CLCP 2nd Anniversary

We recently celebrated the 2nd anniversary of our church. For our brethrens, it has been two fruitful years of growing together in spiritual strength. Two years of praying for each other and pulling each other up. We have faced lots of obstacles, each one a test and with God's grace, we've managed to pass through the obstacles unscathed and emerged spiritually stronger. Some of the brethrens' lives have become testimonies today. Some are fighting an on-going spiritual warfare, while some are still engaged in never-ending spiritual warfare!

But the one who has to walk down a path strewn with thorns is our Pastor Sarah. She has to undergo difficult tests along the way in order to shepherd us. She ministers to each of us with great sincerity and patience. Her spirit is strong, yet humble. Even when she literally vomitted blood for a few months last year, with the strength of the holy spirit, she managed to hold everything and everyone together.



With God's promise and direction, we will continue forward. We are assured that God is with us. Holding onto this promise, we'll move in the direction of 4 gospelization. We will continue to 'circumcise' our hearts with the Word, in order to heal ourselves, cast out our inner demons and rebuild our temples. With individual gospelization within us, we will reach forward to our families. Then the people around us in our daily fields. With the guidance of the holy spirit, we will raise remnants. These will take time, but we will move according to God's time table.

With God's grace, may our church continue to grow, and that we'll continue to grow together with the church.

Cartoons

Mr. Caveman always complains that my blog entries contain too many words and to little pictures. So to oblige him, here are some funny cartoons I swiped from a site called Reverend Fun. Time for a guffaw or two.

Technology

It has become a common scenario these days to see a young couple walking hand-in-hand into a cozy cafe, choose a table in a secluded spot, settle into their chairs.....and promptly whip out their mobile phones to text or facebook! The only time they acknowledge each other is when they pass their phones to share a joke or newsfeed.

Another common scenario : Parents bringing their children to restaurants, stash ipads or iphones into their childrens' eager hands, let them murder some green pigs with red birds, yellow birds and black birds that resemble a bomb. This successfully keeps the children quiet while the parents enjoy their meal. They feed their kids.....while the latter open their mouths to accept food like robots without a care for what they are eating, as their eyes and attention are glued to the mini screens.

Which brings us to this question. Why is the modern concept of quality time so similar and yet so different from our parents' time?

Rewind back to 50 years ago. It was a common scenario then to see a young couple walking hand-in-hand into a cozy cafe, chose a table in a secluded spot, settled into their chairs......and actually talked! They shared their day with each other, and enjoyed a laugh together over a joke. Of course, phones 50 years ago resembled a black box with a bulky round dialling gadget, and the only function is to talk into an equally bulky receiver. The phone could not follow a person all over the place as (i) it's heavy and (ii) it can only go as far as the cord would allow it to!

Another common scenario : Parents brought their children to restaurants, stashed dolls or small plastic cars into their childrens' hands to keep them quiet while they enjoyed their meal. They then let the children attempt to feed themselves, though at times making a mess. They talked and laughed with their kids and taught them the names of the food. The children learned table manners from a young age.

What is to be blamed for the degeneration of the concept of quality time? Is it technology? Technology makes life a lot easier, but it has come to a stage that people over-rely on technology in their everyday life. It causes people to grow apart while being together. While it is convenient to have technology by our side and make our lives so much easier, we have to be careful not to let it become a bondage to us. The lure of new gadgets are strong, and the need to own it is great, not because of 'need', but because of 'want'. It has become a status symbol. A college student will spend his free time working part-time instead of studying, and blows his paycheck on a new iphone ( despite already having an older model of iphone ).

In His commandments, God prohibits idolatry. But has technology become more than a bondage, to the point that it has become the new idol of this era? The global stir caused by the death of Steve Jobs recently shows that people care more about THAT apple than they do the one that caused man to fall into sin!

I personally am not against technology, though not to the point of being ruled by it. I do enjoy text messaging though Mr. Caveman does not. His texts ( from his antique mobile phone ) are brief to the point of mind-boggling. Sometimes he simply sends me a one-worded text message. One that says 'home', leaving me to figure out whether he is leaving office for home, whether he's on his way home, or whether he is already home and waiting for me in the parking lot. Perhaps he enjoys sending smoke signals from his cave instead!!

