R.I.P.
Tuesday, July 27, 2004
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
Only 59, but his body had been abused through years of diseases (diabetes, schizophrenia) and heavy smoking.
"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" Jesus said and asked of Martha, the sister of the dead Lazarus, and of each one of us. Do you believe this? John had answered Yes, just like Martha. So I think the pastor is right.
Paul wrote on the resurrection of the dead: "The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." ( 1 Corinthians 15:42-44)
Imagine, John with a brand new body, set free from his sufferings, in a place where there is no more death or mourning or crying or pain, where the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. (Revelation 21: 1-4)
So there were a few tears, especially for Malliga and Nisha, their 13 year old daughter, and especially at the sight of his body in the coffin, but there was a peace that passes understanding and hope and much singing of joyful songs. He had wanted happy songs at his funeral and he got it, in Tamil mostly and in English.
Thursday, July 22, 2004
Good news and bad news
Yesterday morning, got a call from Ipoh. Malliga said John Thava is now in the hospital with bleeding in the brain and water in the lungs. It didn't look good. He has diabetes and had both legs amputated some time ago. Now he's in a coma in the ICU in the Ipoh GH.
This morning I just read the news online: CNN reported that another 6 civilians have been abducted and threatened with beheading by an obscure muslim militant group. Oh no! Look what the Philippines have done! And I hope it isn't true what was rumoured earlier: that the Malaysian government gave $5 million of the $6 million which the Philippines paid to the kidnappers to release the Filipino hostage, besides withdrawing their troops. It made me weep. What will $6 million buy these barbarians now? More weapons, bombs, equipment to destroy and kill, that's what.
Monday, July 19, 2004
Words in red
Lifebuilders Intermediate group at Hope EFC.
Sunday mornings at 11, we dig into our bibles and look at the words in red, the words of Christ: His parables, declarations, sermon on the mount. We did the first beatitude last Sunday: "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:3
Lord, teach us to be poor in spirit, to be humble not proud, to realize our lostness and sin against You, and to call upon You for mercy, like the Prodigal Son who came to his senses and the tax collector who went away from the temple justified by You, rather than the Pharisee.
Celebrating life and food
Liow family before dinner for Joni and Papa's b'days
When the Liows gather, it's crab time! We had two varieties of crabs this time with steamed fish, roast duck, tofu, etc. 12 dishes in all. Everyone is here except for Sook Fern and Chin Hoe who are in KK. Joni is 18 ( the pretty one in the white blouse, of course) and Papa, 72. CH's brother Chin Peng joined us as he happened to be visiting from Penang. He took the photo.
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
Sensible children bring joy to their father
Yesterday, D's Dad was in the Sunway Medical Centre for an angiogram (noun: the roentgenographic visualization of the blood vessels after injection of a radiopaque substance - merriam-webster online dictionary) and chemo-embolisation treatment. The latter, according to Albert, the doctor son, is "treating the tumour locally thru' injecting chemo agents directly to blood vessels supplying the tumour, then blocking
the vessels off (ie. embolising it) with extremely small beads. That effectively meant destroying the tumor cells both by the drugs as well as killing it by cutting off the blood supply." The procedure was done smoothly, "as planned," according to the radiologist who did it. He's an old classmate of Albert.
As eldest son, Sunny in the Penang Baptist Seminary, emailed, "Glad to have a doctor in the family and able to make the necessary arrangements in this time of need." Indeed, it has been Albert who has been ensuring that his dad got the best medical advice and treatment available. Maylyn, the youngest daughter, has put off her return to work in Singapore and stayed with dad in the hospital. The costs will be borne by all the 6 children contributing to "a fund for our parents care in the last years of their lives."
Sensible children bring joy to their father; foolish children despise their mother.
Plans go wrong for lack of advice; many counselors bring success. Proverbs 15:20, 22(New Living Translation)
the vessels off (ie. embolising it) with extremely small beads. That effectively meant destroying the tumor cells both by the drugs as well as killing it by cutting off the blood supply." The procedure was done smoothly, "as planned," according to the radiologist who did it. He's an old classmate of Albert.
