24 Sep 09 Real-life friends
Mark was walking home from school one day when he noticed the boy ahead of him had tripped and dropped all of the books he was carrying, along with two sweaters, a baseball bat, a glove and a small tape recorder.
Mark knelt down and helped the boy pick up the scattered articles. Since they were going the same way, he helped carry part of the burden. As they walked Mark discovered the boy’s name was Bill, that he loved video games, baseball and history, and that he was having lots of trouble with his other subjects and that he had just broken up with his girlfriend.
They arrived at Bill’s home first and Mark was invited in for a Coke and to watch some television. The afternoon passed pleasantly with a few laughs and some shared small talk, then Mark went home. They continued to see each other around school, had lunch together once or twice, they both graduated from junior high school. They ended up in the same high school where they had brief contacts over the years.
Finally the long-awaited senior year came and three weeks before graduation, Bill asked Mark if they could talk. Bill reminded him of the day years ago when they had first met. “Did you ever wonder why I was carrying so many things home that day?” asked Bill. “You see, I cleaned out my locker because I didn’t want to leave a mess for anyone else. I had stored away some of my mother’s sleeping pills and I was going home to commit suicide. But after we spent some time together talking and laughing, I realized that if I had killed myself, I would have missed that time and so many others that might follow.
So you see, Mark, when you picked up those books that day, you did a lot more, you saved my life.”
Every little hello, every little smile, every helping hand can save a hurting heart.
On the other hand every wrong word said at the wrong time and wrong place can cause more hurt even to a good friend.
Tags: hello, Hurting friend, Real life friend, smile, suicide
20 Aug 09 Our weakness, His strength
The folklore surrounding Poland’s famous concert pianist and prime minister, Ignace Paderewski, includes this story: A mother, wishing to encourage her young son’s progress at the piano bought tickets for a Paderewski performance. When the night arrived, they found their seats near the front of the hall and eyed the majestic Steinway waiting on the stage.
Soon the mother found a friend to talk to, and the boy slipped away. When 8pm arrived, the spotlights came on, the audience quieted, and only then did they notice the boy up on the bench, innocently picking out, “Twinkle, twinkle little star.”
His mother gasped, but before she could retrieve her son, the master appeared on the stage and quickly moved to the keyboard. “Don’t quit – keep playing,” he whispered to the boy. Leaning over, the master reached down with his left hand and began filling in the bass part. Soon his right arm reached around the other side, encircling the child, to add a running obligato. Together, the old master and the young novice held the crowd mesmerized.
In our lives, unpolished though they may be, it is the Master who surrounds us and whispers in our ear, time and time again,”Don’t quit, keep playing.” And as we do,he augments and supplements until a work of amazing beauty is created.
Tags: Master, Pianist, Weakness
13 Aug 09 Resolution made by my daughter
My daughter made the following resolution after attending a church camp.
I promise my LORD
Not to make any provision for the lust of the flesh, lust of the ey, and the pride of life but instead to flee from youthful lusts as Joseph did in moments of temptations
To spend time in prayer everyday
To increase in the knowledge of God and to delight inHis Word
To do unto others what I would others unto me
To let my speech be seasoned with salt and grace so thatI may answer every man in a manner that pleases God
And finally, to please God rather than men
Tags: Resolution
13 Aug 09 Resolution made by my son
My son made this resolution after attending a church camp.
I promise my LORD to do my Quiet Time daily.
I promise my LORD to be a good example in my school, that others will see Christ in me that they might come to believe in Jesus Christ.
I promise my LORD to abstain from worldly pleasures such as drinking, pubs, vulgarities.etx
I promise my LORD to serve HIM when He calls me and not to be like Jonah who ran away from God
I promise my KORD to pray daily and fervently
So help me LORD. this is my prayer. Amen
Tags: Resolution
10 Aug 09 A prayer for pursuing God
My Savior Jesus,
Oh, I am so often tempted to act rather than pray!
I am so often tempted to sin and neglect You.
I am so often to imagine that I can live here forever and own everything in this world.
Forgive me for the busy, distracted life that I often live outside the bounds of your Word and Your voice.
I choose today, to seek You first.
First before self saving actions,
First before urgent voices that pulls me out of Your presence,
First before the opinions of others,
First before my hungers to be seen or admired.
Your Word is faithful and true. You are my foundation, my light, my direction, and my hope.
Help me not to follow my heart. You lead my heart!
You loved me even though I am wretched and sinful.
Help me to make the conscious choice to love and not to look for love based on feeling.
My life should be all about You and not about me!
Remind me that I shall soon pass away like a vapor that appeared for a little while and then vanishes away.
Amen
Tags: A prayer for pursuing God, Choose to love, Lead me heart
08 Aug 09 A Love Song from my wife
Is been a long long 20 years to write this song for you
We journeyed through valleys and hills, surviving every storm
Looking back the yester-years seems just like a dream.
Wondering how we come these far.
Chorus
Thank God for sustenance. Thank God for His mercy
Thank God for His grace that helps through and through
Thank you for your prayers.
Thank you for your faithfulness
Most of all I thank you for your love.
As I look at the way ahead I see more and more unsure
The health of each one of us failing day by day.
But the God whom we have trust, same forever more
His love will see us through.
