Today I learnt something very important in Bible study group, the importance of Praying for the Nation. The Key Verse was taken from 2 Chronicles 7:14 “if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
There are just four things that are required for us as God’s people
1. Be Humble
2. Pray
3. Seek God’s Face
4. Turn From Our Wicked Ways
Simple isn’t it? I do not think so, if it was so simple to do, our nation would not be how it is right now. The state of our country today, the corruption of the government, the political instability, the racial discrimination and all other nonsense that we have is, believe it or not, what we rightfully deserve!
In 2 Chronicles 7:14 God promises to forgive our sins and heal our land, yes, if only we, the people of God, God’s chosen people, are able to humble ourselves, pray and seek His face and turn from our wicked ways.
What is being humble? It is doing what God says is right and not what we ourselves think is right. For God resists the proud and listens to the humble (James 6).
What do we pray for? Pray for change, because nothing will happen if we don’t bother to pray. If only the Christians of this nation spend as much time praying for the country instead of complaining, I’m sure our nation would have changed for the better ages ago.
How do we seek God’s face? See, we usually seek God’s hand in our prayers, requesting for God to do things, to grant us things and such. When we seek God’s face, it means to seek a relationship with God. When God is able to call you His friend, he will reveal to you the matters of His heart, when that happens, we will be able to pray more specifically.
Turn from our wicked ways? Yes, we are wicked and sinful, not just the country. We are ambassadors of Christ to this nation, what have we been doing to allow this nation fall into disarray? Do not ever think bribing the policeman to get away from a speeding ticket is a small matter. Whatever little thing we do, reflects God’s image, and if we allow such things to go on, how are we to expect the others to not do the same in even bigger magnitudes?
Remember, we are to give an account of every word and every action that we have done on this plane of existence. If you were to die today, will you be able to answer to God what you just did? The disaster that you have allowed to fall upon this nation we call Malaysia for neglecting your duties?
Like it or not, it is our duty to pray for Malaysia, not just occasionally, but always and every day. For if we do not pray, nothing will happen, and Malaysia will continue to rot away…
May God so help us...
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Living Contented Or Living With A Purpose
I had a friend who would constantly remind me to do my best, push myself to my limits giving my all in whatever I do. I firmly believed in that and encouraged my friend to do the same. But at that point in time, I was so clueless on what to do to the extent of not even knowing what my goal in life was. So I thought about it for a very long moment, considering all the values and lessons I have learnt in life to come up with a dream which I could present to my friend. Or at least allow me to have some aim in my life at that point of time. It was difficult for I have lost all my childhood dreams after realizing all my shortcomings throughout my stages in life.
It is amazing to see how easily people are able to lose their dreams after realizing their own restrictions may it be financially, intellectually, physically, emotionally, and sometimes in terms of education. People simply just give up when they find out that their big dream is sad to say, close to impossible. Society often encourage us to dream big, but when we start having dreams of epic proportions reality starts to kick in and then they’ll say “ok, slow down there, not so far off, perhaps a little more close to earth?” Or, perhaps it’s just me…
But somewhere along those lines, I had already lost my dreams in life. I was just waiting on God to instruct me on my next move. Earnestly waiting doing pretty much nothing but gratifying myself temporarily because I was so lost, and thus the name Wandering Minstrel.
One can say that I am a person without dreams, having the mentality of crossing the bridge when I come to it. I can see that it was not very assuring for my friend when I said I do not have a dream. So after a long duration of critical thinking, I finally concluded that living up to my name is my dream. Although it was still very unclear what my dream actually is, at least I have something to work on…
Kind of… Until now…
My dream is clear, I have my focus, and I know what I want in life. But it is hard to share it with others; it is just too big for them to comprehend…
I know of a very God loving and contented person, he is simple, lives a simple life, keeps simple goals, and have simple ideals but are founded firmly on God’s word. Even though I am not without God, my beliefs are usually at a conflict with him. I had a conversation with him regarding investments and how to become wealthy (In Robert Kiyosaki’s definition in the book Rich Dad Poor Dad), and yet again we had different thoughts.
So I have some questions that are related to the Bible: God promises that He will provide, and He says that we should let tomorrow’s worries worry about tomorrow.
My questions are: Didn’t God give us intellect? Didn’t God give us the ability to perform our duties? Is it wrong to do the best that we can do by our own capacity and then let God do the rest? Is it wrong to invest with the money that we have to give us additional funding when it is also within our capacity? Most importantly, is investing considered worrying for our future? Or is planning considered worrying for our future?
