Happy Chinese New Year! 新年快乐！

[马]太福音已宣告
以[马]内利神同在
信主[马]上就得救
靠主如骏[马]奔腾
祝新年人强[马]壮
愿神国降临大[马]

(Note: “Ma” means “horse” in Chinese)
“Ma”tthew has proclaimed
Em”ma”nuel God is with us
Trust in Jesus you are immediately saved (ma shang de jiu)
Depend on Him you run like a horse (jun ma ben teng)
Wish you a healthy horse year (ma nian)
May God’s kingdom descend upon “Ma”laysia

在马来西亚，这里已经是马年啦～
无论你是第一次观临我的部落格，或者是来过几次的，都恭祝你新年快乐！
希望你继续支持我，多来阅读我的文章，新一年我一定会更努力写更多的文章，透过我的经历鼓励和支持你们。
愿恩惠、平安从我们的父神并主耶稣基督归于你们！（罗1：7）

In Malaysia, it's already the Year of the Horse~
Regardless whether it's your first time here, or you have been here many times before, happy Chinese New Year!
Hope you will continue to support me, read my passages often, I will post more passages in the new year to inspire and motivate you through my experience.

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ! (Romans 1:7)

Spiritual Journal #3

          “Do not worry” was the title of the sermon last Sunday at Wesley Methodist Church, my assigned church for fieldwork. The preacher, Mr. Charles Tiong shared on Luke 12:22-34, mainly on how blessed we are as God knows what we need and will supply us all that we require in our daily life.

            However, during offering, I opened my wallet and saw that I didn’t have any small notes, only ten ringgit notes. That moment, I hesitated but I still ended up putting in RM10 as my response to today’s message. I was left with RM30, and I had to pay on my own expenses for Sunday’s lunch and dinner, Monday and also Tuesday’s breakfast and lunch. That’s RM30 budget for 6 meals! In today’s market, that’s technically impossible!

            So I withstood the hunger on Sunday afternoon and walked to Wisma Sanyan in the evening to eat dinner. As I was walking back from Wisma Sanyan, I checked my wallet, and there was about RM20 left only! I started to panic and worry. How am I going to survive? As much as I know God knows my needs, I couldn’t help but worry. And then my phone rang. My dad called, and we all know what happened next. His close business partner who lives in Sibu came and visit me and gave me some amount of cash.

            As I look back at this incident, I only had to pay for 2 more meals! Reverend Ting Diu Kiong invited me and some others to eat breakfast with him on Monday morning and Tuesday morning, after morning prayer in Xin Fu Yuan Methodist, and of course there was not a chance where we pay by ourselves. Our God once said, “I am who I am”. So who is He? He is everything we need! If you need love, He will give you, food, He will supply you, so do not worry!

Spiritual Journal #2

In “Introduction to Missions” class, Reverend James invited missionary Joan Ling to come and share with us her experience in South Africa.

The social background of Cape Town, South Africa is that the community there is poor and lack of food. Thus, missionary Joan explains that they give food to the kids in Cape Town to attract them and create opportunity to share the gospel with them. This reminded me that just like how Jesus walked around Galilee to treat the people’s sickness (Matthew 9:35), the first step of evangelism is to reach to the community and give them their needs.

            Next, Joan shared about their school ministry where they teach the local people soccer skills. They also give bible class to the students. However, they weren’t really able to have a chance to tell the gospel to the kids until the last semester of the year. On that particular day, the kids behaved unusually, wild and out of control. My personal reflection from this incident is that whenever you try to do God’s work, Satan will try his best to interfere. Nevertheless, in her sharing on Creche’s bible class, even though the principal was a Muslim, she allowed them to go in and share the gospel. It is truly a miracle that in the end, the principal herself accepted as her Savior despite not participating in the classes. Last November, 5 Muslim children became Christians too. From these two incidents, I have seen that even though Satan will try his best to interrupt and crush our faith when we are doing God’s work, ultimately God’s will will prevail and we just need to stay faithful and give our best.

