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Which was yesterday. (Or not, depending on how ahead you are from 15 May at the moment you read this entry. XP)

Landed safely. Thank God the weather was clear in Bangkok. Yesterday, of all days! It has been raining and storming and things. but today the sky cleared. XD Royal treatment.

When I checked in, the check-in i/c alerted me that I should get ready to answer the Singapore immigration authority, because my tix indicated one months+ stay in Singapore when I go in with no visa, nothing, and with only passport, I am only allowed thirty days maximum.

I decided to be safe and spent $5 getting 20-minute Internet access (it was $4 per 20 minutes!) and $1 printing a page of NUS offer on the web-site.

On board, I did my daily Bible devotion, then slept for the rest of the flight. I reached Singapore early by like 10 minutes. Before I left the plane, I asked for the immigration form thingabob that I had to fill in, now that my magic green cards (read: Student Pass and Embarkation/Disembarkation Card) have lost their spell. Boo~! It’s the first time I fill in the form in ages. X) Before I went to face immigration, I explained my situation to an immigration duty officer, (there is a counter located before the long line of immigration checkpoints) just to make sure that I won’t run into trouble.

Then, I went into the battle. (Uh, it’s just an immigration check dude.) It was the first time in ages that I had to use the slowest “All Passports” channel too, thank God the queue was not long. I explained to the immigration officer that I am coming in to do my university application and intends to apply for a visit pass here, or student pass, if possible, and she gave me thirty days and let me in. Good right? ^^ Thank God. So yeah, I am at McD’s blogging now. =) However, the Internet speed is as fast as some outdated 28.8k dial-up connection that d/c’s every 20-30 minutes. =_=

Ohoh! Another thing that I want to tell… y’know, yesterday I was doing some work (I will tell you about it later) and when I finished it I needed to e-mail the work urgently. I went down to McD’s yesterday, but I forgot to bring my mobile phone, and so without my password (it’s stored inside the phone) I couldn’t access Wireless@SG. GG. $2 gone on iced lemon tea some more. =3= As I walked back, I prayed for Internet access, just long enough for me to get the e-mail sent. After all, it is important, more so because it is in His service. =3 Well, I got it! Whoa. o_o Sent the e-mail right before the deadline. Praise God, really. ^^

Extracted from my second response to Ern Sheong’s blog entry, with minor edits:

Tithing is important, because it helps in development of (at least) two kinds of spiritual discipline: 1. kindness and 2. trust in God. Nobody is going to accuse us of sinning if we don’t tithe - well, they can’t - but by not tithing we hurt our spiritual growth. It’s our loss. I’d compare it to people who are lukewarm Christians. God still is the “fire insurance” for them, but they miss out on God’s life-transforming power. It’s their loss.

Malachi 3

8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.
“But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’
“In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.

The passage, Malachi 3:8-10 that Ern Sheong brought up in his reply to my first response is important, because (I think) it is God’s challenge issued to us re: tithing. Do we believe in God’s promise that if we give God, He will give back to us, and give more? We all know that God’s economy is different from the world: “give, and you will be given”. That is His promise. To tithe sincerely is to tell God that we know that all things are from Him and we are only given all this “on loan”, and that we trust He will be Jehovah Jireh, hence we hold nothing back from Him.

Of course, the (positive) side effect is that we will be blessed financially in return by God, and just as there is no harm in being rich, there is no harm in God giving us as the result of us being faithful to Him, and perhaps get that dream car. XD

I think churches should teach about tithing at full length to get the understanding right. Misconceptions re: tithing includes that it is compulsory (I hope it is well-intentioned, but people might never discover joy in giving) and that it is equivalent to making merits (we do not do good deeds to be saved, we are saved by grace… we do good deeds because we want to!). Many churches shorten the explanation, and I think this is dangerous. I take a real-life example from my Singapore church (sorry! not accusing here) which said that tithing is “apparently, heaven’s income tax”. What is your impression of income tax? Compulsory. Burden. If someone was on a path back to God and heard that on top of his normal income tax, he pays 10% more when He becomes a Christian, obviously enough he will get scared away. A Christian who didn’t understand tithing fully will miss the true point of tithing altogether.

We live in the end times.

Its coming has been subtle, but it is here.

The tsumani, Myanmar, Tibet, and now China. It seems this world is just getting better and better.

I was particularly horrified to see how the Myanmar military government were denying aid to the Myanmar people, because they saw maintaining of control over the people more important than saving lives. I don’t blame them if they refused aid from US though, President Bush’s comment:

Our message is to the military rulers: Let the US come to help you, help the people. Our hearts go out to the people of Burma. We want to help them deal with this terrible disaster. At the same time, of course, we want them to live in a free society. [Source]President George W. Bush

was so obviously biased, and I myself would not have trusted Bush. However, aid from other sources should not have been delayed. (Still can talk like that after a disaster? *facepalms*) Unnecessary delay will result in more people dying meaninglessly. Leaders such as the Australia Premier Kevin Rudd urged Myanmar’s ruling junta to “forget politics” and “just get aid” in for the people, and I think that is wisdom. People are dying, for their sake let’s put aside the differences and work to pull through the disaster. Right, I digress.

I was talking to one of my friends *winks* last night. She reminded me that the end times are here, and with “a thousand [falling] on our side, ten thousand on our right hand,” (Psalm 91:7) we need God’s protection all the more.

Thank God, today as I was doing my daily Bible study on Our Daily Bread, God reminded us that:

Deuteronomy 32

11 like an eagle that stirs up its nest
and hovers over its young,
that spreads its wings to catch them
and carries them on its pinions.

God protects and watches over those who trust in Him, like an eagle spreading its wings over its youngs.

