Don't Be Lazy...[75]

Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.

[Romans 12:11]

From the Amplified Bible:

Never be lazy in your work, but serve the Lord enthusiastically.

[Romans 12:2]

Quotes from the famous people...

• While action might not always bring happiness, there is no happiness without action. - Benjamin Disraeli -
• Doing is the great thing, for if people do what is right, in time they come to like doing it. - Aruskind -
• If you want to be enthusiastic, you've got to act enthusiastic. - Dale Carnegie -
• We do not sing because we are happy, we are happy because we sing. - William James -

Activity, action or doing something will bring not only rewards and recognition, but will bring happiness as well. When we are busy doing things, we occupy our minds in constructive ways. Deep down the knowledge that we are accomplishing tasks brings a sense of self-satisfaction and happiness that can be found in no other manner.

~ Logic will not change an emotion, but action will! ~

Gift of God...[74]

... who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purity for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

[Titus 2:14]

When you have real enthusiasm and kindness in your heart, you can be a real blessing to others, and you too will be blessed.

~ Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm ~

MMMmmmMMMmmm~!

Living the Life...[73]

But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you:

to love the Lord your God,

to walk in all his ways,

to obey his commands,

to hold fast to him and

to serve him with all your heart and all your soul.

[Joshua 22:5]

Turn disappointment into determination and it will open up new doors of opportunity for you.

~ Enthusiasm is the advance agent that paves the way for new ideas ~

Obnoxious Pig...

Out of the multitude of people I've met, this guy was one of its kind. Obnoxious to the core. Rude. Proud. Speak directly from his ass instead of getting information from his brain then transfer them to his mouth. How can such man live? And where's my ability to shoot ppl down? I'm in fact smiling and wondering to myself, "If he's married, I wonder how's the wife? Equally as arrogant or has to suffer thru his hands? If I have such man in my life, I will arm myself with the butcher's knife and I'll be a professional dart-thrower. Phew.. am I glad not to have that kinda person in my life. God bless..." I wasn't even listening to his presentation. I was busy entertaining my better-than-Pixar-imagination.

Enthusiasm...[72]

Enthusiasm means 'God within us'. Therefore, correctly speaking, the only person who can be truly enthusiastic is a person who has God living within them.

...for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. [Philippians 2:13]

As Christians, our lives and ministry should be...

• Turning boredom into excitement
• Inertia into enthusiasm
• Fear into fight
• Apathy into action!

Enthusiasm is contagious in any area, but godly enthusiasm inspires, encourages and penetrates everything we do.

~ Enthusiasm glows... radiates... permeates... and immediately captures everyone's interest ~

Crying and Sleeping...

That's what I did for the whole of Monday. Crying and sleeping...quite a great therapy... sleeping the whole morning and afternoon and night...there's not much to do except for 3 hours of work. And a box of expensive chocolates...

plus movies in between...

Sincerity...[71]

"Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshipped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord."

[Joshua 24:14]

In both the Old and New Testaments, God puts a high premium on sincerity.

In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.

[Titus 2:7-8]

~ Choose the best and shun mediocrity and inferior standards ~

Good Death...

I have a soft spot for the elderly. My own grandmother in particular. She can't remember her own favourite son but she can remember me. There's not one that she can remember. She repeats her questions like the old mother in the movie "Money Not Enough 2". She can even remember what I do for a living.

Remember the newspaper articles about being old and abandon? Grandma is fortunate as she's not abandon but to deny someone proper medical attention, I think I would rather be left to die in cold by the roadside. Catching for breath... I know how hard it was to gasp for air like a fish out of the aquarium. My own student died in my arms gasping for air.

I see thru everyone in the family. Want her dead and get to her million dollar possession. My own sister who always ask me to be sure that grandma gets what she needs as we are educated ppl, sang a different tune yesterday nite. She sent me crying a bucketful in front of the stupid rectangular computer screen. She was rambling about mercy killing and euthanasia, putting dogs to sleep...? Am I suppose to equate my own grandmother to a dog?

Simply put, everyone wants me to turn my head away and pretend that I don't see it. Nothing has happen. Everything is well and good and it should be that way. I do understand that it is not easy to care for the elderly. Sis talked about border line. We're only her grandchildren and if her own children want her dead and gone, there's nothing we can do. I may be less educated compared to her, I feel that there shouldn't be a border line where human life is concerned.

How do you measure the quality of a human life? Only God can do that...

It will definitely come back. It will be a cycle where her own children will die the same way and one of the granddaughter's will look from a far knowing that her hands are tied and she can't do anything to help except to cry her heart out... I'll always tell you that MONEY ISN'T EVERYTHING. You can't bring anything with you when you die. See... it's not a good life after all having so much yet nothing. It's an irony. The one's who are alive wish you dead but wondering what took you so long to breathe your last.

