An idea coupled with action can be a watershed moment in one’s life. God has given us the human mind with the greatest of potential, may we use it well to give honour to our Creator. ~ Cheong Kok Weng
“… But he who gathers by labor will increase.” Proverbs 13:11b
Our current state just shows where we are now: a new start_with purpose, focus & action to unlock our God-given potentials. ~ Cheong Kok Weng
Our present state does not (necessarily) determine our destination, but start TODAY as long as there is a TODAY.. to begin – may we choose the course and direction wisely. May God help us to have the courage to ‘sail the seven seas and discover new insights, horizons and wisdom’ and MOST of all to know Him.
May we intentionally “pen” positive changes into the daily routine, for “life journaling” to take on a great dimension, with God’s given potential! ~ Cheong Kok Weng
However do remember this crucial scripting process in one’s life journal: Eternal destiny – God has done His part and He gave the power of choice TODAY to you to script your eternal destination – you eternal destiny is a matter of your choice!
Though we cannot change the past, God grants us yet a pen with capability for each of us and the amazing privilege to write the future pages. ~ Cheong Kok Weng
In fact, God allows or grants us the mandate to write (decide) our eternal future or destination whilst we are still alive on planet earth or whilst alive in space (remembering our astronauts in space – our fellow human beings).
Each of our completed lives on earth will be a closed book … and we will not be allowed to write anymore concerning our sojourn on this planet because they have thus ended.
Deuteronomy 30:19I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
God created us with immeasurable power to make, being inspired for, and to choose positive changes in our lives… and also make to make a valuable difference in the lives of others …with His help we will accomplish much. ~ Cheong Kok Weng
Selfie in space.
Courtesy NASA
Images taken from video provided by NASA, astronauts Rick Mastracchio, top, and Michael Hopkins work to repair an external cooling line on the International Space Station on Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2013, 260 miles above Earth.
We all have a choice – this man Chiune Sugihara decided to do what’s right ..helping to save lives. One can make a big and vital difference.
Here is an extraordinary account of a man of conviction & courage and .. who obeyed God rather than man.
In 1939, Sugihara became a vice-consul of the Japanese Consulate in Kaunas, Lithuania. His other duty was to report on Soviet and German troop movements.[2]Sugihara is said to have cooperated with Polish intelligence as part of a bigger Japanese-Polish cooperative plan.[5] As the Soviet Union occupied sovereign Lithuania in 1940, many Jewish refugees from Poland (Polish Jews) as well as Lithuanian Jews tried to acquire exit visas. Without the visas, it was dangerous to travel, yet it was impossible to find countries willing to issue them. Hundreds of refugees came to the Japaneseconsulate in Kaunas, trying to get a visa to Japan.
The Dutch consul Jan Zwartendijk had provided some of them with an official third destination to Curaçao, a Caribbean island and Dutch colony that required no entry visa, or Surinam (which, upon independence in 1975, became Suriname). At the time, the Japanese government required that visas be issued only to those who had gone through appropriate immigration procedures and had enough funds. Most of the refugees did not fulfill these criteria. Sugihara dutifully contacted the Japanese Foreign Ministry three times for instructions. Each time, the Ministry responded that anybody granted a visa should have a visa to a third destination to exit Japan, with no exceptions.[2]From 18 July to 28 August 1940, aware that applicants were in danger if they stayed behind, Sugihara began to grant visas on his own initiative, after consulting with his family.
He ignored the requirements and issued the Jews with a ten-day visa to transit through Japan, in direct violation of his orders. Given his inferior post and the culture of the Japanese Foreign Service bureaucracy, this was an extraordinary act of disobedience. He spoke to Soviet officials who agreed to let the Jews travel through the country via the Trans-Siberian Railway at five times the standard ticket price.Sugihara continued to hand write visas, reportedly spending 18–20 hours a day on them, producing a normal month’s worth of visas each day, until 4 September, when he had to leave his post before the consulate was closed. By that time he had granted thousands of visas to Jews, many of whom were heads of households and thus permitted to take their families with them. On the night before their scheduled departure, Sugihara and his wife stayed awake writing out visa approvals.
