Simply Pray

Prayers can be difficult for many Christians, I am no exception, but yet prayer is powerful. Joyce Meyer award winning author shared about prayer that is very encouraging. She said prayer need not be lengthy but simple and may be short too. She said even if we direct our thoughts to God, that is a form of prayer. For those of us who find prayers difficult perhaps we can start by simply prayers like what is taught by Joyce Meyer. Human is the only being on earth that is physical yet we have a spiritual connection to God.

The power of prayers can help us in many areas of our lives. She said:

'Only the power of prayer can move the hand of God. And only the power of God can change an individual heart, free a person from bondage and torment, overturn disappointments and devastations, break an addiction, or heal a person's emotions. Only God's power can bring peace, instill joy, grant wisdom, impart a sense of value and purpose to a person who doesn't know what to do in life, and work every kind of miracle. '

The power of God is available to us through prayers.

To read further click on the title of this post.

Listen to this meaningful song written by a Malaysian Pastor - "Every time I pray"

Pantai Baptist Church

This morning our church hosted a group of seniors Brothers and Sisters from Pantai Baptist Church, Kuala Lumpur. They were led by Pastor Isaac Yim, the former Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church, Kuala Lumpur. Pastor Issac had preached in our church before. This group of seniors are in the music ministry and they called themselves the Carice Ministry. They encourage people with their singing. The age of these seniors range from 50s to 80s. The oldest is a Brother of 83 years old !

Another group worshiped at Agape Baptist Church this morning.

These seniors entertained our church with two hymns. The music box they brought was out of order, but praise God that in our midst we had Sister Si Ai to accompany them with music from an electric organ!

After the songs, Brother Chan Man Kiong from Pantai Baptist Church gave a powerful testimony of how he came to the Lord. Bro. Chan was a businessman and about 11 years ago he just fell onto his factory floor, his workers brought him to the hospital and doctor said he had a stroke. As he was attended to by the doctor he saw light above, but on the his side was darkness representing death. He was so afraid he called on Jesus to save him. Before that he never spoke of Jesus. He said he was fortunate to have attended a mission school when he was young and there he learned the story of Jesus. Later, doctor told him his heart had to be operated on. He cried to Jesus so that he did not have to go through the operation. Praise God that his request was granted. Bro. Chan said that if he had the operation he would not be in our church to testify of his conversion. After this incident he decided to sell his business and live his life for Jesus. Praise God for this powerful and encouraging testimony!

Our God is good, He provides and heals.

Note: above is a picture of the seniors singing.

Christians Start Season of Lent

Malaysian Christians started the season of Lent on Wednesday. This day is also called Ash Wednesday. It is the 40 days of fast and prayers leading to Easter. In Malaysia Lent is observed more prominently by Catholics although other denominations like Anglican and Methodist do observe this period. Usually the Catholic Churches here have official event to mark the start of Lent. The other denominations usually practice it privately and usually there is no special church service to mark the start of this period.

More importantly it is the meaning of Lent and what Christians should do durng this period.

To read more click on the title of this post.

Persecuted Chinese Christians Inspired by Jeremey Lin

Persecuted Christians in China are inspired by the over night successes of Jeremy Lin, the professional basketball player from US. He is not even Chinese in the strict sense because he is American Chinese. This is good news for Christians everywhere, at least he is open about his faith. A lot of times famous celebrities in the US do not speak about their faith because of pressure from secular society. But for Jeremy he spoke about his faith and that inspired people, even to Christians in China. Not many people know about his Christian faith in China, but some micro bloggers are aware of his Christian faith. They commented :

"Your physical agility has shown me the glory and omnipotence of God," wrote one Internet user.

"How should young Christians live the life of the Lord?" another blogger wrote. "We have a good example in Lin Shuhao's miraculous performance and we should cheer him on."

A seminary professor in China said she will use Lin's Christian faith and successes as example in teaching theology.

It is heart warming that a fellow Christian is inspiring many other Christians in other countries. In this process Christianity is spread far and wide.

Some how Jeremy's story reminded me of a hymn called "Stand up, stand up for Jesus".

