TESTIMONY SHARING BY MUN LOON & SHUMIN LAI AT EV SERVICE, 2G NLEC 6 AUGUST 2011, 5 PM
DEAR FRIENDS, BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN CHRIST, PREAMBLE
It is imperative to be sure why we give testimonies. To begin with, testimonies are not about so much about what we do for God, but what God has done for us; because the centrality of the message revolves around God’s Word reincarnating in our lives i.e. becoming flesh. What we do, however radical it may sound, is a response to what God has promised in His Word, and our faith in how He will keep His promises.
As such, testimonies have to be Biblically based. The Word of God is a Living Word, no matter how old it is, it is alive today for us, who believe in it. As such, contexts may change, but the Word remains relevant, and it is for us to allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us and reveal to us how we exercise the Word of God in our daily lives. No part of the Bible is obsolete. In fact, James 1:22 tells us, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” And our testimonies are about how we do what the Word says, and how we have been blessed in our obedience in following it.
To God, be the glory.
GREETINGS
GOD’S PROMISES – THE UNCHANGING GOD
We roughly knew our ‘time’ was up in the beginning of 2009, when Shumin and I were praying about what lied ahead of us in terms of getting married and moving on to the next phase of our lives. Ministry-wise, Shumin had been a youth leader for ages, and I have been involved in you ministry for a while as well. Professionally, we were working full-time, and studying part-time; I was headhunted and offered a job by another non-profit organization, and I was extremely clear that I was only going be there for 2 years.
Shumin was working for a MNC and took a 6-month hiatus to complete her final semester. The company took her back after she finished her break as a temp for a couple of months, and offered her a one-year contact in 2010. No decent MNC will convert a Temp staff to permanent contract for ONE year, knowing that you will leave. God provided, and opened the door again.
It was an interesting experience to hear from the Holy Spirit, and trust that ‘intuition’.
The load upon our shoulders were heavy, but we also believed that ‘everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked’ Luke 12:48b. And we gave it our all to serve God in what He had entrusted us with.
And within us, we both knew that in 2011, we will get married, and move to Melbourne. We believed that God had a plan for us, to give us rest, at the same time to prepare us for what is ahead. Now, you must be wondering, what gave us such faith to quit our jobs, pack our bags, and know that we will not starve in a land 6500 kilometres away from home.
This was, honestly, just the icing on the cake, or perhaps, the tip of an iceberg.
We thought we should share about how God has been working in our lives from the days of our wedding preparing, that gave us the faith to move to Melbourne in such a crazy manner.
1 CHRONICLES 29 – GIFTS FOR BUILDING THE TEMPLE
Church building fundraising started in October 2010, by then, we had already told most of our leaders and pastors about our impending move, and gradually planning our exit from ministry in church. It was an exciting time for our church, but for us, it was a painful moment to know that we will not be with them in this.
Shumin asked me, ‘how much do you reckon we should give to the church building fund?’ They needed seed money to show cause, and were raising it fervently. We were young, getting married, moving away… now of course we have plans for the money we have been saving hard these few years. I casually told her, ‘$500’. She gave me a look of disbelief, but kept quiet. She knew that God will convict us and tell us how much we were giving, and she wanted to ‘let God deal with me, Himself.’
He has gained some infamy for dealing with me anyway.
The day came when we visited a very dear friend in hospital after a major surgery. He had his colon taken out, and was drifting in-and-out of consciousness. When he saw us, in his drugged state, he reminded us to give to church building fund right in front of the chairman of our church council.
I knew then, God wanted to do business with me. That weekend we pledged whatever money we had in our bank for church building fund. It was not much, as we were preparing for our wedding, and made payments everywhere, but it was not immediately before our wedding, and we had things to pay for too.
We asked to pay off out pledge over 2 months; I am serious, as we did not have much money. But God reminded me about David’s prayer in 1 Chronicles 29:10, that everything in heaven and earth is God’s, and He will provide all our needs according to His riches and glory.
God gave us back beyond our wildest imagination. This is not a gamble or a ‘wise’ investment that guarantees good returns. But God delights in our obedience, and little did we expect, that when we got married, just at our church wedding, we were so blessed we had problems finishing counting the cash gifts we received from people who came and who DIDN’T come.
1 Samuel 2:30, ‘…those who honours Me, I will honour, but those who despise me, will be disdained.’ It was a promised from the days the Israelites were in the wilderness, and it is the same promise that God kept till today. We were honoured by an outpouring of love because we chose to honour God in our ways. Indeed, obedience was better than sacrifice, and when we reject the word of the Lord, he rejects us as kings, and it is our inheritance that we lose. 1 Samuel 15:23.
