Silent Retreat

Silent retreat. What is that, many may ask. Well, when you go to such retreat you do not talk for a few days. Some people cannot stop talking for even a minute, not to say for a few days! Well, I heard friends going to such retreat before. They said it is very good for meditation and prayers. I suppose it is useful during this time to talk to God and read the Bible, also to hear what God has to say to us. Of course, we still can hear from God while back to where we are, but many who have been to this type of retreat say that one can experience God more closely.

One such retreat is the Seven Fountain Retreat in Chiangmai, Thailand. I read of an experience of a pastor from Singapore. Click on the title of this blog to read what he has written.

Rev Wong Kim Kong

Last evening, Rev Wong Kim Kong was giving a talk at Good News Fellowship Church, Kuching. He was the former Secretary General of NECF. He spoke on "A Christian Response and Biblical Approach to Politics".

Note: To read more about Rev Wong click on the title of this blog post.

Ex-Yazuka Turn Pastor

Last evening, Good News Fellowship hosted an evangelistic meeting. The guest speaker was Pastor Kaoru Inoue a former Yazuka general, Japanese Mafia. He has tattoos all over his body.

He was born in Hokkaido to a very poor family. By age 22 he joined the Yazuka and began to take drugs. As a Yazuka he committed many crimes, and being addicted to drugs he found no meaning in life. He tried committing suicide unsuccessfully twice. His friend asked him to work in his construction site for one month. During that time he met his future wife. One day his girl friend invited him to a village festival, after that she gave him a gift in place of a coat he had lent to his girl friend but she had misplaced it. He took the gift home not realizing that it was a used Gideon Bible. Since it was from his girl friend he kept it by his bedside each night. Some how he was drawn to read the Bible. When he came to Matthew 5:30 he was touched by the message. Later his girlfriend invited him and his boss to a dinner in the church hosted by her pastor. On the way home, he asked his boss to release him from the Yazuka gang, miraculously his boss agreed. His boss also knew that 4 of Inoue's best Yazuka friends had died of various circumstances. ( It was not easy to get off the gang once you joint). Kaoru Inoue found that people in church love him, unlike the world outside no one cared for him. He became a Christian, and he told his boss to quit Yazuka but he refused. Inoue said he will pray for him to quit, after two years his boss quit! Pastor Kaoru Inoue always believes in prayers. He prayed for his own father who came to Christ two years after Inoue was converted. Praise God!

Pastor Inoue encouraged everyone to look to Jesus who can save and heal our sicknesses. Even a hardcore Yazuka like him can be saved. Nothing is impossible for our God.

Note : Picture above, the center guy is Pastor Kaoru Inoue

From 2010-11-26 Pastor Kaoru Inoue

From 2010-11-26 Pastor Kaoru Inoue

World's Largest Church Yoido Full Gospel Church

The world's largest church is Yoido Full Gospel church of South Korea. The church had a congregation of 780,000 until 20 satellites churches went independent reducing the number to 360,000. This church was founded by David Yoggi Cho, and the present Pastor is Young Hoon Lee.

After a reduction in members there are ready to expand. Korean churches are famous for their "prayer mountains", essentially places for prayers away from crowded places, usually up country.

The church is returning to the basics of prayers, dependent on the Holy Spirit, evangelism, divine healing and personal sanctification. This also reminded me of the teaching of Pastor Ben Wong of Shepard Community Church, Hong Kong who came to help our church. He too said we must go to the basics if we want to stay close to God. His church is a cell church just like Yoido Full Gospel church. Pastor Ben also personally know Pastor David Yoggi Cho.

Note : To read the full article of Yoido Full Gospel church click on the title of this blog post.

Counting Our Blessings Backward

When we are faced with trials and difficulties, it is already impossible to count our blessings. But counting them backward ? I read an article about this subject and I recall that in fact, we should take a step back to count our blessings backwards. That is to say, examine all the past blessings and answered prayers that we have experienced.

For example, I recalled how much work pressures I faced several years ago to the point of depression. But God was gracious and faithful, as I followed Him in my distressed, He provided me with an early retirement package from my former employer.

I am sure you have many experiences of similar blessings, and if you begin to examine these, you will be encouraged that our God is indeed with us no matter what happens to us. In Hebrew 13:5 He said he will never leave us nor forsake us.

