What does Christmas means to me

Christmas falls on 24th December every year. Every year we celebrate it by giving gifts. Some of us just celebrate it as a holiday. Now, what does Christmas really means to us?

To some Christmas means Santa Clause and gifts.

To some its time to receive gifts, some time to spend on gifts, to some is both.

To some is to remember Jesus.

Which one of these do you belong to?

Let me provide some history and general facts to it.

1) Santa Clause, does he even exist?
Yes, he does. His real name is Saint Nicolas. This is in history books. Does he exist today? The Santa Clause in our fantasy, the white bread man with some red sleeping cap dressed in red that comes down via the chimney and give gifts...no. Saint Nicholas was renamed Santa Clause for some reason but he is definitely not the reason Christmas is celebrated. For more info, go and look up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus

2) Jesus and gifts
I rather subscribe to this because Jesus is the reason to why we celebrate Christmas. In fact Christmas doesn't fall on 24th December. If it is on 24th December, how can those shepherd and shepherd be out in the open during winter? Its cold out there even in the middle east especially at night. An early reference to the date of the nativity as December 25 is found in the Chronography of 354, an illuminated manuscript compiled in Rome in 354. (Wikipedia 2009 taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas#Feast_established). Jesus in fact is the reason. He is the reason why we celebrate Christmas. We give gifts because we remember God, our heavenly Father gives us his best gift - the salvation of all mankind, Jesus. That's why we give the best gifts to people. My opinion on why we receive gifts is as a sign we need Jesus and therefore we accept the gift of God.

As for me Christmas is to remember God's sacrifice - Jesus for us. We need Him and because of Him we are redeemed. During Christmas, its not about gifts but rather a remembrance of who God is, a generous Giver who has given us His best and we receive this gift (something given freely). Why gifts? Gifts is something given freely at the expense of the giver. We have to remember that God gave His best. He gave us freely. All we need to do is just to accept.

Why does God want to sacrifice Jesus? Because of sin, we were separated from God, the giver of true life. We may be alive now but are we experiencing abundance, joy, peace and love? Are we sure of where we are going to be after we leave this mortal body of ours? God wants to have a relationship with us. The consequences of sin is death. Something has to die to pay off the consequences of sin. So God gave Jesus, the sinless sacrifice for us to restore us back to God. God will provide us a place in heaven where we will be with Him if we accept Jesus's sacrifice for us.

As for us what should Christmas be? It should be Jesus, God's greatest gift. All we need to do is to accept Him as our personal Savior. Just pray this prayer and believe in your heart that Jesus is your Savior and you will be saved from sin and separation from the Giver of life.
"Lord Jesus, I acknowledge I've fallen short of Your glory due to sin. I need you to save me from my sins that separates me from God so that I can have a personal relationship with God. In Jesus name. Amen." (Amen means I agree)

Something nice to say about KDU Campus Revo team

As I was having meeting with the campus revolution group for KDU today, I thought about them, each 1 of them. Our team may be small, but nevertheless, we are getting effective as time pass. Well these are my compliments about each of them.

Darren is currently leading this group. He has been a great encouragement to all of us. Encouraging us to stay close to God. In fact he was the one who introduced me to this Campus Revolution. I would liken him to Ananias in Acts 9. You may not be famous as Ananias is only mentioned in Acts 9 but your accomplishment for God is great. Sometimes, things can only be done when there are people who are aware of the situation, have compassion and are courageous to do something. If it wasn't for him, I think Campus Revolution KDU and SMK Raja Perempuan, Perak's Recess Revolution wouldn't have materialized. This is what I will describe as the courage to respond and do something that God has placed in his heart and not give up when discouragement steps in. Darren, if you are reading this, I hope you will be encouraged and go on doing what God has placed in your heart. If it wasn't for Ananias, there may not be Paul as it was Ananias who shared Christ to Saul who later became Paul.

Daniel Khoo. You're the worship person. You have been one who can encourage your brethren to worship the true God as your availability coupled with your skills has brought God glory. You have shown me that its not the skills that count but its rather your availability. I remember what you've said to me before "I am here only for a short time so I want to do whatever I can do in this short time." I pray that you will continue to yield yourself to God as you can accomplish far more than what you are doing now because when you avail yourself to God, God will unfold his master plans to you.

Belle, you are a sweet lady in the group. You will go out to see to it things are done successfully. Its not what you can do but its your faithfulness in executing things delegated to you that encourages the team. Yeah, God looks for faithful people. As you are faithful in little things, God will give you more and greater things because you are trustworthy. Remember, be faithful in little things and God will give you greater things. You may think that these things you are doing now is nothing much but in fact God is testing you. These may be small but your impact is great. Hope you will be encouraged by this. Luk 16:10 (NKJV) He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.

