Man of the Moment

John O’ Shea

Ironically, the player whom I deemed as the weakest link in the whole Man United team, emerged as the hero in the Champions League semi-final win against Arsenal.

My only fond memories of him was when he nutmegged Luis Figo in THAT epic match against Real Madrid (the one that prompted Abramovich to buy a football club)… and maybe, that last gasp winner against Liverpool last season.

But on the account of his contribution last night, I shall just grant him this moment of of glory and have his picture published up here in my blog, besides the usual Ronaldo or Rooney’s.. But I don’t think that will happen too often though.

God Bless Johnnie…

 

 

 

 

Tolerance? Or Promotion?

There is a huge difference between tolerance and promotion.

Tolerance is: Drinking beer, munching peanuts with a bunch of Liverpool fans in the pub and not smash the beer bottle on their heads in rage when Man U got a thrashing from them at home. Why, we probably might even share a cab home too.

Promotion is: Putting on a Liverpool jersey, singing “You Would Never Walk Alone” loudly and hanging portraits of Bill Shankly in your bedroom… all the while proclaiming to the world you are a Man United fan!! 

Now, we fans know there is no political correctness in football and we never have a need to apologize for our choice of clubs. This is called unequivocal.    

But with regards to the subject of homosexuality, I can never understand how some people can actually believe that “tolerance” for homosexuals means we are to endorse their lifestyle by agreeing to same-sex marriages, allowing gay parades, or exposing our young to homosexual-themed movies.

This is just plain absurd!!

We show tolerance by not condemning them, by offering help to them, by extending a listening ear to them, by sincerely caring for them… and NOT by indulging them, pandering to them or apologizing for our beliefs.

I too,  have my fair share of gay friends, both males and females and we are friends inspite my stance about homosexuality. Never have I ever been branded as a gay-basher or a homophobic, because they know I am never a believer in persecution of their kind.

But as I have said and reiterate here: We DON’T have to do “promotions” to show “tolerance”.   

You would never find me be caught dead wearing this…

For me and my family… this is the way!!

You Go Devils!!

What a comback from the Devils!! What a win!!

Just when it threatened to turn into another disastrous day at Old Trafford, Man United turned on the style in the second half to thump Tottenham Hotpsurs 5-2!! Another huge step towards their third consecutive title!!

The “lazy” striker who scored against his old club.

The 2-goals hero.

Another 2-goals hero plus plenty of assists.

The unsung hero who never stopped running.

It was almost a carbon copy of the a match years ago when Spurs took a 3-0 lead at half-time before United went on a rampage with 5 goals in the second period.

No Apologies!!

Ms Carrie Prejean is my new heroine.

For those who do not know her, she is the reigning Miss California and the first-runnerup of Miss USA pageant. She could have won the contest, if not for an apparently “bad answer” she gave during the Q & A segment (the part where the “world peace”  is made famous).

When asked by a gay judge if every state in US should follow Vermont in legalising same-sex mariiage, she answered (quoted from the papers), “I think it’s great that American are able to choose one or the other. But in my country, and in my family, I think that I believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offence to anybody out there, but that’s how I was raised.”

I thought she gave a very unpretentious and non-offensive answer to a sensitive question . But guess what? She was given a zero by the judge (who asked the question) and was told to “leave her politics and her religion out because Miss USA represents all Americans.” Yeah, righhhhtttt…

The person that should be given a big fat zero is that judge  himself !! Why ask a question when you cannot accept the answer? If everybody is entitled to their opinions (including gays), then why should somebody be penalized for speaking their mind? Isn’t this a form of discrimination, the very thing that gay activists has been accusing us of for years…? So being political correct or sensitive means we have to supress our own beliefs on homosexuality and pander to public opinions? So much for freedom of speech…!!

If that was not enough, Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus (whom I don’t even know) had joined in the fray by offering some less-than-intelligent comments like, “Love is love! People should be able to do whatever makes them happy” (yeah, I guess she should quite ok with her husband/boyfriend happily sleeping around with other women…), “Jesus loves you and your partner and wants you to know how much He cares!! That’s like a daddy not loving his little boy cuz he’s gay and that is wrong and very sad!! ( apparently being a singer enabled her to speak on God’s behalf and totally ignore what the Bible explicitly said about homosexuality… maybe, like Oprah, she slept during services too…)

But I am heartened by the fact that Ms Prejean is standing by her beliefs. She said, “I don’t take back what I said. I’ve spoken from my heart, from my beliefs and for my God, It’s not about being politically correct. For me, it’s about being biblically correct.” What great words!!  She might not have won the lousy Miss USA, but she certainly have won my respect!!

You go girl…!!

Ps: By the way, you can accuse me of being politically insensitive or homophobic. It’s ok…. I can’t be bothered. 

A true American Idol.

Devils Go Marching On!!!

My favourite player for the moment must be Andre Ashravin of Arsenal… after his 4-goals exploit at Anfield. Though it wasn’t enough to defeat Liverpool, it was a huge blow to the Reds’ title hopes.  

The new star at Emirates.

It would be interesting to see how he fare against our very own World Cristiano Ronaldo when Man U face Arsenal in the Champions League semi-final next month. But I’ve no doubt as to who would emerge tops…

Best player of England and of the world.

