Hotel California?

'Relax' said the nightman, We are programed to recieve.
You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave

---

Does this not remind you of what is happening to those who chose to convert for whatever reason into Islam? I pity those who did not convert but is born into it. They can never leave!

Construction Site

I have created a construction site for those who are interested in the progress of our new home. Go there, as more pictures can be posted.

This blog will continue to exist for the occasional ramblings on matters that interest me and when time permits. Cheers

Called Off

No leh, not the construction on the house
but the vigil regarding the funeral that caused so much anxiety.

Read this for some further thoughts.

2nd Day

2nd Day sees the lower level platform earth work being prepared and quite a few old trees have to give way for the piling and construction work to be carried out. Don,t worry, there are plenty more on the land below.


The view from the bottom in June 05

Now with some of the trees making way.

Just one day

This was in the morning when the earth was still about 3 feet above road level

Within a day the top level has been cleared!

When it moves, it moves.

Now the lower level earth platform need to be set up so that the surveyors can mark the piling points. Should be completed next week and piling done before Chinese New Year, hopefully!

Starting At Last!

I started this blog way back in June 05 to let some friends know about our new house being built on our land. That was six months ago.






Now at long last earthwork on the land has begun. Haiya (sigh)... blame the delay on the engineers, contractors and rain over the period.





Nevermind at last it has started.










Watch this space for updates! :D

Funeral for the living

Funerals are for the living not the dead. The dead is just a body, it knows nothing, feels nothing and sees nothing. The dead is but a memory in the hearts and minds of the living and funerals are for the sake of the living to help them grieve properly.

Whether you are an atheist or a believer that we are more than a physical being, that fact remains.

For an atheist, it does not matter two hoots what we do with the body when one draws the last breath. A life becomes dust and nothing!

For a believer in the judeo-christian-islamic strand, there is the soul which will not die . The Eastern beliefs with roots in Hinduism, Buddhism and Chinese traditional beliefs, too has a belief of a soul.

What happens to the soul depends on what you believe in.

So why is there such a big hoohah about one funeral that caused so much anxieties in Malaysia? Legally it caused so much contention because the living has no right to a dead body and has no recourse to a rule of law, whether it is flawed or not! Will justice be served under such a system?

The authorities might now have the right to the body under the much debated constitution vs syariah system, but did it have the right for the soul?

The payment of RM100,000 and posthumous promotion for the deceased might be 10 silver coins to salve the conscience of the authorities but it is no recompense to the agony of the widow who was not allowed to grieve in a proper manner.

Afterall, funerals are for the living.

Look here, here, and here for a wider context, debates and background information.

addendum
more links : this one discuss conversions with further links regarding issues on conversion in and out of islam.

This article talks about the state of mind of the deceased.

Latest
from christain perspective

Magnetic Cures?

I have a thing about much hyped cures, not that I totally trust western medicine either but when multi-leveled, complementary therapy and medicines are pushed into your face, I tend to react.... so there, check this out when some one pushes magnets and claimed that it will cure ailments from arthritis to cancer.

Too good to be true right?

Detox?

Do you try to detox after all the excess of the season?

Don't bother!


It is a waste of time and money! So says this BBC report : click

School reopens

Back to the routine...
tearful first time children to school,




early morning traffic jams,













and anxious parents over all things about their children's schooling!











How do we as parents cope with this annual event?

Argggggghhhhhhhh

It is amazing how God gave us the patience and ability to overcome them and we are more than conquerors! Yeah










Rom 8:35 What will separate us from the love Christ has for us? Can trouble, distress, persecution, hunger, nakedness, danger, or violent death separate us from his love?
Rom 8:36 As Scripture says: "We are being killed all day long because of you. We are thought of as sheep to be slaughtered."
Rom 8:37 The one who loves us gives us an overwhelming victory in all these difficulties.
Rom 8:38 I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love which Christ Jesus our Lord shows us. We can't be separated by death or life, by angels or rulers, by anything in the present or anything in the future, by forces
Rom 8:39 or powers in the world above or in the world below, or by anything else in creation.

New Year - New Look

Yup, look unto God!

from an email:

"Look unto Me." Isa 45 : 22A

NEW YEAR'S morning opens upon us, and we are still exposed to sorrow, Satan, and disappointment; sin lives in us; and athousand things are ready to distress us; but our God says,"LOOK UNTO ME."Look unto Me as the source of happiness, the giver of grace, and your Friend. Look unto Me in every trial, for all you want, and in every place.

Look unto Me TODAY, I have blessings to bestow.I am waiting to be gracious. I am your Father in Jesus.Believe that I am deeply interested in your present and eternal welfare; that all I have promised, I will perform; that I am withyou, purposely to bless you. I cannot be unconcerned about anything that affects you; and I pledge Myself to make all thingswork together for your good.

You have looked to self, to others,in times past; but you have only met with trouble and disappointment; now look unto Me ALONE, to Me FOR ALL.

Lift up the eye and the heart to Me today, and every day throughout the year; and walk before Me in peace and holiness.Prove Me hereby, if I will not thus make you holy, useful, and happy; try Me, and find My word of promise true; true to the very letter.

Look to Him, till His mighty love
Thy every thought control;
Its vast, constraining influence prove,
O'er body, spirit, soul.