The Boxer - Paul Simon

In the clearing stands a boxer

And a fighter is his trade

And he carries the reminders

Of every glove that laid him down

and cut him till he cried out

in his anger and his shame

"I am leaving, I am leaving"

But the fighter still remains.

( (C) 1968 by Paul Simon)

Satisfying Saturday

Today I finally decided to use the bicycle that is parked in my living for the past 8 months. Finally, today is the first time my bike gets to meet the road for real.

I spent 2 hours biking today.... travelling from home to east coast hawker center... then all the way down to Macdonald's and then back again to the hawker. Then went home. Phew! It was terrific.... havent been exercising for a long time now and it just feels so good!

Spent less than 1 hour konking off on my bed.

When i woke up, i decided to plug into my Creative 5.1 sound system.

I have been trying to plug my IRiver(MP3) into this creative sound system but haven't been successful for the past few times. However today, after praying to God, it worked! I spent the entire afternoon listening to my favourite songs.. Bryan Adams, Jay Chou..., Micheal Buble, Bon Jovi... Praise the Lord!

Going for Dinner together with my family. Havent always had the chance to eat with my parents.... so happy to be able to do it today. We ate Claypot rice at Geylang, then drove to Geylang Serai to buy fruits.

What a beautiful day!

Thursday and My Reflection on Success

Today was yet another fast paced but fulfilling day. I went to work early today for a US conference call, then took a cab to another location to conduct training. It all went on very well and smooth, Praise the Lord. I did not manage to do the work that i planned to do today as i was caught up with other things, so have to make up for it during the weekend. Intended to take the 730pm bus home but somehow i missed it. So i caught the 815pm bus home instead. Had my favourite minced pork with potatoes, soup and rice for dinner.

Then konked off on my bed. Woke up 10mins later when my Dad said "Wah Singapore experienced Hail today. " I woke up saying to my Dad "yea... experienced it when i was in Secondary School, this is not the first time".

Reflections on Success

The Lord gives success... Success comes from the Lord Almighty... it doesnt matter if you are not good at speaking , a strong leader, someone who is popular... but as you look to God... God will give you success.

Just look at Abraham... He was practically a nobody.... fearful of man.... but the Lord made him very wealthy and powerful that Leaders of the land made peace treaty with him saying.... "We seen how the Lord was with you... now let's be nice to each other okay?".

Look at Joseph..... sold as a slave... no good education..... no strong backing from friends or family.... not really the smartest person around... but when the Lord was with him, he practically prospered whereever he went. And eventually was made the 2nd in Command in the most powerful country of his time.

Benny Hinn was a stutterer, now a healing evangelist mightily used by God..... Joyce Meyer was a woman with very low self-esteem and bullied by man, now has over 2 billion viewers on her TV show... Robb Thompson was from a mental asylum ... now a leading pastor speaking to diplomats and senators in America and a very well travelled speaker... Ravi Zacharias wanted to end his life.... now a very famous and reputable international Apologist, Billy Graham.... a man whom others said that preaching is not the career he should take is now the man that God has used to bring millions to Himself.... and the list goes on.... and on...

What about you? What about me? Are we going to believe God? Or are we going to believe in ourselves?

It's not about our qualifications or our abilities.... But God and God alone who can raise a man and bring down another.

Glory to God!

Tuesday

Today has been a great day! Had quite a few laughs at work today with my colleagues. Praise the Lord! I came home at 7pm today, had dinner , read the bible and then konk off in bed. Was up just 30 mins ago to type in my blog. Well.... my dad normally brings this laptop with him wherever he goes... so i can only use it when he is back... normally after 9pm.

Well... i have completed the book of Genesis and Exodus since i started 1.5 weeks ago. Today, i have read 4 chapters of the book of Leviticus and i am amazed that i actually read it with great curiousity. I realized the kind of "inconvenience", the kind of "somberness", the "detailedness" in the way an offering has to be made to the Lord under the Mosiac law.
I cant imagine myself putting my hand on a young bull or a goat or a lamb and kill it. Then skin it, remove the internal organs, drain the blood and then having the priest Bai Sui Sui(Hokkien word for laying it out nicely) on the altar and then burn it. It will take a while for me and i try not to vomit at the stench and brutality of it. Maybe a butcher can do it but not me.

