Sivin Kit's Adventures

Archive for August, 2004

I just realized that this blog has just passed it’s 1st birthday … since starting in August 22, 2003. It’s been quite an experience indeed.

I’ve got to know new friends. I’ve grown in confidence (I think) in my writing or articulation of all sorts of thoughts inside me. My perspective has been stretched. New horizons have opened up far beyond my imagination. I’ve definately learnt a lot though the reading of other people’s thoughts and the links they provide. It’s even become a kind of spiritual disicpline. And when I find out some people have read the stuff I scribble and found help … it really encourages me a lot… it’s a very 2 Corinthians 4:7 thing … (which has become another key verse for me personally togther with John 20:21), so I do hope “blogging” like many of the other things I do is an extension of who I am as a saint and sinner at the same time, journeying with Christ on earth and inviting others to come along as well …

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; …” (NASB)

“But this precious treasure – this light and power that now shine within us – is held in perishable containers, that is, in our weak bodies. So everyone can see that our glorious power is from God and is not our own “ (NLT)

“If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That’s to prevent anyone from confusing God’s incomparable power with us.” (Message)

I love this picture with the Malaysian flad hidden behind the people taken a couple of Sunday’s ago at one of our LiFE Group parties. First, it reminds me of the photos we take in the 60’s or 70’s because of the way they look and the positioning of their postures Secondly, I like it because each person represents all the new people who’ve come to join the BLC community and our journey with Christ together. There’s Ken Beng on the far left who comes from a totally non-Christian background like Susan next to him and got baptised last year. This coming Sunday will be Susan’s turn. And it’s a great joy for me because we never pressured them in anyway, it was a slow and long process actually for each of them – first, Ken Beng and then Susan. Shereen second from the right said that she some how got “lost” along the way since her short connection with a church as a teenager (and got baptised then), she jokingly said she “poteng” (play traunt) as far as the school of followinf Christ is concerned and now is coming back for re-enrolment. What a joy it will be to see her re-affirm her faith this Sunday too! And of course, the one that’s smiling until we can’t she her eyes! Hoong Guit is the first female council member for our church starting this year (it’s not that we didn’t believe in female leadership – we really do support ladies to serve in leadership, it’s a matter of timing for our young 4 year old church!). Anyway, to see her growth since she stepped into our midst and had more focus in her walk with God, slowly taking up serving in the LiFe Groups and especially doing an excellent job with our Library, and now playing a role in the council is simply just awesome.

All this is happenning right before our eyes, and seeing the grace of God at work is just phew! what can I say? And this is happening in our 47 year old Malaysia right in the Klang Valley, in the mist of a local congregation of Christians and friends (who are open to the Christian faith). I like Brian McLaren’s little phrase … in that our vision is to see “more Christians and better Christian living in community for the sake of the world” and my prayer is that as we genuinely fulfill this … individually and collectively we really contribute to the betterment of our country. Our priority is the “kingdom of God” no doubt, but we also pray “Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven …”, and I pray that god’s kingdom will come amongst us in our nation in and through us! In many ways just like the picture above, we are enjoying the “full life” God offers through Christ especially in community but it goes beyond that … helping us to look beyond ourselves to others around us or even far away from us!

So, as we celebrate Malaysia’s National day tomorrow on the 31st August, Thanks to Roy Lim for this Sing-a-long
you might want to join me in singing the national anthem. But, I’d like to invite you to join me further to the kind of stuff that I tried so inadequately to talk about in my reflection on the picture above!:-)

I must say I have a “soft spot” for baby’s toes … they are just adorable! These toes belong to Gracelynn our new God-daughter! for us it’s a great honour to be asked to be someone’s God-parenst. And for May Chin and me yesterday was our initiation to be Gracelynn’s godparents as she’s welcomed to God’s family through baptism. We already have two God-sons, so it’s really awesome to take on one more … but she’s the first God-daughter.

