A Tale of Two Lovers :)
Just want to write a little post here to thank God for today... =) Actually, it's extremely long and rambling... just an raw memory dump of today. To preserve these memories of God's lovingkindness... =D
With that prologue, here goes...
The First Hour
For the House of Prayer session today. For the thanksgiving prayers that we prayed, thanksgiving for yesterday's miraculous provision of good weather during the event, and that the event itself went so nicely, great and cheerful atmosphere... thank God He really is in charge!
As Peter observed, "I saw the clouds moving parallel to the park, but not around it."
And my own observation of how as some of us went to Zhenzhong's car, the first raindrops hit us just as we opened the doors...
Wow! :D So thankful to God for Ps Jo's sermon on which he exhorted us to speak to things with faith in Jesus' name - like how Jesus Himself spoke to the raging storm like one correcting an unruly child... "QUIET! BE STILL!" And instantly the storm died down.
I have observed with my own eyes that every single time I put up my hand to the clouds and pray in Jesus' name, commanding the clouds not to disturb us until the entire event is over... the clouds did exactly as we prayed! It really is so wonderful to see how something so uncontrollable as the weather will quietly and humbly submit itself to the authority of Jesus' name! Oh man, we truly serve a Great and Awesome God!
John 14:12-14
12I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
Not that we can change the weather as and when we like... or treat Jesus as a divine vending machine. The necessary precondition is that we pray according to God's will, e.g. these events are useful to help share the gospel with others, or we really need good weather... etc.
The IVP New Testament Commentaries explain these verses:
Jesus assures them that I will do whatever you ask in my name (v. 13), a theme that will be repeated throughout the farewell discourse (15:7, 16; 16:23-24, 26; cf. 1 Jn 3:22; 5:14-15). Praying "in Jesus' name" does not refer to some magic formula added to the end of a prayer. It means to pray in keeping with his character and concerns and, indeed, in union with him. The disciples, through their union with Christ, are taken up into his agenda. This agenda, as throughout his ministry, is to bring glory to the Father (v. 13). This verse has been understood by some Christians to be a blanket promise that Jesus will give them whatever they want. Such idolatry of the self is the very opposite of eternal life. "Whatsoever we ask that is adverse to the interests of salvation, we do not ask in the name of the Savior" (Augustine In John 73.3). Rather, the promise is made to those who will pray in Jesus' name and for the glory of the Father. As such it is a great promise for the advance of God's purposes in oneself, in the church and in the world.
Oh! That was just the first hour of the day. I talk so long. :P
The Second Hour
Then, after HOP, had a great breakfast at Burger King with Peter and Sharon. We had a really good time of fellowship together, and wow, thank God for Peter's wise sharing to us about some things... and one thing that Sharon shared with us from the book, "Purpose Driven Life", was that all of life is ultimately about relationships. Even The Ten Commandments are about our relationships - relationships with God and with people. Four commandments for our relationship with God, and six commandments for our relationships with people.
And the book said that if relationships really matter to us, we will not fit them into our schedules. We will make them our priorities.
We so often speak about "making time" for people. But one of the most precious things in life that we can ever give people is our time, because once given, we can't take it back again. The fact is, we've given a part of our lives to others thus. So since ultimately the purpose of life is relationships, we need to work on our relationships. To purposely prioritize building relationships.
It applies even to our ordinary jobs. I think I heard somewhere in one sermon that the main reason people hate their jobs is because they can't get along with their colleagues. And as Ecclesiastes 4 put it so aptly:
Ecc 4:7-10:
Again I saw something meaningless under the sun:
There was a man all alone;
he had neither son nor brother.
There was no end to his toil,
yet his eyes were not content with his wealth.
"For whom am I toiling," he asked,
"and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?"
This too is meaningless—
a miserable business!
Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their work:
If one falls down,
his friend can help him up.
But pity the man who falls
and has no one to help him up!
(On a side note, I really want to thank God for my dear colleagues in my team. Each one of them is really a blessing to me, and I know that God put me in this team to teach me from their lives. As one of my superiors commented, this is one of the best teams he's seen so far. Whoa. Really thankful to God for His absolute grace to me...
