Filed under: christianity
There is somebody up there for everyone. -Miss HB Quek (religious status on facebook)
Without a doubt, heaven is real to all Christians. Jesus mentioned the existence of heaven many times. He promised paradise to a sinner who was crucified together with him. Heaven is also a place promised for us as long as we finish our race on earth. So called the afterlife, heaven assures us that there is a life after death.
As a child, I remember wanting to know more about heaven. The first person who told me that heaven exist was not my mother. I grew up as one of those kids who never get to see my mom during the day, and slept by night before she comes home. Thus I was really close to this babysitter who was sacked by my mother because I was too close to her. She was a muslim. I remember following each and every step while she performs her “solat” rituals. She had to do that like three or four times a day while I was just a curious little kid. After she prayed and if I didn’t have any more lessons (all indo kids attends all kinds of classes when they were young, they called it ‘les’), she would draw me heaven and hell on a white board. She would tell me how wonderful heaven was and how scary hell was, with fire and all sort of scary monsters. She used to tell me that if I was a good kid, and if I obey her and never breathe a lie, I will surely go to heaven. If I was to be a naughty kid, hell is the place for me where I’ll keep burning but I will not die.
Using the heaven and hell theory, she terrorizes me a lot. She’ll say stuffs like..if you don’t come down now, you’ll go to hell. One fine day, I came up with my own theory. Being a kid who’s afraid of nothing but death, I thought how bad could hell be? I will be burning but I will not die.
But hey, not dying is better than dying after all right? – that is in the opinion of a shit kid.
Besides praying every night before I went to sleep, and before every examination, I didn’t really pay much attention to the details of the bible when I was younger. I make it a point to avoid reading revelations as much as I can. John not only described his visions in too much details, he also make things a little bit more complicated for me to understand. Like how there were beast with several horns and heads, I’m not really sure if he’s describing them metaphorically.
Again, I’ll never know. Not until when it really happens.
All I believe in is that all these will come to past. God will come, and satan is bound to doom. Then there will be a new heaven and a new earth. Heaven is a wonderful place where all the good people shall go, and yes, the ‘saved’ ones shall be there. As described in Revelation 21, heaven is a beautiful place with no grief, no sorrows or tears. We will all be with God forever. That is as much as we know about heaven from the bible. However, afterlife is not all peachy and flowery. When there’s heaven, there will be hell for the unsaved and rebels. They will be thrown to the ‘lake of fire’ along with satan and his fallen angels. This is the part where it is important for me to carry my faith all the way. I do not fully comprehend how a merciful and almighty God who humbled himself to become a human just like us could bear to throw his children into this scary lake of fire.
Being a terrorist when I was a child, trust me, I’ve done things that would make me kill my daughter if she was to do the same thing. The furthest my dad would go was to slap me. True enough, some people deserve to die. They should burn in hell with satan and the rest of the fallen angels. How about those who were merely ignorant? He created all of us, including the prince of lies. He loves us all, of course including those who spat and mock him at the calvary. This is always something I can never be able to explain it to the non christians that I really care for. Is it because of his mercy that he allowed this world to continue being broken? Why hadn’t he eliminated the source of evil from the very start?
Once I told my dad that God might be way too merciful to eliminate the devil, cos after all, he is the maker of all things. He is the alpha and the omega, beginning and the end. He merely banished Adam and Eve when he implemented death as a consequence of disobedience. Hell might not be the only place for ‘unsaved’ people after all. Be prepared to be surprise! You might meet my anal, Taoist, boring, freaky, fierce, forever menopausal primary school Chinese teacher in heaven! My dad rebuked me at this. He thinks that if what I say could be a possibility, then shouldn’t we co-exist and live in harmony with the devil since we are both banished into this barren land? Why are we, christians, spending our lives fighting against satan and defending against all other religion?
Maybe I’m now ready to answer this question. What would you done if you’re put into the same room with another person who’s out there to hurt you all, who lies to you so that he get his way, who’s spreading lies about people you really care for, who lie and tell your friends that you are too worthless to be living on earth. Everyone else in the room is deceived by him, but you saw the light. You know the truths. You know that what he said wasn’t true. Don’t you want to fight against him and all these lies? Especially after you know that you are in authority to dismiss all these lies from your life, what would you have rather done?
