Peter's Info Box

I love information. New knowledge. Reading up on subjects. Like now. The rampant gambling epidemic that is so evident where I live so troubles me. I am angry. I began to wonder why. I answered me, "Because it's wrong." Then I asked myself, "Why is it wrong?" Being a Christian, I focused my search on why it was wrong for a Christian to gamble. Thanks to Google I was able to find answers, answers that surprised me. It may not be wrong, i.e. a specified sin, but it definitely is an unwise choice. It also runs smack up against the Christian view of work ethics and is a slippery slide into the grips of addiction, a condition Christians are strongly warned against as we should only be addicted to God, to have one Lord, one Master, one thing that grips our life and demands our time, money and attention. God. So I am rather settled as to why a Christian should not opt for gambling as a source of income. As for non-believers, it is evident that poverty, difficulty...

Behind the scenes Giving your best includes the whole preparation that lead towards the moment and not just for the moment only. The final show or presentation is always the result of the hours of practice, preparation and perspiration behind the scenes. Reminds me of Gladwell's 10000 hour rule which basically says the more hours you put in, your final performance will be greater.

I believe there are people out there who want to help and are able to help, so I share needs, both personal and church/ministry related. I also believe what James said in his letter, "You do not have because you do not ASK." So it was a surprise to me to be (recently) labelled a beggar and to have my sharing of needs and requesting for assistance and donations described as begging. My initial response was, "What? Me a beggar, begging? I began to wonder when did asking become begging and is there a difference between asking and begging. So I turned to Google and typed in 'difference between asking and begging', and lo, to my surprise, it was an often asked question! The articles, forums and comments listed were helpful and most importantly, eye opening, especially the dictionary definitions. It says that if I ask someone or ask for something earnestly and/or humbly, thats begging. Then I have been begging (oh no!). It also says that if I ask especially f...

Getting things done. Not (only) the urgent but the important. Isn't that your dream too? A dream yet to see the light of day? Well, it looks like the missing element is actually emotions, to be exact, good, positive emotions. The right emotional state is the key to increased productivity and naturally, success. If you are in a constant bad mood, doing the urgent and important gets pushed aside because your greatest hunger/need at that moment is to have a mood change, to feel good. So any thing promising fun and/or relief (a smoke, porn, a drink, any party, video games, YouTube videos etc) is given preference, distracting you from what you must or want to do. Want to do what you want to do and not procrastinate? Be in the right emotional state. Work on two things: being happy and being optimistic. They call this mental toughening - something I'm just learning about and wishing I understood and practiced from my 20's! Here's one suggestion and I am beginning t...

A slap. A good tight slap. A slap on the face. To express anger, disgust or end of grace. Pain intended to punish or correct. A punch. A kick. A whack with a rotan or belt. To teach a lesson. To beat evil out. To discipline. Gang fights. Brawls. Bullying. Abuse. Torture. Employers of slaps, kicks and punches. The dominant exerting power, employing pain to direct, determine and/or deter. Assumed right, hailed by supporters, acquited by tradition and holy books. Yet. The human recipient sprawls hurt and in pain. Memories claw the mind, inflicting new rivulets of fear and shame. Bruises, wounds and cuts linger while scars carry the burden of need-to-be forgotten trauma. Punished to please the offended. But what good does it do for the punished? It breeds hatred, bitterness, seeping anger. It flourishes shame, guilt and fear. Learnt their lesson? I am uncertain though certain of this one thing. Inflicted physical pain is a terrible teacher of good. An excellent tyrant to keep ...

The scene from an investigation series on TV is forever etched in my mind. Two cops at a bar (where else) discussing a recently solved murder case. One is perplexed as to how he didn't see the clues and solve the case while the other was able to gather the right clues and nail the murderer. Finally the cop who solved the case offered an explation: If you ask the wrong questions, you get the wrong answers. Ever since then, I have been aware of the power of questions, or more precisely the power of right questions, the kind that will give you the clues you are looking for, the information to solve a problem, the keys to unlock doors. I am also aware of the amount of wrong or stupid questions that people ask, the kind that leads you on a wild duck chase, especially ones loaded with assumptions and wrong associations that lead to endless wranglings but no definite answers or conclusions. Too many such questions like these around. One such question, I learnt about in Bible Sch...

Visited my mother's and brother's grave yesterday. What do you do when you visit a loved one's grave? Talk to the deceased? My religious beliefs say they are not present and unable to hear us. So I didn't say 'Hi'. Pray for them? Again my religious beliefs say no prayers on earth has any effect on the dead and their condition. Did not pray. Remember. Did a little. Got too painful and began to choke so I stopped. Just got sadder. Put some fresh flowers. Reminded me that all flesh are beautiful and special but soon, so very soon, will wilt and waste away. So what to do? Walk around and visit the other graves. See who died. Surprised to seem some I knew now dead. Visited graves of friends and relatives now gone, buried nearby. Deep sense of loss. Mortality so evident and ugly. Maybe lesser visits. Maybe . . . Till I sleep with them too.

