My Old World

The security guard was eyeing me when I continued taking photos of my first school, primary for 6 years and 2 years in Secondary before leaving Sandakan for good. Not wanting the guard to be worried I chatted with him on my way out and tokd him that I was an old boy, exactly 36 years ago. The school did not change much but looking at the football field brought back many memories. I played soccer at noon before claases started at 1pm for the afternoon stream. I competed in athletics and high jump.

Then I visited my two aunties and their families. They were delighted to see me and I chatted with them for more than an hour before going to town for lunch. Our origins might be obscure, "can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Our beginnings might be insignificant, can anyone imagine a skinny boy in the backwaters of an eastern town in Sabah one day would become a preacher? Even now sms and calls came in my Singapore number and I just had to tell them I am having holidays and I won't take up any preaching invitations beyond May 2014. I think the followers of Christ are not many in the world even as Jesus says, When I return shall I find faith on earth? Most people are chasing after worldly things, things that are seen and are transient - money and power are the two greatest temptations followed closely by pleasures of the flesh. Do we think that it is business as usual? Floods hit east coast of peninsular Malaysia and flooded many places never flooded before. Last month typhoon Haiyan hit central Philippines with a severity rarely seen in a country exposed to storms. And today Jerusalem was hit by snow before mid December, something unseen in the past 50 years or more. The world is convulsing. The earth's inhabitants have trangressed and God is warning the world that the Day of the Lord will not be delayed, to judge the wicked and sinners and to reward those who truly bear the cross and reject the world and all its allures. The form of the world is fast passing away but whoever does the will of God lasts forever.