Dear...
And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our
own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.
Jeremiah 18:12
Adam Smith, the economist, not Adam the sinful fruit eater, wrote the "Wealth of the nations, " back in the 18th century( http://www.adamsmith.org/wealth-of-nations)
His thoughts had a profound influence on the economies of the Western
world. Max Weber, the German sociologist and economists, in 1904, wrote
that the Protestant
work ethic was an important force behind the unplanned and
uncoordinated mass action that influenced the development of capitalism.
This idea is also known as the "Protestant Ethic thesis.
'Again,
the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth
him all the kingdoms of he world, and the glory of them; And said unto
him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and
worship me.'
Matthew 4:8-9
But the provisions
have since superceded God our Provider, and today, capitalism has gone
awry and displays more the traits of the devil whom man now worship in
exchange for the treasures of the temporal world. And look how we have
gone asunder by turning away from God to mammon.
'Then saith
Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan for it is written, Thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.'
Matthew 4:10
I did not realize that the the term
"Bourgeoisie"was a sought after social status back in the pre revolution
days, before perceptions changed with Bastille France and Bolshevik
Russia. My familiarity with this term arose more from reading about the
revolution in Russia, when the masses(Bolsheviks or majority) overthrew
the Tsar and embraced communism. "All are equal,' now we know the
clarion call of the communist is but a delusion, as George Orwell in his
satirical book "Animal farms," so clearly reflected the truth about the
self deceiving mind of man, something that God continues to warn us of.
'This
know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men
shall be lovers of their ownselves, covetous, boasters, proud,
blasphemers......Having a form of godliness, but denying the power
thereof; from such turn away.'
2 Timothy
3:1-5
With the fall of the Berlin Wall, the worship of fellow
man has come to an ignominious end, save for a few embalmed bodies in
North Korea, China and Russia. The Western democracies at that point,
symbolically represented by that iconic image of the late Russian
President Yeltsin atop a Russian tank, facing up to the military might
of the last communist holdups, proudly heralded a new era of a happy
capitalist world. Who would expect that 20 years on, we are witnessing
capitalism as we know it near its death throes, possibly succumbing in a
couple of years time, if not sooner.
But fear not, or rather, be fearful, for a new religion has arisen, "secularism," the worship of self.
Look
around you today, and you will see not just clear but growing
manifestations of the world that 2 Timothy 3:1-5 warned us about. "God
for many today is a God of fortune, and His love is measured on the
weighing scale of the devil, dollar
terms, as is the implied message of the prophets of the prosperity
gospel." Not to be outdone, the LGBT movement decided that the best way
to transform the world into its likeness is to work from within. So they
now have their own "churches" which gets God to fit their mold, rather
than men submitting to Him. And with the trend now glamorized by Elton
John and his partner, soon children of such dalliances will grow up
accepting their same sex parents as the norm.
And in the corporate world, MNCs have increasingly moved from correctly protecting discrimination against gays,( thttp://www.telegraphindia.com/1110731/jsp/7days/story_14312050.jsp)
to unfortunately overtly discriminating against anyone who does not
embrace such orientation. Not agreeing should not be equated to being
discriminatory.
Shouldest not thou also have had
compassion on thy
fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?
Matthew 18:33
As
Christians, there is no room for condoning such deviation in sexual
orientation, for who are we to vary the command of God? However, not
agreeing does not mean that we should not show love for our fellow
children of God, believers or not, straight or pink. There is no room
for discrimination. Through prayers and agape love, may we seek to
provide the genuine acceptance that many LGBT hunger after. And in
doing so, may they turn to God Who will make possible,what medical
science claim is a condition that is not possible to change, that one
can be joyful without being gay.
What is right, or rather whose
beliefs are right? Or is it possible that there truly can be a
harmonious pluralistic society, where everyone is free to live their own
attitudes without impinging on another? Truth is any human defined
belief system is
territorial in nature and it is impossible to achieve utopia. Again
witness how the perceived repressed LGBT minority in America, the land
of the free is steadily and stealthily imposing its will on the silent
and increasingly cowed majority. Our response as Christians should be
one of boldness to live our beliefs, and yet being willing to love our
oppressors.
I know thy works, that thou are neither cold nor hot...So then ...I will spue thee out of my mouth.'
Revelation 3:16
What about the Christian faith?
If it is about converting our neighbors, it will fall flat as well, as it has often.
