Monday, August 31, 2015

Will You Live to See Miracles?

Some people pray that they will see miracles but when a miracle happened right under their nose, they don't even know it. They don't even believe about a miracle when they heard of it. They will question and ask for more details until the miracle does not seem to be a miracle after all. There are many people who are like that.

I've seen and experienced many miracles in my life, especially when I travel. It's when you step out of your comfort zone that you experienced miraculous events that no one can explain. My most recent miracle was my RM50 note turned into RM100. I have a few RM50 notes with me and I took one out to buy some meat at the market. I put it down on my shelf to comb my hair and I was contemplating whether to keep it in my pocket or bring my sling bag along with me. Then I remembered about the incident where my RM50 note flew out of my pocket, gone with the wind. Actually I didn't see that piece of money flying off, it just disappeared. So, I decided to bring the sling bag along. Lo' and behold, my RM50 note has turned into RM100.

Being excited and all, I texted my friends and loved ones. Hallelujah~! Amen~! Those were the responses I received but to my dismay, some even questioned whether I have taken the wrong note, seen wrongly. They even asked how could it happen. And they are believers of Christ. Suddenly, it dawned on me what there are people who have never experienced any form of miracles in their lives. Lord, help them of their unbelief. I started to text a few more people and in the end, I truly understand the whole thing with miracles. If a miracle so small that you will cannot believe, do you think God will show you bigger miracles?

You can't even believe that my RM50 turned into RM100. It's like Jesus carrying out His first miracle where He turned water into wine. If something that simple you refused to believe, even if He healed a person who is permanently disable, you wouldn't believe it. Number one, I cannot explain to you how my RM50 turned into RM100. I seriously do not know how to explain that but I wasn't blind. Well, if you can't believe that, will you believe me when I told you that I missed a train in Melbourne and being upset and all, I prayed a short prayer, asking God to help me out regarding this train issue. After moving forward a couple of stops, in the middle of the train track, the train stopped and started moving backwards at top speed. While other commuters were baffled and started to complain, I was baffled myself but I was really excited. We arrived at the other train station 45 minutes earlier than the train that we missed and we managed to catch that train. The furious commuters who got down the train demanded for an explanation from the station master, but the station master could only apologized for the technical glitch. I have nothing to complain. I was skipping around happily. You might think God is selfish at that point of time, not thinking about others who might be late to their appointments and destination, but I'm sorry, I cannot explain that either.

I have one too many miraculous incidents in my life that sometimes I tend to overlook them. Try not to ask for too much of scientific explanation. His ways are higher than ours. If everything you need lengthy explanation then sad to say, till the day you die, you will never live to see any miracles because you're blind at heart and you believe too much about science that you forget the wonders. Step up your faith. And by the way, you don't have to be a multi-millionaire to realize that God has blessed you tremendously. I may have no money in my wallet but I have really good food on the table. That's a miracle on its own.

Do you know that when you entertain your unbelief so much, you tend to explain everything within your pea-brain capacity and thinking that you have a smart answer, you become a real idiot? Like when you see the sick being healed, while the sick rejoiced because of the healing, you and your big mouth might water down the miracle because you explain it off that the medication is finally working. When the train moved backward, you just said it's a technical glitch and when there's nothing else to explain about, you just said there's no such thing. Change your mindset and look out for miracles.

Sunday, August 30, 2015

Kissed by the Devil...

"Look into my eyes... and feel the Father's love. Look into my eyes... look into my eyes..." And one by one, they were slain, by what power, one would ask. Is it the power of the Holy Ghost? To the one with poor knowledge and understanding towards the Word, that man will believe that he has been slain under the anointing of the Holy Ghost. To the one who is knowledgeable and stay close to the Lord, the spirit man will be on the alert and know instantly that the whole congregation was dancing with the devil, clothed in the sheep-skin. When the righteous and alert were not 'touched' by the devil, the devil himself delivered a kiss. Did not Judas Iscariot betray Jesus with a kiss? 

