Café World on Facebook

 

Is this a waste of time?

Nothing good can come out of this game and the likes of it?

I tend to defer.

For me theses games help people to understand the simple concept of buying, selling and projection. Money does not grow on trees…

I think games on facebook are good common grounds whereby parents and children can be on talking term and thus friendly learning environment is created..

You are addicted to the applications on facebook? Then get a hold on yourself.. We have learnt not to get addicted to other things, surely we can be in control over facebook too!

List down your priorities and things to do and do them accordingly and you will be all right!

What say you?

Café World on Facebook

His pure and perfect bride...

Joni Eareckson Tada, a quadriplegic who was paralyzed in a diving accident as a teenager, talks about her wedding day. She says, “I felt awkward as my girlfriends strained to shift my paralyzed body into a cumbersome wedding gown. No amount of corseting and binding my body gave me a perfect shape. The dress just didn’t fit well. Then, as I was wheeling into the church, I glanced down and noticed that I’d accidentally run over the hem of my dress, leaving a greasy tire mark. My paralyzed hands couldn’t hold the bouquet of daisies that lay off-center on my lap. And my chair, though decorated for the wedding, was still a big, clunky gray machine with belts, gears, and ball bearings. I certainly didn’t feel like the picture-perfect bride in a bridal magazine. I inched my chair closer to the last pew to catch a glimpse of Ken in front. There he was, standing tall and stately in his formal attire. I saw him looking for me, craning his neck to look up the aisle. My face flushed, and I suddenly couldn’t wait to be with him. I had seen my beloved. The love in Ken’s face had washed away all my feelings of unworthiness. I was his pure and perfect bride. How easy it is for us to think that we’re utterly unlovely — especially to someone as lovely as Christ. But he loves us with the bright eyes of a Bridegroom’s love and cannot wait for the day we are united with him forever.” And we, unattractive, frightened, paralyzed and imperfect, yet wild with hope, come to the wedding feast of the Lamb. We feel inadequate and unworthy, yet our eyes are fixed on Christ. We are overwhelmed with emotion as we know that we are loved and accepted just as we are, and that the wedding will bring about a transformation. The blood and water that flowed from his side has released us from our bondage, healed our brokenness and cleansed us from our sin. We become the Bride of Christ, not just in theory or potentially, but in reality. And there, together with him and all the redeemed, we will taste the new wine of the kingdom. The writer of Revelation proclaimed: “I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’ He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’ Then he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true’” (Revelation 21:2-5).

(Note: A true story made to be an illustration in Sermoncentral)

Obama Wants You to Pay for Abortions

Christian Group's Concern over elected-Obama

During the run for The White House...

Senator Barack Obama Wants You to Pay for Abortions

WASHINGTON — Christian group under the leadership of Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney launches new effort in their campaign to educate American voters on the abortion policies of Senator Obama.

The campaign called, “Barack Obama: The Abortion President,” will focus on how Mr. Obama wants taxpayers to pay for abortions.

A major part of the campaign is to inform the public on the fact that Senator Obama wants people of faith, Catholics and Evangelicals, to pay for abortions through their tax dollars.

The Chicago Tribune reported last year, when Senator Obama was “asked about his proposal for expanded access to health insurance, Obama said it would cover ‘reproductive health services.’ Contacted afterward, an Obama spokesperson said that included ‘abortions.’

Although in recent days Senator Obama has tried to downplay his views on abortion, his own Presidential website says, “…he has been a consistent champion of reproductive choice and will make preserving women’s rights under Roe v. Wade a priority as President.”

Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, Director of the Christian Defense Coalition, states, “Senator Obama talks about bringing hope, faith and change to American politics. We now see this is all just political ‘doublespeak.’ One of his top priorities as President would be protecting abortion rights and even expanding them. If elected, Senator Obama would become ‘The Abortion President,’ with the most extremist policies on abortion of any President in history.”

“Senator Obama’s views on abortion are so radical that he even wants American citizens to pay for them. This would include Catholics, Evangelicals and all people of faith. He would also expand abortion rights through his passionate support of The Freedom of Choice Act.”