As you can see she has these inquisitive eyes … and I was so excited when I carried her for the first time after the baptism yesterday Indeed, I pray that in days to come she’ll become more and more conscious of God’s promise of unconditional love towards her in Christ, and we the parents, Godparents and the church community will all together with God’s help serve to help her along the way. And I’m sure we’re actually looking at ourselves when we look into her eyes and are reconnected to God’s promise for us as well.

I love the next picture because she looks like little eskimo (in Malaysia?!) or maybe a young explorer all ready for her little adventures and future expeditions in the vast terrains of human life! May we not lose that child-like desire to explore and discover new things in life …

When I saw the heart beating away strongly, my heartbeat increased and yet there was a sense of relief that all is well. “Lord, we are thankful for this new chance to serve you”. May Chin and I still haven’t fully got it all together in raising Gareth, and I wonder whether parents ever get a hang of it since every child is different.

No. 2 didn’t really make it but God’s grace was “sufficient” to get us through. We never expected it both the receiving part as well as the losing part. And personally, I was suddenly speechless and lost in processing the meaning of the ups and downs of losing No.2. And just recently, I heard of a pastor friend of mine also going through a similar experience. Experiencing “loss” doesn’t need a multitude of words… “Lord Have mercy”

Mom was very excited when I told her and her joy was just bubbling over the phone. I jokingly said, “You’re in charge of babysitting this one!” She replied, “No Problem!”

Now, Gareth is going through intensive training to be the big brother … I’m sure he’ll be going major adjustments. But, for May Chin and I … we’re grateful and we genuinely put our trust in the one who has carried us thus far and will carry us on into the future … which is full of unknowns …

Here’s two new blogs I’m reading … both have sent me kind emails so that makes the connection tighter and the glue sticker I’ve cut and paste some of their thoughts for preview …

First, introducing subvergence…

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I finished reading The Spirit of the Discplines by Dallas Willard. It was recommended to me about 12 years ago and has been sitting on my bookshelf since—feel kind of foolish for not reading it before. It is very much in the vein of The Divine Conspiracy, which is no surprise since they are books one and three in a trilogy. I think it was actually easier reading than the Divine Conspiracy. There was a lot of underlining and many dog-eared pages when I was done. Here’s a few of the questions/thoughts I have in my book journal:

pg 246—”Ministers pay far too much attention to people who do not come to services. Those people should, generally, be given exactly that disregard by the pastor that they give to Christ. The Christian leader has something much more important to do that pursue the godless. The leader’s task is to equip saints until they are like Christ, and history and the God of history waits for him to do this job.”—I’ll just leave that one to speak for itself and we can all ponder to what degree we agree or disagree…
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And another one, A Jewish God-fearer in a room full of Christians …
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Not many people who are looking to “reform” their current church can do something so drastic. So I had to think about what other options are available for those who were asking. After some prayer, contemplation, and saying to myself, “I think I can, I think I can…” over and over, a little engine train came out of nowhere and nailed me! I had been reading Journey Inward, Journey Outward, by Elizabeth O’Connor, in which she so eloquently told the story of Church of the Savior, and explored what it means to be the Church. What a wonderful way to give new life to the evangelical church! Finding those within the congregation that have the love and vision of a missionary for the local community. Helping them develop their gifts, the very things they love to do, helping them become the unique self that they were created to be, helping them become the GOOD NEWS! Then to set up a team of people around them to work together at bringing that vision to its fullness! Being about the business of calling out the depths of others, and teaching those around us to do the same. This would completely revitalize and reform the evangelical and traditional church. This would put the focus on being the Church, as opposed to “going to church.”
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Just once a while, and I must say for a long while, there’s a front page story that “moves” me at a deeper level. And a story like this on one, i.e. Abducted baby found safe made me pause for a moment to offer thanks. It’s a story with its own twists and turns, highlighting danger, sadness, fear and all that goes with such an unwanted event.

