The construction of a new building

Nope, this isn't the church building progress - that's going to be confidential for now, but the building is pretty much in good progress, and it should be ready by April 2009. For years, I hear my senior brethren say, they have been praying for that new building, and after such a long time, it's finally seeing progress at breakneck speed. Hallelujah!

I'm beginning to enjoy mobile blogging, as i now save time having to use the computer when I can do this while travelling, thus making my study time more productive, since I usually eat into my study time just to post a couple of entries.

Testing out mobile blogging - nice!

Wow, just look at my table - just messy, but it'll do for now. Anyways, I'll not be able to use the computer for quite a while, because it's nearing the preliminary examinations now, so I'll be using this more pricey solution, for now.

Hey this is great, man. Finally I can blog from my hand anytime, from the MRT to the bus. Cool!

God answers prayers, this I believe.

Just the other day, the rain started pouring at 6pm. I was supposed to bring my sister back home before 8pm when the sudden downpour started. The first thing that came to my mind was how I was supposed to bring her back home on time, without getting myself wet and sticky under the humid weather, or risking having to take another shower.

I called for Dad's help, since he was driving the taxi at that time of day anyway. "Sorry ah, son," he replied. "I'm driving to my customer, so can you fetch her back when the rain stops? It's a better idea this way." ...Great. Another trip to the shower after that...

...or maybe not. I went to God, prayed for the weather to stop momentarily, just long enough for me to bring her back home in time, and still not get drenched by the rain. It was then I saw His supreme power over the weather, and His faithfulness which never fails, right before my eyes - the rain stopped by 7pm!

Isn't our God wonderful? Praise be to His name, hallelujah!

Praise be to God!

Uncle Kelvin has been asking for a complete Chinese Bible, which I haven't been able to get without risking spending big bucks at Mount Zion Christian Bookstore. I promised him that I would be able to get one for him from All Saints' Church, which is right within the school compound. I have been yearning to ask one from them, but I didn't know how to go to them seeking for a Bible just like that, because usually people would have told me to just save up and buy one for myself.

So, just a few weeks ago, I went for breakfast as usual, buying my breakfast from the auntie at the drink stall. Tuna sandwich, a can of green tea(they weren't allowed to sell cold coffee anymore). I popped the question about how I can get a Chinese Bible while waiting for her to come up and collect the payment. She said that she had one at home, but she needed to dig for it, and that she could only give me notice by the following Monday.

I waited faithfully, and my waiting paid off. That morning, the canteen auntie passed me the Chinese Bible, both complete with Old and New Testament parts. The amazing thing was how she actually got the book - she said that throughout the whole week she didn't dig for the book at all, when on that Monday morning itself, the Bible was sitting on her bedside table, her maid putting it there.

Wow, it must have been God who helped the maid dig out the Word of God in time. Praise be to God!

The Good Samaritan

The people around these days have so much animosity for each other, it really saddens me. What would seem as a friendly greeting from a stranger could be met with comments that the person greeting is crazy and doesn't know who he's talking to. C'mon man, just harmless attempts to brighten up the day for one another can be met with such far-fetched accusations? Of course, it doesn't happen all the time, because at the end of the day some people would recognise that effort and return you the favour.

Well anyways, I randomly pushed my finger through the book during the weekend, and it led me to the Parable of the Good Samaritan(Luke 10:25-37).

This story really struck me hard, in that it portrayed the Jewish priest and Levite as being cold-blooded people who'd rather walk the other path than to help the dying man lying on the original path.

Because Jesus spoke this parable to a Jewish lawyer, who wanted to test Jesus and justify himself, I suppose this parable is used to highlight that this priest would rather go to all lengths to keep the Law of Moses, and save the hassle of doing all the cleansing for the dying man with blood on his skin(Leviticus 15:1-15) and nursing his wounds, than to do what is morally right in both God and men's eyes - to offer first aid to the dying man. Hence this shows the blind faith of the Jewish people in that time. (I don't know about the Jews of today, but this is lifted off the Bible)

In this, the Samaritan fared much better than the priest and Levite. This must have been a shameful thing to an expert in the law, because Samaritans were despised by Jews, yet a person whose background and heritage were treated as inferior to the Jews could actually be much kinder to his neighbour. From this, I see that the Samaritan indeed showed love to the dying man by taking all the trouble to treat his wounds with oil and wine, bring him back to the inn, and ensured that all his needs were met by paying for his lodging. Now, isn't that good when you have someone to take care of all your needs when you are at your worst?

As Christians, we do in fact enjoy this benefit of the grace and mercy of the Lord, in that he loves us enough to die on the cross for us, paying the price of sin in order to redeem us, just as the Samaritan paid the money to the innkeeper, so that we may be taken care of. We didn't deserve it, just as the man did not deserve any help from the good Samaritan, but he did so willingly, just as God provided for us, and still is to this day, providing for our every need.

Even though the Samaritan had so much to carry that he needed his donkey to carry it, he took the trouble to attend to a dying man, which isn't a small feat in those days. Indeed, loving our neighbour is sometimes tough - he may hurt you so badly you couldn't even walk, but Jesus was able to love us even though we sin against Him. While we were still sinning, He died for us as an ultimate example of loving our neighbours as ourselves.So, what better way to learn how to love our neighbours than through Him?

Intensive Study Time - no time for mistakes!

It's getting harder day by day. You get tired of studying after a few hours of studying when you could've put in more. The lack of time for extra study has its toll on my sleeping hours these days. You hardly have to relax, and considering all the church activities that I'm gonna miss in favour of studying, not to mention the upcoming tests that the teachers are going to throw at us. Man, this is intensive...

...or maybe not intensive enough. Something ought to be done for more effective studying than just staying in school and just studying, studying and studying. I find that I can't concentrate in school, partly because of noise and socialising with fellow classmates and stuff, and a Mathematics teacher who can't really keep the class in control once everyone goes restless with the practice papers. Sometimes the stuff they throw at you takes more time than what is needed.

For now I think I'm gonna stick to the ten-year series, since there's only so much I reckon that I can do for now until then...

Something really challenging

Well now. I've got just a measly 39 more days to the preliminary examinations, so the call to fully make use of the time left is there. More tests, of course. But homework needs to be done, even more so in this period of time. Ms Tay said that the revision would only work while the homework is done. I totally agree.

Anyways, here's a rather profound question: Why must men suffer on earth?

Non-biblical answers:

1. We are fated to suffer.
2. Suffering makes us learn where we've gone wrong.
3. Suffering consists of birth, old age, illness and death, and these are unavoidable. To end suffering, achieve nirvana by following the Eightfold Path
4. Theories about suffering, etc etc...

Biblical answers:

1. Because of the Fall of Man when Adam ate the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and sinned against God. Since then sin has caused curses to befall on mankind.
2. God's using suffering to punish you for something you've done wrong.
3. Suffering is a means of a test of faith in Jesus Christ.

However, I'd pretty much prefer this answer, though: Jesus Christ, being the Son of God, came down from heaven to suffer for our sakes. Think about this: God, being God of everything for all eternity, came down to earth as a man, which is, in my opinion, one of the most humbling acts of all, and to suffer and die for our sins when He didn't need to. There's no reason that an almighty and omnipotent God should even be hurt by the floggings of men, and the pain and bleeding on the cross. But he did it.

He did it for our sakes. He doesn't want us in hell, where we aren't supposed to belong anyway. Sin will ultimately separate ourselves from God and cursed to go to hell after our earthly bodies die off, but thanks to Him bearing all of what was supposed to be OUR curses on the cross, those that believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life(John 3:16).

Even Jesus Christ suffered on Earth for our sakes, what more us for His sake then since we love Him?(doesn't apply to those who still reject Christ at this point of time, but He's still willing to receive you when you receive Him in your life today)

Seriously though, having His presence sometimes brings the unanswerable questions answers that bring it to full circle. Really, He has taught me many things in the past two months.

Smacked right in the face - wrong purposes of studying, I'll admit.

Okay, I'll be honest with myself.

I studied a lot, but I did so half-heartedly, just wanting to get over and done with the Mid-Year Examinations. Because of this, I lost sight of my goal towards the As and I ended up with Bs and Cs for my results. Of course, there was quite some difficulty in the Biology, Physics and Chemistry papers, and that everyone scored badly for them. I however, simply wasn't mentally prepared to get so low a mark.

Why all that bad grades? I found that I am studying just for the sake of getting an opportunity to make it big out there and earn money, but then I found that what I'm working for in my studies is just to let my parents have a better life than what they're working so hard for. If that was so, why bother to study so hard? I could just get an average grade, get into average school, get into average university and get an average degree to earn an average income and feed my parents...

That was what I thought. But this low results and Kevin's words, though soft and casual, woke me up. Why am I doing all this for?

"Don't do it for your parents - they won't care shit about what you're gonna be when you grow up. Do you honestly think they'll follow and guide you for the rest of your life? No - just study to glorify God." He struck a chord in what I was vexed about, the whole time I was studying during the June holidays. I now find that the reason that I'm studying this whole while was just something very temporary.