As eldest son, Sunny in the Penang Baptist Seminary, emailed, "Glad to have a doctor in the family and able to make the necessary arrangements in this time of need." Indeed, it has been Albert who has been ensuring that his dad got the best medical advice and treatment available. Maylyn, the youngest daughter, has put off her return to work in Singapore and stayed with dad in the hospital. The costs will be borne by all the 6 children contributing to "a fund for our parents care in the last years of their lives."
Sensible children bring joy to their father; foolish children despise their mother.
Plans go wrong for lack of advice; many counselors bring success. Proverbs 15:20, 22(New Living Translation)
Tuesday, July 13, 2004
Reading with the boys
I'm doing my best but it's getting hard keeping up with the boys. They're reading faster than I can and finishing whole novels before I can even start on them. I used to read every book with them together or after, and sometimes, before they did, to check it out. D and I read the first Harry Potter book first before letting them go at it. After that, it has been a losing race for us. They finished Lord of the Rings before D. I gave up somewhere in the first book, and decided to just enjoy the movies. Besides, there was always Elliot sitting next to me in the cinema telling me what was going to happen next or what was not faithful to the book.
Now as we can't keep up, we read book reviews and check out authors online or elsewhere, and teach them to do the same. In view of the limited time we have each day, we have to be selective: some books are worth second and more reads, others only once, still others not worth finishing or even starting on them. We also want to be able to discuss the books and their ideas, to enjoy reading with a critical mind.
So I just finished The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Ethan had picked it at the Times sales we went to a fortnight ago; it's a New York Times bestseller he had come across and was keen to find out what it's about. D okayed it (he said no to Jeffrey Archer). The boys finished it in days and went online to find out more about Leonardo da Vinci and other parties named in the book, see the places and the paintings, read the reviews. It's definitely a blockbuster suspense thriller, written with Hollywood in mind. In fact, they've already started working on the movie based on the book. But as for the contents: the author and his protagonist, having rejected the Bible and its message about Jesus as the Son of God and the Saviour of the world, are left with a mixed bag of wishy-washy esoteric ideas about worshipping the sun and mother nature, the goddess, murmurs of spirits in the darkness, forgotten words echoed...a woman's voice...the wisdom of the ages...whispering up from the chasms of the earth.
The blurbs praise the book with words like smart, brainy, clever, erudite. Superficially, it appears to be, with scholarly explanations, heroes with spunk and wit, outsmarting their pursuers, solving puzzles and mysteries with their superior intelligence. Question is: Is that true wisdom? The psalmist said, "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'" Psalm 14:1. The footnote states that the Hebrew words rendered fool in Psalms denote one who is morally deficient. Thus wisdom is not merely intellectual head knowledge; it includes moral character. It's not just words, it's also behaviour and actions.
As it is written in Romans 1:18-32,
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen.
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Now as we can't keep up, we read book reviews and check out authors online or elsewhere, and teach them to do the same. In view of the limited time we have each day, we have to be selective: some books are worth second and more reads, others only once, still others not worth finishing or even starting on them. We also want to be able to discuss the books and their ideas, to enjoy reading with a critical mind.
So I just finished The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Ethan had picked it at the Times sales we went to a fortnight ago; it's a New York Times bestseller he had come across and was keen to find out what it's about. D okayed it (he said no to Jeffrey Archer). The boys finished it in days and went online to find out more about Leonardo da Vinci and other parties named in the book, see the places and the paintings, read the reviews. It's definitely a blockbuster suspense thriller, written with Hollywood in mind. In fact, they've already started working on the movie based on the book. But as for the contents: the author and his protagonist, having rejected the Bible and its message about Jesus as the Son of God and the Saviour of the world, are left with a mixed bag of wishy-washy esoteric ideas about worshipping the sun and mother nature, the goddess, murmurs of spirits in the darkness, forgotten words echoed...a woman's voice...the wisdom of the ages...whispering up from the chasms of the earth.
The blurbs praise the book with words like smart, brainy, clever, erudite. Superficially, it appears to be, with scholarly explanations, heroes with spunk and wit, outsmarting their pursuers, solving puzzles and mysteries with their superior intelligence. Question is: Is that true wisdom? The psalmist said, "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'" Psalm 14:1. The footnote states that the Hebrew words rendered fool in Psalms denote one who is morally deficient. Thus wisdom is not merely intellectual head knowledge; it includes moral character. It's not just words, it's also behaviour and actions.
