回家

父亲牵着女儿的手，说，“走，我们回家吧!"

在路上，她翩翩起舞。

Dedicated to my Grandfather

As I was in front of my computer screen, I couldn't really think of a word. I guessed I hadn't been able to comprehend the fact that someone I knew, someone that once had been so close to me is gone. Gone in a sense that you couldn't wake up one day and thought that you can have breakfast with him or invite him to your graduation ceremony or let him see what you do for your job or at least behave in a way that he wouldn't have to be worried for you anymore.

I was told by my father, that perhaps grandfather could hang in there for so long because he was waiting for me to come and say the last goodbye. And as I walked through the door of ICU ward and I saw him, supported by all these life machine, there was a hole on his leg where the bone was visible(according to my mother), most of his hair were shed off, he was many years older than the person few months ago. And I couldn't stop crying. I didn't know what were the last conversation we could have. My grandfather wasn't able to talk very much. All he was doing was giving response, yes or no. And I thought that at least, at least I made it, I made it to see him for the last time. And I said, "Grandpa, I had decided to try my best in doing my studies and hoping that I will be a doctor one day." "Good." That was all I heard but it was a word that reminded me of all the advice from my grandfather last time which he had been wishing to impact my life, to see me grow into a disciplined person. And all these happened on the day before he passed away.

During the years I stayed with my grandparents, I was rarely beaten by him because grandfather was hoping to reason with me about every situation instead of teaching me a lesson with just a stick and some cries. Yet in the last normal conversation I had with my grandfather, it was a confused grandchild in a depressed manner and a grandfather who was wishing very much from his heart that he could see me walking in the right path.

Grandfather was a person of strong will. He chose to drop out of school and worked for the living of his two parents and 12 other siblings. At the age of 12, he was already fishing the crabs to earn money. He told me that during the last time when their family was so poor, he had to hang the salted fish on the dinner table and by looking at the fish without eating it to finish his rice. Because of the story in his past, that he had been looked down by people even when he was buying groceries where people would ask first whether he had brought money with him, these pasts had molded my grandfather into a person which with very strong determination and he was able to make a good living for himself and his family today.

And so, he chose to go on with the surgery even when the doctor had been telling that the survival rate is not high. And while he was on the bed, kept alive by the machine, he still tried to move and exercise his injured leg, never gave up a hope of life!

I do not know about the feeling of the young people out there. But I need to say this, no matter what kind of difficulties that come to us, we could either let them beat us down or we let them making us stronger. And many times, our young people chose to end their lives, leaving behind confused and depressed parents yet not knowing that on the other side of the world, people were not giving up till the last breath.

In a world flooded with all kinds of social networks, communication had been made so easy and yet so simplified. Often we thought we could always get back to a person when we have time later. But things do not happen according to our plans. And we do not seek to love a person only after he/she is gone. Therefore, may you appreciate the time to be with your family and loved ones now.

And what I had been written here today couldn't measure up a portion what I had felt for my grandfather. I felt thankful for being loved by him, I felt thankful for having him in my life.

And it was raining when my grandfather passed away. And I was wondering why every time someone I know is gone, it will rain. And it reminded me of Jesus Christ crying when Lazarus was dead. And it reminded me that God loves every soul and He understand how I feel and also how every other person feel when they lost their family. And most important of all, He loves us so much that He is willing to give up His Son to save us. (John 3:16)

Grandpa, may you rest in peace.

Called To Be Different

Your actions represent more than you.

Recently I discovered this page by a Pastor named Jarrid Wilson and I'm very blessed by his posts on facebook and also his blog.

There is one particular post that I think, God had been using it through him to remind many of us Christians including myself about how we should really live like a child of God.

But before the post, there is one status in his facebook that could be the opening of what I'm going to share today.

"If you claim to be a Christ follower, remember that your actions represent more than just YOU. Don't reflect an image contrary to Jesus."

-Jarrid Wilson

Let's see if there's any familiar situation here;

1. One morning you are reading Bible in a coffee shop, then people start flooding in, some see you with the Bible and start giving you that strange look.  Well now, the Satan can easily use insecurity to attack you. You will start to have thoughts like this, 'Maybe I should have find a more secluded place. Maybe I should have put my Bible back in my bag. Maybe I should have read the verses on my phone.' You have all these thoughts simply you had been taught by the world that reading a Bible in a public place is something abnormal. (This is some gist from Jarrid's post)

2. You might have some gathering with your non-believer friends. Then, they plan to watch a movie. The title is 'Hangover', a movie displaying a lot of sex messages together with a lot of f' words. You are going to refuse, but then you think this might just annoy your friend for acting "holy".

3. Your lecturer is trying to display some sex or idol worshiping videos in the lecture as for understanding the topic according to him/her. Can you decide to leave the class?

4. Your friends is inviting you to their religious events. You have decided to go simply for the reason you thought it would be easier for you to invite them to Christian event next time.

