I guess nearly everyone would have experienced this before, some of us more but I think at least once in our life. We were so lifted up during the Sunday worship service, maybe we had a very good time interacting with God and was filled in His presence during worship. Or we were so inspired by the Word that was spoken that we want to make a new start and change the world tomorrow. We want to go out there and live for God, to make a difference. We resolved to read His Word everyday and spend at least one hour in our quiet time. Or we will now be kind and compassionate with our family, friends and colleagues. Then as we leave the church, fortunately not at the parking lot at the church, but further away and pas we were traveling, some car just jumped queue and cut right into our lane without signaling and nearly caused a minor accident. So we blasted our horn and shouted at that car, in language not usually used in church! So there we are, a disappointment after the euphoria. We have failed again to live up to the name of Jesus in our lives. We feel guilty because we have become an embarrassment to God, instead of being His pride and joy.
The challenge to transform our minds and develop the character of Christ in us is constant. It’s a daily affair and is continuous. As mentioned yesterday, God will carry through His work in us till completion. We are all His handiwork – from the days before the foundations of the world till the day of Jesus Christ, God will mould and shape us into the image of His son.
I guess on our part there will bound to be failures and disappointments, snapping at our spouse and kids, at our colleagues and family. Our mood is not always uplifting and good. There will be bad days and bad moments and sometimes those moments come too soon after church! My encouragement to all of us, myself included, is not to give up and dwell in sorrow, guilt, self pity and regret. With God’s grace and help, we can do it. We can change for the better. We can hear and be doers of the Word. We will succeed. We will not always fail. We can and shall be the Psalm 1 believer who delights in His Word and meditates on it day and night and is someone who is like a tree planted by streams of water. Strong, rich in nourishment and always bearing good fruits in season and whose leaves shall not wither and whatever we do for God prospers and grows!
Be inspired, be uplifted! After the euphoria, as we face the harsh biting reality of life, I pray that God’s Word will always be a blessing and a shield to protect and guard our hearts and minds against the ravages of sin and evil. We will stand strong in our faith and composure and maintain our character to reflect His glory and love in our lives. We shall be that balm of Gilead who heals rather than spark raging fires. We will be that person who unites rather than divides, who encourages rather than to destroy. We will be genuine doers and hearers of the Word!
Our journey with God begins the day we accepted Christ in our lives. Different ones of us have a different start. Some of us might have started in our teens. Some of us when we were in University. Some of us after we started working and yet some of us later in life, after we married and have kids. For me, it was when I was 14 and later my whole family accepted Christ over the next few years – my sister, my mum then my dad. For some it could have been an immediate transformation but for me, I struggled for quite a number of years before giving my life fully to God and even then, there were ups and downs and times of backsliding and re-dedication.
So indeed our life with God is a journey. Our life on earth itself is a journey. It’s a discovery of the world and ourselves and how we could fit in, earn a living, raise a family and possibly make a name for ourselves and leave a mark and if we knew God already, how to leave a mark for God, make a difference for Christ in the lives of people we interact with.
The thing is our journey with God doesn’t actually begin the day we accepted Christ. It actually begins way, way before. God knew us even before we were formed in our mother’s womb. We were indeed fearfully and wonderfully made, knitted together in our mother’s womb and yet we were made in the spirit even before the foundations of the world. He chose us even before the foundations of the world (see Ephesians 1:4). Thus, even if we were physically formed in our mother’s womb, we were already created as spiritual beings by God much, much earlier.
The message today is that as God created and chose us at the beginning, He will complete His work in us. He who began a good work will carry it till completion until the day of Jesus Christ. See Philippians 1:6. As much as we will always remain work in progress, God will make sure we will be the completed product one day and the process will not be ceased and it will be relentless until we become complete. Only we can stop that process. Only we can mess things up by our rebellion and going against Him. It is not the devil. It is not the world. It is us and the God given free will to choose that will change the course that God wants us to travel on. There will be second, third and fourth chances as the Lord is gracious and compassionate but so long as we still have breath, and we do not know when we will breathe our last! God will carry the work to completion, we just need to let Him do it!