As christians, we believe that the other Gods are the work of satan and his crew of fallen angels. Since men are deceived by these bunch of spiritual organization, most men are led to believe that there is somebody up there for everyone. Should these people be condemned? Say if all the God, Jesus and satan thing are all true, and these people rock up in heaven not knowing that they were true..should they be thrown to eternal flames?
I’m again reminded that God works hand in hand with illogical ideas. Despite that, we all knew that His plan is always to prosper you and to guide you; he has never intended to harm you. I’m led to believe that this will apply to the world’s biggest villains like SH and OBL.
I went to this Korean restaurant recently. The owner of the shop is a woman who had been saved for 2 years. I identified her as a Christian because she had a picture of her pastor framed on the wall. When she realised that all of us were Christians as well, she started taking out books that were filled with miraculous healings. With every miracle shown on that Korean magazine, she referenced it to her pastor. It came across to me that she was too overly obsessed with her pastor. She told me that her church pastor was a very very brilliant man. The first name that occurred to me for a famous Korean pastor was Yonggi Cho. She defended her pastor’s name almost immediately saying that Yonggi choo is great but her pastor is even greater.
Later, I found out that she doesn’t attend church in Australia. The restaurant closes on Sunday because they have to “attend” their church service via life-stream all the way from Korea. Being a 2 years old Christian, she doesn’t believe that she have the authority in her to cast out sickness the way her pastor could. There’s a lot of things that we were unable to convince her, it seems like she only take direct advice from whom she believe to be the anointed one. She is very much convinced that God will listen to her prayers, but her prayers would be more effective if the Jaerock guy is to intercede for her.
Somehow, I believe that meeting this woman was not at all coincidental.
My friend asked her how she knew that God was the one and only true God out of all the other religion in this world. She is by far the first person who could answer this question more convincing than anyone else could. First, she started off giving her testimony and said that God is the only God who could heal COMPLETELY. Other religions may perform supernatural healing, however, God as the maker of all living creatures; he is able to heal completely, without scars or residue. Secondly, she was also involved in some kind of fortune telling in the past, and they were able to read her past. Again, these were supernatural reading sourced from some realm unknown to us, but these fortune telling were only able to predict her future from her past that she had already knew. Only God, the master plan of everything is able to prophecy about your future.
We left her restaurant not only with a filled stomach and a book she gave us, written by that Jaerock guy. The book talks about the inner details of heaven, which was the revelation that pastor dude got from God. It all seems overly fictitious with description of entertainments in heaven, food you would be eating and even your transformed body. It reminded me of another book I’ve read about 4 years ago, by another Korean writer called Thomas Choo. How do we know if all these description of the heaven is to be true? It’s nice to imagine the new Jerusalem with golf course, spa, Jacuzzi and even a tennis court and many more, but do we really need all these to assure us that heaven is indeed a wonderful place? What else can be the purpose of revealing heaven to us? With some research, i knew that both writers did not seem to relate to each other. But they do have a common goal, which is to deliver the urgency and spread the news to the world that hell is as real as heaven, and the end time is near so we must spread the news. But if Paul was brought to heaven and was specifically told not to reveal what he saw, then what gives the authority for these two people to reveal the mysteries of heaven? Clouds automobile seem quite mary poppins right?
I for one, will not judge them. In case everything that that was written in the published book is going to be true, I shall not be condemned of insulting it. Both books are really interesting. Reading them as though they are another Harry Potter series does not seem so bad right? So yes, we prayed for discernment, after all it was warned beforehand against false prophets and all kinds of weird nonsense. This is what I gathered to conclude this really long post:
It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so in love, knowing that I’m put here for the defence of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I’m in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice. Philippians 1:15-18
There are just times when you think you’re going to be chosen as something despite your limitations because the others around you are just too overly encouraging.
And these are the times when you doubt ‘prophecy’ kind of sentences you get from other people.
You know why? Cos you’re not chosen for what you prayed for. Instead, those that were far from their talents were given posts that you thought they didn’t deserve. They were perfectly fine beings with outstanding imperfections. Then you compare yourself to them, who aren’t that far from where you were standing. You questioned why and settled with ‘not being good enough’.