Given my father's character and what he's done for the family so far, I don't think he deserves much, other than simply for the fact that he's my father. My mom, slogging just to keep us alive, is the one who deserves the bulk of the pay I'm gonna get when I get to work. But then, who am I really gonna work for ultimately when they and the people around me start going off to, touch wood, the grave?

Pondering over this for a while, I start to think: "Yea, the grades are mine, not theirs." Who's gonna care about what I'm getting in the future when nobody else is around? Only Jesus would. He died on the cross, gave his life for me, so why shouldn't I give him what he expects of me - to get better results to glorify His name, rather to please men? It is impossible to please everyone, so I reckon I'll just please God instead. Given His high standards for me, I'll do much better for the preliminary examinations, for ultimately, I will trust in Him to give me strength and discipline to do better.

If anything in particular, I declare that Jesus will be my guide in my academic success from this moment on, however He is much more than just help for my academic successes, you understand... So far I've not met any God who is gracious enough to help me out in academics, other than Jesus.

A great injustice to a man who doesn't deserve it

Recently Uncle Hin, our tenant, got kicked out of our house by our father. Apparently, it was said he was not giving my father the due respect he gets for being the landlord, and were already fighting a cold war.

The cold war, from what I've heard from Mom, happened when Uncle Hin lent my father his CDs to watch, and that my father left scratches on the discs, so Uncle Hin went to get a replacement. However, my father misunderstood it as him not wanting to borrow the CDs to him. Given my father's "addiction" for watching home-bought movie CDs, it broke out into a cold war that lasted for quite a couple of years. From there, many quabbles and temper outbursts led to what happened last week.

I wasn't at home that weekend, due to preparing for my examinations at my grandma's place(where I usually live in). But from what I know, my father was angry because Uncle Hin didn't even greet my father or ask him to eat, which was a common sign of respect in Chinese families. Moreover, my father was even told by my mom to carry his food to the living room so that he can enjoy his food and watch TV at the same time, which was how he usually has his meals at. Because of this, he was way well pissed off because it seemed to him that he was treated more like an outsider and Uncle Hin was behaving more like the man of the house, when my father is the actual landlord.

This turned the cold war "hot", and Uncle Hin, a person who has a proper family to feed in Malaysia, and never owed us rental, had to leave. In fact, WE were the ones who owed him a favour of fetching my sister home everyday after work from my grandma's place ever since our maid, who had served under us for a long period of time, left us.

Obviously, everyone was distraught, even Uncle Kelvin. "Your father always never thinks of what people has done for him, and the consequences of doing so," he commented. "Now see what happens - $500 per month income now lost for nothing!"

My family isn't well-to-do anyway, and my dad, from what I see, never brings back any money from his taxi-driving, but squanders his money elsewhere on his bling-blings like handphones, good food for himself or on his cigarettes and CDs. My mom is the only one supporting this house, I reckon, since most of the family expenses were from her own pockets. Needless to say, a woman with only a fixed salary of $1500 per month working under my aunt, and subject to GST and rising taxes and prices, that extra $500 is extremely important to us.

Unless my father realises that he didn't do any shit in keeping our family together and alive, he's gonna continue being a failure in life... As for why I'm making this statement, I'll put it up on my future posts - it's got to do with my family history, and probably too wordy to put within one single entry.

Doing a quickie

Ah, finally back to blogging after a hard week's work in school, preparing for Mid-Year papers. I still have 2 more papers to go, both of which I'm going to sit for tomorrow, so I'll have to go back to studying right after this quickie post.

As usual, we gathered up to put our bags at some corner so that people wouldn't find and steal stuff from our bags, before going on to the exam hall. Skipped breakfast for the whole week - wow, didn't know I could last till 11am without food. So, just to sum up what I've been doing this whole period of absence from this blog:

• Prayed for His wisdom, knowledge and quick-wittedness before and after studying, and also before and after the papers.
• Studied, studied and studied.
• Ate, slept and drank.
• 2 hours of computer games per day
• 2 hours of TV everyday
• Set the alarm for 5.45am everyday
• Slammed the alarm clock a couple of times(hey, this one's durable!)
• Worried about examinations, but fell back to God's promise of victory

...okay. Gotta go back to studies again. Will be updating again soon.

The true reason

Just a few hours ago, my friend Kevin and I were waiting for bus 31, to go home after school. During the waiting and journey, we talked about how Wei Chiat was having the wrong mindset about studying and how this leads to him being always going to be a follower instead of a leader. Sad to say, it turned out that his attitude and having mixed with him for some time led us to think that he's gonna fail in life - though by all means we may be very wrong about it.

Then we talked about how he, being a Christian, has only two ways to realise his ill attitude - either the Holy Spirit reveals it to him while he's alive, or on Judgement Day, when everyone sees his or her own life in front of their own faces after their physical deaths. Later on, Kevin asked me this question that he asked the Lord the other day. It got me really stumped:

"Yea, it's unfair right? I mean, why do some people who do lots of bad stuff like conning people of millions of cash, killing and robbing each other, but at the end of the day are saved because they believed in Jesus Christ, and people who don't seem to sin at all by indulging in these vices don't acknowledge God and are condemned to go to hell ultimately? Like people like Jin Meng, good in studies, rich, morally sound, but aren't Christian. It's just so unfair!"

"Uh, because of sin?" I was brainstorming.
"Actually, no. We still sin all the time, what."
"Uh... I don't know." I was stumped.
"Actually, the answer is very simple. Because they don't acknowledge God."
"Don't acknowledge God?" I was gagged.

"Let's put it this way. You know God is our Creator and Father, right? Not acknowledging God is like not acknowledging your own father. Put yourself in God's shoes - you are His child, and He is your Father. Even though you might do all sorts of things, he has no reason not to forgive you, as long as you repent and seek his forgiveness, simply because you're His child. Tell me, then - would He rather forgive a child that recognises Him as his Father, or forgive a person out there who doesn't even acknowledge his own Father?"

Actually, he's quite right, now that I think of it. Not acknowledging your own earthly father is bad enough already - showing utter disrespect to him and dishonouring his(or the family's) name. What more a heavenly Father up there, who created you and was there for you even before you were created in your mother's womb?

Clearly, the 10 Commandments say "Honour thy father and mother." Not honouring His name, instead choosing not to acknowledge him as who He is, our Father who art in heaven, is clearly sin. (Then again, if the 10 Commandments weren't there we wouldn't know what's sin.)

He later quoted on the story of Ananias and Sapphira and how they lied about the money from the sold property. They both died not because of lying to men, but because of lying to both God and men. We may lie to men, but we cannot lie to God - He sees us like an open book.

"Whenever I read into this story, it scares me, man. They lie once, and they died - on the spot. What more, if we lie so many times in our lives - and do even worse things than just lying! It's really a miracle that we're still walking on our two feet even after doing all those things," he exclaimed.

"Well, it's gotta be by His grace for us, then."

After the conversation and we both set for home on separate paths, it soon struck my mind - so much Bible knowledge, but so little use for that! It was then that I realised just how much I know about Jesus Christ, our Lord. Sure, I know about him - he did miracles, he taught that He was the way to Heaven, he died for our sins to redeem us from them, but how much do I really know Jesus as my Saviour and Lord?? How much do I really know about God as our Father?

The answer - very little.

Just a little thought for thought

While taking a break from study time, I recalled a conversation with my aunt over why people are racist. I was talking about the period of time that I've been spending in My Saviour's Church since around February or March until now, and how Uncle Yiye had some of our Tamil church friends into his condo the other Sunday, and used the facilities in it at the request of Uncle Kelvin. Probably to him they were probably "uninvited guests," as it seemed that Uncle Yiye was telling us not to invite other "geh-leng kia"s for tennis or swimming.

Me: "But they're quite alright, what. They're still people, human like us, what. Why?"

Uncle Yiye: "They're not that goodie-goodie like you think they are."

Me: "But why? I've been around with them for so long, and they don't seem that bad as you've put it."

Aunt Wanyin: (cutting in) "Aiyah, Ah Boy, what you see in your cellgroup is only just one portion of a whole lot of people of other races."

Uncle Yiye: "Yah... so limited! Wait till you go to the workplace, or JC and work with the other races, and you'll see what I mean."

Me: "Whalau, you all very racist leh..."

Aunt Wanyin: " ...'Cos we've haven't had quite a good impression of them in the workplace, as neighbours, as friends... Anyway, bottom line is, you'll know why people are racist when you grow a bit older and have worked with them for some time."

Firstly, there's something I don't quite like about them going about their "when you grow a bit older" statements. Why the procrastination about telling me about the things, when you could just explain the stuff in detail? I ain't a kid anymore - surely telling me about a few incidents wouldn't bring the topic off-centre or something. Why, adults are people whom we're told to turn to when we don't know about stuff, and you tell us to wait and experience it for ourselves to find the answer. More often than not, when we actually do reach working age, we would've already forgotten the question we're asking now by then, so how's that for a change? To me, "when you grow a bit older" is simply telling me "Forget about the topic altogether; Let's talk about something else."