I think there are in essence two extremes in the type of leaders and managers. One who delegates everything and another who takes on everything himself or herself. There are pros and cons to both approaches. The main weakness of the one who delegates fully is he is not hands on and thus could be out of touch with reality. He could be accused of taking the position and not doing anything since all the work is done by his subordinates. However, that could also be the best use of his talents and time and he could correspondingly achieve much more in the process. On the other hand, the good thing about the person who does everything himself is that he is fully hands on. He is a leader who rolls up his sleeves and gets dirty to get the work done. However, there is just so much he can do himself. A team is always able to do more than one person, no matter how talented or efficient that person is.
Moses was the leader who started off doing everything himself. He was the sole person in the company of nearly 600,000 families who had fled Egypt as slaves, who was adjudicating and arbitrating disputes between them. So he heard and administered the law and percepts of God for that fleeing community from dawn to dusk day in and day out. Jethro his father in law immediately saw the absurdity of the situation and advised him to appoint layers of capable and upright leaders so that only the difficult and complex cases reach him. The same thing was also done during the early days of the church following the explosion of power and might after the day of Pentecost with the Apostles withdrawing into prayer and teaching while other capable leaders were appointed to do day to day administration of the community of believers. The record shows that Moses heeded the advice of his father in law.
Are we a leader who wants to do everything ourselves? Will we heed the advice of those around us, our loved ones, to start delegating our work and let others take on the responsibilities and grow?
For the past few months, I had assigned my own cell group members to take turns to lead and teach each chapter in our bible study. In our local church we call these cells Life Groups and I had assigned so far 3 chapters of the 7-chapter study to be handled by them and there are 2 more in the pipeline. So in the end, I would have led only 2 out of the 7 chapters. So far, they have done much better than me in terms of delivery and the use of cutting edge teaching tools like slides, online resources etc. More importantly, my cell group leaders felt empowered and sought God themselves and thus experiencing first hand the spiritual lessons from God before teaching and leading the study.
It’s time to start delegating if we haven’t. It’s time to heed the advice of our loved ones. It’s time to empower others as the best way for others to grow is to let them do the thing themselves. Let more people come into the presence of God to draw strength and inspiration. Let the Lord be the source of all knowledge and inspiration! Amen
Different ones of us have a different past before we became a believer in Christ. Some who knew Christ in our teenage years have less of a past and yet as we grow up as a Christian, we were probably not perfect and thus have our fair share of our “past” until one day we truly gave and surrendered our lives to God. Of course those who us who got to know Christ much later may have more issues to contend with as we had less to restrain us as we were transitioning into adulthood and even during our days as a working adult with the “freedom” that comes with spending power. Our lives could have been fully motivated to earn as much money as we can, and to only enjoy the good things in life with no regard to God’s will upon our lives since we didn’t know Jesus yet as our personal Saviour and Lord. Not that we are necessarily evil. Just that we had lived on the basis of a different set of rules as set by society and ourselves, and motivated by a different set of intents. We were once ruled by the worldly worldview and perspective. Unfortunately even if that was the past and before we knew God, it had consequences and some of those consequences may be felt even till today after we had accepted Christ. Just as an example and not to generalise, if we had spent a lot of our young adult life picking up girls at clubs and had multiple unprotected sexual encounters with strangers, we may be suffering from STD and some of those have life long effects
Judah was somewhat like that just before the Babylonian invasion. They rebelled against God by worshipping other gods, marrying women from the surrounding nations, plainly doing evil and oppressing the poor and the widows and fatherless. Even as God reminded them through His prophets to turn back to Him, they were insolent – stubborn and rude. So God allowed the Babylonians to overrun them and take them into captivity and became slaves where life is hard and oppressive. And yet in Lamentations 3, we could see that God still loved them and provided them a return path, a way back to Him. As much as God allowed a calamity in the form of an invasion to occur to bring them back to their senses (meaning to say, sin has its consequences), God will still accept them back if they repented and changed their wicked ways.
