Vincent’s Thoughts

It ain’t easy being a man for God in this new age of godlessness.

Yeah, the Bible does say that, “The fool says in his heart, there is no God”. What a fool indeed.

Jesus, is God, like it or not. No 2ways about it.

And men.. you guys better bring down that pride… Vince included.

You see, men are always on the go, making money, making friends, and making enemies. Each tries to outsmart each other. And, they come back to the home feeling good and proud about themselves doing all those so called manly stuff out there.

I am not excluded from the ego trip. Its just in all men. If any of you had read Wild At Heart, a book about how God designed the male to be, how the fall in the Garden of Eden, and subsequently how all men long to be validated, as if they have a lifelong obsession about “Do I Have What It Takes?” as opposed to the female obsession to the question with equivalent hanuting effect of “Am I Beautiful or Captivating?”, men are just somehow lost without God. This simply means, without the validation from God Himself, men will always fall to pride, and the challenges the world presents to them.

And answering those challenge from the world is not necessarily necessary, and now that last statement sounds like an oxymoron. Okay, not all challenges are calling out for answer. When you are looked down for not being able to perform at work or in jobs, that does not mean you do not have what it takes, it just means, God is improving you and helping you advance, all you Mr Machos.

Never have I been so enlightened in life, after been through so much emotional turmoil, and of course, with the new portfolio added to me shouldering the responsibility of being a husband, this is a whole new chapter altogether. And there is a man and a friend who quoted in his MSN Messenger when he became a father, that “the measure of manhood is not tested until he becomes a father, a dad”. I couldn’t agree with him more, just that I want to add, the measure of manhood is further tested, whether the man remains loyal, responsible and loving towards his family, but also to set his eyes upon his Maker, God Himself, and devotes all his mortal efforts to serving the Lord of the Universe.

Yeah, there are 2 kinds of Christians in this world. The cat and the dog christians. Something which I learnt from Rev George Ong (http://www.revgeorgeong.com) and I am forever grateful for it. That I have been a selfish Cat Christian all the while, asking God for things, instead of being a Dog Christian, who asks what he can offer God. You see, cats think they are God and that God is their servant who fulfill their wishes like a genie, but dogs serves God and treats God as the master and be loyal to Him.

I have failed countless times, and I thank God for all the lessons He puts in my life to bring me back to Him, and to learn the lesson of serving Him, and staying loyal to the One that breaths air into this flesh made of dust. “Forgive me God, help me serve You, use me for Your Glory”, is my latest mantra and prayer each morning when I wake beside Joanne.

Speaking of Joanne, I know I am far from perfection of being a man that blesses his wife. The thing about marriage is, it teaches you about tolerance, love and also considering another’s feelings. You see, I am bad at these things, but thank God, and to the Holy Spirit that, as time goes by, I notice that I begin to be really aware of me not only answering for myself, but also answering on behalf of Joanne in all circumstances in life. In other words, I am responsible for another life, and that is Joanne, my wife, which my sister Shirley puts it beautifully, that all people, your wife, your kids, your family, is just a loan from God for us, to take care, love and build, so that when He takes them back, they are more perfect than when He gave them to us. Well said.

So, yeah, marriage puts us through the test. And you see, this Vince has a neck for adventure and dreams and visions, and whatever words you choose to fill up that line, and men, I am sure you know what I mean. We are boys and children deep inside, who wants to rough it out, compete and succeed to answer that haunting question, “Do I Have What It Takes?” Vince has been propesied 3 times, and reminded countless times in occassions that Vince is supposed to be this guy from the Old Testament, called Joseph, son of Jacob. Not a story one would want to write their lives after. Big mouth and sold by his own brothers to Egypt, accused of molesting his employers wife, put in jail, forgotten, until he learns to be humble and God put him in charge of Egypt as second in command after Pharaoh.

Yeah, Vince now, speaking in third person, is saying that the question of life, is answered with one simple answer, “Its all in God’s hands, whether we believe or trust Him or not” Yeah, I believe in that, wholeheartedly, though it may seem we are in control, its just an illusion, cause God knows what He is plannning and executing.

I have been reading a lot of books lately, getting a newfound skill of speed reading, I have scoured books at a speed of 100 pages per hour… and that’s not the meat of the paragraph. I found out that, all technology books point to one thing, the impending biochip implantation into the human body, forecasted by the Bible 2000 years ago. From an unbeliever’s point of view, it seems like a natural progression, but for Vince, its just God’s plans. Many think that they are smart in technology and they are the cutting edge guys out there, especially you know.. men.. ahem… But I profess today that we are not even close to understanding why and where technology is heading to.

If you have watched Eagle Eye, you know what I mean. The world is heading towards that, no doubt, Big Brother, surveillance, monitoring and tracking of human behaviour, and how to exploit it. And yeah, I am not gonna be flowery about it, Satan will take control awhile, by becoming the king of the world for a period of time. Things like IPv6, pervalent and ubiquotous online Internet connection, GPS, and all sorts of mobile devices points to that. My take? 10 to 30 years before Jesus comes, and that means, I will be around to witness that. Implantation fo chips on the right hand or forehead will happen, and we Christians better not take those, or else we are declaring that we are denying Christ.

