IS FAITH EVERYTHING?

I read of a heartbroken story of Kara, 11 years old, who died because her parents refused to bring her to doctors when she was really sick. The parents are staunch believers in a God who heals and there is no need for doctors and hospitals. They also believe that the prayer of faith is the only answer to their daughter’s healing. At the end, the daughter suffered greatly and died as the family and friends gathered to pray for her at the house. The parents are now being charged by police for murder and the court trial has begun in the United States.

This double tragedy, the death of their beloved daughter and perhaps imprisonment for the parents could have been avoided. I am not here to judge their sincere faith that God really can heal and indeed God is healing people everywhere in the world. But I am terribly saddened and shocked at the teachings they received from religious people that doctors and hospitals are not of God! Is faith everything?

What does the Bible say about this? Yes, the Bible says that people who are sick must be prayed for by the elders of the church and that healing can occur (James 5:14-16). Yes, God still does miracles. There is no denial of that. But all of us must admit that God does not heal everybody just because one has faith. For God’s sake, even the mighty prophet Elisha died from illness! Did Elisha pray for his illness? Of course he would have!

Miracles are just one aspect of God’s ways to bring people closer to Him or that salvation may arise. The other way that God brings healing is through doctors who use God-given medicine and wisdom. Luke, the writer of the gospel is one of them.

Jesus did not scold the woman with the issue of blood after she spent everything on doctors before she was healed by Jesus! She could have died if not for doctors who gave her medicine for her bleeding no matter how temporary!

Jesus Himself said, although his context was different, that the healthy does not need a doctor but the sick (Luke 5:31).

Paul introduced Luke as “the doctor” (Colossians 4:14) and he also told Timothy to drink a little wine for his stomach because of its medicinal value (1 Timothy 5:23).

I think what God wanted us to do when we are sick is first and foremost, to pray for healing. And if sickness persists, go to see a doctor for healing. Anyway, the instruments and medicine the doctor used all belong to God! As well as the doctor’s wisdom!

Faith is not a licence to twist the arm of God!

PS – Even in Malaysia, I heard of religious people who employed faith as the only way to healing.

LET'S CROW!

I wonder why so many people dislike crows but not so much disturbed by pigeons or some other birds. Perhaps, crows are rough and tough, behave like gangsters some of them, meat-eating and loud-mouth creatures. If you see them looking at you, it can be nerve wrecking, no thanks to Hollywood movie who sometimes portrayed them as evil birds.

Yesterday, I saw something that changed my perception on crows, not live but on Astro. Crows are called the Einstein of birds as they are a bunch of very clever, intelligent birds.

1. Crows can figure out how to get food from some difficult angles. The researcher put a miniature basket of food in a tight bottle. They left two small sticks, one straight and one hook-like (one that can able to hook out the basket from the bottle) there.

One crow was able to use the hook to take out the basket with no problem. When they left only the straight stick there, the crow could even bend the stick to make a hook. WOW! (I still remember the story of how crows put small stones into a bottle to enable the water to rise so they could drink it).

2. Crows are reputed to help each other out when it comes to food and they get the food, they share. DOUBLE WOW!

3. Crows help to clean out the streets filled with dead animals like rats and other small animals before germs contaminate.

4. This one I heard only...the younger crows even take food for their aged parents. If this is true, they could be the only ones that do this amazing thing in the animal kingdom!

What can we learn from.....yes, crows?

1. Let Christian be thinkers so that we can influence the world and let us set the standard for the world and not vice versa, with the wisdom from God!

2. Let Christians be carrying each others' burdens and learn to share so that the world may know we are the disciples of Christ!

3. Let Christians become a perserving agent of a world gone morally mad where right becomes wrong and wrong becomes right.

4. Let us take care of our parents for this is a command from God and not only that, the only command with a promise attached, with long life will I satisfy you, the Lord said!

Elijah was fed with food, two times a day....by crows! (1 Kings 17:5-6).

Let's crow!