I always hold on to Joel 2:25 – God’s promise that He will restore to us the years that the locusts had eaten. The consequences of our past sin may have destroyed some of what we used to have. For example, we may not have saved anything from our years of working due to our over-indulgent lifestyle or had made wrong investment decisions in chasing our dream of being rich. Perhaps after 20 years of working, we do not yet have a property or much savings. Whatever that may be, God is able to give us a fresh start even from today onwards. He is able to restore what was lost in the past, heal what was inflicted in the past, even life long diseases if we give our lives to Him, to serve Him for His glory. The Lord is always compassionate and will be moved by our predicament but most likely by our sincere and genuine repentant heart. God is God, we cannot fool Him as He knows us inside out. He has always been compassionate and gracious. Look at how Jesus moved by compassion fed 5,000 from a few loaves of bread and fish. Repent and He will bring us back to the path of righteousness, the path of restoration. We will be made whole again as He will restore to us what the locusts had eaten, had devoured and destroyed over the years. He is after all our God and Father and also the creator of all things! From now on, from today onwards, put our hope and trust in God and in God alone and He will make our paths straight and His Word shall be a lamp unto our feet, a light unto our paths.
I think in the current context of profileration and easy assessibility of information, people are less likely to actually leave behind traces of how things are done on the thing itself. This is because we just need to make a search in Google or YouTube and the answers should be there. Also present age products are not made to last and repaired to ensure continuity of use but are instead discarded and replaced when they break down. In fact computers and phones are getting faster and faster chips and larger capacity memories that even a 10 year old computer or phone will struggle to keep up with the requirements demanded by present day applications and software systems.
However, things which are mechanically based do last like mechanical watches which are of high value despite their age. Older cars can still run as they used minimal electronics. An acoustic piano or guitar made of wood and strings have little issue staying relevant despite the passage of years. For example, I own a car that’s roughly the age of my second son and although I may spend RM1k or two to maintain it past its economic value, it is still better than paying RM1k++ every month for 60 months for a new car.
What’s the message today? The intention of the witness marks is to help the next person down the line on how to repair the product. Rather than having the next guy going through the whole process to find the starting point, it is already marked there. It is borne out of good intention to help, to save time and effort for the next person.
Can we apply this in ministry? I believe so! When we minister or counsel people, we put in our inputs into that person’s life. In reaching out, we do our part to plant the seed of faith. We may not harvest that seed but it’s OK. We do the preliminary ploughing of the soil work. Let the next person down the road do more and ultimately with God’s grace, that seed may blossom one day to be a tree of faith, standing strong for God and the things of God. We plant into the foundation. That is why whatever we do in the faith will always be good and useful, never wasted or in vain. It is not exactly but somewhat similar to witness marks. For example, if someone had already spoken about Adam and the first sin, we need not elaborate on that again and may go straight away into Jesus’s role in the salvation of mankind. Over the years, each and everyone of us will contribute to the spiritual life of a person, whether in reaching out or making disciples. Let’s encourage and build others up. Let’s help toil the soil and water the ground. Really strange if we are a believers and yet we are out to kill and destroy, than to edify, encourage and build up.
One of the things I always remembered when I did Public International Law as a subject in University was that an embassy in a foreign land is an extension of a nation. Meaning to say that the sovereignty of a nation extends to the land upon which the embassy sits although in actual fact that land may be leased. Thus the US embassy in Jalan Tun Razak, KL is US territory like New York or Alaska or Hawaii. That was why Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, had spent a number of years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to evade the clutches of the US authorities. No one can enter an embassy without the consent of the embassy even to enforce a warrant or an extradition order.
The idea of our homes being an embassy for God is thus an idea grounded in reality. Our homes and our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are where the Spirit of God resides. In every believer’s home, Jesus Christ is the Lord of the home and the family. That is why we know evil forces have difficulty penetrating believers’ homes since God resides in our homes, in our families. There is a presence of supernatural heavenly forces in our homes. Where we are is where the Kingdom of God is. Thus our home is the Kingdom of God and an embassy for God for His glory to shine forth and for us to be the salt and light of the world.