Secondly, why deem the people bad when what you see is only in the workplace? I'm glad for myself that I brought this topic up, because I get to see from all angles and views over how Tamils in Singapore live, in the workplace, outside and at home.

Sure, I've learned in school that we shouldn't be stereotyping people all the time - but what I see is just the opposite! Sure, I've only been with the morally and socially upright Tamils, but there's bound to be black sheep around too, since nobody's perfect anyway. I mean, just look at the Chinese society of our own. There's robbers, thieves, conmen - but that doesn't mean we don't have Chinese judges, policemen, lawyers, doctors, etc.

My point is - They're just human like us. They have different skin colour and language and culture, but they bleed the same way as we do. For their first visit to their condo, and not even giving themselves a chance to talk and make friends with them and living among them... That doesn't give me enough reason to judge them by their race.

What, we Chinese must stay purely Chinese? Like the Aryan superiority theory that Hitler made up to persecute the Jews, nearly 70 years ago? Look at Hitler, then look at ourselves. You'd be surprised what people do without thinking back at their actions and speech.

An episode of PC death

Being without the computer for the last 14-odd hours sucked. And it sucks like hell. The power supply unit broke down - it just up and kaput! - though there wasn't smoke or anything resembling it blowing up. Because I had an appointment with the dentist this morning, I didn't get to press the power switch until after twelve in the afternoon.

"Tick, Tiak. Tick, Tiak." No power. Shit.

I pressed it a few more times, this time also experimenting with the restart button. Nothing happened. Shit. Whatever the hell happened, it can't just up and die just like that, surely something must be wrong! I rang Uncle Yiye up.

"The PC I think die liao," I told him. "Press the power on-off also nothing happen, no light, no sound, no nothing."

He came up afterwards in the evening, came to fix the computer and declared the power supply unit dead, and we had to look for a replacement before Uncle Kelvin comes back and finds it totally defunct and unable to reclaim the stuff inside the hard disk. He brought the batteries to run the motherboard, but that didn't help either - it had nothing to do with it anyway.

The speakers are well and running - nothing wrong with it.
The parts all look okay, just dusty. No burn on them - nothing wrong with it.
The circuit breaker in the consumer unit wasn't tripped, indicating there wasn't any short circuit - nothing wrong with it.
The power switch was turned on, but there wasn't any humming although the mains switch was turned on - something must be wrong with it.

It couldn't be anything else, since everything within the box was okay, so we deemed the power supply unit condemned. Now, here came the problem: How were we going to get a decent power supply unit box replacement at such short notice? Sim Lim Square seemed quite a far-fetched idea, since it would mean going there on a Saturday to buy one. The LAN gaming shop downstairs suddenly seemed like a very good idea, and we proceeded to buy one for $40.

Though it was quite good, it didn't have enough power supply outlets to connect to all of the PC fans, and we ended up having to forgo the side one. Let's just hope it doesn't overheat, otherwise...?

Honesty is the best policy

Today's sermon was very timely when it touched on honesty as pleasing to the eyes of the Lord.

We offered Brother Chris and Sister Osheana a ride to church, since both of them are also our own brethren and Uncle Daniel went to fetch other fellow brethren to our church, all the way from Pasir Ris to quite a distance, possibly from Potong Pasir or Bukit Batok. During the journey I noticed this stench that very much resembled cigarette smoke reeking in Brother Chris's shirt. To be honest, I was quite put off by that, and kept quiet since nobody was actually talking about anything much at that point in time.

"Hey Chris, how's your work?" Uncle Steven asked, while on the way.
"Mmm, okay lah." came the reply.

Being sensitive folks, we talked among ourselves, speculating over what happened to Brother Chris in his newfound job. Having to pay room rent because of being kicked out of his own family for his faith in the Lord, having a job was definitely very precious to someone in his predicament. To speak about it in such a casual tone, and not adding any more to it hinted that something bad must have happened to him.

Church service was good(it always was), but it was now better because Pastor Bennett gave us some Bible scriptures to study on our own, saying that we will be blessed by the verses, if only we took some time to meditate on them. I haven't been memorising much recently, so this served as a good reminder to me that it was high time that I should be reading the Bible more seriously.

During lunchtime while Brother Chris went to buy some fried kway-teow, we then found out from Auntie Noreen and Uncle Daniel that he got the sack after the first day of work, just for being like 5 minutes late for work, both when coming to work from home and after lunch. Later, it was then that I was told about some employer who didn't want to employ him just because he was a Tamil. One employer even called him "Geh-leng kia"(a Hokkien term for calling Tamils, possibly racist) in the workplace, so he threw that job down.

"Eh, like that also never pang-chance for him ah? Mana eh sai?" I exclaimed upon hearing such things. It just dawned on me - racial and religious harmony is just very hypocritical in Singapore; they should just simply say it's racial and religious tolerance. Where's the harmony, if racism can just run rampant in the workplace like that?

After discussing about the matter on how to help him, I offered to try to get my friends to hook up a job in the newspaper for him, but it seemed impractical given my age and that I haven't even taken my 'O' Level papers yet. "Well then, is there any practical way I can help out?" I asked.

"You just pray for him, lah," Auntie Noreen replied with a smile. She was right - I couldn't do anything much for him yet, except to just lend a listening ear to him and asking the Lord to help him through everything he's having trouble with.

Just then, Uncle Kelvin received an invitation from Uncle Yiye to take a dip in the swimming pool at his condo, and the rest of the big family got invited too. How nice of him to allow such a large group of us go there. Thanks Uncle Yiye!

After lunch, we decided to hang around Uncle Steven's house, since Brother Chris wanted to view the vacant room that Uncle Steven offered to put him up in, and Uncle Kelvin had to have a haircut downstairs too. At around 2.30pm we foursome were having fun talking.

It was later on in the afternoon when both Uncle Kelvin and I packed the swimming stuff up into my bag and coming down back to the car when Brother Chris became candid about his smoking problem and his background. Due to it probably revealing too much personal info, this shall be written about again after getting his approval first.

In any case, he told me later that whatever was happening in the house between my grandparents and my uncle was that my singing of praises of Christianity in front of them was actually literally scaring them off into their own ancestral worship, and I got some useful advice off him. After talking a while, this verse struck both Brother Chris and me:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
- Proverbs 1:7

The second part may seem harsh on some people, but this verse has a whole lot of meaning within itself, just as Brother Chris said about it when he mentioned that this is one of his favourite verses in the Bible, during the journey. I couldn't agree more - I'll share more on this verse on my later posts when the Lord has taught me more through it.

Disasters strike anytime - cherish your own loved ones while you still can!

Been reading the news these days, and it's very negative. The earthquake at China killed many, Cyclone Nargis killed many, both left many homeless. Natural disasters are on the rise these days, so many so that you never know when a disaster might hit us. So far, Singapore has been a reputable safe spot from many disasters, since it's nowhere near the Ring of Fire, safely at one tetonic plate to be free of earthquakes(tremors maybe, but never earthquakes, yet), nor cyclones at sea yet.

It's morbid, the news. I mean, there's people dying, both young and old. Pictures and videos of the victims and survivors were disheartening. With China's one-child policy, it is indeed a devastating blow to many families whose only sons and daughters get devoured mercilessly by a ugly force of nature.

China's in the news, big time. Look at the Tibetan protests, the Dalai Lama hoohah, Beijing Olympics 2008, and carcinogenic(cancer-causing) Ma-Ling brand canned luncheon meat. Earthquake just had to make things so much worse in China, I can already see myself shedding a tear right in front of the computer screen, producing this blog entry.

And it's not just the Chinese calamity - look at Myanmar's Cyclone Nargis disaster, over a hundred thousand people(estimated) fell victim to it: people losing their homes and family members. Wrath of nature - that's what we get whenever we answer nature's call faithfully every morning?

It didn't just hit them Burmese and Chinese alone - just look at the soaring rice prices, and the possibility of eating bread or potatoes as staple foodstuffs just might be very possible. Singapore suffered severe food shortage during the Japanese Occupation... maybe it's time to go back to eating lalang grass, rumoured to have high vitamin content?

It's a good thing that in Singapore there's still plenty of food around, but then, it's really high time to learn how not to waste a single morsel of food, given the disasters going around and the soaring rice prices. Looking at the food shortages in pockets of Asia, food seems much more valuable than ever...

Combined Family Service-cum-Picnic Day on 18th May

The outing at Pasir Ris Park for a whole of 12 hours, from 9am to 9pm, was significant. It was my first trip with the rest of the church as a family of God. Here, we witnessed many baptisms, which was heartwarming for me, seeing people going back to Jesus Christ.

In the morning, I woke up without the alarm. Packed the stuff the night before, so by morning the things were already done, and we set off to the beach at 8am. Reserved some seats for Uncle Daniel and his family, but they came late, at around 10am, an hour after the service started. It turned out that he had made several trips to bring Auntie Noreen's sisters here as well, resulting in them coming late together as one family.

