20161026 - Dine in Dark & Battery in Bulb

Emergency Purchase of this S$6.90 LED Light Bulb and the 4AAAs Battery $1.30 on 25/10/16!!!

Ominous dark clouds hovered over little red dot at about 6:45pm on 25/10/16!

So....it was "romantic" dining in the dark for almost 2 hours from 7pm....

A memorable & unforgettable 25/10/16 night of sudden downpour and blackout that left us scrambling to find the candles and torchlights!

Reflections

The parable of the 10 virgins came to my mind as we went out to purchase more lights and candles and batteries about an hour after the total darkness in the house.

For the first time for many of us, we experienced our candlelight dinner with our spouses! Something that we here in little red dot hardly experienced nowadays after boasting of the First World city status. Nevertheless, the struck of nature's lightning and the old electric circuit breaker couldn't hold any longer.  

Are we Prepared?
Of course not! By normal human standard, we were definitely not prepared for such a thing!

And my brother in law who went out to buy the lights/candles could not find them after hopping from one petrol kiosk to another! LOL.

We were smarter.  We went to the heartland's DIY store in Holland V! (And we found out that one store sold the similar light for S$2 more for the same LED light! and $0.10 more for the same 4 pack AAA Eveready Battery :(....and both were just a stone throw away....)

Are we Ready?
Just like the 5 wise virgins who had oil together with the lamps, the LED lights would not work without the 4 AAA batteries.  We bought extra packs as the lifespan of the battery was limited.

Perhaps the brand of this battery "EVEREADY" is so befitting to the question of "Are we Ready"?
Guess we ought to live in this season (onimous dark clouds over many nations) of time to be "Eveready' all the time.

This outer shell of our body is merely a shell.  We need to be filled with the oil - the Holy Spirit to be well alive and prepared to face the Bride anytime, anywhere, anyhow when He comes.

Finally...
The emergency call to the electrician broke the darkness about 2 hours later.

But it was with a high price to pay for this restoration of light in the house. Kena KOTOK. But what choice have we right? With old folks in the house and plenty of foodstuff in the fridges?

So with our uncle and aunt from Melbourne, who were invited for this dinner - we broke in to laughter when the light came! Let there be light! As chatted, one would not appreciate the light had one not experienced the darkness! Praise the Lord!

P/S: So now, we have the extra lights and batteries....better prepared now....of course the reminder to continually check the life span of that EVEREADY pack? Who knows, one day, we may find them expired! Got the LED Light but expired batteries! Ha Ha Ha....Not so EVEREADY ....

20161001:Iconic Double Rainbow over Unique MBS

[Exceptional photo taken by a friend, A.N. on 30/9/2016 -Great vantage view of the double rainbow over Marina Bay Sands Hotel - houses one of the two casinos in Spore)

Exodus 6:6 "Wherefore say unto the children of Israel. I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will redeem you with a stretched our arm and with great judgements"

On 1/10/2016, the newspapers and social media was abuzz with the excitement of a double rainbow sighting over parts of little red dot on 30/9.  I am known for being a rainbow chaser.  Hence I was forwarded with several rainbow sightings for that day.

The one above was my favorite.  A great capture by AN , my classmate's wife who happened to be at the right place, right time, right moment.

This particular spectacular shot lifted my heart tremendously. Why?

Simply because it was an awesome arc over our unique MBS which was accredited with the award of architectural design.  But more uniquely, the double rainbow was covering over one of our 2 casinos here.  

Back in 2003, many Sporeans petitioned over the building of casiNOs . But our government ruled over by building not one but TWO over economic value reasons.  Fast forward to 2010, this iconic MBS was completed. Boasted of housing one of the most expensive casino property at S$8billion.

And last month Sep 2016 in Parliament, our government passed the bill to allow for legalised gambling. Just 5 years later.... We are a promoter of SMART wired nation.  So much so that even gambling - a vice, has gone ONLINE!  Uniquely Spore!

So come 25 Oct 2016, one of the two approved vendors will kick off its online 'attraction" whereas the other approved will go live in Nov 2016.  Spore Pools and TOTO!  wOW O WOW Owow!

Besides, we too have a overhaul of our elected president criteria passed in Parliament! A president with such awesome credentials for qualification in money quantum management of corporations over the character and moral selection criteria. 

Perhaps this is the new leadership of this nation direction for the new era. Post LKY.  As a citizen born in this red dot, do I cheer and see hope for a better future for the next generation? or do I jeer and lament over the current state of affairs? 