1 CHRONICLES 21 – I WILL NOT GIVE SOMETHING THAT COST ME NOTHING
In late October, I was due to resign from my job to facilitate my move to Melbourne. I mentioned earlier that I knew I would be in that job for 2 years, and will move on from there. At that point of time, there were some problems with my visa application, and we had not bought our tickets yet. Yet I had to serve my notice with the organization, and ensure that there was enough time smooth handing over, I also needed time to prepare for the wedding, and pack our things to move to Melbourne.
The logical thing is to count how much you have in your barn, and time your resignation in a way you can get as much out of your pay as you can. If I resigned and left the organization on the 31st of December 2010, which I stated in my resignation letter, they will not give me a one-month bonus that I was due to receive. I believed that we honour God in our workplace, and by being fair to our bosses God is honoured. Capitalising on your company in self-interest was not something that God will smile and say, you are a shrewd manager; He probably would tell me I was a selfish manager.
That morning of my resignation, Singapore Stock Exchange announced an intended merger with, yes, your great Australian Stock Exchange. News of that merger was met with much resistance and apprehension both in Singapore and, of course, Australia. What’s the big deal? Well, simple, I held shares of SGX, which fell 25% that very morning of my resignation.
For a moment, I was gripped with fear. I pledged all my cash for church building fund, and when I woke up, I was poorer by 25% of my share value. I was also resigning that day, after checking my barn that I had enough to get me married, and transported off to Melbourne.
I went into office in trembling and fear. I knew I could change the dates of my letter so that I would surely get my additional 2 months salary at the stroke of my keyboard, but I also knew that in doing so, I would only trust myself, my bank account, what Man created for their security.
I got my friend to pray for me, and I asked my boss if I could have a word with her. I did not change the date and asked to leave as planned, believing that God will provide for me like how He provided for the birds in the sky as mentioned in Matthew 6:25-27.
My boss told me it was very sad that I resigned, and did the calculations and told me to ‘stay’ till got my bonus, then get off the payroll. When I told her that I appreciated her gesture, and was very grateful for it, but I needed to pack, she told me it does not take an entire month to pack, they are from Austria, and they know. And she went on to say that with all my leave, off-days, and the lack of a desk, I did not have to be in office except for team meetings, and when I need to come in.
Favour. God kept His end of the deal because I honoured Him with my bosses.
I was scheduled to preach that Saturday at youth service in my church, and God wanted to do business with me. I prepared sermon, and God told me on Friday evening to chuck it away, He wanted me to share from 1 Chronicles 21. I was reading the passage in the train, and I could not stop tearing, for I had sinned against the Lord Almighty.
He brought me to a passage where David was going to war, and did a census to count the fighting fit men he had. That angered God severely, and punished David and the nation for their lack of faith and trust in God, but in the resources they had.
I will not sacrifice something that cost me nothing. I will not serve my Lord out of convenience and give Him a token out of all that I had. That day, I learned that God was serious with me, even when I was scared; He was faithful. I learned that God does not want me to give Him something that cost me nothing, but give Him all that I had. Because He gave us ALL that He had, His only Son, to die for my redemption; how can I not trust God when He has shown His faithfulness to us?
CONCLUSION
People asked us how we were going to survive in Melbourne, ‘no jobs, no this, no that, no money…’
I smile, and tell them, I also do not know how, which drives them crazy.
But what I do know is written in Psalm 100:5, ‘For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.’
The Challenge for us lies in Hebrews 12:6, without faith, it is impossible to please God. How much do we want to please Him, who loved us so much?
When I saw how God was faithful to Shumin and myself, not just in these incidents, but many other small and big moments, how much favour we received from random strangers in Singapore and Melbourne, how can I not trust and obey a God who keeps His promises.
We will share with you how God gave us a house in Singapore, how we found a home in Melbourne and how God showed us His will when Shumin asked God for a job; maybe next time, when you buy us dinner.
To God be all glory.
Mun Loon and Shumin, Lai
EMBARGOED UNTIL 6th AUGUST 2011 2000 HOURS
I was getting worried about my ‘Words with Friends’ playing since its inaugural appearance on the iPad. What was worrying was when my wife was spreading my bread and making my coffee, I’d have my eyes on the iPad figuring out which words to play next.
See, I live 2 hours ahead of people I an playing with, a totally different lifestyle in a totally different timezone. So when they are about to sleep and putting their last words at midnight, it’d be 2am here, and my wife will expect me in bed, nothing less.