The fourth one is a real struggle to some of the friends. But to be honest, this is simply a lie from the Satan. By going to your friend's religious events aren't going to help him/her to know better about the gospel instead this action just prove that you are agreed with the concept, 'Every religion is the same, you worship yours, I worship mine and then we all go to heaven together.'

5. This fifth one had happened to me. There is a time where I decided to stop blogging about Christianity simply because I had bought the lie that I didn't deserve to do so and this would offend my friends, let it be Christian or non-Christian.

Actually this evening I just went to the prayer meeting. And then some issues were brought up. In the middle of the sharing conversation, a brother kindly told us that he was asked by his friends to clarify some facts for his friend's religion. It might be as if this brother was of good intention, not wanting his friends to have any bad impression on Christians. But we can actually refuse that, in fact we must! If we did helped clarifying certain facts about other religion, we are representing a stand against the Bible. We might answer nicely to our friends, 'If anyone has any doubt with your religion, I hope you confront them yourself.'

It's time we take a stand and set ourselves apart rather than giving people a blur lens to see Christians and wonder if every road leads to Roman.

Some of our non-believer friends would feel very disturbed with the fact that only Christians can go to Heaven and the rest not. Questions would be raised.

I think the best we could do is by telling them, 'My friend, we do not define it this way. First of all, do you think you are able not to commit even a single sin in your lifetime? If you die tomorrow, do you have enough confidence to pass the judgment of God? This is the time when grace come in, that Jesus actually die on the cross to bear our sin and shame. A sinless man die for a friend to wash away his sins. How good is that?! That is why Christian are not saved by religion, but by grace and through faith. And because of love, God is offering us to be together with Him in the Heaven despite all the dirt in our life. Because in Christ, we are made new!'

Well, if any Christian would have tell the gospel in this way, 'It's because we get to go to Heaven and you're not.' I would doubt his understanding of his belief. Let's say if, I say if, there is another religion offering ticket to Heaven yet allowing the believer to do all kinds of sins, would he switch?

We should know that we are attracted to Christ not merely by His salvation, His promise to let us dwell in the Heaven but the love that the Father have for us fulfill our purpose to be created. We are created to enjoy His presence.

In fact, through gospel we do not bring a person to a secure place in Heaven, instead we are bringing him/her to their Creator who had longed to be with them long time ago.

I think if we are to wear a cross around our neck, we have to made the symbol before our chest real in our lives. To be honest, there are many times I stumbled to join in the gossips or discussion about the latest movie or song which do not glorify God at all. 

I was ashamed of myself and disappointed too when Christians were so attracted to the hot new worldly event, that they talked more about it than Jesus.

The recent Oppa Gangnam style was a hit. But how many of us would think that this is actually a meaningless video which might taken our eyes from Jesus and our time from God's words?

I think our words and our actions matter every day. The moment you claimed yourself as a Christ follower, you are starting roles as representative and ambassador of Christ.

People might just call you Jesus Freak. But how God sees you and how you please God is your life goal not the other way.

Beware of those actions that you thought it would be leaving a good impression on people but a wrong interpretation of Christ.

Lastly, let this verse encourage you and me to live out a life that glorify our God's name.

Do not conform 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. -Romans 12:2

Why The World Has to Imagine?

The part which attracted my attention, of this closing ceremony of Olympics in London was when late John Lennon appeared on the screen singing his song, 'Imagine'.

John Lennon had started his song with this,

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today

John Lennon was a man who search for the truth. His failure of finding the truth made him come out with the song 'God' which said the only person he would want to believe was himself.

Is it really so? In fact John Lennon was so proud at a moment that he said, 'Beatles is bigger than God.' Later, he explained that he simply means their music might have affected the youth more than Christ. This might have been true at the moment and if we see the phenomenon going on even nowadays, young people are more interested in the entertainment than Christ and you might be shocked to see those group includes children from Christian family.

Later on, John regretted what he said, at a time when he was tired of his addiction to drug, he had asked help from one of the most influential evangelists, Oral Roberts by writing to him, 

"The point is this, I want happiness. I don't want to keep on with drugs. Paul told me once, 'You made fun of me for taking drugs, but you will regret it in the end.' Explain to me what Christianity can do for me. Is it phoney? Can He love me? I want out of hell."

Oral Roberts sent him a long response, giving him a copy of his book Miracle of Seed Faith and a detailed explanation of God’s love for him. In the second letter, Roberts said, (excerpts)

I thank God that you see this, John, and finally regret thinking any man or group could be more popular than Jesus. Jesus is the only reality. It is Jesus who said "I am the way, the truth, and the life." So, you see, your statement that because of your hard background you've never wanted to face reality is actually really saying you've never wanted to face our loving Lord. What I want to say, as I tried to say in my other letter, is that Jesus, the true reality, is not hard to face. He said, "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. … For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." You said, John, that you take drugs because reality frightens you. Remember as you open your life to Jesus, He will take all the fear away and give you peace. Peace that passes all understanding.