Morning sermon, about the family as designed by God Himself. After the sermon everyone was stuffed, due to the hot weather, and the limited ventilation underneath the tentage. The weather wasn't the problem actually - the grass was, respiring and giving out carbon dioxide as well. As carbon dioxide is a heat-trapping gas, it was no wonder the tentage was an inbuilt furnace, given the numbers of people that were there.

It was hot, it was boring, it was stuffy. No sports, no swimming, no football. Now I saw the purpose of bringing the guitar, again, as Uncle Daniel, Uncle Kelvin and I sat under the nearest tree singing Chinese worship songs, hoping to spread His love through the songs to the passers-by. It was then that Uncle Yiye and his family came along, being told of our performance to be held later at night, but ended up coming too early.

In any case, the games started, and we were appointed to Orange Team, which ended up the last team. However, we didn't play for nothing - they gave us a tidbit prize which consisted of a bag of Mamee noodle snack, cookies and a sweet. How nice, even losers get some kind of consolation prizes.

The rest of the day after the team games was virtually boring, as there was practically nothing to play or interact with, other than talking to people, playing kapadi(a traditional Indian game that resembles sumo-wrestling) in the mud, or playing soccer with a small football. I thought, no kick, playing with such a small ball! I went later to talk to the fellow brethren watching the soccer game, and then took a shower.

The door was unlocked as the bolt got knocked off, and the floor was barely clean, with mud and sand at all the four corners of the cubicle, but thank God I managed to shower successfully with the help of Uncle Kelvin holding the door from outside, maintaining bathroom privacy in such a public place. After getting out of the showers, the sight of the Married vs Singles football match was already starting, and the first thing I thought to myself was "Why on earth did I hit the showers in the first place? What a waste!"

Eventually I gave in to the urge to play in the fresh new clothing, fully expecting myself to go dirty and sweating in blue jeans. Pastor Bennett was there, and it was enjoyable. Though I was merely playing as a goalkeeper, the tension was there whenever the ball came close, which was often. Caught 2 balls, let in one. Married Team won over us, the Singles Team.

Performance started after dinnertime, and it was then God's mercy and grace truly shone in my life at that moment when a blow of stomachache hit me when the land breeze blew against me near the tentage. The urge was there, nature was calling...

I can't answer now. I can't answer now. If I did, I'd be cocking-up the whole performance item and waste the effort that we've put in to prepare the programme as one whole cell group. "Lord, please protect my underpants, lest I shit myself during the performance," I prayed in desperation as the throbbing gut started to already slowly let out gas stealthily.

The medley went well. Made minor blunders with the change in key, and finished the playing perfectly. Guess what happened - I made a run for the toilet without any toilet paper, still thinking in my mind, Hallelujah Lord for answering my prayer.

"Oops," came the exclamation when I was already at the toilet bowl letting go of that atomic bomb to answer nature's call. "Alamak, what to do?" I groped around for my phone, my only hope of getting out of the toilet, yet remaining clean in the bottoms at the same time. If only I could shout "Hallelujah!" loud enough that the people in the tentage could hear from the toilet that I was in, more than 200 metres away from it.

Mishaps happen all the time, but that ultimately didn't spoil the fun the other programmes had in store for us, and of course there's the exhaustion. What mattered to me even more was that we, as a cell group, could serve God in a practical way by offering a performance programme, to which they were lacking in items for. Praise God for all that!

Near-Brawl Experience: Some people go too far

It was late Thursday. No, it wasn't late Thursday - the announcement made a few days ago told us that we were supposed to report to school, as usual, at 7.25am instead of the much-favoured 8.25am reporting time during Late Thursdays, when we don't have common tests at that day.

Got the first nasty news of the day: Dr Boon, the school principal, issued a warning letter to the canteen auntie who sold drinks, telling her that she was violating the school protocol of selling healthy food, by selling ham and cheese sandwiches. By now, I had gotten used to the crispy toast with the melted cheese and succulent bites of freshly-toasted ham, and this letter sounded all the more ridiculous and illogical to me when the letter claimed ham to be "meat with preservatives high in sodium."

Hello, are you sure you're talking about breakfast ham, madam? You seem more like describing luncheon meat to me, which I'd have no qualms quarreling over.

Anyway, this disheartening news of yet another favourite breakfast item unavailable in the school canteen soured the enthusiastic mood I had towards playing frisbee, or whatever sport our current PE teacher, Mr Tong, allowed us to play during PE lesson.

We got called into the main school hall for assembly. Sat through the whole of the first hour listening to boring current affairs talk by the health-freak Dr Boon. It was worse than a full sermon - there wasn't anything relevant to us that we could relate to, and she was just there blabbering like some baboon(no pun intended), not to mention that at that point in time, I was still lamenting over the loss of my favourite breakfast item.

PE time. Played Captain's Ball. Dunno what's wrong with Wei Chiat today, after deflecting a ball, I got an angry shove from behind. The next thing I knew, he was already looking for a fight. Yes, you're right. Anyone'd be fired up when being shoved by a barbarian hand, but I resisted. "No hard feelings, classmates." I thought, when there came yet another shove.

"What the , just what the you want from me?" I returned that shove.
"You wanna play like some idiot right?" We almost fought. "You want to keep shoving people, I accompany you for the whole game." Hell, how was I to know he was coming from behind? Animal. Lucky for me, he didn't manage to spoil my mood for the rest of the day. A few minutes later, I finally was rid of him when the teams swopped, and I played with Roy's team.

If I didn't control myself back then I'd have made a scene. And verbal warfare was already going on since last year, which of course makes anyone pissed when prolonged and personal attacks keep coming to you. He tries that again, I'm gonna make sure it's gonna hurt real bad, both physically and mentally.

But then again, he's ain't worth that time.

Reflection on the movie: Men of Honor

It was nice, it was good, it was everything you'd expect from a show - something bad happens, then gets resolved, then something worse, and makes a good ending when the protagonist finally overcomes the obstacle.

Watched the movie on DVD in school during SEL lessons, which basically is Social-Emotional Learning, that functions very much like Civics and Moral Education, except under a different name. This movie's about Carl Brashear, a young man strong and fit, wanting to be a diver, and goes through all the ups and downs in his diving career.

Later on, his left foot gets cut and mangled by an accident happening while retrieving a H-bomb from under the sea. He later then pleads and pesters the doctors to cut off that foot, seeing that it hindered his career and a prosthetic leg is much more feasible to him. Later on, he tries his best to train and prove himself ready for active duty again as an amputee diver, and succeeds.

Whoa, a feat. The part where the leg got cut off was gory - the scene showed the entire leg severed, and that made the whole class create a big hoo-hah out of it. However, this scene leaves a question in the plot: if the leg truly was cut off by the metal hook, how did they manage to reattach that leg back again in the later scenes? That aside, the movie was well-made. After all, what better way to produce a movie than base it on true stories?

While watching the movie, another question popped up in my mind - what would we have probably done ourselves if we lost our own left legs? Just sit there and whine? That's what many people I know, both in and outside school, are doing nowadays, when it comes to stumbling in schoolwork, office work and other obstacles. Just what's happened to the courageous people who once populated the Earth?

I'm not saying that the people I know are downright chicken-wussies; of course they may be courageous in their own right. It's just that there's lesser of these valuable assets to society. "No pain, no gain" applies to these people very well. I guess that's something worth pondering about, for the day.

Terminal 3 - Terminal human memory work

Oookay. Been there, done that. Went to church and went back to have braised duck. Nice stuff, and of course, slept through the afternoon from 3pm to 6pm, so I'm having a bit of temporal insomnia right now. However it's a good thing, as it gives me some time to type out this entry. Hallelujah.

Went to Changi Airport: Terminal 3 later in the evening at around 7-plus. Explored that area, and believe me - it's majestic. It's so big that you could rollerskate from one end to the other and back, and you'd be exhausted from that distance, especially when there's the risk you might be arrested halfway for doing so for fooling around with the No Rollerskating rules in the airport terminal.

As for the food centres, they were big, but not necessarily many in terms of food varieties within themselves. Kopitiam outlets seem to be very widespread around Singapore, now that I think of it - there's even one outlet downstairs from my flat! Now THAT's food business for you; when you make it big, you get filthy rich quickly, just like Burger King, McDonalds' and other food chains!

Uncles Hin, Teck and my sister went together there, and proceeded to Terminal 2 to collect his complimentary air ticket to fly back to Uncle Hin's house in Sarawak. "Here cannot collect," Uncle Hin later translated the lady at the counter's words. "You gotta buy and collect the ticket at Singapore Shopping Centre(or whatever its name was) at Dhoby Ghaut." After asking around, calling up his company over the ticket, it soon dawned on him that he heard the wrong info - the ticket was supposed to be collected at April 18, but he heard it as May 18(taking into consideration that the month is named by numbers, eg 四月is April, 五月is May, etc).

So, how? Called up to book another 2 tickets while burning their own pockets just for a house visit to a close friend's home in Sarawak. Ate at Burger King later, and this time, probably they were trying to vent their anger on humongous Whoppers, a Single and another, a Double. It isn't surprising - both Uncles Hin and Teck weighed close to 90kg each when they stood on the luggage weighing scale.