It was different for grandpa. I remembered they sent grandpa to the best hospital and get the doctor to come to the house at ungodly hours. My uncles even asked me to skip school just to visit grandpa. They arranged transport to ship us in and out of SP. They get everyone to fly back from every corner of the globe when they think he might not survive the nite. Surprisingly, for grandma it's different. Everyone sings a different tune... and I have to tango along. God bless... count me out... I don't want to be part of such family.

How Bad Could It Be?

Whenever I was rushing for time, I find myself walking in circles of my apartment building, searching for my car. I couldn't remember where I parked the car the previous nite. Then, fantastically the car would be just a few steps from the lift. It wasn't the first time. There were times I walked right past my car, stood beside other car and happily pressed on the remote button just to find that the beeping came from behind me. Sheer embarrassment... and sometimes I thought the remote failed to function and I was about to use the key only to look into the car and realized how different it looked inside.

After church, I decided to walk to the nearest Maybank to get to the ATM. Actually I don't mind which bank also can as long as there's MEPS Cash. I was too lazy to drive as it was quite difficult to get a parking space. Thus, I chose to walk. Healthy ma... Then, walked back to the car parked at the Shell Station. All these years, I've never entered the small convenient store at the Shell Station, so I went in to get some Twisties. It was really small. I walked in and there... right in front of me.... a CIMB ATM machine! ARGH!! Fine! I'll take that as warming up my body...

After that, I had an appointment at McD Seberang Jaya. Sad to say, that fella PPK-ed me. Thus, I ended up enjoying myself licking a ChocoTop ice-cream, sitting at a table for six as other tables were occupied. Suddenly, came two locals sitting beside me without asking whether the other seats were taken up or not. The couple came with a big family of ME (go figure out yourself) foreigners. In less than a minute, I was standing up and leaving MY table and they TOOK OVER MY TABLE! It was just a simple question of asking me whether I can move my ass to another table but they had to take over the whole table by force! Instead of giving them a piece of my mind... I was laughing at how silly I was to just give up my table. Oh... boy... tourists from ME are really horrible... *kurang ajar* Come to my country, some more 'rampas' my table...

At the end of the day, it wasn't that bad. I wasn't upset by any of the incident. Instead, I had more time talking to God while driving back. It was a smooth drive back crossing the Penang Bridge. Life wasn't so bad after all. It was how you see things that make it bad. There's always two sides of the coin.

We're Rudest to People Closest To Us...

That statement holds so much truth in it. And we're 100% ourselves when we're with the people closest to us. No pretending. No fake smiles. No nodding of head even when we're actually not listening at all.

I scream. I throw tantrums. I used abusive words. I did a lot of nasty things to those closest to me. That's just me.... I guess... I treat strangers better than people closest to me...

A Time For Everything...[70]

...making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

[Ephesians 5:16]

How we handle our time is very important indeed.

Time, indeed is a sacred gift and each day is a little life. [John Lubbock]

Time is truly a gift from God, it is life, and if you waste time, you are wasting life.

Lost time is never found again. [Benjamin Franklin]

One of your greatest dangers in life is letting the urgent things crowd out the important things. Take time to do those important things and take time to enjoy life. *urgent and important are totally different* Life is not a dress rehearsal, it is the real thing.

Take time to laugh

It is the music of the soul.

Take time to think

It is the source of power.

Take time to play

It is the source of perpetual youth.

Take time to read

It is the fountain of widsom.

Take time to pray

It is the greatest power on earth.

Take time to love and be loved

It is a God-given privilege.

Take time to be friendly

It is the road to happiness.

Take time to give

It is too short a day to be selfish.

Take time to work

It is the price of success.

Value the importance of this moment. Enjoy totally the gift of this day and all that God has for you.

~ Do not waste time, for time is the raw material of life ~

Money = Good Life?

Money is everything. That's a statement but I beg to differ. I used to have that same mentality. Everyone has a strongman in his or her life. A strongman is someone or something which holds you back from being yourself. More like idolatry... putting something before God when there shouldn't be anything before God Himself.

I worked hard for 7 years. By next year, it will be my 8th year toiling. I've never rested properly as every single minute to me, I should be generating income. I don't have a stable income. Mine is worse than the share market. I have earned more than RM5k per week. Thus, those who told me they earned RM10k per month, I wasn't that surprise. I just smirked. There are some who bragged about earning RM5k in a month... oh, please... I can pretend by giving you the surprised look and praise you for that, "Wow! That's a lot man! Congratulations!"

By earning so much, how happy do you think you can be? I used to enjoy shopping but now I don't even like it. It's just the same ol' things that you see in the shopping complexes. Big houses... can you be in every corner of that house? Cars... I have two... how do one person drives two cars? I have everything more than one... but am I having a good life?

7 is a perfect number. This year I have spend a lot of time with my frens and family. I get to see for myself who are truly my frens and who are just using me because they always think I'm loaded therefore, they get everything free from my pocket. Don't do that to me... I just choose not to be nasty. I'm finally going for a holiday out of this country. I'm always afraid of letting go, not even temporarily.. I'm afraid of losing my grip on something and when I come back I find I have nothing.