According to witnesses, he was still writing visas while in transit from his hotel and after boarding the train at the Kaunas Railway Station, throwing visas into the crowd of desperate refugees out of the train’s window even as the train pulled out.In final desperation, blank sheets of paper with only the consulate seal and his signature (that could be later written over into a visa) were hurriedly prepared and flung out from the train. As he prepared to depart, he said, “Please forgive me. I cannot write anymore. I wish you the best.” When he bowed deeply to the people before him, someone exclaimed, “Sugihara. We’ll never forget you. I’ll surely see you again!”[1]Sugihara himself wondered about official reaction to the thousands of visas he issued.
Many years later, he recalled, “No one ever said anything about it. I remember thinking that they probably didn’t realize how many I actually issued.”[6]The total number of Jews saved by Sugihara is in dispute, estimating about 6,000; family visas—which allowed several people to travel on one visa—were also issued, which would account for the much higher figure. The Simon Wiesenthal Center has estimated that Chiune Sugihara issued transit visas for about 6,000 Jews and that around 40,000 descendants of the Jewish refugees are alive today because of his actions.[2] Polish intelligence produced some false visas. Sugihara’s widow and eldest son estimate that he saved 10,000 Jews from certain death, whereas Boston University professor and author, Hillel Levine, also estimates that he helped “as many as 10,000 people”, but that far fewer people ultimately survived.[7] According to Levine’s 1996 biography of Sugihara, In Search of Sugihara, the Japanese diplomat issued 3,400 transit visas to the Jews.[7] Levine reports from his research of official Japanese foreign ministry documents entitled “Miscellaneous Documents Regarding Ethnic Issues: Jewish Affairs,’ vol.10, 1940 Diplomatic Record Office, Japanese Foreign Ministry, Tokyo”, that he discovered one list alone of “2,139 names, largely of Poles—both Jews and non-Jews—who received visas between July 9 and August 31, 1940…It is far from complete; many who received visas from Sugihara, including children, are not on it. By statistical extrapolation, it can be estimated that he helped as many as ten thousand escape, yet those who actually survived are probably no more than half that number.”[7] Indeed, some Jews who received Sugihara visas failed to leave Lithuania in time, were later captured by the Germans who invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, and perished in the Holocaust.
The Diplomatic Record Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has opened to the public two documents concerning Sugihara’s file: the first aforementioned document is a 5 February 1941 diplomatic note from Chiune Sugihara to Japan’s then Foreign Minister Yōsuke Matsuoka in which Sugihara stated he issued 1,500 out of 2,139 transit visas to Jews and Poles; however, since most of the 2,139 people were not Jewish, this would imply that most of the visas were given to Polish Jews instead. Levine then notes that another document from the same foreign office file “indicates an additional 3,448 visas were issued in Kaunas for a total of 5,580 visas” which were likely given to Jews desperate to flee Lithuania for safety in Japan or Japanese occupied China. Moreover, there were also “some Jesuits in Vilna who were issuing Sugihara visas with seals that he had left behind and did not destroy, long after the Japanese diplomat had departed” which means that some Jews could have escaped Europe with forged visas issued under Sugihara’s name.[7]Many refugees used their visas to travel across the Soviet Union to Vladivostok and then by boat to Kobe, Japan, where there was a Russian Jewish community.
Tadeusz Romer, the Polish ambassador in Tokyo, organised help for them. From August 1940 to November 1941, he had managed to get transit visas in Japan, asylum visas to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Burma, immigration certificates to the British Mandate of Palestine, and immigrant visas to the United States and some Latin American countries for more than two thousand Polish-Lithuanian Jewish refugees, who arrived in Kobe, Japan, and the Shanghai Ghetto, China.