Haste Brings Waste

Last night, I was reflecting about the preaching given by Sister Shanthi, which was about the sermon given by Pastor Bennett to the Tamil Congregation. It was about how we should be tactful and patient to things or people around us before doing anything.

Being human beings, we definitely are imperfect creatures. We do things in a rush, especially in school work, preparing for major examinations like GCE 'N', 'O' and 'A' Level Examinations, and of course in everyday office work. We labour, looking for speed and accuracy. More often than not, we tend to go a bit to the extreme, going too fast and losing accuracy, and vice versa. In the end we don't get what we want.

In I Samuel 13:9-14, we see Saul going ahead with the sacrifice when Samuel the Prophet wasn't around, because of the enemies of Israel coming closer and closer to his army to do battle. In Old Testament times, the Israelites sacrificed burnt offerings before battle, and are to be offered to the Lord only by prophets, and since King Saul, the first king of Israel, proceeded without Samuel, and he wasn't a prophet, his position and power was stripped of him by God, and he ended up losing the battle.

This tells us something:

Saul did so in haste because he didn't have enough faith in the Lord to protect his army from the enemies until the sacrifice was offered. Trying to proceed ahead, get done with it quickly, he relied on his own human effort, which we know, always avails next to nothing, wastes time and effort, and ultimately leads to ruin. Even as a king, he is still not spared from human temptations to use our own effort and knowledge, which is of course, very limited when compared to His wisdom and knowledge.

Even prophets are not spared from acting in lack of knowledge and wisdom from God. In I Kings 13, there were two prophets, one younger than the other. God told the younger not to eat or drink, or even go back to where he came from, after prophesying against King Jeroboam because of his practice of idolatry in the previous chapter (I Kings 12). During his journey away from the king, the older prophet asked him to eat and drink in his house. After he refused, the old prophet lied to him that he saw an angel telling him to eat and drink in his house.

Being a prophet too, the younger should have asked the Lord if this were true, but he did not, and was deceived, and ate and drank at the old prophet's house. He ended up being killed and torn apart by a lion.

Even kings and prophets can be deceived or act in haste, what more us normal and common people of today's society? Therefore, the need of wisdom and knowledge to tackle problems is there, but human wisdom and knowledge is always limited. But thank God He's there for us whenever we need help with these! We of course are weak in these areas, more often than not, but Jesus is strong in our weaknesses, so let's ask for Him to grant us His wisdom and knowledge to solve our everyday problems.

Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
- I Corinthians 1:25


Beyond this line are contributions by Chee Yiliang, a bosom friend of mine, added with my permission on May 11, 10.24pm:

Cited here are two examples of how situations can be completely turned upside down when man gives in to the temptation of making haste. The severity of God is revealed against those who fail to trust Him and trust in their flesh instead.

However, we must note that these two examples are of men under law. Today in Christ Jesus, we are no longer under law, but under grace. Under law, the severity of God is revealed. We, under grace, will not be able to appreciate the grace of God without first knowing the severity of God. Now that we understand the severity of God under law as revealed by Aaron's post, let us no contrast this with the life we live under the grace of God.

Abraham was a man who lived before the law. Now, God had promised Abraham a son through Sarah. To Abraham, this was a total impossibility as Sarah was unable to bear any children. So Sarah decided that Abraham should have a son through Hagar, Sarah's maidservant. Abraham, in his haste to fulfil the promise of God, agreed to the proposal. Hence, Ishmael was born (after Abraham's self-effort). Now, here we can see that Abraham has both given in to temptation of haste and trusted in his own flesh; according to Aaron, he has utterly sinned against God! But you know what? Despite Abraham's sin, God still gave them the son He had promised them. Ishmael, although he was a mistake, God still blessed him and his children with the riches and fatness of the Earth. That is why the Middle-East is SOOO RICH with oil!

If Abraham, who wasn't even in Christ, could receive such benefits, so much more will we, who are in Christ Jesus receive them! For those of you who have fallen to the temptation, today God says to you: "You may have failed me, but I will not fail you!" You see, your unfaithfulness cannot cause God to become unfaithful to His covenant. Despite our unfaithfulness, He remains faithful. Even when you fail Him, there is a superabounding supply of favour (which you do not deserve, but He gives anyway) to prevent the severe consequences mentioned by Aaron from occuring, and even more favour to turn the situation around for your good!

My Saviour's Church Combined Family Service cum Picnic

Hey fellas, been busy for a while, due to language examinations, so here's an announcement. I'm trying my best not to sound evangelistic(some people don't like it when I invite them to church), so here goes -

The title says it all; There's gonna be a combined family service-cum-picnic on May 18th 2008, and all are welcome. Just show up with the following stuff:

Adults (from 8 years and above) : S$10(not US dollars, duh!)
Children (from 3-8 years old) : S$5
Babies (>3 years old): S$0.00(free!)

Lucky babies, you get a free trip to a picnic. But then again, you might not really be able to enjoy much food and games when you're still on milk bottles, I guess...(no offence to parents intended) But then again, who ever said that babies aren't allowed to be outdoors with their parents?

In case you're wondering, there's no need for NRIC certificates or any form of official identification needed to be brought, 'cos we're holding this picnic at Pasir Ris Park, at a lawn next to Car Park D. There's always people around to ask, public transport and the taxi, so don't come running after me when you lose your way going there... :P

Oh yeah, it's from 9am to 9pm, and early birds get free breakfast when they reach there before 9am.

Of course, other than the usual dull sermons(I write as though a unbeliever would) at the start of the morning, there's games like Treasure Hunt, Football, Captain's Ball, and many games able to keep youself occupied throughout the day. Exercise is good for the body, so why not? Just be sure to drink plenty of water after the games - the weather is very hot lately.

What's more, the next day's Vesak Day, so it's a public holiday, so why not go there and have fun. Good planning on our part, yea?

Mid-Year Mayhem

Tomorrow's my Mid-Year Exam for Chinese Papers 1 and 2. There's practically nothing much to study about, except that the very best I can do is to read up and memorise as much useful vocabulary as possible on my part, and regurgitate them up at the right places when I sit for the paper tomorrow.

The Lord shall settle my heart with his love and grace when I get to the examination hall. Amen!

Trying out my uncle's laptop

Nice laptop Uncle Yiye has. Though it's hard to type because the keyboard needs getting used to, it won't stop me from telling you guys how great our God is to me today.

Last Friday, Uncles Steven and Kelvin, and I went for cell group. I brought my guitar along, only not to have a chance to play it during the worship session, because they had already prepared the hymns, none of which I could play due to the lack of chord annotations, much to my dismay.

"Oh, God, surely you wouldn't make me bring my guitar for nothing...?" I thought. Thank God, I brought my school's hymnbook to the cell, and when I showed Uncle Daniel the book, we decided to sing some from them. Soon Uncles Steven and Kelvin joined along even though it was really late, around 10 plus in the night, and it just so happened that the following day I was to sit for the Chinese Mid-Year Oral Examinations.

It was really good. We managed to sing a few songs, and I reckon God gave us the time to worship him with the guitar, because the rest of our brethren that were around also heard it, and were complimenting my playing and the beauty of the hymns. We sang Did You Talk to God Above, By the Power of Your Love, and Shepherd of My Soul. Hallelujah, those songs were indeed beautiful.

Today's church service was a joke. So much for giving testimonies in church, and we were discussing so much about what testimony to share up on the stage when we were in the car, and we ended up not being able to share anything as of yet.

Brother Chris and Sister Osheana came as well for the second time, which was a good tell-tale sign that they weren't very happy with how City Harvest Church, the church we initially came from, conducted their Sunday services. To add on to the joy of another two people in the big family of My Saviour's Church, the sermon on God's love from Psalm 103 was very thought-provoking. It was indeed an enjoyable service, and the more I spend time in it in home cell meetings and church services, the more I enjoy myself and it was always in church activities and from praising the Lord, in both my private time and in cell group worships that my soul does find rest in Him.

One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.

-Psalm 27:4

Gallstone Aftermath - no more gall!

Went to visit her yesterday after the operation. I didn't reach in time to hear the doctor's report, but it was, well, very successful. Praise God! When we reached there, she was still under the side effects of anastaesia - feeling drowsy. To say that she is indeed a blessed woman is very fitting for her - many people, including my uncles, aunt and mom, went to visit her. It was like yet another family gathering, only that it was because of the gallstone problem.

It took the doctor four holes into the torso, to put the instruments and endoscope for operating on her, to get the stones and the gallbladder out. We couldn't see the gallbladder - it'd be too disgusting to look at, anyway - but at least we got to see the stones. Six gallstones, what do you think of 'em?

Okay, so here are the gallstones. Notice the greenish-yellow tint at the base of the vial? That's what your bile looks like. It emulsifies the fats in your body, making the fat droplets break down into smaller fat droplets. Kinda like stirring your oily soup until the droplets at the surface break up into small ones, so that more enzymes can act on the fat droplets with more surface area.

