Carpe Diem

It is pronounced as /ˌkärpā ˈdēˌem/ with exclamation (!).

It simply means to live in the moment and to give little thoughts to the future. 

It goes in line with what I have read in the Scripture today - Matthew 6. It begins with what it truly means to give to needy, to pray and to fast - to practice this spiritual disciplines is good, but do it unto the Lord in SECRET. 

"Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."

This is repeated THREE times at every mentioned of the spiritual disciplines - giving to needy, to pray and to fast; 6:4b, 6:6b, 6:18b. It clearly emphasized that our work is not for the purpose of boastfulness or for fueled-up-men-praised. 

After all that is done is secret, Jesus Christ talked about treasures. We ALL loved treasures. Men looked for treasures all their lives - just like pirates in the sea, where as for us is looking for treasures in the sea of men. Treasures come in many forms - money, fame, future spouse and success as how our world packaged it for us. We allow the standard of the world to creep in our lives and be the standard we hold on to. We sometimes failed to realize that even though our mouth said our treasure is Christ alone, but our lives do not lived up to it. When trials come, we find it difficult to cling on to what is unseen rather than what is seen. For instance, if we are going through difficult period of time financially, we find it so hard to part with our money and we struggle with giving (I have been through it and I realized how true is that). 

Our Lord puts it clearly for us, that we CANNOT SERVE TWO MASTERS. He was not ambiguous on the matter - he state it clearly YOU CANNOT SERVE BOTH GOD AND MONEY. 

Although this was a firm instruction from God, we still struggle in our daily lives. The Lord knows it will not be easy. Hence, the following verses 25 - 34, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. He reassured us of the creations our Father in heaven created. He never once fail to feed the birds; the flowers in the field, He clothed them beautifully, 

So, why worry? Our Father in Heaven have already prepared for our every needs. 

CARPE DIEM!

IN THIS MOMENT, Live for God! 

Seek His Kingdom! Seek His righteousness! 

Ask yourselves this, have my DAILY NEEDS ever been neglected by God? (not wants)

If you are able to read this online, it does mean you are very much well off compared to many people in this world who lived in difficult situations.

Have we lost IT?

Have you ever wondered that have we LOST the REVERENCE and AWE for our GOD?

If you and I claimed that God Almighty is so POWERFUL, what is our extent of reverence and awe towards Him? If He creates the whole world from nothing, how much do we revere Him?

I have been pondering long and hard on this matter. I really wondered. I asked myself, do I really REVERE Him for who He is? Truth to be told, sometimes I don't even revered Him because I can tuned off or just switched to complacency mode that I think to myself I can escape from it, because my God is gracious.

I have seen us now carrying digital Bibles wherever we go. So easy to access, yet we do not read our Bible. I have seen people (including myself) replying whatsapps messages in churches during sermon time. Some say it is multitasking, but are we just giving excuses to ourselves and justifying our actions? I have seen people who played games on their smart phones, or even scrolling facebook posts for the matter. They said upfront, "I am not doing anything WRONG." Some people just said we should not be so rigid in this. It is okay, because here they are in church still.

There is something we are not addressing here. We need to address this matter. We are heading down the direction of COMPLACENCY.

We have become so lenient in so many things today. Technology is good, but technology should not be the one that controls our minds to draw us away from God.

What is the crux of the matter?

Really, let's just really confront our inner self and asked ourselves, HOW MUCH DO I REALLY LOVE GOD? Is He just another God that I call in my religion? How much do I LOVE Him that He deserves the reverence and awe in my life?


Few months back I have read the book of Ecclesiastes, till now this had stayed with my heart firmly.

Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: 

Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 

For God will bring every deed into judgement, including every hidden thing whether it is good or evil. 

Ecclesiastes 12:13 - 14 



Now, it is up to you and me. 

Amazing Spiderman 2: NEED / HOPE?