To be frank, I did not participate in the petition against this online gambling this time round.  To be truthful, I was feeling the sense of hopelessness. For our nation.  It is done.  Whether petition or not.  Afterall, majority of the MPs are 'AYE! AYE!" to whatever presented in the Parliament.  Perhaps only a handful of the elected MPs have the conscience to vote against what is seemingly not right for the ordinary citizens.  And with majority silent, what can a mere silly online petition by a handful of few thousands enthusiastic concerned folks do? POur MPS are supposedly our represented voices. Get a miracle? I was ticked off  by a friend for not signing up to add to the petition numbers.  I was challenged over not just praying but putting 'action' to matters.

Whatever, our LORD knows. He Is The LORD!

Remembering 

Exodus 6.  

• The Lord said more than 3 x in this chapter .  "I am the LORD"
• He has established his covenant with the children
• He has heard the groanings of his children of  Israel , whom the Eqyptians have kept in bondage
• He has remembered His covenant
• He will bring the children out from the burdens of the Egyptians
• He will rid of the bondage
• He will redeem his people with an out stretched arms
• And he will redeem with GREAT JUDGEMENTS.
• He will bring the children in to a land which he swore to Abraham as a heritage.

My reflections

This recent double rainbow sighting brought joy and a glimpse of hope on 1/10/2016.  A little children's day gift from a Heavenly Father to her daughter.

He knows our burdens and cries for a little nation. Just like the Israelites under the yoke of slavery of the Egyptian Pharoah.

The MBS is a iconic feature of our S'pore architectural landscape.  But many are not that proud to boast of the grand casino within.  The social ills and financial woes it bring to those who unwittingly caught in the mire of gambling vice in its grandeur of its confine. Now ,one can do that within in the comfort of their own home!  Who needs MBS or RWS casinos now?(May be during the hazy days?!)

A good king of any land should have the subjects' welfare at heart. That is a good king. And the reverse?

Prov 21:1" The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD,as the rivers of water, he turns it withsoever he will"

A little prayer:

Thank you Lord for your precious rainbow covenant of love.

A reminder of who you are and what you have done coming from above.

You are the Great Jehovah whose eyes roam

May our hearts be always lifted up to see beyond this earthly home.

To those whose lives are devastated by such bad policies designed

May you forgive and restore the hopelessness by those resigned                       We will continue to plead you to heal Our Land

Regardless of the numbers of written petition, for in this united prayer we stand

                 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

20160913- The Amazing "A's of Albany

[Natural Bridge @ The Gap, Albany, 15/9/2016]

"We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through.  Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love and then we return home" - Australia Aboriginal Belief

Scoot Off!
Yes, a team of 8 did just that on 13/9/2016 to Perth and then headed to Albany, which was about 4.5 hours drive down south.  The whole trip cost about S$1k as we bunked in for 3 free nites in Perth with sleeping bags in the living room for some!

Awe-Inspiring Trip in Albany!

• Amazing Flowers in Spring as we found out that the temperature was much lower than usual years!
• Admirable yellow Canolas and pink white everlasting flowers!
• Astounding Winds at one of the 2 wind farms which served 80% of the 35,000 population in Albany!
• August waves in the coastal beach! Crystal clear pools!
• Astonishing Big Trees at the Tree Top Walk!
• Adventurous climb to Castle Rock - a feat for the over 50s to 70s!
• Awesome looking Alpacas - the guard llama for the sheep!
• Alfresco lunch overlooking the vast vineyard!
• Astronomical Nite at University of WA off campus site at Pingelly! (Where for the first time,  we saw Saturn with the ring, enlarged moon and also the beautiful Alpha Centauri - a pair of twinking diamond like stars) with just the telescope!

That perhaps summed up my thoughts for this amazing "A"s of Albany.

"We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through.  Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love and then we return home" - Australia Aboriginal Belief

Above was a quote taken at the Windfarm.  Perhaps it is quite true in our spiritual walk here on earth.  LOVE -We love because He first loved us.  We are from dust and dust shall we return when we expire in 70s, 80s or 90s according to His call. Indeed it is not about me, not you nor us.  It is all about Him.  GOD is LOVE.  In this pilgrim process, life isn't about finding yourself.  It's about discovering who GOD created you to be. Amen.

Interesting quote indeed.  The 7-day trip ended as soon as it seem started.
It left me footprints of what I gazed back in the various places we visited.  From the mountains to the seas and the forest .  

Albany is an awesome place to be reminded of YHWH, the creative Creator God. His creative wonders which made man minute when one stood at the cliffs observing the pounding waves or hugged a big Grandma Tingle tree which is past already 400 years old! The fabulous waves that foamed in white & how the trees clapped their hands as written in the Bible -made me appreciate what the psalmist used to describe in the psalms.  Being up close and personal to a Wind Farm which produces clean energy! And the brevity of the numerous permutation of colourful spring flowers that last only for less than a month except for the everlasting ones. And being able to climb a rock (something that I hate doing in vertical sports) to embrace the panaroma view of Albany from on high.  And last but not least - being able to see Saturn with our naked eyes! Yes, the ring around this planet was so clear!

