Be God's Children, Not to Compete with One Another

All forms of competition are hostile. They may seem friendly on the surface but the prime motivation is to be or do ‘better than’ the next person. “Okay, you win!” said another, and I was puzzled. “Since when I compete with you,” I replied, “This is not a competition.” When I gave suggestions to my friend, she responded with raised eyebrow, “Oh well, you’re more creative than me.” I was surprised by her respond. I never thought of competing who among us is the most creative person in the ministry. I just want to help.

Remember this: We were placed on this earth to love and create, not to compete. If competition is used as our basic motivation to do anything, it will literally conspire against us and defeat ourselves every time. What I’m saying is that the purpose of life is to BE God’s children, not to compete with one another. As one teacher puts is, “I’m for me, not against anyone!”

Although it may appear that the world is a competitive place, it is only competitive to those who feel the need to compete. God’s children don’t have to compete. But sadly, most people will reject this idea because of their childhood training, where competition was rated right up there with how many A’s and who’s closes to 100% mark. If you ask them if they think competition is healthy, they will reply, with great enthusiasm, that it is not only healthy but necessary! They feel, like I was, that it gives life meaning, purpose and direction; that a person needs a reward for doing a ‘good job’ and ‘better than’ others. It never occurs to them that the reward is in the BEcoming as the result of doing, not in the end result itself.

We compete with others only when we are unsure of ourselves, insecure of our own abilities and our doubt as God’s children. Competition is merely imitation. It originates in early childhood from our need to copy others. The competitive person feels that others are better than he and sets to prove otherwise. He is struggles to surpass those he feels are superior. In effect, he is always comparing himself to people around them. The competitive person always needs someone else to validate how well he is doing. Beware.

God’s children, those who are abide in Christ, on the other hand, does not feel the need to compete – they are content with themselves. They don’t need to look and see what others are doing or be ‘better than’ the next person. They just doing their best for God. They want to be what God wants them to be. They only desire God’s approval. Recognizing their capabilities for what they are, they are strive for excellence and to glorified Jesus in their lives. The only competition is with themselves, the only standard for themselves is Christ, and all of these are done to achieve greater personal growth and to bless others in what they do. God’s children don’t compete, they just want to love, create and be God wants them to be – God’s children.

Which one are you?

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

My Top 20 Book on Missions and Evangelism Lists

Learning to lead people to faith in Christ is not merely a matter of mastering methods and techniques. There is no such thing as “15 Ways to Bring People to Christ” or “5 Steps to Evangelism.” That can be a mere intellectual exercise with no personal involvement. Effective evangelism must be motivated by love and devotion to Christ as Jesus himself “came to seek and save those who are lost” (Luke 19:10). I know sincere Christians who are saturated with theology and methodology of evangelism in their heads but in person, they are lack of practice. Head knowledge is not enough, faith must be accompanied by actions (James 2:26).

But then again, knowledge of how-to and why-do evangelism is very much important for us as Christians because even if the faith and truth will never change, our cultures are changing very fast. Therefore, for us to be effective, stay relevant today, and learn from people of the past we need to be informed. We need to read books on missions and evangelism. We must pray, read the Word, and study books to equip ourselves. Charles G. Finney once writes, “It is the great business of every Christian to save souls. People complain that they do not know how to take hold of this matter. Why, the reason is plain enough; they have never studied it. They have never taken the proper pains to qualify themselves for the work. If you do not make it a matter of study, how you may successfully act in building up the kingdom of Christ, you are acting a very wicked and absurd part as a Christian.”

Books on missions and evangelism matter. Both old and new books. Here are my top 20 book lists I recommend you to read [If you want to borrow one of the books listed below, you can comment or e-mail or inbox my Facebook account. If you’re near, I’ll pass it to you].

