Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Good Milk, Bad Milk

“For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that it, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” (Hebrews 5:13-14)

I am reminded of a lactose-intolerant friend, to whom I’m supposed to do Bible study with on the book of Hebrews. Until today, we still haven’t met up to do it. My attention is brought to the word “milk”. Consider this:

“Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.” (1 Peter 2:1-2)

The former passage describes “milk” as a negative, whereas the latter passage describes “milk” as a positive. How can this be so? I am tempted to easily explain it away scientifically. Milk is good to those who are not lactose-intolerant, whereas milk is bad to those who are lactose-intolerant. Ok, lame humor. Bad for interpretation of Scriptures too.

“Milk”, in Hebrews, is an analogy compared to “solid food”. According to this comparative analogy, “milk” is bad, because being content with just milk goes not augur well for a person’s spiritual growth. We are called to progress on to “solid food”, and, through our habitual “reason of use”, develop a spiritual maturity that will enable us to “discern both good and evil.”

One good benchmark of spiritual maturity is to see how a person makes good judgment calls on issues concerning morality. Doing that requires a great depth of understanding of the word of God. How can we reason with a person that it is wrong to smoke, drink, or eat food offered to idols, if that person has not grasped the concept of sacrificial love, which behaves with the other brother in mind?

A deep level of maturity is also required to “discern both good and evil”, in the context of discerning correct doctrine from incorrect ones. How can we ever reason with a person that Christ is the fulfillment of the law, when that person has no idea of law, or worse still, no idea of who Christ really is in His deity and His purpose?

“Milk” is used as an analogy in 1 Peter, but with a different flavor. “Milk” is now used as a symbol of purity, in contrast to malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, which, if I may add, is a “corrupted” type of food. We are called to crave purity from the word of God, the same way a baby craves for pure milk. This is in line with the teaching: “in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature” (1 Corinthians14:20).

Scientifically, there is no such thing as good milk or bad milk. The culprit lies in the defective enzymes in lactose-intolerant poor things. Spiritually, milk can be good, and it can also be bad. It depends on how the word “milk” is used.

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Why You So Gong Gong?

And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, ‘Lord, save me!’ And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, ‘O you of little faith, why did you doubt?’ (Matthew 14:29-30)

After giving 6 swimming lessons to two 5-year-old boys, Daniel and Timothy, I said to them, “Come, let’s take off your big float, and put on your arm floats. See if you can swim.”

“Dowan” Daniel retorted.

“Why you dowan? You scared izzit?” I asked. Daniel nodded.

“Don’t worry, I won’t let you drown wan. You can surely float with your arm floats,” I coaxed. “I will be holding you. If you cannot float, then I’ll bring you up. I’m just over here,” I continued, giving assurance.

“But if I start to go down, will you take me up?” Daniel asked doubtfully.

“Of course la, I will take you up! You think I will let you sink meh, ayoooo…” I replied.

Then Timothy, Daniel’s younger and wilder twin brother, injected, “He dunno how to think wan! He gong gong…”

How I laughed at Timothy’s comment! We can say that Timothy is a model Christian. He lives with no fear of death. Because he has no concept of danger, drowning, or anything of the like! You have to look out for him, or he’ll be likely to jump into the watery grave while giggling at the same time.

When it was Timothy’s turn, I made him take off his big float and wear his arm floats.

“Koko Joshua…” He said.

“What?” I replied.

After a long pause, he said, “If I start to go down into the water, will you carry me up?”

"Hahahahahaha! You dunno how to think wan! You gong gong! Of course la, I will carry you up!” I chortled.

It was just a few minutes ago when he called his older brother foolish to ask a dumb question. When his turn came, he also asked the same dumb question.

How similar this situation is to our walk with God. For 6 lessons, I made sure I never took my eyes off Timothy and Daniel. For 6 lessons, I never made them do anything that they are scared of. For 6 lessons, I progressively taught them water skills, without letting them do what they are not ready to do. I thought the trust developed between us would be strong enough for them to let go of their big floats and progress to the next level. But they still asked a fundamental question of trust: “If I start to go down, will you carry me up?”

Very often, when we observe other people struggle in matters of faith, we tend to take ourselves out of the picture, look at it from an objective, external, judgmental point of view, and say “Why you dunno how to think wan? You gong gong ah?” We think it’s foolish for other people to ask such questions.

But when we ourselves are in the picture, we realize that we will also ask the same question that we thought was foolish.

“O you of little faith, why did you doubt,” Jesus said.