Of course, Man U is not  just about Ronaldo. We have other players who are more than capable of inflicting some serious damage, as evident by last night 2-0 win over Portsmouth. Watch out for these guys, you Gooners…

Rooney… Scholes… Giggs… all potential match winners.

Devils in Europe

Honestly, I can’t say I wasn’t thrilled to see Liverpool knocked out of Europe, even if having one less competition to play in might be beneficial for their EPL title hopes. But then again, they might still not win it, so let’s just savour the loss at least for now…. muhahaha….!!!! 

Ok, enough of gloating… 

Actually, it doesn’t really matter which team gets into the semis, as long as Man United gets in too. And got in they did, by the courtesy of a wonderful 40m strike by Cristiano Ronaldo.  

With that goal, United became the 1ST English club to beat Porto at their Estadio Do Dragao and secured a date with long-time rival, Arsenal.

I am glad that we are playing them. Not because they are easy meat (they aren’t), but because they are also a great ball-playing side like United, and matches between them always promise to be good.

Of course, as good as Arsenal is, it will be United in the final, playing (hopefully) against Barcelona and Ronaldo would prove to the world that he, not Messi, is still the best player in the world.

Ronaldo, lining up for THAT strike…

Tough Devils!!

There is a saying, “When the going gets tough, the tough gets going”. As trite as it sounds, it pretty much sums up what Man United is going through right now.

Just last month, we were comfortably sitting on top of the table, with 7 points clear and a game in hand. But in a space of 2 weeks, things started to go awry, with defeats to Liverpool and Fulham. I had to think long and hard to remember the last time we ever lost consecutive league matches.

With a 7 points lead reduced to just one, and Liverpool playing as good as they are playing now, United desperately needs to continue winning to maintain their defence of the league title. And won we did… with youngster Federico Macheda emerging as the surprise hero by scoring the winners in the last 2 league matches.

I don’t know how you would see this, but IMO, it goes to show that despite a leaky defence (ironically) and general poor form, United still has the ability to grind out results, a true hallmark of champions.

It has been one of the most closest title race for many years, but I’m sure my beloved Red Devils shall prevail… as they have done again and again before!! Amen!!

Macheda’s wonder strike against Villa… and the title is still very much in our hands!!

Selfish?

For some reasons, many Christians believe it is “selfish” to pray for financial blessings. They assumed by doing that, we must be worshipping money instead of God, we must be overcame by greed instead of grace, we must be tainted by the unrighteous mammons and taking God as a “divine ATM”… 

Now, I just couldn’t see what’s the logic in that. I couldn’t see what’s wrong with believing God as a God of prosperity, as if it is such a dirty word in His vocabulary. After all, our God is El Shaddai, the God of more than enough.

The same group of people also believed that a “true” Christian should be someone who would sacrifice everything for the Lord, having no desires for worldly things and would give away all his money to poor people. Nice thoughts… but just not realistic and most importantly, not biblical.

Let’s look at a typical “selfish” prayer from the Bible: (emphasis mine)

Jabez was more honorable than his brothers…. Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that You would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let Your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request. (1 Chr 4:9-10)

Hmm… ever wondered why did God answered such a selfish prayer?

Our Lord is a God of blessings, not sufferings. How can one honour Him by suffering?

Money Talks

Money is always a sensitive issue, especially the money that others are getting (instead of us).

Recently, my pastor’s salary has been made public in the press, which for anybody, is quite an embrassing situation. I mean who ever likes their income to be made known to others?

At the first glance, he appreared to be making too much money for a preacher and as you might imagined, he had came under fire from netizens in forums for that. Though I am positive that the very people who were flaming him are not above having that sum of money for themsleves. Talk about hypocrisy and self-righteousness…

Anyway, I did a simple calculation myself and IMO, he fully deserved the renumeration he is getting… and more. Let’s take a look at what I mean:

The rate of the top motivation speakers in Singapore is about $2,000 an hour and above (yes, it is THAT much… for just talking ). My pastor preaches for about 2 hours for 4 services every sunday. 

Using the same rate, he should be making: 2 hours x 4 services x 48 weeks (assuming he took a month off for family)x $2,000= $768,000 .

Compared that to the figure published in the papers, he is at least, earning $200,000 lesser than what he should be. And as the leader of  the church, besides the weekly preaching, there are many other work that he needs to handle. (In case you thought running a church is easy, try it yourselves… if you can qualify)

When you consider nobody ever bat an eyelid when they hear David Beckham raking in millions a year for just kicking a ball around on a field or looking cool in a shaver ad, it becomes quite absurd to question the income of a preacher whose message has saved (literally) tens of thousands of souls in Singapore and many more overseas.

Is a saver of souls not more valuable than a sports posterboy?

Common sense… a rare commodity nowadays among the people of the world.   

Perfect Grace

But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.      (2 Cor 12:9)

Even the great Warren Buffet, touted the “Oracle of Omaha”, has lost more than $20 billion to the recent financial crisis. It just highlight a fact that we knew but reluctant to admit: we, men, are all fallible… even the best of us.

But assuredly, there is a God… a God whose power never fails!!