Dear all, I'm in the HAPPIEST mood of my life atm...as you may recount on my emotional previous post entitled "tears of memories", I had suffered from depression from that day on until today when I was totally SET FREE from it..PRAISE THE LORD!!!! I didn't expect it to take such a short time to heal but with God, anything is possible and it took Him only 6 DAYS to condense my 2yrs of feelings towards her which ended up in nothing but pain to heal me...this is incredible...I am feeling an uncontrollable sense of joy and happiness atm which was suprisingly picked up by a few brothers and sisters in Christ when I had attended my regular youth group..wow..I was glad that they saw it and hope that they saw God as well through my joyous expressions...this is going to be a memorable time for me in my life because this is a POWERFUL demonstration of how REAL God is in my life and is an experience I can use to share to those who are or maybe going through the same emotions...
I will keep my emotional post about her from last week in my blog JUST SO that ppl can see the contrast and difference that God has made before and after my experience...from nothingness and despair to joy and hope..in terms of my relationship with her, NOTHING will change, I will still treat her as my own sister and I hope she'll still treat me as her big brother and as I posted last time, will endeavour to be there for her in whatever way so that she may achieve happiness in her life..this is my promise to you my dear mei and will do anything in my power to KEEP IT!!!
There won't a "song of the day" for this blog because there are no songs that could do God justice in expressing how uncontrollably happy I am and the grace He's poured out on me atm and so to express how thankful I am to God by using a song would do Him injustice...going to bed now...got a 9am class to teach tomolow morning...grrrr...
Peace Out!!
Al
Friday, October 7, 2011
Monday, October 3, 2011
Tears of memories...
Hi all...I hope you are all in good spirits at least you would be in a better mood than I am in right now at this moment of time..yesterday was a life changing day but not in a good way because a special person in my life whom I had held DEARLY in my heart now for a few yrs dropped a bombshell on my life which shattered my whole being and sent ripples through my soul...she had revealed to me that she is now confirmed to be involved in a relationship with someone...at first I was speechless and my whole being felt like it had sunk to the deepest reachable depths of the Earth..I have been in this situation b4 with another person a few yrs back but this time it hurt me 100x more because unlike my first official "proposal" to that other girl few yrs back, I was too direct and rushed it without firstly developing a friendship...from my mistakes and from then on, I promised myself that I would try the "develop the friendship and wait til the right time" approach if an opportunity of being in a bf/gf relationship had arisen once again and so started to nurture this current relationship with this girl about a yr after my first "proposal" didn't go as planned...back then she was still 18/19 perhaps..
So I've known this current girl for a while now and we started off REALLY close as if we were brother and sister which incidently became our nicknames after the first few WEEKS..we msged each other AT LEAST twice a day asking the other how their day was going (I still have these msges stored on my old mobile at this time) and as if that wasn't enough still found things to laugh and chat about on messenger at nite..this continued for about a year a few months then things started to change...we became more and more distant, we were still msging each other everyday asking how the other was but the frequency gradually declined over time..it was at that point when I thought to myself "what is going on!?".."we started out so well"...then eventually the msges and the chats online become rarer and sadly is almost non-existent today...there were hints here and there that we were still close at the end of last yr when we both went to Gold Coast for some fun after a convention that was held in Brisbane and it was actually at that time when I thought "maybe we can still salvage this siblingship" but unfortunately it wasn't to be and our closeness "level" started to go from bad to worse...ohh yea we still call each other " big bro" and "mei" (chinese word for lil sis) up til now but honestly speaking, we are far from being siblings to each other now..even she has to agree to that..I'm hurting atm for 2 reasons: 1) I didn't try hard enough to keep up in trying to restore our siblingship back to what it was b4 and for that I'm sorry to you and to myself and 2) I know that our friendship now will inevitably disintegrate into nothingness in the very near future even though I HATE to admit it...during the beginning of this yr, there would be sooooooooooo many occassions during a day when I would feel compelled by something perhaps my conscience, to send a msg just to say "hey, I still care about you" but it never happened and now I find you in the arms and care of another person...