“The Christian Defense Coalition will be working diligently over the next 5 months before the November elections to educate people of faith, especially Catholics, that Barack Obama wants them to pay for abortions. This is not a candidate who is concerned about social justice, hope and equality. Rather, this is candidate who will continue the violence and pain of abortion and refuse to end this tragic war against America’s women and children.”

Kaitlin Clare, Program Director for the Christian Defense Coalition, adds, “As a 23 year old woman of faith, I am appalled at the radical and extremist abortion politics of Senator Obama. This is not a progressive view on abortion or one that affirms women. As most of this emerging generation is embracing a ‘culture of life’ and growing less comfortable with abortion, Senator Obama wants to take us back to a radical pro-abortion posture that is both archaic and disturbing.”

“Senator Obama, this generation will not go back to the violent days of abortion on demand with no restrictions. It is very confusing that you do not want tax dollars going to pay for the deaths of American solders in Iraq, yet you want each of us to pay for the killing of innocent children through abortions here in America.”

“We also want to remind Senator Obama that although we may be more progressive than our parents on the environment, social justice and other cultural issues, we could never vote for a President that wants to expand and embrace abortion policies that diminish women and violate human rights.”

Source : The Voice

GOD HAS VINDICATED THE BLACK FOLK!

Across the country, from a mostly white church in the Southwest to the pulpit from which the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. preached his message of equa

lity and nonviolent change, Christian clergy members on Sunday asked God to give Obama the wisdom and strength to lead the country out of what many consider a wilderness of despair and gloom.

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Pastor Shirley Caesar-Williams opened her sermon Sunday at Mount Calvary Word of Faith Church with a prayer of thanks for the election of Barack Obama -- at the risk of her flock getting "more excited over this than you do over the word."

"God has vindicated the black folk," the Grammy-winning gospel singer said as a member of the congregation waved an American flag and another marched among the pews blowing a ram's horn.

"Too long we've been at the bottom of the totem pole, but he has vindicated us, hallelujah," she cried. "I don't know about you, but I don't have nothing to put my head down for, praise God. Because when I look toward Washington, D.C., we got a new family coming in. We got a new family coming in. And you know what? They look like us. Amen, amen. They look like us."

Across the country, from a mostly white church in the Southwest to the pulpit from which the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. preached his message of equality and nonviolent change, Christian clergy members on Sunday asked God to give Obama the wisdom and strength to lead the country out of what many consider a wilderness of despair and gloom.

And on the day King famously called "the most segregated day of the week," they also called for the nation to come together behind the man who will be the first black president.
In his Web message last week, senior pastor Gregg Matte of Houston's 167-year-old First Baptist Church decried a society that has turned to government as its savior.

"Today," he wrote, "Hollywood is our pastor, technology is our Bible, charisma is our value and Barack Obama is our President."

But from the pulpit Sunday, Matte asked the 1,000 or so mostly white faces staring back at him to "lift up President-elect Obama" even if he wasn't their choice on Tuesday.

"Regardless of whether you voted for him or not, he's now our president come Jan. 20," he said. "So we're going to come behind him and pray for him and pray for wisdom, that God will give him wisdom and be able to really speak to his heart."
At a white church in Mississippi, where roughly nine in 10 whites voted for Republican John McCain, the scene was more muted.

The neighborhood around the Alta Woods United Methodist Church in Jackson has seen its demographics shift from white to black in recent decades, and most of the parishioners have moved to the suburbs. While Pastor David W. Carroll recognized Obama's election as a "historic shift," he said he was also struck by McCain's patriotism in defeat.

"As the crowd began to boo a little bit ... he quieted them down and said, 'Now is not my time, but I'm an American first and I will serve the president-elect,"' he said. "In a loss, he showed us still how he could win through his service."

But in black churches from the capital of the Confederacy to the streets of Harlem, it was all about Obama.

At Hungary Road Baptist Church in a working-class suburb of Richmond, Va., the two-hour, 40-minute service was part celebration, part history lesson, led by a pastor who had felt the sting of the Jim Crow South. The Rev. J. Rayfield Vines Jr., pastor of the predominantly African-American congregation, paused briefly as he recalled the indignities he endured but did not bow to growing up Suffolk, in southeastern Virginia.