One good way to record your walk with our Lord is to keep a journal of your walk. Record your requests, and what God have been saying. Later when you look back you will be able to see His work in you.

"O Lord Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you." Psalm 84:12

Mormonism is Not Christianity

As a regular Christian, we may not be able to tell whether the Mormons are Christians. But Dr. R Albert Mohler Jr., President of South Baptist Theological Seminary wrote an article explaining in details about the difference between Christianity and Mormonism.

Mormonism rejects traditional Christian orthodoxy, rejects the Trinity and the nature of Christ. Mormon doctrine of God includes many gods, not one. (Note: to read the full article click on the title of this post).

I remembered my own encounter with the Mormon in Kuala Lumpur more than 10 years ago. I met these two young Americans in the sub way. At that time I was new to Christianity as I was attending Full Gospel Assembly (FGA) but have not been baptized yet. These two men talked to me and thinking that they were Christians, I invited them to my house. They came and shared with me their bible "Book of Mormons", and I compared with my Bible, King James version and found it different. After the second visit, they asked me to join their church, but some tning inside me prompting me to reject their offer. Later, I learnt that this was the prompting of our Lord to follow Him and no other gods. Thank God that even before I was converted, He was with me and guiding me to the right path. After this second meeting, I told these two men not to come to my house any more.

"Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him" Matthew 4:18

Note:

See the pictures of these two young men? The two men who came to my house dress just like these two. In fact, this is their dress code. I can see some of them even here in Kuching, usually cycling around. In many cities they usually travel around by bicycles. Their ladies missionaries are also dress conservatively. They refer to themselves as "Elder".

Focus on the Family

On Sunday our Church speaker was Pastor Lai Moo Hin from Focus on the Family, a non profit organization that is doing a lot of work to help build strong families. Pastor Lai was here to conduct a prepared enrich accreditation course. This course was attended by some of our church members.

Later Pastor Lai preached a sermon entitled "Leave Behind a Living Legacy". He referred to Isaiah 54:2 “Enlarge the place of your tent,
stretch your tent curtains wide,do not hold back;lengthen your cords,
strengthen your stakes."

What he taught was that we need to build strong family. This starts with the head of the family, that is the father. Fathers should take the lead and not delegate this duty to the mothers. Fathers should train the children, teaching them godly values as prescribed in the Bible. He said we can observed what is going on in society now, marriages are breaking up. In Malaysia in 2006 about 25% of marriages failed. One can see that moral standards have also being eroded. For example, one can see what are shown in cinemas and TVs, the crime and sex scenes. People are tolerating evil more nowadays too. People seem to enjoy evil nowadays from the many ghost movies one can watch on movies and TVs.

Therefore, we Christians have a role to play, in particular families should not leave the teaching to the Sunday schools, but take charge and teach our children at home.

Teach them Biblical values to leave a godly legacy behind.

Alpha Train the Trainers

Sister Cynthia Wong from Alpha Malaysia was here in Kuching to train Agape Baptist Church members so that they can conduct Alpha Classic themselves. The course was conducted last Friday evening, and Saturday. About 12 of their church members attended. In fact many years ago they had tried conducting Alpha. Now they want to learn the current methods use by Alpha Malaysia. Four brothers from FBC were there to help with the training. Our people from FBC will be available to help Agape Baptist to start their Alpha Classic course.

Today, Sunday Sister Cynthia was at Goodnews Fellowship to share about Work place Alpha. About 15 people attended. Six of us were from FBC. Basically she shared about her experiences in conducting work place Alpha which is basically the same as Classic Alpha, just that the talks on video are shorter to cater for the needs of people in the work place. Several members who attended this session also shared about their experiences in spreading the good news in their places of work. A lot of work has already in progress, and Alpha is a tool that can be used if necessary.

Those sttended showed their appreciation for Sister Cynthia's heart in this work, and they also appreciate Alpha Malaysia in helping to spread the good news of Jesus Christ. One participant noted that now with Alpha being conducted in various churches, more and more of our fellow Christians are meeting up to work together for a common cause. Regardless of denominations, we are here for a common goal - to bring the lost souls to Christ. Praise God ! Amen.