Unfortunately, in our modern urban and city setting, less and less people open up their homes for fellowship and interaction whether with friends and relatives or other believers or even non believers. More and more of us are keeping our homes as our private domain and as much as a home is a man’s castle, it should be more open so that it can effectively function as an extension of God’s kingdom, as an embassy of God, a place where people can learn more about our God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the creator of the universe.
The message today is thus let’s open up and don’t isolate ourselves. If we are a believer, our homes should be accessible. People should be able to come and see us to pour out their issues of life to us. If we are a leader of a church, it is really ironical if no one in the church has ever been to our home. Why are we closed up when our homes are an extension of God’s kingdom, an embassy of God. Jesus taught about inviting the poor and underprivileged, the crippled, the blind, the lame to banquets (Luke 14:13-14) and yet here we are closing up our homes and isolating ourselves. Let our homes be the door and the stairway to heaven for others to learn about and experience the glory of God that leads to an abundant life, a life eternal!
In ancient times, during the time of Israel and Judah, God initiated the ritual of a sin offering to atone for the sins of children of Israel. It was a corporate act and the sin offering was needed as man on his own was unable to meet the exact standards of the Law, to be righteous before God. It was done for and on behalf of the nation, the various tribes but limited to those who were descendents of Abraham. Other nations didn’t have that privilege then.
When Jesus came and died on the cross for the sins of mankind, He became the Lamb of God, the final sacrifice to cleanse the sins of man. So the Second Adam rectified the sin of the first Adam, the original sin at Eden that separated man from God and brought in mortality to human beings. Since then, we were denied access to the Tree of Life. With Jesus in our lives though, even though we die, we will live as He is the resurrection and the life. It is now opened to the Gentiles i.e. the rest of the world, all the other nations and tribes. Through Jesus we have the hope of eternal life and one day in the new heaven and new earth with God dwelling among us, we will once again be able to partake of the Tree of Life and live forever in a new glorified body. Even as both my mum and dad have passed on from this world, I know I will meet them again on that day, the day of resurrection. We will all be reunited with our loved ones who had departed if we remain in the faith until the very end – if we had fought the good fight and completed the race.
The thing is whether in ancient times or in the contemporary, the sin offering only works in conjunction with the right attitude of heart. Like what was written in Isaiah 1:2-4, they rebelled against the LORD, they had forsaken the Law. The externals must be consistent with the internal, the heart. We cannot offer the sin offering to cleanse us of our sins if we remain in sin, in rebellion towards God. If we had turned our backs on Him, what use is the sin offering? God is not pleased, in fact God gains no pleasure, it is detestable to Him, it is meaningless. Even in ancient times, the LORD sought a relationship with His people, not the sin offering or the worship. Make yourself clean, stop doing the evil deeds, the wrong stuff. Do the right thing, defend the oppressed, seek justice, take up the cause of the fatherless, the widows.
Therefore, even as Jesus has justified us by His blood, we will be like the ancients of Judah if we continue to sin and then plead the blood of the Lamb. God like in Isaiah 1:18, is compassionate and forgiving. He is forgiving, particularly with the sacrifice of His son on Calvary. But our hearts must be turned towards Him. We must do what is right. We must fight for the oppressed. We must seek justice. In other words, we must be a living sacrifice. With the Lamb having paved the way, we are to be a living sacrifice for His glory, for His pleasure, day in day out, every day so long as we still have breath in us. What’s in our hearts must be the same as what’s outside. We cannot harbour evil, hatred and vengeance and yet claim the blood of the Lamb. Being a believer and remaining in the faith is never just about saying the sinner’s prayer. It’s about Christ transforming our lives, making a change in us. It’s about not conforming to the pattern of this world by the transformation of our minds so we may test and approve the good, pleasing and perfect will of God.