Well, I guess at this point, I will just leave you guys with that thought. Don’t run away from hell, but run towards heaven. Soak in that.

Glory to God, whether I fail to praise Him or not…

Romans 8:28 and Jeremiah 29:11.

Joanne and I had the privilege that we were able to attend this concert. We went there totally by faith, just to see whether there will be any slots for us to catch a glimpse of this band, as my favorite genre in music was alternative rock. What happened instantly was, we went there near the compound which was covered by the gate and posters and blocked by banners, preventing us from being able to see the band. That time, Daniel of Malaysian Idol fame was performing a Malay song. Not too bad. So we had to creep our heads through the banners just to check the stage out.

I believe it was God’s angels that was in the form of a Malay couple that came over to the place where we were peeping and said, “You guys want free tickets to come in? We have 2 extra..” Then, of course, the rest was history, we gone to the main gate, got our paper bracelets or bangles to enter the moshpit area, picked a spot, got our Iced Lemon Tea, and just waited for Daughtry to come out. Here are the tickets:

Alright, we waited from 9.30pm to 10.30pm before they started setting up the stage with smoke, lighting and also the musical instruments of course. We were kept occupied by 3 turn tablist, the top ones in Malaysia, which I kinda forgot their names, but I do know one of them came from Poetic Ammo and the other 2 were some radio DJ in the radio stations.

Then the band came out, I forgot all the songs they were belting except the ones I know, which was Home (sang in an encore), Its Not Over, Over You and It Feels Like Tonight.

Here are some pictures of the concert.

So What did I learn?

Actually before going, I was praying to God about at least having some fun in the concert since both Joanne and I have been working really hard. To top it off, I just finished 1 day training on the same day, and was supposed to continue training, yes, I have to deliver training on Practical Internet Marketing in ITrain / XTrain premises in Stamford College Petaling Jaya, the next day. You can imagine, I was already standing and talking the whole day, then go to the rock concert, then train again next day!

Well, God was good, we got a spot that we get to sit, and enjoy and soak in the rock concert atmosphere, singing along the lyrics of the songs that we know.

Then, we went home for a good night’s rest.

The Lesson:

Pray for all things, and glorify the God who loves us so much. Yes, it’s that simple… and that is life to the fullest…

Now, age old question again here.

First, you see, Leading, sounds like a big manly word.

“I wanna lead in this family”, sounds very condesending and proud isn’t it?

So let’s talk about influencing. Bear in mind, I am talking in the context of marriage here.

Women are created differently and is more easily influenced than led. Yeah, I quoted that and feels that it is like wisdom from Heaven.

Loving, on the other hand, is not pampering. It is like, you bring out the best, admonish and reprimand in necessary times, and most of all, support the woman we love and has pledged our matrimony to.

So, if you ask me, I would choose the latter 2, influencing and loving.

Caution here,  before even doing any of the 3 above, we men, need to check ourselves, and prayerfully with God before we impose our principles and thoughts into the woman we love. This is just in case, we are heading wrongly in our directions and intentions.

So, remember Adam, he didn’t do nothing in the Garden of Eden, so we men cannot blame Eve for being the perpetrator to man’s fall to sin. Adam could have checked with God and asked Eve not to take the apple first.

Lesson: Influence and Love, not Lead with self pride. Lose the ego, guys.

Vince, Signing Off.

Whether we like it or not, we are made to be dominant, but yet gentle.

That’s quite an impossible combination, but not unachievable.

I am Vincent, a man, getting married this August 9th, 2008 at least, the wedding day is on that date.

My wife and I have registered with the Marriage Registrar of Malaysia in February 2007 on Valentine’s day.

So putting it simply, I am already technically married.

Well, to tell you the truth, it takes some effort to get used to couplehood as opposed to singlehood.

I used to be a rebellious and headstrong person with no brains… LOL (stands for Laugh Out Loud in Internet jargon).

My perspective change as I got Joanne as my lifelong best friend.

I made mistakes in a lot of ways and often fall short of the role of being a man in our 2 years period of having known each other.

To be man…. the SECRET?

“Stand up, face challenges, and constantly look for solutions and take out the emotions. Support, and love your family.”

Now, that’s the simplistic and humble view from me.

We can go deeper into the Bible (I am a Christian by the way, a very stonge and strong one, if you wanna know, but not necessarily the most holy and best one out there, I am just banging on God’s grace to get me into heaven.. LOL) to find out more about the role of a man.

You see, when Eve sinned by taking the apple in the middle of the Garden of Eden, Adam stood right beside her. He wasn’t somewhere else. And what made Adam took the apple and sin with Eve together?

INACTION!!! Adam didn’t protect Eve or reprimand her. Adam didn’t do nothing!

So guys, learn something here.

Till next time.

Vince, signing off.