Now be pain and sorrow, Now be misery
Now be broken dreams and pathways full of tears
But God is sovereign. He is in control. His word will stand firm always
Let’s keep the love of God in our hearts. Let’s keep the love for each other strong
The Lord will guide us all the way. And I am with you to the end.
Chorus
Thank God for sustenance. Thank God for His mercy
Thank God for His grace that helps through and through
Thank you for your prayers.
Thank you for your faithfulness
Most of all I thank you for your love.
Thank you for your prayers.
Thank you for your faithfulness
My dearest, dearest, I love you…
(20 September 2008)
18 Jul 09 Life is so fragile
I like to read the obituary section of the newspaper. It is a reminder that our life on earth is but a short sojourn. I like to read what people say about their loved ones who have gone before them.
Several years ago, while I was reading the newspaper and munching my breakfast I suddenly saw a very familiar face in the obituary section.
It’s the face of Mdm Lee. I remember this loving mother who had four beautiful children.
What had happened to her?
I found out about the tragedy which took away the life of this lady the next day. Tears flowed down my cheeks as I read the newspaper account of what happened to this lady.
The family was travelling to Malaysia in their family car. They decided to stop the car at the road shoulder of the highway to check if they have brought all their passports. Mdm. Lee went out of the car to look for their passports in the booth.
A van suddenly lost its control and crashed right into the back of the family car. Mdm. Lee was sandwiched between the two vehicles. She was still alive when her husband came out to help her. Her husband held on to her hand while she uttered her last word, telling him to take care of their children.
I was moved to attend the funeral wake. Nothing I said could comfort the husband and these four children whose mother was taken away so suddenly.
I could almost hear the laughter even as I imagine the children talking excitedly about their holiday trip to Malaysia. Then I felt the cold chill running down my spine as I imagined the painful sight of the husband holding helplessly to his wife. Their children were still too shock to realize that their mother would soon be taken away by the tragic accident which came like a bolt in the sky.
What a tragedy? Life is just so unpredictable and so fragile.
Indeed the bible is right. We really do not know what will happen tomorrow. Our life is really like a vapor that appeared for little while and then vanishes away. Whether we live to do this or that all depends entirely upon the mercy of our almighty God, our Creator.
Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
Whereas ye know not what [shall be] on the morrow. For what [is] your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
For that ye [ought] to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
James 4: 13-15
Tags: Accident, James 4:14, Life is Fragile, Life is like a vapor
13 Jul 09 Him that honoureth me I will honour
Chariots of Fire
At the Paris Olympics over forty years ago, when an Edinburgh student, Eric Liddell, was chosen to run in the 100 metres, he withdrew because he refused to run in the heats on a Sunday. He switched to the 400 metres, somehow scrapped through to the final and won the Gold Medal.
Some of the very pressmen who had slanged him for his narrow-minded religious scruples said that he had ran “like a man inspired” and asked how he managed it.
He opened his hand and showed a sweaty screw of paper he had been clutching all through the race and said, “Somebody thrust that into my hand just before the start.” On it was written a text:”Him that honoureth me I will honour.”
1 Samuel 2: 30
Wherefore the LORD God of Israel saith, I said indeed [that] thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the LORD saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.
Tags: 1 Samuel 2: 30, Chariots of Fire, Eric Liddell, honour
03 Jul 09 A Strong Christian Testimony
New convert John Hall gets baptized.
Tags: A Strong Christian Testimony, Baptized, Lazarus, Testimony
28 Jun 09 Blessing in disguise
This is good
I heard the story about a king in Africa who had a close friend with whom he had grown up. The friend had a habit of looking at every situation that occurred in his life (positive or negative) and remarking, “This is good!”
One day the king and his friend were out on a hunting expedition. The friend would load and prepare the guns for the king. The friend had apparently done something wrong in preparing one of the guns, for after taking the gun from his friend, the king fired it and his thumb was blown off.
Examining the situation the friend remarked as usual, “This is good!” to which the king replied, “No, this is NOT good!” and proceeded to send his friend to jail.
About a year later, the king was hunting in an area wherein he should have known not to hunt. Cannibals captured him and took them to their village.They tied his hands, stacked some wood, set up a stake and bound him to the stake. As they came close to set fire to the wood, they noticed that the king was missing a thumb. Being superstitious, they never ate anyone who was less than whole. So untying the king, they sent him on his way.
As he returned home, he was reminded of the event that had taken his thumb and felt remorse for his treatment of his friend. He went immediately to the jail to speak with his friend. “You were right”, he said, “it was good that my thumb was blown off.” And he proceeded to tell the friend all that had just happened. “And so I am very sorry for sending you to jail for so long. It was bad for me to do this.”
“No,” his friend replied, “this is good!”
“What do you mean, ‘this is good!’ How could it be good that I sent my friend to jail for a year?”
“If I had NOT been in jail, I would have been with you, and I would have been eaten!”
Sometime God allows certain things to happen to us to save us from future disasters. We are thought that we have be thankful in all things.
In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 1Thessalonians 5:18
When bad things happen to us, it may just be a blessing in disguise to prepare us for something bigger or avoid something worse in the future. So give thanks!
Tags: blessing in disguise, cannibals, jail, king, this is good