"I was there when you had ride in the back of the bus," Vines said under a simple cross illuminated by eight light bulbs. "I was there when you went to the department store and you couldn't try on the clothes. I was there when they had a colored toilet and a white toilet."
The pastor said he shared his humiliations Sunday to help give those "who had not tasted the bitterness of segregation ... an idea why we all shouted."

"My cup runneth over on Tuesday night," Vines said. "My eyes have seen the glory."

Inside Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church, Obama T-shirts vied with colorful plumed hats as a fashion statement. Church member Sheila Chestnut, 61, wore a rhinestone Obama pin on her suit lapel.

"I am so happy," she said. "I cried so much. I never thought that in this lifetime I would live to see an African-American become president of these United States."

When the Rev. Calvin Butts invited the congregation to stand up "and give God praise for the election," several hundred churchgoers rose as one, lifted their hands in the air and gave a sustained cheer, then chanted, "Yes we can! Yes we can!"

At Apostolic Church of God on Chicago's South Side, less than two miles from Obama's home, jubilant Sunday services were peppered with references to the election and calls to be grateful for his victory.

"We thank the Lord for this second Sunday (in November) after the first Tuesday," Dr. Byron Brazier said to resounding applause and cheers from the mostly black congregation. "This is a wonderful time to be alive."

Obama spoke at Apostolic on Father's Day in his first address to a congregation after leaving his longtime church, Trinity United Church of Christ, following inflammatory remarks there by his former longtime pastor and others.

Perhaps nowhere was the weight of history more palpable Sunday than at Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church, from whose pulpit King spread his message of inclusion and across from which he lies entombed.

When the Rev. Raphael G. Warnock tried to put into words what it meant for Obama to win Virginia, where the first American slaves landed nearly 400 years ago, his words were drowned out by the applause and cheers from a capacity crowd whose faces captured the entire spectrum of the human rainbow.

"Barack Obama stood against the fierce tide of history and achieved the unimaginable," he said. "But he did not get here by himself. Give God some credit. He is the Lord."

But while he told the congregation that it was a time for celebration, he also reminded them it was "a serious time."

"We still have a whole lot of work to do," he said. "You have two little girls who will grow up in the White House. Around the corner, you have two little girls who will grow up in a crack house.

Among those in attendance was the slain civil rights leader's sister, Christine King Farris. She was reminded of her brother's prescience.

"As he predicted the night before he left us, 'I may not be with you, but as a people we will reach the promised land,"' she said stoically. "That promised land was realized Tuesday. Yes, it is our promised land. ..

Source: Fox's News

Texas school district to let teachers carry guns

What does this title brings into your mind?

The very first pictures that kicked out from my memory files are:

1. Wyatt Earp
2. Doc Holiday
3. Buffalo Bill Cody
4. Billy the Kid
5. Who was the sheriff that shot Billy the Kid? Eeerrmm... will come back to that, but what I remember, no one can beat Billy the Kid in a gun duel, so being friends as they were, Billy didnt want to kill his friend ..so you know what he did? He being lefthanded, repositioned his handgun to his right side...because he is a little slower to draw from his right compared to his left....Who was that sheriff?
6. The Young Riders
7. High Chaparal (Reminds me of Monalito Mantoya!)
8. High Noon
9. The Zorro serials ! (We had 'Zorro Fighting Legend, The Black Whip, Son of Zorro... there were so many zorroes ooo..!)
10. How the West was won..
11. Pat Garreth (yeah, I think he was the one that shot Billy the Kid! Or was he the one?)
12. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (loved this one!)

Did I miss any?

Where have all the good movies gone to?

But we are not talking about western movies and Tv serials here..!

Sad isn't it, when it comes to present day Tewas..? And it is not just Texas... Lawlessless seem to be prevailing more and more everywhere....! I believe if our big bro Paul (the apostle) is still around today he will surely say "Told you so, didn't I?" with a shrug..... He wrote it down in a very ancient text called the Bible, and you can find it in 2 Timothy 3: 1-5


But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power.(NIV)

How did this lawlessness came to be? Where did it sprung out from? To answer this, let me share a quote from a book I am currently reading ...

