Visions & Earthquake

I was tossing in my mind on Sunday whether to share what I believed to be from the Lord, the visions I saw on Saturday evening and Sunday morning, 21st-22nd Feb 2026, my last two days as pastor of my former church. I saw angels on the West Coast of Sabah, with banners on Saturday during the worship rehearsal and on Sunday during worship I saw the three angels planting the banners on Kota Belud, Kota Marudu and Pitas.

Living by Faith

It’s now over a month since I left my former church as pastor and now I live by faith. In fact, I have lived by faith since 1989 when I opened my law firm as a young lawyer just barely 25 years old having worked for two law firms for two years; five months in NZ before admitted to the Bar in Christchurch and then about one and a half years in Kota Kinabalu.

Last Promise

“I desire peace but when I speak, they are for war”, says the Psalmist. I had spoken the last words in my former church yesterday. I attended because the church we visited last July came to visit my former church and when the leaders asked me two months ago (after I had resigned) I told them I would attend as a sign of courtesy as well as Christian fellowship. My absence could be a talking point, so I went.

5 Sessions on Leadership

There are six sessions altogether but one session is Q & A, so I do not have to prepare notes and PowerPoint for that. The rest of the 5 sessions are fully loaded with notes and PowerPoint slides. Three sessions of lectures or talks are on leadership and two sessions of workshops for which I also prepared notes too to guide the participants along. I was told two days ago 120 people already registered for the seminar. Initially I thought maybe 50 was a good number.

Calm before the Storm

I don’t know how I will fare with about 10 hours’ long seminar over one and a half days. Even preaching for 37 minutes and a song of response for 4 minutes took me three days to recover and even now I am not fully recovered from the exertions of last Sunday. But tomorrow I will speaking for one hour 15 minutes talk followed by an hour long Q & A. We will see how it goes. We are supposed to have a 3 hour break from 4.30pm to 7.30pm and then another two and a half hours long sessions with the last hour on a workshop.

Weariness & the Anointing

I give glory to You, O Lord for the anointing I felt and the words You put into my mouth over the course of my preaching. Truly it was as if borne by the wind of the Holy Spirit. I spent several days meditating on what I was going to say and prayed hard that the Lord would grant me words to declare the mystery of Christ with boldness and wisdom. But I paid the price of exhaustion and this morning I am still tired from yesterday's exertions and I may take another day or two to recover.

Writing Endorsements

It was the second endorsement that I wrote for my former supervisor who is one of the top New Testament scholars in Australasia. I asked him in 2023 how many PhD students he had personally supervised and his answer was a staggering 55. I only supervised two DTh students during my time in Singapore, but one student changed supervisor mid-way as I marked her drafts full of red ink, as I could not understand her English half the time. The other, I suggested it was not her gift to do a doctoral degree as I saw her struggling reading just one academic article. One has to cite or interact with at least 100 learned articles and just as many commentaries and monographs for a proper doctorate.

Serving God with Joy

It's my first month out of a cage or the metaphor I gave in my farewell speech at the end of January, I will fly with wings unbound and those who are willing to accept my ministry I will bring them fly with me for God's glory. I am in full flight in less than 3 weeks out of a "job". I feel unbound and not just freer but free to do what Christ wants me to do. I have written over 100 pages for my commentary on John's Gospel from 13-21.

Three in a Row

I did not expect that invitations to preach would come so quickly. In fact I told my youth, a young man of 15 years old asking, "Is writing your side hustle?" I told him that writing would be my main hustle and preaching and teaching will be my side hustle. Yesterday, I visited a church member's newly rented place. The couple has four children, all regularly attending church and when I was asked to come to pray for the family and house I could not refuse even though I had already resigned. But last night one leader's wife whom we met at the stairs told me in the hearing of 5 or 6 others: "Pastor, we miss you", it has only been two weeks since I stopped attending the church I pastored for 15 months.

Best Decade

I think this will be the best decade of my life yet. Though it is not the best wine kept for the last as I don't think I am in the last legs of my ministry; it is as if just a beginning, a new beginning. A few months ago, I testified that I was now in the peak of my powers in the Lord. Why is that so? By God's grace, I could walk as fast as I did in my 40s. I have not slowed down in the past 20 years. Maybe not as strong as I was in my 30s, but I was a green shoot then, and now I am mature in almost every way.

8 Years to Go: 3 Main Lessons

When I saw my details on my age and it is just barely 8 years before I hit the magical number 70. Where will I be in 8 years' time? Time seems to pass so quickly. What have I accomplished in the past 16 months, as if nothing (my strength is spent in vain, says the prophet in Isa 49) except for a few friendships which I shall treasure. What I have learned from wasting almost one and a half years of my life? Three main lessons.