But
our faith is about the Holy Spirit transforming us, from the carnal
man to the spirit child of God. It is not about us changing others, but
rather God changing us. And in seeing Christ in us, perhaps some will
feel led to want to turn to Him, and in doing so, His Spirit will
sanctify them.
'...and hath determined the times before
appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the
Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be
not far from every one of us:
Acts 17:26-27
This
is what truly matters. And this can only happen if we are willing to
put our relationship with God as the only thing that truly matters, for
then we will experience the gospel, not just in words but its
sanctifying power.
For they themselves report concerning us what
manner of entering in we had unto you; and how ye turned unto God from
idols, to serve a living and true God,
1 Thessalonians 1:9
Many
of you would have received the testimony of this good doctor, who
thought the things of the world was what matters. This late brother in
Christ
might have been taken home early, but what he gave up in the temporal,
God has given him in eternity.
(See below testimony of Dr Richard Teo)
And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost:
1 Thessalonians 1:6
The
times are short. I count myself blessed to be shaken out of my stupor
by the grace of our Lord more than a decade back. But because the times
are short, each of us who continue to think that preparation for
eternity is not the key priority, must be prepared to undergo a much
more intense shaking, for not just yours, but the soul of people God
placed in your path is at stake. What truly matters is, are you ready
when God calls you home today, and not do I have enough for tomorrow,
for tomorrow might not come for you? And if it does, I know He is in
control. Do view this lovely song in
Mandarin. I am learning mandarin via karaoke.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-lwLIaXafQ&sns=em
'As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.'
Revelations 3:19
We
now live in an unreal world of deceit, self centeredness and denial. If
the looming economic, political and social cataclysm does not shake
you, then the physical will, be it natural disasters or personal woes.
God is patient for He wants all to be saved, but the time will come
sooner than later that He will put an end to the intensifying evil that
has now entered mainstream life.
'I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed...'
Revelations 3:18
God
blesses
Eng
Hieang
30th Oct 2012
------------------
Dr Richard Teo
lost the battle with cancer at Age 40 on 19 Oct 2012. But thankfully, he
made the best decision of his life, in the last few months of life on
earth. . .
·
Dr Richard Teo Keng Siang
Recorded at the Dental Christian Fellowship , on 24 Nov 2011, 8 months after his diagnosis.
Richard would have liked to share this with you. We are doing this to continue his work.
Below
is the transcript of the talk of Dr. Richard Teo, who was a 40-year-old
millionaire and cosmetic surgeon with a stage-4 lung cancer, sharing at
a Dental Christian Fellowship Meeting. He would have liked to share
this with you too.
Hi good morning to all of you. My voice is
a bit hoarse from the chemotherapy, so please bear with me. I thought
I'll just introduce myself. My name is Richard, I’m a friend of Danny’s,
who invited me here.
I’d
just begin to say that I’m a typical product of today’s society. Before
this, I was talking about how the media influences us etc. So I’m a
typical product of what the media portrays. From young, I’ve always been
under the influence and impression that to be happy, is to be
successful. And to be successful, is to be wealthy. So I led my life
according to this motto.
Coming from a poor average family, back
in those days, I was highly competitive, whether in sports, studies,
leadership. I wanted it all. I’ve been there, done that. But at the end
of the day, it’s still about money.
So in my recent last years, I
was a trainee in ophthalmology, but I was getting impatient, cos I had
friends of mine who were going out into private practise, making tonnes
of money. And there I was, stuck in a traineeship. So I said, ‘Enough,
it’s getting too long.’ At that time, there was a surge in protégés of
aesthetic medicine. I’m sure
you’re aware, aesthetic medicine had peaked over the last few years,
and I saw good money in there. So much so that I said, ‘Forget about
ophthalmology, I’m gonna do aesthetic medicine.’ So that’s what I did.
The
truth is, nobody makes heroes out of the average GP in the
neighbourhood. They don't. They make heroes out of rich celebrities,
politicians, rich and famous people. So I wanted to be one of these. I
dived straight into aesthetic medicine. People were not willing to pay
when I was doing locum back in those days. Anything more than $30, they
would complain that “Wah, this lo kun (doctor) jing qwee (very
expensive)”. They made noise and they were not happy. But the same
people were willing to pay $10 000 for a liposuction. So I said, ‘Well,
let’s stop healing the sick, I’m gonna become a beautician; a
medically-trained beautician.’