The bile is still in the body, don't worry. Just that it's much less concentrated as it has no place other than the gallbladder to store and concentrate it in, so that means that she's gonna start taking a less-fat diet now, or risk complications later on, I reckon.

Oh by the way, Uncle Kelvin went to stay vigil for the night, so he didn't come back with us.

A truly Spirit-filled Sunday

Yesterday, we went back to church. Have missed one cell group gathering and a full sermon the previous week, so we're literally yearning and starving for God's word being shared yesterday by Pastor Bennett. After the service, the concern for Grandma's condition, given her gallstones problem, was lingering on our minds again and again. I told Uncle Kelvin: "Why don't we get Pastor to help pray for her recovery?" We moved on from there.

He went ahead of me, asking Pastor to pray for her recovery. "Is she a believer?" he asked.

We shook our heads.

"Well then, it's my first time doing this, but I'm going to pray for you to have authority to lay hands on her and pray for her recovery," he said, which gave us peace of mind. "Something will happen to you guys." Then he went ahead to pray for the anointing.

"You guys've gotta be bold. Go up to her and lay hands on her, and pray when you go back," he added on, after the prayer. Uncle Kelvin, later during the journey back, told us he was confused over why he said we've gotta be bold to pray for her. "Can't we just pray in the room and lay hands on the wall? It'd be like God's power going to her room(our room is just beside hers)." he spoke.

"Nonsense. He said we've gotta be bold, I reckon that means that we gotta go straight up to her, tell her, and then when she knows, we pray for her."

And here we go. I reached home first, after swimming and dinner outdoors. It was easy to get the message across - I don't know why, but I reckon it's the grace of God - and to tell her we're going to pray for her when he comes back home. "Oh," she replied, still in doubt. However, she, being a easy-going woman, let us go ahead.

He came back, and we laid our hands on her, while I prayed in Chinese, for her benefit of understanding what is being prayed for her. It was short, but sweet. Hey, wherever in the Bible did it say that long prayers are necessary? It was probably so unexpectedly short that she asked later, "Huh, already finished ah?" when we got back on our feet and continued on our stuff.

This morning, there came the effect of prayer, I reckon. "Eh, you know ah," Grandma told me. "Last night, you prayed for me, hor. End up I sleep through the whole night, no pain leh(she had to take painkillers to sleep peacefully, but she didn't need to last night)."

"Neh, tell you already. Jesus Christ is true and alive." I grinned at her. "Otherwise why would I even bother to believe in Him and go to church in the first place?"

I suppose it is always through our weaknesses and infirmities that God's grace always abounds in our lives, and His grace and mercy for us endures forever, indeed. However, she's still in doubt of Jesus, though I'll never get to know anytime soon yet. Hopefully through this encounter with God's healing and blessing, she'll get to know and accept Christ, and receive his salvation offered to all mankind.

O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

To him who alone doeth great wonders: for his mercy endureth for ever.
-Psalm 136:1, 4

Hallelujah, indeed He is Jehovah Rapha - The LORD our Healer!

My grandma has gallstones

Just came back from home. Only just found out about my grandma having gallstones and needing operation, an hour ago. Funny, she was always complaining about her rheumatism, but now gallstones? She's always as fit as a fiddle, even fitter than my own mom. How is it that she, a person of great stamina, can have gallstones in her gallbladder?

"Eh tell you ah, I have gallstones," the first thing she laughingly told me was that, when I asked her about her chronic pain at the torso, which was going on for about a week already since. "Few days later, going for operation to remove the gallbladder."

"Are you serious." She spoke so jokingly that I cannot really believe what she said earlier.
"Gallstones, lor. Went for checkup today with her," my uncle cut in. No wonder the first thing he hollered across the living room to the outside door when I came back was why I sent a message to him via phone.

...Okay. Less ability to digest fats because of less bile and nowhere to contain the bile produced, once the gallbladder is removed surgically. Doctor said that it wasn't serious - it's something like having your appendix removed when you have appendicitis. Oops, so that means that the next time my grandma eats a lot of fatty foods, she starts to pass out oil in her stools...?

God's eternal grace is always plenteous - Hallelujah!

A few days ago, I woke up late and so had to rush for the bus 17 service to get to school. I prayed as I walked along the overhead bridge to the bus stop: "Lord, thank you for everything. Bestow me your grace today, in Jesus' name I pray. Amen." Seconds later, the bus came...

...but I didn't manage to board it. It speeded off before I could get to the bus stop, even though it was just at the exit of the bridge! "Lord, what are you doing..." I thought He wasn't really listening to my prayer earlier. "I asked for your grace and you gave me thiiiss?" Much on the contrary, He showed that He actually did, and was still gracious enough to grant me another bus which arrived a minute later than the first one that I missed, despite my audacious statement against Him.

Thinking back, yeah. I shouldn't have doubted the Lord when the first bus went off. Nevertheless, He still gave me the bus to travel to school in time. This part of a psalm came to mind:

The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.

-Psalm 103:8-13

Our Lord is a sovereign king of all eternity, and His mercy on our transgressions is all possible because of His grace on us. Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins because of God's mercy on us that we, being made in His image, should not perish but have eternal life in Jesus Christ.

Do you have a god that answers prayers? Probably yes, but not everytime. Jesus answers our prayers everytime, and is faithful to the last bit of detail of our prayers, if only we would tell Him of our needs everyday and be willing to commune with Him and bask in His presence. Is your god overbearing like Zeus, frying people he doesn't like with thunderbolts as and when he likes? Our God doesn't. If He were, we would all be dead by now, because:

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
-Romans 6:23

We are saved by His grace through faith in Jesus Christ's finished work on the cross to redeem us of our sins so that we may have eternal life in Heaven after our physical bodies die, and after our hearts stop beating. To get eternal life, you cannot earn it.

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
-Ephesians 2:8

There is one thing that we gotta know about grace: it is undeserved favour from God, and unconditional, because Jesus loves us and wants to have mercy on us so that we may have eternal life with Him in Heaven, where he wants us to be. If we try to work for that eternal life, not only is it impossible, but it would also defeat the purpose of His showing of grace to us.

In fact, we can never, and should not, work for gifts - otherwise it is no longer a gift, but a reward to be deserved for all that effort. If that is so, why is it by grace then?

It is undeserved. You don't deserve it. We are unqualified for eternal life. But thank God, he is gracious enough to give it to us. Why so gracious to us when we are sinners almost beyond redemption? You know the famous verse, John 3:16?

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

It is out of his love for us. That's why.

In fact, for us Christians, we should ask for more of His grace, to keep us going everyday. Because of His grace all things are made possible, so let us all bask in His presence and ask for his precious grace, which is sufficient for every single need we have today.

Mas Selamat bin Kastari - How much is his capture worth?

Nothing to do with Christian values and doctrines for this post, in case you're wondering.

I was on the bus today when I was reading off the Mas Selamat bin Kastari poster "Call 999 immediately when you see him."

"Okay," I thought. "He's this terrorist, nothing special, what." But, wow, he's that good at hiding in the concrete jungle of Singapore, and it's been almost 2 months since anyone ever did anything about it, other than the police searching high and low for the jungle monkey who tried to set up a bomb on the airplane.

Say, if the Lord be willing, when someone within My Saviour's Church catches sight of Mas Selamat bin Kastari, probably the police would give some monetary reward, which can be used to fund the building of the new church building at Queensway. Not a bad idea, right? Magnifying the house of God with the sight and clue about Mas Selamat. That is, if none of us truly want the money for ourselves...

But even then, who'd be so daring, as a Singaporean citizen, to comb the entire concrete jungle? Hello, even if we could comb the whole of Singapore(and that includes every single void deck and mama-shops, and every single dusty corner of the house), there's a good chance Mas Selamat could've escaped to other countries. Even with the Interpol in place, combing the entire Earth is no small feat.

Something to think about - Is it possible for Mas Selamat to hide in the North and South Poles? Guess not.

Salvation is for all!

Salvation is by God's grace on us through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord, on His finished work on the cross to overcome sin once and for all, dismantling everything that Satan had ever built. Sure, we Christians no longer do sinful stuff, or rather, do less sinful stuff...

"...but are you sure about him(points at a hardcore ex-convict)? Are you sure he is going to be saved?" a man asked. "He's a hardcore gambler, does extortion from everywhere, a drug-pusher, fearless gangster, a..." The list goes on and on.

The above example shows how we, as humans, still will inadvertently look at people with tinted glasses. But what does our Lord say about people like these?

...They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
-Luke 5:31-32

Indeed! And we have a very good example in the Bible of a great sinner who repented and went back to Jesus - Saul of Tarsus. Saul was a zealous Jewish man who went around persecuting the early church, and observed most of the Jewish laws, and surpassed his forefathers in his zeal. 10 Commandments, the Jewish Torah, you name it, he keeps it. However, Saul was like a tyrant to the early church - he brought many early Christians to prison because of their belief, all the time thinking that he did some service to God. Also, he consented to the stoning of Stephen, who was preaching the Word of God.