I love movies that I can relate to. Remembering Amazing Spiderman 2 – the main themes that are depicted so perfectly in the movie, which are NEED and HOPE. Peter Parker is NEEDed by the New Yorkers to feel safe in their community and fighting against bad people. He HOPE to be giver of HOPE to his society. Peter NEED to know the truth of what had happened to his parents and drawing the links of different events. He HOPE the truth is that his parents did not abandoned him and discovering the truth of all the links. Gwen Stacey NEED Peter to fight for her and not him just letting her go because her father made him promise to stay away from her. She HOPE that Peter is willing to risk life with her. MAX, the nerd who wants to feel to be NEEDed in his own community of coworkers and people around him. One statement of, “I NEED YOU” had given a glimpse of HOPE to Max. Because of his great desire of wanting to feel needed, in the scene of the city with flowing electricity and lights, when Spiderman took away his ‘fame’ when people had noticed him, he was furious. Instead of being partners with Spidey, he decided he is going to make people need him like how they need Spidey. He HOPE to be seen by the world and people counting on him. Harry, a rich man’s son NEEDs help with his genetic disease. With only a short time he had and his father’s accomplice that wanted to take over the company, he was pushed to the point of no return. Because of another man’s greed, he suffered the consequences of being in NEED. He NEED his NEED to be fulfilled. He HOPE to be heal and not die a horrible death. At the end, Spiderman lost hope because Gwen had died snapping from his web. It is in Gwen’s speech, that Spiderman begins to see the light of HOPE to fulfill a need.

NEED brings about positive or negative responses. There are many needs in our world today that craves for our attentions. The need to care and to be cared for. The need to give and be given. The need to listen and be listen to. The need to speak up and shut up. The need to take a stand. The need to pray. And the list goes on. I asked, what is then a NEED that I can fulfill in my lifetime? Where then should I focus my attention to? What are the drivers that drive me to the needs I see? With these questions, HOPE comes to mind. HOPE gives life. Hope brings change. Hope gives a positive kind of future.

In our world, everyone wants to feel needed and wants their need to be fulfilled or answered. There’s a saying that goes, ‘No man is an island’. This is because at the end of day, we are in these positions of being needed and fulfilling our needs. However, our former needs should not make us feel indispensable, where as our latter needs should not be the key to how we relate to people (to just take what we want from people to ‘fulfill’ our needs). Also, we want to be HOPEFUL too. We want to be the ones that gives people HOPE to live. However, we cannot sustain by giving people HOPE if our source of hope comes entirely from ourselves. We will eventually come to a point of drying out and needing to find the meaning of HOPE again for ourselves.

In a Christian worldview, Jesus is our source of HOPE which is the giver of life to our being. Tentatively, Jesus will be our ultimate NEED in life. He should be ultimately the one thing that our hearts desire most compared to many things that is in our life. Just like how the song, ‘Jesus be the center of it all’ puts it; he ought to be in the center of everything we do and everything we revolve ourselves by. From our perspectives, to journey on this race of life, we NEED God in anything and everything we do. We can rely on our own strength to run this race. It’s impossible. It’s impossible to say, ‘God, I got this life thing all figured out. I even GOT us figured out! I know I am strong in You no matter what happened…….’ But, the fact is we can never figure who God is ultimately. We only catch a GLIMPSE of who He is. We can never say for sure how strong we will REMAIN in Him. This is because we are human. Our eyes and perspectives will be clouded with disillusionment when we began to rely on our own strength to carry on this faith. We NEED God to grow even more hungry for His WORD. We NEED God to grow our faith in Him. We NEED God to overcome every single temptations that comes our way. We NEED God to help us see His fingerprints in our journey of life. We NEED God to teach us to be patience, to wait, to learn, to unlearn, to relearn, to forgive, to give, to praise, and more…in every aspects of our life, WE NEED HIM! Why? Because He gave us HOPE to venture on this life even how difficult it may seems to travel on. How then do I remained in this HOPE of God? By discovering Him through His Word and experiencing living in Spirit with Him.

That brings me back to the few questions I had asked earlier, “What is then a NEED that I can fulfill in my lifetime? Where then should I focus my attention to? What are the drivers that drive me to the needs I see?” The needs I see to be fulfilled in other people’s life is driven by the compelling HOPE I found in my Saviour. Even in my focus of my attention to it. I yearn to do a lot of things, however to do a lot of things is to go on a road that will not divide my attention to it which do not allowed me to give my best in it. So, I’ll continue to fix my eyes on Jesus Christ no matter what happens and be faithful in the small things He had given in my life.

Where is your HOPE?

What drives your NEED?