I was having breakfast in a nearby hawker centre. Of course, I will need my coffee. A particular coffee stall caught my eye. It had a long queue while other coffee stalls had no queue at all. It cannot be that the coffee was so different that people choose to queue here than to just buy at another stall. And I found out that was the case. The coffee powder was freshly grounded from the beans, changed after every ten cups or so. The price of the coffee was slightly cheaper than the other stalls. And the wait was not as long as I thought would be. Conclusion was that people will flock to you when you offer reasonably priced good coffee. The slight inconvenience of waiting in queue can be tolerated.

As I always believed, provide good reasonable product (service) and the customers will come. It seems so easy but why are there so many people not doing it? That’s the mystery, correct? My guess is that many are too lazy to work a little harder to make that slight difference to stand out. That little bit of hard work seems to be a bridge too far. Thus, the failure of so many of them. Interestingly, there are so many people with time to redo than time to do it well the first-time round.

In this new year, we must take a close look at ourselves. Are we living a life worthy of the gospel? Can we really say that we are an encouragement for others to follow Christ and not a stumbling block? Are we the good product that draws others to Christ? Hopefully, we are not the bad stuff that keeps others out of the kingdom.

Yes, it will need effort on our part. That, my friends, is the burden that we need to bear. We are saved, no doubt about it. We do not need works to get us into the kingdom. But we need to live like citizens of heaven. Those outside of heaven will look at us and see if it is worth the effort to be in. So, we need to put in that little bit of effort to make a change to our lives, to make it a fragrance unto the Lord.

Happy New Year, my dear brothers and sisters. May the Lord bless you all forever more.

God bless,
In Christ’s service,

Barry Leong

我正在附近的小贩中心吃早餐。当然，我需要我的咖啡。其中一个咖啡摊位吸引了我的注意力。这个摊位前面正排着长龙的同时，其他的咖啡摊位却无人问津。这绝对不会是因为这摊的咖啡有多奇特，以致群众只选择它而不是去光顾其他的摊位。我还是找出了其中的原因。它的咖啡粉是从咖啡豆中新鲜研磨出来的，而且大约在每十杯之后就更换。咖啡的价钱还比其他摊位的稍微低一点，此外，等待的时间并没有我想像中的长久。结论就是当你所提供的是价钱公道的好咖啡，群众就会蜂拥而至。排队等待所带来的些许不便也是可以容忍的。

我一直都相信，能提供公道的好产品（服务），就能吸引顾客。这看起来很简单，但是为什么还是有那么多的人不依循呢？这很奇怪，对吗？我猜测那是因为很多人太懒惰，不愿意更勤劳一点去稍作改变，好让自己脱颖而出。那一点的辛劳似乎就像一座遥远的桥梁。因此，他们当中许多人就失败了。有趣的是，有更多的人宁可花费时间去重做，而不是在第一轮就把它作好。

在这新的一年里，我们必须仔细的看清自己。我们是否活出与福音相称的生命？我们是否真的能说自己是他人跟随基督的一个鼓励，或者是他们的绊脚石？我们是否是吸引他人亲近基督的好产品吗？真希望我们不是使他人离开天国的坏影响。

是的，我们必须努力。我的朋友，这是我们必须承受的担子。毫无疑问，我们是得救了。我们不需要做什么才能进入天国，但是我们必须活出天国子民的样子。那些在天国以外的人会注视我们并看看是否值得他们进来。因此，我们需要付出些许努力去改变我们的生活，并献上馨香之气给主。

我亲爱的弟兄姐妹，新年快乐。愿主祝福你们直到永远。

上帝赐福，
主里同工的，

Barry Leong