Time to Reflect and Take Things Seriously

Time to Reflect and Take Things Seriously

14 "Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
Joshua 24:14~15

When Joshua said these words to the Israelites, he was at the end of his life on earth. He lead the people of God to conquer the Canaan land and even as he was saying this, there are still a lot of towns that were not been taken yet. Here we can see that Joshua is urging the Israelites to continue to serve God and make the right choice whether to serve God or the idols that they had left behind.

How does it apply to us today?

Let’s answer some of the question below and let’s see what the result is:
1. Do I confess my sin and accept Jesus into my heart? YES NO
2. Do I live a life that’s different prior to my conversion? YES NO
3. Do I live a life that’s different from my colleague? YES NO
4. Do I have a time everyday to spend with God? YES NO
5. Do I do my devotion everyday? YES NO
6. Do I enjoy the devotion time? YES NO
7. Do I know what devotion is at all? YES NO
8. Do I serve in any ministry? YES NO
9. Do I submit to my leaders? YES NO
10. Do I pray for the lost? Or even cry for them when praying? YES NO
11. Do I love to be with Christian? YES NO
12. Do I submit to my parents? YES NO

This is not to judge you as I myself don’t have the perfect scores (all YES), here I want to share my burden in my heart with you as a leader. If we have more NO then Yes from the answer above, please continue to read on and I really pray that you’ll be blessed and challenged to take our relationship with God SERIOUSLY.

From the scripture, we can see that Joshua is urging the people to be serious with their walk with God. From there, we can see that there are still some Israelites having the mind set on the things in the past EVEN THOUGH God has done wondrous acts right in front of their eyes. Like wise, we (including myself even as I write here) are like Israelites in many occasions. We live a life that’s no different from what we were before we accept Christ; we still talk all the foul words; we still keep anger and bitterness towards others; we hold grudges against our brother and sister in Christ for the bad things that happen to us; we hold bitterness against the leaders when they didn’t notice us; we reason with the leaders when we are told not to go to “some” places… etc etc ( you name it). Why we still live in such as way? Don’t we know the Word of God that tells us not to do those?

With love I would really urge all of us (including myself) to be serious with God. This might sound super spiritual, but this is what God says in His word!
How long more that we want to give the reason that we don’t have time to spend time with God? How many more reasons that we want to find for our self to argue with the leaders when come to serving? How long do we want to wait for other people to continue to serve us instead of making the effort to meet others’ need?

We are to live a life that’s according to God’s word. Like what the scripture said above, “But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD”. What do we mean by serving? Is like when you have a maid/ servant that works for you, running the chores for you, taking care of the tidiness of the house, taking care of the children when you are bz, taking care of the garden … etc. Like wise, when we serve God, we are at His service, to do His will, to take care of His sheep that has been entrusted to us (1st Timothy 6:20a “Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care.”, of course not only to Timothy … ) but the question here is, are we doing it? Or we are just giving our self reasons for others to continue to serve us? When I am talking about serving in the ministry or church, I’m not saying that we have to be on the stage, be under the spot light in order to the classified as “serving” the Lord. Do you think that God is just looking at those who’s serving under the spot light? Didn’t the bible says that our God is omnipresence? Doesn’t God see what we do in the background where no one see it too? Things like taking care of other people in need, investing in others’ life, be there as a listener when others are looking for some one to talk to, pray for the people, pray for the nation. I know this is something contradict from what the society is teaching us that says “the one being served is the one that’s more superior” but you know what the bible says,

“The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” Matthew 23:11-12.

We are called to be a leader, all of us. We are to serve the people around us especially our family members and our beloved brothers and sisters. Do you know that when we chose not to serve at certain area when there’s a need, we are actually causing some one to burn more of their energy in order to cover the need? So, the question now, how many more church ministers, leaders, teachers, pastoral staff, ushers, musicians, Cell Group Leaders, evangelists do we want to see burned out in front of our eyes while we are folding our hands and keep on demanding more and more from them? Are we not being called by the same Lord? Are we not in the same family? Then why there are only a handful of us willing to serve? While we are just standing there and watch things goes by? Do you still remember the “Parables of the talents” in Matthew 25:14-29. Why are we keeping everything to our self and serve our own? Even worst, why are we keep on asking the leaders to keep giving to our needs when we are the one that should be serving together with them? Why are we frustrated when the leader didn’t shake your hand, didn’t call you, didn’t follow up on you, not meeting your need? Why can’t we all change our view from “I’m in need, thus others should meet my need” to “I see a need in my group, I should try to meet the need of that person”?