I thought I was the only one who felt this way. I’m surprised to realize that there were many who probably went through the war I had in my mind or the war with God.
I guess I’m not ashamed of all these anymore, and I’m way long over that phase.
What could I say?
What could I do?
But to offer this life, completely to you.
Filed under: christianity
It only take a spark to get the fire going
And soon all those around can warm up in its glowing
Thats how it is with God’s love
Once you experience it
You want to spread to everyone
You want to pass it on
Isn’t this song classic and amazing? During one of the Darwin mission meeting, auntie Merrilyn said something about having the holy spirit overflow in us, so that we may fill it to the people around us. I have made the decision to be a better person in Christ. I just need to keep falling in love with him everyday, so that I’ll be imitating him even more.
I realize that when I really put in the effort to try, its not that difficult anymore. I have God’s genes in me. He love them and so should I. I’ve shown myself that its not that hard to try loving people whom I thought I can never love. The thought that keep coming back to me was how God love them so much that he died on the cross for them. Even if its just for just for one person alone.
I’ll never break something that my dad or mom love, not in a million years. Why should breaking another person be so much easier? My heart should break for what breaks Yours.
This is my first attempt using picasa. Usually, I don’t like scrambling pictures and collage it randomly, but I’m still pretty noob with this picasa thing. So yeah, it came out something as ugly as this. At least there are nice pictures! Tho bb’s camera is only 2MP, I think it did quite a good job!
I really need a camera.
I need Tracy to give me Photoshop tutorials again.
I’ve got a pending entry on homosexuals actually. It happened probably 2 Thursday ago when there was a mini rally outside Matt-library.
As everyone might already have known, I came from an all girls school. I know it’s a Christian school and all, but when you put just girls in an environment for too long without any opposite genders, mutual attraction in between girls are simply inevitable. So yeah, I pretty much grew up watching my female friends hooking up with each other for 11 years. Come to think of it, it was actually sort of a combination of incest and homosexuality. Cos many treated or called each other jie, mei, kor, di…even pa, ma and ahma! And all sorts of those kinda of rubbish. In my social circle, these “mother father” game was treated pretty seriously even tho we’re all just months older or younger than each other. VERY RETARDED, I know. But for them to actually acknowledge each other as family members, they have to accept each other first yeah? So I guess thats where the mutual attraction came from, thats why they always hook up with each other in the end.
Of course for most of us, those were just childish teenage stupidity. Everyone grew out of the “father mother” game, but there’s just something not everyone manage to get out of. From my last trip to Singapore, I finally hung out with the very last species of high school friends whom I manage to keep in contact with.
One of them who finally got attached asked me what my views on homosexuality was. Cos I guess I appear to be more religious than I used to be years ago, and she’s still what she was back then (in terms of identity status) and her new hook up is someone who’s pretty much active in church and so on. Well, my view on this has always been the same and it didn’t really change since I graduated from PL. Yes, I know how lesbians can irk me sometimes. Especially when they’re down to like guy t0 guy kinda relationship. But the fact that I grew up in an environment where I see such “abnormal” union every single day, it turned from something disgusting to something that’s just another part and parcel of life. To a point when 2 girls hook up, its just more appropriate to give them your wholehearted blessing than to think about how wrong this can be.
I really know how wrong it is. But sometimes I just cannot agree to some universal biblical rules. I’ve seen friends who seriously had been like that since they were 13!! They are just not physically attracted to the opposite genders, seriously is it their fault? Why should the society outcast them? What gives some assholes the authority to diss them and go like “lesbian sucks” whenever they walk pass them. Even in Matthew, Jesus mentioned that some eunuch were made the way they are. I always think that the sin of being a lesbian is not as gravely as being a bisexual. Cos if you’re a bisexual, you actually have the choice of diverting your attention towards the opposite gender.
All in all, this is just a brief summary and I seriously don’t want to have anyone thinking that I’m turning gay. I know how against Christianity it is to take part in the same-sex marriage petition. But there are just some friends who I really love and whom I care for, and whom I will support them no matter what they turn out to be. From what I’m seeing now, they look nice as the way they are. If they’re gonna be just one percent more feminine, they’re gonna be freaking hideous. I believe from the bottom of my heart that they were made just the way they are. Just like how uniquely you and I were made.