So have been making it a point to pray for my teammates, asking God to bless them, for His peace to be upon the office where I work, for God to meet their daily needs and to bless them, and that He will help me grow to be a better blessing to them, to open my eyes wide-wide to see what needs of theirs I can help to meet where possible. Every day is really a learning experience for me, not only in terms of work or development skills, but also of growing in character and personal maturity. It's strange, but somehow God has been sheltering me, protecting me... it's really funny how all my life, I've been protected, but not too protected... but pushed just enough... and there are so many people out there who have to endure (literally) God-knows-what.
And God has given so much to me in this little life of mine. How can I ever give back to Him? And I think His answer is very simple: Lovest thou Me? Then feed my sheep; take care of my lambs. For whether we know Jesus or not, we all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way...)
Oh! That was the second hour.
The Third and Fourth Hours
The sermon spoke to me deeply. The worship, the testimony, everything. Thank God for the wonderful ministers who administer God's grace to us via music or songleading or even songwriting (as in sister Jaclyn's song that she wrote). Though I experience God much more strongly through nature than through worship, the songs blessed me very much. =D So thankful to God for these beautiful hymns of the faith.
Oh! back to the sermon. And the sermon was on the true joy that Jesus alone can give. It was a familiar theme... but one of the points struck home deeply. Ps Jeff shared a real-life story about how he recently tried to counsel someone with slight depression, together with a professional counsellor. After a long and fruitless time of counselling, the counsellor at the end of the session simply asked the person:
- Do you really want to get well?
- Uh... yes, I really do.
- Then I want you to do this one thing after this session is over. As soon as possible, you go find someone with a greater need than yours, and go and help that person. Go do something for that person. And you'll find your depression will go away.
And at that moment, Wenjiang's wise words came back to me again, after so many years ago: "Go, Yeu Ann. Go and encourage your brothers. Call them. Show care and concern to them. 'He who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.'"
It struck home to me, because by nature I'm naturally a self-centred and inwards looking person. But I recall the times that God enabled me to really breakthrough in my emotional downtimes were the times I made a decision to step out of myself and go meet the needs of others. And as I did so, I started experiencing so many blessings... :D Thank God for His lovingkindness indeed! It's a daily battle to crucify my old sinful, selfish, self-centred nature... but truly, it really is more blessed to give than to receive! Amen!
And the testimony almost brought tears to my eyes. The dear brother who shared his testimony about how God slowly but faithfully brought him out of a time of deep depression... it was so sincere, so heartfelt, so real, that I almost wanted to cry. And I do believe that testimony was powerfully used by God to plant many seeds today in many hearts.
:)
Thank You Lord. You really transform lives very much, Jesus!
The Fifth and Sixth Hours
Such a good lunch... thank God also for the refreshing time with Dehua, who joined our CG for lunch. And Sharon and Jeannie later on shared more with Liwen. Shawn and I went off somewhere to pray together in secret for them. It's really exciting, to see what the Lord can do in answer to our prayers! :D
Also had a short but sweet time of catching up with Weizhu and Huichun. Thank God for this lovely couple in Christ =) And oh yes, I finally figured out why Huaqiang was wearing such a strange-looking Tshirt today with only the letters "VE" on it... Sarah was wearing the same kind of Tshirt with only the letters "LO"...
So see photo above of the two lovers. =) Tickles my inner romantic. ;)
The Seventh, Eight and Ninth Hours
DOTA session with the bros. =) First time getting a mega-kill. Whee... thanks once again Master Edwin for the tips... ;) but thinking again, wow... playing DOTA does train me in situational awareness and anticipating logically what to do next... especially when given unclear instructions or miscommunication. Like KC telling me to attack the Sand King... but I saw the Skeleton "King" in a far-off lane... so was confused which one he meant. So just cheonged... and got hammered, walloped and pwned by the wrong SK. KC was quite... you get the idea. But thanks KC for taking the time later to clarify what you really meant. And he told me to clarify first if I'm not sure of the instructions. So must learn from this experience -> apply the principles to other aspects of life, especially work and ministry.
Yeah! Thank God for DOTA... especially for the brothers who bear patiently with noobs like me... and Ed and KC "discipling" me in the way of the Tinker. :) Makes me a better Thinker (pun intended lol).
And, The Last Hour of Today
Ah. Now back home. Going to scribble down the fresh (and more substantial idea) for the script that I came up with for the HopeKids video. It's terribly exciting... and delightful to work for the Lord. =)
Psalm 118:24,29 (NLT)
24 This is the day the Lord has made.
We will rejoice and be glad in it.
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!
His faithful love endures forever.
No comments:
Post a Comment