To read further click on the title of this post.

Funny Church Signs

If I am not mistaken you can only find such funny Church signs in the US.

God bless. Enjoy the show.

More Funny Church Signs! from inspiredfaith on GodTube.

Dead Sea Scroll Prophecy Confirms by Hubble Telescope

The dead sea scrolls were discovered near the dead sea from 1947 to 1950 and they contained Biblical and non biblical accounts. The Hubble Telescope which was launched into space in 1990 to search the stars are still providing images and information from space which have not been see before.

One of the scrolls called Qumran scroll is the most complete book of Isaiah found. It is also 1,000 years older than previously thought. Scientists said that the Hubble telescope revealed the great energies behind the universe which was prophesied by Isaiah.

The passage in question, Isaiah 40:25-26, reads:

"To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?" asks the Holy One. "Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out like an army, one after another, calling each by its name. Because of his great power and incomparable strength, not a single one is missing."

Isaiah did not have such a telescope to see the great power, therefore he must have God's special revelation to know of such great energies in the universe.

To read further click on the title of this post.

Whitney - "I Want To See Jesus"

Perhaps sensing that her end was coming near, Whitney told friends she would like to see Jesus just days before her death. It was reported that she was intensely spiritual towards the end.

Just one day before her death she performed "Yes Jesus Loves Me".

It appears to be typical of us human to forget God when we are successful and have everything we wanted, but when we are down and out than we start looking for God. Her story is a reminder to us that no matter what our situation is we are to stay close to God.

Pray that she rest in peace.

Whitney's Spiritual Battle

Whitney Houston was brought up in a Christian family and her mother is Gospel singer Cissy Houston but she lost her ways in the process of building her pop singing career. She was involved in drug and alcohol. It was reported that toward the end of her life she had weird behaviors. Despite her struggle of a broken marriage and drug habits she spoke of her spirituality in interviews and conversations with friends. Perhaps she realized the meaningless roads she was heading and perhaps she wanted to come back to God. There was even an article questioning whether she was a Christian. Only God knows now. Her mother yearned for her to come back. She said "I'm not losing you to the world. I'm not losing you to Satan," Houston recalled her mother saying. "I want my daughter back. I want to see the child I raised and you weren't raised like this."

To read more click on the title of this post.

Whitney Houston Sings Beautiful Gospel Montage from theremix on GodTube.

Archbishop of S.E.A

The Anglican Church recently installed the first Sarawakian as their Archbishop of South East Asia. It must be a very proud moment for the Anglicans in Sarawak as their own people has risen to such a high position in the Anglican Church.

Datuk Bolly Lapok was installed at the St.Thomas Cathedral in Kuching.

To read further click on the title of this post.

Purple Squirrel

God is not only mysterious He is also delightful and He created a purple squirrel!

A couple in Pennsylvania, US found a squirrel with purple coating on its body.

To read more click on the title of this post.

What Good is God ?

This is also the title of the book written by popular writer Philip Yancey. It is a question many skeptics as well as Christians asked when faced with trials. Once Yancey was asked by a friend whose child died "What is God good for?". This has led him to search and traveled to many countries to find the answer. He discovered that faith in God makes a difference in the lives of many people. Despite the deep troubles and tribulations that people faced the Almighty God is there for everyone. Yancey himself discovered the mercy f God when he suffered a serious back injury when his four wheel drive rolled down a hillside. He was close to death but by God's mercy he recovered. In his book he described 10 stories he encountered in his travel and found that in each of these God was evidenced in the midst of difficulties.

For example in China a church leader named Yuan was jailed and assigned to hard labor. He was assigned to couple railroad cars carrying coal. The huge cars will bumped into each other with loud noise and he would jam a steel rod between the cars to connect them. Over the 17 years he must have joined million cars yet he never got hurt once!. He said "It was a miracle!"

Yes! Our God makes a difference in our lives!