I’m still standing firm in my perspective. It is my personal belief that sexual intimacy should only be introduced after marriage and sexual intercourse is a spiritual wedding gift. Thus I think that marriage should not be banned just because these people are not attracted according to the universal norm. It is unethical to deprive them from their sexual desires. And that is just my personal point of view.
To tell you the truth, one of my gay friend is one of the best ‘girl’ friend I could ever had. He’s just the nicest person to talk to in any occasion, probably more sensitive then one of my closest friend whom I hang around with every weekend.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTgHkuE9Q_8
go watch this, they block embed so i can’t put this up.
derren brown the mentalist was introduced to me in a science lecture. i started looking for him on youtube and bump into this one. you know how i always say that i can never fit in shakers beccause i never ever pass out, faint or scream hysterically in any shaker’s event? and when EVERY SINGLE person fall on the floor with their faces looking as tho they were crammed, i just felt so left out cos i didnt know if i should faint and pretend as tho there were a million ants trying to eat my face. i guess this explains it partially. and it somehow questions my spiritual gifts as well. which is really bad.
i got the gift of tongues in a situation where the person who prayed for me kinda force me to believe that i was anointed with the gift. then when i open my mouth, suddenly i thought i was partially controlling it. now, it can only be activated when there’s a kind of spiritual hype around the whole room, where everyone is emo and holy. i’m convinced that it’s real, but there’s something that i’m afraid of and i dont exactly know what i doubt.
still, i love God so don’t worry.
happy belated 70th, gb 4th coy!! man, i can’t believe i spent 5 years of my life hating and dreading my CCA. i totally have no idea why God put me there. no matter how much i pray to ask Him to make me like it, i still never felt like what they always say: “once a gb girl, always a gb girl”. i hated the uniform, i hated the program and i just find it so super boliao to go to sch every saturday morning just to sing christian songs. i regret not giving myself a chance to like gb. maybe i would have enjoyed myself more if i would have put in more effort into embracing my CCA. then probably i would be as emo as all the other gb girls when they saw this video. cos seriously, i felt NOTHING. so many comments from previous gb girls of all ages that went like “i miss gb, i miss neighbourhood visiting, drill com..blah blah blah.” the only thing i miss was drill and bitching all abt it right after. not that GB is bad, actuall its good. i just didnt give myself a chance to like it.
i had someone who hated gb together with me. maybe that was why we had so much fun in hating gb together (our own underground cca that consist of only both of us). we even got our first brigade badge my cheating and pasting our answers on our metal pencil box. we pon and strike together all at the same time. there was this thing that went around: when you see the big one, you’ll see the small one. when you don’t see the small one, you won’t see the big one.
the big one was me and the small one was eilane.
i really totally have no idea why i was in GB. firstly, it was my freakin 4th choice! i never expect myself to get in! let me show you my list of choices:
1. st.john, not because i like uniform group. infact i HATED ALL UNIFORM GROUPS. i put st.john as my first choice cos i had an unhealthy obsession over a stupid, boy-looking prefect.
2. netball, cos half of the pple i know from primary school all choose netball as their CCA. pls la, i can’t even do standing broad jump and i spend all my money on different private clinics to buy permanent MC. obviously i failed netball audition.
3. NPCC. not that i liked it. i just didnt think that i will not get into st.john. so from third choice onwards, i filled in rubbish. plus the first thing they told me when i went to the npcc booth, the uniform’s going to be free. and i thought that was quite enticing.
4. GB. seriously never thought i’ll be in GB for 5 damn years.
i dont remember the next 2. only the first 4 ridiculous choice which i choose all for the wrong reasons.
ridiculously i joined gb, ridiculously i went on strike and “quit” for a few months, ridiculously i was back in gb and ridiculously i graduated with gb4th coy as my sole cca.
at least i’m able to tell the world that i grew up in a girls school for 11 years of my life. i’m proud of it and i have everything about it to miss. just not my CCA.
