Reconciliation

As promised, I'd share my devotion insights at least once a month. So here goes:

¹⁹that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 2Cor 5:19-20

I was reading through 2Cor 5:19-20, it struck me quite hard. This is because just yesterday when I was leading the prayer meeting (I forgot I was supposed to lead), I was touched by the Holy Spirit to lead all of us to come back before God. We have gone astray for the past few months, probably even years.

So I asked everyone to come back to God before even planning or talking about any other things. Even though I don't sense the urgency among us then, I believe God has His time and His ways.

Through the short verses mentioned above, it reminds me again about God who is initiating the reconciliation process with us through His love by sacrificing His only begotten Son in order to clear us of our sins.

Paul also stated clearly on verse 20, "Be reconciled to God". What a strong message to remind me!

Now, brothers, as we all know that we are faced with a lot of difficulties ahead, we cannot ignore the simple basic fact of reconciliation with God as the foundation for our ministries.

We cannot be planning for the ministries ahead unless we have reconciled with God

We cannot be making decisions for the church unless we have reconciled with God

We cannot be church leaders unless we have reconciled with God

God's invitation for reconciliation has begun and is still active today. We need to repent and go back to God. Some people might said it's easier said than done. It sure is easier however, it ain't too hard too!

Some practical steps we can try:

1) Repent & deny yourself

2) Seek for forgiveness from God or others (if any)

3) Recommit yourself to God

4) Pray for Holy Spirit to give you strength

5) Join in fellowships with others of the ideas with you in the process of reconciliation

6) Be accountable to God and others

I pray that the Almighty God will bless you and keep you in His mighty arms! Let's reconcile and revive our works for Him!

Are you with me? :)

Simple Majority Rule Does Not Rule

Thanks to Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby, we have all confirmed that a Simple Majority Rule simply does not rule. It only creates tension & division among us.So this practise should be avoided at all costs!

An obvious example which is still hovering in our minds was last year where our leaders decided to change the Sunday service time to 1.30pm from 7pm. It was determined that we would change it based on a simple majority rule.

One would have thought, a simple majority from the LCEC? No. Simple majority from the LC? No. However, it was decided a simple majority from the WHOLE congregation or whoever was present on that Sunday! Woooaahhhhh~!

Anyway, the result was a close one. I think those prefered 1.30pm only outnumbered the ones that prefer 7pm by 5 votes out of about 90 in total. Something like 42-47? Forgot the exact tally.

The results today, our Chinese congregations dropped to about 50-60? Clearly something is not right.

Just a classic example of why simple majority rule does not rule in churches.

Some then would argue that the Methodist Constitution that encourages voting is flawed, where most voting would just require a simple majority but major decisions requires 2/3 or sometimes in rare cases 3/4 majority.

I would beg to differ.......

The Constitution stands as a guideline for Methodists to practice. It all depends on the interpretations and applications by those who are using it.

Just like the bible is a good book, it can be misused by cults to deceive others.

As Christians, we must always go back to seek God's will and plans for us. Let us not depend on ourselves in making decisions for God.

Be a discerning Christian with wisdom.

What to do when our leaders are making the "wrong" decision? Pray for them, voice your concerns but if things don't go your way, just accept it.

Time will tell, just like in the case stated above. :)

Sorry, Such A Hard Word To Say

A lot of people think, "I love you" is such a hard sentence to cough out but it's nothing compare to a simple word called "Sorry".

I'm not talking about "Sorry lah", "Sorry loh", or "Sorry eh". I'm referring to the sincere "Sorry".

As our human self defence mechanism, normally the first thing we do is to shift the responsibilities away from ourselves and point the fingers at others, directly or indirectly, conciously or subconciously.

It takes courage and huge humility to express that you're sorry. Some rather die than say sorry.

For a leader to say sorry, it means a great deal for him/her and it's indeed a great achievement.

Though the journey is still a long way from the end point, a small step forward is definetely an encouragement to everyone.

To Invest or To Tighten

Life's so much fun with all the decision making ability given to us by God. For Christians, it's known as the "free will" though some would argue otherwise.

From people to organisations, countries to churches, we all have learn to make the best & right decisions. This of course includes financial decisions, which is quite an exciting challenge!

As a Malaysian Chinese, we're often taught to be thrifty, to save as much as you can and only start to spend it when you have a comfort "buffer". In another words, it's to tigthen up to survive.

