Wow! Praise God! I remember HQ and I were keeping her in our prayers yesterday, especially since she has a deadline to meet. :)m x keep looking forward because I can't go backwards says (11:00 PM):oh my goshi ve to tell u something!haha[yeu@nn] true waiting says (11:00 PM):surewat happened?m x keep looking forward because I can't go backwards says (11:00 PM):im using an evaluation software for modelling.. n it has only 25 saves.. which is way too miserablem x keep looking forward because I can't go backwards says (11:01 PM):but i actually managed to complete my last modelling on the 25th save!!haha[yeu@nn] true waiting says (11:01 PM):WHOAm x keep looking forward because I can't go backwards says (11:01 PM):it seems like a miracle man
I was just reading a whole bunch of blogs this morning. Some blogs discuss trivial things, some discuss about day-to-day happenings, and then there are the bloggers whose passions just ooze out of every pore of their body that translates into everything the blog is about.That's why I believe in blogging - it's more than record-keeping - it's an avenue for me to voice out my convictions...
I like reading light things, but I love it when people are able to so readily share about what stirs them and makes them cry at night. Their convictions and core values are always so rippling, always so violently tugging at my heartstrings.
3 weeks ago I challenged my sheep to not look down and brush off the passions that God has quietly planted in their hearts. At the same time, I was saying this to my own spirit - don’t make what God put in your heart shy away! I’m not talking about frivolous things like “I want an iPhone”, I am talking about the small things that get us riled up with a righteous anger and the things that calm us down to a supernatural bliss that nothing in this world can.
"I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ."Yah. Also we should voice out our convictions, because others will know what you really stand for.
Isaiah 58:1"Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people..."I was thinking of what a dear friend wrote, that he/she didn't blog much, partly because he/she didn't want to put in meaningless ramblings into his/her blog.
Matthew 11:28Sometimes we forget that He meant it literally too.
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. :)
Psalm 127:2
In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat— for he grants sleep to those he loves.
Hosea 10:12bIt is never easy to wait upon the Lord. It takes time.
"... seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you."
Romans 8:25I suddenly get it! After a short chat with HQ just now, and a decision and prayer after that, suddenly I understand what it means to hope! And to hope does not mean to rush - on the contrary - the more hope we have, the more we are able to wait patiently.
But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
Sing A Song of Freedom
by Cliff Richard
As I look around me I see the world
In a different light
Everything is changing and it happened
One night
Changing for the better and it starts
With you and me
So well sing our song together and forever
Well be free
Sing a song of freedom
People together everybody sing
Sing a song of freedom each and everyman
People come together all across the land
The second pastor asked the first, "How long do you pray for your church each day?"Some may argue that doesn't 1 John say that we should not love with words or tongue, but with action and in truth? I think they miss the point. In fact, the apostle John wrote before that, "we loved, because He first loved us."
"Half an hour."
"Oh. I pray three hours each day. The difference between 3,000 and 300,000 is the difference between thirty minutes and three hours."
"Holy Discontent [...] is something that precedes vision and that is the key to leadership: God's heart and a human heart being aligned perfectly around what frustrates heaven and earth."And one thing that I carried from this sharing was that if there's holy discontent, we need to do something about it.
1 Samuel 17:26So yes, there are huge challenges so beyond us. But we are one of the armies of the living God! When I see the church in the book of Acts, and I see my CG, I know that we have so much to grow to be the church that God would have us be.
David asked the men standing near him, "What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?"
A seminary professor’s mind can ponder wisdom, order, and justice. His brain can help him to discern the weightier matters of theology and assist him with understanding sacred text in its original language. His heart can affirm what is valuable and beautiful and stir a desire within him to love God, his wife, his children, and his neighbor. It can inspire him to lift his hands toward heaven as he praises God in corporate worship.I need to be a MAN after God's own heart...
But if he has no animating urge, no motivating courage or gumption compelling him to take the risks that are required to create and establish justice, he becomes a paper lion, a punch line, a cautionary tale. If he has no fire burning in his belly, no tenacity to inflate his chest and lungs, he won’t be able to withstand, genuinely and authentically, the turmoil that accompanies the realities of loving people on earth or God in heaven.