Crystal Cathedral Sold

Finally the iconic Crystal Cathedral in California is being sold to the Catholic Church. This Church was foundered by Robert H.Schuller more than 5o years ago. He wrote a popular book called "Tough times never last, but tough people do". The message in this book encourages many to stay positive. Now he has to face his own music so to speak and it seems he is taking it positively. Schuller said "It is time for all believers not to focus on differences, but on respect and appreciation for our common goals," Today is not an ending; rather, it is a divine continuance of a beautiful, sacred campus that was dedicated to the greater glory of God." In a way it is a blessing that the church is taken over by another church and not a non religious organization. It will continue to be used as a church.

To read the details click on the title of this post

Pastor Ben Wong from Shepherd Community Church

Pastor Ben Wong from Shepherd Community Church, Hong Kong has been coaching our church for the past two years. Thank God that he came along just as we faced a major problem in our church. Two years ago he came to visit one of our elders who was his university mate in Australia, and at that time we lost our pastor so this elder asked him to help our church.

This time he came and he gave an assessment of our church and from his observations our church has came a long way from two years ago. Our elders are indeed very appreciative of his coaching and guidance. At least we have an experienced pastor who has gone through a lot in discipling people to guide us. Not only that his ministry is world wide and he was able to share with us all his experiences. His availability is not a coincident but the work of our Almighty God. How are we to explain that in the time of our deepest needs an experienced pastor came into our midst? Now all three congregations, English, Chinese and Iban (Bahasa) church are on a firm footing after pastor Ben helped us to rebuild our foundation. In these two years we have raise two pastors from our congregations one from Chinese church and one from Iban church. Both their training in Taiwan and Indonesia respectively arranged by Pastor Ben. Now these new pastors are on fire for Jesus! Praise the Lord for these results!

Our Iban church is making very good progress. Two years ago there were 13 families worshiping in our church, now there are 43 families. Praise God! They have been organizing themselves and reaching out to the longhouses outside of Kuching city.

Our Chinese church is also looking forward to reach out to the Chinese communities in the nearby town. About 10 years ago work has been started and was abandoned but their recent visits found that the original believers are still there. Soon our Chinese members will continue their work there.

The English congregation is also more organized now with all the Life Groups (Cells) in place and various out reach like Alpha courses conducted last year. More mission activities will be carried out this year. We are still waiting to raise a pastor from our English congregation. We pray this objective will be met this year.

From Pastor Ben's perspective our church is doing well. We had came along way, and now we have to reach out to others especially the non believers.

We thank God for his love for our church, we also thank Pastor Ben for his help and we pray to our Lord for His guidance as we move forward always stay focus on Jesus in whatever we do.

Why Would God Allow Evil

This is a challenging question to many people and there is no simple answer to it. Atheists said since evil exist God does not exist, so they do not believe there is a God. Even famous academic like C.S Lewis had trouble with the question of evil earlier in his life until he investigated and decided to follow Jesus Christ. He said if there is no God, there is no such thing as evil. Apologist Mark Mittleberg said "Evil can only be known and measured against a standard of good. Apart from God and the morality that flows from Him there is no standard – and therefore no evil either," he explained. "But we know in our hearts – it's inescapable – that evil is real." Therefore, the standard comes from God.

Closely linked to the question of evil is the question of suffering. Why would God allow suffering? Again suffering is not from God, human is given the freedom to chose and most sufferings are man made.

Mark Mittleberg shared "7 points of light."

1. The world is as Jesus predicted - we have troubles in this world.

2. Evil was not caused or created by God - He created us with freedom to follow Him, we chose not.

3. Most causes of sufferings man made.

4. We live in a fallen world.

5. God will finally judge evil - He has given human time to repent before judgement.

6. God also suffered - Jesus came as human and suffered like us.

7. God can bring good out of bad - Roman 8:28

To read the full article click on the title of this post.

Yao Ming Portrait in Red

A Malaysian lady who hails from the state of Sabah has painted the Chinese basketball superstar's portrait in red paint. Instead of paint brush she used a basket to paint this portrait. It has been uploaded onto You tube and now it has gone viral, 436,000 hits!

To read a news article click on the title of this post.