Something, No, Everything, Is Going Wrong....

Dear Readers,

I apologized for not being constant in my updates on this website/blog. Life have been really busy for me and I hardly even have time to sit down and watch a movie (but I still do find time for it haha).

This question has been in my mind recently, “What do we actually need from this Person we call God? Our world is too real and contains so much entertainment and life that we do not need God.”

Come, let us face the fact. We live in a world where we can have access to everything we want through the computer screen in our tiny little room. We have fun friends around us who constantly asks us out for drinks and movies and stuff like that. The entertainments we have around us are more than satisfying. There are malls, movies, there’s clubs and bars to dance and have fun, there’s sports and football, there’s cyber café for us to release our stress. There are a lot of forms of entertainment around us nowadays. And you know what? We can never have enough of such things. If you have the money, even better, you can enjoy yourself more. If you are not so rich, you still can find so many ways to have fun, fun and more fun!

So the question is, “Where is God in the midst of all these things?”

Does God really have to be a part of these activities? What does it matter if God is not in my mind?

What scares me is that we Christians are being so sucked up by the world to the point that the world is the only real, tangible thing we know and God is just an invisible being, a mystical person maybe, and someone who we can never feel as real. Don’t you agree with me that you sometimes feel like this?

I mean, there are a lot of things we can do and they are way more fun than church activities and much better than going to church on Sundays. We can make a trip down to KL to party, to shop, to watch movies, to hang out with friends, to eat, to drink and to do everything under the sun. So what is the point of me going to church? All I know is that I am a Christian and I am saved, so why the need to be in a church?

I am beginning to put myself in the shoes of the many Christians around me and thinking for them as well as for myself. All these questions are real questions that many of us have.

Sigh.

The cloud of deception thickens, soon the rain will pour. The world is deceiving us, making itself more real than the Person who made the world and everything in it. The creation becomes the centre of attraction and everybody loves the creation but does not know or even want to acknowledge the Creator. It is like admiring the Mona Lisa painting without giving a thought about the artist. Or walking down the Great Wall of China, taking photographs and having fun and not listening to the tour guide telling you about the history and how it was made. And even if you listened, you do not bother.

Dear Readers,

Get yourself together. Spend some quiet time to think. Is life all there is around me? Is there more to life than this?

Remember, we are in the world but we are not of the world.

Concerned Citizen of Heaven,
Zlwin Chew

.

Building an Empire

Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and myself founded empires; but on what foundation did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded an empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for Him.
- Napoleon Bonaparte

Conquerors of old wage war to steal, kill, destroy and to build empires from lands that does not belong to them. They take what they want by force. They rule by fear instilled in their people. They have loyalty but few genuine ones. Their empire rise and fall again and again. Their conquests lie deep in the history books.

The greatest "conqueror" of all time did not build his empire upon force or violence. He came and turned things upside down and inside out, challenging every known practices of his time. He did what no one dares to do. Out of love, an empire was born. And until this day, the empire still lives and reigns and grows.

Only one person's blood was shed in building this everlasting empire - Jesus Christ's.

And He rose again, proving that He is more than a conqueror.

Today He lives in us.

What are you going to do?

.

Silver Or Gold I Do Not Have, But What I Have I Give To You.

Many of us might be familiar with the above sentence. It is found in the book of Acts. Peter and John was on their way to the temple to pray when they saw a beggar crippled from birth sitting at the temple gate begging for money. The beggar saw Peter and John and asked them for money.

Peter responded, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Taking the beggar by the right hand, Peter helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong and the man started walking and jumping, praising God.

I have read this many times before but today as I was reading it again, something caught me. Yes, Peter and John did not have money to offer the beggar, what they had was something very different. I knew they had faith, tons of faith. But this was different. I knew what Peter had.

Peter had the power and authority of Jesus Christ.