I don’t know, but in my opinion, if God wishes, He can allow our investments to grow or take it away whenever He wants. I want to be like the two servants in the parable of the talents, who multiplied the talents which the master gave them. Not just in the area of finance, but also in the area of my personal growth. If I want to be successful, I will have to mingle with successful people, if I want to be a leader, I will have to mingle with leaders. These people have the right characteristics that I look for, they have the right attitude. No, not just that, they have the winning attitude that motivates and gives the drive to achieve the impossible. That is what I want…
No longer will I conform to the ideals of a contented man, living day by day perfectly well adapted with his comfort zone. That was how I was, but it got me nowhere. Now that I have found my direction, I will pursue it until God says otherwise.
May God so help me...
It is amazing to see how easily people are able to lose their dreams after realizing their own restrictions may it be financially, intellectually, physically, emotionally, and sometimes in terms of education. People simply just give up when they find out that their big dream is sad to say, close to impossible. Society often encourage us to dream big, but when we start having dreams of epic proportions reality starts to kick in and then they’ll say “ok, slow down there, not so far off, perhaps a little more close to earth?” Or, perhaps it’s just me…
But somewhere along those lines, I had already lost my dreams in life. I was just waiting on God to instruct me on my next move. Earnestly waiting doing pretty much nothing but gratifying myself temporarily because I was so lost, and thus the name Wandering Minstrel.
One can say that I am a person without dreams, having the mentality of crossing the bridge when I come to it. I can see that it was not very assuring for my friend when I said I do not have a dream. So after a long duration of critical thinking, I finally concluded that living up to my name is my dream. Although it was still very unclear what my dream actually is, at least I have something to work on…
Kind of… Until now…
My dream is clear, I have my focus, and I know what I want in life. But it is hard to share it with others; it is just too big for them to comprehend…
I know of a very God loving and contented person, he is simple, lives a simple life, keeps simple goals, and have simple ideals but are founded firmly on God’s word. Even though I am not without God, my beliefs are usually at a conflict with him. I had a conversation with him regarding investments and how to become wealthy (In Robert Kiyosaki’s definition in the book Rich Dad Poor Dad), and yet again we had different thoughts.
So I have some questions that are related to the Bible: God promises that He will provide, and He says that we should let tomorrow’s worries worry about tomorrow.
My questions are: Didn’t God give us intellect? Didn’t God give us the ability to perform our duties? Is it wrong to do the best that we can do by our own capacity and then let God do the rest? Is it wrong to invest with the money that we have to give us additional funding when it is also within our capacity? Most importantly, is investing considered worrying for our future? Or is planning considered worrying for our future?
I don’t know, but in my opinion, if God wishes, He can allow our investments to grow or take it away whenever He wants. I want to be like the two servants in the parable of the talents, who multiplied the talents which the master gave them. Not just in the area of finance, but also in the area of my personal growth. If I want to be successful, I will have to mingle with successful people, if I want to be a leader, I will have to mingle with leaders. These people have the right characteristics that I look for, they have the right attitude. No, not just that, they have the winning attitude that motivates and gives the drive to achieve the impossible. That is what I want…
No longer will I conform to the ideals of a contented man, living day by day perfectly well adapted with his comfort zone. That was how I was, but it got me nowhere. Now that I have found my direction, I will pursue it until God says otherwise.
May God so help me...
Thursday, September 18, 2008
My Education & My Future
Finally, after duration too long to remember, I've gotten my internet access fixed! Hurray!..
I guess..
The past few months have really been a time of discovery for me. I have been exposed to many a thing that I can never hope to ever learn in my classes as an I.T. student. With the beginning of my final year, I can expect things to be very much tougher in my studies, but yet I remain not bothered about it.
Yea, I admit, I am very lazy, always procrastinating, always believing that everything will be fine. Because I know I can handle it, I know I will not fail. Sure, that worked out fine and dandy in my early years of college, but things are not that easy anymore. Putting things off will just result in bad grades, speaking of which, I've just blown my chance of graduating with first class honours. Wow, how did that happen? Because I just could not care any lesser about my studies anymore. You may ask, "Hey, it’s your future, why are you throwing it all away?" Well, it’s all because my dreams are not real enough for me..
I have spent so many years studying, studying my whole life ever since I knew how to speak. Let’s just say that studying got a little dull for me, my life in school is just so very dry...
