Satan said, "There is Plenty of Time"

"The way to be saved is not to delay, but to come and take." (Dwight L. Moody)

During our time in university, we wondered, “When will this semester end?” Then when the semester ended, we asked, “Why semester holidays are so short?” Then when Education Minister announced that there gonna be a 3 months break, we complained, “Why so long?” No matter where we are right now; school, university, office etc – time seems to be the longest and yet the shortest thing in the world. The least valued and yet the most regretted. The swiftest and yet the slowest – time.

Don’t be fool by thinking that you have all the time in the world. You don’t! The sooner you realize it, the better it is for you to do something about it. Have you ever wonder about your Salvation? Are you sure, really sure that if something may happen to you (God forbid) and suddenly few minutes later you drop dead, where will you be? Have you thought about the consequence of your sins? Are you right with God? Do you have faith that only through the grace of God (not by human works), He “so loved the world, that He gave His only Son (Jesus Christ), that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)?

I don’t want to force you, it’s not my job. I’m not trying to manipulate you; I just want to write to you the burden of my heart. I’m not selling tickets to Heaven; I just want to tell you that you have a decision to make. Frankly, I’m just raising questions. Don’t you think that the questions above are important? Your time is up soon… it’s yours to choose. You make decision, it’s your life.

I heard a story; one day Satan gathered his assistants to discuss the most effective method of destroying the meaning of people’s lives.

One suggested, “Tell them there is no God.”

Another said, “Tell them there are no consequences to their actions.”

A third proposed, “Tell them they have strayed so far from the right path they will never be able to change.”

“No,” Satan replied, “such things will not matter to them. I think we should simply tell them, ‘There is plenty of time.’”

Time is ticking… tick… tock… tick… what is your decision? Now, it's between you and God. Make a wise decision. THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Week 52: Habit - Watch your Habits; they become your Destiny

“The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.” (Samuel Johnson)

“Changing bad habits isn’t a matter of taking back control yourself but of giving up control to God.” (Richard Angelus)

I read a story about an old teacher who once taking a walk through a forest with his student by his side. He suddenly stopped and pointed to four plants close at hand. The first was just beginning to peep above the ground, the second had rooted itself pretty well into the earth, and the third was a small shrub, while the fourth was a full-sized tree.

The teacher said to his student, “Pull up the first.”

The boy easily pulled it up with his fingers.

“Now pull up the second.”

The boy obeyed, but found the task not so easy.

“And now the third.”

The boy had to put forth all his strength and was obligated to use both arms to uproot it.

“And now,” said the teacher, “try your hand on the fourth.”

But the truck of the tall tree, grasped in the arms of his student, hardly shook it leaves.

“This, my son, is just what happens with our bad habits. When they are young, we can cast them out more readily with the help of God; but when they are old, it is hard to uproot them, though we pray and struggle ever so sincerely.”*

What a lesson! Do you have bad habits that you want to get rid of but over time it’s getting harder and harder for you to do so? Just like the story above, yours could be in the stage of third or fourth trees. Are you addicted to gambling, computer games, smoking, glue (I hope not), chocolate (Yes, you read it right!), drugs, alcohol, excessive food intake, pornography, masturbation, gossiping, etc.? Have you notice how it entered into your daily cycle? Samuel Johnson observed, “Habits are too light to be noticed till they are too heavy to be broken.”

Most of the bad habits (not all) are building up over a long period that is why the best way to stop a bad habit is never to begin it. Once you notice (if possible) that you’re acting or behave toward bad habit; stop it! Drop it! Let it go! I had many bad habits before, too shameful to mention here but let me share with you on how I break the habit of smoking.

1.     Firstly, I must convinced (not just realize) that smoking is a bad habit. Common sense? Yes, but it’s really helpful. Sometime we love to make excuses that obviously silly just to get by a “one-final-time” famous line.

2.     Secondly, I decided to break the habit. This is not the ‘I want to’ or ‘I should’ statement; this is ‘I must’ statement. I decide to do it, whatever it takes, cross the bridge and burn it! I must stop smoking!

3.     Thirdly, I listed out all the positives effects if I stop smoking and negative consequences if I continue to do so. Most of the time we’re lazy to writes it down but until you put it on paper you will not be able to think more clearly.

4.      Fourthly, I linked the ‘I must’ statement with the positive effects. Example, “I must stop smoking because by doing so I’ll have a healthier body, I can save more money, and God will be glorified through my testimony.”

5.     Next, I tell few people who can really support me; give me encouragement, pray for me and never fail to ask me, “How are you doing?”