After spending a decade in Melbourne, I come to regconize the pattern of Caucasians governance in some sense. It's very obvious during the GFC, most of the governments adopted the strategy of investing for growth.

Stimulus packages, grants, tax reliefs, etc. All are aimed towards futures prosperity and not just the short term.

So, it's a little culture shock when we started to see the governments spending like crazy in times of crisis! Billions are poured in multiple industries just to keep it going while from our background, we would have been cutting expenses as much as we can.

Having said that, they also did some costs cutting measures to keep the ball rolling. Even with billions spent, without proper restructuring, it wouldn't last as well. Billions would end up like cents!

So, as a church, what can we learn from this GFC?

We need to continue to invest into the future by laying out plans and goals for the short, medium and long terms. Then we can work out budget around it to achieve those plans. By injecting the proper resources (human, funds, etc) into the right ministry will help the church to continue to grow.

At the same time, we need to evaluate on our current ministries. Which ministries that we can afford to temporary lay off or shut down. There's a saying, "All things are good, but not all things are right".

By properly channelling our resources, we can ensure greater works being done in the church ministries. These are the core ministries that our church can never neglect. These are:

1) Mission & Evangelism

2) Christian Education

3) Small Groups

4) Prayer

If we're not investing more resources in those core ministries, I'd like to know what else could be more important? Day-to-day church admins? Spending on technologies & equipments?

I know some might say, "let's get our books balance first then we can plan" or the ever famous "we will wait for God Himself to lead".

Let us remind ourselves that, God has initiated His works. Are we spiritually sensitive enough to feel it or how are we going to respond? keep on waiting?

I have a funny feeling that our belts are too tight now. Perhaps we should increase our belt size and start to invest on what's right? Let's not choke ourselves to death!

King Asa = Us?

Yesterday, while we were studying "Experiencing God", we were asked about King Asa's situations whether he was God centered or Self centered in 2 scenarios. Well, the answers are pretty obvious and you don't have to be a genius to figure it out.

Then suddenly a funny thought went through my mind. Before I get into that, let's have a quick history flashback on King Asa.

Basically, the first 35 years of his reign was all nice and good because he was reliant on the Lord.

2 Chron 14:11 Then Asa called to the LORD his God and said, "LORD, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, O LORD our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army. O LORD, you are our God; do not let man prevail against you."


2 Chron 15:19 There was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa's reign.

After that, he started on rely on himself and his allies rather than the Lord.

2 Chron 16:2-3 Asa then took the silver and gold out of the treasuries of the LORD's temple and of his own palace and sent it to Ben-Hadad king of Aram, who was ruling in Damascus.  "Let there be a treaty between me and you," he said, "as there was between my father and your father. See, I am sending you silver and gold. Now break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel so he will withdraw from me."

2 Chron 16:7-9 At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him: "Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the LORD your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand. Were not the Cushites and Libyans a mighty army with great numbers of chariots and horsemen ? Yet when you relied on the LORD, he delivered them into your hand. For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war."

So my comparison is this:

We have always relied on the Lord from the day our church started back in 2000/01. Prayers have always been the driving force for us from doubling our members each year and to accomplish a near to impossible tasks (in everyone's else's mind) by forming a local church in 2007.

God was heavily sought after during those times but in the last few years, we seems to have forgotten our root and started relying more on ourselves. Prayer meeting numbers dropped significantly, ill-advised decisions were made, etc.

Even up to today (though I may not know the full picture yet), we have not been awaken yet. We all (especially LCEC members) knew that we're being told that we're going to be in charge of the 2013 Annual Conference. It's quite a big thing, it's almost like when King Asa was threatened by Baasha, King of Isreal.

While King Asa decided to seek help and support from Ben-Hadad, King of Aram; We seek help from Camberwell Church.

Instead of praying to God for directions and help, we are seeking financial help from our allies, Camberwell Church because everyone in CLMC (or 99%) believed that we can't do it by ourselves. As far as my limited knowledge knows, we're not doing anything else except waiting for an answer from Camberwell on whether to help us or not and the decision should by known by this year's AC around end of November.

Now, the question is, is this act God-centered or self-centered?

If this is a God-centered act, how so?

