Such a Time as This

On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the palace, in front of the king's hall. - Esther 5:1a

Esther was a woman who lived for a cause greater than herself. God used this woman to save the entire Jewish people from extermination. However, before God could use her, she had to come to a place of death in herself. It was not an easy decision. Her uncle Mordecai was the instrument God used to challenge her to measure up to the task.

Do not think that because you are in the king's house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this? (Esther 4:13b-14)

Mordecai was telling it straight. For her to speak up meant great risks if the king did not receive her. It was automatic death if the king did not extend his scepter, which meant acceptance of her approach to the throne. It was also a time to realize that God may have brought her to this place and time for this specific purpose. However, if she did not respond in faith, God would use another instrument to deliver the people. What would she do?

Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish (Esther 4:16).

On the third day of the fast she came and stood in the inner court of the palace, in front of the king's hall. She was like Jesus who stood in the inner court of Heaven on that third, resurrection day. She gave up her life, but God raised it up on that day and delivered an entire people from destruction because of one woman's willingness to give up her life for a greater cause.

God has called each of us to a purpose greater than ourselves. Know that it will require death before life can be given to this purpose. It must be His life that lives, not ours.
by Osman Hill

Do you know your life's purpose?
Tags: Esther, Mordecai, God, Jews

Women's Favorite E-mail of the Year 2007

A man was sick and tired of going to work every day while his wife stayed home. He wanted her to see what he went through so he prayed:-
'Dear Lord, I go to work every day and put in 8 hours while my wife merely stays at home.
I want her to know what I go through.
So, please allow her body to switch with mine for a day.
Amen!'

God, in his infinite wisdom, granted the man's wish.
The next morning, sure enough, the man awoke as a woman.
He arose, cooked breakfast for his mate,
Awakened the kids,
Set out their school clothes,
Fed them breakfast,
Packed their lunches,
Drove them to school,
Came home and picked up the dry cleaning,
Took it to the cleaners,
And stopped at the bank to make a deposit,
Went grocery shopping,
Then drove home to put away the groceries,
Paid the bills and balanced the check book,
He cleaned the cat's litter box and bathed the dog.

Then, it was already 1.00 p.m.
And he hurried to make the beds,
Do the laundry, vacuum,
Dust,
And sweep and mop the kitchen floor,
Ran to the school to pick up the kids and got into an argument with them on the way home,
Set out milk and cookies and got the kids organized to do their homework,
Then, set up the ironing board and watched TV while he did the ironing,

At 4:30 p.m., he began peeling potatoes and washing vegetables for salad, breaded the pork chops and snapped fresh beans for dinner,
After dinner, he cleaned the kitchen,
Ran the dishwasher,
Folded laundry,
Bathed the kids,
And put them to bed.

At 9.00 p.m., he was exhausted and, though his daily chores weren't finished, he went to bed where he was expected to make love, which he managed to get through without complaint.

The next morning, he awoke and immediately knelt by the bed and said:-
'Lord, I don't know what I was thinking.
I was so wrong to envy my wife's being able to stay home all day.
Please, oh! Oh! Please, let us trade back.
Amen!'

The Lord, in his infinite wisdom, replied:-
'My son, I feel you have learned your lesson and I will be happy to change things back to the way they were.
You'll just have to wait nine months, though.
You got pregnant last night.'

This has been voted Women's Favorite E-mail of the Year 2007!
Tags: Jokes, Funny, Humour, Email of the Year

Man United in Champions League Semis

This was Carlos Tevez's header that sent Manchester United through to the UEFA Champions League semi-finals and will face Barcelona at Nou Camp first on 22 Apr 2008.

AS Roma couldn't break down Man United's defence even with a gifted penalty. Man United played with a 4-5-1 formation which is quite defensive with only Carlos Tevez playing upfront.

I predict that with Man United's hot form and hot players, they will overcome Barcelona and meet Liverfool in the finals to be held in Moscow, Russia next month.