The Covid-19 pandemic, now turning endemic, has turned upside down many lives across the world. From upheavals in families caused by lost lives, children losing both parents to the virus to restaurants and businesses closed for good as the prolonged lack of income just meant that they can’t continue paying their workers, their rent and meet their other commitments. Inevitably, those at the lowest level of the chain suffer the most as workers lose their jobs when businesses close. Even large industries like consumer electronics and automotive are facing serious supply issues caused by the current global shortage of chips.
Unless you’re a government retiree with a life long pension or a government servant, no one is spared from the anxiety and uncertainty of what the future lies. We don’t know how long we can hold on to our jobs. In fact, we are unsure how long our companies can survive the impact from the pandemic in terms of sales, margins or even the continued availability of raw materials to manufacture our goods. For example, you may have secured orders for 100,000 units of your products for this year but with the unavailability of a key component, you may only be able to actually sell 10,000 units this year with the 90,000 postponed to next year, affecting both this year’s as well as next year’s sales. Or we may have to contend with rising prices causing less people buying our goods or services as people have less in their wallets due to the present economic situation. As consumption makes the world go round, depressed demand across markets leads to a cascading downward spiral with disastrous consequences.
If we are faced with the negative effects of the pandemic, if we lose our businesses or jobs in the process – as believers, we can trust in the unseen and put our faith in God. We need to believe that whatever happens, we may be hard pressed but not crushed, perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed. Whatever may happen to our businesses and jobs, we will be preserved by God. We will suffer but will not be destroyed. We need to make adjustments in our lifestyle, in our spending but we will find a way out of this maze with God’s grace and guidance. Certain plans and even dreams need to be shelved. Certain aspirations need to be curtailed and adjusted but we will see this through as God is with us all the way.
The message today is don’t give up hope and despair. The Lord is still the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Jesus Christ is still our Lord and Saviour. The Holy Spirit is still with us, living in us. March on, continue our walk. In fact, be more fervent in our faith and serve God more. Get more involved in prayer and ministry as we explore and search for the light at the end of the tunnel. Get ourselves busy in God, don’t sit around and sulk. As we look for new things to do in terms of our jobs and businesses, serve God by helping out others in our predicament, minister to people in need, be active in church. There will be a way out as we are a people who believe and trust in the unseen. We are a people who fix our eyes on the unseen as what is seen is temporal but what is unseen is eternal!
For those of you who are close to my father and I, you will know that although we loved each other very much, we were not physically affectionate or that close to one another. I would say that we are certainly not as close as me and my Ivan and Daniel.
As I reflect and think about this as to why we were like that – I guess this was because I didn’t grow up in that manner with him. When it came to our “father and son” relationship, the dynamic was that we didn’t speak that much when I was growing up. So, there was always a little gap in our communication. When we spoke, it was very much on a “need to” basis. For example, I always joked and teased my mum, and play with her, but I never did that with my dad, not even once; when I was growing up or even when I became an adult.
Having said that, my relationship with my dad wasn’t bad in reality as he did include me in the things that he liked to do. So, before I was even 6 years old in Pasir Puteh, Kelantan he used to take me go fishing for big prawns at the river in our little town. He used to fish, and I would watch and help him take care of his catch. We used to have a feast of nice big prawns every weekend!
My father’s first posting after Teacher’s Training College was to Pasir Puteh, Kelantan in 1964 at the tender age of 22 and he married my mum around that time too in 1964. I was born 4 years later in 1968 in Ipoh, Perak (being the first child, my mum flew back to her hometown to deliver me) and I lived in Pasir Puteh after my birth. I do know that Pastor Sharene Thoo, my missionary cousin, used to stay with us during the school holidays to help my mum care for me while we were in Pasir Puteh. I think Sharene was probably around 9 or 10 then and I was maybe around 4 or 5!
One thing you all may not know but people in Pasir Puteh know this very well – my dad was a well-known football referee. He didn’t play the game as such – he ardently played badminton. But he was a referee for many years. My classmates and friends who played football all knew him as “Cikgu Michael – repri bola” (in the local Kelantenese dialect).
