Rain, Rain, Rain

It has been a long time since I experienced non-stop rain for 30 hours and it is still raining as I write. In fact, there was heavy rain on Saturday night almost causing a few of our worship team members from missing rehearsal but at the end they all turned up. But Sunday morning brought clear skies and we had a wonderful Sunday service celebrating Malaysia Day when Sabah gained independence through the formation of Malaysia on 16th September 1963. In fact I posted on instagram at noon that I was glad that we celebrated Malaysia early on Sunday morning because since Sunday evening about 4pm, it has not stopped raining until now. Many towns and villages are flooded with many reporting landslides throughout the State with the worst hit in Beaufort, Penampang, East Coast of Sabah and some parts of Kota Kinabalu.

Even some of the housing estates in the city are flooded to waist high of three to four feet of water with one roundabout in Penampang, waters are head high where one can swim in it. In recent memory I experienced this kind of weather only once in Ranau in 2017 or 2018 where waters rose high until shops in Ranau town were flooded for the first time including the general hospital. 

Then the Lord spoke to me through Job 37 that waters or rains are given for love or correction to the land or His people. If there is a drought, we long for rain and rain is given to break the drought and it is given out of God's love for the land and His people. Conversely, for correction God can send much rain until it floods, cause land slides and probably ten lives had been lost in the past 24 hours due to houses being buried under rubbles or landslip. 

If it is correction, for what wrongs? I do not remember the Malaysia Day's official celebrations ever being cancelled in KOTA KINABALU and tomorrow's celebrations have been cancelled due to the inclement weather and disasters in the city and throughout the State of Sabah. In Job 37, it is said that man is refrained from labour when there is a big downpour. It is as if to put brakes on our busy lives to reflect on what God is doing or saying to us. Yet often times we have lost the ability to listen to God and I believe the Lord had spoken yesterday through the Sunday message to His people, out of His love He had given us respite from bad weather, even if it was just for half a day on Sunday. We had a joyful Sunday service with multiple nations and tribes attending with 6 or 7 Indonesian brothers and sisters and almost all tribes of Sabah and a few from Sarawak with more than 20 of such tribes represented in church yesterday and the Lord is well pleased that we sat and stood as one people, God's people and in unison, worshipped the Father and the Son by the Holy Spirit.