Stamped Alkitab as Museum Pieces

The stamped Alkitab ( Malay Bible )have been redeemed by Bible Society of Malaysia from Port Klang. However, they will not be sold, but they will be retained at museum pieces to remind future Malaysian Christians of how Christians were persecuted.

The importer Gideon at Kuching have not announce their intention.

The CFM maintain its stand:

“Our position is that there should be no restrictions, proscriptions or prohibitions whatsoever on the bible or the use of the language of our choice in the practice of our religion, as it was in the days before and after the formation of Malaysia,” CFM said in a statement here today, adding that the Alkitab issue was not the only restriction.

It noted that there has been a “systematic and progressive pushing back” of Christian rights — dating back to the 1980s — namely the right to practise, profess and express their faith.

Malaysian Christians in particular, as well as Christians all over are requested to pray for wisdom for the leadership in the Christian organizations that are engaging with the government to resolve this issue amicably.

To read more click on the title of this post.

Egypt - Coptic Fears

The referendum to change the country's constitution has just been completed about a week ago. However, the Coptic Christians a minority in Egypt are weary of the result which allowed the amendments to the constitution to allow free election. The Christians said the election is coming too quickly which benefit established groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, and National Democratic Party(NDP). Many are very concerned about the Muslim Brotherhood coming to power because they will certainly marginalize the minority Christians. Recently they had formed a political party whose objective is to destroy Israel.

Christians may be a minority in Egypt, but they are 10 million strong. Egypt has the largest Christians community in the Middle East.

Ironically, as the Christians want more freedom, a spoke person in the video below said persecution is good for them.

Bahasa Bibles Controvercy

Bahasa Bible is the Malay language Bible use by many Malay speaking Christians in Malaysia. Recently the Malaysian government had imposed conditions on those Bibles that were imported from Indonesia. The main reason was that the Bibles contain the word "Allah" referring to our God.

There are many views about the reactions of Christians in Malaysia, and this subject has been a major news item for the past several weeks.

Many bloggers and pastors have also made their comments, including BLOGPASTOR, a blog by Pastor Kenny Chee of Singapore. In his recent blog he has attached links to several bloggers who had commented on this issue. They are informative about this subject. To read Pastor Kenny's blog and the links please click on the title of this post.

Sarawak Baptist Church

On 26th March 2011 Sarawak Baptist Church held its Annual Delegates Conference at Regency Rajah Court Hotel, Kuching. The conference was attended by some 70 delegates from a total of 30 Baptist Churches through out Sarawak.

The Sarawak Baptist Church as an organization comes under the umbrella of Malaysia Baptist Convention (MBC). Rev Koe Choon Huan of MBC declared the meeting open as well as sharing his message to the delegates.

Beside, the usual matters of Baptist Church, we had two guests from Kuching Ministers Fellowship (KMF) to share with us the current issue about the retention of the Bahasa Bibles (Malay language Bibles)and also the constitutional rights of Christians in Malaysia. These issues are important to all Christians in our nation,as Baptist we also support the various Christians organizations' stand.

Tsunami Signal Second Coming?

The natural disaster and nuclear meltdown in Japan is going to cost about USD309 billion. As a comparison, the tsunami damages in Sumatra in 2005 cost about USD5 billion. For a couple of generations, it appeared the second coming was drawing nearer. The recent disasters, either natural or man-made appeared to be larger and more frequent. This led many to speculate that we are drawing near to end-time. Author Steve Wohlberg also observed that the disaster are bigger than before. When asked whether these events are judgments by God, he said sometimes God just allowed these events to happen. Whether these are judgments by God, it is very difficult to tell, because we are mere human, we do not know all about God.

Even the Bible does not tell us the exact day of the Second coming.

36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,[a] but only the Father." Matthew 24:36

The most important for Christians is to be ready when He comes.

Steve Wohlberg said:

The most important thing is for us is to be ready—to be in a right relationship with Jesus. I think we should be hoping Jesus comes back

To read more click on the title of this post.

Concerns About Muslim Brotherhood

The referendum to amend Egypt's constitution to allow parliamentary and presidential election has just been successfully concluded. People are very concerned for Egypt because it means that the Muslim Brotherhood which has great influence in Egypt may take control of power. In the previous post, Pastor Shaddy Soliman, an Eqyptian leading a church in US has shared his concerns. Now another former Eqyptian Muslim, Dr. Mark Gabriel has also shared similar concerns. They are both Eqyptians with deep knowledge of the political situations in Egypt. The Brotherhood had organized a political party recently and one of its objective is to destroy Israel, so you can interpret what they will do when they come to power. Beside trying to destroy Israel, Christians are certainly marginalize in Egypt.

Dr. Mark Gabriel said :

“We need to pray for the entire Middle East because whatever God is going to allow to happen in Egypt is going to influence the whole region,” says Dr. Mark Gabriel, who was born and raised in Egypt as a Muslim before converting to Christianity, changing his name, and moving to the U.S. Gabriel is author of Islam and Terrorism.

“So we pray for the local church in Egypt. We pray for the situation and ask the Lord to come and intervene,” Gabriel says. “We pray for the position of the U.S. as the world leader to handle the transition in Egypt in a very wise way based on clear understanding of the situation.”

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

Kuching Ministers Fellowship - Prayer Rally

Last evening, the Kuching Ministers Fellowship (KMF) together with Sarawak Ministers Fellowship organized a very successful prayer rally at Christian Ecumenical Worship Centre, Kuching. The turn out of Christians were unprecedented, more than two thousand Christians gathered to pray for current issues such as the Bahasa Bibles retained by the authority, the general erosion of Christians' right as enshrined in our Constitution, and also the coming state and general election. The main theme was to pray for religious freedom for all Christians.

Praise God! Christians from various denominations, and various races were there in unity to pray for breakthrough in areas of religious and political freedom.

A pastor said that Christians in other states are watching us, the Sarawakian Christians as an example for all Christians in Malaysia. ( More than 40% of people from Sarawak are Christians). We as a state is important because we have the largest Christians population in Malaysia.

We Christians in Sarawak must pray as One to achieve breakthroughs in areas that we want to see progress. Of course, we also welcome all our fellow Christians in Peninsula to join hands in prayers for our nation.

Indeed, Glory to God for the tremendous turn-out of Christians. Only He can move so many hearts. Praise God, Hallelujah!

Note: click on the title of this post to read a news item about the rally.