Sunday, December 25, 2005

I'M GOING TO AUSTRALIA!

“Delight yourself also in the Lord,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalms 37:4)

Despite being a person who holds a stern view on life, today I’m convinced that God is not a party pooper. He throws in a few things here and there every once in a while to make mere mortals happy.

I woke up a few days ago, with my muscle aches all gone, flu healed, nasal blockage cleared, health finally restored, and most of all I realized… I’M GOING TO AUSTRALIA!

Geelong Lorne, Victoria, 4th – 20th February. Rescue 2006, Lifesaving Sports World Championships!

To fully express my present joy, I must deliberate on “the road to Australia”.

Ever since my freshman year in USM, I had my eye on kangarooland. Arafura Games, a bi-annual regional games. USM participates in the Arafura Games, and the varsity swimming & lifesaving team always had the intention of going there. The problem was, no money, so no funny. Hence, came the plan for fund raisers and sponsorship hunts.

Then, SARS struck. Arafura Games cancelled. End of story.

During my 3rd year, the Arafura fever came back. No way we’re going to get ourselves there by any ordinary fund-raiser project, I thought. We needed to do something bigger. Something more unthinkable. Something mad enough to make people fork out money to get 8 USMers to Australia.

Hence, Aquathon Challenge was born. A 50-hour, non-stop marathon relay swim. We swam 168.05 km, set a record in the Malaysia Book Of Records, appeared on numerous newspapers, got into a radio show, and all that jazz. In the end of the day, total profit collected – zilch. Just enough to cover costs of operation. Bye bye Australia, for the second time. But it was still heck of a kick anyway.

Now, in my 4th and final year, if I can ever get myself to Australia, it’s now or never! The Lifesaving Sports World Championships is my last ticket to Down Under. Miss it, and I’ll have to be content with the bottle of Australian sand, water, and air that a friend brought for me from kangarooland.

After this year’s National Lifesaving Competition, I was shortlisted for the World Championships in Australia. Being shortlisted to be in the national team is one thing. Surviving the internal selection process is another thing. It will surely be the pits if I get kicked out of the team in an internal selection, when I was officially the top ranked lifesaver in pool events for 2 consecutive years!

My weeks of centralized training and the final selection were plagued by out-of-form, slow times and illness. You can’t get into competition form in a matter of days. You'll need weeks, or even months of conditioning, which I didn’t have the luxury of! Suddenly, my ticket to Australia was in limbo, despite my credentials from past national competitions and my contributions to lifesaving.

On Wednesday night, looks like things finally went my way, for a change. In a 6-man, 6-woman team, I was the 6th man to be named! Thank God! This is a lesson on humility, and also on God’s graciousness! My Australian dream is finally coming true!

Then, comes the question of whether or not I choose to go. It’s still a long road towards Rescue 2006. The amount of commitment I have to put into training may be too much to bear. I’m in my final year now. Spending more than 2 weeks in Australia will also mean forfeiting almost an entire quarter of my final semester of studenthood. As much as I dream of Australia, I also want to finish well. There are people that I may never get to see in such proximity ever again, after varsity days are over. In order for me to say yes to Australia, and to finish my varsity days well… I have to be no less than bionic.

Friday, December 23, 2005

Unfathomable Providence

“Two things I request of You
(Deprive me not before I die):
Remove falsehood and lies far from me;
Give me neither poverty nor riches –
Feed me with the food allotted to me;
Lest I be full and deny You,
And say, “Who is the Lord?”
Or lest I be poor and steal,
And profane the name of my God.” (Proverbs 30:7-9)

The pursuit of personal happiness frequently proves to be the main cause of human despair. It is the inward selfishness of man that drives us towards wealth, fame, and power; and the fear of the unknown makes us insulate ourselves from all possible kinds of suffering.

Agur the son of Jakeh, a man of wisdom in the bible, uttered two requests from the Lord. Firstly, to be kept away from the sin of deceit. Secondly, to receive what the Lord intends to give him.

It takes a huge measure of faith to ask for such things, especially Agur’s second request. How likely it is for us to truthfully mean it when we ask God to “give me neither poverty nor riches”? Is it easy for us to honestly ask for that, for the sole reason of not wanting to fall into a snare of forgetting the Lord in our prosperity, or of bringing shame to the name of the Lord in our poverty? Certainly not.