Would a person like this, though obeying the Law of Moses but still doing such atrocities, be ever saved and forgiven? The early Christians never offended Saul, but he persecuted the early church because of their belief. Kinda like Hitler, eh? Bearing in mind that the early church was quite small at that point of time, Saul's actions would jolly well have destroyed early Christianity altogether.

He was however saved when he realised by doing so, he was actually persecuting Jesus, the Lord. When he was struck blind, and brought to Ananias, he was baptised, regained sight and straightaway went preaching about Jesus. His conversion from Judaism to Christianity was astonishing, for he was saved by his faith in Jesus. However, if God did not bestow his grace upon Saul(now called Paul), he would not have done the many wonders that he did, such as preaching the word of God throughout Western Europe and the Middle East, the regions around the Great Sea, and producing the 13 Pauline Epistles that we now read, such as I and II Corinthians, Romans, Galatians, etc.

Now, if God is gracious enough to even let Paul be saved and do such things and be such a wonderful apostle of Christ, in spite of his sins and persecution of His people, who is to say that people who are ex-convicts, hardcore gangsters and the outcasts of society cannot receive the love of Jesus?

Hell - You don't want to end up there, trust me!

Recently, whatever I experience in school is quite bad enough as it is - people enjoying themselves at the expense of others, worsening attitude towards studies(it all started well with everyone being super-motivated), and of course, the worst of all is the classroom environment. I mean, how can anyone study in that kind of noisy hell?

Oh wait, that isn't hell. Hell isn't supposed to be like a classroom environment. I thank God I'm still in a classroom far from hell, a dreadful place. To even say it is dreadful is an understatement. Show me a person that tries to tell me there isn't a place called hell, and I'll show you a person who doesn't believe in Jesus. He has said, plainly, that hell exists in this parable. Pay extra 999% attention, not just your typical 100%, on the words that are in this parable:

There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

- Luke 16:19-31

Now, what do you see? Fire. As if this isn't bad enough, it is a place of torment. What, you have the atomic bombs, eh? Sarin nerve gas? Heavy water? Ultra-concentrated arsenic to pour straight into your mouth and injected into your bloodstream at ultra-high temperatures? Hell has much worse things than these. However, this kind of place isn't for us! Jesus says:

Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
-Matthew 25:41

Hey, who doesn't hate the devil? As we all know, many people blame the devil for all the bad things, sinful and adulterous deeds that would have us condemned forever in hell, but why live like the devil? We lie, and cheat, and do everything sinful in the eyes of God. But thank you Jesus, You died on the cross for us so that we could be saved from this eternal torment in Hell, through Your blood! Precious soul-saving blood!

Because of Adam eating the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden, he sinned against God, and through him, we being his descendents have to also bear this original sin, AS WELL AS THAT OF OUR FOREFATHERS. Well, doesn't this explain very well that every new generation these days is worse than the generation before it?

So I urge you guys now, I pray thee, believe in Jesus and confess to him your sins, and be saved from hellfire. Hell is real - don't joke around with it. People have been revived in the ICUs and screaming and shouting about the horrors of hell. People have heard near volcanoes that spew out fire and brimstone(sulphur) what seems like lost souls in hell crying out in eternal torment. Trust me, please. Don't end up there.

It takes a lot of love to tell people about how terrible Hell is, and to get them out by getting people like you to put your life in Jesus, who is the only one who can pull you out from the dangers of hellfire.

Easter - Jesus is alive!

Went to church at 3pm. The drama continued from last Friday, and Jesus, acted by Brother Jerry, is alive and among the remaining 11 disciples. Soon everyone was shouting and singing Hallelujah to the Lord Most High. The drama was a big hit for everyone - even the guest pastor said it was so good, it moved him to tears!

Really, My Saviour's Church sure could do with lots of publicity from this drama, if it were taken down professionally and in actual 1st century scenery in Israel. Perhaps if this drama could sell in India, a lot more Hindus would get to know Jesus. I mean, it's for the betterment of God's kingdom, right? We would also be serving God by spreading the gospel further into the ends of the earth.

To be honest, My Saviour's Church, from what I know, is in dire straits. We don't really have a church building, and the current holding place for the English Congregation(that's us) has a rental fee that is too high to upkeep. And because of the building fund for the new church building, our pastor is hard pressed for money, so we're shifting to the Boys' Brigade HQ Singapore for our services, with effect from 6 April 2008, next fortnight.

After the service, we went for buffet dinner at Sakura, in SAFRA Tampines. We binged on the food, the baked scallops and oysters were good - they tasted like pizza. Of course, there was pizza too, and mushroom soup. Prawns are no exception - they were juicy and good, unlike some prawns from some lousy food centre...

Then we got our hands dirty on all those food. With all these good food to manage, you couldn't very well go to the toilet to wash the grease away, and expect the food to be still there, so we made do with tissue paper. Something struck me again - just like before. The tissue paper, being white, clean and grease-free was now full of dirt and oil.

For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:
Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:
Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:
Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

-I Peter 2:24

Jesus bearing our sins on the cross, just like the tissue paper bearing the dirt and grease of our food. The tissue paper eventually gets thrown away, and that was what Jesus was - abandoned and forsaken by the world. But He, in His glory and power, rose from the dead so that we might have life in believing His resurrection from the dead. Oh, I thank Jesus for bearing my sins and cleansing me with His blood shed for me, so that I may have life and be reconciled with the Lord again. Also, he showed the greatest love that the world has ever seen when he allowed himself to be nailed onto the cross for us, to redeem us from the horrors of hell brought by sin:

This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
- John 15:12-13

Birthday Bash - Rejected Spare Ribs Curry

Today is my birthday, yep. Went for church service 'cos it's also Good Friday today. Everything went well as planned - we had our lunch outside, then went for service. The drama they came up with was very heart-wrenching. There was a part when Jesus was hung on the cross and died there, and people were running to the cross, which made Uncle Kelvin shed tears. I don't know how many people did the same, but it only goes to show that the drama cast was very successful in their act. It was a very successful evangelistic attempt - many people went up to surrender their lives and put their trust to the Lord. Glory to Him, Hallelujah!

Then, we went to buy satay and drinks back home to add on to the celebration of my 16th birthday. There was cheesecake, and beforehand Uncle Kelvin told my mom not to buy any cakes for the celebration. Adding on to the cake are grilled chicken wings with limejuice all over it, pastries with banana and coconut filling as well, and curry...



Wait a minute, the curry isn't supposed to be there! Why on earth did Grandma still cook curry while I kept stressing not to cook the curry?

Anyways, everyone enjoyed the food. "Eh, the curry very nice leh, come eat leh." they were talking among themselves while helping themselves to the food. It turned out that the spare ribs curry became the main dish for the day, and they soon sang praises about how delicious the curry was when it's spread all over the beehoon(rice vermicelli). Then it struck me in the head like a nail being driven into wood: "I insisted the curry not to be there, but it became the main dish - sounds very familiar." I soon found out:

The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.
-Psalm 118:22

Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
- Ephesians 1:19-20

Now, when Jesus was on earth offering His love and salvation to the world, people despised Him. People spat at Him, cursed Him, wanted Him dead. They didn't want Jesus preaching at the synagogues, and telling everyone He was the Son of God. Well, they completely rejected Him, but what happened after His crucifixion and death? He rose from the dead! This resurrection showed the world that He has already conquered over sin and death.

Now what do you see? Christ's resurrection and ascension to Heaven, Christians singing His praises, ex-convicts running to Jesus for salvation and true repentance, and ending up as pastors and good people. More churches and people to preach the gospel around the world, 24/7. More and more people are becoming Christian, and that's the good thing!

I remember when I was very small, probably around 5-6 years old when my neighbour's pastor approached me and asked if I knew Jesus. I rejected his offer to accept Christ, because I didn't know any better back then - I was still a Buddhist back then, and my parents drilled into my head that Christianity was bad. However, trusting my life in Him 5 years later changed my whole view of Christianity, and I now carry the pride of bearing Jesus' name by being His child.

Something that sets me thinking - Where is the love?

I refer to my friend's blog entry about how people do not spare a thought for other people around them and being oblivious to things around them. Come to think of it, it's quite close to what Paul said about the people today would do, ain't it?

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

-Romans 1:28-32(KJV)

So here we are - people who break every single commandment of God. Now, I'm not trying to say that these people are not saved or are never going to get saved, but really, what she says makes sense! We do do things for ourselves most of the time, but very seldom for other people. Let's be honest with ourselves - Would we want to do something for some bozo's or what's-his-name's benefit, without ourselves benefitting from it at all? Only a Christian, someone who has a heart of charity, or has gone bonkers would be wanting to do such things.

Very often, we see people all around the world stuck in the vicious poverty cycle. To get out of this, as learned through my humanities lessons, we need this necessary evil: money. We need it to get our school fees paid, we need it to buy food. We need it to pay for school uniforms, then we use it to buy cars, fuel, houses, even whole private property! In fact, I can frankly say that this "important" piece of paper, the certificate, is our ultimate goal of education. But then, even with this piece of paper, we still have to get out and bring ourselves into overdrive mode - work and work for money. Funny, when were the times where people gave each other food and lodging out of charity and not for money? Where is the love? What happened to people helping each other out in times of need these days?