1)    Effective Evangelism by J. Oswald Sanders

2)    What of Those Who Have Never Heard? by J. Oswald Sanders

3)    The Challenge of Missions by Oswald J. Smith

4)    The Passion for Souls by Osward J. Smith

5)    The Salvation of God by Oswald J. Smith

6)    Literature Evangelism by George Verwer

7)    Reinventing Evangelism: New Strategies for Presenting Christ in Today’s World by Donald C. Posterski

8)    Christian Mission in the Modern World by John Stott

9)    Revolution in World Missions by K.P. Yohannan

10) Vision & Continuity in Our Time by Fellowship of Evangelical Students (FES) Singapore

11) Hell’s Best Kept Secret by Ray Comfort

12) How Can I Lead a Friend To Christ by Michael Green

13) What on Earth are You Doing? by Michael Griffiths

14) His Guide to Evangelism by Paul E. and others

15) Conspiracy of Kindness: A Unique Approach to Sharing the Love of Jesus by Steve Sjogren

16) Longhouses Open Doors: God's Glory in Borneo by Ray Cunningham

17) Out of the Saltshaker & into the World: Evangelism as a Way of Life by Rebecca Manley Pippert

18) Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist (Especially chapter 9 on missions) by John Piper

19) The Soul Winner by Charles H. Spurgeon

20) Learning Evangelism from Jesus by Jerram Barrs

Well, after reading you must GO!

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Date Differently: (3G) Guys, Girls, Do it God's Way

I confess that I plagiarized and modified this article from Winkie Pratney’s Doorways to Discipleship (Communication Foundation Publishers, 1975), page 141-143. I also modernized the language and edited some ‘old’ words to familiar ones for easy reading and understanding. Yes, I will be responsible for any copyright laws suit – and for making this valuable message available online.  

[I think the title of this article is brilliant. Thank you]. God made us different. We can have friendships of many kinds that are shallow of the friendship of God. Some of the loveliest friendships of all are those that can develop in early years of getting to know the complimentary sex. It is wise to know the differences God has put in men’s and women’s personalities so we can understand how to date God’s way and understand how the “other” thinks. Based on this book that I read and my own personal experiences (mostly my failures to understand), I divided our differences into two categories: physical and mental.

Physical

Apart from fairly obvious sexual differences, God has made most men physically stronger than women. Now, I know there are exceptions, I know all about the woman who weights four hundred pounds, has a black belt in karate and can climb up mount Kinabalu with heavy luggage on her back. But usually, God made a man stronger physically so that he can protect his girl and take care of her. Now, girls turn physically into woman sooner than boys turn into men. When most guys are playing video games, running in gangs, and flying kites, girls their age are desperately falling in love with their math teachers! This mean a girl can have a woman’s body but a little girl’s mind. It can lead you girls into dating older guys.

It can also lead to trouble unless you know what’s happening and get ready for it. That’s why some fathers freak-out when they discover their little girl is going out somewhere with an older guy (Nicholas Spark, my favourite novel writer, know this). Dad have been around. They may not understand the reasons. But most probably they care about you, or even sometimes because they remember something of their own past with some guilt and regret. I do too.

Mental

There are usually mental differences between men and women. Now wait! Don’t judge me quickly. This has nothing to do with intelligence. A lot of woman are smarter than guys I know. If you realised, the Book of Proverbs is filled with warnings to men about the wiles of the strange women, but never feels it necessary to warn women about strange men. Girls can be every bit as brilliant as any man around, as far as thinking is concerned. The difference has to do with the ways God designed us to use our intelligence. There is a basic difference between the way a girl thinks and the way a man thinks.

A man operates like a computer. He is matter-of-fact. He is line-on-line, precept-by-precept person. He think logically in straight lines, adding fact to fact to get a conclusion. His thoughts go like this: “1… 2… 3… 4… 5… 6… and therefore, ‘bing!’ …7!”

A girl on the other hand thinks less like a computer than she does by a feminine form of ‘extrasensory perception’ (or can I call it ‘sixth sense’?). Her thoughts come in bundles from all over the place, as God has made her to be intuitive and inspirational. She has her ‘vibe’ collectors out everywhere, and she prefers to run by ‘their’ messages than by ‘normal’ channels of logic. Her thoughts may go like this on the above problems: “1… ah… 4… 3… ah… Bing!.. Therefore, 7!” This, of course, totally blows her boyfriend’s mind as my girlfriend did to me! He can’t even understand how she got from one place to another, how she came up with the right idea from all the wrong reasoning and all the wrong sources, or how in the world she can get the right answer from all the wrong logic. Give up, brothers! You’ll never do it. God probably didn’t intend for us to understand. He just made us so we can enjoy it, and be amazed and amused at the mystery of a girl.

