About the recent District Camp... (part II)

Oh yes... want to write about the nite walk.

It was long. It was tiring. But it was good.

Very good.

Very very good.

Very incredibly good.

Incredibly incredibly good.

Incredibly extraordinarily amazingly good.

Haha... ok, more seriously, really treasure that time. There's a lot more to reflect about myself during the camp... the dark part of the walk esp spoke to me, and the uncertainty of the destination ("Eh, where are we heading???") itself was an object lesson to me...

Maybe I'll write this down another time, if ever. :)

About the recent District Camp...

Hmm, keep on wanting to blog about it from time to time... but in the end, for what purpose would I be blogging? Personally think it's better to keep and treasure what I've learnt in my heart and put it into practice... I want to bear fruit with what I've learnt!

Still, really (I mean it) thank God for this camp. This camp has been one of the sweetest times of fellowship that I've experienced in my whole life, honestly... I especially treasure the fellowship that we had on the 2nd nite of camp, when we were all sharing about our camp objectives, and when one of the bros was asking about Holy Spirit baptism, and how all the other bros n sisters encouraged him with testimonies...

Something that struck me as very real was that I was really seeing the Body of Christ in action. "The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body." It struck me, how different each person's testimony and sharing was, and yet on a higher scale, when you take a step back and look at the theme, all our different testimonies were so united - how God touched our lives, how He helped us experience the baptism of the Holy Spirit... how He spoke to us in different ways...

I marvel indeed at the wonder of the Body of Christ. It's something that only God Himself can do - to unite many very different people of different cultures into one united body! :D

---

On a more personal note, I made 3 objectives before going for the camp. The first one was to ask God for directions for my life, 'cos I'm graduating at the end of this year. And secondly, to ask Him to deepen my convictions, and thirdly, to deepen the time of fellowship, that I may know my bros n sisters in my CG better.

He answered my prayers, every one of them! :D

For directions for my life and ministry, during worship, He spoke to me 2 phrases: "I've placed you here exactly where I want you to be." and another, "A servant heart." These two phrases helped to clear the fear in my heart. Could really sense His assurance upon me at this point in time.

And for deepening of convictions, Ps Jeff's preaching and Claramae's teaching really stirred up my heart... somehow, I felt the fire of God in my heart being stoked up once again after so long... somehow I think Jesus was speaking very clearly to me and pointing me in the right direction, reminding me to keep my desire for God central.

And for fellowship, ha, amazing... I really saw the Body of Christ so powerfully in action that night... when a diverse and disparate group of people were united as one in Christ when we shared that night.

Praise God for His mighty works;
Praise Him in His sanctuary;
Praise Him for His awesome power;
Praise Him for His amazing grace!

Got a new computer!

Dell Intel Core Duo 2.8 GHz with 1 GB DDR2 500+MHZ RAM, 128 ATI graphics card with HyperMemory technology, 160GB HDD... etc. etc

Ah my inner geek is contented.... thank God! :D

Haha... and would you believe it if I told you I was playing Minesweeper on that system? (Lame!)

And that no matter how fast the system, I still only manage to score 27s for Beginner level? (Lamer!)

Haha... anyway, very thankful to God for this new system... hope it blesses my family much more now. And can do my multimedia jobs faster now.

Be joyful always!

Hmm, want to thank God for His love and grace to me... He prepared me beforehand the disappointment that He'd knew I'd face when seeing my results today.

Yep, you guessed it - my results weren't good, honestly. All my grades were below expectations. But praise Daddy indeed - He knows exactly my fears, my struggles and my desires - and He carries me through! Very touched, because He knows my love language - words - and yesterday, He caused me to read through not one, but TWO articles on crosswalk.com - one of them on what if you had many plans, but God suddenly ("suddenly" as from your perspective) called you to a totally different route? and the other one being dealing with disappointment - disappointment can actually be a good thing, because it cause you to look upwards.

And He gave me not one, but TWO Bible verses to steady my heart and encourage me.
The first one was during my QT today: "Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." And the second one was this verse that I happened to see just before I checked my results: "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails."

aMeN! So I am encouraged, simply because I know that God Himself allowed this to happen, and if in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose, and if God has let this thing happen to me, then by logical deduction, we can deduce that even in this disappointment, God is already working for my good, because He loves me and has a wonderful plan for me. aMeN! Praise God...

"Though I may not understand / All the plans You have for me / My life is in Your hands / And through the eyes of faith I can clearly see...

That His love is everlasting,
And His mercies,
They will never end!!!

God is good, all the time!
He put a song of praise
In this heart of mine
God is good, all the time!
Through the darkest night
His light will shine..."

Super-touched... that's why I'm not as disappointed as I could have been... mainly because God prepared me beforehand with the precious promise of His presence and His words of encouragement. So even in the face of this disappointment, I know that it was already foreseen by Him, even before time began, and even my poor grades, and the broken me, are all in His hands, crafted into His perfect plans. This is, from His eyes, and through the eyes of faith, only a small infinitesimal drop in the sheer magnitude of His perfect plan to redeem all humanity.

Yup, am reminded of Wenjiang's teaching on prayer during the uni district camp about the "Spiritual Armour" prayer... to take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one (e.g. discouragement, negative thoughts, doubts, fears, etc...), take up the sword of the Spirit (ie. the word of God) e.g. the Bible verses that remind me to trust God's heart no matter what happen, and to pray in the Spirit... which I really need, because on my own, I can't stand, unless He helps me to stand firm.

So I've got one more semester... I've done the calculations... it is possible for me to get Honours, but I'll have to really push very hard. Honestly, feel a bit afraid, but let that draw me closer to Jesus and hold His hand even tighter as we walk together through the last semester. Even now the winter is passing, even now spring is coming. O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever! :D

Woods

Isn't it a coincidence that I was thinking of two separate things, among many things, that I wanted to write down in this entry, and they both talk about woods?

Yes, woods as in forest, etc. etc. Not wood as in Woodbridge, as in "referee kayu"... :P

Seriously, have been very busy these few weeks with helping do publicity clips for multimedia... and seriously, nothing feels so shiok as sensing Jesus' affirmation in your heart when you give your best to serve Him... :) "Well done, good and faithful servant!"

About writing down these reflections and connect-the-dots, I think not yet; I still have many things to complete first before I can write down what I think God has been doing in my life these past three weeks.

As Frost expressed it so beautifully in his poem,
"The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep."

Praise Jesus. What a wonderful friend I have in Him. :D