Sudden healing

Wed 05.10.11

Fever, tiredness, aches and pains

I’m not sure when the symptoms started. It was probably around 11am this morning, when I was in placement. I felt cold, weak and my muscles were slightly aching with a severity of 1/10. Everything gradually worsened. In the afternoon, my ear temperature was between 37.9 to 38.3°C (normal is lower than 37.5). My medical student friend was interviewing me like a patient. A nurse asked if I wanted some Panadol but I stayed away from it.

I wondered if the cleaning and scaling I had earlier in the morning at the dentist’s had caused a transient bacteraemia – I started getting worried about sepsis and endocarditis.

Throughout the day, I was tired. In the train to the city (for prayer meet), I couldn’t read or focus; I could only drop my head down and rest. I was also silently praying all the while.

At 6pm during PlanetUni prayer, Yuong, Joyce, and Melissa felt my forehead and it was still warm. God was asking, do you want to be healed? I said yes, Jesus.

During the train ride back home I was still tired and weak, leaning my head against the window. I plugged my earphones to listen to Secret Place, our church album. Then the train officer had to wake me up to check my Myki. “Tired?” he asked. I said yes.

All the while I was thinking, if I’m as sick as this, I wouldn’t mind talking with Jesus all the time, either in words or in tongues. Because nothing else would matter. I was showering at 9.15pm, and I told God how this sickness had made me closer to Him this day. He showed me at least 2 mental pictures (which I’ll write about soon). I didn’t mind being sick if that meant greater intimacy with Him. I said, “This is who I am”. I was looking at the ceiling. Suddenly, the cold feeling went away in an instant, along with the tiredness, aches and pains (which by that time was quite bad, 5/10). Muscle aches dropped to 1/10 - it’s not 0 because of my workout yesterday. After showering, in excitement I asked my housemate to feel my forehead - it's not warm anymore! I still had a bit of headache (also 1/10) around my eyebrows, which I think is from my tooth cavity [which will be the next miracle].

Praise Jesus, through His bruises we get healed!

For You

Hopefully what I write will be a pool of encouragement in future times as you reminisce your walk with your one and only God, Creski.

[A phrase came to me - One Lad's Walk with God]

All that I do,

I do it for You, God

Now I'm imagining it;

Wouldn't that be amazing?

That means that-

When I cook, it is for You

When I do the dishes, it is for You

When I sing, it is for none other than You

Jogging, it's for You

Lifting weights, it's for You

Incline push ups, it's for You

Studying - for You

Clerking patients - for You

Engaging during tutes - for You

Quiet times are for You

Exciting times are for You

Down times are for You

God, my all is for You

For You are The One who gave all to me in the first place

I trust in You with all my heart

And lean not on my own understanding

In all my ways, I acknowledge You

And I believe You will keep my path straight

Home

What's good about being home

• No rent. Bills are on my parents, not me. And I get pocket money :)
  
• Bulih cakap Sabah. Everyday. Feels so 'at home' with this communication mode.
• Get to be with old friends. Friends get older as friendships get older. And there's a difference between being with them and just talking or fb-ing with them.
  

And the things that are not so good:

• slower pace of things - this happens everywhere, from organisational red tape to everyday conversations.
• no deadline, resulting in things staying undone, videos unwatched, books unread, clothes unwashed, etc. I'm lazing around [no wonder people always remind me before holidays, "Don't slack"]
  
• I being influenced by the patterns here, rather than influencing them to change for the better. Got to regain my positive morning habits.
  

More next time.
To be honest this is just to fill in a post for this month.

Two important questions

Recently I read The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz. Their thesis is: Manage energy, not time.

Each person has 4 dimensions of energy: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.

I learned that physically, we should work for at most 1-2 hours on a single stretch, otherwise we risk harming our physical capacity. Afternoon naps are a very fruitful investment - I try to get at least 30 minutes every day. In the words of Winston Churchill "You get 2 days in 1". I'm now a firm believer in that.

At the other end - the spiritual side - I learned the importance of asking 2 questions in every crucial situation. 1) What do I truly believe? 2) Who am I trying to please? They may not be set in stone, but it really matters that we become aware of the answers. Then we'll be more equipped to assess our situation, the choices available, and our response.

Next time I'll illustrate with an example.

Picture:
Summer sunset sky shot at Docklands.

My nest

Welcome

Next time, when we're in heaven, watching a playback of our life on earth, you'll notice quite a bulk of my time spent in this nest.

To beat that Internet speed: speedtest.net

Class at Night

Oh boy, I'm excited!

It's kinda weird to be excited about class, isn't it? But what if it's a course called Introduction to the Bible? Now it gets me pumped because it's a formal educational engagement on a text that I've been reading almost every day since primary school.

I've probably memorised hundreds of verses from this book (I should try writing all my memorised verses sometime--an interesting mental exercise). If you mention something like "eye for an eye, tooth for tooth", then I can tell you that it can be found somewhere in the first 5 books (Old Testament), and also early in Matthew (New Testament). I'd recognise stories like Jacob seeing angels moving up and down staircases (Genesis), Moses hitting the rock to pour out water (Numbers?), Joshua commanding the sun and moon to be still (Joshua), Gideon asking for a sign from God (Judges), David's wife being barren (2 Samuel), and Solomon having 700 wives + 300 concubines (1 Kings). It's because I've repeatedly read, re-read and heard them, that's why they stick inside my long-term memory.

I guess the fact that I'm doing this out of interest and passion (versus mere obligation) - remember I didn't have to do this - fuels the fire even more.

Gosh, I'm pumped for this! May my mental faculties glorify the Giver of all abilities.


Credits:
eleenakorban.files.wordpress.com
planetshakers.com

2011

My verse of the year

My life is not my own, but Yours and Yours alone.

Guess what, I searched it up online and found this.

Discovery

Here's a little pat on the back for those of you in the research world

The joy of research

A colleague summed up the way many researchers feel about their profession. When asked why he spent so many hours in the lab, he noted that the alternatives were to go home, where he would do the same things that millions of others were doing, or to work in his lab, where he could discover things that no other human had ever discovered. The smile on his face told the story: for him, working on research was sheer joy.

Credits: cs.purdue.edu

Moving Forward

No turning back

It's been more than 130 days
Every now and then you surface again
At times I'm weak - in a haze
But I'm breaking the curse of porn on men

God said, 'You shall not commit adultery'
I believe it includes fornication and masturbation
For He also said
If you look at a woman to lust for her,
Then you have already committed adultery with her in your heart

Yet so many people live to follow their physical desires
It begs the question, why is God's standard so high?
What's wrong with a one-night stand?
Or a sexual movie every other day?
Or nude pictures?

But you can't say that our bodies
Were made for sexual immorality
They were made for the Lord
And the Lord cares about our bodies

My belief is that
If we are to live the Spirit-filled, Spirit-led life
Then we must be holy
Just as our Father is holy
Otherwise He will not fill us
Because He can't

Letting our sinful nature control our mind
Leads to death
But letting the Spirit control our mind
Leads to life and peace

Here I am
Choosing life, not death
Believing that He will give life to my mortal body
By His Spirit who lives within me
Though temptations may come
I choose not to sin
I'll be delivered
From evil

I'm not turning back



Picture credit: PbArtWorks
Scripture: Ex. 20:14--Matt. 5:28--1 Cor. 6:13--Matt. 5:48--Rom. 8:6--Rom. 8:11

Flavours

People who do not (yet) believe in God come in 3 flavours:

Agnostics, atheists, and anti-theists.

Which one are (were) you?