What good is such a person who earnestly studies God with his mind, sincerely praises him from his heart, but fails to actualize either his thoughts or his emotions? Where is his fiery faith put into being—which, by the way, is something God expects from us? What if a man does not labor to put feet on the good desires born in his head and heart? Doesn’t that make him the noisy gong that the apostle Paul denounces? Isn’t he what James would call a talker but not a doer?
Maybe I just described your father. Or a sibling. Or a friend. Or you. I know this much: I just described the life I lived for far too long.
Proverbs 19:2:)
It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way.
Proverbs 23:17
"17 Do not let your heart envy sinners,
but always be zealous for the fear of the LORD.
18 There is surely a future hope for you,
and your hope will not be cut off."
3 things to be contented with
1) With whatever happens
2) With friendships and possessions
3) With our pure thoughts
3 things to be not contented with
1) With our opinions
2) With our character
3) With our spiritual condition
Philippians 3:12-14
"I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us."
Romans 12:3Three to be, three not to be. Lord, what shall I be to Thee?
For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.
The Save Darfur Coalition is an alliance of over 180 faith-based, advocacy and human rights organizations whose mission is to raise public awareness about the ongoing genocide in Darfur and to mobilize a unified response to the atrocities that threaten the lives of more than two million people in the Darfur region. To learn more, please visit http://www.SaveDarfur.org.
Throughout her life Margaret Clarkson seemingly experienced every form of suffering one could experience; a broken home, financial strains, loneliness and isolation, and constant physical pain, however through it all she continued to place her faith and trust in her savior.
During a life of trials she sensed God’s grace and mercy and communicated that to others by providing the church with dozens of hymns testifying to his sovereignty, love, and power. Margaret Clarkson heard and increasingly understood God’s call upon her life. As she matured she recognized that she was sent out to minister to others, not in isolation, but in triumph. [read more...]
Ephesians 6:12
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5We Christians mustn't forget that we are in the midst of a daily battle for our souls. Spiritual warfare is very real - for us Christians in Singapore, not so much in the sense of demonic possession or black magic, but in the invisible, but equally insidious sense of taking God for granted, not being committed to a local church, doubting the Word of God, not bothering to pray, overwork, unforgiveness, bitterness and so on. Worlds in conflict.
3For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
It means to step out of our comfort zones to meet the needs that we see, and to step up to respond to God's calling for you.It doesn't necessarily mean that one has to follow the "standard progression" of becoming a shepherd, core-team, CL, UL, SDL, DL, etc. etc...
"So Send I You" - revisited
[...]
Margaret Clarkson revised her own famous words, after contact with missions first-hand...
Margaret Clarkson wrote the more-famous and well-known words to "So Send I You" in 1954. Apparently, it expressed her idea of what missionary work would be like, having had no experience herself. But, by 1963, she had a more Biblical and mature view of the Lord of of Mission work. Her perspective changed considerably. So re-wrote the lyrics to "So Send I You".
Unfortunately, most hymnals only include and/or we only sing the original words. It would be better to sing the later lyrics. See the texts below:
Margaret Clarkson, 1954
So send I you -- to labor unrewarded,
To serve unpaid, unloved, unsought, unknown,
To bear rebuke, to suffer scorn and scoffing --
So send I you, to toil for Me alone.
So send I you -- to bind the bruised and broken,
O'er wand'ring souls to work, to weep, to wake,
To bear the burdens of a world a-weary --
So send I you, to suffer for My sake.
So send I you -- to loneliness and longing,
With heart a-hung'ring for the loved and known,
Forsaking home and kindred, friend and dear one --
So send I you, to know My love alone.
So send I you -- to leave your life's ambition,
To die to dear desire, self-will resign,
To labor long, and love where men revile you --
So send I you, to lose your life in Mine.
So send I you -- to hearts made hard by hatred,
To eyes made blind because they will not see,
To spend, tho it be blood, to spend and spare not --
So send I you, to taste of Calvary.
