7 BILLIONTH PERSON - IS THERE ANY PLACE LEFT?

This year, 2011, the world will have its 7 billion people somewhere in October. Is the world capable of holding 7,000,000,000 people? Definitely! But would it be easy? Definitely not! In 2025, they estimated that more than 70% of world's population will be in cities all over the world. Which means, no one would be interested in the farms, tilling grounds and scraping crops. This means the world needs to develop genetic engineering of foods and do it fast

The experts believe that it wouldn't be a problem for 7 billion people or even 10 billion people living together but the real troubles start when everyone wants to consume more foods. The ideal thing to do is that the rich have to consume lesser food (I doubt they can) so that the poor can have enough, so to speak. Speaking of attitudes of human beings, I strongly do not think they will get better.

The Bible clearly says,

(2 Tim 3:1-4) But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God

So, the adage, "survival of the fittest" rages on! To each his own! The rat race will not stop until the final cheese gets wholly gobbled up.

And then there is this number 7 thingy. It speaks of completeness in God's Word and perhaps, 7 billion would be another sign of the soon coming of Christ!

What Christians ought to do....

1. Live simple lives. Don't go into heavy debts or at all.

2. Have that theme in life, eat to live and not live to eat.

3. Be the light and salt to your world!

4. Glue your eyes to Jesus as you serve Him!

5. Always be aware that you are not just a statistic in the 7-billion-people world but a significant individual God can use for His kingdom!

HEY! CAN YOU STOP THE RISE?

As the world develops and its needs arise, so would be the prices of foods. Next generation, many people predicted that wars and figthing would be caused by expensive foods and scarcity of water. Moreover, floods and natural calamities have caused crops to fail and food prices to escalate.

Back to my own backyard in Malaysia, that one small bowl of Meatball noodles cost me RM6 (big bowl costs RM7) that drink of coffee with milk RM2. My breakfast that day, RM8. I am talking about a normal road side coffee shop! (That shop lah)

One brother in church was conversing with me about profiteering. He said when 1 kilo of sugar was raised 30 sen, the teh tarik and coffee a cup rose 10 sen respectively. Hey, do they know how to calculate or not??

I am concerned for the future of the next generation where everything becomes more expensive. In Chinese proverbial saying, 'finding two meals' simply means able to live without much problem. But I wonder the younger generation coming up to society able to "find three meals or more" or perhaps difficult even to find two meals.

Yes, water in Brisbane river and Brazil is rising and so does the food on earth!

Solution: Choose what and where to eat. Eat within your means. Most importantly, we eat to live and not live to eat.

HELLO TWENTY ELEVEN!

Whew! What a year that was! It was crazy November and December months in 2010 that I thought I could even collapse and die! But God saw me through and His grace is super sufficient! All glory to God!

Things God enabled me to experience in 2010 ....

1. Youth Enrichment School (YES) 2010 - evangelism class

2. Started POWER SUNDAY for the youth

3. Dad's baptism - had to be the most memorable of them all!

4. Graduated to Masters in Ministry after 10 or more years!

5. Had a great Cambodia missions trip - it was the most memorable one that I could remember.

6. Had a wonderful Christmas service in church (most of my family members came)

7. Had a powerful Watchnight Camp with Rev. Ruth Ch'ng - highlight - baptism and some miraculous testimonies

8. Squeezed out four Vineyard quarterly magazines - the last one was the Team's most happiest to date.

9. Huge Camp ninth season was one of the best to date - God moved so powerfully in our midst!

10. The Christmas Shoebox Gift campaign - visited three children homes and was so touched by what I saw.

11. The Youth Leadership Summit (YLS) was a success - Encourage, Enable and Empower the youth were what I got most from all the teachings and preparations.

12. Had a Christmas open house for neighbours and some of my wife's collegues - great way to build relationships.

13. Reaching out to Uncle Yaw before he died and how God used Ps. Anne and myself to help his brother entered in Rumah Charis Old Folks Home.

There were some great moments and some not so great moments! But the Hand of God was all over my life! All glory to Him alone!

I envision a great twenty eleven!