6.     Stop or spend less time with smokers. I remember during my process to get rid of my old wicked habits; my ‘friends’ avoid me, I was accused of being ‘weird’ etc. I don’t let it discourage me; instead I used it as a cheer to carry on with this noble desire.

7.     Replace the empty void with positive habits. I started to read books, exercise, draw cartoons and learn how to cook.

8.     Finally, I surrendered my bad habit to God. Sometime I would feel that my bad habits are controlling me, but by His Mercy and by trusting in Him, God gives me access to His transforming power.

Whatever your bad habits are, remember that there’s nothing impossible for you to overcome it. When you ask for God’s help through prayer and seek support of other believers, God breaks the chain that holds you and sets you free from the control of bad habits. Just don’t procrastinate to get rid of your bad habits and replace it with new positives one. Make decision now… think you can and trust God in it.

“Watch your thoughts; they become words.

Watch you words; they become actions.

Watch your actions; they become habits.

Watch your habits; they become character.

Watch your character; they become your destiny.”

(Frank Outlaw)

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP. 

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 Recommend reading:

1) Helpful guide (click the title to read) How to Change A Habit in 21 Days

THREE THINGS about LIFE

3 things that I love about writing in my blog are (at this present moments); 1) I’m able to share and enlarge my ideas, thoughts and reflections to others, 2) The best way to motivate and inspired myself and others into a better living, and 3) To speaks my mind into words.

What are the 3 things that you like about what you do?
What are the 3 most precious to you?
What are the 3 ways that can make you happy?

Today I came across a very interesting piece of lists of “THREE THINGS”. Read, enjoy, and get inspired by it.

3 things in life that, once gone, never come back:
Time
Words
Opportunity

3 things in life that can destroy a person:
Anger
Pride
Unforgiveness

3 things in life that you should never lose:
Hope
Peace
Honesty

3 things in life that are most valuable:
Love
Family and friends
Kindness

3 things in life that are never certain:
Fortune
Success
Dreams

3 things that make a person:
Commitment
Sincerity
Hard work

3 Persons who are truly constant:
Father
Son
Holy Spirit

I hope you enjoy the “THREE THINGS” lists. By the way, there are three things that I love to share over and over again in my writing: THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP. God bless you.

Life Suck! I'm hurt~

“Though [The Lord] brings grief, He also shows compassion because of the greatness of His unfailing love. For He does not enjoy hurting people or causing them sorrow.” (Lamentations 3:32 – 33)

Are you hurting now?

Being a Christian doesn’t make us an exception from hurt. God doesn’t promise you a life free from pain and suffering once you believe in Him. God is never operating by taking away our pain instantly (though He can but not now), in fact in some degree; He allows us to experienced hurts. If you give permission for me to examine your life or ask you questions about what had happen to you in the past; almost always I will get many hurting stories from you. Only few people are expert in management or leadership but ALL of us are – “hurt expert”!

Why I say that? Well, try this: How many of you had been disappointed by your parents? How about betrayed by friends? Hurt by your loved one? Fight with your spouse? Or even had quarrel with strangers? Can you identify with at least one of these? Hurts are all around the corner of your heart. Hurts break you into pieces. You and I had experienced hurts – it spreads the spirit of anger and bitterness… Are you hurting now?

Come to God. Lay out the scroll of your heart to Him. Unbutton the shirt of your soul to Him.  Trust Him once again and remember the first time you experienced His Faithful Love. He doesn’t promise you a life free from pain here on earth, but He does promise you unlimited free call to Heaven. As a believer, you are different. You have a relationship with God. He is able to helps you, comforts you, and sometimes, I said sometimes He even miraculously heals your hurts.

Are you hurting now?

If you’re hurt right now, learn to forgive. Forgiveness is not equal to forgetting, but forgiveness is about trusting God and surrendering your desire to hurt the other person as they hurt you. Forgiveness removes the bitterness from your soul and overtime your hurt will begins to heal. You have hurt God before, remember? Your sin deeply hurt God. But now He has forgiven you, so why not forgive them?

Your hurt is matter to God, only by forgiving those who have hurt you that you can be free to rejoice in God’s comfort, a peace of mind, courage to deal with your hurt and a driving force to get off with it and move on.

THINK BIG Your hurts and pain are temporary, certainly it will end in eternity.

START SMALL Trust God and learn to Forgive.

GO DEEP Take this promise to heart, “He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds.” (Psalms 147:3)

Week 51: Balance - How well balanced is your Life?