Sometimes, it may be easy to utter prayers God, especially the ones that sound benevolent and noble. But yet, it is exactly those kind of prayers that are most likely to be lacking in honesty. Perhaps this is precisely why Agur, before making a request that requires a great deal of honesty from him, made another prior request: “Remove falsehood and lies far from me”!

The mystery of God’s providence is unfathomable. Sometimes, it can be true that God brings prosperity and comfort as a form of reward, and poverty and suffering as a form of punishment. But the bible points out that God’s providence actually holds no pattern. He blesses indiscriminately, as much as He curses indiscriminately. “For He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Mathhew 5:45)

It will drive us insane to try and figure out the cause of God’s providence or His allowance of suffering. It will be wiser to focus less on causal answers, and focus more on our response towards such situations. It takes great faith to grapple with things we do not understand, while believing that God intends for our good, even in things that seem evil. For God’s unfathomable providence has a role of conforming our will towards acceptance of His sovereignty, in the putting of every aspect of our lives at His disposal. The step of faith to follow God no matter what, with the little that we know, is not an easy step to take.

“I ask You neither for health nor for sickness, for life nor for death; but that You may dispose of my health and my sickness, my life and my death, for your glory… You alone know what is expedient for me; You are the Sovereign Master; do with me according to Your will. Give to me, or take away from me, only conform my will to Yours. I know but one thing, Lord, that it is good to follow You, and bad to offend You. Apart from that, I know not what is good or bad in anything. I know not which is most profitable to me, health or sickness, wealth or poverty, nor anything else in the world. That discernment is beyond the power of men or angels, and is hidden among the secrets of your Providence, which I adore, but do not seek to fathom” - Blaise Pascal

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Confessions Of Non-St Joshuastine

A flyer landed in my letterbox today, and it sparked me off into writing this confessional.

“You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3)

The sin of idolatry is my weak point. Being a naturally ambitious person, I struggle for superiority. Not to the extent of challenging the deity and Lordship of the one and only Living God. More of like, giving myself or my own interests a higher priority than God.

“You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13)

No, I have not killed anyone. But if it is true that murder begins in the heart, and that “whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment” (Matthew 5:22), then I am a professional assassin. No need to go to the level of turning the other cheek. If given a choice between fight or flight – I choose fight. Win or lose, never mind. But I must get my fight.

“You shall not covet” (Exodus 20:17)

I do not specifically long for a particular neighbor’s possessions for myself. But I generally feel the luring pull of the world to want more things for myself. Through my observations of the general world order, I am tempted to make it big time, the way I’d like to define big time in my own terms.

So, what has the flyer got to do with all this.

“C.S. Wong Mathematics Class. Maths & Add Maths Tuition (PMR & SPM)”


There’s this guy, a USM Bachelor Degree holder in Mechanical Engineering, who is going full time into the tuition business! He teaches Mathematics from Form 1 to Form 5, for both Maths and Add Maths! He establishes his empire all over Penang in 4 tuition centers: Gottlieb Road, New Lane, Paya Terubong, and PISA! He’s handling classes everyday, around the clock, from Monday to Sunday!

A smart move, I should say. Engineering may not be an ideal job for every engineer, because considering the competitiveness in the world of engineering, you must either be a really excellent engineer to make it big, or just be a mediocre engineer who’s married to your job for a pay packet that may be far from luxurious. And there’s a lot of money in the tuition business, especially if you’re good and you’re willing to invest your time in it.

So, why does this strike a chord within me? Because I, too, am planning to go into the tuition business, starting January! I’ll be teaching just one small class. Add Maths, Form 4, on Monday evenings as a start.


Just as I’m finishing my question bank, here comes this guy, with an impressive looking advertisement on my doorstep. Not only that, he is also from USM, my university. And he’s also building his tuition empire in Penang, my home state. And he’s teaching Mathematics, my major. And he is conquering both kinds of Maths, from Form 1 to Form 5!

The worst part is… He even stole my pen name! I gave myself a brand name “C.S. Hooi Tutorial Center”. And this guy calls himself C.S. Wong Mathematics Class! Wah piang eh... As the say in Hokkien, really “bey song”.

Nevertheless, I’m sure his C.S. is not the same as my C.S. His C.S. probably means Chee Seng or Cheng Soon, or something like that. I, for one, know that my C.S. is unique. There can only be one Chee Shing!

As I’ve said earlier… Great is my sin of idolatry.

As for now, maybe I’ll find out his home address and toilet paper his house :)

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Pursuit Of Immortality

“Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him” (James 1:12)

Humanity may not be as shallow as we deem it to be. For deep in the heart of every man lies the desire for immortality. It is only the degree of that desire that differs. The extent of immortality that is sought is what distinguishes one man from another.