I have heard the voice of Jesus.... I have also heard the voice of the one from hell. I will not be deceived by any other voices or actions portrayed. Look into the eyes and feel the Father's love... please show me in which part of the Bible Jesus shows the Father's love through His eyes? Did he heal the blind by asking the blind to look into His eyes? Did he deliver a kiss to the one with demons in his body? There... there.... the whole congregation danced with the devil. What has happened to the church?
The end is drawing nearer, many churches will die away. It will just be a building for the old faithful. There are people who refused to follow the cloud. The main reason would be it's not nice to leave the church just like that. Well, put courtesy aside, you have to save your own soul. There shouldn't be any compromise. If a church leader has done 99 things correct but 1 wrong move that's against Biblical teaching, the alarm in your senses should have screamed out loud. No compromise. God never even give Aaron's sons a chance to explain what wrong they have done. Both sons died on the spot. So, there shouldn't be any compromise in any part. A church that's spiritually dead is better than a church that's lukewarm, a minute hot for Jesus, another minute dancing around with the devil.
Speak to the leader, you say... A man who worships his own pride will listen to no one even when he's digging his own grave connecting down to hell right under your nose. A church which tends to veer towards the worldly thinking is like a ship riding straight into the whirlpool. One may say that the Spirit of God is with us, so nothing can be done to our soul, let's just enjoy watching horror movie. Are you afraid of horror movie? What kinda question is that? Why should I enjoy horror movie? Why do you want to scare your spirit man for the fun of it? Watching horror movie does not show that you're a brave person. It shows how much pride you have that you can even hurt your spirit man just to show off. Isn't it pure stupidity to throw caution into the wind and out of the window? If you know that your neighbourhood is a safe one, why do you still lock your door? Why not just remove the doors and windows?? The one who comes in the night to steal, kill and destroy will be an outsider, not your neighbour. Sheer stupidity to open your soul to the devil. 
A man who explains the Bible with all sorts of theological nuances to water down the true meaning ought to hang himself like Judas Iscariot.  

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Piano Exam and I...

I have a year to practice but I don't see myself doing that. I'm the greatest procrastinator because as time draws nearer and when I feel the heat, then I can perform better. I don't remember practicing day and night on the piano just to get a pass. I can pass by just sight-reading the whole three pieces and playing the scales through trial and error. For aural, I will just spit out whatever answer that I can think of but aural for grade 7, there's nothing I can vomit out. One month ago, I finally opened my scales book to see what's inside. Scales in legato, that I'm okay with but in staccato. What kind of animal is that? And a third apart? And what on earth is chromatic scales? I shrink by a size or two after flipping through the pages. It's okay... let's tackle them one-by-one. One week before the exam, I finally have the courage to go through the aural CD.

Through my experience, I need one week to master the scales including the one with a-third apart. Then, another week for contrary motion. One more week for chromatic scales and another to master the arpeggios. 

The pieces, I plan to breeze through them, as long as I hit those notes correctly, I'm going to pass. That sort of view changed drastically the moment my sister said she's coming for a visit. The first day itself when she heard me playing, she said it was terrible. Teruk.... teruk... The next day, I decided to seriously practice and in order to do that, I have to sacrifice my time for cooking. Since she's back, she only wants to eat hawker food so mi madre has to take her along. I'm left with no one to cook for me, no food on the table and the saddest part was I was left with only a bunch of bananas and I had to eat that for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The hubby was not around, busy with his stuff. I only wanted that distinction to plaster it on my sister's face. Just to spike her. I've never sat on the piano bench for 6-8 hours a day. It was terrible.
I did not even sit in front of the computer, didn't even prepare any answer sheets for my students who are all sitting for trial exams. I told them my exam is more important than theirs. Then, 5 days before the exam, I decided to take a video of my fingers playing those three pieces because my travel buddy said she has never seen me playing a piano before. I sent her those video and I sent to another angel who could help me give sound advice. Then, my itchy finger just clicked on the video and my own fingers playing intimidated me. Yes, I got intimidated by my own fingers. You know when you watch it on YouTube wondering, how on earth they played so fast.... well.... yeah... hmmm.... My angel gave good advice as a booster for more marks. I took that seriously but two days before the exam, it dawned on me that I will never get a distinction because my motive was completely wrong. I stressed myself up just because I wanted to prove to my sister that I can do it even though it's a last minute. I gave up trying. I'll just laugh my way in and out. 

I got a really nice lady for an examiner. She's really kind. Jesus is on my side. I got all the easy scales... everything's easy even sight-reading was in adagio. I just don't like the piano used for exam. It's like typing on a computer keyboard. You always try random pressing to see whether you like it or not before buying it. Sometimes it's like holding a pencil. There are some who prefer fat pencils, some with rubber grip and some with a thin body. It's a matter of preference. And the saddest part was I usually can't play for others to hear that's why I'm never a performer. 

I was nervous this morning. I made mistakes which I have never made before. It's like suddenly you don't even know that 1+1=2 and you try to use trigonometric formula to figure out what's 1+1... you get what I'm saying? So, my conclusion is, if I am to take grade 8 exam, I will not torture myself sitting for hours on the piano. No matter how much I practice, when I'm nervous, nothing good comes out of it. Thanks to everyone who keeps me in prayer. Your prayers have all been answered. 
It feels really good without stress. I'm back on the computer and I have a pile of essays to write. I would rather write 300 essays than concentrating on 3 piano exam pieces which I end up making more mistakes while practicing harder. To my neighbours who have endured the long hours of listening to the same scale over and over, thank you for not banging on the door or throwing stones into the house to show disapproval of such noise pollution. Thank you to the back lane neighbour who took his/her time to blow the saxophone together with me when I was doing the scales. Thank you for the accompaniment and you started the scale again when I got stuck halfway and started mine. You're a really great and wonderful saxophonist. Hope we can meet one day and say hi since we're just one back lane away.... if only we open our back door.