CALVARY TODAY HITS 100,000

Calvary Today has surpassed the 100,000 hits on its blog pages this morning. For this we have to give our awesome God all the Glory and Honour for indeed He has guided us and given us wisdom since CT's inception to reach where CT is today. "For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourself fighting against God." (Acts 5:38-39)

It has been an amazing run since CT's birth less than 5 months ago. When CT was prayerfully and officially launched on 6 September 2008 in the "Upper Room" in the presence of 40-odd Calvary Church members, little did any one present then, imagined that this humble blog will be read, not only by Calvary Church members but the Christian community within and without Malaysia.

As many of you know, CT was actually born out of necessity. Prior to the start-up of CT by the core TTG members, the church members were kept informed of the developments in church via emails. As the mailing list swelled over time, it became tedious and time consuming to dispatch information through email. This is because the emails have to be sent out in small numbers to avoid ending up in spam folders, commonly featured in email programmes. The idea of a blog was the result of much brain-storming, debates and prayers among the core TTG members. "For the Lord gives wisdom, and from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds victory in store for the upright, He is a sheild to those whose walk is blameless, and He guards the course of the just and protects the way of His faithful ones." (Proverbs 2:6-8)

Whilst we are aware that the identity and credibility of the people behind any blog is of utmost importance, this was not an area of concern in the case of CT. Many, if not all, of its readers from Calvary Church know who the core TTG members are. Even the pastors and deacons know who they are. They were the ones who spoke out in AGMs and EGMs, the ones who wrote to the pastors and deacons, the ones who held discussions with the deacons and the ones who penned most of the posts (not comments) on this blog. Contrary to CT’s critics, the people behind CT are not unidentified dubious characters but long-serving Church leaders, teachers, professionals and people of standing in the corporate world and above all, people who have nothing personal to gain from all this.

The CT blog has also evolved from a simple amateurish blog in its early days into a seemingly professional website today, all without any professional help. For this, the group gives all glory to God for He has made this possible despite the fact that none of the group members are real IT savvy people.

CT is here to stay and will continue until such time God tells the core TTG group to stop. When the online debates heated up feverishly in mid-December with the publishing of the 2-part interview with Dr Lum, the group started on plans to cool things down to prepare for a peaceful Christmas, followed by a prayerful January.

However, things do not always turn out the way we plan. Thanks, largely to Why So Long and Charles who both came out with their own copycat blogs, CT’s hits counter went ‘red-hot’. All non-followers of CT, who logged into Why So Long and Charles’ blogs, also went into CT to read for themselves “the other side of the story”. This resulted in one of the highest hit rates ever recorded in the 5-month history of CT.

When the two copycat blogs were being publicized via emails, many Calvarites voiced their concerns to the core TTG members regarding the real intentions of the said two individuals, who hitherto, still remains unidentified but who proclaims to advocate transparency! Concerns were whether these individuals were indeed Calvarites or outsiders trying to split our church or some religious guys with sinister motives or merely just a couple of retirees with too much time on their hands. Of course, there were also much talk that they are a pair of siblings working for the church.

Anyway, it does not matter for our God is Great! He certainly knows how to turn a ‘concerned’ situation around for His children. Like PG has preached before, the King has one more move. And so, our hit counter continues to turn.

So has CT achieved its purpose? We leave it to you to decide. But it has certainly played a role in bringing RM1.1m in CIM and another RM0.4m in CARED back to the Missions Fund. It has helped many Calvarites become better stewards of God’s financial blessings and many in the missions field and many poor and needy have been blessed by the generosity of Calvarites who have taken up the temporary role of being their own Missions Directors.

It has awaken many up and coming pastors out there and their deacons as well that they need to keep guard of their own spiritual lives and be transparent in all they do. As someone said, Calvary Church has become a fountainhead church of sorts in that what has happened in Calvary Church, is a lesson to all pastors to be righteous and upright in the area of transparency and governance in their own churches and lives. It is also a reminder to men and women who are elected by church members to represent them that they must execute their duties with integrity, always endeavouring to fear God and not fear the men of God.

For those of you who are wondering where all these is leading to or when this madness is going to end, we want to say that God is in control of the situation in our church. He sees all your hurts and your pain, He will put right where there is wrong, He will restore and heal our church. And His name will be glorified! Ecclesiastes 3 teaches us that “there is a time for everything and a season for every activity under Heaven”. Romans 8.28 tells us that “in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose”.

For the rest of you who are concerned about the current "quietness" and seeming inactivity on the part of the TTG group, be assured that the group has not abandoned the cause. Several prophecies have been given to the group to "take up the role of Mary and abandon the role of Martha". The Lord has assured the group that this is His battle and we are now to allow Him to take control of the situation for the time being. This is so that when this whole saga is over, all glory and honour goes to God and to no one else.

So, let us just be still and know that He is God! :)

The TTG Group