So other than reading the news in the morning for the last couple of weeks, I had been back to the game. Sometimes, I even play the game before reading any news, like winning or losing, or the margin in the game, was newsworthy.
What’s worse was the first week of playing, I was hurrying my opponents with their words, irritating them often. One of them said that I better take it easy, or find someone else.
How about my Bible reading routine? There were moments I appeared to have held the iPad in one hand while my Bible was opened on the table. If I thought the words in the Bible could be played, or could have inspired me, I must have not been thinking very much.
Yet, I sat up middle of this week, and thought to myself, this seriousness in the game is actually more than just being serious. It was like an addiction that I had to feed, which was taking control of my life. It was pure, clean fun; but when it took over my schedules and priorities, I thought I should sit up and spend some time thinking about how much emphasis I had unknowingly put on/in it.
In the middle of this week, I thought to myself, why not take it easy and just play without the competition within. Why not put up a good fight for the sake of a good fight, and not for the sake of winning. I was getting worried that it was about having to prove how vicious I was, how swift and how wonderful I can be. Why not play the lose the games, lest lose myself (and all my friends playing with me).
But it brought me back to a verse in Matthew 16:26 about ‘what profits a man if he gained the whole world but loses his soul’. I think I went back to the basics, and asked myself what mattered in my life, and which were the things that were worth fighting for, which battles are worth fighting so that I do not lose sight of the war in my life.
What really struck me was not about winning or losing that was really scary, but being obsessed about one or the other reared the monster in me. I am glad that I have a loving wife who will look out for me, and friends who care enough for me to caution me. I am grateful for these mirrors that will reflect truthfully to me, what my condition is. What I do need to continue doing is to have courage to look into these mirrors, and respond courageously in doing the right response to what I see.
What/who controls your life today? How did you allow it to happen? These were the questions that came face to face with me. It could well be God, or anything else, but if I cannot answer how I allowed it to happen, I better sit up and start thinking. I reckon auto-piloting is most dangerous in such treacherous terrain.
Scriptural Text Reference: Luke 15:11-32
In my previous entry, I spent some time writing a letter from the Father of the Prodigal Son. I believed there were some lessons for us to learn about the Father’s heart, and there were also applicable points in this position that we can takeaway, which we will spend some time examining here.
1. The father was just & fair (v12)
The younger son asked for his estate, but the father divided it into two. He didn’t say, ‘here, these is some of what I own, and you can take it.’ He was heartbroken, but fair; he divided his estate, even when it grieved him, even when he knew it was a good chance that younger son of his will squander it.
He would take the chance, still.
The father’s just and fairness was also seen by his prodigal son. We learn about how his father treated the servants in the house. His servants had food to spare. What testimony was that! The father had treated the lowest in his household respectfully and fairly.
2. The father looks out and far (v20)
Despite being betrayed and disowned by his own son, the father had not just turned his eyes inward and focused on the older son. Instead, his heart was always longing for a reconciliation and for the restoration of the broken relationship. This readiness comes from a heart with compassion, and the opposite of it is cynicism. One is driven by love, and the latter is jaded by anger.
3. The father wants to restore (v22-24)
The father’s heart was to bring his son back to his former glory, of what his son was ‘designed’ to be and to do. This is not merely forgiving him, but also saying, ‘let’s turn the book the other way, and start with those pages again.’ It is not we should forget the past, but focus the ‘new’ future God has for us.
Its a start, a start of a new journey, that goes somewhere closer to an end. The father saw the potential in his son, and sought to restore him back to the point where his potential can be reached. It is never in the father’s heart to allow his son back into his house to be a servant, but heir to what he has. A servant can never be his master’s master.
Where are WE now?
1. What does that say to us when we are placed in that position of power? When someone does us wrong yet ask us for their share, do we give them a token or do we give them what is really due to them? Do we deny someone deserving of their opportunity because we are unsure what they can do within that capacity? Are we custodians or do we behave like it is exclusively our’s?
2. When someone wrongs us, or does something bad towards us, how ready are we to forgive? Are we longing for a reconciliation with that person and always looking outwards, far and wide for an opportunity to? Do we allow our anger to brew in us, to a point we become cynical to everything that person does, and we cannot find any good in it anymore.
3. Have we restored a broken relationship in our lives that needs to move pass just forgiving that person? Have we often thought that forgiving was all that I needed to fix this broken relationship, and not sought to restore that friendship so that you can bring back where you and the other person to the position where the potential can be reached? Can you imagine how the world can be changed if we lived out restoration in our lives, and bring each other to the point our potential can be launched from?
