HEY, LOOK! I AM NAKED!

I think you should have read the now famous Singapore topless car washing service. Four topless ladies were employed to carwash for about 20 men who were selected through a website. The girls were paid, $1,400 Sing. Dollar for the work. One lady car washer from China was expelled from her college in Singapore just two months before graduation. One boy whose girlfriend was one of them was cool towards the whole thing. Is it cool? To have your dignity violated for less than two thou? I am not sure if I still want her to be my wife when she could expose herself publicly for some cheap cash!

To some, nudity may be cool but to me, it is a very private thing. I used to have one or two dreams of being naked on the street and woke up sweating profusely. Thank God it is not real! I would not do it for a million dollars! Anyway no one would give me a million for my nakedness!

Few things I observe in this constantly changing world,

1. People couldn't care less about what others think.

2. If I feel good, then I'll do it.

3. I want to be famous. Please talk about me! In the facebook, twitter!

4. Hey, you dare or not!

5. I just want to be entertained. Amusement derived from the root word, 'amuse', meaning 'No thinking'

PS: Recently it was uncovered in Hong Kong that teenagers as young as 14 served as call girl just to get enough money for branded stuffs!

WHAT LAH LIVERPOOL!

Benitez: Shall I go or not!

I am heart broken by the latest strings of poor results of Liverpool matches. Losing to Chelsea was not so bad but to Florentina, Lyon and Sunderland (OMG). Liverpool has not lost to Sunderland since 1991 (28 years ago).

It has been 20 years since Liverpool last became champion in English football, yes, 20 long years and it looks like fans like Tom and Dick and Ronnie are tired of Liverpool being second best. Something needs to change. Does Benitez, the manager, need to be replaced? Yes, he has done some great work but not good enough. Maybe he needs to walk alone for a while and think about things or his future.

I have been a fan of Liverpool club for almost 40 years and we will not part ways until Jesus comes. But before He comes, come on, Liverpool, win the title lah.



Maybe the motto, "You'll never walk alone" should change to "Walk by faith!"

CHRISTIANS AND THE WORLD

I came across a survey (couldn't verify whether it's true or not) that more people are becoming Christians today than ever before (great to hear) but more people are leaving church (oops!). What is happening here? Are we still relevant to the world today? During my time, when my mom asked me to sit still, I would sit still until further notice. Today, if someone asks a teenager to sit still, he/she will retort back with sharp questions like, "Why should I sit, why not stand?" or "Why should I sit here and not there?" or "Eish...why should I listen to you?"

DL Moody, the famous evangelist said, "If you meet a hundred people on the street and you will find that one would want to read the Bible to find the truths about God but 99 others read Christians."

Yes, they read Christians! They don't care what you say even though you have a PHD in Theology but when you live right, they notice you.

Today, many people are not living the way God wants them to live and these people are finding people to accept them and love them. Yes, they cherish people who agree with them.

What should a Christian do?

Yes, we must accept and love them like Jesus did.
No, we shouldn't agree with them BUT no need to yell out our views.

Christians should use our lives to reach out to seekers by,,,

1. Love and compassion
2. Living a godly life with joy
3. Accepting them into our lives if they want to become our friends but stay away from what they do (this is the most difficult part for most Christians).

I believe the seekers understand you if you do not want to be like them, but only when you already build a relationship with them.

This movie "Lord, save us from Your followers" had been shown in the US in September this year to great reviews! It tells us so much about how the world perceive the Christians...(although this is in US but whatever is in US will certainly come to Malaysia one day - maybe it's already here)

MONEY TALKS

I seldom speak of money in this blog and I think this is the first time. This is because there is a recent survey that came out in the United States...

A Christian gives averagely only about 2.56% of their money to churches or any charitable organisations. Although it is still better than general population, who gives about 1.8%, there is nothing to shout about. The survey also said if Christians in US give 10% as inspired by the Bible, the churches would have USD 161 billion to use. That's about RM563 billion! And I am just talking about USA! And only 10%!

