Two Months On

Two-third of the year is gone. There are only 66 days to US Presidential Election on Tuesday 5th November. This year has been exciting as two great Western nuclear powers had had their elections with US the super power nation coming soon. My work is to watch and pray as an intercessor called by the Lord. It's been two months since I ended my service as lecturer. I have been writing full-time though there are days and weeks that I could not get much done. But overall I am pleased with my progress with about 64,000 words done on my memoirs in Malay. I am writing the entire book afresh and not translating from my English "Departure Points".

Feast of Tabernacles 2024

In about 7 weeks we will come to the Feast of Tabernacles. I re-read some of my instagram posts last year which I posted during the 2023's Sukkot or Tabernacles. I had an amazing holidays in New Zealand, the best I ever had since I set foot in NZ in 1982. On 55th day the Lord saved me on 24th April 1982.  But last year I went to visit my son, although he did not expect me to make the trip I thought I must as he was preparing for his wedding and I wanted to be there for him when he needed to ask anything. The Lord was great as I prayed for a smooth flight as I am not a good traveller. The whole 10-hour flight had no turbulence incident whatsoever. It was so smooth I thought I was travelling on land, even roads in Sabah are bumpier.

Pastoring a rural church in Ranau (31st Dec 2014 to 31st Mac 2016)

Lord I can only praise Your glory for Your marvellous works in my life. I pastored a Ranau church (2015-2016) in a rural setting for 15 months before being moved to our denomination’s College 20 mins’ drive from Ranau. Within two weeks I fell ill and went to seek treatment in the Hospital and took antibiotics for five days. But I don’t remember ever missing Sunday service due to illness perhaps once during the mid week church service. It was a test and a trial for me as I encountered cold weather first up from the high 20s at night in KK to 18 to 19 degree celcius in Ranau in the first couple of months of the year.

Doing the Will of the Father

My last sermon in July spoke of seeking and doing the will of God the Father. Especially for His servants, we must seek to do God’s will above all else. I shared how I sought His will after 5 years pastoring a church in 2008 and I resigned, convinced that God would lead me to a new ministry. It was only after four months after my resignation and just a couple of weeks of me going to New Zealand that the opening in Singapore came up and I still went to NZ but returned 3 months later to take up a teaching position at Trinity Theological College.

7 Weeks (Writing a Commentary)

I had left my former College's residence 7 weeks ago to return home. In the first 5 weeks I wrote about 52,000 words on a book project. Then, all of a sudden I switched gear and started commenting on John's Gospel ch.13 which is volume 2 of my commentary on John's gospel (1-12) published in Feb 2020. If I get it done by Feb next year, it will be exactly 5 years for the entire Gospel. But writing a commentary is tough, perhaps the toughest genre in biblical writing because one has to comment on every verse, explain difficult words (in Greek) and the overall theme and theology of the textual unit or the whole chapter within the whole Gospel.

Cost of Publishing a Book

I am not a famous Professor who publishes his book with University Presses or some well know established publishers with a handsome royalty to boot. I am serving in this little corner of the earth with my target audience the Malay speaking church in Sabah and in Malaysia of about 1 million strong if you include the Catholics. In fact, the indigenous church in East Malaysia probably make up at least 50% of the whole Malaysian church. In Sabah, my home state, the statistics tell me that 90% of Sabah's Christian community speaks and reads only Malay. It is the highest proportion of Malay speaking Christians in Malaysia as many indigenous Christians in Sarawak can still read and speak English. Hence. my burden for the past 4 or 5 years is to write Malay books for Malay readers because they can't read in English and Indonesian which is a sister language to Malay or Bahasa Melayu is getting further from the pure original Malay of Malaysia. But publishing is costly affair. I have to stop work to write. 