“Father, I ask that you search my heart today. There were times I was not just and fair when I was place in the position of power. There were times I am blinded by my own caution I fail to reflect Your just and righteous ways in my dealings. Please forgive me when I acted out of my fear, and when I did not trust You to make my failures right again.
“Lord, in my pride, I allowed myself to believe that I did not need to reconcile with someone who wronged or did ill towards me. I have allowed myself to be cynical in the things the person did, and failed to act in a compassionate manner. Please forgive me. I pray that you teach me to love once again.
Today, I ask that you give me the courage and strength to seek or release forgiveness with people I have wronged or been wronged with. I ask that You bring us back to the position where our potentials can be reach with each other so that the world will know that You are the Lord of our lives. Amen”
A famous story was once told, by a man named Jesus, the Nazarene, about a son, younger of two, who asked his father to give him his share of the estate. Contextually, in the time when the story was told, the only time one gets his share of the estate was when the elder had passed on. The story goes on by talking about how this son had travelled across to another country and squandered his money away. Now, calamity strikes and a famine comes. He is reduced to poverty and all his friends had deserts him, and he has to work in a swineherd. That is a terrible insult for first, a Jewish man as pigs are considered unclean, and second, for an ‘Ah-siah-kia’, who’s father was extremely rich.
When hunger had struck him so badly, he became envious of the feed he was giving the pigs, he came to his awakening. He asked himself, ‘WHY! my father’s hired men have food to spare, but here am I, looking at the leftovers of what’s fed to swines, and am envious of them. I will go back to my father and repent, and ask him to take me in as his servant.’
Of course, the rest of the story is, like they say, history. (if you really aren’t sure, that is fine, i am always glad to add on to the story below.)
I would like to write a letter from the father, to the son, after the hundredth days he (the son) left home. Here is what I think, heartbrokenly… it would sound.
——-
Dear Son,
I miss you…I sit on this patio daily, that gazes into the faraway, hoping for a silhouettes that may be you. I never thought I would have missed you earlier as I was angry with you. To think that you had thought me dead, and asking for your share; only to have you gone to a faraway place to not be contacted saddens me more.
You were always with me, and everything I have was yours. But you were not satisfied. You felt that living in my house and running my business was boring and had too many rules, restrictions, must-dos, cannot-dos. I know you despised me for being old-fashioned in my thinking, and my ways of conduct. I always sought to look out for you, and you thought I was embarrassing you in front of your friends.
But son, I never knew how i could tell you I loved you so much, and I wished you were always by my side. When I gave you your share of the property, my heart was broken to launch you this way, so prematurely; to let you into the wilderness of the world, and allow the harshness of it to beat against you. It broke my heart to see how you fought your way against what I have build up for you, and cast away what I have worked hard to give you: our values, traditions, lifestyle, a home.. and family.
You have your friends. Those people you had prevented to step into our home because of how you had thought of me. How afraid I was going to be an embarrassment to you. You know son, I wished I had the opportunity to be the beaming parent that stands behind you with my hands on your shoulder, in front of your friends. I may lack the words to say it, but deep within, i had always been very proud of you. The fighter within you, the goal-getter, and the ‘Mr. Popular’.
But you were ashamed of me, and everything that I was represented in you life was shameful too. Too old, too passe, too yesteryear.
This ring I have on my finger is mine, that was meant for you when you were ready. I will keep it for you until then. I am heartbroken, but I place my faith in a hope that you will return.
And when you do, more successful (as I always prayed) or otherwise, beaten by the harsh realities of this world; you are still my son, and that never changed. And this very ring will be placed on your finger in acknowledgement of that, for all to see.
And I am your Father. I know the challenges and the difficulties which I had been protecting you against. I know how slippery these slopes are. I will always pray that you will be safe, make good decisions and come home stronger, better and wiser.
But even if you don’t; and come back with your head hung low. I am still your Father, and you are my precious son. And this ring I have, will always be your’s, for all to remember.
I sit by this patio, daily, waiting.
Your Daddy.
I spent some time writing this post a couple of weeks ago. I sat myself down, quietened my heart, and wrote the inaugural post for this page. I wanted an entry to reflect the important 5 points of my faith, it was like a statement of faith, as well as my general attitude approaching this new ‘chapter’ in my life.
Then I clicked ‘publish’ and…
It all went missing.