In conclusion, this is the best verse that makes me learn how to let go and let God...

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

[Psalm 6:33]

From a person who used to think money is everything, now I'm telling you, MONEY ISN'T EVERYTHING. When you have tonnes of money, you have no good life.

“It’s easier for a camel to get down on its knees and crawl through a small hole than it is for most people to overcome the temptation and desire to lift themselves up rather than God and money is the best way they know to lift themselves up – because to them, money is power, recognition, and attention.”

I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

[Matthew19:23-24]

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that Christians shouldn't be rich. The Lord will bless us abundantly and at the same time the Lord has the power to remove our richness when He sees that we've forgotten totally about Him when we're rich. I have experienced that first hand and it really took me a lot of strength to crawl back to God as I'm one person who's very very hard-headed.

Home Early Again...

Second time my precious is back from school early. The first time was on her second day of UPSR. This morning was because she was down with flu. Called from school during recess but since I had a class, she has to wait until my class ended.

While filling up the form to collect her, suddenly I couldn't remember how to spell her name. I wanted to take out my pda to check my contact list... *sigh* I'm so used to her pet name but finally I got her name out correctly on those two sheets of paper.

Chop. Sign. Walked up to her classroom. Get her out of the classroom. Gave the consent letter to the guard. Drove off. Came back. Dim sum for breakfast... and she's going to have her lunch in another few hours and now she's in another room.. and she's ONLINE with her msn on, her facebook on, her maple game, the music is playing.... looks like I don't have to teach her much to be like me...

Encouragement..[69]

Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

[1 Thessalonians 5:11]

We are called to be our brother's keeper, not our brother's butcher. It is very easy in a church fellowship to have roast preacher for lunch on Sunday and the deacons on Monday. How important it is that we encourage and build one another up. Discouragement is one of the greatest tools the enemy uses.
Encouragement can be a powerful friend. It strengthens the weak, imparts courage to the fainthearted and gives hope to the faltering. One of the greatest ministries we can have is to lift the spirits of fellow believers.

Many Christians have become weary in their daily conflict with the evil one and are tempted to give up in their spiritual struggle. They need an encouraging word.

~ A little encouragement can spark a great accomplishment ~

Doggie.. :o)

Hush puppy??

Are You On The Lord's Side?...[68]

Each individual has to make the great choice and decision as to whether or not they will receive God's salvation through a personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is only ONE mediator between man and God...

Peter highlights this truth when he says....
"He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters."[Matthew 12:30]

So, are you on the Lord's side or not? Jesus spotlighted this critical choice when he said...

If you have never discovered God's wonderful plan for your life and the answer for the devastating problem of sin that separates us from God, then you need to make a choice right now. You need to receive Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour from sin and to be the Lord of your life, from this moment on. If this is your definite choice and decision, then you make this prayer, your prayer right now...

"Lord Jesus, I need You. I believe You paid the penalty for my sins on the cross. I choose right now, to turn from my sins and independent lifestyle and open the door of my life and invite You to come in to be my personal Saviour and Lord. Thank you for forgiving my sins and for giving me eternal life. Please take control of my life and fill me with Your Holy Spirit, and give me the strength to follow You from this moment on. AMEN!"

If you have sincerely prayed this prayer, then you are on the Lord's side. This is the greatest choice you could ever make, and your continuing Christian walk will be made up of a constant series of choices as you follow the Lord.

~ God is always voting for us, the devil is always voting against us. How we vote determines the election ~

Surrogates...

I like Bruce Willis so any movie he's in, they're nice...

Guidance...[67]

You must distinguish between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean...

[Leviticus 10:10]

To distinguish and choose the difference between what is holy and unholy; pure and impure, clean and unclean, is a major secret to the victorious Christian life.



Every day, as Christians, we face situations where we have to distinguish between what is right and what is wrong. Reading material, things we look at and view, financial matters, business practices, relationships etc, all requiring a choice and a decision. Make sure you commit yourself and all your activities into the Lord's hand, who says...

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you and watch over you. [Psalm 32:8]

~ He who is born of God should grow to resemble His Father ~

Ais Kacang~ Chendul~!

It was in between the small lanes. I thought I brought them to the wrong place until I saw so many people surrounding the small stall. There's another stall selling the exact same stuff right opposite this stall, but that one business very ssslllooowww... so I was wondering how did it survive for so long. Maybe using mental strategy to console himself - you see so many customers, you're happy... even if they're not yours. Hope that there will be a spillover of customers to your side.
Belongs to the Tan family...
I like chrysanthemum... and I like to see the colourful bowl of 'ais kacang'.... 'ais kacang' in the making...
Chendul... with lots and lots of green worms...

When you come to Penang, NEVER go to the places for tourists.... you won't get a good deal...