Saul takes his own life

1 Chronicles 10: 1 - 14

Saul, king of the Israelites was on the brink of losing a war he was fighting against the Philistines. His enemies are now near victory, and they were that close to cornering him. He thought he'd rather die than being abused by his enemis upon capture, so requested that one of his men to kill him with a sword. That man wouldn't, so Saul did the deed himself.

His death came about as result of his disobedience to the Lord in various things. His throne then was passed to David, just as the Lord promised.

Lessons

• Never mess with the Lord - we'd definitely pay.
• His words always come to pass - be it good news or bad news. 

When OCD has finally taken us over - the story of Howard Hughes

At times, I wonder how it'd be like living with OCD at its worst, without help of the now-existing medication and counselling available from healthcare professionals. I found the answer today in Howard Hughes' life.

A total genius, who created various world records and set history to its new course in aviation, engineering and movie making - his OCD condition worsened throughout the years, eventually taking total control of him.

He eventually went into total isolation for 20 years to the end of his life - away from people, in fear of germs, physical contacts, and having even developed fear of flies from one point in time.

He would urinate and dispose of his waste in milk bottles all lined up in certain way; re-arrange his stuffs in his room repetitively; and organise sections into germ-free zones.

His servants were given elaborate details on how to handle his things that he would be touching or use, like cutleries and soap. He would stay inside his room and not coming out for months; with his hair, beard and nails all untaken care of.

At his death, he was so unrecognizable to the extent the FBI had to resort to fingerprints to identify his body.
His tall structure (193 cm) had then weighed 41 kg, nails grossly long, with hair and beard extremely unkempt. Doctors who examined his body, found that he was severely malnutritioned, with kidneys failed, and broken needles (he did drugs for very long to cure his pains from various plane crashes he had) still within his arms.

My personal take on this

Had he be destined by the Lord to live in a more future time, he would have priviledge to access medications and services available to help him counter his condition. Stuffs like Prozac, a would have been huge-reliever for him, had only surfaced in the market in the late 80s; a decade more after his death in 1976.

Can't begin to describe how fortunate those of us who live with this condition at this present time. Life would have been literally a living hell, had us lived in the past, and gotten this illness.

NECF Malaysia: 40 days prayer - Day #2

This is actually meant for Malaysians to pray for their own country, though I find it relevant too for people of other country to pray for their own nation.
(just in case, as below are my own words, and not as directly extracted from the booklet)
Pray for:

• Unity amongst the people in the country
• God to deal with the area in your heart where you may feel discontented about your own country
• People in the country to be seeking God - that He may be able to move across the nation

To glorify God - Chapter 7 of 'The Purpose Driven Life'

(my summary after reading of Chapter 7 off 'The Purpose Driven Life' by Rick Warren).


To Glorify God


Why?
Because that's the very purpose God has created us for - to give him glory. He deserves all glory, He who created everything around us like the skies, the mountains, the earth, the moon, the sun, the very air we breathe in, the animals, the trees, water...the list is virtually endless.



How?

• By living in Him, enjoying Him, allowing ourselves to be used by Him whenever
• By loving one another
• By becoming more and more Christ-like
• By serving others with gifts the Lord has given us
• By telling others about His love and purposes

Discovery Channel's Nerfertiti Resurrected

As researched by an egyptologist, Dr. Joann Fletcher.
As with any biography, we could very well learn how we ought to carry out our life.

Below details how I felt after viewing this DVD feature.

• Pro:
  Nefertiti was a woman of character - wise, independent and courageous amongst others. She ruled Egypt on her own after her husband's passing and was the most powerful woman alive on earth during her time, having achieved status as a Pharoah.
  Con:
  She would do anything to have her way.
  
  
• Pro:
  During the time when her husband was still alive, Nefertit co-ruled Egypt with her then Pharaoh husband. Together, they attempted to reshape Egypt in the areas of religion, social and economy.
  Con:
  - In bringing about change in religion of their nation, they destroyed temples that do not worship their sun god, causing massive chaos and unemployment. People were living in fear. No one dare defy.
  - Nefertiti alongside her Pharaoh husband made a lot of enemies. After her husband's passing, the country came to a verge of collapse. She then resorted to assistance from her enemies, by restoring what was rightfully theirs. Unfortunately, her enemies were still keeping grudge over a past conflict. It is believed to this day, that she was murdered by those enemies sometime later.
  - Virtually everything the royal couple ever built were destroyed shortly after their passing.
  
  - Her mumified body alongside two others (believed to be her close family members) were intentionally displaced behind a secret wall - sealed and hidden away from other royal tombs. Name tags off their mummified bodies were taken off.
  