I guess I should be happy for her but I'm finding that ridiculously impossible to feel atm (not because there's something wrong with her bf), I guess I should be supportive of her but I lack the strength to do so, I guess I should just shrug it off like my last attempt but on this occassion, its different because of the time and energy that I've invested in her..infact, I had plans to pop the question next yr a few weeks b4 valentine's day when my thesis should be done by then but now it seems that God has another plan in store for me...if I were to sum up all the reserved feelings for her that I have right now til when I was gonna pop her the question next yr even though we've become increasingly distant over the past few months, it would be these 3 words: "I LOVE YOU"...sounds cliche enough I know but I MEAN IT and both she and I have ALWAYS based our sibling friendship based on honesty and so this moment is NO EXCEPTION...if I could hug her tightly just for the last time, I would but I can't...if I could just hold her close by me for a moment right now, I would but I can't...all I have of her now are two things: 1) tears of memories that run down my face of all the gifts, cards, shoes, shirts, unconditional hugs and other accessories that she's selflessly given to me in the past...its going to be emotionally challenging at least for a few weeks from now because unlike the last attempt, this "failed" attempt had penetrated me much deeper than b4 and 2) the words I wrote and promised to her in the 21st bday card I gave to her which was to help her to achieve happiness in whatever way in her life..
If she's reading this right now coz I know sometimes she reads my blog, I just wanna ask her this one question: WHY were you so uncomfortable, hesistant and all choked up inside at that moment when you were about to tell me about him on that day? What was the hesitation about? COULD IT BE that there was a TEENY albeit insignificant bit of you on the inside that feels the same way about me as I do about you? I guess I'll never know and it wouldn't make a scrap of difference now even if I did...
I now dedicate these three songs to you my dearest and precious mei..I hope you can "feel" my emotions in these songs and even though I know you're not much of a fob music/trance/opera fan as my final request, plz give them a go and listen to them til the end and even though it kills me to say this, I wish you the happiest of life together with him...
Al
So I've known this current girl for a while now and we started off REALLY close as if we were brother and sister which incidently became our nicknames after the first few WEEKS..we msged each other AT LEAST twice a day asking the other how their day was going (I still have these msges stored on my old mobile at this time) and as if that wasn't enough still found things to laugh and chat about on messenger at nite..this continued for about a year a few months then things started to change...we became more and more distant, we were still msging each other everyday asking how the other was but the frequency gradually declined over time..it was at that point when I thought to myself "what is going on!?".."we started out so well"...then eventually the msges and the chats online become rarer and sadly is almost non-existent today...there were hints here and there that we were still close at the end of last yr when we both went to Gold Coast for some fun after a convention that was held in Brisbane and it was actually at that time when I thought "maybe we can still salvage this siblingship" but unfortunately it wasn't to be and our closeness "level" started to go from bad to worse...ohh yea we still call each other " big bro" and "mei" (chinese word for lil sis) up til now but honestly speaking, we are far from being siblings to each other now..even she has to agree to that..I'm hurting atm for 2 reasons: 1) I didn't try hard enough to keep up in trying to restore our siblingship back to what it was b4 and for that I'm sorry to you and to myself and 2) I know that our friendship now will inevitably disintegrate into nothingness in the very near future even though I HATE to admit it...during the beginning of this yr, there would be sooooooooooo many occassions during a day when I would feel compelled by something perhaps my conscience, to send a msg just to say "hey, I still care about you" but it never happened and now I find you in the arms and care of another person...
I guess I should be happy for her but I'm finding that ridiculously impossible to feel atm (not because there's something wrong with her bf), I guess I should be supportive of her but I lack the strength to do so, I guess I should just shrug it off like my last attempt but on this occassion, its different because of the time and energy that I've invested in her..infact, I had plans to pop the question next yr a few weeks b4 valentine's day when my thesis should be done by then but now it seems that God has another plan in store for me...if I were to sum up all the reserved feelings for her that I have right now til when I was gonna pop her the question next yr even though we've become increasingly distant over the past few months, it would be these 3 words: "I LOVE YOU"...sounds cliche enough I know but I MEAN IT and both she and I have ALWAYS based our sibling friendship based on honesty and so this moment is NO EXCEPTION...if I could hug her tightly just for the last time, I would but I can't...if I could just hold her close by me for a moment right now, I would but I can't...all I have of her now are two things: 1) tears of memories that run down my face of all the gifts, cards, shoes, shirts, unconditional hugs and other accessories that she's selflessly given to me in the past...its going to be emotionally challenging at least for a few weeks from now because unlike the last attempt, this "failed" attempt had penetrated me much deeper than b4 and 2) the words I wrote and promised to her in the 21st bday card I gave to her which was to help her to achieve happiness in whatever way in her life..