"Study hard and get a good job so you get a good pay!" That is what almost every parent will say to their kids. Yes, education is indeed very important, I do agree with that. But in the recent few months, I have come to realize that there is so much more that I can do rather than graduate and work my whole life away in a company with high demand and very little freedom.
Let’s face it, everyone needs to earn money to support them, but not everyone knows that working for other people is not the only way. There might be jobs with high pay, yes, if you study well and perform well, people headhunt you to offer you very fat pay checks. But at the end of the day, that is just another prison.
An average worker wakes up early in the morning, prepares for work, get stuck in traffic jams for long hours just to get to office on time; so that they will not be penalized or their pay checks do not get thinner. In work, they have to perform well under the pressure and stress from employers in order to again not be penalized or subjected to a thinner pay check. After work, hopefully without doing overtime, they will again be caught in a traffic jam for long hours just to get home for dinner. With such a hectic day, most individuals will usually be drained from work. All that is left for them is the meagre few hours of the night to spend with their families before they call it a night and go to bed to prepare for the next day. And thus the never ending cycle continues...
Well, believe it or not, lots of people have gotten so used to that life cycle that it has became a norm. They get so comfortable with that lifestyle till the point where they fear to venture out from that rat race!
Is that what I really want in life? Ya, sure, I'll get promotions along the way, earn more money and get to do what I want “then”. The question is, when is "then"? In a job, you are bound by the job; you cannot go off whenever you wish. As for me, I love to travel, I have been dreaming to travel to far off places to see and experience the beauty of the different countries in our little planet we call earth. But I will probably be able to do that when I am 40 - 50? That is just way too long for me.
Okay, so maybe I’m not too optimistic about getting a job, but it is not just me. Honestly, I am drawn to making money, mainly because, being a student I do not have much to spend and there are so many things out there that I wish to buy, which sadly are ridiculously over priced. With that, I had always been on the lookout for opportunities to earn money. So one day, I came to know of a multi level marketing business (MLM) which offers a lot of money, as long as you are determined to work for it, the riches will come. And really, it does come; you will be generously rewarded for your efforts, no kidding.
So there I was, at their meetings, sitting in the midst of many people from different backgrounds holding different occupations. It is surprising to see what kind of people are there, I have met doctors, engineers, lawyers, businessmen, accountants, managers, all sorts of highly educated people there, and of course, there are the not so educated as well. Hey, everyone wants to earn money right? But what are professionals doing there? Are they not paid enough that they want to be involved in direct selling? Don’t they have better things to do with their time?
The truth is, they are not free, no matter what profession they are in, no matter how high in position they are, it is in fact, just another prison, a more luxurious prison...
While I was at the meetings, these people shared their experience with me, and I have learnt plenty. I can say that all of them are looking for one thing, financial freedom; freedom to do whatever they want, whenever they want. Thanks to them, I have learnt to dream again, because a person’s dream is a motivating factor for a person to succeed and to strife for the better. This time, my dream is rock solid, I know what I really want in life, and it is no longer just a far off dream. I know for sure, it is possible to achieve...
Though how to get there, I still do not know, but I am not without options, I am still evaluating the best means for me to achieve it. There are many businesses out there that I can venture into, the more I am exposed to things like these, the more I will learn. It is best to keep an open mind and try to understand things rather than being a sceptic. But most importantly, I now need to know how money works. I do not want to trade time for money like many other individuals, I want to use money to make money...
A bit hard to understand isn’t it? But hey, everyone has 24 hours, so how come some people are so rich?.. And some so poor?..
Anyway, after saying all that, I still need to get my priorities right, my parents invested in my studies therefore, I must produce results. Even though now I have decided against taking a 9 – 5 job, it is still my obligation to study well to obtain a degree. Besides, I also wish for them to be proud of me. Other than that, I want to live my everyday life as like how a leader would; in my every conduct, I want to be an example to the others around me. It is of utmost importance because being a leader and being a follower are two very different things. I have learnt that if I want to be successful, I must be a leader. Therefore, I will groom myself to be the best that I can be.
May God so help me...
I guess..
The past few months have really been a time of discovery for me. I have been exposed to many a thing that I can never hope to ever learn in my classes as an I.T. student. With the beginning of my final year, I can expect things to be very much tougher in my studies, but yet I remain not bothered about it.
