Life Changes

After hearing the testimony and thoughts of a newly-came-to-Christ brother in the afternoon, I feel so glad and overwhelmed with so much joy. I saw his heart where change by God, from an unbeliever he start to seek for God, in his heart God gave a desire to seek Him. His life changed, not only he himself feel it, but people around him also can see God works in him. And the most interesting is that I see him just like seeing a mirror. Last time I also used to doubt like he did, trying to believe but feel like don't have enough faith to believe and trust God, afraid to be away from the fellowship. It is just so wonderful to see how God touches people lifes in different ways.

From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. (Acts 17:26-27)

"'For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God. " (Ezekiel 36:24-28)

Amen.

一個美乃滋罐子跟兩杯咖啡

這一天的哲學課，教授站上了講台
他卻不發一語，只是從講桌底下拿出了一個空的美乃滋瓶罐。

接著他拿出了一袋高爾夫球。
他把整袋的高爾夫球塞進了美乃滋空裡
然後教授就問學生同不同意這個罐子已經是滿的了。
學生們當然是同意。

接著，教授又從桌子下拿出了一杯小小的鵝卵石
他慢慢地把鵝卵石往罐子倒
邊倒邊搖，
不一會兒
所有的高爾夫球間的縫隙
竟也都填滿了鵝卵石。
這時，教授又問學生同不同意
『這個美乃滋罐子已經是滿了？』
學生當然是同意。

可是，話才剛說完
教授又從講桌底下拿出了一杯細沙子
教授又用同樣的方法
邊倒邊搖的把沙子填滿了鵝卵石之間的小縫隙。
教授又問了大家同不同意
『這回罐子是真正的滿了？？？』
同學說應該是全滿了，沒有空間了。

想不到同學才剛答完話
教授又從講桌下拿出了兩杯咖啡來
開始徐徐地往美乃滋罐子裡倒
直到兩杯咖啡全部到進罐子裡，一滴也不剩。
倒完咖啡後
教授笑著對同學們說：
『現在的美乃滋罐子才是真正的滿了啦。』

同學們也跟著笑了起來
就在整個教室的歡笑聲裡

教授說話了：
『你們知道我今天做這個表演，是要告訴你們什麼嗎？
我是要用這個美乃滋罐來告訴你們一個道理
一個關於我們一生的哲理。

這個美乃滋空罐就是我們的人生
高爾夫球就是我們生命中的一些大事情
例如：上帝，家庭，小孩，朋友，健康，還有你的摯愛。
生命裡沒有那些小鵝卵石或沙子是沒關係的
可是要是缺了這些大事情
我們的生命根本沒有意義。

小小的鵝卵石就是我們生命中的其他的事情
例如：工作，房子，車子等等東西。
至於那細沙子就是我們生命中的小事情
那些細微不重要的瑣事。

今天我的表演....
如果是一開始就先把細沙子灌滿美乃滋罐子
那就根本沒有空間好放入高爾夫球跟鵝卵石
同樣地，如果我是先倒鵝卵石
那也是會沒有空間好給高爾夫球。

我們的生命就是這樣的
如果你儘是把寶貴的時間花在細微的瑣事上
你就不可能有時間去處裡重要的事情。
所以，我們該多花時間去注意
那些會關係到我們快樂與幸福的事情
多跟我們的小孩一起
多去陪陪我們的父母、祖父母，多些時間給家人
多注意自己的身體健康

不要擔心家事做不完
不用擔心房子還沒粉刷
不要擔心花園還沒整理
我們會找到時間來做這些事情的
先多花些心思在那些重要的大事情上吧!!

生命只有一回
我們把事情的輕重緩急跟優先順序弄清楚
生命才會有意義。』

教授說到這裡
有個同學舉手了....
『教授，那兩杯咖啡又代表著什麼呢？』
『我很高興你問這個，』教授回答道

『這兩杯咖啡就是要告訴我們
不管我們的美乃滋罐看起來是裝得多滿
我們總是可以有空間跟朋友一起享受杯咖啡的！』

我們的一生似乎總是這麼的忙
有這麼多的事情要處裡
似乎是一天的 24小時總是不夠用？

如果你還是這麼想的話
想想『一個美乃滋罐子跟兩杯咖啡』的故事吧。

Some STE-mimics

Pericarditis
[Narrow complex STE-mimic]

ECG signs:

1. Stage I: Diffuse ST elevation (CONCAVE shape!) in all leads except aVR, V1; PR depression (very sensitive indicator)
2. Stage II: ST segments temporarily normalize
3. Stage III: Diffuse ST depression +/- T inversion
4. Stage IV: Gradual normalization of ST and T Waves

Clinical signs:

• Pericardial friction rub
• Central chest pain worsen on inspiration and lying flat, relief by sitting forward
• Raised troponin level, and maybe other cardiac enzyme (so cardiac enzymes [CE] elevation doesn't only indicate MI!)

Some complications:

• Pericardial effusion
• Cardiac tamponade

Hyperkalemia
[Wide complex STE-mimic]

# NB! Potassium is important for repolarization of muscles. Increased potassium cause and FAST and ABNORMAL repolarization

Some possible causes:

• Renal failure
• Metabolic acidosis
• Addison's disease (Hypoaldosteronism)
• Potassium sparring diuretics: Spironolactone (aldosterone antagonist), Hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ)
• etc

ECG signs:

• Widen QRS, in severe case can observe slurred QRS (slow depolarization due to increased positive charge on outer membrane)
• Shorten QT (due to fast repolarization)
• Hyperacute, tall and peak, tent-shape T wave (due to abnormal repolarization)
• ST elevation
• Widen PR (>0.2s) in severe case (due to atrial paralysis)
• Ventricular arrhythmia, ventricular tachucardia, VF occurs in very sever case. When potassium level high enough, it greatly reduce resting membrane potential (RMP) and myocardium eventually become inexicitable and heart stops in diastole x.x
  

Other clinical signs in hyperkalemia:

• Hyporeflexia, paralysis, constipation
• Neuroloical and muscular symptoms
• Death may occurs before and other clinical signs x.x

Word of Caution:
Nothing is absolute in medicine, patient with aortic dissection might have ECG signs of pericarditis. So remember,

Smirnov : "In medicine everything is possible!"