When I was around 6, my dad managed to get a transfer back to Perak (not to his hometown Ipoh, but to a town called Sitiawan, an hour’s drive away). That was in late 1973 and we stayed there until late 1979 before he got a transfer back to Pasir Puteh in 1980 for the second time and I did my Primary 6 until my Upper Six in Pasir Puteh, Kelantan.
When he was in Sitiawan, he was very involved in scouting and was a very active scoutmaster. He used to take me along for his weekly school scout meetings and also camping trips with his boy scouts even though I was studying in another school. So, I learned scouting since Standard Two although in my ACS Primary School, you can only join the Boy Scouts when you’re in Standard Four. Like refereeing, he was very faithful and diligent at scouting, going for jamborees and scouting trips all over Perak.
On his last fishing trip in Sitiawan, Perak before we went back to Pasir Puteh, Kelantan for the second time, I remembered going out to sea with him. We were fishing in and around a place called Pulau Sembilan, just off the coast of Manjung. I was 10 or 11 then and it was one of the best experiences I had with him as my dad. We caught some fish and the guys cooked them on board for us to eat and until today, I will remember that meal as the best fish meal that I ever had. The fish was just freshly caught and it was simply out of this world! I still remember this vividly after more than 40 years! A storm later came, and as the sea was rough and dangerous, we had to land at a small island to take refuge and we spent the night together as father and son at the beach to tide over the storm.
In my 50 over years here on earth with him as my father, he saved my life twice! Once when I nearly fell into a monsoon drain at the edge of my little town when it was raining heavily and where the drain flowed into the river (my sister distinctly recalled this incident), and at another time when I fell into a freshwater pond, and he lifted me up straight away.
The last phase of my youth with him was our time back in Pasir Puteh the second time. As I said before, I was there from Primary 6 to Upper Six and in those 8 years before I went to University Malaya in PJ to pursue my tertiary education and later embark on my career; it was a time when God touched his life, it was the time when Jesus came into his life. This second time in Pasir Puteh, Kelantan was extra special and I believe divinely arranged by God as my whole family accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord – starting with me at first then my sister, then my dad and mum. It was also the start of my father’s involvement in ministry and church, I would say for close to the 40 years of his 80 years of life here on earth.
The thing which stood out for me about my dad’s involvement in ministry and church was his dedication and faithfulness to the cause. The same way he was dedicated and faithful to refereeing and scouting before he knew Christ, he demonstrated the same dedication and faithfulness to God’s work. Even my son, Ivan, commented on Friday night (18 March 2022) how he remembered his Ah Kong having been so faithful taking the National Service bible studies with Brother Moses and Pastor Lydia, week in week out, without fail, 10 to 11 years back. For the past more than 15 years since joining WFA, he has been active in his Life Group, and I believe his Life Group members have been blessed by his dedication, leading and his prayers. In fact just hours before he was admitted to the Emergency Ward on Friday afternoon (18 March 2022), he was still counselling his Life Group members over WhatsApp.
When my late mum was alive, she and my dad used to pray for our family and that was crucial as I used to often travel overseas then, with Huey Mian working and yet taking care of the boys at home. When my late mum left us, my dad then started to pray for us. With him having left us now, we now need to start praying for our family ourselves.
For the past 13 years since he had his heart attack in September 2009 after our first trip overseas as a family to Hong Kong (after the passing of my late mum in April 2009), we can truly see the goodness of God in his life. God saved him during his heart attack. Sister Phoebe told us how bad the ECG charts were when he was first admitted, but by the next day everything turned good like a miracle, and he survived and lived on for nearly another 13 years since 2009. He was examined by the National Heart Institute and didn’t require any stents or by-pass surgeries (only blood thinning medication). I am thankful and grateful to God for those 13 years. In those 13 years, he got to know my step-mum, Jenny Lee, and married her in September 2010 (exactly one year after his heart attack), and Jenny really took care of him not only his health but his appearance as well (as my wife put it, transformed him from head to toes). God had given him a new lease of life, a second chance at life in 2009 and I am grateful that God brought Jenny into his life. It feels like my dad was somewhat like King Hezekiah whom God extended the King’s life for another 15 years!