Big deal. After all, these were fundamentals, and if I could write it out once, I could write it out again the next 20 times, and it would not change, isn’t it? Albert Einstein once said, ‘if you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it enough’. I agree.
But when I lost my post, I got rather frustrated, and asked God. I was simply obeying what I was instructed to do, post some of my thoughts and reflections on a new page, a new blog. When I did, it all went missing. What was He trying to tell me? And it dawned upon me, ‘simple, My child, simply (be) simple’.
Could I say ‘no’?
God’s messages is often simple, but may not be easy. Often, we try to make easy the messages or make it palatable, we ‘skimpify’ it so that it sounds easier on the heart, and miss the point too. Will I be tempted to do likewise?
Anyway, here comes my second attempt at the same thing.
Here goes…
——
I had a ‘wrestle’ with God some months back (nothing compared to Jacob), and (I) was growing increasingly impatient at a certain silence for a big decision, I started to lament on the silence and frustration. God then ‘used’ a ‘trump card’ when He reminded me about being faithful in the small things, so that I can be faithful in the big things (Luke 16:10). I recall Him placing a desire in my heart to start a blog, and put devotional entries on it in late March 2011, when I first arrived with my wife in Melbourne. I was excited, and apprehensive at the same time.
First, it was going to be a new genre I have NEVER dabbled with. I have written academically, I have written plenty of complain letters, I have written many appeal letters, I have written satirically, I have written plenty of nonsense. Nothing this serious. Second, I am not theologically trained, and I should not pretend to be. Devotionals and God-stuff, and Bible-stuff is no laughing matter; and the last thing I wanted to end up was struck by a bolt of lightning on a sunny day for something I posted on my blog.
But I remembered in Paul’s letter to the Philippians in Chapter 1 verse 4-6 that ‘In all my prayers for you, I always pray with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.’ What assurance that HE was the one who was going to CARRY the work on to completion and NOT ME! So here I am..
So before I carry on with anything else, I would like to share 5 obvious things I believe in tune with the Apostle Creed below:
1. I believe in the Triune God; the Father, Christ Jesus the Son and the Holy Ghost. (John 14)
2. I believe that man has all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. (Genesis 3, Romans 3:23) And we are unable to save ourselves or be restored to God in our sinfulness by human strength, talents or ways.
3. I believe Jesus died as a redemption sacrifice, to make us holy and acceptable for that restoration with God, giving us life eternal. (John 3:16), and in that power of redemption the chains of sin is broken (Gal 5:1) and condemnation is taken away from it. We cannot do it without accepting our sinfulness, rejecting our sinfulness (repentance), confessing that Jesus died for the remission of our sins, acknowledging that Jesus is the Lord of our lives, and life eternal result of accepting Jesus into our lives. We live for eternity, not for the now.
4. I believe that it does not end when we accept Christ as Lord and Saviour, but it is only the beginning of a justified life (Romans 5:1). As Christians, it does not stop at acceptance of, but for us to walk into eternity in a relationship with God, knowing His will, and delighting in His ways. ‘Running the race set before us with perseverance the race marked out for us’ (Hebrew 12:1). Jesus comes to give us life, and life abundantly for us to run that race set before us; but the devil is here to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10). We all have the potential to ‘fall from grace’ and ‘backslide’, and we must recognize it so that we continually work on receiving God’s sustaining grace.
5. I believe that Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead (Matt 24, 1 Thes 4:13-18, Rev 19-20). We will be called to account for our lives.
amen.
These are important. Or at least to me. That I present to you what I believe in, and hold true in my values, attitudes and actions.
I do not know everything, and I believe this blog will be a beginning of a learning journey for me. When I read the Word, I grow, and you, my readers, discuss with me, I learn. I must add that I welcome all comments, feedback and discussions on this page. These come with 2 conditions, that in posting, you would have agreed to:
1. Truth is tapered with Grace. (John 1:14) Jesus modeled for mankind, and we learn from Him.
2. Gifts Edify. (1 Cor 12:4-5) There are different kinds of gift, but the same Spirit; different kinds of service, but the same Lord… (1 Cor 14:3-4) These gifts strengthens, encourages, and comforts; edifies the church.
With the powers vested upon me as Administrator of this site, I am/will be responsible for removing comments that does not fall within the clear boundaries demarcated in the above 2 conditions. I will not dismiss different/wrong/misguided/non-biblical views, I welcome them for us to learn together, but I am bound by duty to remove comments that are blasphemous, and hurtful.
I am looking forward to an exciting time ahead, learning from Bible, sharing with you, and learning from you.
God bless,
mun
mundayblues 