Surprisingly, I should say, Imagine is a song with a really important message. It was a expression from the world that it hates religion, country and materialism because these three things had caused pain to so many people. John Lennon wish to imagine that there is this perfect idea, where these three things are gone from the world, and the world is once again in peace because people love each other and are united. And he do realized that this is just a dream but he thought if everyone shared this one similar dream, it might come true.

He might go with a good starting point, but he didn't know that Jesus think rather the same at the idea of people loving each other. It is actually possible for people to love each other with them acknowledged that they are first loved by Christ. And isn't that religion, country and even materialism aren't something that God want for the world? Of course as Christian, we believe there are heaven and hell, we go to church every Sunday, we obey the ten commandments but for the sake of what reason, we are doing these in our lives? What does God really want us to have in mind when we are living our life by prayer and reading Bible? Do we think of Him or just ourselves feeling good for being 'holy'?

This makes me kind of wonder myself, am I living in a religion or in a relationship with Christ? Does Jesus ever attempt to make this whole thing a religion and make his people religious? If we look at the book of Gospel, whether it was healing on the Sabbath (a major taboo in religious circles), dining with sinners or preaching messages of love and forgiveness, Christ didn't always please the religious establishment of His day.

My question was the world has expressed its hurt today(if it isn't, there wouldn't be so much people responded to Beatles' songs and to other artists) and what can Christians do about this, in what way can we tell the world Jesus is the answer to all these pain?

I think one of the reason that people's heart refuse the knock of Christ was they refused to accept the reality. They refused to accept that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. In fact, they doesn't want to admit that the world is sick, they want to be on their own, they want to revive the world themselves. But that could never be done.

In fact, how have we presented Christ to the world, is there any misrepresentation? The moment we couldn't hide our expression when we see a tattoo guy walking into church, the moment we refused to help a widow because she is not a Christian, the moment the rich and poor Christians separate themselves into group, the moment where we all became the priest who passed by on the other side when seeing a man half-dead on the road, after being robbed...... Would it be this attitude that incurred  the doubt of people on God's love?

I think we are victim of our own imperfection and self-reflection has to be made time to time because there is a reason Christian became uptight and hypocrite in world's eyes. But, as the apostle John noted, a key to becoming effective in reaching the lost is this prayer: “He must become greater; I must become less" (John 3:30, NIV).

resources: John Lennon: One of Jesus' "Biggest Fans"

John Lennon's Born-Again Phase

The Dark Knight Rises in this World

In this August, cinema was flooded with piles of new films and most of them are good makings which guaranteed high box office.

I had brought my brother to these three movies, The Amazing Spiderman, Total recall and the newest and maybe last Batman movie by Christopher Nolan with a super cool name, Batman: The Dark Knight Rises.

The dialogue, the acting, the actions, narration, story lines was almost perfect to a person like me who was serious in choosing movies. Surprisingly, I was the rare type of Batman 3 audience who didn't really watch Batman 1 and 2.

It was sure unique in its own ways. I remembered I used to watch the Batman Animations, it was always villains like Joker, Riddle or Penguin who plan another chaos while the officers couldn't handle but Bat had to come and stop it. But for Christopher Nolan's Batman, the people of the city actually joined in the villain and it was a big riot. The Gotham city has presented various kind of evil reflected in various walks of life. I nodded when Bruce Wayne in the movie said, "The charity dinner are for the purpose of feeding those rich wives' ego." 

At the beginning, story circles around Bane who started his plan by first trapping all the police forces underground and then he began to release the prisoners and roamed the city with all his followers. Those who are once opposed, poor in background rose up to have trials with the rich in sentencing court. It was finally them who get to be the judge.

Batman was defeated by Bane and was locked in an underground prison which he had to climb up high walls to make the escape. And during this time when evil is everywhere, the city was hopeless because it had lost its saviour.

Eventually Batman managed to make his way out and come back to stop everything including sending away the nuclear bomb which is about to blow up the whole city.

Batman was never back off even when his servant, Alfred and Catwoman had been advising him that it was not worth to trade his life just to save the city. But Batman won't give in.

In the contrary, the children who are running for their lives from the city was stopped by the police force from crossing the bridge. 

I remembered when Blake asked Batman why he had to put on his mask, he simply answered, 'Anyone could be Batman, anyone could be the hero.'

There's a question here, does Christopher Nolan's Gotham city actually give the picture of our own world? The rich was wasting their resources but the poor had to die of trying to survive. The world was in rage, hopeless and would want a massacre to stop the corruption.

I remembered when the world was so corrupted back then, God did put a massacre to end it. In fact, Noah's ark story was never about how beautiful is the ship or how cute the animals like it shall be the story for children. It was in fact the scariest moment in human history when water engulfed the souls of millions, trillions from the whole universe.

Does massacre a need in time now? Or a Saviour who would bring hope?

Jesus Christ, the Messiah said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."

And He meant it to everyone regardless you are rich or poor in materials or soul.