Comedy

A beautiful romance of the young and beautiful. Filled with ups and downs, highs and lows. We laugh with them, sympathise with them, at times worry for them. We wonder how God will enable them to complement each other, to accept one another as they are, and the trials they need to endure to become one in spirit, mind and heart. Whenever they need an understanding ear to unburden themselves, a shoulder to cry on, or Words from the Gospel to help them find their way, we are there for them. We are keen to help them lighten their burden, ease their pain and straighten their perspectives. Their relationship has an impact on the people around them, making people laugh and cry with them.

A romance in the form of the aged and the wrinkled. Filled with the same ups and downs, highs and lows. But how often have we laughed at their antics? Wondered about the outcome? Yes, we thought about how God would show them the way, but more often in mirth. The impact of the blush and teardrops on wrinkled cheeks is not similar to those on smooth pale cheeks. The ear and the shoulder are still offered with equal sincerity, but also with a grin not straying far. We could barely supress a shudder and a giggle at the terms of endearment that fall from their lips. Their relationship has an impact on those around them as well, making people laugh, and more often than not, cheering people up for the wrong reasons!

In our hearts, we know that all God-given relationships are beautiful. We just can't get pass the image our eyes send to our brains, thus turning the cherished into a comedy!

Acceptance

There has been an ongoing war between my spirit and my mind, at an on and off basis, that is. At times, my mind simply could not accept the changes in my life. Perhaps it is because God has been pushing me rather fast, and my spiritual state has progressed more in almost 2 years than in the past 20 years! My mind knows that I have to demolish my old temple, but a certain part of me wants to hang on to my past lifestyle. The internal battle has made me very tired, and when I felt weak, very disheartened. There were times when I wanted to walk away from it all, times when I could not pray, and times when I simply do not want to have anything to do with the church at all. The path of fire I chose to walk is scorching my feet, and it's getting harder and harder to endure.

Then recently, I woke up and decided to simply accept it. Accept everything, the good and the bad, all the trials and tests God has thrown my way. And with acceptance, comes strength. Once I accepted that this is the path God wants me to walk, my infighting stopped. The moment it stopped, I began to see everything in a different light. I finally realised that all this time, I've been praying to God to give me strength, not knowing that the strength is within me all along. The key to the reservoir of strength is acceptance.

Full, wholehearted acceptance. All the trials become a lot easier to bear after that.

Random Thoughts

God gives us life. So treasure our lives, for life is precious.

Cherish the present, do not regret the past nor plan too far into the future. Put our trust in Him, for He is always with us and within us.

Cast fear behind the smoky veil, where it belongs. We are God's children, and there is nothing for us to fear. Forces of darkness may test our will, but the Holy Spirit will sustain us and give us wisdom.

Face each new day with courage and laughter. Hold on to the Word. Like a kite, flying freely in the sky, but anchored by the string. For the Word is our string.

Time ticks relentlessly. Always forward, never backwards. Enjoy our sojourn here on earth. And when it's time for us to leave, there will only be anticipation, no regrets.

Perfection / Imperfection

We are always eager to project the perfect side of ourselves in public. The perfect family living in a perfect home, stepping out with the perfectly made-up face and presenting the image of a perfectly groomed self. The person that has got everything together, the perfect supermum or the perfect single woman who juggles careers, family / children / relationships with the ease of a supercool woman. We want a perfect holiday. We want a perfect wedding. Even when we have our photographs taken in expensive studios, we want to appear perfect, to the extent of being professionally airbrushed. We want perfection. We crave for perfection. We strive for perfection.

As opposed to perfection, we have trouble dealing with imperfections. We cannot bear the thought of a stubborn zit on our cheeks, and spend sleepless nights agonising over it, especially when there's a function for us to attend. We tend to place our entire focus on that tiny, miserable zit, and allow it to spoil an otherwise enjoyable function. We smile and play happy families in public despite quarrelling with the spouse or getting frustrated at the children just half an hour before. We clean the house yet again even though our houses are clean when we are expecting guests, just so that the guests might not see a ( barely-there anyway ) film of dust resting on the coffee table.

