Contemplative prayer – Page 29

Category: Contemplative prayer

Medication and meditation

23 July 2013 blogpastor 7 Comments

Vertigo is literally nauseating and crippling. It happened to me two Saturdays ago. I woke up to go for a Saturday trek to Bukit Timah hill but everything around me spun and I was totally disorientated and vomited. With my hands on my wife’s shoulder, I went to a clinic nearby and was given medication to snuff out the symptoms for a few days. Over the weekend I simply rested and slept like a sardine, still and stiff, speaking my healing and talking to the Lord, and faithfully taking my medication. It was an enforced retreat. I had been thinking of going to Cameron, to my favorite retreat and rest place, but never acted on it. So I reflected, wrote my journal, prayed and read scriptures.

When I was better a few days later and about to go out for an appointment, it hit me again. So another round of going to the doctor and receiving medication. Thank God for doctors and thank God for church elders. Two elders and their wives came by to my home to pray for me with the anointing of oil, and I felt the warm power of the Spirit on my right palm. Over the weekend I improved quickly and was able to move my head briskly and freely without giddiness by Monday. Thanks be to God.

Going back to office and having the mobility makes me appreciate the blessedness of being healthy. I feel for those whose illness give them untold suffering and restrictions of all kinds. Even medicine cannot cure them. Besides caring for the sick, may all believers also earnestly desire the spiritual gifts to alleviate the suffering of the sick. Amen.

Time for reflection: December

9 December 2012 blogpastor 2 Comments

Christmas is the season for reflection. It is December. Its the year’s end. Often it is seen as a time to holiday and wind down. Nothing wrong with that. It is time also to look back on the year. God has been with you every day of the whole year. We forget his inconspicuous presence in everyday happenings of regular living. Reflection helps us to unearth those gems and deepen our love and gratitude for our Lord. So we look back and count as many blessings and write a super long list of how God has shown up and blessed us through events, experiences and people. Then as holy priests we offer to the Lord a sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise.

Of course there were also those so-called negative experiences. Times when we were upset, angry, jealous, bitter, furious, and fell into temptations of various kinds. We felt humiliated, discouraged or remorseful. We wanted to give up. Run away. Hide in a hole forever. These feeling need to be processed in the context of the incidents in which they arose. Talk to the Lord about them one by one and sit and listen. Let the finished work sink in. There are gems of self- and God- discovery to be unearthed. Each year should enrich you with bags of experiences processed via the cross of Christ.

So carve out some time and take time to reflect. Take a break and shut down all electronic and digital devices for a day or a half-day. Eat, sleep, pray, journal and let God love you.

My warmest Christmas wishes to all friends and visitors of this blog. The Lord bless you with hope and peace!

OMF Bungalow: praying amidst charming surroundings

29 July 2012 blogpastor 3 Comments

The kindness of the Lord

It has been some years since I last went up to OMF Bungalow in Cameron Highlands. So I was glad to know that the last two rooms available in the bungalow were available for Koh Seng Chor, the pastor of Evangel Christian Church, and myself. My daughter wanted to tag along to have her prayer retreat so she had to share a room with me as there were no other rooms available. That would mean an inconvenience for prayer, but she’s my one and only daughter! It is always better to be able to pray, sleep and read anyway and anytime you want, and sharing a room with another restricts this to some extent. However, the Lord was kind, for as soon as we arrived we were told the good news that all three of us would have individual rooms to ourselves due to some cancellation.

Eat, sleep, pray, share

Most of the morning and night hours were spent alone in the room or outside, meditating and praying through Psalms 55, reading old journal entries, and writing new ones. On occasion Seng Chor and I would take relaxed afternoon walks in the cool Cameron air chatting all the way down to Chefu or Brinchang town, sharing our heart and telling grandfather stories, literally. My daughter, well, she wanted her God-space, so she was left alone except during meal times. Meal times were fun as we sat with and got to know some American missionary couples and Malaysian Chinese ladies who were also staying there.

Faded charm of the 60’s and 70’s

The food was warm and nourishing and the Cameron vegetables were fresh and deliciously cooked by Mrs Chye, the caretaker. The beverages and the superb cookies were free and available 24/7. The charm of the place is its tired and dated look – like going back to a warm and welcoming home in the 60’s and 70’s. This place was once owned by a Chinese businessman and built in 1933 before being bought over by China Inland Mission (now OMF), a missionary organization. While staying there you could fantasize that you were that tycoon, albeit only for a few days, enjoying the striking views outside your large garden and with your helpers cooking and cleaning your home, while you lounge around without a care in the world.

Touring around

My daughter and I went for a tour of Mt Brinchang, the mossy forest, and the BOH tea plantation. We also visited Brinchang town and Tanah Rata, and there being no place in the “inn”, we stayed a night at Strawberry Park hotel and had breakfast before we departed for home in the 10am bus to Singapore. We arrived home close to 7 pm on Friday.