It’s so good to read “GOOD NEWS” for a change … and though it does not ignore the crime committed, but to read that the mother got back her little ying Ying and the part that the Malay couple just “soften” my often “hardened” heart.

News like this “does” something beyond the words on the paper to people I believe who are willing to pause and allow some space for “spiritual formation” would really find meaning beyond the daily routine we so used to.

I was drawn back to God in a way that I needed to. Thinking about how often I’ve been “abducted” by all sorts of forces around me. I carved out time just to be in his presence and grateful that He came to “seek and save the lost”, how lost we are – so often. I felt so grateful that he holds me in his arms in safety and security … in Christ, there’s power over sin, death and the devil that seeks to “abduct” me through all sorts of scheming and strategies.

The whole “Good News” theme rang this whole morning in me and how important “Good News” needs to penetrate the cloud of “Bad News” that keeps bombarding us non-stop. Of course, again and again … I was just drawn in prayer with the Bible text before me after breakfast back to the “Good News” found in this person Yeshua, or some call Yesus (Malay), in Mandarin Yesu, and to the world mostly know as Jesus.

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“We grow by asking the right questions not by getting answers.”
~Gordon Cosby, CHURCH OF THE SAVIOR
Washington, DC

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Thanks pastordraven for this!

“When we think we generally talk to ourselves, when we pray we talk to God.” ~ Anthony de Mello via SacredGateway

For two mornings when I stepped into the AugustinerKloster church at Erfurt when I was staying there, I noticed this young lady kneeling in prayer both the two mornings I was sitting in the pews looking at the stain-glass windows. This picture stuck in my mind on how prayer is life and life is prayer. But, more so on how the day starts with God. Thus, the desire for continual growth in my prayer life with good starts in the morning deepened. I like the quote this morning … I enjoy thinking (hmm .. talking to myself?) but maybe the nudge today was to go further to talk more to God.

I remember the last time I got some of my church members to read Winn’s article on Story. many of them got “puzzled” by his challenge on “scripture memorization” Somehow, many missed what he was really trying to get at.

Reading his Verses Quoting Sucks! (there’s a specific context that helps me see why he’s emphasizing STORY so much!) Allow me to take the middle chunk of his post to get our brain juices bubbling, but at the end it’s better to read the whole post to get the full story!
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The Bible is God’s story. It is not God’s promise box full of little nuggets to rip out of context and quote at will. Fragmented memorization and quoting of verses produces fragmented followers of Jesus. The many and varied Bible programs both online and desktop only exacerbate the problem by the endless algorithms for searching and then presenting one with verses as a result (of course they can do more than that in most programs). You would have thought that God would have been smart enough to have written us a versified Bible or maybe even a topical Bible which is the child of versification, maybe God should have just skipped all the authors of the Old and New Testament, those poor shmucks who didn’t know anything about the joy of fragments, and had Nave born centuries earlier and had him produce his topical Bible. Wonder why God didn’t just give us a group of propositions like 7,777 of them so we could just mark off the ones we have “applied” to our lives. Yep, that would have done the job.

Hooray for Eugene Peterson, may his move to have Bibles without verses conquer the publishers of the world.
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An interesting comment on the post was “Winn…how the heck are we suppossed to find something without the verses? ” which was quite a touch of humor. Thus, I still appreciate the chapters and verses purely for reference, but I do get what Winn is trying to get at and it has helped me become less fragmented. It has definately helped me get the flow of the story better and the message too! And I like the idea of “story memorization” … a good alternative

I was drawn to how phil from signposts felt about his talk on money at church and the post message reaction. I think I was drawn to his up and down feeling because I also tried in someway to talk about money and prosperity last Sunday!
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Ah money! You know I am becoming convinced that money is a huge challenge for the Church. We seem to have bought into the idea that it is a subject we can’t talk about or even explore. When we do so we are so much more comfortable making motherhood statements or talking about someone else’s attitude towards money.

Why is it that we always want to talk about the first group?
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Probably one tension I might at is Tension #5 – Guilt v’s Gratitude!