Hello, how long has it been? My last post was about completing my first 3 days of work in Jakarta. And now I have passed the 3-months probation! I am a full-timer now. Thank God for his sustenance that I can continue working.
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| here's what my office looks like. It's an open office. Took this when I was doing OT. |
On the 17th of March, I started working form home. It has been 7 weeks and will continue for another 3 weeks till late May. The COVID19 situation is serious taking a high toll in changing the economy and also all the lives that it has snatched away.
I thought I could use this quarantine period for a more productive use, rather than bingeing on Netflix (which I did the first couple of weeks, which seriously disrupted my sleeping patterns). I mean it's not getting any better now, I still sleep past midnight. So I picked up this book Crazy Love by Francis Chan. It is a farewell gift from Ci Vienna and Ko Howie. I just managed to read it now.
First impression on Crazy Love was that I was expecting a relationship boy/girl talk. I didn't even read the blurb. I suddenly realised it was not about this when I read Ci Vienna's letter to me which made me read the blurb. This book is about something much greater! Digging through and challenging how we respond to God's amazing love for us when he sent Jesus on the cross to die for our sins. That is a crazy move for an act of love to let His precious son to die on the cross for sinful people like us: aka enemies of God. So then how are we to respond when we believed in God's act of love, and Jesus' dying on the cross? Do we just believe and stay quiet?
I was actually challenged because after all this time, have I been believing and doing good works as a fear of the penalty of sin. I myself would not want to go to hell. This is actually a very selfish motive. I just wanted to be "safe". So at times, to be honest, serving God seems like a chore. However, this book encouraged us to LOVE God instead of fearing him. And if by Loving God or Obsessing over God, then all the rest will just follow through easily. Have I been loving God and longs to spend more time with Him. There is actually a section in the book saying that most people spend endless hours watching TV rather than spending time reading the bible. Well that's a slap in the face. I prefer to watch than reading the bible or spending time with God.
Another great point that the author mentioned while writing this book was the urgency of spreading the gospel to people. We don't know how long we are going to live in this world. We should be ready at all times. Considering the fact that COVID19 is still wandering around causing sickness and deaths all around, it's a wake-up call that life is short. And we live in such a small microscopic world as compared to all to God's other creation. We are just tiny specs of dust and yet we always think that we own everything and always focus on our happiness first, thus limiting God in our daily lives. But, if we compare this to what God has given us, he is generous to us, and yet we are selfish and God-limiting. We should have been able to give God all of us. With the very limited time constraint that we all have, we should maximise this time to do God's work.
Lastly, the challenging part is to be convicted and act upon it. The application part has always been the main hurdle to test whether we are lukewarm or not. Whether we would do anything for God. We should listen and obey God unconditionally. Yes this might sound off par or may even sound like a religion fanatic, but then again why won't we do this? Why shouldn't we? God has provided so much for us, it's the least that we could do as His instrument to serve Him. At the end of the day, it is always us needing God more rather than God needing us.
I pray that during this period, we as believers of Christ can love God more and that our faith can be supported by our actions. We shouldn't deceive our Faith just because of what other people may think or see. We need to think what God would think of us. All of us will be judged at the end of the day. We shouldn't be ashamed of God. We should acknowledge Him.
Hopefully this post may struck you a bit as it did to me. It is recommended to recalibrate your beliefs.
Also: PS to end this post: Snapshot of flood happening in late Feb20 and I miss GYM and hanging out with friends.