For the past 3 years plus since January 2019, since we discovered his medical conditions from his ischemic bowels to his colon cancer, to his abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), we had all taken turns to care for him when he was first admitted to hospital in Segamat and later in Johor Bahru, took him to Hospital Tuanku Ja’afar, Seremban for his regular SOPD and MOPD appointments, saw him though his two surgeries, took him to Institut Kanser Negara for his cancer appointments, took him to Serdang Hospital for his AAA appointments. I still remember the fear and uncertainty he had when he was wheeled in for his first surgery at the JB General Hospital to remove his ischemic bowels and colon cancer. I held his hand and kissed him on his forehead and cheeks before he was wheeled into the OT. The church prayed for him then and he made it through alive! Praise the Lord for His goodness and grace!
On his AAA, in the end, he made the decision with our support not to go through the surgery to repair it as it would have resulted in him losing both his kidneys and to spend the rest of his days on dialysis. Also, he may not survive that complex surgery which was expected to take at least 8 hours. My classmate, Joo Seng, an orthopaedic surgeon, agreed that it was the right decision to take as he could have sufferred a stroke while on the OT and thus, in addition to the dialysis, he could have been paralysed. He took the risk that his AAA may rapture at any time and that day came too suddenly on Friday evening (18 March 2022) when we were all the least prepared. We had all hoped that he would live for another 5 years but God loved him more to call him home earlier than we had expected.
In closing, I just like to say that at the last moments of his life, I managed to be at his side – when I arrived at the hospital, he gripped my hand tightly, glad and happy that I made it to see him, and I am glad and happy too that I managed to see him, and thank God for His grace and mercy in this regard. I tested positive for Covid on 10th March 2022 and although my seven-day quarrantine would have ended on 16th March, I had messed up on my MySejahtera reporting and was thus still red on Friday 18th March 2022. Fortunately my wife, Huey Mian, asked the doctor on duty and he approved that I drop by to see my dad since I had already served my 7-day quarantine period. I just needed to wear double masks and gloves.
My last words to him were “It’s OK, Pa – you go ahead first”, meaning to say, we will see him again on that day. It broke my heart to see him struggling to catch his breath but I knew that Christ welcomed him into His loving arms when he breathed his last.
I like to end with 2 Timothy 4:7-8 – “He has fought the good fight, he has finished the race, he has kept the faith. Now there is in store for him the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award him on that day, not only to him, but also to all who have longed for His appearing”.
I praise the Lord for the determination and dedication shown by my dad for Christ over the last 40 years and I pray that my wife and I and my children, Ivan and Daniel, my step mum, Jenny and my sister and her family will emulate him and demonstrate the same determination and dedication to Christ in our lives!
3 Generations of Lims
Akong’s Eulogy (By My Eldest Son, Ivan Lim)
Firstly, I’d like to thank everyone for coming to my grandfather’s funeral; regardless of how close your relationships were, I’m sure he’s been a positive influence in your lives one way or another.
Ever since I was young, my Akong has been a beacon of light shining bright in this dark world. I remember him spreading the gospel every week in a youth military camp, leading life group sessions, bringing new members into the kingdom of Christ, going to church to serve our Lord every single week in addition to praising, praying and worshipping him in his daily life. Despite his old age, his enthusiasm towards Christ never slowed down, in fact, if anything, he became even more passionate towards him, evident in his actions. He’s an example that I hope to follow, that no matter how old or frail we get, our love towards Christ stays the same as the first day we decided to accept and serve him.
My Akong was a great man who always cooked for us all these years; I remember his beef rendang dish that I’ve always specifically craved and his knife skills which were always so impressive to watch. Going even further back in time, I remember playing badminton with him in my backyard and sleeping with him on his iconic “pillow” which was a “soda beng tin container”. I also remember sitting in his old Proton Saga with barely any air-cond as he fetched me home from school, and 10 years later I had the privilege of returning the favour by fetching him back home from the hospital with my own car.