And that was what I did –
liposuction, breast augmentation, eyelid surgeries,
you name it, we do it. It was very good money. My clinic, when we
started off, waiting time was 1 week; 1 month; became 2 months; became 3
months. There was so much demand that people were literally queuing up
to have aesthetic work done on them. Vain women – easy life!
So
the clinic grew. I was so overwhelmed, from 1 doctor, I employed 2, then
3, then 4 doctors, and carried on. Nothing is ever enough. I wanted
more and more and more. So much so that we set up shop in Indonesia to
lure all the Indonesian tai tai’s. We set up shop, set up a team of
people there, to get more Indonesian patients to come in.
So, things were doing well. I’m there, my time has arrived.
Around
sometime in February last year, I said, ‘OK, I have so much spare cash,
it’s time to get my first Ferrari. So there I was, getting ready for
the deposit. ‘OK! There comes my first Ferrari!’ I was looking for land,
to share with some of my friends. I
have a banker friend who makes $5 million a year. So I thought, ‘Come,
let’s come together. Let’s buy some land and build our houses.’
I
was at my prime, getting ready to enjoy. At the same time, my friend
Danny had a revival. They were going back to church, some of my close
friends. They told me, ‘Richard, come, join us, come back to church.’
I
have been a Christian for 20 years; I was baptised 20 years ago, but it
was because it was fashionable to be a Christian then. All my friends
were becoming Christians then. It was fashionable! I wanted to be
baptised, so that when I filled in a form, I could put there “Christian”
– feels good. In truth, I had never had a bible; I don’t know what the
bible is all about.
I went to church for a while, after some
time, I got tired. I said it’s time to go to NUS, stop going to church. I
had a lot more things to pursue in NUS – girls, studies, sports etc.
After all, I had
achieved all these things without God today, so who needs God? I myself
can achieve anything I want.
In my arrogance, I told them, “You
know what? You go tell your pastor to change your sermon to 2pm. I will
consider coming to church.” Such arrogance! And I said 1 statement in
addition to that – till date, I don’t know I’ve regretted saying that – I
told Danny and my friends, “If God really wanted me to come back to
church, He will give me a sign.”. Lo and behold, 3 weeks later, I was
back at church.
THE DIAGNOSIS
In March 2011, out
of the blues – I was still running around, ‘cause I’m a gym freak and I
always go to the gym training, running, swimming 6 days a week. I had
some backache, and that’s all I had, but it was persistent. And so I
went for an MRI to exclude prolapsed disc. And the day before I had my
scan, I was still in the gym, lifting heavy weights, doing my squats.
And the next day, they
found that half my spine had bone marrow replacement. I said, “Woah,
sorry, what’s that?”
We had a PET scan the next day, and they
diagnosed that I had terminal lung cancer, stage 4B. It had spread to
the brain, half the spine, whole of my lungs were filled with tumour,
liver, adrenals…
I said, “Can’t be, I was just at the gym last
night, what’s going on?” I’m sure you know how it feels – though I’m not
sure if you know how it feels. One moment I was there at the peak, the
next day, this news came and I was totally devastated. My whole world
just turned upside down.
I couldn’t accept it. I have a hundred
relatives on both sides, my mom and my dad. 100 of them. And not a
single one has cancer. To me, in my mind, I have good genes, I’m not
supposed to be having this! Some of my relatives are heavy chain
smokers. Why am I having lung cancer? I was in denial.
HIS ENCOUNTER WITH GOD
So
the next day, I was still in a state of denial, still unable to accept
what was going on. There I was lying in an operating theatre in a
hospital, for a needle biopsy (for histology). There I was, just
completed the biopsy, and lying in the operating theatre. The nurses and
doctors had left; told me I had to wait for 15 minutes to do a check
X-ray to make sure there’s no pneumothorax (a complication).
And
there I was, lying on the operating table, staring blankly at the
ceiling in a cold, quiet operating theatre. Suddenly I just heard an
inner voice; it was not like coming from outside. It was inside. This
small inner voice that I had never felt before. And it said very
specifically, it said, “This has to happen to you, at your prime,
because it’s the only way you can understand.”
I said, “Woah, why
did that come from?” You know, when you speak to yourself, you’d say,
“OK, what time should I leave this place? Where shall I
have dinner after this?” You’d speak from a first person point of view.
You don’t say, “Where should YOU go after this?” Whereas the voice that
came spoke as a third party. It said, “This has to happen to YOU, at
YOUR prime, because this is the only way YOU can understand.” At that
time, my emotions just overflowed and I broke down and cried, alone
there. And I knew then, subsequently, what it means to understand that
why this is the only way.
