City of Angels

No I’m not actually referring to Los Angeles, Calif.

My pastor preached a sermon on angels. And seriously what a refresher it was!

It’s been a long time since I heard a sermon preached on this topic. And in fact, angels-the stuff that evoke fantastical imagery amongst the believers-is seldom preached nowadays.

The more I think about it, the more I’m thankful to God for bringing me to JB. It’s the little things about this place that shows His remarkable hand at work: From the apartment, to the church and even the little blessing of having the bus stop right outside my place.

But concerning church, it’s not to say Faith Methodist isn’t a good church or that the pastors don’t preach God’s Word. In Holy Light, several laymen preach as well. Even though their sermons are not as ‘entertaining’ as the ones in FMC, in many respects they are superior sermons.

Sermons from FMC are more or less predictable, but I could never predict that pastor was going to preach on Angels today! And in fact, I actually learnt something new (i.e. unlearn a mistake)

* * *

Short notes: Going to watch Ironman tomorrow. I’m thinking of checking my eyesight also-have been getting headaches playing HL2.

Bible storybook

I remember that my first encounter with the Bible was through a brightly coloured Children’s Bible. It had full colour pictures (not illustrations), not cartoony but drawn realistically. I loved it, evidenced by repeat readings (or rather lookings) until it fell apart at the seams.

Other than that they were this series of comic books running through the major Bible stories starting with the creation and ending with Paul’s appeal to Ceasar. Loved it as well. Too bad I can’t remember the publisher and the title, but these are forever etched into my mind. Even when I read the bible now, I sort of ‘cast’ the passage with images from these comic books. So the Israelite men always wore short skirts and Paul was bald…(was he?)

Anyway, here’s an excerpt from a Bible storybook. Gotta love the brightly coloured pictures.

I should add that the image is from Christianity Today.

What does he mean?

An excerpt from the Times Online. An opinion piece on the 2008 US Presidential race.

Here again, Obama, by virtue of generation and accident, bridges this deepening divide. He was brought up in a nonreligious home and converted to Christianity as an adult. But – critically – he is not born-again. His faith – at once real and measured – lives at the centre of the American religious experience. It is a modern, intellectual Christianity.

Converted to Christianity…but not born-again? Now what is that supposed to mean?

I guess we have to give allowances for the way non-Christians use theological language. But I just can’t escape the feeling that the phrase was rather unnecessary. Is it meant to insinuate that ‘born-again Christians’ are unintellectual and anti-modern?

I would characterize my conversion to Christianity as being ‘born-again’, and why is that in opposition to a thinking faith, the one that (Barack) Obama is deemed to have?

Condolences

It was a shock. And a reminder of the terrible times we are in.

23 South Korean nationals were abducted in Afghanistan by Taliban rebels to force South Korean troops out of the country. One of them, the pastor of the mission team was shot dead, despite ongoing negotiations to free them. It broke the news last night.

My condolences.

Fruitful discussion

Last night’s PCM was great!

We had a really fruitful (and long) time of discussing a familiar verse: The one where Jesus calms the storm.

So one of us looked at the passage and came up with an alternative reading (different from the one about having faith that Jesus can calm the ’storms’ in your life)

What if the disciples were not pleading for their life when they woke Jesus during the storm? It’s a mixture of desperation and frustration and anger with Jesus for sleeping soundly while the rest were working hard to keep the boat afloat.  Waking him up, the retort was more a sarcastic request than any genuine plea for their lives.

“..And He got up and ^(C)rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm…” (NASB)

Nice one, the disciples now knew they had unleashed a beast, so to speak. Jesus was no longer some respectable rabbi and amazing miracle worker. He was more than that.

“…And He said to them, “Why are you afraid? ^(D)Do you still have no faith?…” (NASB)

We could interpret this as Jesus claim to divinity.  Not so much faith in what he could do, but faith in who he was. At first they were afraid that they would die, now the were really afraid of who stood before them. He was God.

They say familiarity breed contempt. Nothing highlights it clearer than this account, and the response that Jesus gives to such attitudes.

And after that sharing, the entire PCM was quiet for a whole 2 minutes.

What I thought of today…

Just a little two cents worth of theological musings.

Been wondering of the REAL meaning behind our beloved verse, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

In what has come to characterize the quasi-rationalism of the 21st century, a non-Christian would say, “Who made Christ our saviour? I didn’t ask to be saved, I don’t need to be saved and I damn well didn’t vote for Christ to save me.”

That is a hard hitting way to put it, but for a the past 4 years, we have been slurping the damning media coverage of a botched US attempt to “bring democracy to Iraq.” Can’t blame anyone for taking the anti-salvation stance.