Luke 6:38 ”Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."”

Don’t we believe in this word of His? Give and it will be given to us! Do you want to be a puddle of water that doesn’t flow anywhere but just stagnant? What will it become? A smelly puddle at the end of the day. When we start giving, we are actually channeling God’s abundant thru our life and from there, our life can be a living stream, where there’s a constant flowing of blessing from God. I know we have this kind of message for a thousand time, but just how many of us practice it?

I know some of us wonder at time on how God can bless this brother or that sister abundantly and when it’s our turn, we don’t seem to get the same result as them. First question to ask, are we going to hog on the blessing that God is going to bless us with or are we going to let it flow so that other’s around us can be bless also. You know the answer.


We need to continually transforming our mind according to God’s standard as mentioned in the book of Romans 12:2 “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” If we don’t spend time in reading God’s word, how do we know what standard to follow? Test your self on this, how many things that you believe right now is actually a product of your society instead of God’s word. I’ll share one example with you. Dating
Never in the bible mentioned about dating and this practice is the result of what the society is trying to teach us (including our friends). Every courtship should end up with marriage in mind of both parties. Dating is a trial and error game that our society practice and this is very common as it doesn’t require 100% commitment from either party as there’s always a “way out” if it doesn’t work out. Thus we have multiple couples that seeing more then one boyfriend or girlfriend at a time. Our society has thought us that relationship is no more a sacred things, it’s not something to be taken seriously as there’s always a way out, either thru breakup OR divorce. So, do you believe that? You make the choice, either to go on with God’s way (according to His words) or the society way. I’m not sure how many of you have gone thru the pain of breaking up with your dearest? Was it a good experience? NO! Even if you feel good about it, do you realize that it still hurt the other party? Even if they didn’t bring it up? The scars will always be there until we allow God to heal us.

So in summary,
1. I’m not judging anyone here as I’m not perfect.
2. This is my burden in heart and with all my heart, I really want to bless you with this as it’s meant for good for you and me
3. Get serious with your salvation
4. Constantly transform your mind with God’s word
5. Have constant fellowship with God everyday. You make the choice. Trust me, when we meet God and submit our account to Him, there wont be any reason that can stand.
6. Live a life that’s according to God’s word even if it’s not what the society is teaching.
7. Start serving as you’ll grow maturely in the Lord.

Lastly, may God bless you with this.

1st Timothy 6:20 “ (your name), guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and in so doing have wandered from the faith. Grace be with you.

Paul Wyne

Just for Record -- Petrol Story01

Interesting what our local papers do not say.....
Date: Sunday, June 15, 2008, 11:51 PM
Subject: Very Interesting facts on Petrol Hike Issue

WHAT IS NEVER MENTIONED IN Mainstream Media like
NST/TheStar/Utusan/BH are these facts....
Malaysian PerCapita Income USD 5000 VS Singaporean PerCapita Income USD 25000
Further The Star made a comparison of prices in Thailand, Singapore & Indonesia. For Thailand it is quoted at RM3.90/liter, however are they aware that inThailand new cars are cheaper than Malaysia by RM10,000? They pay only one life time for their driving license? No renewal fee after that? Also that goes for road tax as well? And do TheStar also aware that you can drive all the way from Hadtyai to Bangkok on a six lane highway without paying any Tolls ??!!

Whereas here in Malaysia you have to pay yearly renewal for road tax, driving license and TOLLS, TOLLS, TOLLS!!! For Singapore how can you quote RM 5.20 ? Please quote in Singapore Dollars because they are earning in Sing Dollars. You
might as well say Europeans are paying RM10/liter. RM5.20/liter = Sing $2.20/liter, still cheaper than Malaysia in view of fact that Singapore is not a crude oil exporter. Are you saying that you fill up petrol in Singapore by paying Ringgit?
>
In economy, dollar to dollar must be compared as apple to apple. Not comparing like durian in M'sia is much cheaper than durian in Japan!! Of course-lah, Japan is not durian producer!!! Comparing Malaysian durian with Thailand durian make more sense!!