For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. (King Solomon)

There is more to life than increasing its speed. (Mohandas K. Gandhi)

During my first year in Christian Student Ministry, I heard rather discouraged words (I know that they meant it well, but really – I don’t believe it!) from the old timers that you’ll have a ‘No Life’ as you work for the Lord. “You’ll have little time with your family and friend; and a whole load of works and responsibilities waited ahead of you”, so they said.

Deep down inside my heart I believe the reality that responsibilities and duties may increases but I don’t have to choose between works or family but rather I can choose to do my work and having time with my family at the same time. After all, how effective Christian workers can be if they excel in career (a.k.a. God’s calling) but ignore their family (a.k.a. God’s calling too)? The answer to this is – BALANCE.

Almost everything in life requires balance. Read the Bible must be balance with the doing or obeying the Words. Eating must be balance with exercising. As for my introduction just now, the most difficult of imbalance is between career and family demands. To balance is to be discipline, and to be disciple require time, hard works and sometime sacrifices. Balance just not happens. It’s a choice; you got to decide to live a balance life. Here are some of my practices (or thoughts) that I want to share with you this week but bear in mind that I’m still in the process of improving myself on these things.

Blend Work and Family Well

Much had been writes about this, but since it’s so important – I want to emphasis it over and over again. Theoretically, we vocalized the importance of family over work but truth been displayed that it is the first to be pushed aside from busy schedules. I read a very profound quote that says, the most important work you and I will ever do will be within the walls of our own homes. So true… so true… balance it well.

Enjoy the Present

Most ‘busy’ people that I knew personally regret that they never stop to enjoy life a little more. They sort of complained that it’s difficult to take time to smell the roses in the rush of the day. How about you? Do you wish to have placed relationships ahead of things or missions in life ahead of your clocks? Stop it! Slow down; take time to enjoy the present. William Feather once said, “Plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn’t stop to enjoy it.” Hey you! Enjoy the present will ya?!

Schedule Priorities First

This is one of my weaknesses, and until today, I still trying to discipline myself to schedule priorities first. Understand, that there’s a significant difference between prioritizing your schedule (not wise) and scheduling your priorities (very wise). Stephen R. Covey in book Everyday Greatness, writes, “We can stop and pause and reflect. We can decide what is important and separate out that which is urgent but not truly important.”

Living for Today

Yesterday is but a dream, tomorrow is only a vision, but today, my readers – we lived. Living for today will set your mind on the things that is matter at hand. Often our mind is out of balance when we try to figure out what gonna happen tomorrow and for some, they even allow the past to dwell in today. Living for today, because “you do not know what tomorrow will bring.”(James 4:14)

Get rid of Unbalanced Habits or Hobbies

Control some of your habits or hobbies. Stop watching too much television, long hours of sleeping or addictive computer games. My friend told me that he doesn’t know what to do about his overweight problems. I said to him, “Control your eating habits and get to work – exercise! You know what to do!” What are your unbalanced habits or hobbies? These are the causes of your unbalanced life; you know what to do - get rid of it!

Begin Each Day in Prayer

This is very basic; we all are guilty of this simple yet important step to live a balance life. Ask God to show you what He wants you to get done. When you align your daily agendas with His, your priorities will become clear as crystal, and you will find balance in your life.

Above all, why balance is so important for us is that:

Jesus modeled a Life of Balance

He skilled in balancing between socializing and solitude, between taking actions and time for reflection, between doing His mission and meditation on it; He worked hard but He also took time for spiritual renewal. If you noticed while reading the Gospels, you’ll realize that He left much undone, yet He completed all that God the Father had given Him to do. You don’t have to do everything, just those things that God asking you to do.

In conclusion, I would like to quote from Ronald A. Beers and Amy E. Mason, 

“Balance is about keeping the right pace in life – not moving so fast that you miss God’s call, but not moving so slow that you miss the opportunities God sends you.” Live a balance life!

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP. It’s all about balance yo.

Leader Fight together with His People

In war, soldiers will be much encourage when their leader identify themselves with them as a warrior who fight the fight with them, together march with them and alongside with them into the battle.

One of my all-time favorite movies is 300. I love the main character King Leonidas, who fight alongside with 300 Spartan warriors into battle against Persia ‘god-king’ Xerxes and his army of more than 1 million soldiers. Another example is from the movie Narnia, when Aslan the true King of Narnia in the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe had a briefing with his army;

“At this point Aslan clapped his paws together and called for silence.

“Our day’s work is not yet over,” he said, “and if the Witch is to be finally defeated before bedtime we must find the battle at once.”

