It is You who watch over my way
This Friday, we were
privileged at FGB Jaya One to have brother Raymond Phang share with us.
As a child, since
Kindergarten days, I attended the Sunday School at PJ Gospel Hall. Later, when
I went to Methodist
Primary School , I
remember getting a ride there in an old bone-breaker of a car which did not
have a working petrol gauge. Those days, we used to play football at the back of the church and some
of us even made it to play on at district and state level.
At Secondary level, I moved to a Catholic
school where I backslided and stopped going to church. Nevertheless, I
still remembered God answering two very important prayers, once when I lost
my spectacles and another timewhen I lost my expensive Casio calculator. I knew
that the calculator was stolen but after I prayed, the Lord actually sent someone to return it to me.
When I was in Form 5, I started attending a
devotion session on many mornings under a tree. A form six student named Kumar would cycle to school early in the
morning and have devotions there
for students. I used to arrive at school half an hour early and one day
Kumar asked me to join his devotions. As he walked the earth, our Lord Himself would have typically taught crowds while seated under a tree. Kumar would go through the Scripture very thoroughly.
In school, I also picked up martial arts and became a 5th Dan, rising to the highest level to become the joint grand master of the school when my teacher left for overseas. As a Form 6 student, our headmaster said we
should not teach. So I remembered employing some former students who had left school to come back and teach the martial arts. We had as many as 50 students, and through these activities I was able to almost fully pay my way through my tertiary education in accounting in
One thing I didn’t quite like about becoming a grand master was that foreigners, some 6 feet tall would come and challenge me. However, I usually asked them to spar with some of my students and as they couldn’t even beat them, these foreigners even became my students. Later I guess the Lord led me to give up martial arts in 1997 before I got married.
After my studies and a few years working in audit, I went into the Insurance line and after moving around a few departments, found an interest in the Marketing division. At 27, I was already heading a branch of 100
staff with RM100 Million premiums at its height.
God had blessed me so much but in my ignorance, I thought all this blessing was because of myself and I still did not go to church. Strangely, I still ended up reading the Bible often. When I joined Amway, I bought a lot of motivational books, and I read avidly until I practically ran out of reading material – Anthony Robbins, Zigs Ziglar, you name them. One thing I noticed in these books was that the authors frequently referred to the Bible and I decided to read the Bible directly myself.
In 1998 I got married, and in 1999, I went for a house meeting at
I was still doing my Bible reading that same year, and as I just finished the book of Joshua, I felt that I needed to name my son Joshua. This was strange as my wife and I were both Buddhists, but the Lord led us to name him Joshua. Joshua was born on a Good Friday in 1999 then and today, I like to remind him “Be courageous”. Later, when I found out my wife was pregnant again, I told her it would be girl. She was surprised and asked me how sure I was but I had just finished reading the book of Esther. God spoke to me to name my daughter Esther.
And then on 6th August 2000, just 4 days before my birthday 10 August, I became a Christian by saying the sinners prayer in the presence of brother
Incredibly, In that same year, my business was struck by the financial crisis, and I found myself with huge debts of because of non-payment of RM300,000 from a Christian brother’s public listed company which had become PN17. The Credit Officer handling my banking account happened to be my ex-colleague and restructured my debts to RM120,000/- over a 12 month instalment plan, with 12 post-dated cheques given. In my bank account, I remembered that I had only enough for 6 months payments and even if one cheque bounced, I would be pretty much bankrupt. I asked this ex-colleague of mine what should I do. He told me to go down on my knees and pray with shedding of tears.
Against this backdrop, I found out my wife was pregnant again despite birth control actions that we took. With so many worries on my mind, I called my FGT Pastor who was an old school friend of mine for lunch. He encouraged me that God is Jehovah Jireh, my provider, and reminded me how on the mountain where Isaac asked Abraham “where is the sacrifice?”, his father answered him “It will be provided”
Regarding my third child, I was led to read the verse in Genesis 1: 26/27 & 28 which says "Go forth and multiply”. Considering what I should name my second daughter, I was led by God to a verse on Sarah being mother of many nations, and so named her Sarah.
Later I managed to sell my share in another business venture I had undertaken and was able to meet my installments. The Lord did indeed provide.
Regarding my
children, we encountered a problem later on with my two daughters when the specialist diagnosed them as having wheezing problems and possibly
asthma. They thus had to go on special medication to our sadness.
At that time, we were sending them for babysitting with a very nice Hindu babysitter. However, later, my sister alerted me that the children were playing with the altar and the remains of the babysitter’s deceased husband in the house. I realized I needed to shift the children to another place, and gradually was able to transfer them to the childcare managed by
Looking back, I realized the importance of their being under the covering of the church. They had also learnt good things like praying before meals and we thank the Lord for His grace.
Another time, my children were playing in the playground near my parents place when I happened to be home at 6pm that day and asked them to come back home. And, then I left for a meeting. Just half and hour later, we heard what sounded like firecrackers, but when my father went to investigate, it turned out there was a chase involving police and criminals with gunshots fired around the playground area. Again, God’s grace was so evident in protecting my family. We must always pray for the protection of our children.
Recently, I came across Psalm 142:1-3 which really sums up the story of my life. It says “I cry aloud to the Lord; I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy. I pour out before him my complaint; before him I tell my trouble. When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who watch over my way.
I will leave you with these verses :
Remember Matthew 7:7 ASK, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. Mark 10;27 For with God all things are possible. The parable of Talents talks about how each servant was given one, two & five talents respectively. The servants of the two & five talents doubled what they had and was commended by the Master “Well-done, Good & Faithful Servant” whereas the Servant with one talent hid it & did not do anything to it. The Master rebuked him for being lazy and faithless. Then the Master took his one talent to give it to the one who had five talents initially, meaning he now had eleven talents. Our Lord is really into Economics! The Master told the Servant he should have at the least put his talent into a bank account to earn interest. Our Lord really wants us to grow in HIM and definitely be a Doer of his WORD! James 1:22
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