We distance ourselves from the imperfect. The disfigured man gets a grimace and a sympathetic shrug thrown in his direction, or people will simply avert their eyes in embarrassment and quicken their footsteps. We throw dirty looks at homeless people sleeping on the sidewalks. We turn our faces at society's ills. By pretending that it doesn't exist, we hope that it will not affect our perfect lives.

But why is perfection so important to us? Why can't we accept that imperfection is actually part of perfection? There can be no perfection if there is no imperfection. What is the factor that forces us to be so obsessed with perfection?

Perfection is an illusion that hides the decays of imperfection. We polish the good parts till it glitters to show the world and stow away the bad in dark recesses. It is a farce of human nature used to bolster up our own self image. Perfection binds our spirit and gradually suffocates us. In placing too much emphasis on how the world sees us, we gradually become neurotic. We think the world is laughing at us when we slip up, when in actuality the world will not notice our slip ups as it is too busy being preoccupied with its own pursuits of perfection.

By obsessing over the expectations of perfection, we lose our perceptions and direction. We forget that there are more important things in life. In winning the race for perfection, we'll end up the big time loser. Spiritually and psychologically.

Struggles

Once,
We dreamed of freedom
Of independence and civil liberties
Of basic rights
The right to vote
A voice of our own
To be heard
Nonetheless denied
By men's fragile pride.

Then,
We fought for freedom
An uphill task
Where male opinions held fast
Barriers we faced
At every turn we made
Demonstrations we held
And made our presence felt
In this male dominated world.

Now,
We gained freedom
A voice acknowledged
Education, employment
And political position
But beneath the victorious facade
The serpent lurks
Sexism, harassment
Broken home environment.

We have fought hard, and we have won. But at what cost? Will we ever be able to gain complete victory by struggling to rearrange God's hierarchy order?

Bulgarian Church Murals

A friend of mine recently toured the Balkans, and came back with some beautiful shots of the murals in a Bulgarian church with an interesting story behind them. It seems that during the communist era in Bulgaria, the people are not encouraged to paint murals of important events in Christianity on the walls. So this church came up with an ingenious idea : A combination of irrelevant pictures in drab colours and significant pictures in vivid tones. The results are unique and beautiful.

Mindset

Mr. Caveman ( aka my main man ) and I were at the movies last night. The movie was a remake of the popular Chinese classic legend, of the forbidden love between a white snake demon and a human. The story is roughly like so : The white snake fell in love with an honest man, took the form of a beautiful human woman and married him. There was also a monk who was the certified demon catcher of the era, spotted the demon and went after the demon's very-long snake tail. He gave the demon a chance to leave the man, stressing that demon and human are not meant to be together. The final part was where the demon tried to get her man back from the monk's temple, and conjured up tsunamis to flood the temple with snakes that resembled Nessie the Loch Ness monster, only there were TWO of 'em! The movie ended with the snake demon being punished for her crimes and the couple forcibly parted forever.

A simple legend. But when we talked about the movie, we discussed that there are different ways for people to interprete it, depending on circumstances. Some look upon it as a tragic love story, where a couple so much in love with each other were tragically forced apart. They blame it on heartlessness in upholding the universal rules.

From my point of view, I see the demon as an obsessive, though misguided female who would stop at nothing regardless of the cost to keep her man. She pursued this love with a selfish single-mindedness and with a blatant disregard for others, resulting in chaos and tragedy.

From Mr. Caveman's point of view, he sees that forbidden love must be torn apart. But in the movie, the method used was forced justice on the lovers to uphold righteousness, not love and righteousness to move them into giving up each other.

Depending on how you look at it, one story will more often than not end up with many different flavours. It's the mindset that differs. Take the Harry Potter books for example. After reading the books, does one see wand-wavings and latin incantations plus a 'bezoar' being shoved down one's throat as a threat to the children's spiritual learnings, or the essence of the book that conveys the message of good triumphs over evil, and fighting together to prevent evil from staging a hostile takeover?

Even in well-loved fairy tales, one might see Cinderella's case as unpaid child labour, or Jack of the infamous beanstalk as a murderous thief, and rampant ostracism & racism in the ugly duckling.

Often, it's the mindset that clouds our perceptions. The 'what we think is right' frequently makes us see 'what we want to see', blinding us from seeing things as how God meant it to be seen.