Because I had been so proud of myself,
my whole life, I needed nobody else. I was gifted with things that I
could do, why do I need anybody else? I was just so full of myself that
there was no other way I could have turned back to God.
In fact,
if I were diagnosed with stage 1 or 2, I would have been looking around
busily for the best cardiothoracic surgeon, remove a section of the lobe
(do a lobectomy), do preventive chemotherapy…The chances of it being
cured is extremely high. Who
needs God? But I had stage 4B. No man can help, only God can.
A
series of events happened after that. I wasn’t sold after that, because
of the inner voice, I became believing, prayers, all that. No I wasn’t.
To me, it was just ‘maybe there was a voice; or maybe that was just me
talking to myself.’ I didn’t buy the story.
What happened next
was that I was being prepared for chemotherapy. I started off with a
whole brain radiation therapy first; takes about 2 -3 weeks. In the
meantime they prepared me for chemotherapy, supplements etc. One of the
things they used for chemo was a thing called Zometa. Zometa - they use
it to strengthen the bones; once the bone marrow (replacement) is cured
of cancer cells, it becomes hollow, so we need Zometa to strengthen the
bone to prevent compression fractures.
One of the side effects
of Zometa is that it can cause osteonecrosis (bone death) of the jaw,
and I had to have my wisdom teeth
removed. Years ago, I had my upper wisdom teeth removed, cos it was
giving me trouble. The lower ones didn’t give me trouble so I said,
“Forget it, just leave it.” So of cause, Danny volunteered to remove it
for me.
So there I was, lying there in a dental chair, asking
myself, suffering all the side effects of radiotherapy, and now I have
to go through wisdom tooth surgery. As if I’ve not had enough to suffer!
So I asked Danny, “Eh, bro, is there any other way? Can I not go though
this?” He said, “Yes, you can pray.”
I said, “What’s there to
lose? Ok lah, pray lah!” And so we prayed. And we did an X-ray after
that. Everything was all there, all the appliances and everything. And
lo and behold, the Xray showed that there was no wisdom teeth in the
lower jaw. I know most people have 4 wisdom teeth, maybe some have none,
but to be missing one or 2, as I understand – I’m not too sure, as I
understand – is not that
common.
Still I was, “Nah, I don’t care about that.” To me, as
long as I didn’t have to take out the tooth, I was happy. At that point,
I still wasn’t sold on prayers. Maybe it was just a coincidence – for
whatever it’s worth.
I continued meeting my oncologist, asking
him, “How long do I have?” I asked him. He said, not more than 6 months.
I said, “Even with chemotherapy?” About 3 – 4 months, he said.
I
couldn’t grasp that. It was difficult to come to terms. And even as I
went through radiotherapy, I was struggling everyday, especially when I
wake up, hoping that it’s just a nightmare; when I wake up, it’s all
over.
As I was struggling, day after day, I went into depression,
which is the typical denial, depression blah blah blah that you go
through. But for 1 reason, I don’t know why, there was this specific day
that I was supposed to meet my oncologist. At about 2pm, I felt this
sudden surge
of peace, comfort, and in fact, a little happiness. It was just
overflowing. For no rhyme or reason, it just came about 2pm, as I was
getting ready, dressing up to meet my oncologist. So much so that I
whats-apped all my friends that, “Bros, I just feel so good suddenly! I
don’t know why, it just came!”
And it was only days, or was it
weeks after, that Danny revealed to me that he had fasted for 2 days for
me, and he was bargaining with God, and fasted for 2 dyas, and he ended
his fast at that exact same point, about 2pm thereabouts, that this
surge of sensation came to me for no rhyme or reason. And I didn’t know
that he was fasting for me. And when he ended the fast, I felt that
sensation!
Whoa, things were getting a bit too coincidental. I
was starting to buy a bit of the story, but still I wasn’t sold. As days
passed by, I completed my radiotherapy, about 2 weeks plus. Getting
ready for chemo, so they let me rest for a few
days.
See, the mortality rate of lung cancer : Lung cancer has
the highest mortality rate. If you add up breast, colorectal (colon)
cancer, and prostate cancer (the top few cancers in Singapore for men
and women), if you add up the mortality rate of these 3, it still
doesn’t add up to lung cancer. Simply because, you understand, you can
remove the prostate, the colon, the breast, but you cannot remove your
lungs.