Kai Wen, the person that I don't talk much to. Energetic and outgoing. Can be seen in your involvement in the ticket sales and Change your world promotion. Your energy spent tells us 1 thing. If we do something, we must give our best. Yeah, not only that you are also the person that cheer up the group. You are liken to Barnabas of today. One who encourages everyone in the things that is going on. You cheer us up. You are important to the group because people need encouragement to move on. To encourage is En - to add, courage is the drive that cause a person to dare to do things. So you are basically one who adds courage to us. Its important to have you around. You reminds me of Philippians 4:4.

Ben Teoh, one special team member. Conforms to the principals and motto of Recess / Campus Revolution - Stand up, speak up and show up. When there are things not right, you will say out, maybe indirectly. You speak up at times and encourage us. Surprisingly although you are busy, you show up at unexpected times. You are the one whom we may not see doing things, like someone who does things behind the scene. You may not realize it at times. You're somewhat different because most of the things you do are indirect. Why are you so important to the team then? Like the movie, we may have all the cast but if there is no support cast, the show won't look nice. Its indirect but its important.

Steph Lee, quiet but gifted sweet young lady. Although she don't associate with me often, she brings great encouragement to the team. She also does things indirectly. But when she helps and participate, we can sense Nehemiah 8:10 in her - "The joy of the Lord is our strength". Stephanie is a sweet lady that smiles a lot and that's th evidence of her portraying Nehemiah 8:10.

As for myself, Pro 27:2 Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; let it be a stranger, and not your own lips. So I have nothing to say about myself.

In conclusion, this team, group or whatever you want to call it, I will call it a team because we have a common objective - to change our campus. We thank God for the ones who start it and the ones who participate. Everyone is important. The ones who start is important because if nobody starts, there won't be anything. If no one participate then how is the movement going to move? The ones we are going to impact is also very important because that is why the movement started. I thank God for the CF, the group that we function under else we can't function at all. Thank God for everyone in this team, this Revolution team, which will definitely impact KDU.

Change Your World aftermath

It’s been 2 weeks since Change Your World concert. 1 accord ministry rocked Dewan Sri Pinang. There have been many challenges posted. These challenges to me are good in a way to fired us up for our community. I mean, our community is made up of people like us. There are good people and there are also bad people. There are people who are blessed and people who are less fortunate. The Change Your world concert is not just a hoo ha kind of concert where you come to just have fun and forget about it after the event. My non believer friend, Andrew Ong commented that although he had fun and enjoyed the event, he also learned something during the event. A week later, we had this I love Penang project which I didn’t manage to go because I had classes. It was a good community project but I believe that it mustn’t just end with that project as change your world is more than just a community project. What is important is not more projects for the community but rather a change of heart and attitude towards the particular situation. I’ve learned in management classes as I am a management student that attitude is the way we view things around us. If we have had more compassion, more awareness and more courage, I believe that one day, we will not only be history makers and world changers but our society will become a near perfect society. What makes our society bad today? Is it the bad people or the good ones doing nothing? Looking at the scenario in USA where a girl was gang raped but more than 12 people stood nearby doing nothing. If they would have intervened, that poor girl wouldn’t have been raped. Sometimes it’s because we fear for ourselves. For example, snatch thieves. People are afraid to help because they fear they would get attacked or stab. If someone intervened and brought the thief to justice, then there would be lesser crimes as this criminal is stopped from committing more crimes. Sometimes we blamed the government and the corrupted policeman. Have we ever thought of the sacrifices they’ve made? Not all policemen are corrupted. Some are fighting for a clean police force. I myself played mobster 2 in Facebook. I find that crimes happened when good people does nothing to stop it. Example: the mission on holding a gun store in Miami. The chances of failure is about 50% and when it does fails it says that even the people in the shop assisted the owner. Dr. Kou my lecturer said that we are to kill the problem with workable solution that it won’t arise again. The problems in our community can only be solved by ourselves if we choose to do something. That something could be helping out the poor. Rev. Bill and his metro ministry has helped changed the lives of people in Brokenly, New York simply but helping them. They have in fact helped changed the lives of several street children to become church workers instead of becoming whistle blowers for drug mules. Can our society’s problem be solved? Yes. If we help the poor and help provide them with education, these people will become good income earner and this will pull their generation out of poverty. If we help drug addicts and harlots with rehab programs, they will stop their profession and addictions and live normal and acceptable lives. If we help ex-convicts to blend back into the society, they will stop doing crimes as they did before. If we help our policeman by providing them information and help then criminals will be arrested and crimes will be reduced. If we elect good, responsible, honest and trustworthy people into the government, there will be lesser corruption and there will be justice. It all ends up with, “What are you going to do with your life”, the theme for the Quest 1 of Change Your World.