Now This is Important

God made us different. We are equal to God, but we are different. These two basically different ways of looking at things make each sex superior to the other in the role God has given them. The girl is superior to the guy in her way of thinking when problems of life require an inspirational, intuitive, unstructured approach. She is good at seeing the whole picture, even if she isn’t sure how to put it together. The guy is superior to the girl when a problem needs logic, fact, analysis, and detail to solve it. He is good at putting a lot of little bits together in the right place. The girl tends to see the whole forest at once; the guy tends to go in and explore each tree. If each stays in the roles God gave them, He can bring maximum blessing to their friendship or later – partnership.

Right through the Bible, beginning at creation, God has set up two roles for both sexes: the girl must INSPIRE; the man must LEAD. Each one needs the other, and both need the Lord Jesus. This is God’s pattern. When we do what we were designed to do, we will find maximum happiness in our friendships with each other, in our courtship, and in marriage (as the original author thought it should be).

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

My Top 17 Book on Innovative and Creativity Lists

“Creativity is a characteristic given to all human beings at birth” (Abraham Maslow)

Christianity must be creative because first and foremost, we follow a creative God. There is nothing more needed in Christianity today than creativity. We don’t need more doctrinal precision and biblical knowledge, more conferences and programs. We don’t need more identical youth groups copied from the megachurch on TV. We don’t want to hear another worship song with the same beat, the same tempo, the same words, and the same three chords as every other worship song. We don’t need to follow Planet Shakers or Hillsongs or True Worshippers. We need to be original and contextualize! Thus, creativity is needed.

Best example of creative person and Lord is Jesus. The Scripture says, “He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he didn’t make” (John 1:3) If you think that the universe is wonderful and it is an act of creative Being – think Jesus, the Author of the universe! We are also made in the image of Him, so we’re at some point – creative people.

There are people who are good at writing books on creativity. We should read it. Reading books on creativity doesn’t mean you will be creative instantaneously. You are God’s creation, you already creative. But to be more creative, you need to cultivate your creativity through reading and applications. Here are some of my books recommendation for you to consider reading with caution, prayer and wisdom (Why top 17 books? Because top 10 or 15 or 20 is so mainstream):

1)    You Are Creative: Let Your Creativity Bloom, 3^rd Edition by Dr. Yew Kam Keong

2)    A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative by Roger von Oech

3)    Cracking Creativity: The Secrets of Creative Genius by Michael Michalko

4)    How to Get Ideas, New Expended Edition by Jack Foster

5)    How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day by Michael J. Gelb

6)    How to Think Like Einstein: Simple Ways to Break the Rules and Discover Your Hidden Genius by Scott Thorpe

7)    Buzan's book of Genius: And How to Unleash Your Own by Tony Buzan and Raymond Keene

8)    Lateral Thinking: Creativity Step by Step by Edward De Bono

9)    Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono

10) How to Have a Beautiful Mind by Edward de Bono

11) The Art of Thinking: A Guide to Critical and Creative Thought by Vincent R. Ruggiero

12) Becoming a Life Change Artist: 7 Creative Skills to Reinvent Yourself at Any Stage of Life by Fred Mandell

13) On Creativity: Awakening the Creative Mind by Leo Ann Mean

14) What Would Apple Do?: How You Can Learn from Apple and Make Money by Dirk Beckmann

15) Business Creativity: A Practical Guide by Jodie Newman

16) The Power of Innovative Thinking by Jim Wheeler

17) Creative Bible Study: A Manual for Training Bible Study Leaders by Ada Lum

If you want to read any of this books, but you can’t find it in bookstores near you (Poor thing!)
Then come and borrow the book from me ya. God bless you with creativity. Amen.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

My Top 20 Book on Personal Development Lists

My ultimate teacher is Jesus and my sole resource is the Bible. But I don’t want to limit my reading only to “Christian” books. I want to expose myself with other wise counsellors and leaders available to me. Books are my mentors. The more I read, the more prepared I will be to cultivate and achieve my dreams and get to help others too. Make time to read. Seek wise counsellors. Gain new perspectives. Glean deep insights. Surround yourself with people (writers) who have achieved the impossible, and they will direct you to your own victory in life. “You become who you hang out with,” write Michael Hyatt, “so hang out with life-changers, and your life will be changed. Read. You will never be the same”.