And a chance to pet that cute looking Alpacas!

So here's the video to sum it up! What an awesome God we serve!

20160912-My Airplant that blooms - This is the Air I breathe!

Ps150: "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!"

The Beauty of Airplants!

There are more than 650 types of air plants (Tillandsia spp.) that can grow and thrive -- without soil.  After more than a year hanging at our balcony barren - FINALLY -  this particular one bloomed radiantly! Wow!

It started with red tips on the leaves..and lo and behold about 7 days later - pretty red little flowers just appeared. So cute.

Fundamental Need : Air!!! Life!

Perhaps like  Gen 2:7 where the LORD BREATHED into the nostrils  the breath of life, and the man became a living thing.  So does this airplant that survived mainly on air !

Likewise in Eze 37:5 the Sovereign LORD made the BREATH enter the dry bones and woosh! They came to life!

Finally in John 20:21 After His resurrection when He appeared to His disciples. What did Jesus do? After He said " As the Father has sent me, I am sending you" V22 He BREATHED on them and said "Receive the Holy Spirit"

How long can one hold his breath on average?

Having equated air with life, now we can understand why most of us on average can only hold our breath for 20-30 secs at most .  And if relaxed manner holding the breath underwater - perhaps 2 min. But In 2012, German freediver Tom Sietas held his breath underwater for 22 minutes and 22 seconds, besting Dane Stig Severinsen’s previous Guinness record by 22 seconds. 

The day we breathe our last gasp of air is the day we expire.

So what do we do with our breath on earth?

Guess by now we understand what Paul wrote in Acts 17:24-25

"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands.  And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all man LIFE & BREATH and everything else"

V28 For in him we live and move and have our being.

Do not take our breath for granted.

The air we now breath is free.  Thank God we need not pay any air tax.  Pretty great air we have in little red dot though once in a while contaminated with the haze from our neighbour!

But this new born spirit eternal life to those who received Him as the Son of God , crucified on the cross for us , cost Jesus His life.  Not so free after all .

And as said, what does our Lord Jesus Christ really need from us? He owns every part of this earth and every part of our being.  He designates the time we expire.

THE FINALE PSALM 150 sums it all up. If you do have breath right now and reading this little blog on airplants....

PRAISE THE LORD! Anywhere. Anytime. With musical instruments if you can play. Dance.

LET EVERYTHING THAT HAS BREATH PRAISE THE LORD.  PRAISE THE LORD.

20160906:Rom11:36 Input / Output : lOve+lIve

Rom 11:36 "For FROM him & THROUGH him and TO him are all things.  To him be the glory forever! Amen"

Max Lucado "We exist to exhibit God, to display His glory. We serve as canvases for His brush strokes, papers for His pen, soil for His seeds and glimpses of His image ... He uncommons the common by turning kitchen sinks into shrines, cafes into convents, and nine-to-five workdays into spiritual adventures... When you magnify your Maker with your strengths ... your days grow suddenly sweet." Your work is important to God. Whatever your work is, it should represent Him. Manage them well. Even the breath we breathe and the blood that courses through our veins are God's investment to us - He expects a return. So, use them to promote His Kingdom."

Someone sent the above quote to me few days ago.

I pondered.  I wondered. How true is the text of Max above.

And then I took a photo of my red mouse over this mouse pad whose words are "wonders'as in Daniel 4:3 "How great are His signs , how mighty His wonders! His kingdom is an eternal kingdom; His dominion endures from generation to generation"

Rom 11:36 "For FROM him & THROUGH him and TO him are all things.  To him be the glory forever! Amen"

I used to liken our Creator God to be like a super computer - with mighty computer processors. The Input and Output devices that we now use to communicate with our PCs.  My mouse or keyboard is an input device for my laptop, while my monitor and printers are my output devices.

On the other hand, I often wonder & marvel at the state of the recent technology where we can send photos via our phone using the software like WhatApps to another party in another part of the world in second! How the picture is being send and received often awes me.  The Inputs of the signals and data received by the system and the Outputs transferred.

I am bad at computer programming. In my time, we learn BASIC.  If you were my age learning this in the 1980s, you would probably know my age. LOL.  Those IF...THEN...ELSE...GOTO...and I remembered my program always never seemed to work.  Just failed in that logic thing!