Man United is on form right now and when you can't beat them or worry about their domination, you destroy them by buying their best player. Real Madrid has sounded that they would place a bid of £100million (more than RM630million) for Cristiano Ronaldo. This amount is similar to an oil production plant which could produce 100,000 barrels of oil per day. Work that figure out at the current oil price of US$112 per barrel.

Man United knew that they have to place a higher price on Ronaldo's head in order to keep him at their club. Rumours are flying around that he would be offered a £140,000 per week salary package plus many other benefits. Will he accept that package or try out Real Madrid's offer?

Reading: Reports claim record Ronaldo bid - Skysports
Reading: Ron Hijack Threat - Sport of the World
Reading: Ronaldo will laugh all the way to the bonk - News of the World
Tags: Manchester United, Man U, Man United, Man Utd, Carlos Tevez, Cristiano Ronaldo, UEFA Champions League, AS Roma, Barcelona, Nou Camp, Liverpool, Football, Soccer

Malaysian Made Cars Are Not That Bad

When you read about the Malaysian car being recalled for some repair in my blog entry for Proton Savvy, your mind may think that "aiyah, that's our national car, what do you expect? a Ferrari quality standard?

The following days after Proton Savvy has announced for a recall, two other foreign car manufacturers made a similar recall.

Volkswagen AG is recalling some 410,000 Passat sedans sold in the United States due to potential problems with heat shields and fuel line components - wow, fuel line????? The car could turn into a fireball out of a sudden.

Toyota Motor Corp will recall 539,500 Corolla and Matrix vehicles for the 2003 and 2004 model years due to potential power window problems. In case of any emergency and the door was stucked, they can't even escape through the windows. Just last Sept 2007, Toyota has to recall certain Toyota Lexus and Toyota Camry due to its floor mat which may not be attached properly.

General Motor Corp will recall 122,598 Pontiac Vibe hatchbacks, a joint production with Toyota, also due to power window issues.

Now after reading the above, Proton Savvy is ain't that bad after all as compared to the other three car manufactuers who had to recall hundreds of thousands. But the question is - was there a failure in the quality assurance part? It's so easy for these car manufacturers in just requesting for a recall as and when they found out about the defects.

What if the defects have caused human lifes to be taken away?
Tags: Car, Proton Savvy, Volkswagen AG, Passat, Toyota Motor Corp, General Motors Corp, Toyota Corolla, Toyota Matrix, Pontiac Vibe, Motor Vehicle, Car Manufacturer, Power Window, Fuel Line Component

KL Local Council Issued Corruption Challenge

Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur ("DBKL") (in english - Kuala Lumpur City Hall) has issued an ultimatum challenge to the public - "prove that DBKL is corrupted".

What a challenge indeed! Want to take it up?

It's so obvious already and yet wanted people to prove it. I could be sued for blogging this statement. But it's a fact out there. Proof? Evidence?

Just sit at the nearest mamak restaurant at my place and you could see it happening. Proof? Ask anyone, as long as one DBKL officer walks into the restaurant and sits at the last table, the person-in-charge of the restaurant would entertain that officer. Both would talk talk and talk. What transpired? Your guess is as good as mine. Nobody would be bothered by it as everybody's fed up with such thingy.

Hello, people asking for proof lah, why did you keep putting the words there and didn't post any proof. Oh yeah ...........

Being the life president of the kay poh chee club (busybody), I asked "Kena lagi?" (You had it again?). The person-in-charge would say "Biasa lah, bagi minum kopi semua ok" (Usual lah, just provide some coffee drinks, everything will be ok). Coffee drinks in this sense is undertable money.

Still not a proof yet, just hearsay. What more you want? Take pictures? You want me to die with their whole gang of City Hall officers sitting in the car / van just in front of the restaurant?

In the first place, the restaurant is at all fault for not following guidelines issued by DBKL, for instance arrangement of table/chairs at the pedestrian walkway, illegal extension, cleanliness, illegal signboards, licence not renewed, licences not fully displayed or displayed wrongly, didn't apply for certain licence, etc (you just name it lah). How do I know? I asked lah, told you already that I'm the life president of the kay poh chee club.