Get Off Face Book

The Rev. Cedric Miller of Living Word Christian Fellowship Church, New Jersey has asked his church officials to delete their Face Book accounts due to increasing number of his members who seek counseling due to marital problems when spouses connect with old flames. ( Click on the title of this post to read the full story)

This is not new, but certainly we in the East can learn much from the Western experiences. In fact, Malaysians are heavy users of Face Book, and this may mean we are more vulnerable to this type of problem if we are not careful. Using this social networking device can start innocently but it can end in disaster like breaking up of marriages. Like any devises, they can be used for good or for bad.

In the Bible, we have been warned to guard against temptations. Here is a temptation that many of us are exposed to. (Most people have Face Book accounts ). The Bible also instructed us to be wise in things we do. Know our boundaries.

Warning of temptation:

12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!

1 Corinthians 10:12

Be wise:

"He who gets wisdom loves his own soul, he who cherishes understanding prospers"

Proverb 19:8

Alpha Marriage - Train the Trainers

On 17th Nov, a public holiday in Malaysia, 17 couples from 7 churches in Kuching attended the train-the-trainers express marriage course at Good News Fellowship Church here in Kuching. All the participants have either completed the course or in the midst of completion.

Fan Ngian and Sian Li from Alpha Malaysia were the trainers. They are very experienced in conducting this course and we were glad to learn from the masters. Our local Alpha Marriage Advisers were David and Chee Ping.

The half-day course came with dinner at the Church. During dinner we have the opportunity to fellowship with brothers and sisters from other churches.

From 2010-11-18 Alpha Marriage Train Trainers

Kuching Ministers Fellowship Combined Prayer

Yesterday evening the Kuching Minister Fellowship (KMF)organised a combined prayer meeting at First Baptist Church (FBC) to pray for our nation, Malaysia. KMF is a group of pastors and ministers from Kuching and its surrounding who meet regularly to fellowship and pray for our city and beyond.

The main objective of last evening prayer meeting was to pray for Malaysia in particular in areas of political stability, fairness and transparency in policies and treatment of various races, for a just judiciary, for a just government,for favors to be accord to Christians,for fair education system for all, that righteous politicians be raise in government, for Christians to engage the politicians and participate positively in influencing policies, for the coming state election.

This meeting was led by Pastors from members of KMF mostly pastors from churches in Kuching. Close to about 200 Christians from various churches as well as denominations attended this service. Praise God that the prayers were very fervent and there was no doubt that the Holy Spirit was present. We have not seen such fervent prayers from across churches and denominations in this city for sometime now. According to a Pastor, he sensed revival is coming to our nation, and urged all of us to be prepared.

In this trying time in Malaysia, all Christians are encouraged to rise up and be counted, to support the body of Christ in prayers and various activities to advance the kingdom of God in this nation. Hallelujah! Praise God!

From 2010-11-17 KMF Joint Prayer Meeting

Note: to read more about KMF please click on the title of this post

USD11 Million Given Away

Recently an elderly Nova Scotia couple Allen and Violet Large gave away 98% of their USD11 million lottery winnings to charities, hospital, churches etc ! Our national newspaper Star's editor Soo Ewe Jin ( he is a Christian) wrote about this story and relate in to contentment. These couple is really an example for all Christians to be content in whatever circumstances we are in. They are selfless in their giving and they are not missing anything even after giving away so much money.

Violet said “What you’ve never had, you never miss,” Allen said “That money that we won was nothing,”,“We have each other.”

What a wonderful and touching statements from this couple. Essentially, Allen did not care about the money but he value his relationship with his wife. The Bible is also teaching us that relationship is more important than riches.

19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Matthew 6:19-21

6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.

1 Timothy 6:6

Note: To read full story by Soo Ewe Jin click on the title of this post

Fellowship of Evangelical Students

On Sunday our church invited guests from Fellowship Evangelical Students (FES)to share with us what they are doing. The Local leader is Peter Paris, and his two assistants Reynold, and Janice.

FES started about 42 years ago in Peninsula and they have been in Sarawak for the past 7 years. Their main aim is basically to reach out to the students in the Universities and colleges through out Sarawak. Just Kuching city has about 36 universities and colleges. Many of the students are from rural areas and they need to be guided, and FES role is to help these students. Many of these students said they are Christians but they do not much about Christianity. They are nominal Christians. FES engaged them to be real Christians. FES task is uphill battle, because they have only three people to cover whole of Sarawak.