Fast forward to 2016, we now have WIRELESS network.  We use less of the keyboard.  We use Voice instead of the tapping in or scribbling.  And today, a foreign language can be immediately translated to another language of the other person's choice! The chicken and the duck can now 'talk' to each other:(

Reflections

If God our Father is indeed the CPU of our lives, whom He sent His Son here to earth for us (such as said, no one can come to the Father except through Jesus Christ His Son), and then only to give us His Holy Spirit (the unseen Helper) in this new wireless world of connection where we can tap unto Him --anyway, everywhere, anyhow , anytime without the need of any I/O device , how then should we live our life?

Apart from Him we cannot do anything. How true if the the brain of the CPU stops processing on our behalf once we disconnect with Him.  

Today, we are seeing multitudes of people with zombie like disease - heads bent, fingers hooked.  Walking in this posture on the roads.  In eating places or evening restaurants - people are so unaware of their next person presence in the seat too.  Each minding their own virtual chat , overlooking the physical presence of the humans in the surrounding.  We definitely need to DISCONNECT  to CONNECT.  So likewise, such so called good devices may need to be put away so that our QT with Him will not be hindered as well.

INPUT/OUTPUT ?

Why did Jesus cry out in John 7:38" He that believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters."

Max quote above - is yet another affirmation of our INPUT and OUTPUT of this life of having Jesus in our lives.  Jesus' ways are often not the world's ways.  In fact it is often a reversal.  

We love because He first Love us.  That is the input of love we receive from Him.

And In Him we live and have our being.  That is the output of how we should live.  

In Love we Input and In Output we Live to magnify Him.

"For FROM him & THROUGH him and TO him are all things.  To him be the glory forever! Amen"

Stay Connected to the CPU!

20160823: Acts 9:3 Sunrise Fire Glow or was it not?

Acts 9:3 " as he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.  v4 He fell to the ground, and heard a voice say to him 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"

Received this 'initially thought awesome sunrise photo ' from my niece this early morning.  And to my horror, she revealed it was not a sunrise glow.  But perhaps a fire glow from afar.

Only till this evening, that STOMP reported this sight from another resident - apparently, no SCDF report on fire was reported.  So this light which came from the direction of Seletar Airport seemed to be from a far.....

http://www.stomp.com.sg/singapore-seen/singapore/fire-at-seletar-airport-reminds-bedok-resident-of-lord-of-the-rings

Now: Found out that it was a normal flare at Pasir Gudang. Used as safety devices in refineries and petrochemical facilities : They safely burn excess hydrocarbon gases which cannot be recovered or recycled !

Reflections
Since this morning "Orange glow sunrise" spotted, I had been thinking about this light from heaven.  Was recalling how Saul encountered this bright light that came upon him while he was hot and fired up in persecuting believers.

But just one encounter on the road to Damascus changed Saul to Paul - 180 degrees turn. Blinded and then later his visions were set on clarity by Ananias.  Filled with the Holy Spirit. Baptised.  A man changed from PERSECUTOR of faith to that of PREACHER of the Good News that Jesus is the Christ!

Like the burning bush that Moses encountered in the mountain - a bush in flames yet was not burned.  That one encounter changed Moses from a DESERTER to that of a DELIVERER declaring the great I AM , the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who remembered His suffering children.

* When did you have that bright light encounter with YHWH?
* Is that light still burning in your soul? Or has it been smothered out?

Just heard this song "At the Cross" by Brooklyn Tabernacle choir. What awesome lyrics .  Another reminder that at the cross, He died for our sins.  He had to leave so that we will continue to have the Holy Spirit to guide us.  All fired up for Him while on earth.  Till we see Him again .

20160809_51st NDP- Ulu Pandan park connector to Chinese Garden bike

 9/8/2016..The Cycle from Holland V to Chinese Garden on Red Dot 51st!

When was the last time I was at Chinese Garden?  Mmmm ...at least more than 40 years ago! Heh heh!

Today, we decided to try out the bike trail using the Ulu Pandan Park Connector (about 7km) all the way to Jurong Chinese Garden (via Jurong PC - about 9km?) !
Started at 9:15am, we departed from Holland V hawker centre, taking the ride into the start of the Ulu Pandan PCN which was just opposite the Buona Vista MRT station.

Nice scenery along this park connector!

By 1pm , we were back at Holland V!

My thighs had some cramps along Toh Guan Road the the turn of IMM on the way back! Ouch!

And then also along the Ulu Pandan Park connector on the way back! And then along Holland Road on the last leg of the homing:( Thrice cramps...ouch! More than 30km and 3 hours of cycling under the hot noon sun...dehydrated this time!

But it was a worth it biking adventure!A trip down memory lane back to Chinese Garden which I had never popped in since 40 years plus ago!

The structures are still there...but the humans had grown taller...and older of course!

Blessed 51st birthday to little Red Dot!