"As the Father hath sent Me, So send I you."
Margaret Clarkson, 1963
So send I you -- by grace made strong to triumph
O'er hosts of hell, o'er darkness, death and sin,
My name to bear and in that name to conquer --
So send I you, My victory to win.
So send I you - to take to souls in bondage
The Word of Truth that sets the captive free
To break the bonds of sin, to loose death's fetters --
So send I you, to bring the lost to Me.
So send I you -- My strength to know in weakness,
My joy in grief, My perfect peace in pain,
To prove My pow'r, My grace, My promised presence --
So send I you, eternal fruit to gain.
So send I you -- to bear My cross with patience,
And then one day with joy to lay it down,
To hear My voice, "Well done, My faithful servant --
Come share My throne, My kingdom and My crown!"
"As the Father hath sent Me, so send I you."
"I do not think there is anyone who takes quite such a fierce pleasure in things being themselves as I do. The startling wetness of water excites and intoxicates me: the fieriness of fire, the steeliness of steel, the unutterable muddiness of mud. It is just the same with people." - G.K. Chesterton
2. Teach/preach from the overflow. Do you preach each Sunday? Do you deliver a message? Do you teach a Bible class? There is absolutely no substitute for reading and studying the Bible. There is no substitute for being prepared. This teaching/preaching is a sacred calling worthy of time, effort, and prayer. Yes, I read widely. However, in this role I must always be reading something that will help me think about what I will be preaching. Some shortcuts may come with time and experience. Other shortcuts (i.e., copying sermons from the Internet and preaching them as my own, etc.) will in fact shortchange the congregation and will be a detriment to the integrity of my ministry.
[...]
4. Be God-conscious instead of self-conscious. It is so easy to get consumed by ego. If we are not careful, we will believe that what really counts is to be well-known, to be in much demand as a speaker, and to preach for a church that many people are paying attention to. As a result of this focus, it is easy to compare, to become jealous, to "keep score," and to crave recognition. It is tempting to want to become "Christian" celebrities, hoping that people will clamor for our attention. Far better to remember our calling and aim to please God, trusting that he is enough.
5. Focus on your own walk with God. Far too many ministers treat congregations as if they were science experiments. "Let’s do this to them and see what happens." Others become far too focused on trying to will the church to do this or that. Do you know that the very best thing I can do for the congregation I serve is to simply be who God has called me to be. I do far more good by focusing on my own love for God and for others. I do far more good by being a godly person who loves his wife and children.
Job 16:1-5 1I mean, it's one thing to tell a sluggard, a lazy bum, who refuses to take ownership of his life to get up and move on. But it's totally another thing to tell a guy with a broken leg to "snap out of it and move on". I think the crippled guy would probably stare back at you and say, "My leg may be broken, but my middle finger isn't! Come, let me show you..."
Then Job replied:
2 "I have heard many things like these;
miserable comforters are you all!
3 Will your long-winded speeches never end?
What ails you that you keep on arguing?
4 I also could speak like you,
if you were in my place;
I could make fine speeches against you
and shake my head at you.
5 But my mouth would encourage you;
comfort from my lips would bring you relief.
Paul's opening exhortation is framed by two imperatives, both of which convey his deep concern to evangelize the lost. The community that God has called out of the world for salvation by the gospel (see Rom 10:8) is called in turn to preach that gospel; evangelism is the church's vocation. The work of evangelism includes prayer (4:2-4) as well as proclamation (4:5-6)--a point already highlighted in the letter's opening words (1:5-9). In fact, this concluding passage connects well with Paul's opening thanksgiving (1:3-12). So Paul's exhortations to pray for the church's mission (4:2-4) and to be wise toward outsiders (4:5) form a sort of bookend, paired with its opening thanksgiving, bringing into even clearer focus the purpose of the letter's main body. That is, Paul's interest in correcting the errant philosophy concerns the church's vocation; the Christless teaching and ascetic morality of the "hollow and deceptive philosophy" (2:8) threaten the church's evangelistic mission to outsiders.
[...]