“And join in, I hope, sir!” added the largest of the Centaurs.

“Of course,” said Aslan. “And now, those who can’t keep us – that is, children, dwarfs, and small animals – must ride on the backs of those who can – that is, lions, centaurs, unicorns, horses, giants and eagles. Those who are good with their noses must come in the front with us lions to smell out where the battle is. Look lively and sort yourselves.”

And with a great deal of bustle and cheering they did. The most pleased of the lot was the other lion who kept running about everywhere pretending to be very busy but really in order to say to everyone he met,

“Did you hear what he said? Us lions. That means him and me. Us lions. That’s what I like about Aslan. No side, no stand-off-ishness. Us lions. That meant him and me.”

This is a kind of leaders we are looking for. Are you a leader? If you do, don’t ever make a line between you and the one that you lead. They are not ‘down there’ and you’re ‘up here’. They are yours to lead. And almost always they will respect you more if you fight with them instead of just giving commands and sit comfortably on your throne.

From me to we. And from we to us. That’s what leader does. No side, no stand-off-ishness. That meant you and them. Think Big. Start Small. Go Deep.

Reflection on Mark 10:46-52 "Blind Dude receives His Sight"

“In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don’t.” (Blaise Pascal)

“Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (that is, the Son of Timaeus), was sitting by the roadside begging.” (Mark 10:46NIV)

The name Bartimaeus is combination of the Aramaic word bar (“son”) and the Greek term timaeus (“the honorable one”). And do you know where was this “Son of the honorable one” sitting? “By the roadside”! Occupation? Full-time beggar! Physical feature? Blind! Try to understand, during Jesus’s time, the presence of blind beggars like Bartimaeus on a roadside outside the city gates was a common sight in that day, as common as you see beggars along Pasar Seni and Petaling Street nowadays.


Bartimaeus had heard about Jesus of Nazareth and he knew that this prophet had performed many miracles, which include giving sight to the blind. If there was reality TV Show going on, He could be on the top lists of Jerusalem idol. His miracles may appear in Jerusalem Got Talents. And His pictures maybe the highlight of Jerusalem’s Times newspaper every week (especially during festival weeks!). No wonder Bartimaeus heard the voices of a crowd coming toward him as they talk about Jesus.

“When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he begin to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Mark 10:47-48)

 Bartimaeus understood that his opportunity to receive sight had come. In his mind, (because he can’t see) Jesus was none other than the Messiah. About 7 centuries earlier, the prophet Isaiah had prophesied that when the Messiah, the Son of God come, He would give sight to the blind. Desperately want to have Jesus’s attention, he calling Him over and over again. Just like my little cousin, who want his father to buy him a toy, refused to be silent and continued to ‘protest’ in front of the store. So it was with Bartimaeus, he call on Jesus for help and never gives up.

“Jesus stopped and said, ‘Call him.’ So they called the blind man, ‘Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.’ Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ Jesus asked him. The blind man said, ‘Rabbi, I want to see.’” (Mark 10:49-51NIV)

Jesus responds was expected but His question was outstanding. Mind you, His question was not like the Genie in the Bottle, in obedience-and-slave-kind of attitude, but Jesus’ “What do you want me to do for you?” was a question from a Master, slave to none, but out of love for His people. Bartimaeus had common answer for a blind man but never asked by anyone before said, “Rabbi (mean teacher), I want to see.” Then the Son of David, the Messiah, He who named is Jesus of Nazareth replied,

“Go,’ said Jesus, ‘your faith has healed you.’ Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.” (Mark 10:52)

Bartimaeus was healed. His eyes could see again. From darkness to light! From black void to blue sky, white clouds and green grass! From blindness to sight! His begging days had come to an end. He was healed because of his faith in Jesus, the Messiah, who had fulfilled the Scriptural prophecies of the old.

What can we learned from this?

 As for me, what speaks through the Word as I read and contemplate on it is that I learned to believe that through persistent calling on Jesus, He never turned away people who came to him in faith and perseverance. More than demonstrated to the crowd that He indeed was the Messiah, He proved that he is able to heal both physical (Indirectly through today’s medical knowledge, instruments, and prescriptions) and spiritual blindness (through His Word and the working of the Holy Spirit) for He is and remains the Savior of the World.

THINK BIG Jesus is more than a prophet.

START SMALL Take a small step of Faith in Him day by day.

GO DEEP When you ‘heard’ the Presence of God coming toward you by ‘the roadside’ of your life, call Him in Faith and Perseverance, He’ll gives you sight!