Psalm 91

9 If you make the Most High your dwelling—
even the LORD, who is my refuge-

10 then no harm will befall you,
no disaster will come near your tent.

That is His reassurance to us all who fear Him. Hallelujah!

I wrote this on Ern Sheong’s blog in response to his thoughts on material blessings and the challenge for us to think about it. Here is my take.

(Note that I koped my comment, and edited it to make the response more general since this is now posted not in reply to another post.)

1. Being rich is not wrong. God does bless people with abundance. Think Abraham, Joseph and Job.

2. I have to correct this misconception. Tithes and offerings are neither obligatory nor mandatory. The notion of “compulsory” deduction of 10% of income, in fact, turned many potential Believers away, because they think they are leaving their belief into another religion, with more rules and regulations to bog them down, rather than a wonderful, liberating relationship.

” 7Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. ” 2 Cor 9:7

God loves a cheerful giver, not an obliged giver. Jesus has illustrated this when He told the disciples that the poor widow who put two copper coins in for the offering put in more than the rich people who threw in large amounts, while was in Jerusalem. (See Mark 12:41-44) If we give on the note of “oh, I have to give because it is in the rules” - and be warned, some churches are making it seems like that! - then there is no love and trust in such offerings, only giving because of rules, more rules.

Yes, God commands us to render to God the things that are God’s… well, if you think carefully, everything is God’s. He created the heaven and the earth and everything in it, and all things were created by Him and for Him! (Colossians 1:15-16) He doesn’t need anything from us, and He can give and take anytime He wants, but in His loving mercy He chooses to let us choose whether we want to give to Him to display our trust and gratefulness, or continue to think that omfgallthingsareminemineMINEandIwillusethemhoweverIpleaseROFL (good luck have fun with that).

Start with the right attitude and give not because we have to - always keep in mind that we don’t have to! - but because we want to.

3. Give simply because you find joy in giving. This is what I have come to learn as a Christian. Grace ( = getting what we don’t deserve) is a concept that is unique to God, so if we give, expecting something in return, grace is no longer a quality in us. Give freely and joyfully. Remember that God doesn’t oblige us to give… one can be a Christian and not give, but giving shows how close we are to being like Jesus, because Jesus lived a life that is dedicated to us, every second of it.

The same applies to love. True love expects nothing in return, but I’ll tackle that issue another day, but to sum it up, some people think their love is pure, when it is not, in fact, and some people give, but their concept of giving ain’t perfect. I admit that I still fall short of God’s standards. Will you?

4. Don’t love or trust in or hang on to money. Don’t say no if God asks you to choose between [insert material things] here and Him. Don’t say no if God asks you to give. Remember that God is our all, He alone is sufficient.

5. When giving, look to God for discernment as to who to give to and how much to give. If we don’t give carefully, our money might end up not being used to further God’s kingdom. Even some churches are corrupted! Be careful.

My heart breaks when I see new Believers being coerced into giving 10% of their income. From my experience, tithing takes discipline and a step of faith, something that the giver has to undertake himself, not the church force him. Well, you can’t make someone give. I won’t, for one, make someone give. It is his or her choice.

Remember, our God is a God of freewill. In His abounding love, He gave us choice.

He allowed us to choose between eternal life with Him and enjoying his temporal blessings + eternal separation from Him.

He allowed us to choose between being a lukewarm Christian and a born again Christian, a God-lover (to use someone else’s word) who seeks after Him. (Think about it, the term sounds complimentary after all. =3)

So yes, He allowed us to choose between giving and not giving. It is that simple. If you want to give cheerfully but feel otherwise, ask God to change you. Trust me, He delights in seeing you being a cheerful giver.

Matthew 6:33 illustrates this too… it is about focusing on God and seeking Him… we can be giving so much, yet with bitterness or indifference and our hearts far from Him, and that is tragic. Being a Christian is more than giving 10% of your income. It is about being in a relationship with God. I cannot stress this enough. (Getting preachy? XD)

I think for Christians the most important thing is to ensure that money is not our God. Ern Sheong

I think that Ern Sheong summed it up in this statement.

Let’s be practical. The world is going to think of us Christians as being stupid. I mean, “why did you give to church idiot? That 10% of money can be used to buy more stuffs!” We are going to lose out in terms of worthiness by wealth. Are we ready for that? Are we ready to go against the world?

I want to say I am.

What is your stand on riches and wealth? If you had, say, S$1,000,000, what will you do with it? Buy a large house? Pamper your child? Start a foundation?

I will be staying, if my visit pass permits, until early July, and I have to get my visit pass, because I have an appointment after the two-week visa-free period. XD

I’m down for (potential) scholarship interviews, application of the Tuition Fee Loan, application to Thai university (backup, but I feel it is redundant x_x) and a few personal appointments. I intend to fly back once there is no more errand to run. As much as I enjoy being able to move around freely in Singapore, the cost of living is forbidding, especially if I cannot get a scholarship for my university studies.

Oh, a rough figure for those who are curious:

Total cost of attendance (tuition fee + misc. fees + monthly allowance + accommodation): THB1,820,000 or SGD78,000. This estimate is based on $600 monthly allowance and $200 accommodation, and the tuition fee for NUS Computing. Difference in cost between NUS and NTU, assuming the same length of study, is about THB5000 or SGD200 so it won’t make much difference, (unless you are offered by NTU with 4.5 years course with part of study being done in USA.)
With ASEAN scholarship: THB590,000 or SGD25,200, with $300 of monthly allowance sponsored by MOE. There’s a huge difference, so I do want to get the scholarship. It helps.

If you are a Believer, please keep the financing of my Singapore education in my prayers. That’s the best thing you can do for me. ^^

Yeah, there is not much to write about these days, and as always, I do hope to write more once I am down in Singapore, so yeah. XD