But there’s about 10% of lung cancer patients who do
pretty well for some reasons, because they have this specific mutation;
we call it the EGFR mutation. And it happens, only 90% of the time, in
Asian ladies who never smoked in their lives. Me, first of all, I’m
male. 2ndly, I’m a social smoker. I take one a day after dinner;
weekends, when my friends offer me, I take it as well. I’m a light
smoker, not a social smoker. But still, my oncologist was still not
hopeful for me to have this mutation.
The chances of
it happening for me was maybe 3-4% for me to get it. That’s why I was
being primed to go for chemo. But through all the intense prayers,
friends like Danny, people that I don’t even know, it turned out that,
during my waiting for chemo, the results came back that I was EGFR
positive. I was like, “Woah, good news!” Cos now I don’t have to undergo
chemo at that time, because there’s this oral tablet that you can use
to control this disease.
Just to share with you some idea – this is a CT scan – thorax – of my lungs, before treatment.
AFTER BEFORE
Every
single dot there is a tumour. You can see all the mets (metastasis)
there. This is just one single plane. Literally I had it in both lungs,
and I had literally tens of thousands of tumour. That’s why the
oncologist told me, even with chemo, at most 3-4 months.
But
because of this mutation, they have this oral medication. This is what
happened after 2
months of treatment. As you can see over here; this is what God can do.
And that’s why I’m still here having this opportunity to share with
you. As you can see over here, the difference between before and after
treatment.
At that point, I said, “Well, it’s to be expected,
isn’t it? The medicine is good.” I’m still not buying the story. Well,
the guys prayed for me and the tumour markers started to come down. 90%
of the tumours were wiped out, and the tumour markers came down to more
than 90% over the next few months.
But still, you know, once you
have the clinical knowledge, you know the statistics. One year survival,
two year survival; having all this knowledge is not a good thing. Cos
you live with the knowledge that even with all this, the cancer cells
are so unstable, they keep mutating. They will overcome and become
resistant to the drugs, and eventually you’re gonna run out of
medication.
So living with this
knowledge is a huge mental struggle, a huge mental torture. Cancer is
not just about a physical struggle, it’s a huge mental torture. How do
you live with no hope? How do you live with not being able to plan for
the next few years? The oncologist tells you to bear with it for the
next 1 – 2 months. So it’s a lot of struggles as I went through: March,
then April. April was my lowest point, in deep depression, struggling
even as I was recovering.
HIS ACCEPTANCE & PEACE
And
one of those days, I was there in bed, struggling in the afternoon,
asking God, “Why? Why do I have to go through this suffering? Why do I
have to endure this hardship, this struggle? Why me?”
As I fell asleep, in my dreamy state, a vision just came, that says Hebrews 12:7-8.
Now
mind you, at this time, I had not read the bible. I have no clue what’s
Hebrews, I don’t even know how many chapters there are. Totally
clueless.
But it
says Hebrews 12:7-8, very specifically.
I didn’t think too much
of it. I just continued sleeping. Then I woke up, and I said, “What’s
there to lose? I’d just check it out lah!” Danny had bought me a bible;
it’s still quite new. I said, “It’s ok, just try.” So I flipped to the
Old Testament. Hebrews to me sounds like something ancient, so it should
be in the Old Testament right? So I flipped through the Old Testament.
No Hebrews there. I was so disappointed.
Then I said, “Maybe New
Testament, let’s have a look!”. WOW – New Testament, there’s Hebrew’s!!
It says Hebrews 12:7-8. It says, “Endure hardship as discipline as God
is treating you as His children.”
I said, “WAH!! Where did
that come from?” I was getting goose pimples all over my body. I said,
“This can’t be, right?” I mean, what’s the chance of somebody, who has
never read the bible, to have a vision of a chapter of a specific
verse, that answers my question directly?
I think God called to
me directly as I was there sleeping, struggling with it, asking God,
“Why do I have to suffer? Why do I have to suffer this?” And God says
“Endure hardship as discipline as God is treating you as His child.”
At
this point, the chance of that happening is even lesser than my EGFR
being positive. There’s just no way; there’s so many millions of
thousands of verses in the bible, how can I just conjure up something
like that?
So at that point, I was sold I said, “YOU WIN! YOU WIN!!”
Ok
, I was convinced. And so from that day onwards, I started believing in
my God. And the last time I heard that inner voice was the end of
April. And that inner voice, same thing, in the afternoon, as I was
sleeping (this time I wasn’t struggling, just going to sleep). In a
dreamy state I just heard Him say, “Help others in hardship.”