If she's reading this right now coz I know sometimes she reads my blog, I just wanna ask her this one question: WHY were you so uncomfortable, hesistant and all choked up inside at that moment when you were about to tell me about him on that day? What was the hesitation about? COULD IT BE that there was a TEENY albeit insignificant bit of you on the inside that feels the same way about me as I do about you? I guess I'll never know and it wouldn't make a scrap of difference now even if I did...
I now dedicate these three songs to you my dearest and precious mei..I hope you can "feel" my emotions in these songs and even though I know you're not much of a fob music/trance/opera fan as my final request, plz give them a go and listen to them til the end and even though it kills me to say this, I wish you the happiest of life together with him...
1) "Silence" by Jay Chou
2) Miss You (original mix) by Simon O'Shine
3) Awake by Josh Groban
Al
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Prayer Remix by Louie Giglio...
Hi all, its been too long since my last post so here I'm to say that I'm still alive and well..:)...nothing much has happened since last time..trying to get my final results clarified and thesis writing done for submission next february..eeeepppp..do pray for me...
So anywayz so this post is my personal response to the 3-part DVD series entilted "prayer remix" by Louie Giglio which I've just finished watching recently and I can tell you after watching it, my prayer life HAS changed dramatically...
I'l start off by making an assumption that everyone knows what a "remix" is I hope...if you don't, look it up...:P...so in a nutshell, Louie talked about prayer and being wary of what we pray for...He starts of by staing this painful but truthful fact that everyone has a set way of praying and in his experience has noticed that a majority of Christians include these 4 specific phrases in their prayer life and these are: "Lord, bless me" "Lord, be with me" "Lord, watch over me" and "Lord, forgive me"...even though there's NOTHING wrong with this "style" of prayer and part of our spiritual journey, Louie's remix aims to make your prayer life MORE meaningful, MORE powerful and MORE sincere...so do the 4 phrases sound familiar to you coz that's how I was brought up to include in my prayers..when Louie said those 4 phrases out, it got me thinking, "man, this is gonna be an eye-opener" and infact it was worth FAR MORE to me than that so let's get onto what Louie talked about...
In the first talk, he entitled it "Who's blessing whom?"...there's just so much of what he said that was so true for me in this first talk but in a short summary, he talked about how we are already so blessed with all the spiritual blessings (eg. salvation and gift of life) that was promised to us from the OT AND given to us in Christ and so the "left hook" for his first talk is how much more do we want from God? How much more blessing is enough? How much has God withheld from you? Everytime when we pray these words "Lord, bless me" what do we mean? Do we mean that God hasn't blessed us with enough? or even worse do we mean that God hasn't blessed with anything at all? You have to be kidding me...if you are a true Christian, you would know you've been blessed with sooooooo much even up to a point where we don't acknowledge them or don't know how to utilise it..it's not that asking for God's blessing is a non-Biblical idea but when we are trained from young to say those words, it loses it's meaning overtime..SO rather then saying "Lord, bless me with blah blah blah" everytime we pray, the first part of our prayer remix should sound something like this..."Lord, praise be to Your name for You've given me so much and so I pray that You would help me BLESS YOU back for the things You've already given to me.."
The second talk was equally exceptional...he entilted it "Supernatural life within" and he focused on the common phrase in our prayer life "Lord, be with me"...Lemme ask you this, everytime you ask God to be with you what are you really asking for and what are you implying? Are you implying that God is only there with you sometimes and so everytime you need Him, you have to ask? Is it because it's phrase that you've been brought up with to always include in your prayer? Or even worse, is it just a catch phrase that you say without much intended meaning to it? Do you not realise that God is ALREADY with you and has promised to never leave you nor forsake you...not only is He with you but he also LIVES in you...isn't it incredible that the creator of the universe would come and be with us but not only that because He too dwells within us sinners through the Spirit..So the remix to this part of the prayer should sound something like this : "Lord, live through me and continue to be with me in living the life that You've intended me to live"....