If this is a self-centered act, shouldn't we repent now and started praying hard and seek God's will? This could be the turning point for CLMC to come back to God in unity?

Or are we going to end up like King Asa?

2 Chron 16:12 In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet. Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the LORD, but only from the physicians.

Anyway, those are just my observations and feel free to correct me if anything I said is wrong....:)

The Comeback

Felt so good tonight to be able to hit some birdies! Haven't been playing for nearly 2 weeks now. It's sad that I might not be able to play for another 2 weeks again!

Sometimes the feelings just felt different after you stopped for a while and you pick it up again. It's almost like first love but not quite.

Perhaps that's why in our spiritual walk, there're ups and downs too. So when we were down, and after we got up, it felt so great!

So, don't feel bad if you're down, just remember to stand up from where you fall!

Looking forward to 2 weeks from now....another night of action packed badminton!!

MCA, Now MIC & Maybe CLMC?

Over the span for the past few weeks, we have witnessed a string of (by) elections & voting processes going on around us. It seems that everyone just loves the democratic process these days.

Recently it was the MCA Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) orchestrated by the sacked deputy president to try to bring down the president and climb back unto the ladder. Though he only barely "succeeded", at least he tore MCA into 2 parties now. Insiders are reporting a possible 3rd party in the leadership crisis too.

Now, the MIC also wants to bring down their president. Well, they versed it to sound more noble, to save MIC. Whatever the outcome is, one thing is for sure; There'll be even bigger divisions within MIC.

On the coming Sunday, CLMC will also have their annual Local Conference election for the stewards positions for next year. Instead of having the usual "fat heads" structures at the top, this year they have successfully reduced the number from about 16 to 9. 

Anyway will the election process have the same effects as MCA & MIC? Definitely not.

Why? Because we are not capable of pulling such feat yet! We're still young & naive. So will the voting process runs smoothly? Yes & No.

Yes, because everyone will vote very quickly and all seems efficiently handled.

No, because of our "naivety", most of us are irrational voters. So to know what irrational voters do, please read my previous March posting in my blog.

However, sometimes we need to compare our passion for the church to those members of MCA & MIC. At least they really want to do something for their respective parties, though some are for their selfish ambitions, especially those over zealous ones.

The honest question we need to ask ourselves is, do you love your church?

If yes, it's not too late to show it by voting rationally this coming Sunday, 25/10/09.

If not, I'd recommend you not to show up or even forfeit your membership. It's better to wash your hands off any blood that you may draw so you may still be innocent. Having said that, I hope you'd make a wiser decision instead of choosing this path.

Las Vegas - Victorian version

In another act out of desperations, the Victorian Govt has again breached the trusts of fellow Victorians.

Premier John Brumby has opened the door for a second casino in Victoria - just five months after the Government ruled out such a move.

In May Gaming Minister Tony Robinson told ABC Radio that the Government had no intention of allowing a second casino. ''It is not the Government's policy to have a second casino in Victoria,'' he said. ''We have a set policy on that.''

But yesterday Mr Brumby signalled a big shift in Government policy on a second casino following a proposal for a new casino complex in Mildura. More on The Age

Definitely, a new casino would create heaps of jobs and investments, which in turn will also boost tourism to Mildura and stimulate the local business.

Similarly, Las Vegas was just a piece of deserted land where birds won't even lay eggs before the building boom. We cannot deny the facts that Casino can bring in "prosperity" and developments but the question is, at what price?

Sin City is one of the famous nicknames for Las Vegas due to the acceptance of "adult entertainment". Whom but those sinners themselves would want their city to be labeled as Sin City? A place where people defiled themselves, breaking the moral standard to the lowest ever, and have no respect for the Greater Authority.

Will Victoria has its' own Sin City in the future soon? Are we going to sacrifice an innocent City for the sake of money? It's game of Money vs Moral and it's very obvious that Mr Moral doesn't stand a chance in hell against Ms Money.

Do they REALLY care about our next generation well being? They might have jobs but they'll be morally corrupted. What good will it be then? We're just encouraging a future full of individualistic and selfish greed minded people to emerge on a path of no return.

Ethically, the casino should not be built or any casino for that fact. The moral price is just too high to be beared by future Victorians.

A city that neglect God will be doomed. We need to do our part in preventing this from happening!!

There're a lot more better ways to earn money! Stop defiling ourselves!

God have mercy upon us!