New year..a fresh start..chance to do things right. Year 2014 AD [Anno Domini Nostri Jesu Christi (“In the Year of Our Lord Jesus Christ”)] affirms and bears witness to the historical FACT that JESUS once lived physically amongst men about 2,00 years ago on planet earth.
We’ve a free trip around the sun once a year whilst we live on this planet.
This Christmas season let’s remember afresh…. Isaiah 9:6 
“For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
About 2,000 years ago, Jesus came to earth in a very humble manner. The Saviour of the world and God of all creation put on humanity to deal with our sin by dying in our place and conquer death when He rose from the dead, giving the hope of salvation to all who turn from their sin and believe on Him and be saved from the eternal torment for our rebellion against the infinitely holy Creator God. One day, He will return in judgment, and He will not appear as a seemingly helpless baby, but as the risen, glorified, sovereign Lord and Judge.
The events associated with the birth of Jesus fulfilled numerous Old Testament prophecies given centuries before the events they described.
Let’s take a look at some of these ancient proclamations – Biblical prophecies fulfilled by Jesus’ birth:
1. The virgin birth of Jesus.
Biblical Old Testament record of Jesus’ birth by Prophet Isaiah about 700 BC (Before Christ)
Isaiah 7:14 “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.”
“But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” Matthew 1:20-23
2. The Coming Messiah would be born in Bethlehem
Micah 5:2 (written sometime around 8th – 7th century BC)
After Christ’s birth the magi arrived in Jerusalem. Herod gathered the chief priests and scribes and asked them where the Messiah was going to be born (Matthew 2:3). They responded by citing an Old Testament prophecy pinpointing Bethlehem as the birthplace of the Christ:
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Though you are little among the thousands of Judah,
Yet out of you shall come forth to Me
The One to be Ruler in Israel,
Whose goings forth are from of old,
From everlasting.”
Herod’s murderous response of slaughtering the young boys of Bethlehem led to the fulfillment of three more prophecies. First, this tragic massacre fulfilled the words of Jeremiah 31:15.
Thus says the Lord:
“A voice was heard in Ramah,
Lamentation and bitter weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children,
Refusing to be comforted for her children,
Because they are no more.”
The second fulfilled prophecy resulting from Herod’s paranoiac rage took place after Joseph took Mary and Jesus to Egypt [see Matthew 2:15 ‘and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”]. Upon their return, God’s words to Hosea were fulfilled in Hosea 11:1 (written around 8th – 7th century BC.
“When Israel was a child, I loved him,
And out of Egypt I called My son.
The third prophecy discussed by Matthew pertaining to events in the early years of Jesus has to do with his boyhood home.
God warned Joseph in a dream not to go back to Judea, so instead he took Mary and Jesus to Nazareth in Galilee, “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, ‘He shall be called a Nazarene’” (Matthew 2:23)
Nazareth was looked upon with disparagement. Even Nathanael asked, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46)
Matthew 2:5 “So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet:”
3. The Messiah would come from the tribe of Judah
Genesis 49:10 (Written between 18th to 14th century BC)
“The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
Nor a lawgiver from between his feet,
Until Shiloh comes;
And to Him shall be the obedience of the people.”
4. The Messiah would be a descendant of King David
Jeremiah 23:5 (Written sometime between 7th to 6th century BC)
“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord,
“That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness;
A King shall reign and prosper,
And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.
Luke 1:32-33 ..He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”
5. He would enter Jerusalem on a donkey’s colt (Matthew 21:4–10)
Zechariah 9:9 (Written around 6th century BC)
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your King is coming to you;
He is just and having salvation,
Lowly and riding on a donkey,
A colt, the foal of a donkey.