The final part to this series was mind-blowing...he entitled it "The prayer God always answers" and in this talk, he focused on the common phrase often in our prayers and that is "Lord, watch over me"...now, what impressed me the most about this talk was how he contrasted the OT good guy heroes like Daniel and Moses of which we first heard of when we were younger in our Sunday school days in how they always got victory over their difficult circumstances because God was watching over them BUT when we come to the NT, all the good guys like Jesus, Paul and the disciples died..so how do we explain that? How come it's so different from the OT? Is it a contradiction? Does the NT negate the OT? Was God with Jesus, Paul and the disciples when they were about to give up their last breath? Wasn't He watching over them? How come they didn't receive victory and LIVE like the heroes of the OT? The point is this...sooner or later, your prayer to God in using the phrase "Lord, protect me" over and over again is going to fail you ONE DAY if that's the extent of your prayer to Him...I mean just look at Jesus..in the garden of Gethsamane, Jesus CRIED out to the Father and I'm paraphrasing here "Father, if there's ANY way that this cup be removed from me then please be it"..the cup that Jesus is using in His prayer represents all the sins of humankind and all of God's wrath...when Jesus was breathing His last breath on the cross, He cried out "My God,my God why have You forsaken me?", was God protecting Him? Did God prevent His death from happening? the answer is NO...Jesus still bled and died...so where am I going with this? Well, the second part of Jesus' prayer when he was in the garden of Gethsamane is "but may Your will be done and not mine"...this is significant because here's the "left hook" to this talk lies...you HAVE TO acknowledge that sometimes God will not protect you from danger and or circumstances which threaten you so rather than just saying "Lord, protect me" all the time in your prayer to Him, the remix to your prayer should sound something like this, "Lord, protect me from all harm BUT may Your will whether that would be good or bad be done and not mine" because God works for the better of the people who trust in Him...there are AMPLE examples in the NT where God seems to have abandoned His protection over the good people who died BUT in the end, His name was still glorified, the saints who died got their reward in spending eternity with Him and is the reason why the Gospel could reach to us today...
In conclusion, rather than blabbering the typical its all about me prayer eg. "Lord, bless me, be with me, watch over me, forgive me" this is my version of Louie's prayer remix idea: "Lord, praise be to You for You have blessed me with so much and so I'd ask You to help me BLESS YOU back for You have given me over-flowingly much...Lord CONTINUE to be with me for You've never left me and live Your life through me and Lord, watch over me BUT may Your will be done and NOT mine even if it takes me up to the point of life and death for Your name's sake..in Jesus' name, Amen!!"....
Do you see the difference in the shift of who is blessing whom, who is living through whom and who has control over whom? I hope you would remix your prayer as well into one that is more meaningful, sincere and heartfelt to Him...til next time, may God bless you all..
Peace Out..
Al
So anywayz so this post is my personal response to the 3-part DVD series entilted "prayer remix" by Louie Giglio which I've just finished watching recently and I can tell you after watching it, my prayer life HAS changed dramatically...
I'l start off by making an assumption that everyone knows what a "remix" is I hope...if you don't, look it up...:P...so in a nutshell, Louie talked about prayer and being wary of what we pray for...He starts of by staing this painful but truthful fact that everyone has a set way of praying and in his experience has noticed that a majority of Christians include these 4 specific phrases in their prayer life and these are: "Lord, bless me" "Lord, be with me" "Lord, watch over me" and "Lord, forgive me"...even though there's NOTHING wrong with this "style" of prayer and part of our spiritual journey, Louie's remix aims to make your prayer life MORE meaningful, MORE powerful and MORE sincere...so do the 4 phrases sound familiar to you coz that's how I was brought up to include in my prayers..when Louie said those 4 phrases out, it got me thinking, "man, this is gonna be an eye-opener" and infact it was worth FAR MORE to me than that so let's get onto what Louie talked about...
In the first talk, he entitled it "Who's blessing whom?"...there's just so much of what he said that was so true for me in this first talk but in a short summary, he talked about how we are already so blessed with all the spiritual blessings (eg. salvation and gift of life) that was promised to us from the OT AND given to us in Christ and so the "left hook" for his first talk is how much more do we want from God? How much more blessing is enough? How much has God withheld from you? Everytime when we pray these words "Lord, bless me" what do we mean? Do we mean that God hasn't blessed us with enough? or even worse do we mean that God hasn't blessed with anything at all? You have to be kidding me...if you are a true Christian, you would know you've been blessed with sooooooo much even up to a point where we don't acknowledge them or don't know how to utilise it..it's not that asking for God's blessing is a non-Biblical idea but when we are trained from young to say those words, it loses it's meaning overtime..SO rather then saying "Lord, bless me with blah blah blah" everytime we pray, the first part of our prayer remix should sound something like this..."Lord, praise be to Your name for You've given me so much and so I pray that You would help me BLESS YOU back for the things You've already given to me.."
