It'll be sad to leave ragsjournal but the new has come. In my exploration of wordpress and knowing things will and have to change, I've decided to jump over. Hope to see you in my new website.

www.ragsstudio.com

I'll no longer update this one.

Thinking that I haven't been spending enough time with my family, I decided to take them to the Singapore zoo even though I was experiencing some pain in the stomach. When we reached there, we rejoined Friends of the Zoo after 4 months. By then my pain has reached unbearable condition that I couldn't go on. So Mag brought the kids in while I stayed in the car to rest (unfortunately couldn't rest very successful). An hour later at dinner time, I could barely walk to KFC to join the family. Then a friend called if I want to go out to watch soccer together. I gave him the I'm-in-pain-how-could-I tone. He understood. It was terrible.

When I reached home, i had developed a high fever which i knew I had to do something because the next day I'm to share God's word to the children. So I messaged my team members for prayers which they always obliged. The nextday (which is today) I woke up at 5am in a renewed state without stomach pain nor fever. I could feel a bit of a hangover but could rehearse my message and then at 10am preached one of the best I've ever preached. God is amazingly good.

Today, we also had some visitors to our children church. One of them from our church in Kuching. I realise I have so much to say about children's ministry that I speak faster (and more) than my mouth can say them. I was excited on an exciting day. I'm dead tired now and I think I am going to sleep like a baby tonight. It makes a difference with God on our side.

Mag went for some course with Hope Centre this week. One of the course work requirement is that she has to do something weird in a crowded public place. She chose to walk backwards in crowded Eunos MRT last Wednesday. I was there to see it. It was really funny. The course is on cognitive behaviour therapy and its finally over after one whole week and her funny walk. It was a hectic week for her.

She's out exercising this morning and she had her course folder with her. She told me last night she needed therapy on herself. She wanted to use it to fix certain things about herself before she uses it on others.

As she's exercising and doing these stuff, I'm here reading the words of Jesus again. He talked about why do we look at the speck of sawdust on our brother's eyes and pay no attention to the plank in our own eye? He advised to first take the plank out of our own eye and then we will see clearly to remove the speck from our brother's eye. How ironic.

Yes, we do like to do therapy to almost everyone we meet. We judge others and sometimes think about how to fix them. The truth is that there's always a big plank in our own. When we have a big plank we do not seeing clearly ourselves and the people around us. What is important is the knowledge of the plank.

The second thing I learned from the word of Jesus was about fasting. He said when we fast we should not disfigure our faces to show men we are fasting but to put oil on our head and wash our face so that its not obvious to men but only to God our Father what we do. Things done in secret will be rewarded.

We do what impresses and look good on the outside. Often we miss what is really important. The important thing is the knowledge of the plank. Ourselves! We need to fix us! We need what is important and that is really a true vital relationship with God, our heavenly father who loves us so much and longs for us. We need some self therapy ... and before that, we ought not to even think about using therapy on others.

I believe knowledge or awareness leads to decisions and decisions to change. We need good awareness followed by good actions and then enjoy the change.

I lied down on the beach at Pasir Ris after a long Sunday. I looked towards the sea and wondered what's life like in the sea. I mean if I'm not living on land and like sea villagers works and travels in the sea. With all things revolving around the sea, wouldn't that be a big impact on me and how I do things. Wouldn't that change my mind about how things are done. Wouldn't church be so different.

Thoughts like that helps me retain the fundamental of what being a Christian mean. There may not be church decoration, there may not be church blogs, they may not shake much hands of those who comes to church for they may fall into the water trying. They may not jump so much during praise and worship for they may also risk falling again. Preaching may be different as visuals may not be through power point. Stage lightings will be different. They may not even be a stage.. I don't know.

Love will remain the same. Praying, caring, fellowship and reading of God's word will still be the same. Visitation will still be done on boats and discipleship without a doubt. The love of God and for one another and all these fundamentals are what will make the biggest difference as a Christian whether it is on sea or land. I really like it when a trip to the beach refreshes me to what counts in our life. Think regularly and reflect deeply. It helps, especially after a long Easter Sunday. I feel like having my life lived on sea the whole of this week and I'll be trying to do just that. Hope I will survive the journey to keep you updated.

Happy Easter for the remaining hour of the day and remember Jesus is alive!