Watch below U tubes for your WOW moments!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGPGknpq3e0&feature=fvw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03ykewnc0oE

A WONDER FROM THE HEAVENLIES

Today, the world will experience the total eclipse of the sun for the longest time in history. A vast area will experience total darkness in daytime and according to experts, this would not occur again until 2132, more than a hundred years from today!

I was thinking if solar eclipses are normal occurrences, humans will not even blinked an eye for them. It’s like once in a hundred years they woke up and say, “Hey, we are living in a planet that moves in the solar system, hanging with nothing!” Like Job, when he suffered badly, he whispered, “He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing” (Job 26:7). Sometimes my spirit is so bound to the ground that I lost touch of the vast universe I am living in. My spirit is not soaring above which I was created for.

Sometimes we do take things for granted. We take blessings for granted. Teenagers often come home to their houses and rooms, oblivious of the shelter that God blesses them with. They come back with tables filled with food and take for granted of the cook. Some go to school and thank not God for their education nor thank the teachers for their dedication. Some do not understand at all the value of money and the protective love of their concerned parents! Worse of all, many still complain of things that do not have while not being grateful for things that they do have! We are so used to earthly living when all God wants is for us to look to the skies to hear Him say, “Hey, I am God and I love you”.

(Phil 4:10-13) I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

Paul was grateful to God for saving his wretched life that he cared not whether he was rich or poor! Or whether his fellow Christians cared for him or not. He was continually being grateful for what he had and used those things he had to serve God!

Solar eclipses are rare occurrences but our blessings are not! Be grateful!

PS - Contentment means being satisfied at this present time and not wanting to lust for more.

HEY, THAT'S CHRIS TAI!

Taken from Star Paper today.

Ta fan chun tau.....kelam kabut in Cantonese...
Shame on you lah, chris..support lah Tanah Tumpah Darah engkau...hehehe

TO HAVE BABIES OR NOT TO HAVE BABIES

Maria del Carmen Bousada de Lara gave birth to twin boys at 66, one of the oldest first- time mothers in the world. According to report, she bluffed doctors about her age to convince them to help her did the artificial insemination. And she paid almost all her savings, RM170,000 to do so. Her family members advice her not to but she insisted. That was 3 years ago! The sons now are cute toddlers!

Last week, she passed away after being diagnosed with cancer within a year of the birth of her twins, Christian and Pau, on Dec 29, 2006. She died aged 69, at a hospital near her home in Cadiz, leaving the twins orphaned.

I am not here to judge her for what she did but few things I disagree with the way things are done...

1. She lied to get what she wanted.

2. She did not care of other people's advice that the kids might not get cared for if she grew old or sickly.

3. She was single and advanced in age.

Sometimes we want to get what we want in this world and we just discounted the cost. Is it good for us? Can we manage it? It is morally right? It is beneficial to others? Is it greed or selfishness? These questions need to be answered sufficiently when we decide on something huge in our lives! Especially when we talk about lives, like the toddlers who will now have to grow up without any parents! Yes, they can be adopted but these are human beings we are talking about! Not toys to play with!

Paul put it clearly...

(1 Cor 6:12) "Everything is permissible for me"--but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"--but I will not be mastered by anything.

Let us do everything for the glory of God!

PRESIDENT LEE, I SALUTE YOU!

Who could have given RM92 million away to the poor, almost all his fortune he had worked his whole life for? It is reported that no Presidents or Prime Ministers have done such kind deeds before, never! And there are plenty reports of leaders who took money from the poor instead of giving it to them. The person I am talking about is President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea! A born-again believer in Christ and also a leader of a church before he took the highest office in South Korea. Why did he give almost his whole fortune away to the poor? He gave it all away simply because he was grateful to God and the people who gave to him when he was poor. Without the help of some, he would not be where he is today! See what gratefulness can do to one's life!

I believe he believes that everything he has comes from God and when God asked him to give, he just gave! I was also fascinated with his family who was supportive of what he did, which tells me about a family which dwells on godly values! It is definitely not easy to part with that kind of money but giving it away tells about a man who focus in life is not about himself but God! GREATER HIM lesser me attitude!