Paul's second imperative to the Colossians is to be wise in the way you act toward outsiders. The word outsiders generally refers to non-Christians (1 Cor 5:12-13; 1 Thess 4:11-12). In rabbinical use, however, it may include believers who stand outside correct teaching. Perhaps Paul has both groups in mind, including those persuaded by the false teachers along with the lost of the world, since the ministry of evangelism includes both. Moreover, he would have been especially concerned about the negative effect immature believers have on the lost. Since we authenticate God's salvation by our lives and words, we can either impugn or enhance God's reputation by bad or good example (Lohse 1972:167). How many non-Christians justify their unbelief by testimonies of a Christian's hypocrisy! To excuse our sins by referring to our spiritual immaturity or by pointing out the Lord's perfect love will simply not do. In Christ's earthly absence, the church remains the conduit of the word of truth on earth, for good or for ill. If we remain in vice and despair, without any indication that God's grace makes a difference, who but the fool will believe the claims of the gospel? For this reason Paul calls us to life grounded in a wisdom that knows God and remains committed to the trustworthiness of the gospel (1:9-10; compare 1:28; 2:3; 3:16).
With respect to the ministry of evangelism, the exhortation to be wise suggests two concerns. First, the wise community exploits every opportunity it is given for evangelism. Watchful prayer makes one keenly sensitive to people and setting. In fact, O'Brien suggests that the middle voice of the verb make the most signifies "the personal interest" or involvement of believers in their environment (1982:241). But the reason for our activism is pointed and clear: this is a call not so much to be a "good Samaritan" as to share with Paul in the work of evangelism. Second, the wise community, eager to proclaim the gospel, engages the lost in conversation [that is] full of grace, seasoned with salt. This last phrase, so graphic and memorable, captures the wisdom of ancient rhetoric: ideological substance without personal style fails to convince people. If a believer, who has a wonderful story of conversion to tell, cannot tell it in a "salty," interesting way, the story will not be heard. Of course, lively stories, like "fine-sounding arguments," are sometimes used in the service of lifeless substance. In this case, however, the communication of the "word of truth" is undermined by uninteresting or incoherent words.
Paul may have mentioned grace to link human graciousness, a characteristic of effective communication, with divine grace. In this sense, the gospel of God's saving grace will find its audience through a gospel ministry characterized by a generous civility (see 3:12). The spiritual triumphalism that some evangelists exemplify today not only fails to edify the church but fails to attract an unsaved audience as well. Yet their rhetoric is often "salty," full of vibrant images and pungency, hardly dull and never boring. Evangelists know that an audience will never be attracted to new life by lifeless words, old cliches and tired slogans! Paul's wise exhortation is to bring humane graciousness together with carefully chosen words in our preaching ministry.
The meaning of the final phrase, so that you may know how to answer everyone, depends on whether it expresses the result of "gracious and salty" proclamation or describes its occasion. Probably the latter option fits this context best: the evangelist who makes the most of every opportunity finds a "gracious and salty" answer for every sincere query or malicious challenge facing the church.
I love this story very much. Just a good reminder, as parents, we don't our children, don't compare with other children. As teachers, we don't compare this student with others. We are specially made by God. We are special.
And yet He still steadily treads on after me, the Hound of Heaven is he.I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
- Up vistaed hopes I sped;
- And shot, precipitated...
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmèd fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
But how can I get back to Him? How can I find the rest that my soul so needs? Ah. I think I shall go and sing a song of worship to Him. Because there are times that I really don't know how else to describe how I feel, or are words sufficient enough to express this intensity.
- But with unhurrying chase,
- And unperturbèd pace,
- Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
- They beat -- and a voice beat
- More instant than the Feet --
- "All things betray thee, who betrayest Me."
How little worthy of any love thou art ! Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee,
- Save Me, save only Me ?
All which I took from thee I did but take,
- Not for thy harms,
But just that thou might'st seek it in My arms.
- All which thy child's mistake
Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home :
- Rise, clasp My hand, and come !"
- Halts by me that footfall :
- Is my gloom, after all,
Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly ?
- "Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,
- I am He Whom thou seekest!
