Stepping Stones to Success

Many achievements in life have come from a setback, an accident, or some kind of crisis or even suffering. For instance, the first cars had to be started by cranking the motor by hand. At times the engine would "kick" back the crank handle. This happened to Charles Kettering and it broke his arm.

"There must be a safer way to start cars than this," Kettering r! easoned and he went on to invent self-starters for cars.

Jacob Schick was prospecting for gold where the temperature fell to 40 degrees below zero. He had a hard time trying to shave with a blade without sufficient hot water—so he invented the first electric shaver.

Eugene O'Neill had no specific goal or aim in life until he became ill and had to go to hospital. While lying flat on his back he began to write his plays.

A number of years ago I had an accident on a construction site which put me in hospital for a week. For a few years I had been battling a sense of God's call to Christian service but never acted on it until I was flat on my back with time to think. It was there in the hospital that I said, "Okay, God, you win. I know what you want me to do." That was the day I made the decision to go back to college to train for Christian ministry.

So, when things go wrong in your lif! e and you experience a major setback, lose your job, or have an accident, perhaps God has something for you to learn, or something else he wants you to do. The important thing is to be open to what God is saying.
Often a disaster is "God's wake-up call" to teach us an important lesson, to help us grow, or to lead us in a different direction.

Most of us are not going to be struck down like Saul [Paul] was and hear a voice from heaven and be left blind for three days when God calls. Some of us, though, who are hardheaded have to be hit over the head as it were with a "four-by-four" for God to get our attention. But for most of us God leads through his Word, our circumstances, and through a "still small voice" within that gives us a sense of what God wants us to do.

"Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples . . . As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light ! from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?'" (Acts 9:1,3-4, NIV).

Do u have your Yahoo@widgets?

Do u always have boring desktops? Need a change? Get widget another cool invention by Yahoo. This is not a promo for Yahoo by the way. Anyway I find it pretty interesting to use widgets, you have many widgets to play with upon installation and it's quite cool to see and use. You can also add-on additional widgets from many other sites. So far for me the best widget is the "picture frame" widget where pictures flashes on your screen every 1 minute from flickr.com website. And yeah the other cool thing about this is the yahoo mail checker which tells you if u have mail on ur desktop, how cool is that....well I find it cool, hahha.

Microsoft's World Cup Scoreboard

Ever wanted to keep track of the World Cup scores and matches. Look no more, download Microsoft's World Cup Scoreboard. However there's a catch when downloading this...is your Window's XP tulen (original)? If not too bad.

"Cars" the latest production of Pixar the company that brought you "Toy Story" , "A Bug's Life" and "Finding Nemo" is a show worth watching.

Christian Spotlight review says:
Reviewed by: David Criswell, Ph.D.CONTRIBUTOR

Despite these jokes, the movie does carry a G-rating, and it is mild by comparison to most films. Many of the jokes mentioned above may go right over kids heads with the exception of the “piston” joke which drew many laughs from children as well as adults.
With these reservations in mind, Cars is a good animated film with some lessons for the young. Ultimately, it suggests that we should take life a little slower. We should slow down and enjoy life, rather than racing through it. At times, the movie is very effective in promoting this theme. Other times, not so much.
One line from the movie which is worth remembering is when the Porsche explains why her town on Route 66 became abandoned. After showing how the new highway cut through the mountains instead of crossing between them, she says of Route 66, “Cars didn’t drive on it to make great time, but to have a great time.” It took longer to get through the mountains, but they were able to enjoy the sweeping landscapes and scenery. More importantly, they were able to enjoy each other. Without spoiling the ending, Lightning learns that there are things more important than winning, and a surprise ending shows that Lightning really believes what he learns by an act of sacrifice.
This theme of sacrifice should have been emphasized a little more. Sacrifice is, after all, one of the most important traits of a Christian. Christ sacrificed His own life for us (John 15:13). We, too, should be willing to sacrifice ourselves, in one form or another, for each other. Sacrifice is, after all, the only real visible proof of love. Only by the giving of ourselves can we truly display the love of Christ within us.

http://www.christiananswers.net/spotlight/movies/2006/cars2006.html

Rock wall climbing, 24th June 2006

Salvation Army together with MAPs will be organizing a rock wall climbing session on the 24th of June near Jesselton Heights. The session starts around 10am till 4pm. Cost per pax is RM25 inclusive of lunch. Those interested please kindly submit your names to Kevin as soon as possible.

Are you Connected?

For a number of years Ken was a capable professional man, a dedicated church worker, and a leader in his community. Outwardly he functioned very well. However, people had difficulty in getting close to Ken because he seemed aloof. His family relationships were not good and he had ulcers. Vaguely sensing an inner emptiness, Ken joined a recovery group where he discovered that he was repressing man! y of his emotions.
Ken is still in the process of rediscovering his repressed self. Fortunately, since learning to recognize and express many of his true feelings in healthy ways, his ulcers have cleared up, and his family relationships have improved considerably.
Unfortunately, many people are taught to ignore their negative emotions. As John T. Raffa wrote in Psychology for Living magazine. "They believe you should hide such feelings—deny, deny, deny—and become nothing but a robot instead of what God made us, beings with feelings."
Obviously, the early Christians didn't act this way otherwise they never would have been known for their love one for another. Peter, James, John and Paul all emphasized the need to be honest, to be open-faced, to walk in the light, to openly confess sins and faults, and to love one another. Closed people are unable to fully love, neither can they have any kind of emotional intimacy in marriage and close relationships.
Only as we walk in the light—in openness and honesty—we have true fellowship or connection with both God and other people. And only then do we open ourselves to fully live and fully love—and become open channels for God's love to flow through.
"If we claim to have fellowship with him [God] yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin" (1 John 1:7, NIV).
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please reveal to me every barrier in my life that blocks my feeling close to you and my loved ones so I can know true intimacy with you and the ones I love the most. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."