It is not a rare occurrence for people to turn to facials to reduce wrinkles. Some resort to botox injections to immortalize their youthful complexion – killing some cells permanently in return for a facade of youthfulness. Cryogenic technology is researched in the hope of bringing the dead back to life, if the secret of rekindling life were ever to be discovered. Instead of pine caskets, some people spend a fortune to be “buried” in a cryogenic tube in the hope of an eventual resurrection into the old world. The human genome is mapped, also with the hope of reversing the process of death, if death could be linked with a genetic code.

Even if man cannot immortalize themselves physically, man still tries to paint eternity for themselves in ways where they can be remembered for time immemorial. Some may not have set out to do it deliberately, but some characters have set out to attain such immortality in the memory of the world in passionate deliberation. Man sets out to accomplish great feats – To be the first to climb the highest peak; the greatest war hero; the first to sail around the world; the pioneer to discover a new continent; the first person to find a cure for a disease; the man who sets world records in sports; the man who changes the course of history, either by fear, by force, or peaceful revolution – in order to immortalize his existence on this planet. What crowning glory it is, for those who are remembered for their great exploits!

Some people are curious on why I choose to afflict myself with physical pain in pursuit of excellence in sports. Why do I continually set my face towards enduring such discipline and painful displeasure for crowns that do not last?


It is not the crowns that drive me. It is the anticipation of an incredible, indescribable feeling that motivates me. This feeling comes only at the end of all the painful hardships of training, just before the race. The painful regime of breaking down and building up, tearing and healing, panting and resting, will amount to a plateau of strength at the correct time. A plateau of strength that you have never reached before. The kind of feeling you feel, just at the starting block...

It is a like feeling of temporary immortality.

In our spiritual pursuit of immortality, we are not spared from all kinds of trials and tribulations. The goal of mortal strife, which is a blessing that is far superior to any notion of earthly immortality, awaits those who have been approved by the Lord. A prize awaits those who remain in Him until the very end – “The crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him”.

We thank Thee for the crown
Of glory and of life
‘Tis no poor withering wreath of earth
Man’s prize in mortal strife
‘Tis incorruptible as is the throne
The kingdom of our God
And His Incarnate Son

Friday, December 09, 2005

Time Of Affliction

“Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 23:27-28)

This was how the children of Israel prepared themselves for one of the most important Jewish festivals – the Day of Atonement. It was a time to afflict their souls. Or may I add, for emphasis, deliberately afflict their souls. And those who does not afflict their souls “shall be cut off from his people” (Leviticus 23:29). This was how seriously the Jews pursued their spirituality, old school style.

Old school style, yes. But still, it was an important discipline to point towards a very important concept in salvation. The Day of Atonement is a shadow of the total and complete atonement that came in Christ. A time of affliction of the soul was crucial to make the children of Israel face the reality of sin in their lives. The seriousness of sin has to be realized before the significance of the Day of Atonement can be fully understood and appreciated. Without a period of afflicting the soul, the weightiness of sin will not be realized, and the Day of Atonement will not mean a thing. Much worse, Christ’s atonement for our sins would be too foreign a concept to be accepted, if it was not introduced in progressive revelation.

The pursuit of spirituality was never an easy task. Doing it old school teaches us the best spiritual lessons. The same parallel can be drawn in the pursuit of physical perfection. Doing it old school brings out the best results.

I just came back from National Conference and my CF’s Exco Planning & Retreat, back to back. After more than 2 weeks of physical inactivity, I suddenly learnt that the final selection for the Rescue 2006 World Championships will be on the 17th and 18th this month! That is just 8 days away! How in the world am I going to get into top condition in such a short span of time? There's only one way to do that. Old school style.

I was ranked Malaysia’s no. 1 in pool events in national level competitions. For 2 consecutive years, I was the gold medalist for 2 events. Also, as a Seiko Award Winner in my contributions in lifesaving to the country, I should already be given a place in the national team bound for Australia for Rescue 2006. Being top-ranked in national competitions but getting kicked out in an internal selection process would be the pits!


For 4 long years, I have been trying to set foot on the land down under. Year after year, it didn’t work out. Rescue 2006 will be my last chance to get there. I thought my place was secured, based on the results of my performances. But now, my ticket to kangaroo land is in limbo.

This is a time to be sober. This is a time to afflict my flesh. Old school style. Lest I get cut off from my people.