It
was more like a
command, rather than a statement. And that’s when I embarked on this
journey, helping others in hardship. And I realised that hardship is not
just about being poor. In fact, I think a lot of poor people are
probably happier than a lot of us here. They are so easily contented
with whatever they have, they’re probably pretty happy.
Hardship
can happen to rich people; it can be physical hardship, mental hardship,
social, etc. And also over the last few months, I started to understand
what this true joy is about. In the past, I substituted true joy with
the pursuing of wealth. I thought true joy is about pursuing wealth.
Why? Cos let me put it to you this way, in my death bed, I found no joy
whatsoever in whatever objects I had – my Ferrari, thinking of the land I
was going to buy to build my bungalow etc, having a successful
business.
It brought me ZERO comfort, ZERO joy, nothing at all. Do you think I can hold onto this piece of metal
and it’s going to give true joy? Nah, it’s not going to happen.
True
joy comes from interaction with other people. And at a lot of times, it
is a short term pride, the past. When you pursue your wealth, Chinese
New Year is the best time to do it. Drive my Ferrari, show off to my
relatives, show off to my friends, do my rounds, and then you thought
that was true joy? You really think that those guys who sold you your
Ferrari, they share their joy with you? And your relatives, wow, they
share this joy with you? In truth, what you have done is just to illicit
envy, jealousy, and even hatred. They are not sharing the joy with you,
and what I have is that short-term pride that wow, I have something you
don’t have! And I thought that was joy!
So what we have is
basically a short-term pride at the expense of somebody else. And that
wasn’t true joy. And I found no joy at all on my deathbed, thinking of
my Ferrari – to hold on to it,
sayang it?!?
True joy I discovered comes from interaction. Over
the last few months I was so down. Interaction with my loved ones, my
friends, my brothers in Christ, my sisters in Christ, and only then was I
able to be motivated, able to be uplifted. To share your sorrow, to
share your happiness – that’s true joy.
And you know what makes
you smile? True joy comes from helping others in hardship, and because
I’ve gone through this, I know what hardship entails. In fact, there’re
some cancer patients who tell me a lot of times, people come up to them
and tell them, “Stay positive. Stay positive.” Yah, right. You come in
my shoes and you try to stay positive! You don’t know what you’re
talking about!
But I have the licence. So I’ve been going out to
meet other fellow cancer patients, to share with them, encourage them.
And I know, because I’ve been through it, and it’s easier for me to talk
to them.
And
most importantly, I think true joy comes from knowing God. Not knowing
about God – I mean, you can read the bible and know about God – but
knowing God personally; getting a relationship with God. I think that’s
the most important. That’s what I’ve learnt.
So if I were to sum
it up, I’d say that the earlier we sort out the priorities in our lives,
the better it is. Don’t be like me – I had no other way. I had to learn
it through the hard way. I had to come back to God to thank Him for
this opportunity because I’ve had 3 major accidents in my past – car
accidents. You know, these sports car accidents – I was always speeding ,
but somehow I always came out alive, even with the car almost being
overturned. And I wouldn’t have had a chance. Who knows, I don’t know
where else I’d be going to! Even though I was baptised it was just a
show, but the fact that this has happened, it gave me a chance to come
back to
God.
Few things I’d learnt though:
1. Trust in the Lord your God with all your heart – this is so important.
2. Is to love and serve others, not just ourselves.
There
is nothing wrong with being rich or wealthy. I think it’s absolutely
alright, cos God has blessed. So many people are blessed with good
wealth, but the trouble is I think a lot of us can’t handle it. The more
we have, the more we want. I’ve gone through it, the deeper the hole we
dig, the more we get sucked into it, so much so that we worship wealth
and lose focus. Instead of worshipping God, we worship wealth. It’s just
a human instinct. It’s just so difficult to get out of it.
We
are all professionals, and when we go into private practise, we start to
build up our wealth – inevitably. So my thought are, when you start to
build up wealth and when the opportunity comes, do remember that all
these things don’t belong to us. We don’t really own
it nor have rights to this wealth. It’s actually God’s gift to us.
Remember that it’s more important to further His Kingdom rather than to
further ourselves.
Anyway I think that I’ve gone through it, and I
know that wealth without God is empty. It is more important that you
fill up the wealth, as you build it up subsequently, as professionals
and all, you need to fill it up with the wealth of God.
I think that’s about it. It’s good to share. Thanks.
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