Notice how Peter mentioned, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” He proclaimed the name of Jesus over the beggar’s situation. There is something about names during the Bible times. A name is more than just a word where people use to call and identify one another. A name bear’s the person’s personality, the person’s being, the person’s attitude, the person’s life.

If you notice, this was Peter’s first ever miracle done after he cowardly denied Jesus three times and fled from Him. I admire the great comeback of Peter. I am in awe how someone close to Jesus could deny knowing Jesus and yet comeback in greater power and authority to heal the crippled! What Peter had was not just faith; a lot of Christian those days had faith. What Peter had was faith plus the power and authority of Jesus.

Many of us do not realize what we have and what we can do. We tend to always speak death into almost all our situations – saying, “Ah, this I cannot do. I am not good enough.”, “I know this will not work out, it is too big a problem.” “We are going to fail doing this, let’s not try at all.” “I am like that, I can’t seem to remove this bad habit. I don’t think I can do it.”

When Peter and John saw the crippled beggar they did not speak death into his situation. They did not say, “Ah, poor man, he can’t walk. What can we do to help him? Do you have some coins with you?” Instead Peter commanded the beggar to look at him and then spoke life into the man’s situation.

With the given authority of Jesus, Peter went forth and did miracles after miracles. With the given power of Jesus, Peter became the first church planter, going from cities to cities to build churches and spreading the Gospel like never before.

When the crowd questioned Peter about the miracle healing, Peter said, “By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to the beggar, as you can all see.”

When David came face to face with the giant Goliath, David said, “You are coming against me with sword, spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the Israelites armies, which you have defied.”

John 14:14
You may ask for anything in My Name, and I will do it.

.

Surfing Above the Storms

In the book of Mark 4:35-41 we witness the incident where Jesus and his disciples were in a boat when a huge storm came and threatened to overturn the boat. We read that Jesus was soundly asleep in the boat on a cushion right in the middle of the storm.

We could only wonder how a man could sleep soundly in the middle of a storm.

The disciples and Jesus were probably tired after travelling and preaching and they wanted nothing more but rest. However they encountered a terrible storm. Like them, we may expect life to be smooth-sailing, trouble free but we do not always get that. The incident in the boat does not only tell us how powerful Jesus is but is also giving us a message that reminds us that life need not be a fairytale even though we are Christians.



There are all kinds of storm in life: emotional storm, financial storm, relationship storm, tragedies. Some storm come because of our own actions. Some storm comes because of people’s actions. Some storm comes because it is natural. But there are also storms which come from God, the One that we out our blame on for ALL other storms.

But we know that in all things God work for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)

Before the storm, the disciples knew who Jesus was. The disciples knew that He was someone special, they witnessed Jesus healing the lame. What miracle!

Before the storm, they knew who Jesus was.

During the storm, all they could see was waves hitting on their boat and dark clouds and roaring thunder and flashing lightning! During the storm, they were terrified to the point that they forgot who Jesus was. They did not know that He had the power to stop the storm.

During the storm they forgot who Jesus was.

So often we forget that God is still the One in control of things when we are face head-on with a huge storm. We see the big storm but we do not see our Big God. We need to realize that everything happens for a reason. If the storm comes to shape you, let the storm do its work and you persevere. If the storm comes to change a situation, don’t resist it, face it. If the storm comes to give you a lesson, don’t run, sit down and learn. If the storm is for God, pray that God sends more!

A young boy sailing his small boat in a huge pond cries out after realizing that the boat was beyond his control. He sees an older youth beginning to throw huge stones at his direction and the small boy cries out even louder. After a while he realizes that the stone was not hitting him but the boat was beginning to slowly sail towards the older youth. The rocks hit the water a little beyond the boat, and each ripple moved it closer to shore.

Be patient to go through situations which you have no control over. Pray and put your trust in God and believe for His deliverance. Sometimes the storm that breaks our heart can become the basis of more beautiful things in our lives.

A man once approached Billy Graham (if I am not mistaken, I do not remember which book I read it from) and told Billy that he is so thankful to God. His life is so nice and lovely. There are no more problems and troubles and worries. Everything is fine.
Billy replied, “Then you should start worrying.”