For the past 4 years, conscientious Malaysians have watched in dismay as basic local governance, security and national unity get torn to shreds under the administration of a PM who had promised to bring a new leaf to Malaysia under his banner of Islam Hadhari. Religion has done little to change things; one wonders whether Christ would fare any better.

Whether outside our borders or within, we are being told (daily) that religion breeds disaster. And that the old fashion way of cleaning up the cesspit we got ourselves into is to roll up our sleeves and…start scrubbing.

(To be continued in a next post…)

Billy Graham’s wife passes away…

(via: Straitstimes.com)

Condolences. She, as much as her husband was an inspiration to me as well.

Defending the defenceless…

There is a village in Kelantan named Kampung Jias. It is an Orang Asli settlement. Orang Asli are the native inhabitants on the Malay peninsular.

Something happened there that saddened me greatly.  But I am not a good storyteller as Bob Kee. He is perhaps more fitting to tell what happened there and is happening.

On June 4, 2007, a building erected by the Orang Asli on customary and traditional lands for use by their own community to serve as a place of worship was demolished by the Gua Musang District Land Office of Kelantan.

He has followed up with another more recent post detailing the whole incident and what is going to be done about it.

A police report has been filed on the matter and I pray that the police force will be impartial in investigating this case. The said place of worship was a Christian church to be built on the penghulu’s own orchard.

There is something to be said about a country where the local authorities are “free” to intimidate the less educated and less economically able. Although we have not seen the end of the whole incident yet, I can smell the rat already.

Will everybody entranced over the Altantuya Murder Trials, this incident won’t make even the 7th page on the news dailies. But honestly, as a concerned citizen, this is of more importance. Not only because I am with my Christian brothers in prayer, but because I cannot just sit back and watch someone get bullied right in front of me. Can you?

Hymns from around the world

Found this great slideshow over at Christianity Today. I love it, it’s just so beautiful seeing how other people from all over the world worship God.

Link: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/special/hymnal/1.1.html 

What the Federal court’s decision on apostasy means to me (and to all of us).

As you all have probably known, the Federal Court ruled yesterday that Lina Joy has to get the Sharia court to endorse her conversion out of Islam in order for her to remove the word ‘Islam’ on her I/C.

This is my opinion on the matter.  I am a Christian.
It is kinda ironic that I’m writing about Christian-Islam relations on a Wesak day. But I first knew about the Lina Joy case about 5 years back. My first impressions was that she was a very brave lady. Many Malay Christians have opted for a quieter life. Without trying to diminish the sacrifices other converts from Islam have made, but I have to say I admire her for what she did and believed.

To me she believed that every man and woman is responsible for their own choices. Lina Joy, born a Malay as Azlina Jailani must have believed that religion is a personal choice.  You do not inherit your religion from your parents.

Now this may be almost an axiom for most of us. Contemporary opinion has it that religion is a private matter.

Unfortunately, in Malaysia, the majority Malay population who happen to be Muslim do not think so. Islam is a way of life- a total way of life. One from which there is no turning away. It is the logical outcome of a faith convinced of its truth and a religion in which there is no separation between the private and public life.

Irregardless of Lina’s personal reasons for battling this case all the way to the highest court in Malaysia,  one thing is certain: Because of the majority Malay sentiment and the majority court decision, she has to continue to live in fear and in hiding. Her right to live freely has been curtailed whilst others live normally. Isn’t this injustice? How apt for a secular court to pronounce a ‘prison sentence’ of sorts for an apostate from Islam. 

Recent incidents, including Lina Joy’s case has made me realize there are two, perhaps three, parrallel societies happening to live in Malaysia. One is a sophisticated, liberal and almost secular people give and take a little religion here and there, another is the Islamic community-and the last, the poor. The classification is crude, but will serve my point nonetheless.

The point is identity. Who are you? The court thinks, and most Malays think that she (Lina) is a Malay and therefore a Muslim. She thinks she is no longer a part of the Islamic community by the simple virtue that she has made a choice based on conscience. The question is whose thinking will the court uphold? We have seen here that the judges think that the former is correct.

I believe that the 2-1 decision against Lina’s favour was the wrong one, as I have argued above. I think it was a cowardly decision. As it was not an unanimous decision I can see there is within the constitution a case for non-Muslim Malays. It is easy to hide behind technicalities to preserve the ‘peace’. Brawn and intimidation instead of reason and liberty has won the day, and it is a sad day it is.

I’m reminded of a Malay proverb: Diberi betis, nakkan peha. This is so true in Malaysian life, either overtly or subversively.