The second talk was equally exceptional...he entilted it "Supernatural life within" and he focused on the common phrase in our prayer life "Lord, be with me"...Lemme ask you this, everytime you ask God to be with you what are you really asking for and what are you implying? Are you implying that God is only there with you sometimes and so everytime you need Him, you have to ask? Is it because it's phrase that you've been brought up with to always include in your prayer? Or even worse, is it just a catch phrase that you say without much intended meaning to it? Do you not realise that God is ALREADY with you and has promised to never leave you nor forsake you...not only is He with you but he also LIVES in you...isn't it incredible that the creator of the universe would come and be with us but not only that because He too dwells within us sinners through the Spirit..So the remix to this part of the prayer should sound something like this : "Lord, live through me and continue to be with me in living the life that You've intended me to live"....
The final part to this series was mind-blowing...he entitled it "The prayer God always answers" and in this talk, he focused on the common phrase often in our prayers and that is "Lord, watch over me"...now, what impressed me the most about this talk was how he contrasted the OT good guy heroes like Daniel and Moses of which we first heard of when we were younger in our Sunday school days in how they always got victory over their difficult circumstances because God was watching over them BUT when we come to the NT, all the good guys like Jesus, Paul and the disciples died..so how do we explain that? How come it's so different from the OT? Is it a contradiction? Does the NT negate the OT? Was God with Jesus, Paul and the disciples when they were about to give up their last breath? Wasn't He watching over them? How come they didn't receive victory and LIVE like the heroes of the OT? The point is this...sooner or later, your prayer to God in using the phrase "Lord, protect me" over and over again is going to fail you ONE DAY if that's the extent of your prayer to Him...I mean just look at Jesus..in the garden of Gethsamane, Jesus CRIED out to the Father and I'm paraphrasing here "Father, if there's ANY way that this cup be removed from me then please be it"..the cup that Jesus is using in His prayer represents all the sins of humankind and all of God's wrath...when Jesus was breathing His last breath on the cross, He cried out "My God,my God why have You forsaken me?", was God protecting Him? Did God prevent His death from happening? the answer is NO...Jesus still bled and died...so where am I going with this? Well, the second part of Jesus' prayer when he was in the garden of Gethsamane is "but may Your will be done and not mine"...this is significant because here's the "left hook" to this talk lies...you HAVE TO acknowledge that sometimes God will not protect you from danger and or circumstances which threaten you so rather than just saying "Lord, protect me" all the time in your prayer to Him, the remix to your prayer should sound something like this, "Lord, protect me from all harm BUT may Your will whether that would be good or bad be done and not mine" because God works for the better of the people who trust in Him...there are AMPLE examples in the NT where God seems to have abandoned His protection over the good people who died BUT in the end, His name was still glorified, the saints who died got their reward in spending eternity with Him and is the reason why the Gospel could reach to us today...
In conclusion, rather than blabbering the typical its all about me prayer eg. "Lord, bless me, be with me, watch over me, forgive me" this is my version of Louie's prayer remix idea: "Lord, praise be to You for You have blessed me with so much and so I'd ask You to help me BLESS YOU back for You have given me over-flowingly much...Lord CONTINUE to be with me for You've never left me and live Your life through me and Lord, watch over me BUT may Your will be done and NOT mine even if it takes me up to the point of life and death for Your name's sake..in Jesus' name, Amen!!"....
Do you see the difference in the shift of who is blessing whom, who is living through whom and who has control over whom? I hope you would remix your prayer as well into one that is more meaningful, sincere and heartfelt to Him...til next time, may God bless you all..
Peace Out..
Al
Song of the day : 1) "Lift Me Up" by The Afters
Friday, December 31, 2010
Speak Forth Words Filled With Life...