Not only this mamak restaurant near my house but have seen it in other restaurants be it owned by indians, malays or chinese. No racial issues in DBKL, that's what I liked about them (pun intended of course). Just ask anyone who frequents open air food joints or low class restaurants.

Somemore want to issue a challenge to proof it? No pictures lah, no videos but if they were caught, the usual rhetoric would be - this is just a few black sheeps among the many white sheeps.

Yeah, maybe it was the same group of people that was going to all those food joints and caused people to have the mindset of "all of them are like that one lah".

Hmmmmmm what else to write ah ........... got plenty one but getting angry the more I blog about this ......... and they call themselves Malaysians, preying on helpless Malaysians or Malaysians who were willing to pay also lah ...... broke the rules and afraid that business might be closed down or assets being taken away, so no choice but to give 'offering'.

Related post:-
* Tackling Corruption in Malaysia
Tags: DBKL, Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur, City Hall, Kuala Lumpur City Hall, Kuala Lumpur, Corruption, Local Council

Tourism Ministry Cancelled Tourism Plans???

With the appointment of a new minister, Malaysia's Tourism Ministry has terminated a number of Memorandums of Understanding signed between contractors and operators of tourism activities and the Tourism Ministry itself.

Reason given was these tourism activities would be held at states governed by the opposition camps. Due to this, the Tourism Ministry thought that the opposition state governments can't jive with the federal government's vision and plans.

Wow, sore losers showing their fangs!

The Tourism Ministry had terminated plans where they thought were wonderful then, those that could enhance the tourism industry in the nation and/or states. I was sure that they would have done proper studies before entering into those MOUs, then why did they cancel it right now?

Imagine this headline - Tourism Ministry terminated plans to promote tourism.

By terminating it, it reduces events planned for months and years to come and Malaysia was on the footing to draw more tourists to our nation. Moreover, the Visit Malaysia Year 2007 had been extended to 31 Aug this year. Somehow, all this nonsense seems to contradict each other. And the Tourism Ministry has wasted every single person's time who was involved in planning for those events earlier.

The ruling party which had placed their representatives into the government has still not learnt from the political tsunami in the recent general election and was still repeating their same style over the years.

Is the federal government inflicting more hardships on the state governments (those governed by the opposition parties) as the termination of such MOUs were done for events to be held in the five states only i.e. Kelantan, Kedah, Penang, Perak and Selangor.

Instead, the Tourism Ministry has decided to deal with 'individuals' to implement future tourism activities in this five states under opposition camps. Who are these 'individuals'? Why 'individuals'?

So, what do you do with those staff employed just for those events? Sack them now? Keep them in cold storage? (not referring to the supermarket you numskull). Maybe from those MOUs, many more contracts have been signed to effect the planning, get sued for terminating those contracts? At whose costs? Taxpayers?

Why can't the federal government's ministries work with this five state governments?
Impression given was the federal government purposely did it to punish voters in this five states or those signed MOUs were not beneficial to that five state governments and have to be terminated to cover-up any discrepancies. I really don't know. Hopefully this nation will turn out well in months to come. The world's economy is heading downwards and yet our government is playing a fool.

This is your federal government!

Related post:-
* Opposition MPs Cannot Officiate School Functions
Tags: Tourism Ministry, Federal Government, State Government, Kelantan, Kedah, Penang, Perak, Selangor, Memorandum of Understanding

Interesting English Word Test

What do these words have in common...... ??

Banana
Dresser
Grammar
Potato
Revive
Uneven
Assess

Are you peeking or have you already given up?

Give it another try.... You'll kick yourself when you discover the answer. Go back and look at them again; think hard.

OK... here you go.. hope you didn't cheat. This Is Cool!!

Answer . . . . . .
In all of the words listed, if you take the first letter, place it at the end of the word, and then spell the word backwards, it will be the same word!!!

Told ya it was cool! Not cool?

Did you figure it out? Then maybe this word test is not meant for you ...... hehe
Tags: English, Word Test, Unique