Addicted It irks me to see destructive addiction all around me and the harm and hurt it causes others to bear. I don't care if you are addicted to nicotine but I care for your 3 year old inhaling your smoke. I don't cate if you are addicted to gambling but I care for your wife who has no food on the table and has to hide when loan sharks surface. I don't care if you are addicted to porn but I care about the countless women cheapened and abused to feed your lusting eyes. Actually I do care for you too but you don't and you push away those who do seek to care for you. So how do we deal with destructive addiction? How do we deal with the bitter fruits of addiction? How do we help care for the addicted and save his/her victims? The immense gambling problem here where I am ministering, the recent stats on porn viewing in certain 'religious' states in Malaysia when a former porn star visited KL and the open acceptance of unrestrained drinking (alcoholism) in the...

Three postings on Facebook recently by friends devastated by the loss (death) of their pet dog, cat and rabbit respectively, and the outpouring of grief and sense of lost (akin to how I am now feeling after the death of my mother and brother recently) caught me by surprise. My initial reaction was, "But they are just pets (animals)", was quickly silenced by the realisation that the pain and sadness felt by my friends were very real and revealed something deep about human-animal bonding and the role as well as effect pets have on us. A quick check on Google reveal a world of sites specifically dealing with pet loss and the grieving process. This whole pet death and grieving process is real and evidently a serious matter! So to my friends who lost their pets and others grieving a similar lost, maybe these sites and the information offered will help you mourn well and recover: Most of us share an intense love and bond with our animal companions, so it’s natural to feel d...

(Dis)Organised Religion Written prayers, spoken without understanding but ascribed magical powers. Faith in form and religious functions rather than in the person Jesus. Assimilation of practices and beliefs outside of Scripture, baptised in religious jargon. Organised religion, so often becomes a god in place of the true God it purportedly represents. I have no quarrel with those who reject organised religion and I fear the future faith of those who subscribe to this man made religion. Waiting For The Uncertain When you have aches and pains and you are aware that cancer can recur, not knowing if the pain is a symptom or just a 'normal' ache can be really stressful and a heavy load to sustain. So glad yesterday's blood test and xray results were okay. So I will live a little longer . . . yet the possibility of cancer showing up continues to haunt me from the backgrounds. Go away cancer, go far far away.

While preparing to preach on this verse, I gained some new insights on this word of encouragement from God to Joshua, a word that will then be repeated often times in Scripture (seems to be a favourite word from God to us). To be strong  actually carries the idea of being firm and resolute when embarking on a task (deciding to go ahead no matter what, no turning back once the hand is on the plough). This tenacity is spurred by a deep level of confidence that is a result of holding on firmly to God's revealed word concerning the task. The picture painted by the Hebrew is one who binds himself tightly to something, in this case God's Word. Courageous on the other hand seems to focus on ones determination towards a given task by being mentally strong. Today, being mentally strong is a field well researched and promoted as a key factor for success . Who would have guessed God identified this discipline thousands of years ago! The Hebrew for ' to be terrified ' on th...

God  does  give us more than we can bear. Aah, such a relief to read this enlightening and uplifting article as I process the recent lost of my mum and younger brother. Here are some paragraphs that brought calm and 'amens' as I carefully read the writer's thoughts: After some time, I finally found the courage to admit this: that God  does  give us more than we can bear. I believe He allows us to experience overwhelming pain that could possibly wreck us and empty us, and to go through crushing defeats that will shake our very core. When it comes to trials, I believe God gives us more that we can bear because if we can take everything that comes our way on our own, then we don’t really need Him. If we can bear every burden that we experience, then it would be unnecessary for us to call on Him for help, for strength, for courage. Unless we have Jesus’ grace and strength, there is no way we can endure the trials.  Pain can steer us into the right direct...

YOUR DREAM REALISED (BY OTHERS) How do you properly and biblically respond to news of others succesfully implementing plans, doing things and going places which so mirror your own aspirations and plans, while you are still (stuck) at step one? The twins Envy and Jealousy I find too often are the duo knocking at my heart's door (like the disturbing Mormons and Jehovah Witnesseses) and I am so tempted to let them in for a chat. Yest my good self says good riddance to the duo, urging me to practise the art of rejoicing over my brother's success and to give myself so many possible good reasons why it's okay to be a failure-in-waiting. Here's to all those who have succeeded first, well done. LOOKING FOR A JOB Now I realise how difficult it is to find a job and I may soon have to eat my own comments about those who still can't get a job. How do you start? Where do you start? Who do you see? Hmm, not done this for so long (maybe this the feeling those who after death...