Hi all...its been a while since I posted up something so here I am...:P...I've had an OK day so far, lost 5 and won 3 SC2 ranked games playing with uber noobs on bnet and it's 38 degrees outside...0_0..anywayz...I just wanted to post up something about how we should always be careful of what we say...this applies to to pretty much anybody... your work colleagues, your siblings (younger or older) and to everyone else...so here goes...
You know, there is ALOT of power and meaning in the way we speak and in what we say to others...I don't know whether you realise this or not but there are two possible outcomes of the words we say and they are 1) to give life or 2) to take life away....
In the book of Proverbs 15:1 it says "A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger" and in vs 4 of the same chapter, it says "The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit"....
Now, just these verses from the book of the wise, Proverbs, indicates that if we speak before we think and rely on our first instinctive reaction (which is 99% of the time gonna be wrong) about what to say in a particular situation, we will get it WRONG and will regret saying those hurtful things later on...rather than rely on our first instincts, THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK!!! Not only will what say be more productive and fruitful but it will also PREVENT you from getting angry for petty petty reasons..there are things which don't need to said because it doesn't benefit both the speaker and the receiver...
For example, discouraging someone/saying hurtful things will do 3 things...1) take away life in looking down on them, 2) will give them a sense of worthlessness and 3) it will crush their spirit...now, are these 3 outcomes by discouraging someone or saying something hurtful to them beneficial for them!? I DONT THINK SO!!! BUT this is how it will end up (99% of the time) if you rely on your first instinctive reactions to a situation...it leads to anger, it leads to pride and it leads to other undesirable characteristics of the Christian....so rather than discourage and look-down on people by your words that come out of your deceitful tongue (James 1:19-27 and 3:3-12), ENCOURAGE them and think of ways of how you can manage what you say, bearing with one another in patience and love...sound abit lovey-dovey!? Well, the Bible backs me up on this...in Phillipians 2:3-4 Paul said "Do nothing out of of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in HUMILITY consider OTHERS better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others"...humility and wisdom is the key here...I don't care if you are an older sister or brother who most of the time thinks their younger siblings are useless, I don't care if it's your parents talking, it is a fact that we are ALL under the authority of God and no one else and being under the authority of God, we therefore should model Him and for that, Christ is the perfect example...OF COURSE I'm not saying that you should disrespect your parents or your younger/older siblings but what I am saying is JUST THINK everytime you wanna burst out with your first instictive reaction to a situation that might warrant your anger, think what would God say in this situation? How can I turn my words of bitterness and anger into a word that gives life, healing and encouragement to the other person? How could I practise my patience and gain wisdom in this situation? How do I benefit the other person in what I say? These are the sorts of questions you should be asking yourselves before you speak and act in whatever circumstances...do not let your pride get in the way because the Bible talks about being humble and submitting to one another in love and patience for each other...
Well, that's pretty much it...I hope this has been helpful somewhat in managing your tongue in what you say...til next time...
God Bless you and keep you!!! ^_^...
Peace Out!!
Al
You know, there is ALOT of power and meaning in the way we speak and in what we say to others...I don't know whether you realise this or not but there are two possible outcomes of the words we say and they are 1) to give life or 2) to take life away....
In the book of Proverbs 15:1 it says "A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger" and in vs 4 of the same chapter, it says "The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit"....
Now, just these verses from the book of the wise, Proverbs, indicates that if we speak before we think and rely on our first instinctive reaction (which is 99% of the time gonna be wrong) about what to say in a particular situation, we will get it WRONG and will regret saying those hurtful things later on...rather than rely on our first instincts, THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK!!! Not only will what say be more productive and fruitful but it will also PREVENT you from getting angry for petty petty reasons..there are things which don't need to said because it doesn't benefit both the speaker and the receiver...
