Save the blog!!!

here i am, typing out a (supposedly) shortandsnappy blog post, in order to save the blog from the ignominy (that's one of those words for which i do not know the exact meaning, having never checked the dictionary, but still use anyway) of having only one post in the month of march.

as i look over the month of march, the highlight is undeniably (no, it's not earth hour) ZMax Camp!!! =)

we had 31 young people in Peacehaven, Genting, of which 11-12 were non-Christians. many of them were chinese speakers, which caused communication to be slightly problematic. to tell the truth, i was feeling discouraged on the second day of camp; like we were trying so hard to share the good news of God's truth and love with these campers, but they didn't really seem to be getting it. on the spiritual level, the Bible says that non-Christian's eyes are blinded to the truth of the Gospel by the god of this age; and on the physical level, the language barrier wasn't helping.

so well, even as we camp officers continued to have meaningful conversations with campers, have fun with them, and deal with all the nitty-gritty of running a camp, we also made time to get on our knees and pray. if these kids were to understand the gospel and respond to it, it would not be by our might nor by our power, but by the Spirit of the Lord.

and it was indeed exciting to see those young people begin to respond to the gospel and to the love of God. although these things are hard to measure and i dare not boast that such-and-such a number of young people have been eternally and irrevocably saved after this camp, i do dare to say that every one of those young people have a better understanding of the Gospel message. they know that, at least from the Christian point of view, we are not accidental products of a mindless process, but beings created in the image of God, with meaning, purpose, worth, value, and significance, and He loves us!

and quite a number of young people responded to that message. they raised their hands to indicate that they either believed or wanted to believe. there is nothing more amazing than to see young people respond to the Gospel like that.

i do not know how they will grow after this camp, when they go back to their hometowns. i do not know if they will persevere in their fledgling faiths, and truly come to know and love this God who loves them so. but i do know that God has begun a new work in their lives - and He's the kind of guy (if it isn't disrespectful to refer to God as a "guy") who finishes what He starts.

and there i had been, on the second day of camp, worrying that we weren't getting through to them. my faith has grown, and i thank and praise God for all that He is doing in my life and in the lives of those i care for, near and far.

no time to put pics or make it all nice and colourful. hope this blog post was not boring to you, dear reader. (well, if you read this far, i guess it's a success. but who knows if you are in the majority of readers? not that i have that many readers anyway...=P)

do continue to pray for these kids that they will grow in the knowledge and love of God. also pray for me, as i'll be speaking or visiting at various CFs over the coming weeks. in order, from this friday; i'll be at SMK Methodist Banting, SMK Sri Bintang Utara, SMK Taman Desa Rawang, and SMK Seri Kembangan.

God bless! =)

Letter to an Atheist

in an effort to blog more regularly than once a month, i will now sheepishly post something i've already typed. i came across this atheist's website, and left this comment:

hi michael =)

my name is siehjin, and i'm a Christian from Malaysia (a small country in southeast asia).

as a Christian, i believe that Truth and Reality are rooted in God. i understand that, as an atheist, you reject this idea and believe that as humans we have to discover Truth and Reality for ourselves (which would be true even if God were the ultimate Truth and Reality, as we'd still have to discover Him ourselves... but nevermind that).

the problem, to me, is that there can be no solid basis for Truth and Reality in the absence of God... truth then becomes relative, some truths being true only for certain people and other truths being true for others. (am i making sense here?) in this understanding of the world, the only Truth is that there is no absolute Truth. perhaps this is implied in your second last paragraph, "it is impossible for anybody to be certain about anything".

now the problem with this relativistic truth statement is that, it commits suicide. if there is no absolute Truth, then it is not absolutely True that there is no absolute Truth. there may be no absolute Truth for you, but there may be absolute Truth for me. in the end, we have a confusing hodge-podge where there is nothing is essentially true! to use your own words, if it is "impossible for anybody to be certain about anything", then it is impossible for you to be certain that it is "impossible for anybody to be certain about anything". therefore, it is possible for somebody to be certain about something; but that isn't certain either.

i hope i'm not boring you with all this. it's like that statement, "i never tell the truth". if it's true, i'm lying; but if i'm lying, it's true.

not only is this relativistic position on truth impossible to hold on to philosophically; i don't think it works in real life either. no one can live in a continuous limbo of truthlessness. all of us live as if there were such a thing as truth, absolute Truth. atheists, for example (correct me if i'm wrong) believe that it is True that there is no God. the very logical and rational way you write, presupposes that logic and rationality lead us to Truth.

therefore, i reject the notion that there is no such thing as absolute Truth. i believe rather that there is such a thing as absolute Truth, and i call this absolute Truth "God". interestingly enough, Jesus claimed to be "the Way, the TRUTH, and the Life".

looking forward to your responses to my thoughts. may God, if He exists, bless you! =)

i'll post a real blog post soon. hopefully. heheh =P