"Scripturally, the cause of this worldwide wave of hatred is lawlessness. The root of lawlessness is a focus on self at the expense of the good of the whole. When the heart of a society turns to self, self becomes law. We then thrust aside the laws of God to allow freedom for each "self" to live according to his or her own law". [Sigh!] (Source book: Purifying The Prophetic by R. Loren Sandford, Chosen Grand Rapids pg. 102)

What say you?

Christ's love compells us..

It was our second trip to Kg. Bambangan, Pitas. I have not upgraded myself to a GPRS system but I have a fairly good idea of where it is located that I had put it on Google Earth. Just type "Kg. Bambangan, Pitas" and you will see its approximate location.

Twelve of us went this time. A medical doctor (Bobby's sister in law), and a dentist (our G.I. Jane) came along. This was the Powerhouse (the Youth of our church) mission initiative. Way to go, Bob!

We always find going into the interior as a challenge. I for one is very particular about toilets. I am not asking for a "five star" toilet but at least a descent one at that. So much so that each time I go deep in the interior, I will tell my system to "behave". No "business" until I say so. It works everytime!

But its not that bad at all. If you cant get a "five stars" toilet in the interior, there are many stars toilets available!! And there are all around you! Behind a big rock, under a tree, behind some srubs... you get the idea!

Bathroom? Mandi sungai la ! We go to the river la.. Christine and her species were downstream we were upstrem.. What will happen if one of us decided to do his business in the river right there and then? Imagine that!

Dr. Alice and Dr. Jane were superb. They did what they do best. The small church building and the house we stayed in turned health and dental clinic respectively in no time ! It was truly Christ's love in action!

All went well except during the ministry of the Word. I sensed that these people may have a religion but not a relationship with Christ. They may come to us for the goodies we brought to them and not for anything else. We truly need to penetrate into their world views as to penetrate in with the life changing power of the Gospel.

I shared on the importance of being receiving Jesus as persoal Savior and Lord by using the examples of Nicodemus and the Samaritan Woman. The first was a "very holy man" and the latter was a "very sinful person". Both needed Jesus for salvation and entrance to the Kingdom of Heaven. I stresed that we didnt come all the way to bring them goodies for we cant be doing that all the time. We have come for the love of Christ's compells us to come...

The next day word sharing was on the crucifixion. Jesus was crucified alongside two very notorious criminals. Both the accounts of Matthew and Mark related to us that both crooks ridiculed Jesus, but Luke wrote it quite differently. I used these texts first of all to show forth the richness and extend of God's mercy and forgiveness.. Secondly I used the comparisons to penetrate into our Dusun worlview of appeasing the gods for spiritual and physical wellbeing. Now that Christ has shed His blood and died we need not offer animal sacricifes any longer. The response from the floor was "Tiada lagi bah kami sembah berhala sekarang pastor...." and it was said by a man seated at a corner. I sensed something amiss but I couldn't identify what was it. On the way back, a brother told me that the man whom responded earlier is still practicing his animistic belief. He told me that the person went to a big tree and asked his son to be healed from the spirits of the woods.. O brother! No wonder he was the first to respond saying that they no longer practice their animistic belief and rituals... God have mercy...

Am I dissapointed? Not at all. Jesus loves them all the same. The time will come when God's Spirit will sweep through that area like while fire! Just wait and see...

Engaging the gates of the enemy

It was a spiritual struggle and warfare. Everything looked normal on the surface, but something was triggered in the spiritual realm. The Bible says...

13 These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. 16 For "who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ. 1 Cor 2:13-16(NKJV)

I am referring to our recent mission trip to Banggi Island on the 29-30th March 2008. As much as we looked forward to the trip, we were fully aware that it was entering into the "unknown" (most of us had never been there before) and that we need to be extra careful physically and spiritually..

