From Prison To Lalaport

They speak idly everyone with his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.

Psalm 12:2

Don’t read this, if you hail from a church in Rawang, Malaysia. Nothing herein this article, or any posts published prior would be deemed edifying to Christians from that city.

Likewise, I’m doing their false preachers a big favor; telling their members not to read this blog. To these preachers, anything that go against their standard protocol of repeatedly emphasizing God’s love without scrutiny or proper reasoning, shall be treated as inappropriate influence.

The theme for this article is prison and the ten commandments. Nothing appealing for merrymaking churchgoers with itching ears. Therefore, if you don’t like vast, Scriptural immensities that doesn’t fit into your little minds, then don’t read. There’s nothing here that you can bring with you, to assemble the facts according to your own limited sizes.

But yet, if you still proceed, then do it at your own risk. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. (2 Peter 2:21)

Taking A Break On A Saturday Evening

The pedestal lane is beautifully designed, and astutely named as Gourmet Street. They made the architecture to mimic narrow streets from Japan, with restaurants and eateries along both sides of the walkway. Strolling around Lalaport with my family is already a pleasure, while we looked for a place to cure our empty stomachs.

Marta’s Kitchen

We arrived at a fairly large restaurant located next to the common, drop-off area.

Marta’s Kitchen is an authentic Spanish restaurant with gastronomic delights, mostly known for their appetizing tapas and paellas. As we made our way into this shop, we were greeted by a cheerful Ugandan waiter, who told us that he is part-timing, while pursuing his academic interest in Malaysia.

I said to the waiter, I can’t read Spanish. And he politely took out four menus and started introducing the various cuisines that they are serving. Everything sounds delicious. So, we settled for a full rack of barbecue pork ribs, fresh fish and chips and four plates of rice, cooked in Spanish style that they called ‘Valenciana Paella’.

The rest of the staff at Marta’s Kitchen, are equally well-trained. They are helpful. After we ate, they cleared the plates and not the cups, although some of us have finished up the drinks as well and leaving empty cups on the table; a sign that they welcome us to stay on longer. Later, they returned again, and showed us the dessert menus, a known method of suggestive selling, practiced and taught in F&B finishing schools.

And the food was good.

Loron Wade’s ‘The Ten Commandments’

The book is handy, and small enough for me carry with me wherever I go. Several weeks ago, I was in Klang, having lunch with my son, after he visited a client. A very young Myanmar boy approached our table, and tried to sell books to us. I told him that I wasn’t interested.

Then he flipped out a small booklet and ask me, if I could at least support him by buying the booklet, at any price I name. And I was about to say no again to the boy, until I read the title of the book ‘The Ten Commandments’ by Loron Wade. Without hesitating, I took some cash from my wallet, and gave it to the boy.

Since then, the book has been going places with me. Practically, it replaced my handphone. I read it while I’m in the car, during lunch and dinner breaks, and on each night when I had supper together with my wife. After her, the booklet became my next best friend.

Finishing dinner at Marta’s Kitchen, I took out the book and read it, while the rest of my family enjoyed their dessert and chatting with one another. Great way to spend the evenings as one.

The First Commandment

Wade stated that the first commandment orders us to put away false gods, and it does not stop there. After telling us what we are not suppose to do (that we shall have no other gods), God then tells us what we must do, to put Him first. Wade equates this commandment as a prohibition that leads to positive action, of “worth-shiping” the One true God.

Then Wade explained why this commandment is the first among the rest. All the other commandments are simply moral rules that have no more power than a thousand great ideas, unless we put God rightfully where He belongs, at the top of our lives. We cannot back into the first commandment by obeying the other nine. Instead, we have to come to the other nine, by going through the first one.

Here is an ancient appeal that still speaks to us across centuries. What does the Lord your God requires from you, BUT TO FEAR THE LORD YOUR GOD, TO WALK IN HIS WAYS AND TO LOVE HIM, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul? (Deuteronomy 10:12)

The Second Commandment

The second commandment is like a stark warning. That God made it clear Himself that He is a jealous God. That while He remembers the iniquities of the fathers, on their children, but yet He showed His lovingkindness on those who loved Him and kept His commandments. (Exodus 20:4-6)

And this is where the vast majority of false preachers get it wrong all the time. They are like modern rationalists, casting their little net of intellectual skills into the vast ocean of the universe. Then, what they capture is limited by the brief radius of their senses, and their inability to process the data that they take in. To them, loving God and keeping His commandments are separate and different, despite what is stated in the Bible.

They make themselves the owners of their own bit of information, AND DENY THE EXISTENCE OF EVERYTHING ELSE. As Loron Wade emphasized, it is the same mistake, and proof that this problem is not limited only to ignorant people.

Despite the assurance given by God, many people in our churches today, still picture God as a forgetful or reluctant God. Therefore, they fortified themselves with armies of intercessors, false prophets and fake preachers, clamoring around God once a week on Sundays, seeking God’s attention and to convince God to help them.

But in John 16:26-27, Jesus said, ‘ In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God.’

FOR THOSE WHO KEEP THE FIRST AND THE SECOND COMMANDMENT, OBEDIENCE TO THE REST IS ONLY NATURAL.

Likewise, it follows; anyone who disregards the importance of obeying the rest of the commandments, should question themselves, where is God in their lives, or why are they bothered to even call themselves, followers of Christ.

While in the land of the blind, “one-eyed” false preachers will continue to rule as their kings, instead of God. Within their circle of faith, it is never about loving God, but they are being fed with the notion that salvation is only about God loving them, while their kings ride on this fake belief to retain their position of power in their own fake churches.

Therefore, because men did the opposite, God gave them over to the lust of their hearts, to their deprave minds and to things that are improper (Romans 1:23). He gave them over to their itching ears, and to the zeal to listen to false preachers (2 Timothy 4:3). And the list of sins that followed, includes greed, evil, envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, gossip, slander, insolence, arrogance, boasting, disobedience, untrustworthy, unloving and unmerciful (Romans 1:28-31)

What If We Did It God’s Way?

What if we did it God’s way? That is the question printed on the cover of Wade’s book. What would have happened if we considered and made God’s wisdom as part of our world? And what if we went beyond the surface and looked at the POWERFUL IMPLICATIONS of these ancient principles? But yet, if I were to wield any power, it shall be quickly dismissed as stemming from the devil, simply because my family I no longer attend these fake churches, who calls Jesus Christ their Lord, but not doing what He commands them to do. (Luke 6:46)

And the question again, what if we did it God’s way? Well, if men have done it God’s way, the high pillars between the entrance that once led into Pudu prison, now known as Lalaport, would not be standing here today in Malaysian history.

While on Sundays you will hear men singing songs in praise to God, but somehow they misunderstood the definition of the word ‘worship’, that originated from two other words; ‘worth’ and ‘ship’. And the rest too is also history, men mistaken worthless flattery for worship.

Coming next, more words I shall speak against false preachers, as I move on to the third commandment – Thou shall not use God’s name in vain.