  Nefertiti's corpse were mutilated - mouth were crushed terribly and arms torn apart.
  According to ancient Egyptian belief, mummies are to speak of their own name before the gods to gain entry to eternity. In Nefertiti's case, she was rendered unable to utter her name, therefore be trapped between earth and the afterlife.
  

In this DVD feature, one gets to witness how cruel men could be - things men do to achieve goals whilst forsaking all others around them.

One gets enlightened to not overfocus on earthly matters. As a part of the Bible puts it, these things like our life, would fade quickly like whisper.
Lord, I pray that we would learn from the past - not to repeat the same mistakes, to better our own lives. Guide us. Amen.

The Mysterious Death of the Last Pharaoh of Egypt

According to a DVD I just saw (bought from a complex at Siam Area @ Bangkok) - which proposes a very strong theory as suggested by a cold case criminal investigator, Pat Brown.

Here goes...

She was the last in the line amongst the Pharaohs who have ruled Egypt for over three (3) thousand years. Upon her death, her kingdom was entirely absorbed by Octavian, a young ruler of Rome who previously defeated her and her lover, Mark Antony.

Cleopatra. By far, the causes of her death as according to two historians has been suicide alongside her maids, either by snakebite or by drinking poison, which occured during their last days as captive under Octavian.

According to history, shortly before Cleopatra took the plunge to eternity, she had sent a suicide note to Octavian, and upon Octavian and his guards hasty rush to where Cleopatra was held captive, she was found dead with her maids already dying.

Through Brown's thorough research, which included submerging underwater into the once glorious city, Alexandria, where Cleopatra died - she was able to ruled out both suicide methods as written down in history for over 2000 years.


- Brown's diagnosis -
Cleopatra was murdered by Octavian, the person who held her captive.

Motive: Cleopatra's son, Caesarion, was the direct descendant of Julius Caesar, which would mean having the right to claim the throne of Rome, thus posing a threat to Octavian's rule over Rome.

Caesarion, then went away few days before to another place, was however subsequently hunted down, and murdered under Octavian.

It was early into the reigns of Octavian literally over the entire Rome. He previously ruled one half of Rome, with the other half being ruled over by his rival, Mark Antony. Thus, having time on his side, he could thoroughly recreate a whole different scenario of how he would want the murder to go down in history. Recreation of the crime scene, and by his memoirs which then influenced certain two historians in writing their account of how Cleopatra might have died.


Writer's note:
Sam feels ... one word. Wow.

The Soloist - One Size Does not Fit All (Issue of Homelessness in LA)

In a nutshell, this movie talks bout a schizophrenic person who has great talent in music from childhood, went on to excel in the music performing scene but somehow landed himself in the streets of the Greater Los Angeles.

I won't be posting the entire synopsis here as not to spoil the what nots for those who intend to view the film.

Basically, few points impacted me so much that I just got to get here and put my 'pen' to writing again.

• We all need to expose ourselves more to mental illnesses, including but not limited to schizophrenia, the illness at the core focus of this film. Too many have gone undiagnosed and therefore not being treated - as a result many have deteriorated to the point of being unable to function normally from day to day.
  
• Los Angeles has more homeless people than a few other states in the US combined.
  
• As the story progresses, I pity very much on the main character, Mr. Ayers - as when he first experience symptoms of schizoprenia, there was no one to tell him that he was having it. He did not know on him being schizophrenic himself, and he went untreated for many many years. 20 plus years or even more perhaps.
  
  I have a family member who suffers from schizophrenia, that just within 2 years of being undiagnosed, this particular person deteriorated so much back then, that those around her does not feel safe to be staying with her no more. I can't begin to imagine 20 plus years of undiagnosed schizo case.
  
  
• If only Mr. Ayers somehow had treatment for himself earlier on, he would have succeed in the music line without succumbing all the way to his illness. This saddens my heart to a certain degree as I play music too, so I could relate in a way.
  
• It costs cheaper (roughly 16K US dollars per annum for a homeless person) to give the homeless people in the LA a proper home and facilities, than trying to do anything else with them.
  
• Kudos to those people in an NGO in LA, i.e. LAMP which has dedicated volunteers continuosly helping out the homeless people by providing them shelter and almost everything else, including facilitation to relocate those people to proper apartments and all.
  
• I must personally salute Mr. Lopez, the guy who brought Mr. Ayers and thus the issue of the homelessness to the public media - raising much attention and invoking actions to be taken to counter this serious problem in LA.
  
  

Then again, when I look at my own country, Malaysia - don't think there's any plan in place whatsoever to address the needs and to help these kind of people. Now, that's something this film brings my mind to, come to think bout it. Hmm.