This sharing inspired me once again to give my best effort in spreading the gospel as there are too many unreached people out there who needs Salvation in their life. We do it not just because it’s our duty as a Christian, rather because of the fact that we have received God’s everlasting grace and we should share with those who have not. May we all do our best in expanding the kingdom of Christ!

Spiritual Journal

Psalms 143:8 “Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.”

            Awesome. That’s the word I would use to describe my first time experience participating in MTS’ morning worship. Being from the first church in Sarawak that initiated morning prayer meeting (Ching Kwong Methodist), this whole experience of waking up early in the morning to worship God was not something new to me. 

            On this morning, Rev. Tie preached about the importance of loving one another in Christ using Romans 12:9-21 on carrying out love with 4As (affection, attitude, articulation and another one that I couldn’t recall). After hearing the message of God, we practice in pairs by meditating and saying blessings to each other as our token of appreciation for one another.

            The climax of the gathering was during the personal prayer session where we were free to pray to God. As I have always preferred kneeling during prayer session in church (whether it’s in morning or night prayer meeting), I wanted to go on stage and kneel too. However, somehow there’s a voice telling me that I shouldn’t as only lecturers and senior leaders of MTS went up. At the same time, my heart told me that I should go up, as God does not judge us by who we are, rather by our desire to stay closer to Him.

             I prayed for my family, church, youth fellowship and while I responded to the message of the morning on love, I thought about those unreached people. We are blessed to be loved by God and being able to pray to God during tough times. But for those unreached people, who are they to pray for during their struggles, their pains and their hardships? For the first time, I wept while praying. My spirit was eager to bring the gospel to them, for them to be loved and touched by the loved of God. Glory to the Lord, whom I felt His presence with me this morning and lit the fire in my heart to serve Him in my whole life. Praise the Lord.

2014-01-07 纪律

        1月7日早上，笔者有幸与陈朝强牧师一同在诗巫享用早餐。在谈话中得知牧师每周一到周五都在新福源堂主持晨祷会，一天研读一章的圣经，帮助会友对圣经产生兴趣。初次之外，朝强牧师也委身于戒毒中心的服事，因他看见这工场格外缺乏牧者同工。他虽身为退休牧者，但时间表仍然还是很满，生活过得非常充实。

         牧师说了一句话，“千万别把时间浪费在没有意义的事情上。”弟兄姐妹，当个有丰盛生命的基督徒，困难吗？笔者近来在上帝的话语上不断追求有更深的了解与认识。买了英文版的圣经祈祷本和各样的属灵书籍，也到图书馆里借了许多有关解经的参考书。在追求灵命长进的过程中，最挑战的部分就是个人纪律。个人纪律包括时间分配以及安排活动的优先次序。许多时候，宁可去做别的事情也不愿花时间亲近上帝。当立定心志要读经时，又有种种的节目诱惑我参与，常把灵修安排在全部节目的最后。

         西方人常爱说，“I can’t find time for this.” （我找不到时间来做这件事）一天只有 24小时，笔者相信既然我们有时间吃饭与冲凉，安排时间灵修的关键就在于如何妥善管理时间。我们再忙也会吃饭，是因为我们身体告诉我们这是必须去做的事，让我们共同努力使读经祷告也成为我们每天生活 to-do-list 的一部分！

笔者在神学院参与短宣，深深体会节制的重要性。自我控制，无论是在言语或行为，需顾及别人的感受，在一个团体生活的环境下训练自己。离开了在家的舒适生活，也更有时间纪律自己，与神亲近。无论如何，在我还没有啰嗦太多脱离轨道之前，这篇文章的重点是：“属灵的纪律生活就是过一個按着圣经话语而行的生活”。做每件事之前，让我们不妨想想，这是上帝要我们做的吗？在安排属世的节目与灵修时间，但愿我们都尽全力按神的心意规划时间及安排优先次序，当个纪律、不浪费时间、爱神爱人的基督徒！