Yea, I admit, I am very lazy, always procrastinating, always believing that everything will be fine. Because I know I can handle it, I know I will not fail. Sure, that worked out fine and dandy in my early years of college, but things are not that easy anymore. Putting things off will just result in bad grades, speaking of which, I've just blown my chance of graduating with first class honours. Wow, how did that happen? Because I just could not care any lesser about my studies anymore. You may ask, "Hey, it’s your future, why are you throwing it all away?" Well, it’s all because my dreams are not real enough for me..
I have spent so many years studying, studying my whole life ever since I knew how to speak. Let’s just say that studying got a little dull for me, my life in school is just so very dry...
"Study hard and get a good job so you get a good pay!" That is what almost every parent will say to their kids. Yes, education is indeed very important, I do agree with that. But in the recent few months, I have come to realize that there is so much more that I can do rather than graduate and work my whole life away in a company with high demand and very little freedom.
Let’s face it, everyone needs to earn money to support them, but not everyone knows that working for other people is not the only way. There might be jobs with high pay, yes, if you study well and perform well, people headhunt you to offer you very fat pay checks. But at the end of the day, that is just another prison.
An average worker wakes up early in the morning, prepares for work, get stuck in traffic jams for long hours just to get to office on time; so that they will not be penalized or their pay checks do not get thinner. In work, they have to perform well under the pressure and stress from employers in order to again not be penalized or subjected to a thinner pay check. After work, hopefully without doing overtime, they will again be caught in a traffic jam for long hours just to get home for dinner. With such a hectic day, most individuals will usually be drained from work. All that is left for them is the meagre few hours of the night to spend with their families before they call it a night and go to bed to prepare for the next day. And thus the never ending cycle continues...
Well, believe it or not, lots of people have gotten so used to that life cycle that it has became a norm. They get so comfortable with that lifestyle till the point where they fear to venture out from that rat race!
Is that what I really want in life? Ya, sure, I'll get promotions along the way, earn more money and get to do what I want “then”. The question is, when is "then"? In a job, you are bound by the job; you cannot go off whenever you wish. As for me, I love to travel, I have been dreaming to travel to far off places to see and experience the beauty of the different countries in our little planet we call earth. But I will probably be able to do that when I am 40 - 50? That is just way too long for me.
Okay, so maybe I’m not too optimistic about getting a job, but it is not just me. Honestly, I am drawn to making money, mainly because, being a student I do not have much to spend and there are so many things out there that I wish to buy, which sadly are ridiculously over priced. With that, I had always been on the lookout for opportunities to earn money. So one day, I came to know of a multi level marketing business (MLM) which offers a lot of money, as long as you are determined to work for it, the riches will come. And really, it does come; you will be generously rewarded for your efforts, no kidding.
So there I was, at their meetings, sitting in the midst of many people from different backgrounds holding different occupations. It is surprising to see what kind of people are there, I have met doctors, engineers, lawyers, businessmen, accountants, managers, all sorts of highly educated people there, and of course, there are the not so educated as well. Hey, everyone wants to earn money right? But what are professionals doing there? Are they not paid enough that they want to be involved in direct selling? Don’t they have better things to do with their time?
The truth is, they are not free, no matter what profession they are in, no matter how high in position they are, it is in fact, just another prison, a more luxurious prison...
While I was at the meetings, these people shared their experience with me, and I have learnt plenty. I can say that all of them are looking for one thing, financial freedom; freedom to do whatever they want, whenever they want. Thanks to them, I have learnt to dream again, because a person’s dream is a motivating factor for a person to succeed and to strife for the better. This time, my dream is rock solid, I know what I really want in life, and it is no longer just a far off dream. I know for sure, it is possible to achieve...
Though how to get there, I still do not know, but I am not without options, I am still evaluating the best means for me to achieve it. There are many businesses out there that I can venture into, the more I am exposed to things like these, the more I will learn. It is best to keep an open mind and try to understand things rather than being a sceptic. But most importantly, I now need to know how money works. I do not want to trade time for money like many other individuals, I want to use money to make money...
A bit hard to understand isn’t it? But hey, everyone has 24 hours, so how come some people are so rich?.. And some so poor?..
Anyway, after saying all that, I still need to get my priorities right, my parents invested in my studies therefore, I must produce results. Even though now I have decided against taking a 9 – 5 job, it is still my obligation to study well to obtain a degree. Besides, I also wish for them to be proud of me. Other than that, I want to live my everyday life as like how a leader would; in my every conduct, I want to be an example to the others around me. It is of utmost importance because being a leader and being a follower are two very different things. I have learnt that if I want to be successful, I must be a leader. Therefore, I will groom myself to be the best that I can be.
May God so help me...
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