The saddest part of all this is that 7 million children under five died since the beginning of this year alone were caused by extreme poverty. Most of these children were from places that had never heard of the Name of Jesus before.

God in His infinite wisdom knew all along that the world has enough resources to feed everyone on earth. But due to our greed and inwardness, we have slackened far behind. I believe in two reasons for God inspiring tithes.

1. God uses tithes (10%) to test our faithfulness. I thank God that He didn't require firstfruits to be 90%. I have seen non-Christians flinched when they found out about tithing to church. If any Christian flinched like them, I wonder whether we are saved? Or really committed to the cause of Christ?

2. God uses tithes to do His work, to heal and feed the world. Sadly, we are still far behind that purpose.

Money is a sensitive issue. We work with our blood, sweat and tears so that we can get a salary to commensurate with the effort we put in. Which means money is part of my life I toil for! It is valuable!

But let us also consider where do we get our strength from in order for us to earn our living or money. From food of course! But where does food come from? Let's talk about bread. Bread was made from wheat and had to be planted by farmers. Wheat comes from God of course! Plants have to grow using water and sunlight also provided by God. So when we go to buy bread, we don't pay for bread itself. Huh? Yaah! We pay the farmers, transportation, baker and retailer! Bread comes from God!

What about our house? Bricks to build our house came from hills and mountains and points us back to God. Did we pay for our house? No! We pay people who collect stones and bricks, transportation, builders and government agencies for the land, also belongs to God!

From food to strength to work to money! It points us back to God! And God only requires 10% from us! As far as God is concerned, everything that we have belongs to God!

We are living in a world of selfishness. Let us Christians show the way of generosity! God blesses generous people! I have experienced that myself. When I was stingy, my pocket like got holes. But when I was generous, God blessed me in ways I could not imagine.

PS Don't expect money in return when you give to God. Sometimes God blesses us with good health and peace of mind and many other ways.

GARY CHAW AND JUSTIN LO

I must admit I do not know who Gary Chaw is but I did hear of Justin Lo before. Later I found out that Gary is a Malaysian who made it big in Taiwan and Hong Kong. But what Gary did in full view of reporters and friends was something shameful. He kicked and punched Justin like a man gone wild. There are many theories about why he did what he did.

First of all, definitely there was the element of alcohol in the whole thing. Honestly, I was not a drinker but before I became a Christian, I did try drinking. When I took a lot (in my standard), I felt somehow I was able to boldly talk and to talk sarcastically. And many people pretend to be drunk so that they could do something they cannot do when they are sober like punching and kicking someone they dislike. I had seen fights many times after much drinking. I remember once my parents took me to a wedding dinner and suddenly chairs began to fly. We knew that fighting had broken out and we rushed out in the nick of time. There was also once in a restaurant where a table was overturned by a disgruntled person I believe was intoxicated.

Secondly, perhaps Gary Chaw has an anger problem. He couldn’t control himself when someone said something that he disliked. I heard this is not the first time he had gone wild in anger. Gary had everything that he wanted yet deep within him there is something that he has not come to terms with. A deep hurt only God can solve. Perhaps when he was a child, he had not dealt fully with discouragement or grief or unforgiveness. I have heard and even seen rich people living sad lives!

Last but not least, Gary and Justin may have something they needed to solve within them. Friends don’t kick friends like that. On the surface they might be friends, but I believe issues of the heart are not fully settled. Jealousy, hurtful words spoken, different opinions which they may have taken too seriously, just to name a few.

When I first became a Christian, God began to heal me of my hurts mostly from verbal abuse. Today I could say I was 80% healed (Praise the Lord) but there is always that 20% of insecurities that would blow up whenever someone said something hurtful.

Why do I still have that 20%? Seriously, I don’t know. Maybe it is there to keep me humble and to always be grateful for the healing that God performed on me.

PS: I drove past a signboard this morning with a picture of Gary Chaw smiling so handsomely. I hope he could take a look at himself in this picture and say, “Hey, I can be like that, happy and satisfied with my life”