FAITH......!

“Faith”

For all in the hope- Rod

Seriously, it is very hard to talk on this topic especially when you live among the worlds most skeptical and pessimist Christians. This semester, I have been through many ups and downs but to compare them with the previous year’s, I think I’m doing quite well…so far!

Anyway, what are God’s responses to the question, “how can I become stronger in my faith?”

1. Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.
(Titus 2:2)

2. Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess,
(Deuteronomy 11:8)

Just as your muscles get stronger with exercise, so your faith gets stronger the more you exercise it. To strengthen your faith, SPEND TIME IN ‘TRAINING’ WITH GOD EACH DAY, be careful to obey His regimen for healthy and godly living. Then your faith will be strengthened and your spiritual muscle will be ready to take on whatever life throws at you.

What do I do to implement this?

1. Whatever things or matters that I meditate on, I will blog them out just like this and all of my posts. Dr. Voon says ‘we need to keep track of our daily journey with Jesus, so it is good to have a journal.’ In my case is this humble blog of mine. Somewhere in the future, we have the access to see our ups and downs and it is good to always reflect on God’s faithfulness. My blog may not be as theologically correct as some of the lecturers’ or as fancy as some of my friends’ but then it is enough to be a constant reminder to me that I should at all time remain as a faithful servant.

2. Have a quiet time with The Lord.

STM is a place where your reputation will precede you! (Can I have a good ‘amen’ for that??!)
“Rod, you got time to pray meh..?? Sure or not…??? Don’t bluff laaaa….haiyaaaa…bla...bla…LOL….!”

3 years spent so far in STM is enough for me to see how far some people will go in their ministry, but then God still have a wonderful plan for them (including me LOL)…

One simple advice, don’t judge a God’s servant by his appearance (laaaa…).

This might give a shock to STM students, council and quite a numbers of lecturers too, I DO HAVE MY QUIET TIME (a deafening silence for about 10 seconds).

Well, outside my room is a place where people move with lots of things in their heads, when they see me they will say, “Aha, this fella laaaa…!” (Then they will go on reproducing what they heard from others about me).

Back to my room is my music studio and my fortress where my time for God is spent most of the time in silence (to avoid ‘Phariseenism’ kind of public-figure). My guitars, my praise and worship books and my daily meditation as well as my journal is placed on my bed and I talk to Jesus. “I am not religious, I Just love Jesus”. Being religious does NOT make you spiritual.

MT 6:5 "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.

MT 6:6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

…but when I pray, I will go into MY ROOM, close the door and pray to my Father…

Last year I have my prayer partner, my ex-roommate, Soon Jun Jer. We had our quite time every day at 11pm last year. (Jacob did joined once, thanks for your support bro!).

This year, I am not so close with my new roommate because he is such a nice fella (people literally came to him on his first day here and warned him to ‘be careful’ with me LOL). I took it as a joke.

Anyway, just in case certain people might discredit my claim, they are free to ask my current roommate regarding my quiet time. (This is not a statement of pride, but I just feel that there is an urgent need to educate some students that I DO HAVE MY QUIET TIME). Don’t feel offended. This is how I exercise my FAITH. I DON’T need people to praise me and give me good stars in STM. I also have my feelings and so, please stop being prejudice to people like us in STM.
Actually, it makes me feel bad and I do feel bad to express my feeling in this blog. This action only opens me up and makes me more vulnerable for more critics from ‘future church ministers’ of STM...how bad and how sad…

I know that only God can judge my faith, and I accept that reality with an open heart…I was supposed to ignore people’s comments about my faith, I really should BUT I just can’t accept it when people call me ‘faithless’ because we all live in a seminary- a ‘heavenly’ place. We all should be building one another. Instead, we all became negative towards one another.

For my juniors, if you happen to go to St. Mark’s Seremban next year, you will know bout me and my healing ministry there (St. Mark's extension Centre in Port Dickson).

If you happen to go to Cheras (Emmanuel Church and GEPC), you will know about my youth and music ministry there.

This year, just go to St. Katherine’s Kajang and fellowship with us. Something GOOD is happening there.

My reputation precedes me, but unfortunately, the wrong and twisted information (laaaa…)…LOL.

‘Faith’ is very easy to be seen in a person’s life, but in my case I had to prove it and make some efforts to convince people! It is funny, isn’t it? I don’t blame them. I finally made myself look foolish just to ensure that people will become more sensitive and sensible. I finally made STM sounds NOT like a nice place to study (eventually, I plan to further at STS after graduation).

A thousand apologies to my brothers and sisters in Christ who felt that they need to defend themselves after reading this honest post. As iron sharpens iron, so are we to improve ourselves by grinding onto on another. We all are going to graduate one day, so for God’s sake, please change your mindset (laaa…!). Otherwise you will face difficulties in accepting your congregation and fail to love them with truth and honesty.

Here are some tips from Pastor Rock:
1. It is easier to love others if we see them through God’s eyes.

2. The measure of love is to love without measure.

3. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
(1 Corinthians 13:13).

4. Love without TRUTH will not go far. Stop pretend to love by stopping pretending to love.

HAVE FAITH, BUILD ONE ANOTHER, AND SUPPORT THEM IN PRAYER!

p/s: Pastor Rock ingin mengenal Tuhan lebih dalam dari semua yg dia kenal.