為下一代....Really?

When I was in my teens, I was flooded with the ideology of paving a better road for our next generation (為下一代). As I have grown out of my teenage years, I'm no longer very convinced with this ideology.

After a decade of observing my surroundings, my peers, my friends, my neighbours, and my community, I can only conclude that the ideology has bring more harm than good.

The ideology sort of started in the days where the Chinese are ruled by corrupted governments who would just suck every bit of money the peasants have at that time. So naturally, most Chinese are very poor and struggle to make ends meet. 

Hence came the ideas of "I've suffered enough! I don't wish to see my next generation suffers the same fate!". After that turning point, the Chinese are probably the most hardworking people in the world. Though they may not earn a lot but they work a whole lot more than others to save up savings for their kids to go to college, etc.

Gone are the days of reckoning, it should be a bright sunny day ahead! However, is it really so? Or the skies just turn gloomier & darker?

Just look around us. How lucky are those kids today? How pampered are the those kids today? How protected are those kids today? How terrible are those kids today?!

Parents have become slaves to their kids' demand. Filial piety is no longer a virtue but an added value for the parents if they "invested" right. Parents have become the genie, children is the Aladdin.

Many younger generations these days do not know how to be "a person". Their individualistic mindset together with the improper teachings from their parents have created a generations of useless spoilt brats.

Sadly, most Christians younger kids are not any better off too. Most of the Chinese parents mindset for the next generation is still very active in their mind. They don't care about the consequences or maybe I should say don't dare to accept the fact of reality of what they have transformed their children into.

I'm calling all young parents today to instill proper teachings to your kids in the early ages in order to restore order in the community. As it's written in the Book Of Proverbs:

Chapter 30: 
⁸ Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
       give me neither poverty nor riches,
       but give me only my daily bread.

 ⁹ Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
       and say, 'Who is the LORD ?'
       Or I may become poor and steal,
       and so dishonor the name of my God.

Let this be the guideline for everyone of us when deciding on how to help our next generations. We can start from ourselves before the situation becomes even worse than it already is.

Love Your Enemies.....R U Sure?!

Everytime you talked about Jesus, you cannot miss the part where He says "Love your enemies...". This is probably the hardest thing to be done here on earth yet this is a very clear instruction.

How applicable is it for us Christians today?

It's still very applicable if you asked me. However, it's so hard that nobody really cares about it anymore. Most people turn away instead of turning the other cheek!

Christians today should learn to love...

Their loved ones

Their families

Their friends

Their co-workers

Their church

before even thinking of trying to love their enemies. It's beyond our ability!~~

I myself is still learning this lesson but I need to learn how not to love myself too much that I neglected others...It's very hard!

Learning is a lifetime process but life is short so appreciate it while you can!

God gives me strength!

Give me the heart of compassion!

Let me be Your tool to bring love to this world!

NBA True Role Model

Just listen to his sharing....


A player after God's heart :)

Hope he'll continue to make big impacts in people's lives!

Racism After 9/11

Just when we thought the Western world would have learnt its lesson from 9/11 regarding respecting and treating other races/nations with respect, it seems most have forgotten about 9/11! Probably what people said is right, most westerners have poor memories when compared to Chinese! 8 years seems too long for them to remember the valuable lesson!

Today, we are unfortunately treated without respect and pushed to the junks! Just because we are a group of Asians (Malaysian Chinese to be exact), they didn't have to treat us like how they did today. It's totally uncalled for and it provokes racism hatred!

Here's what transpired in this eventful Sunday:

We have regular bookings for the large gym in Collingwood College every Sunday from 9.15am to 11.15am EVERY Sundays except public holiday. Today, when we got there, we found out that there were table tennis tables in the middle of the court but no one was around.

So we rang the caretaker to find out what's the issue there. Rang twice but no answer. Then we checked whether there're any notices saying there're events today, nothing to be found. So we assume it was from the day before and the people just didn't pack up properly.

We started our games. Then around 10am, a group of Westerners stormed in demanding that we leave the premises immediately and put their tables back on.

The first sentence the old lady said was:

"We're not being racist here but...."

Yeah right! Who would expect you to be racist in the first place except deep inside your racist heart & mind, you knew yourself as a racist pig?!