6. The betrayal would be for 30 pieces of silver (Matthew 26:14–16)
“…So they weighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver.” Zechariah 11:12
7. The money would be used to purchase the potter’s field (Matthew 27:3–10).
‘…“Throw it to the potter”—that princely price they set on me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord for the potter.’ Zechariah 11:13
8. The Messiah would die a sacrificial death for us (Matthew 27:50; 2 Corinthians 5:21)
Isaiah 53:4-8.
“Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.
He was taken from prison and from judgment,
And who will declare His generation?
For He was cut off from the land of the living;
For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.”
9. He would die with criminals but His burial would be with the wealthy (Matthew 27:57–60; Luke 23:33
Isaiah 53:9
“And they made His grave with the wicked—
But with the rich at His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was any deceit in His mouth.”
10. He would rise from the dead (Matthew 28:6)
Psalm 16:8–11
“I have set the Lord always before me;
Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices;
My flesh also will rest in hope.
For You will not leave my soul in Sheol,
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
11. He would be mocked, and people would gamble for His clothes.
‘And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and saying, “Aha! You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself, and come down from the cross!” Likewise the chief priests also, mocking among themselves with the scribes, said, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Even those who were crucified with Him reviled Him.‘ Matthew 27:29-32
‘Then they crucified Him, and divided His garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet: “They divided My garments among them,
And for My clothing they cast lots.” ‘Matthew 27:35
“He trusted in the Lord, let Him rescue Him;
Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!” Psalms 22:8
“They divide My garments among them,
And for My clothing they cast lots.” Psalms 22:18
12. ‘With Him they also crucified two robbers, one on His right and the other on His left. So the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “And He was numbered with the transgressors.” ‘ Mark 15:27-28
“Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great,
And He shall divide the spoil with the strong,
Because He poured out His soul unto death,
And He was numbered with the transgressors,
And He bore the sin of many,
And made intercession for the transgressors.” Isaiah 53:12
John 19:33-38 But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe. For these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled, “Not one of His bones shall be broken.” And again another Scripture says, “They shall look on Him whom they pierced.” “…The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me.They pierced My hands and My feet; I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me.” Psalms 22: 16- 17 (Many psalms through the inspiration of God, were written by King David – who lived from about 1037BC to 967 BC.)
There are many other prophecies in the Bible that were perfectly fulfilled in the life of Jesus Christ. These were not chance guesstimates made by fraudulent soothsayers; but were precise prophecies or predictions made by the omniscient or all-knowing God of the Bible who repeatedly revealed that He has perfect knowledge of all past, present, and future events.
Accordingly, we can be totally assured that He will always make good on His promises and that those future events He has foretold will certainly come to pass.
Anyone rejecting God’s gracious offer of salvation, will face The Great White Throne Judgment of the holy and righteous God.
“Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:11–15
Proverbs 3:34 “Surely He scorns the scornful,
But gives grace to the humble.”
Proverbs 14:6 “A scoffer seeks wisdom and does not find it,
But knowledge is easy to him who understands.”
God will respond to every seeking heart, but the Lord scoffs at the scoffers. God scoffs those who insist on denying obvious truth and remaining scoffers. They will bear the results of their unbelief in the end, so those who trust in the LORD do not need to let their hearts be troubled at the hatred and scoffing of unbelievers. As God’s children face this world of unbelief, He gives grace to all His dear children, who are afflicted with mockery and hateful attacks. No one will escape God’s judgment and He alone will be the final Judge of all people.
Let us wisely look at all the evidences of God’s salvation in Jesus Christ, as found in His word. It is a very blessed thing to humbly accept God’s truth and grace. God gives grace to His beloved here on earth and forever in heaven.
“You alone are the Lord;
You have made heaven,
The heaven of heavens,with all their host,
The earth and everything on it,
The seas and all that is in them,
And You preserve them all.
The host of heaven worships You.” Nehemiah 9:6
“For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe.” Deuteronomy 10:17
“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” Genesis 2:7
“in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began,” Titus 1:2
“God is not a man, that He should lie,..” Numbers 23:19