Downcast & Discouraged

Anyone can get discouraged and downcast. I read a couple of Psalms 41-43 today and it is encouraging to know that king David or the Psalmist did not experience sunny days all the time. They were also downcast but they cast their souls unto God their Saviour. They called to their souls to take heart and rejoice under the bleakest circumstances. I actually have a couple of good days. Great fellowship in church yesterday and I was asked to say the prayer in response to the sermon by the preacher. I was taken by surprise but prayed a heartfelt prayer that I believed bless the preacher and the congregation. Then this morning I chanced upon an elder of the church whom I had lunch fellowship yesterday though we did not talk in church because I was seated next to the preacher, a fellow pastor and a good friend. So this morning we talked for an hour about many things and we encouraged one another.

Working as Usual but with less Stress

It's been six weeks since I had returned home. I handed over my keys to my College's apartment on Friday 28th June 2024 and I had never looked back. My routine back home is about the same as when I was working at the Seminary. In fact, I had culture shock last July in my first Semester because two of my courses were taught at night, and I thought it was a night school, very unlike the time in Singapore where all my classes were in the morning except the diploma level courses for lay Christians that took place at night for 8 weeks. So it was stressful in the Seminary as I could not sleep in and I still woke up quite often before 5am. And then, in the afternoon or early evening I was supposed to rest for my night class, but my mind was usually in over-drive going through the 3-hour lessons I was going to deliver at night. By the time the classes ended just before 10pm I needed a couple more hours to wind down and get my mind off work. It was intense to say the least.

Works are Burned Up (1 Cor 3:15)

How awful and terrible it would be if one finds that for his whole life he thought he served the Lord and found out on Judgment Day that all his works are burned up, and his soul is scarcely saved. God is merciful that it would be his last resort to consign someone to the fires of hell, but God is also just. He will not overlook injustice and all kinds of human schemes even among Christians and so-called Christian leaders which they commit in his name, or so they thought. But at the end, all their works are burned up due to their works being found wanting.

Writing & Inspiration

All my five Malaysia-published books are selling well. Last Saturday I sold 7 books to two buyers, in all three regions of Malaysia, Sabah, Sarawak and KL in Semenanjung. One buyer must have sponsored two of the books to her pastor or former pastor. Bless her heart. My London & New York published book on John's Revelation is found in over 200 libraries in the world and the second printing is out of print and it now costs over USD250.00 to source a copy. My books are selling well because the books meet needs of the readers. I only published if I am satisfied with the writing and its contents. It must be ground-breaking or least give substantial spiritual input to the readers. Ground-breaking, by God's grace, like my commentary on the Song of Songs. You can ask my 14 students last Semester on that.

Waiting on the Lord

The modern world does not wait. Almost everything is instant. People are always in a hurry. But waiting on the Lord is a spiritual discipline. When there is nothing happening, but only hanging on to hope and waiting silently for the salvation of God. Waiting on the Lord also means praying, something fervently and intensely like wrestling with an angel, sometimes whispering or speaking quietly within one's heart, murmuring and muttering before the Lord. Our eyes are set on You, O Lord until You have mercy on us and deliver us from those who are too strong for us.

2nd Month in "Retirement"

I joked with my former employers that I looked forward to retirement and writing books. This time I am serious though I do not want to close the door for a possible ministry appointment if only it suits everyone, not just me but my wife and the whole community concerned. I am in a hurry but I am not in a hurry if there is such paradox in Christian life. I have done this for almost 30 years now and I am justified to feel I deserve some rest or even retire for good. One has to choose the right moment for retirement as too many people stay too long in their ministry or positions until people who meet them say they look haggard or simply too old or have stayed too long in one job. I have never been in such a situation as the longest I have served in one place is 6 years in Singapore.

August is Come

Passing a milestone into the next is a journey in itself. It's been a week since the big day and one thing I have learned is how fragile human beings are, literally and metaphorically. As we age, we are less immune to germs attacking the body inside and outside. We have to care for our bodies and limbs more deliberately. I shot some baskets with a friend last January it took six months for my knees to heal even then imperfectly. What is lost is hard to regain. What is torn is hard to mend. When I lifted many boxes in and out of my car as I moved out of the Seminary's residence 5 or 6 weeks ago, I hurt my knees once more. Lord, can I stay put in one place?