But interestingly, as i see how the Lord gave the details, i saw how the Lord must have thought about it thoroughly when he gave details on how different category of people in the Jewish community are to bring their offerings. The poorer ones can bring just doves or flour... the richer ones young bulls.... As a person who works among HR Professionals.... this kind of thought process is really for the good for the people. As a man... i would probably spend a considerable amount of time thinking about the different scenarios so as to have a fair and possible way to cater to everybody.

So in this participation of offering to the Lord, the Lord provided a temporal way of cleansing sins and fellowship with His people as a means of worship and fear of the Lord. To approach God, a sinful man must not take it lightly.

Please read my thoughts on this in "We are the Righteousness of God in Christ Jesus" on the link "What we can learn from a Christian's Perspective"

I pray that we will not take the Lord's presence and fellowship lightly. It takes the death of the Son of God to purchase this legal right for us. It is a priviledge that we must not forget.

God Bless.

My Monday

Today has been a good day. Well i had a good weekend to begin with... so today i was looking forward to accomplished the things i planned to do at work. But as time passes by, i am being caught up with a lot of things that needs to be resolved or that needs my attention. To manage this, i put away those unimportant tasks till tomorrow... and hence the lists of unattended tasks has been growing and growing. Was on a conference call today, spent 1 hour trying to help and convince the other party what needs to be done is important and was trying to help them meet my deadline. Tough... but ok... pray that they can achieve it in time.

I told my colleagues about this blog that i have created.... told them once its more beautifully done up... i will open it up to them. Haha My VP heard about my sharing about my blog and he was quite amused.

I heard a very good sermon about tithing.... reminds me of the faithfullness and the grace of God when you give him your first 10 percent.... the rest of the 90 percent is being blessed! Well.... at least for God being our Senior Partner, He only asked for 10%... so we have got nothing to complain.

Please read my "What we can learn from a Christian Point of View"... i pasted some very good articles there for reading and also my own devotional thoughts....

God Bless!

Santification Week Ended Beautifully

Last Night was the final night of the Santification week we had since Friday. It was a very intensive 3 nights for me soaking in the presence of God. Our Senior Pastor, Apostle Lawrence Khong, mininstered a a man humbled and broken, the very heart of a man seeking God's presence. The Lord touched me every night when i was there..... Had experienced the love of God, the touch of the Mighty Creator.

I felt that God has done a deep work in the life of Pastor Khong and also in the Church. I am so glad that Pastor Khong is being used mightily by God in the "Love Singapore" movement as i also sense the mandate from heaven bestowed upon him.

I was also very blessed by Dr Maurice Sklar who ministered beautifully by his skillfull playing of the violin. The music was so soothing and the focus is solely on God and not just the man himself.

Praise God for a fruitful santification week!

My Day so Far...

This morning....I woke up today feeling kind of tired. Had an exciting night of worship and experiencing God's goodness yesterday at the night of Santification.
Wanted to go to work in the afternoon but decided to spent this day with the Lord... resting in His presence.
I have begun reading from Genesis since the start of this month... currently at Exodus.
Just read Chapter 18-23 5 mins ago.... Love it!
The real issues that Moses faces... helps me draw some parallel to the issues i faced in my work with People.
Moses is like a HR practitioner.... taking care of the human resources entrusted to him and seeing how he can handle them and help them work together as a nation. And what really helped His was the presence and the counsel of God.
So my deepest respect to this servant of God.....

Let there be a Blog.......

Welcome dear reader to my Blog =)

Today is first day i created this blog.... Kind of cool..... figuring out a few things.... was stuck actually for a while thinking of a suitable and available name for this blog.... finally chose the-onenewman.

Initially i wanted to just choose "newman" or "anewman" or "the-new-man"... but they are not available. So ok.... "the-onenewman" became the final choice. Not a bad choice either...

And so.... "There is a Blog... and it was Good."