Here are my Top 20 Book on Personal Development Lists that I would like to recommend with cautions: a) They may not necessary believe in our Biblical God; b) Some of their methods, ideas and principles, I do not agree, even to some extent – dangerous; and c) read to improve yourself, don’t get obsesses! Here are my lists:

1)    The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz

2)    Awaken the Giant Within by Anthony Robbins (also Unlimited Power)

3)    How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie (also How to Stop Worrying and Start Living)

4)    The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale

5)    Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

6)    The New Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz (Edited and Updated by Dan Kennedy)

7)    As a Man Thinketh by James Allen

8)    See You at the Top by Zig Ziglar (also Over the Top, Better than Good, and How to Be a Winner)

9)    The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

10) Eat That Frog! By Brian Tracy (also Change Your Thinking Change Your Life)

11) David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell

12) The Element by Ken Robinson

13) Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

14) The Art of Exceptional Living by Jim Rohn (also The Seasons of Life and Cultivating an Unshakable Character)

15) The Strangest Secret by Earle Nightingale

16) Attitude is Everything by Keith Harrell

17) The Leader Who had No Title by Robin Sharma (also The Greatness Guide)

18) Failing Forward by John C. Maxwell (Oh there are many other titles by John that I love to read!)

19) How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be by Jack Canfield

20) The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (no doubt that this is a personal development book written in the form of novel)

I’m sure there are many other books that I would like to recommend but 20 is enough, I think.

Oh I love books! I love to read.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Jesus is in Kuching Town

“[After Jesus raises a widow’s son from the death] Great fear swept the crowd, and they praised God, saying, ‘A mighty prophet has risen among us,’ and ‘God has visited his people today.’ And the news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding countryside”

(Luke 7:16-17, NLT, bracket mine)

The people of the town of Nain said, “God has visited his people today.” Their statement was more accurate than some of them may have intended it to be. It was true that God visited his people by bringing the dead boy back to life (Luke 7:11-15), but this miracle was not performed by an ordinary prophet of God (as Muslim said Jesus was); this miracle was performed personally by God himself – by the God-man, Jesus Christ the Nazareth. Apostle Paul once wrote, “For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body” (Colossians 2:9, NLT). The people of Nain had not only seen the miracle in which the dead boy came back to life, but they actually saw God himself perform the miracle!

All of this is a mystery to us. The doctrine or teaching of the Trinity and of Jesus’ incarnation are beyond our human comprehension. How can God be in heaven as a spirit (who has no flesh and bones) and at the same time be on earth as a man? We cannot understand, but we can believe that it is true. I know that it is true. It is the truth.

Although the teaching that God is everywhere is mystery to our intellect, it is a comfort to our heart. It is comforting to know that wherever we are living, God the Father who made us still continues to preserve us, his children. It is comforting to know that Jesus who redeemed us from sin, still walks next to us in this life today. It is comforting to know that God the Spirit who has brought us to faith in Jesus, continue to keep us in that faith. Only if we remain faithful, God is faithful to us.

From a spectacular miracle we know that the same God who was present bodily in the God-man Jesus in the town of Nain about 2,000 years ago are still present today in our town and among us. Jesus is in my town – Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia. Jesus is in your town too. It doesn’t matter where we live, for Jesus’ sake, our God is with us. Jesus is Emmanuel, “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). He will help us. He will forgive us. He will guide us. If our doubts ever arise concerning God’s presence, all we have to do is to read God’s Word, his words and promises, in Isaiah 41:10: “Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand” (NLT).

Jesus is in our town.

Jesus is with us.

