Everything we do and don't do has consequences...

It was thursday lunchtime at Apollos Coffee Shop and the boys were getting their char-siew rice before going off to school. We were talking about praying for things like, the tsunami that hit Indonesia's Jawa and the Lebanon-Israeli trouble when the younger one remarked that he was glad that the tsunami didn't hit us in Malaysia...

Well, I remarked that everything that happens around the world impacts us somehow. Although the disaster didn't hit us as a nation, it affects us nonetheless. I proceeded to explain how it would affect us, using illustrations like how an orphaned boy or even a bird dying makes a difference in our lives.

Sometimes we feel so isolated from the rest of the world and as Christians we may even feel that things that happen in other areas outside of our church existence like politics, world events, other believers' struggles might just have no consequence or impact in our lives but boy, how they do!

We are confronted with so many items in a day that we can and ought to pray for. Some of us think no more of it than as a mere "to-do" item whilst others worry and muse over about it for ten minutes or until some other seemingly more urgent matter takes over our "thought slot" or maybe call it our consciousness, much like a whistling kettle boiling profusely would shatter one's train of thought... and time passes by and all is left behind...

ok, here i am trying to write very "storybook like"! bleh!

Here's the deal. What we do or don't do counts LOTS in God's Kingdom. We decide whether we want in or out. We choose to make that difference. There is much we can and ought to do and it must begin with prayer, prayer and prayer... effective word here is BEGIN..

Today, I shall pray for (in no particular order of importance as they are all vital) -

1. the victims of the escalating violence in Lebanon and the implications relating thereto.
2. the victims and rescue efforts of the tsunami hit areas in Indonesia.
3. Malaysia as a nation and for the unreached and officially unreacheable people groups.
4. evangelism efforts in 1, 2 and 3.
5. violence in and around us including, rape, robberies, snatch thieves, domestic violence, abuse of domestic helpers, etc.
6. Lina Joy case (http://www.graceatwork.org/) and implications relating to our standing as Malaysian citizens and our constitutional freedom of choice.
7. Politicians in Malaysia who seek to reveal the truth.