Have You Step on Your Pilgrimage?

Huhu, long time didn't update my blog, even though now is holiday >.< , but anyway I said before that I will only post something once in a blue moon. However I would like to apologise to those who still come to visit my blog, if there are, because people rarely put comments so I hardly know who is reading my blog. Anyway, let us go straight to the main topic.

My two-weeks winter holiday is coming to an end (still got 3 days left only T.T). Some people might ask what I did during the holiday, since I didn't go anywhere. Well, I slept quite a lot, hehe, but I read a book named "Growing Your Faith: How to Mature in Christ" by Jerry Bridges.

"Growing Your Faith: How to Mature in Christ"
by Jerry Bridges.

He is a great author, who has also written books such as "Discipline by Grace", "Trusting God: Even When Life is Hurt", and the best-selling "The Pursuit of Holiness". Although John Piper is also a great author, but I prefered Jerry Brigdes's writting more because somehow his ideas are more easily to grasp than John Piper's, and he also used many good analogies or illustrations to explain his points, e.g. the bookends analogy, analogy of many zeros, etc. This is a good book and I recomment it for those who wants to mature in Christ.

Another interesting thing I would like to share is that I also listen to the audio version of "The Pilgrim's Progress", a great book by John Bunyan. Let us see how Wikipedia describes it.

"The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come is a Christian allegory written by John Bunyan and published in February, 1678. It is regarded as one of the most significant works of English literature, has been translated into more than 200 languages, and has never been out of print."
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrim's_Progress

Pilgrim's Progress (First Edition 1678)
by John Bunyan.

Basically it is about a person called Christian who steps on his pilgramage to the Celestial City, and on the way he met many different kinds of people and places. The most interesting about this book is that the names of the character and place are literally the description of that character or place. E.g. there are people named Evangelist, Help, Goodwill, Hypocrisy, Watchful, Talkative, Envy, Faithful, Atheist, Hopeful, etc; and there are places called Slough of Despond, Hill Difficulty, Danger, Valley of Humiliation, Vanity Fair, River of the Water of Life. And of cause another interesting thing is that the author quote many verse from the Bible and he also use many illustration from the Bible, e.g. Valley of the Shadow of Death (Psalm 23:4), Mount Sinai (Exodus), Mount Zion, Demas, Moses, Adam the First, Apollyon, Lot's wife, Beelzebub.

In this book, you can see how christians' life is, how they are justified, what kinds of challenge and persecution that they will face, how they will fall into temptation or diverted away from the truth, how they are saved, etc.

This map shows the places and people that Christians met
when he travels from City of Destruction to Celestial City

[SPOILER]

One of the most interesting part is when the author tried to emphasizes the importance of fellowship together with each other. When Christian and Hopeful are walking through the Enchanted Ground, Hopeful feels so drowsy and wants to sleep, but Christian reminds him by quoting "Let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober." (1 Thessalonians 5:6), because if they should sleep at the Enchanted Ground, they will never wake up again from their sleep. Hopeful realises his mistake and said "Two are better than one." (Ecclesiastes 4:9)*. So they decided to have a discussion to keep them awake. Later Chrisitan sings a song,

When saints do sleepy grow, let them come hither,
And hear how these two pilgrims talk together;
Yea, let them learn of them in any wise,
Thus to keep ope their drowsy, slumb’ring eyes.
Saints’ fellowship, if it be managed well,
Keeps them awake, and that in spite of hell.

* I think it is good to qoute out Ecclesiastes 4:9-11 for all of us to read:
"Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone?"

This part of the story reminds me how important for brothers and sisters to come togther to fellowship, and these two verses came to my mind.

"Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another - and all the more as you see the Day approaching." (Hebrews 10:25)

"As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." (Proverbs 27:17).

So you can how important it is for brothers and sisters to fellowship with each other, to encourage and sharpen each others' faith, to help when other falls down, to keep each other warm.

[SPOILER ENDS]

For those interested in reading this book, here are some links for you.
Pilgrim's Progress (actual text)
Pilgrim's Progress (condensed and illustrated)
Pilgrim's Progress (audio version)

Peace Be With You!

Note: The title of this post is from John 20:21.

Recently in Malaysia, many churches been attacked and there is a huge arguement about the use of the word "Allah" as a translation for the word "God" among some of the churches in Malaysia, especially in East Malaysia.

Ok, I am not going to talk about whether that word can be used or not, because it doesn't solve the problem. For more detail about that word, can go here. The main point in this post, which is also a point that many people forget about, is peace, love, and hormony.

Jesus said like this in the Sermon of the Mount:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
(Matthew 5:3,5,7,8,9)

He also said:
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 7:12)

What everyone need to do is sit down and discuss, and try to work out a solution for it, not trying to be selfish. Isn't this what we always write in the essay during childhood?

"Walaupun Malaysia ialah satu negara yang terdiri daripada pelbagai kaum, tetapi semua kaum hidup bersama-sama dengan aman dan harmoni."

No matter how true this is, at least this is how last time the foreigners used to see Malaysia as. So let us be peacemakers, and create peace in our country, rather than being selfish and scare that our rights will be eroded.

A verse to end this post. Jesus said to his disciples during the Last Supper,
Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.
(John 13:14-15)