Moving forward in time, my Akong celebrated every single one of my birthdays and still messaged me with lovely messages even though I’m currently continents away. I could always feel his love and care despite being so far away in a foreign land. I will always miss those memories being in his company every birthday, every Chinese New Year, every Sunday in church and in his lovely home.
Despite not ever being able to see him again, I thank God that I was able to have such a supportive grandfather who gave me encouragement in my business, studies, in remembering Christ and just my life in general. I thank God that I was able to be his grandchild and that I was able to see him one last time before I left Malaysia.
His bright smile alongside his warm hug will always be the last memory that I have of him and I will always remember him saying, “All the best Ivan in your studies, Akong and Aunty Jenny loves you.“
To everyone, our family are and always will be the most important people in our lives; always remember to visit your parents, grandparents, aunty, uncles; you never know when it would be the last day you ever see them and don’t wait till it’s too late to only remember everything you’ve taken for granted.
I’d also like to take this chance to thank aunty Jenny for taking care of Akong all these years. Without you, he would’ve not been even close to how happy he was when he was with you. You gave him unconditional love which gave him his second push in life and I’m forever grateful for that. I pray that God gives you the strength that helps you, in addition to all of us through his passing and know that we will be here for you no matter what.
From witnessing the type of man that my Akong was, I’m sure that he’s in heaven right now with our Lord Jesus Christ watching over all of us. Instead of just feeling sad about his death, let’s all remember the great man that he was and appreciate all that he has done for us.
Whenever we miss him, let’s all look up in the skies and remember our favourite memory of him so that his love towards us will never ever fade from our hearts.
In the Songs of Solomon 2:15, it was mentioned to catch for us the little foxes that ruin the vineyards. These little foxes are quick and cunning and come in the night under the cover of darkness to devour the grapes and in the process, ruin the harvest and even the vineyards. They are not a major pestilence like locusts that arrive in millions eating up and destroying entire crops of plantations but just minor hindrances to a complete harvest at the vineyards. It’s that 0.5% discrepancy tolerance for wastage, pilferage or just plain bad grapes among the good. It’s just that the little foxes will likely go for the choice ones and thus it’s a loss to the farm. It will be better for the business if the little foxes are eliminated but it may require more work.
Are there little foxes in our relationships that are a source of annoyance and hindrance? Do we irritate people with our idiosyncrasies, our way of doing things? It is certainly not something fundamental like a betrayal or something hidden and evil like a backstabbing vile poison vial. It is nevertheless an irritant and sometimes these things will mean whether we progress further or remain where we are in our relationships, work or ministry.
For example, when I quarrel with my dear wife, it usually has to do with every day mundane stuff like why didn’t I finish up the peanut butter but leave some behind? Or in washing up the dishes, why was I so lazy to leave them to dry at the strainer but not use a cloth to dry them up and put them back onto the open rack? Or my frequent mistake – why did I leave the detergent container open after using the detergent for the washing machine? Some of my mistakes had more serious consequences like not tightening the lid of a container properly after use and thus the next person may spill the contents when he or she lifts up the container. There are others like forgetting where we left our keys, forgetting to lock the doors etc.
At the relationship level, we could have said something in jest but inappropriately. Made a comment without thinking through and ended up saying what we think, which will usually not end well if it was not properly filtered through in the first place. These gaffes or slips of tongues could be done in private and sometimes publicly like through the pulpit. Best way to resolve all these mistakes is to apologise quickly and not to do it again. We are all WIP and not perfect but should minimise minor irritants in relationships as sometimes a good relationship will not become great because of these little foxes that ruin the vineyards.
Catch for us those little foxes that ruin the vineyards – perhaps have a look at our lives over this weekend, reflect and see where we could be an irritant, an annoyance or hindrance to fruitful, harmonious and successful relationships? Can we do better? Could we improve ourselves and catch our own little foxes? Have a good weekend ahead and do take time to bask in the glory of His presence as we spend time with God in our quiet time!
Ronnie's Thoughts 