Our elder Dr. Tiong is helping out by providing FES with an office. He is also an adviser to the Regional office here. Other members are helping out by giving donations. FES is organizing a Camp in Peninsula and are flying students there, our members donated to enable some of these students to join the camp.

Peter Paris urged the church to help out especially in prayers for their work through out Sarawak.

Note: click on the title of this post to go to FES website

Alpha Course Follow Up

After our Church successfully completed the Alpha Classic about two weeks ago, we started Alpha follow up course yesterday evening. Again it was encouraging as about 130 members including guests turned up. We followed the same format at Alpha Classic, that was starting with a meal, worship, follow by watching Nicky Gumbel DVD and discussion of what we had watched. This time around, the groupings were confined to Life Groups. Members of each Life Group(LG) sat in a group plus those guests who had been invited by our LG members to attend Alpha Classic.

This follow up has 9 sessions, 1)New Heart 2)New Purpose 3)New Attitude 4)New Responsibilities 5)New Friendships 6)New Confidence 7)New Ambitions 8)New Resources 9)New Generosity.

By popular requests from our members, this Alpha follow will continue for two weeks and we break a week for LG to gather at their respective homes for fellowship and bonding. Many felt that they missed the bonding after about 10 weeks or so of Alpha Classic sessions. This two weeks on and one week off pattern will be followed until we finish this course.

Praise God that many find this follow up meaningful and useful ! We observed new believers (our guests) are opening up in the discussion groups.

The World's Largest Jesus Statue

A small town on Poland erected the largest Jesus statue.

"The Rev. Sylwester Zawadzki, a 78-year-old retired Polish priest, led the $1.45 million project in Swiebodzin over the last two years. It was funded by donations from local business people and other residents who wanted to make a contribution to the church and also create a tourist draw to bring money into their community."

To read complete story please click on the title of this post.

Christian Decline Stall

Christian decline in the UK has stalled according to a research group called Christian Research in Britain.

Church of England attendance since 2001 is about 1.2 million, Catholic Church attendance since 2005 steadied at 900,000 and Baptist Union showed slight increase to 154,000.

The slight improvement seem to attributed to non traditional churches like cafechurch, coffeehouse network, Fresh Expression church. Alpha course started by Anglican Church Brampton has attracted about 1.5 million in the U.K.

Overall, this is good news for Britain in terms of people coming to the Christian faith.

In Malaysia, we are facing an up hill battle to improve the numbers of believers because of efforts by other religions encroaching on Christian traditional strong grounds like East Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah.( Located on the island of Borneo) According to available information about 20% of the population of Sabah is Christian, declined from around 40%, whereas Sarawak is holding at 40% of the population. There are certainly plenty of work for all Christians in Malaysia to save lost souls. Of late many Christian organizations, as well as churches are putting in efforts to arrest the decline of Christians in this country. Many churches are praying and we appeal to other Christians around the world to pray for us.

We are called to make disciples of nations. In a small way a number of Malaysian churches are embarking on Alpha course to win souls for Christ. We believe nothing is impossible for our God. Have faith and press in!

Note:
To read the full article about the UK Christian situation please click on the title of this post.

An Inspiring Testimony

Note: To read the full story as reported by blogpastor, click on the title of this post)

An inspiring true story of how a non believer being shown hell and heaven. He did not know the "bright figure" who told him to go back to where he came from, until two decades later when he received Jesus as his saviour.

Chuang Kwang Lian received the Lord at FGA where I used to worship when I was working in Kuala Lumpur.

......"For he is good, for his steadfast love endures for ever," 2 Chronicles 5:13

How Great Is Our God

Let this song be your worship to our Great God today!