Can you give part of your money away today? 10%? Or your toy? Handphone?

WE ARE NOT THE SAME AND I DON'T LIKE YOU!

It was the scene in a New York subway, where a young black man, long haired and wearing a simple T and pair of faded jeans was fighting with a clean shaven white male, dressed smartly. After much struggle, the knife fell to the floor and the white male ran furiously away knowing he was no match for the black young man. The story went like this, that the black man was walking along the subway and came face to face with the white guy who was holding a knife trying to rob him. He fought him off! Before you know the end of this story, who was the bad guy on your mind?

Just a week ago, Marwa al-Sherbini, 32, a Muslim woman was killed by a 28 year old man in Germany in a court room. She was suing him for insulting her for wearing an Islamic headscarve. In a full view of the court house, he stabbed her repeatedly (how did he get knife into the court house?) until she bled to death. Her husband rushed to rescue her was also attacked but the ironic thing was that he was gunned down by the police who mistook him as the attacker instead of the 28 year old white male. He is now in critical condition in the hospital.

Like the first story, most of us sometimes already made up our minds as to who is guilty one. We grow up stereotyping people (meaning seeing people with our own crooked ideas about them) and say all kinds of bad things about certain people.

The story of the Good Samaritan that Jesus shared is not only about helping people. If we think as only helping people in need, then we miss the whole point of Jesus sharing this parable. You see, Samaritans are hated by the Jews during that time. Imagine the Jewish guy who was seriously wounded, with his bad perception of the Samaritans, found out that a Samaritan actually saved his life, how would he feel? Moreover he found out that there are few passers-by who did not help and that too were his own people?

Let us reach out to needs of others, even those who are not from the same race or hold the same opinions as us, or even the same religion as us! That's what exactly the message Jesus wanted to convey in the Good Samaritan story.

OWEN IS NOW A "DEVIL"!

Alamak! How can this be? My once favorite Liverpoolian now a "devil's advocate"! My heart is almost broken! There are only two football teams I support in this universe, Liverpool and any team that plays against Manchester United! Anyway, Michael Owen, all the best! I still love you....Coz...Jesus asks me to love my enemy....hehehe

CONTROL FREAKS

There is a mixed reaction to the GREEN DAM filtering software to be put in every computer in China soon. It was supposed to start last week but postponed at the last minute. To Internet Savvy youths in China, there was a great sigh of relieve. But for how long? To those who do not know what GREEN DAM is, it is a software inside a computer to filter out pornography (Chinese official view) but to many, it filters out many other stuffs such as write-ups against the government and also bans many other websites.

Is it good? Is it bad? Is it ugly? What is the pattern of thinking youth in this generation? One thing for sure, youth hate people, especially older folks, to think that they are stupid. They feel intimidated that others do the thinking for them. And surely, they can smell lies miles away!

THE GOOD

I believe many countries will definitely agree to filter out pornography, the single most devastating strategy of the devil in society today. It polluted the world to a place of no return as far as sexual sin is concerned. It deviates from the very purpose of God to be pure! Malaysia once thought of banning the word "sex" on the Internet, then the word, Sussex, Middlesex (names of places) will also be cut off. I agree to banning pornography on the Internet (billion of dollars industry) and Malaysia should start to look at that seriously.

THE BAD

The mixed feeling comes when governments start to ban news about views of people who disagree with them. Some already banned facebook and twitter and offer only their news to them. I totally disagree with that and I believe the more people are surpressed, the more they rebelled. How long can a government keep people from getting news elsewhere in this high-tech generation? Governments exist for the people. Easiest definition of a government to me, to keep the good and throw out the bad for the society. And one bad thing is to keep news from people who want to know what's happening. And the other bad thing is that people are forced to hear one side of the story and not left to make their choices!

THE UGLY

When the "GREEN DAM" burst, people who are supressed will be flooded with anger and frustrations and tend not to trust their government even more!

People have the rights to have their own views in life, even though they may be wrong. I urged governments to employ good writers with their own views to debate openly and let the people choose and decide! And people are not stupid, nowadays!