As it is written in Romans 1:18-32,
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen.
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Monday, July 12, 2004
Thursday, July 08, 2004
The Hous
The Hou and Tan families
Here we are, the Hou and Tan families, at our last get-together on the Expressions4 Concert organised by our church Hope EFC on June 19. Elliot played 2 piano pieces, Ethan drums in a jazz piece (The girl from Ipanema) with Joshua on piano and Andrew on conga. They called themselves Jaeth. J and A also played classical pieces on the piano, and Caleb, the youngest Hou son, played the violin and piano. There were other participants, notably the guests of honour who were a jazz band comprising Andrew William, Ethan's drum teacher, and his 2 friends on electric guitar and bass guitar. So we had classical, pop, jazz and also rock, really loud rock, by our own youth (Bruce, Jonesy, James and Jessy aka the Catalyst).
It's kind of appropriate that we took this picture before the Hous left for the US the next week on June 27 because right from the very first Expressions concert we had 4 years ago, they have been taking up a large part of the programme, with piano, erhu (Andrew), conga (J & A), violin, even though they go to a different church. The next concert won't be the same without them.
Though they are now right on the other side of the globe in Washington state, it's as if they haven't left, thanks to technology. While they were here, even though we don't meet up that often, the boys chat a lot online. Now, not only do they talk by instant messengers, they have audio conversations. Tuesday morning (Monday night over there), while I was out, the 5 of them had a 40 minute conversation! That would have cost a pretty penny if they had used the old phone, but it was totally foc, other than the monthly bill for the internet usage.
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
Murder in Malaysia
Another senseless murder on the front page of the Star today: a law student home on vacation was beaten to death by a group of men he had apparently confronted because he heard them teasing him as he walked by a restaurant with his girlfriend.
It seems like Malaysia is a very dangerous place to come back to for those who have returned from abroad or are visiting. Canny Ong was here on a short visit from her residence in the US when she was abducted, raped and killed. Earlier there was a Malay woman who had come from her studies in the UK and was working here when she was also raped and killed in a bus. A South African diplomat was abducted and robbed and held for several days before he was released. Tourists have had their bags snatched and I remember at least one who was killed in the process. O Malaysia, wherefore art thou, my country?
If it is dangerous for the visitors, how then for the locals? Not a day passes by without someone being murdered, raped, assaulted, robbed, somewhere in this country. It can be 91 year old grandmother, a manager, a maid, a teenage boy or girl, or a toddler or baby. Was it our former Prime Minister who had blithely said that murder was not part of our culture? Well, murder is certainly part and parcel of Cain's culture, Cain the first murderer, which is that of the world. We are part of the human race. What hubris to think that we are better than others, more civilised, more cultured?
"There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23) Lord, have mercy on this land, the government and the people. Forgive us our pride and self-righteousness, our unjust laws and judicial process, our ill-treatment and abuse of immigrant workers, asylum seekers and visitors, the old, the young, the disabled, the poor, the aborigines. Let Your light shine through this land, let Your love and peace prevail.
It seems like Malaysia is a very dangerous place to come back to for those who have returned from abroad or are visiting. Canny Ong was here on a short visit from her residence in the US when she was abducted, raped and killed. Earlier there was a Malay woman who had come from her studies in the UK and was working here when she was also raped and killed in a bus. A South African diplomat was abducted and robbed and held for several days before he was released. Tourists have had their bags snatched and I remember at least one who was killed in the process. O Malaysia, wherefore art thou, my country?
If it is dangerous for the visitors, how then for the locals? Not a day passes by without someone being murdered, raped, assaulted, robbed, somewhere in this country. It can be 91 year old grandmother, a manager, a maid, a teenage boy or girl, or a toddler or baby. Was it our former Prime Minister who had blithely said that murder was not part of our culture? Well, murder is certainly part and parcel of Cain's culture, Cain the first murderer, which is that of the world. We are part of the human race. What hubris to think that we are better than others, more civilised, more cultured?
"There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23) Lord, have mercy on this land, the government and the people. Forgive us our pride and self-righteousness, our unjust laws and judicial process, our ill-treatment and abuse of immigrant workers, asylum seekers and visitors, the old, the young, the disabled, the poor, the aborigines. Let Your light shine through this land, let Your love and peace prevail.
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