Sunday Service at FBC

This Sunday our Bro. Song preached on Mark Ch 7:24 to Ch 8:10. His message focus on the healing of Jesus. He said Jesus continued to heal even today. Jesus came and He died for us on the Cross. People have many troubles yet if we are willing to come to Him we can be healed. Bro. Song has recently retired as a teacher. He has many stories about hurting students and how he helped them to come to Christ and be healed. His love for his students won him their respect. Even when he has to retire on 10th Oct 2010 some students felt hurt that he could not stay on until they finished school at the end of the year. But later they realized that the Education Dept will not allow him to stay even if he wanted to. Nevertheless, Bro. Song gave them his mobile numbers for them to call if they needed help. Such is the love of Christ in this Bro. Bro. Song is also in the prison ministries for more than a decade and he has many stories of prisoners coming to Christ when they were shown the love of Jesus. There was a former Sunday school teacher who turned to vice and was put in prison. He asked that his imprisonment be kept from his children, but his son of 10 years found that he was in prison. One day his son visited his father in prison, but his father was too embarrased to meet him, but the child said he forgave his father. His child's love and forgiveness reconciled this prisoner to his family. It was possible because Christ love us first, and His love enables us to love others.

The message of Bro Song is simple yet powerful. Praise God for this Brother!

Life Group Meeting

Last evening, we had our Life Group (Cell) meting after about three months break to do the Alpha Classic course. Not all Life Group(LG) members were at the meeting due to various commitments. Nevertheless, we had a great time worshiping the Lord as well as sharing. We also shared about Alpha follow up course. We as a Church either go through the 9 weeks follow up straight from 12th Nov, or two weeks of Alpha follow by one week of LG meeting. Majority of our members preferred to do two weeks Alpha and one week LG meeting. In this way it also give our LG an opportunity to bring the new believers to our LG meeting.

Praise God we had a great time fellowshiping !

A Baby Worshipping

What is the one thing God won't forgive?

In my recent post about my visit to People's Park Baptist Church, KL Pastor Philip Koh preached about the part unpardonable sin, that is blasphemes against the Holy Spirit Mark 3:29, in this video Pastor Mark Dricoll of Mars Hill Church explained in further detail.

Like many Christians, I did not understand about this unpardonable sin untill I heard the sermon of Pastor Philip Koh last Sunday. Now Pastor Mark Dricoll gave further insight to its meaning.

I pray that you will similarly be blessed by this message.

Note: to watch the video click on the title of this post.

The Voca People - Very Cool

Music and songs without musical instruments!

People's Park Baptist Church

On Sunday 31st Oct 2010, I attended People's Park Baptist Church, KL (PPBC)with fellow Alpha bro.Jack and his wife Sis.Vicky. It was my first visit to this Church and I found that their format is the same as our Church. We started with prayer. Before we gathered into small group of 2 to 3, their Chairman Dr. Living Lee shared on the subject to pray on. He shared about the need to pray that our government will become more transparent in its dealings. He related that he had just attended a conference organized by Transparent International (TI), where its Chairperson Datuk Paul Low shared how the Selangor government got TI to institute properly accountable systems in some operations of the local government. The Sarawak government had also invited Datuk Paul Low to speak to their top officers about being transparent and non corrupt in what they do. Praise God that the government is improving in terms of non transparent practices. Let all Malaysians Christians pray about this.

Their Pastor Philip Koh preached on Mark 3:20-33 in particular about unpardonable sins. What is unpardonable sin? In Mark 3:29 "But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, he is guilt of an eternal sin". Relating to unpardonable sin, Got Question ? website stated:

The only unpardonable sin today is that of continued unbelief. There is no pardon for a person who dies in unbelief. John 3:16 tells us, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” The only condition in which someone would have no forgiveness is if he/she is not among the “whoever” that believes in Him. Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). To reject the only means of salvation is to condemn oneself to an eternity in hell because to reject the only pardon is, obviously, unpardonable.

Alpha Adviser Visonary Day

On 30th Oct Alpha Malaysia organized a one-day Adviser Visionary Day.

This one-day meeting was to present the vision and mission of Alpha Malaysia as well as the way forward. It was attended by about 20 people. Beside, the National Director, Bro. Foo Lai Wei presenting, the various Alpha variant cor-dinators also presented. The variance are like Alpha Youth, Alpha Prison, and Alpha Senior. In terms of family matters, this group name is now known as "Relationship Central", there fore the marriage course in within this variant.

I am appointed as the Alpha Senior Adviser for Kuching. I did not know what I am getting into when Alpha Senor Cor-dinator, Bro Jack Chan invited me to join him. I just said yes! There are plenty to do, just pray to God that He will guide me and bring people to join my team.