Jesus has come to help his people. Amen.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

I Saw Jesus Healed a Woman and Witnessed Jairus' Daughter Come Back to Life (Mark 5:21-43)

“One encounter with Jesus Christ is enough to change you, instantly, forever”

(Luis Palau)

I was there on the side of Lake Galilee when I read Mark 5:21-42. I saw Jesus, his disciples, Jairus and the old woman that I read in this story. I was among the crowd. I wear my faded jean, blue cap, orange t-shirt and my Flipper slipper. Strangely, the crowd doesn’t noticed me, perhaps I was invincible to them. But I think Jesus knew.

When I was there, I saw crowd of people surged around Jesus. Then I saw a man whom people called Jairus, one of the leaders of the synagogue fought his way through, fell at Jesus’ feet and begged him for help. The crowd silenced. I can hear him say, “Come to my house, please. My little girl, my precious only daughter, is dying.” Jesus nod and his band of followers set off, but the crowd is so large that it became almost impossible to make headway. I, on the other hand, can easily walk through the crowd. Am I also in the form of spirit? I don’t know. But I think Jesus knew.

As Jesus and his followers are pushing their way through, I saw a woman struggling toward them. I read Mark 5:25-25 that I was holding and realised that she is suffering from continual bleeding for twelve long years, despite going to doctor after doctor. Their ineffective treatment had cost her every money she have and she is desperate! She wants Jesus. “This is my chance,” I can hear her thought (I think Jesus allowed me to hear this). “If I can only touch Jesus, I’ll be healed.”

Approaching Jesus from behind so as not to be seen, she push her hand through a dozen of bodies pressing around Jesus and grabbed his cloak. To our surprise – me and the woman – her body mend as she stood there and I think she know that her years of suffering are over. The bleeding have stopped! She is now healed and religiously clean!

I then looked at Jesus. He seems like noticing that a surge of power leave him – and he allow me to felt (a glimpse of) it too. Stop in his tracks he scan the faces in the crowd, pause for two seconds as he look at me, then proceed his scanning and call out, “Who touched my cloak?” Everyone, especially his disciples are staggered and say, “The crowd’s wild. Can’t you see them pressing around you? It would be easier to ask who didn’t touch you.”

            But Jesus keep looking from face to face, until the woman, realising she is found out, come forward, fearing that Jesus would be angry with her. Falling to her knees before him, she pour out the whole story. “My dear child,” Jesus’ tender voice say, “God has responded to your faith. You are well: no more suffering for you. Go in peace.” I’m touched by Jesus’ response. I know that Jesus’ insistence to find out who had touched him was because he wanted the woman to know that it was her faith that had made her well and not some ‘magic’ resulting from her touch or Jesus’ cloak.

While all this is happen, I saw some friends of Jairus arrive and tell the news that his daughter is dead. “There’s no point Jesus coming now,” they say. Ignoring them, Jesus look Jairus straight in the eye, “Don’t abandon hope. Trust me, and all will be well.” I follow Jesus and his followers to Jairus’ house. There are uproar, full of mourners weeping and wailing. Jesus command them all, “Out, all of you! The girl is not dead, just sleeping.” I looked around to see the reactions of the people. They laugh at Jesus. He turn them out, leaving only the girl’s parents to stay in the room, along with his closest friends: Peter, James and John. Oh ya, I was there too.

            “Get up, little one,” Jesus says, taking the girl by the hand. She sit up and get out of bed and walk around the room. I was shocked! Jesus raise the dead to life! Her parents and Jesus’ friends are overcome with joy. Jesus tell both of them to give the girl something to eat and urge them not to tell anyone what have happened. But news spread quickly. Jesus then looked at me (though nobody knew that I was there) and said, “Write this down!”

Was it my imaginations or truly his gentle voice that whisper for me to write this down? I’m not sure. The safest and biblical thing to say is that you should read Mark 5:21-43 in the Bible for yourself. Experience Jesus. Witness his miracles. See his awesome power. How long since you encounters Jesus first hand? Read the Word. Who know, you might need a little touch from Jesus or probably a raise from the ‘dead’ from him. Either, you can never be the same!

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.