Some 17 years ago, one of us had been to the island. His team of 5 managed to enter after three months spiritual preparation of fasting and prayers. They went in trekking the island for 10 days with the help of a lady tour guide, eating tapioca and drinking coconut juice most of the time. There were earlier attempts from the SIB church but were not successful. I was told that even the former President of SIB himself was rejected at the jetty of the island and was asked to go back. In those days the islanders were known for their animistic belief and practices. You can find shamans and witchdoctors in the island quite easily. I am also told that they still have their high places and secret places of worship similar to the pagan worship in the Old Testament times to this very day. It is believed that this is one of the main reason for the slow growth and advancement of the church on the island. They said that a challenge was given to the Christian to go to these "sacred places" and if they can come back alive, the islanders will then believe in the Gospel of our Lord. That was only 17 years ago.

So this time 23 of us went in. All were rookies to the island except for that one friend. I had to really persuade this brother to come along. I told him that compare to us he is like John Rambo (Rambo I, II, III, IV), and the rest of us are mere army rookies.

God was good! God is good! He is always is! He answered our prayers for fine weather to and fro.
By the way, for another angle for this trip, please read Kristine's at http://weblog.xanga.com/chrishellz/649659093/pulau-banggi.html, thanks Christine!

I cant forget praying for an elderly lady on Sunday morning. She is the mother of a local evangelist. We were told that this lady was an intercessor. She related to the pastor that one day while walking, she suddenly fainted for no reason at all. When we were praying for her, she was quite thin and weak. It was difficult for her to move around and to do work. Suddenly I sensed the spiritual power of darkness that was oppressing her. The intend was to silence her witness. I announced it to the team and asked each member to be on their guard and pray for protection for each one as well as for their family members back home. The enemy will retaliate when disturbed. Example, Paul was attacked after he prayed healing for the sick (Acts 14: 19-20), and after he had engaged the gates of the enemy many times over, a snake tried to bite him (Acts 28:3-5), but the Lord was there beside him. In the spiritual realm, the enemy must had been very busy trying to take him down. With this knowledge, I asked the team to really pray for protection.

We had two young ladies whom accepted Jesus for salvation that Sunday morning and prayed for two other ladies that have demonic oppressions in their lives. But the most touching moment was when my friend met up with the man he baptized 17 years ago. The first ever! They hugged each other for some time. That was a very encouraging moment to be in. Praise be to God for He is still doing His works of salvation everywhere and that He is faithful to bring into completion that He had started until the day of our Lord Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6)

We went back at around 11.30 am. 45 minutes of dusty and bumpy road to the jetty. One of us said the ride remind him of "Dirty Dozens". Upon reaching the jetty, we took the tongkang (Kristine says its a jongkong).. Mana yang betul aa? (Which one is correct?).

It was drizzling when I was asked to pray for God to stop the rain. And yes, He stopped the rain from coming. What followed after was for me a pure enjoyment of 3 hours on sea under the sun! Feeling jealous already? Dont have to be at the Carribean lol! Cheap cheap only!

All of us reached Kota Kinabalu safely the evening of the same day, feeling tired and having stories to tell.... "Been there ,done this ,done that..."

But consider what happened to some of us in the following week

1. The rear tyre of one of the team member's truck pulled off and hit a Kancil. It was driven by the wife sending their youngest to Kindergarten. Thank God nobody was hurt.

2. On Saturday night an accident took place right in front of the gate of the house of the Ministry Leader of our Mission Department.

3. On Sunday morning, Sarah ( always there together praying for the sick and oppressed while in Banggi) who was to give testimony on the Banggi trip, her Kancil was rammed by another car at Jalan Tuaran in front of the Shell Petrol Station. Her car went spinning and overturned. Her son was thrown out of the car in the process. Thank God nobody was seriously hurt. Her son-despite the momentum- landed on the roadside and suffered only a broken teeth. His friend got his forehead knocked but otherwise okay. The two were running around with my youngest during and after the Sunday service.

We dont believe that these incidents were coincidental. These were the backlashes of the enemy. And they are real. We thank God because God does protect His own. We concluded that we must have touched something in the spirit realm while in Banggi that these things happened to us. This is telling us that we need to go there again. Jesus is the Messiah. He is Lord. Upon this confession, upon the rock of our confession, He will build His church, and the gates of hades will not overcome it (Matthew 16: 18)

Any takers for Banggi? Can you hear the trumpet calls?