Today on this Lunar New Year is a milestone for me, having completed three long years in Kota Kinabalu without moving to another place. After four hard years in Ranau where I traveled back and forth Kota Kinabalu almost every weekend on a 100kms journey of winding and mountain roads, I felt I had finally returned to my home and to my possession according to the word of the Lord - "On the year of Jubilee, everyone must return to one's own land and possession" (Lev 26). So at an age of 55 years old, I have returned to my home and have lived in the city which I had called my hometown since 1988. I boast in the Lord now for good health and I can't help but find it ironic that as healthy as I am now, I have been barred from church entry as if I were a "leper" or an "outcast". Leaders who follow rules blindly will have much to answer before the Lord for dividing the Lord's body and for excluding those who are welcomed by the Lord Jesus himself.
More than 7 years ago when I started my ministry up in Ranau having returned from my 6-year in Singapore, I was taken ill three times within the year (2015) and I still keep a couple of hospital records to tell my grandkids one day that their grandad had struggled for months with ill health but survived and in fact, thrived in my Ranau's pastorate preaching 100 sermons that year. Even in my time at the Bible College over three years, I have struggled for good health, and from time to time I had succumbed to flu, and fatigue from much travelling. On one occasion I drove from Namaus (120kms away from KK) with high fever back to KK as I did not want to lie sick at my College-dorm room and burden the staff and students who must then care for me. So I can only boast in God that this is the longest stretch of time without falling ill especially during the Covd-19 pandemic. When I prayed to God about vaccination or going to the doctors, the Word of the Lord came to me that "the healthy does not need a doctor, but the sick". The Lord gave me two other verses, one from Isaiah about not following the crowd and fearing what people fear, but it is God whom we should fear (Isaiah 8). The third verse came from Mark's Gospel where Jesus calmed the storm but scolded the disciples for faithlessness (Why are you so fearful? Why you still don't have faith?") in Mark 4:40. Why are people so fearful of a virus that infects less than 10% of the country's population and have a 98.5% recovery rate? And those who recover go on to have natural immunity. If you want to be vaccinated, so be it; in fact, I have encouraged many people to do that, but please do not exclude people who can't or on any other reason refuse to be vaccinated since it is everyone's right to their bodily autonomy. These vaccines claim to be safe, but one life lost is too many. I have heard horror stories of death and serious side-effects. Just look up VAERS (USA) "Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System" and the European Medicines Agency for the stats of those who die from the vaccines. As for me, I defend the weak as my God whom I serve is the defender of the weak and the fatherless. I proclaim that one life lost is too many, in fact, one church member barred from entry is too many since my Lord Jesus said that a shepherd would leave his 99 sheep behind and seek for the one lost sheep. Why are we not speaking and hearing these messages? Why are we just catering for the healthy 95% majority? Does a majority ever be the determinant whether something is right or wrong in the sight of God? Do we not know Scripture that often-times in the history of Israel, only one prophet or a few were righteous and the vast majority are departing from the ways of the Lord? Do we not see this happening in church today?
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