When a Christian suddenly sees his life problem free he should not be rejoicing. He should start worrying. This is because Satan is no more interested in bothering you anymore. Why? Because you are no longer a threat to him. You are not doing anything in God’s Kingdom. Knowing this, you should start worrying.

Also note that there are some storms in life that are not worth going through. Not all storms are beneficial and not all storms are meant to be face. Not all storms in life happen because there is something greater after it. Take heed. Not all waves are worth riding.

Know that Jesus is still beside you when the storm comes. The disciples forgot but you should not.

When the storm comes, sleep in it.
When the waves hit, surf it.


Here is another link to one of my previous post on “Storm Shapes The Mighty Oak”
Do read it as it is a good one and it speaks to me during my stormy days.

.

Storm Surfers Rendezvous (1)

Came back from the Young Adults Fellowship retreat on Sunday. The theme was Storm Surfers Rendezvous. It was a really fun and enjoyable retreat. This time I was a “normal” member, just a participant, unlike youth camps where I will have loads of things to do. This time I just chill and relax and have fun! =D

There were in total 46 of who went for the retreat. My group name was Blind Bay and our leader was Cikgu Wong (we call him Cikgu because he is a lecturer in UM). The three days and two nights was filled with loads of fun activities and outings. I enjoyed the night outing when we went to Malacca’s Jonker Street. One crazy act we did was wrestling on stage in front of a large crowd of people in the middle of Jonker Street. Hwai Tah, Andrew, Jeff Williams and I went on the wrestling stage and we did a funny wrestling show for the enjoyment and laughter of those around us. Good thing the people cheered us and not threw vegetables at us haha. I wished it lasted longer =) Heck, one life to live, do what you want and have a good time!!! So no worries about being embarrass, just go and have fun!

The games organized by the committee were amazing and tough! We had to eat a can of cold sardine! The label was changed to give us an impression that it is real cat food. Some if us puked. Others just went ahead and swallowed everything. Then later at night they revealed to us that it was actually normal sardine and not the sardine for cats. Many of us, including me, believed that it was real cat’s sardine! Good one! Illusion eh =) See how psychology works, if we knew it was real sardine we would be able to consume the sardine with ease.

The night session we had Pastor Henry to share his heart with us. It was good to have him come all the way to spend his time with the Young Adults. Wanted to get him come into the pool with us haha =)

The chill time was fun. We actually did have time to chill and relax at the pool. Lots of things we did. I can’t possibly tell every detail =) but one cool thing I learnt at the retreat was a photography effect called Strobis or something that sounds like that. Professional photographer Joshua Chin taught us how to use the camera and external flash to achieve some really cool effects. We love it. Now I am going to save money to get a wireless transmitter or maybe a Canon Flashlite 580EX II haha.

One nice activity was building a raft and racing with it in the lake. The building was tough, many of us had blisters but it was really a nice experience. Now I know how to build a raft. So if I were to get lost in a jungle, I can ride the waves home =) hehe. Sherrene Teh helped a lot in my team’s raft building. She had experiences in Royal Rangers before so it wasn’t too much of a problem for her. During our race, my group was in the lead but in the end Hermann’s group got first and mine got second. My arms were so weak and my legs were so numb. I did not know where to harness my energy from and I was like reciting verses from the Bible during the race haha. It was tough to row our raft against the current and all. Gosh. It requires lots of strength, teamwork and coordination. We had a little of all three and it was good enough since many of us had no experience in doing this kind of thing before haha.

Check out the YAF blog soon and we will come up with more updates and pictures.

There will be a lot of pictures coming from Joshua Chan. He was the main photographer for the retreat. He has some very good shots. I have a lot of pictures from my camera as well, taken by different people. Not many are “professional” pictures but they are good enough to keep as memories =) more pictures coming soon from my side as well as Joshua.