Mondays are when The Micah Mandate gets a good update. Usually, at least 4-5 new posts. Last week, we had a couple of posts which came immediately after an event. It’s good to have new faces coming up for this week. We are still very much a work in progress. So far, we have had some encouraging feedback and support.
The process of writing and reflecting which comes from engaging the thoughts in these posts hopefully will draw us closer to truth and away from falsehood, the desire is to see ourselves grow more integrated and less fragmented individually as well as communally, the vision forward is for us to play our part in the betterment of Malaysian society as a whole. All of us have a part to play. So, to those who’ve been supporting Micah Mandate one way or another, many thanks to you. For those who are new, welcome, and to all let’s invite more people into the conversations and the whole process.
Reflection
WHAT IS TRUTH? By Peter Young
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Serious personal accusations and vehement denials are commonplace in our Malaysian political scene. In each case at least one party is either genuinely mistaken or deliberately lying. Where then does the truth come in?
Reflection
Prayer, Persistence, Justice By Sivin Kit
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Prayer, Persistence, Justice. I hear people talk about the link between prayer and persistence a lot. Especially when it comes to asking for our own needs as well as the needs of others. But adding the component of Justice, puts into the equation a needed content corrective that we often lack.
Reflection
Solzhenitsyn: The Battle of Good and Evil Over Nations by Jeremiah Liang
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When I was in my teens, I read two Russian writers whose works came often to mind through my later years: Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008).
I was more interested in Dostoevsky’s dramatic inner study of the human soul: the psyche of the criminal, the petty thief, the man caught in the midst of political chaos. Solzhenitsyn was harder to read as his realistic accounts were based on personal experience of imprisonment and exile.
Reflection
One word of truth shall outweigh the whole world Alexandr Solzhenitsyn—Nobel Lecture, 1970
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Reflection
Integrity by TK Tan
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It seems to me that the age old ideal of being scrupulously honest has become a rare virtue in Malaysia. While most people might not steal another person’s money out of his drawer, or rob a person at gun point, it seems that there are few qualms about giving and accepting bribes, inflating overtime claims, tax evasion, parking charges, etc.
Commentary
Is Medicine Sorcery? By Bishop Hwa Yung
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What a silly question to ask? Really?
A couple of months ago I received a desperate call from a pastor of one of our churches. At least two couples in his church had come under the influence of the teaching, propagated by certain websites in America, that medicine is a form of sorcery. It is also taught by certain leaders of some independent and charismatic churches in our country, although they appear to be only a tiny minority. Unfortunately the effect has been devastating for some who have come under their influence.
The pastor who called told me that the husband of one of the couples had been diagnosed of suspected cancer. But he was told that medicine was a form of sorcery and to seek medical treatment was equivalent to idolatry. He should instead trust God as the true healer. The result was that the person concerned believed that he had been healed by God through prayer, but nevertheless died a few months later!
Reflection
9 SILENT PRAYER IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD By Koichi Ohtawa
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Commentary
Let the Games Begin! by Goh Keat Peng
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I say political battles must be fought in the political arena. At the federal level, the action takes place in the constituencies and in parliament. World-class athletes may make as much claims as to their prowess and their being the best as much as they wish but the real place to prove it is in the stadium. So it is with political contest. Let it take place in the right places. If I claim I have the support in parliament, then why do I avoid a vote of no confidence? If I claim the man is a political has-been, then why would I have made it impossible for him to contest the recent general elections?
Commentary
Wanting to have faith but still having to overcome disbelief by Andrew Khoo Chin Hock
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I was also perplexed when the PM said that he was “comfortable” attending the dinner and having a vegetarian meal and listening to the issues raised by the MCCBCHST. Prime Minister, I don’t want you to feel comfortable. When people are comfortable, they do nothing, so as to prolong that feeling of comfort. How can you or anyone in government, be it executive, legislative or judiciary, feel comfortable when people like Subashini and Shamala and Revathi are suffering because religious issues and the laws of our nation have torn their families apart, and the courts of our country have been emasculated and made powerless to help solve their problems?
Reflection
Everyday Heroes, Perfect Strangers by Alice Nah
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What is remarkable about the social world is the way our lives entwine – you and I, he and she, they and them – often unexpectedly.
We cannot help but have an impact on the lives of others. Similarly, we cannot help but feel the influence of others upon our lives. These can be positive encounters, that add something good immediately, or negative, that take something away which we need to redeem. What we do, what we think, and how we respond to people and circumstances shape the impact we make. These often occur not through magnificent or remarkable acts, but through simple words and ordinary actions.
Commentary
YET ANOTHER DELAY FOR DR IRENE from tenaganita.net
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Experience
Petition to the Agong regarding Reform of the Judiciary by TK Tan
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