 days. I was asked to lie on the bed again and this male-doctor ...did the SAME-OLD-THING of checks on me. I was like "....ok ...yah ....hmmm ....pain ...yes ....when u do that ...yah ...pain" to response to the doctor. This male-doctor then spirited away and came back some 5mins later with another guy ...who was told to me a REGISTRAR ..don't ask me what is his job but he did the SAME-OLD-CHECKING again ( -____________-). They discussed a bit and spoke to me on my condition ....saying "You need surgery"!!! and I responded "...ok", " ..how much?".

Around 10k - 12k ....WHATTTTTT!!!!!!!
I was like ter-jump off my sit. My injury is PCL tear and also MENISCUS Tear. So ....need to perform surgery to cut/remove the injury/tear. Now ...please PRAY for me ppl. As I do not have Medical Insurance coverage. ...

Was told to think about it or discuss then only reply to them. Alright ....then I quickly made my way to the carpark as I was worried about the amount I need to pay since I was there since about 8:45am. As I drive to the payment counter ...."dua ringgit" said the parking attendant .....COBAAANNNN!!!!

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