She then talked loudly as if we are all deafs or as old as her and couldn't hear properly. Asked us to leave immediately, said she's calling the principal, blah blah blah~~! All of us were just dumbfolded by her over reactions!

After that, 3 other gentlement took over the conversation and admitted it wasn't our fault nor theirs but rather the college's irresponsible handling of this matter. The college NEVER informed us of this. They should at least given us a week's notice.

We're deeply disappointed with the college but even more so to the racist treatment that we all received today! We today are victims of incompetency and racism!

Being nice Christians, of course we didn't make things hard for everyone. We packed up and put their stuff back on. Now here am I back home, posting this blog for your information so you'd becareful next time! :P

p/s: not all westerners are racist. Only some probably least educated ones!

Heavy Legs Rules?

Gone are the days where we used to think places like Camberwell, Box Hill, etc is a far away suburbs. Few years ago, most people would be complaining about how far it is to go to those suburbs and everyone is reluctant to go.

Today, the people that attended prayer meeting regularly are from Box Hill, Altona Meadows, and a couple from CBD and North Melbourne. Basically, 2 BH, 2 AM, 1/2 CBD, 1 NM.

The funny thing is, when we thought distance is a serious factor affecting numbers, today the longer the distance, the more constant the attendance????

The nearer the distance, the lack of commitments??

Where's the logic today??

Gone are the days where prayer meeting is having 30+ people.

Maybe organisers should evaluate sooner than later?

WTH Happened To "Go"

GO

Definition: To pass from one place to another; to be in motion; to be in a state not motionless or at rest; to proceed; to advance; to make progress; used, in various applications, of the movement of both animate and inanimate beings, by whatever means, and also of the movements of the mind; also figuratively applied.

I guess this is a simple word for everyone of us to understand the meaning of.

However, it's probably the least understood word for Christians. I guess the word "Go" doesn't exist in their minds or at least it can only be applied to circumstances which suit their comfort zone!

Sad but true.

One World, One Nation, One Race

Suddenly this thought popped into my mind this morning.

'If God were the One seperated human into different races, speaks different languages & dialects and eventually different countries evovled, are we human going against what God has designed by trying to create the One World, One Nation, One Race mentality?'

The European nation has started on a common currency called Euro, English as common language platform, etc.

There was a slogan previously saying 'our children are colour blind, let's keep it that way'. Young people don't know what it meant by racism.

Inter racial marriages are very common these days. Soon, we'll have a 'world' race. No more Chinese, Malay, Iban, AustRalian, etc etc.

So the thing is, if God made it this way, why are we making it that way?

Everything was good in the beginning but we screwed it. Young pure minds are being polluted by selfish politicians who played the racial cards.

The concept will fail. What's happening today is just a reminder that the end time is near. Human are trying to change the future but in vain.

We need to appreciate every minutes we have and start giving back to God.

Spring To Life

Can't believe it's already the 2nd day of Spring here in Melbourne! Time really flies!

Past 2 days have been quite sunny, which is good! Not too cold or not too hot! Excellent weather for relaxing!

Some flowers blossom in Spring, which made it beautiful to watch.

Can CLMC finally blossom too? After years of Autumn and dry spells?

We need more rain.

We need more sunlight.

We need God.

Roads To Recovery

With all the doom and gloom behind us, perhaps it's time to start paving the roads to recovery. Or is it really behind us yet? Hearing still quite lots of negative sentiments floating in the air. Confidence, satisfaction and efficiency level still at its' lowest ever since the beginning.

We have heard of talks of the first month, first 100 days or now nearing first 6 months and how things are progressing or should I say downgrading? It's fine and totally acceptable for the first 6 months on how things are doing. It's totally within expectations. No problem with that.

However, post 6 months period, no excuses are going to be accepted if we're still standing at where we were 6 months ago or worse off. Everyone must be accountable to God, be accountable to each others and be accountable to the community.

The privilege God has given us to be in the City of Melbourne is not to be taken for granted for. We were in the heart of the City during our golden days, now we're at a small corner of the City struggling to make our presence felt.

It's the time of the year to group our people ranging from the rich to the poor, from the smart to the not so smart, from the older groups to the younger groups. However, we don't need dogs and cats. We people who are willing to surrender themselves to God, who are willing to make sacrifices and who are teachable and obedient to God's Words.

It'll costs a lot of your personal private times, your hard earned money, your stomach and your mental state.