"Here I am to worshipHere I am to bow downHere I am to say that You're my God..."
"Here I am to worshipHere I am to bow downHere I am to say that You're my God...You're altogether lovelyAltogether worthyAltogether wonderful to me..."
How then, when we see Jesus, do we see the image of God? [...] Properly speaking, nobody ever sees anything; we see an image of the original. Everything we "see" is really reflected light. When light bounces off an object or a person, its shape and color are recorded in the light. By deciphering this information, we "see" the original.I would add: He makes God's will, God's character, God's standards, God's love, God's grace, God's truth and all the other innumerable things of God known.
[...]
The trouble with light is that it is utterly undisciplined. Suppose that I want to look at my father's face. You would think that the light from his eyes would stay separate from the light from his nose and mouth. It does no such thing. The light from his eyes bounces off in every possible direction. The light from his nose does the same. Light from his various features is immediately so tangled up as to seem impossible to separate. That is why my film, exposed without a lens, shows no image; the images are all there, but like a sand painting that has been shaken until there is no recognizable order.
[...]
Light is naturally unintelligible. An image is light made intelligible - light sorted out for human consumption. Technically then, a photograph is not really an image; it is the recording of an image onto paper by means of chemicals. An image lives in time, always changing as the original changes. A photograph merely freezes one of its moments. The real image lives on as pure light. You cannot save it or store it or stop it. [Not even Google can do that...] It lives as its original lives and as light shines on the original.
Now let us consider how this applies to Paul's statement that Jesus is the "image of the invisible God." Right away we may notice that Paul is using the word "image" in a different way than I have used "image" in regard to my father. An image of my father is not "of one substance with him." An image is light; my father is flesh and blood. But for Paul, Christ as the "image of God" was of one substance with the Father.
This is possible of God though not of humanity because an image is formed of light, and God is pure light. John describes both Jesus and his Father as light: "God is light; in him there is no darkness" (1 John 1:5). Jesus himself said, "I am the light of the world" (John 8:12). Both Old and New Testaments describe God as light, a blinding light, or a light bright enough to illumine a city. Thus, we can say that God's only son is the image of God's light; he is light sorted out for us to see. [...] This is what Jesus is and does: He makes God known.
"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.Read it out aloud. Go ahead. Savour every word in this passage. Every word speaks - no, SHOUTS - the totality of Jesus Christ. Recite the passage. Meter your speech. Let it become a recital, a chant, even.
For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.
He is before all things, and in him all things hold together..."
There was this sister who was a bed-ridden paralytic for many years. She was blind, and almost deaf. She lay alone in a hospice for years.If we are with Jesus, and He is the centre of our lives... He will make us fishers of men. We may not even be primary school graduates. What does it matter, ultimately? Christ can use Peter the fisherman, and He can use Paul the learned scholar - both are equally useful to Him.
But everyone who came to visit her - kept coming back. Why?
Because she had such a deep inner strength, that everyone who saw her were amazed. How could one live in such conditions like hers - blind, almost deaf, dying of a slow cancer that ate half her face away? She lay like that for YEARS.
And yet she had such joy and peace in her heart, that it shone through her cancer-eaten face. Where did she get such strength and power from?
One man asked her. She paused for a while, and then slowly and laboriously gasped, "Jesus loves me. He's so wonderful. He is the world to me - I couldn't think of living without Him." Through her years of loneliness and pain, Jesus was always there for her. And her love for her Saviour grew so deep.
The man was amazed. So amazed, that he started coming back week after week, with notepad in hand, ready to write down whatever words of wisdom she would whisper.
He had come to comfort her. Instead, he found himself being comforted by her.
Over all the earth
You reign on high
Every mountain stream
Every sunset sky
But my one request
Lord my only aim
Is that You’d reign in me again
Lord reign in me
Reign in Your power
Over all my dreams
In my darkest hour
You are the Lord
Of all I am
So won’t You reign in me again
Over every thought
Over every word
May my life reflect
The beauty of my Lord
‘Cause you mean more to me
Than any earthly thing
So won’t You reign in me again