For Indonesia we might say is cheaper there at RM2.07/liter but compare that to their level of income! Now, let us compare the price with OIL PRODUCING countries:

UAE RM1.19/litre
Eygpt RM1.03/litre
Bahrain RM0.87/litre
Qatar RM0.68/litre
Kuwait RM0.67/litre
Saudi Arabia RM0.38/litre
IranRM0.35/litre
Nigeria RM0.32/litre
Turkmenistan RM0.25/litre
Venezuela RM0.16/litre
MALAYSIA RM2.70/litre

RM 2.70!!! Individual perspective:

As of last month a Toyota Vios would 'cause a damage' of about RM 89,000.
In the international market, a Toyota Vios is about USD19,000
USD 19,000 = RM 62,700 (using the indicative rates of USD 1 = RM 3.30)
That makes Malaysian Vios owners pay an extra RM 26,300.

This RM 26,300 should be cost of operations, profit and tax because the
transportation costs have been factored in to the USD 19,000. RM 26,300/ RM625 petrol rebate per year translates to a Vios being used for 42.08 years. I do understand that the RM 625 is a rebate given by the government, but it also means that one has to use the Vios for 42.08 years just to make back the amount paid in taxes for the usage of a foreign car.

Would anyone use any kind of car for that long? Now with these numbers in front of us, does the subsidy sound like a subsidy or does it sound like a penalty? This just seems to be a heavy increment in our daily cost of living as we are not only
charged with high car taxes but also with a drastic increase in fuel price.

With all the numbers listed out, I urge all Malaysians to join me in analyzing the situation further.

Car taxation is government profit, fuel sales is Petronas' (GLC) profit which also translates into government profit. The government may ridicule us Malaysians by saying look at the world market and fuel price world wide. Please, we are Malaysians, we fought of the British, had a international port in the early centuries (Malacca), home to a racially mixed nation and WE ARE NOT STUPID!!!

We know the international rates are above the USD 130/barrel. We understand the fact that the fuel prices are increasing worldwide and we also know that major scientist are still contradicting on why this phenomenon is happening. Some blame Bush and his plunders around the world and some blame climate change and there are others which say petroleum 'wells' are getting scarce.

Again we go back to numbers to be more straight fwd 1 barrel = 159 liters x RM2.70/liter = RM 429 or USD 134 On 1 hand, we are paying the full cost of 1 barrel of crude oil with RM2.70 per liter but on the other hand the crude oil only
produces 46% of fuel.

Msia sells crude oil per barrel at USD130 buys back Fuel per barrel at USD134. And not forgetting, every barrel of fuel is produced with 2 barrels of crude oil.

1 barrel crude oil = produce 46% fuel (or half of crude oil), therefore
2 barrel crude oil = approximately 1 barrel fuel In other words, each time we sell 2 barrels of crude oil, equivalently we will buy back 1 barrel of fuel.Financially,
Malaysiasell 2 barrel crude oil @ USD 130/barrel = USD 260 = RM858
then, Malaysia will buy back fuel @ USD 134/barrel = RM442/barrel
Thus, Malaysia earn net extra USD 126 = RM 416 for each 2 barrel
of crude sold/exported vs imported 1 barrel of fuel !!!
(USD 260-134 = USD 126 = RM416)

So where this extra USD 126/barrel income is channeled to by Malaysian
Govt???????? ?

Another analysis:
1 barrel crude oil = 159 liters.
46-47% of a barrel of crude oil = fuel that we use in our vehicles.
46% of 159 = 73.14 liters.
@ RM 2.70/liter x 73.14 liter = RM197.48 of fuel per barrel of crude oil.
This is only 46% of the barrel, mind you. Using RM 3.30 = USD 1, we get that a barrel of crude oil produces USD 59.84 worth of petrol fuel (46% of 1barrel). USD 59.84 of USD 130/barrel turns out to be 46% of a barrel as well.
Another 54% = bitumen, kerosene, and natural gases and so many more.
And this makes a balance of USD 70.16 that has not been accounted for.

So this is where I got curious. Where is the subsidy if we are paying 46% of the price of a barrel of crude oil when the production of petrol/barrel of crude oil is still only 46%?