Roads of recovery needs to start with the people.

People need to adjust their current lifestyle.

It doesn't matter whether we only have 3 people who are willing to step up and offer themselves as living sacrifice because 10 people, we can change the world. 3 people we can change the church!

Other things we need to look into at this stage are Small group ministry, Mission & evangelism, and social concerns. Those should be the core ministries after rebuilding.

$11,000 deficit? I don't see it last very long if we're able to get on the road quick enough!

Lone Ranger's Walk

Today marks the 6th rounds I've done walking and praying for RMIT students in the city. It all started after Bishop's sermon about more than a month ago.

I must say, it's not easy to continue doing what I'm currently doing especially if you don't have others to do it together with you. You always feel discouraged or being tempted to just give up.

However, as I do my rounds today, I saw our brothers from the RMIT Christian Unions sitting behind their setup desks promoting their club. There were 4 of them there but nobody approaches them or anything. Most people treated them as invincible, or should I say transparent as a better description?

It reminds me of the days when RMIT CCCF was still active! However, at least the Chinese students are always happy to see us and wondering what are we doing there! Perhaps they long to see something of their background!

Anyway, my heart just drowned when I see such a picture. The world today rejects the truth or doesn't want anything to do with the truth. It saddens me to see such things happening. As I look around the faces fo the students in the campus, I see smiles and laughter but are they truly joyful inside? What happens when the people besides them are gone? What happens after the curtain closes? What happens when the lights are turned off?

I felt the Holy Spirit is raising my conscience and sensitivity. It triggers me to do more and more for the students and people in the City of Melbourne. I hereby call all of you to step up your game! Let's not be the spectator or "kay lei fay", be the role players that God want you to be!

Let's do it together. It's a lot easier than doing it by yourselves. Come talk to me to see what can we do for the City of Melbourne!

^{Matthew9: 37} Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.

Let us at least be the "few"! Let the Holy Spirit sets our hearts on fire!

Swine Effects

Previously I mentioned about H1N1 and the bible, it seems that our church is also in the swine effects mood! About 2 weeks ago, the Chinese congregations was about 55 people or so. Last week, it only has 44! Only English service has been consistently float around this figure ever since they started but have now reduced to 30-35 lately.

I must say, this is a number we have not seen since mid-2002 except for summer time. Unemployment in the US is about 27 years high, ours is about 5 years high for unchurched members while our church history is just less than 9 years old.

Could this be related to swine flu?

Not quite! Most of our members are in Sydney visting Jay Chou, Malaysia spending time with families, and some on holidays interstate. However, if we really count the heads, do we really have half (50%) of the people away?

Maybe 25% but 50% is a bit hard to believe.

Could the panic button be hit or will we just have more excuses to ourselves? Personally, I'd have reviewed when we're floating around 80 mark and seriously reviewing when we hit 70. Nearing 50 would be damage control.

Oh well, I might be thinking too much. It could just be a false alarm. After all, I think we managed to hit over 50 today? :D

Road to recovery is too hard to be accomplish by one person, we need a team. At the moment, we're not a team yet.

We're still in the midst of swine effects, not swine flu effects.

H1N1 Vs Bible

A thought came to my mind today after seeing so many sick people around me. So I thought I would pour it out and see what you guys think?

Bible, in the book of Hebrews says

Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

H1N1 says

If you're sick and come close in contact with one another, you are risking their health.

As we all know Governments around the world are asking employers to be kind enough to let their sick employees to take sick leaves, some even asked for unrecorded sick leaves to prevent the virus from spreading to other employees. Schools are closed down to prevent further outbreak, some major events are cancelled, etc.

But what about the church? Should we ask our members to rest at home and avoid church gatherings? Or should we say, we shouldn't stop gathering as that's what it was told in the book of Hebrews.

Is this a trial or temptation? Should I or shouldn't I? <-- materials from a couple of weeks ago. :P

If you go, you risk spreading the disease to others, which is often noted as selfish and inconsiderate.

If you don't go, are you contradicting the Word of God and use your own principle as a ruler? In those days, people risked their head to go to meet each other. Today, it's just a flu and we are finding excuses to skip meeting one another?

If you are saying on either way, where do you find the authority to decide or discern which is the right thing to do? Are we assuming so and so because "we think, I think, etc"?

Let's hear it from you...