The love for money- the driving factor that drives everyone mad like zombies, even Christians. And what did Paul say about this love of money?

For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
- I Timothy 6:10 (KJV)

Indeed, the sorrows of this love of money and never-ending desire is just a fine line between keeping and losing one's sanity to it. You work too much, you lose your family love, and even put their lives in jeopardy out of money, in some extreme cases. People turn to kidnapping, or carry out a scam, out of a want for a quick buck. We have people gambling for the money. We have people doing underground brothels, and human trafficking. We have anything possible to make money. All of these things are what God detests, and what is the real cause of this? Sin.

Now, I don't really have to tell you what sin is - most of us know what it is. You know of Adam eating of the forbidden fruit even when God told him not to? That's all sin is - disobeying God. Since Adam and Eve were the first humans on earth, we are actually their descendents. And sin doesn't really go away, much as you'd like for it to be. We carry our sin, as well as the sin of our forefathers - that's why you see people lying, committing adultery, murder, anything else you can think of. Can you truly say you've never lied in your entire life?

Sure, you might enjoy what you are doing right now. "I want to kill, I want to get laid in the nearest red-light district. I want to do all sorts of things filthy. After all, I enjoy it, and what's the big deal of it?" What many people don't realise is that the sin that we carry along with Adam's will make us hellbound after we die. When they do realise it, they figured they can't do anything about it. "Aiyah, might as well live like dirt on earth, since we go to hell anyway..." Believe me, you won't want to go to Hell.

But however, have you guys considered Jesus?

His blood shed on the cross is for our sin. He was blameless, yet he was crucified, whipped and flogged, for us. He, being God, could have smote everyone dead, but he did it and bore the pain, out of what? Love. For whom? You. He doesn't want us to go to hell. Because of sin, we have to go to hell. But He, out of his love for us, died on the cross, bearing the pain and agony in our place, so that we needn't suffer the hell that would be INFINITELY WORSE that just the crucifixion, flogging, persecution and shame to bear!

Now, Jesus died on the cross for us, out of love. He died for all of us, every single one of us, born and unborn. Now, if you have accepted Christ into your life, why not show this love to the people around us? C'mon, people - show some love to others around you today. It may be just saying "Hi" to someone you don't know, or washing the dishes for your mom, or running errands for your neighbours. We have enough bad blood among mankind - the Cold War, war on terrorism, and in Singapore, the Mas Selamat bin Kastari incident. It's time to show some love to your neighbours, be it friend or family.

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

-Romans 5:7-8 (KJV)

If you want to find out more about Jesus, click here. After all, you've got nothing to lose. It is better to know the Lord and God you worship than blindly worshipping something that you don't know.

Gaia Mania Concert: Grace-filled performance with God on our side.

WARNING: This post is very long, so read it when you have the time for it.

Gaia Mania: goof-ups and blessings from God too, though we do have our fair share of Satan's attacks in this event.

Went to school at 1.30pm. Nobody was there, and I was waiting outside the Guitar Room when Yannis and Claire came along the corridor, wondering why I was there in the first place. "Guitar Room is locked."
"Oh, no wonder. I was like, 'Eh why you standing there?'" came the reply.

SMSed Wai Ping to tell her to come. Clara opened the door. We got in and prepared ourselves. And good Lord, why hasn't Jacob and Daniel come into the Guitar Room yet, it's already two in the afternoon already, and we're about to leave at 3.30pm!

Rang Daniel up. "I at Jacob's house, waiting for him to finish bathing(shower)." he murmurred.
"Alamak, hurry up, it's already two o'clock already!"
"What, only two nia... Later then go there." He hung up. Finally they showed up half an hour later.

After all that mumbo-jumbo about the footstools, stuff, uniform and neckties, we got in the bus, and there wasn't enough seats! Luckily for the boys, they could squeeze in and sit on the floor of the bus. Gawrsh, that sure must hurt, given the bumpy ride to the NTUC Conference Hall in Shenton Way. Worst of all is that Hailong forgot to take his scorebook out of the Guitar Room!! I overheard Mrs Koh saying to Mr Shi, our instructor and conductor, "Dunno what's wrong with this batch of students ah, haiya... Things like that, also can forget."

Reached the NTUC Conference Hall, the big venue. And by meaning big , it really is big but the stage was even "bigger" in that there wasn't enough space for seats for everyone. So in the end, during the performance history repeated itself - not enough space for seats for everyone, and Micah ended up sharing 2 chairs with 2 others during the performance. 3 people sharing 2 seats... Not very pleasant, was it? Reminds me of myself encountering the same experience during the 50th Anglican High Founders' Day concert, "En Suelo Mas Alto".

Really, the holding room should have been used as the stage. I mean, look! The place is completely different from the stage: big space for everyone and better air-con in there. The stage is nothing compared to the holding room - we could talk, play the guitar as much as we wanted, and even eat in it while listening to Jacob's intepretations of the Bible. Hey, though he may be my junior, but he does speak much sense from whatever is in there.

Greedy Jacob took another packet of bento dinner. "Eh hello, we're here to perform, not to eat!" exclaimed Mrs Koh, as she reluctantly gave in to me taking the bento and passing it to him.

Then halfway during practice in there, Jacob's guitar string broke! I reckon Satan's not feeling too good about him preaching about Him being Lord of all and speaking the truth that has the potential to bust up his sinful lies, that's why he made the 5th guitar string break. And thank God, the string was fixed by Hailong, by tying up the broken ends. It still sounded funny, though, lots of buzzing going on with the knot vibrating against the fretboard. However, it is at this time that God's grace is shining bright on our predicament - there was another spare guitar for use, though Mr Shi said it was supposed to be only for the 1st Guitar, in case their strings broke.

So, we've got the replacement guitar, the footstools ready, and the guitars tuned. Bird whistle was still with fresh water. Everything went well, for the Lord was faithful in hearing my prayer in the holding room. Really, I was very nervous when the performance was about to start when these verses gave me the courage to do my best on that place:

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
-John 14:27

And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.
-Deuteronomy 31:8

And after the performance, we were gathered around Jacob, Benedict and Jonathan. Honestly, I didn't know that they could complement each other so well! Jacob did rapping while the rest did beatboxing. Of course, Jacob was the butt of the joke - though he did rap well, his actions while holding the guitar bag was as though he was doing pole-dancing!

Beneath the Shelter of Your wings - Lenny Smith Lyrics

Just found this song very meaningful and indeed, the lyrics show how faithful our Lord Jesus Christ is. Just changed the song as well, so feel free to sing along with the music. Enjoy!

I am safe beneath the shelter of Your wings
Here I can trust in You
And know that I am loved
I find peace beneath the shelter of Your wings
A place of quiet rest
That calms my heart and soul
Here I am blessed

I am so blessed
To find Your rest
I am so blessed to find Your rest

I will stay beneath the shelter of Your wings
When I depart from here
I'll know that You are near
Where I go, You'll go and where I stay You'll stay
If I don't see Your Face
Still I'll be in Your love
And Your embrace

I am so safe
In Your embrace
I am so safe
In Your embrace

I am safe beneath the shelter of Your wings
Here I can trust in You
And know that I am loved
I find peace beneath the shelter of Your wings
A place of quiet rest
That calms my heart and soul
Here I am blessed

I am so blessed
To find Your rest
I am so blessed to find Your rest

Being a servant ain't a bad thing either

And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all.

-Mark 10:44 (KJV)

It was only this evening during Cousin Glenn's birthday party when it dawned on me the meaning of this verse. I was looking at Aunt Kris preparing a big jar of iced coke, and I wanted to grab a drink. It was as though something flashed across my mind, something that I came across while reading the Bible. This verse came to mind. I decided to grab more drinks and distribute the cups of coke out. After all, we had a guest, Uncle Allen's girlfriend, to entertain and serve as well. I put "being the servant of all" into practice, and everyone had a drink without having to travel to the kitchen to grab the pitcher.

I ate, and was speaking to Uncle Yiye when I recited this verse to him. "Very true." he replied.

"Y'know, this is indeed very true in that being the servant of all gives you the experience and respect from other people," I spoke. "When you become the servant, you gotta serve the people, and through all that you gotta first learn how to serve. Serving people for some time gives experience in that field of work, and earns your respect from other people as well, if you're doing a good job at it. After all, being the greatest of all in your job also needs these two things: support and expertise. That's where the experience comes into play, and the support from your subordinates comes from their respect for you."

"Whoa, very cheem(sophisticated), leh," he exclaimed.

"Guess where this came from."
"Dunno, where?"
"The Bible."
"Oh, then. I think I heard enough.(he is a non-Christian, and very anti-Christian too)"

Oh, well. He's the manager of some department of his company, so I related that to the workplace. Hope whatever I said helps him in the workplace to some extent.