In actual fact, we still pay for this as they are charged in the forms of fuel surcharge by airlines and road taxes for the building of road (because they use the tar/bitumen) and many more excuse charging us but let us just leave all that out of our calculations.
As far as I know, only the politicians who live in Putrajaya and come
for their Parliament meetings in Kuala Lumpur (approximately 60+ km) are the
ones to gain as they claim their fuel and toll charges from the money of the RAKYAT's TAX.
It is so disappointing to see this happen time and time again to the Malaysian public, where they are deceived by the propaganda held by the politicians and the controls they have over the press.

Which stupid idiot economist equates rebates for rich or poor with the cc of the vehicles? An average office clerk may own a second hand 1300cc proton Iswara costing $7,000 (rebate = $625) while the Datuk's children can own a fleet of 10 new cars of BMW, Audi and Volvo all less than 2000cc costing $2 millions and get a total rebate of $625 x 10 = $6,250! Wow what kind of economists we are keeping in Malaysia....wonder which phD certificate that they bought from...

Misleading concept of Subsidy:

The word "subsidy" has been brandished by the BN government as if it has so generously helped the rakyat and in doing so incurred losses. This simple example will help to explain the fallacy:
Example:
Ahmad is a fisherman. He sells a fish to you at $10 which is below the market value of $15. Let's assume that he caught the fish from the abundance of the sea at little or no cost. Ahmad claims that since the market value of the fish is $15 and he sold you the fish for $10, he had subsidised you $5 and therefore made a loss of $5.

Question : Did Ahmad actually make a profit of $10 or loss of $5 which he claimed is the subsidy?

Answer:
Ahmad makes a profit of $10 which is the difference of the selling price ($10) minus the cost price ($0 since the fish was caught from the abundance of the sea). There is no subsidy as claimed by Ahmad.

The BN government claims that it is a subsidy because the oil is kept and treated as somebody else's property (you know who). By right, the oil belongs to all citizens of the country and the government is a trustee for the citizens. So as in the above simple example, the BN government cannot claim that it has subsidised the citizen!


-- obtained thru email.....

Cameron Trip.... 10 May 08

I know it's abit late to share it here but anyway it was a great trip for both of us.

We went up on the 10th of May 08 (on Audrey's birthday... :D) and took a 2 hours drive from Penang to Ipoh. Was trying to be a good citizen abiding to the traffic law. The initial plan was to have a quick lunch at Ipoh (eating at the Hakka Mee, near Curry mee stall and Lao Wong) but when we arrived in Ipoh, it was 11am. 

We took a simple lunch then and  went to buy a packet of "kaya kok". Well, it's the best that we have eaten in Ipoh. :)

We took another 90 mins to reach Brinchang, Cameron Highland from Ipoh. The road is quite smooth and nice, except that at some point, some of the turning will really turn your stomach IF you had a heavy lunch (more story to tell later... ). Well, Malaysian being a Malaysian, we have some drivers that try to out run each other (especially me, law abidding citizen) and sped on the way up. I wonder how much petrol they really spend on that kind of speed while going up hill... well it's non of my business, it's their choice.

We stayed at OMF ( Oversea Mission Fundation, i think) and it is a REALLY NICE place to be. They have a nice view, a nice bangalow, very spacious field, 2 swing, 2 dogs and 2 cats ( my personal fav). The cook is superb in preparing the food. We had Chicken rice (ala malacca style), we have western food and chinese dishes while we were there. The amount was huge, but we manage to finish up though it meant to serve at least 3 person, partly due to the weather (my personal reason of taking such a huge amount)

Well, we didnt do much shopping there, just a really relaxing trip without anyone able to guess where we went. It's a great breakaway from the activities when we are still in Penang. I manage to finish up the book that i have been putting off for the past few months and it was a great time to spend with my lovely wife there. The weather was good, no rain while we were there, really thank God for a good weather.

One of the thing that we manage to do there is to really stop and appreciate the nature and God's wonderful creation. We were able to walk to the strawberry farm and appreciate the plants, the flowers and even the bird orchestra along the way.

It's a great place to take a break and retreat from the busy life style.

:)

"Hello World"

For those who are familiar with programming will identify with me this term...

That's the first example in all the programming language...


ah....
finally ... get myself working on blog after being pushed away for like how many years.... :P


Thanks to my brother in law that gave me idea... :D

thanks N-Drew

ok now.... back to business.....
first thing first....

take a warm bath.... n sleep....

then we continue tomorrow... :D

ciao

TA