For example, discouraging someone/saying hurtful things will do 3 things...1) take away life in looking down on them, 2) will give them a sense of worthlessness and 3) it will crush their spirit...now, are these 3 outcomes by discouraging someone or saying something hurtful to them beneficial for them!? I DONT THINK SO!!! BUT this is how it will end up (99% of the time) if you rely on your first instinctive reactions to a situation...it leads to anger, it leads to pride and it leads to other undesirable characteristics of the Christian....so rather than discourage and look-down on people by your words that come out of your deceitful tongue (James 1:19-27 and 3:3-12), ENCOURAGE them and think of ways of how you can manage what you say, bearing with one another in patience and love...sound abit lovey-dovey!? Well, the Bible backs me up on this...in Phillipians 2:3-4 Paul said "Do nothing out of of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in HUMILITY consider OTHERS better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others"...humility and wisdom is the key here...I don't care if you are an older sister or brother who most of the time thinks their younger siblings are useless, I don't care if it's your parents talking, it is a fact that we are ALL under the authority of God and no one else and being under the authority of God, we therefore should model Him and for that, Christ is the perfect example...OF COURSE I'm not saying that you should disrespect your parents or your younger/older siblings but what I am saying is JUST THINK everytime you wanna burst out with your first instictive reaction to a situation that might warrant your anger, think what would God say in this situation? How can I turn my words of bitterness and anger into a word that gives life, healing and encouragement to the other person? How could I practise my patience and gain wisdom in this situation? How do I benefit the other person in what I say? These are the sorts of questions you should be asking yourselves before you speak and act in whatever circumstances...do not let your pride get in the way because the Bible talks about being humble and submitting to one another in love and patience for each other...
Well, that's pretty much it...I hope this has been helpful somewhat in managing your tongue in what you say...til next time...
God Bless you and keep you!!! ^_^...
Peace Out!!
Al
Song of the day: "I Need You" by Planetshakers
Monday, November 15, 2010
Witness First Part 3
Hi all...this will be my final post about the last theme talk that was shared in the youth camp for 2010...^_^...*munches on banana chips which are MEGA MEGA bad for you*...:P....sooooo...in the final theme talk 3, Rev Mark talked about how to survive a spiritual crash and the Biblical role model for demonstrating this point was seen in the prophet Elijah (1 Kings 19:1-18)...
Rev Mark started off by saying that EVERYONE sooner or later WILL EXPERIENCE a spiritual crash where we just "give up" and stop serving God..we will get spirtually burnt out someday and in my own personal experience, I have encountered many but I've grown stronger and more mature because of those moments...so just what happened to Elijah!?
Well, first of all, from 1 Kings chapter 1-18, Elijah had demonstrated a ministry of POWER in demonstrating that his God is greater and above all the other gods that the people were worshipping at that time BUT THEN in chapter 19, after experiencing such a spiritual high doing things for God and obeying His commands, Elijah's ministry suddenly came to an abrupt halt because he felt spirtually burnt out and just could not be bothered anymore...Elijah disappeared into a cave on Mt Horeb where he had hid, was missing in action, lonely and fearful...Mt Horeb was a place of despair for him but then something happened....you see, Mt Horeb was not only a place of refuge and despair for him, it was also a place of divine intervention and renewal which brings me to the next point....
Even though Elijah thought he could hide away from everyone including God BUT was he a changed man after his experience...you see, he thought he was alone but then God showed Himself in 3 ways to reveal to Elijah that he wasn't alone...God at Mt Horeb in that cave where Elijah was, spiritually renewed Elijah's heart by reminding him that he was His servant, that failing a task in God's eyes DOES NOT equate to failure as God gives you many chances (just look at the examples of Moses, Peter, Jonah) because God is NOT DONE with you and your life until He is truly done with you and calls you back into His presence...God does not eliminate you from the plans that He has for you in your life because of your failures but instead, He refreshes you, recommissions you, renews your spirit, directs you back to His path and reminds you that He is in control...Hallelujah!! what a God we serve...this is really the point...
So, in conclusion...we WILL at some point in our lives suffer a spiritual crash (in whatever we do for God) where we just can't be bothered anymore, where we just can't handle it anyone but yet throughout all this, God is sitting up there, watching your every move and when you stumble, He picks you up and recommissions you as His servant...relating this message back to evangelism, I KNOW for a fact that rejection is hard to take from our friends and peers who don't know Jesus and sometimes we just feel like giving up..but you know what...that's EXACTLY what satan wants you to think but greater is He that lives in you than the one who lives in the world (read 1 John 4:1-6) because He who lives in you is the very same One that overcame satan...this nullifies satan's authority over us...stop using your mouthpiece for the devil and start using them for God to speak words of eternal hope to people whom are lost...may God have mercy on us and grant us opportunities to spread His word...be bold in your prayer....be courageous for Him...so many Christians say that they're not ashamed of the Gospel, well, here's your chance to prove it...there is no half heartedness in evangelism...it's either you are for Him or against Him...there is NO middle ground...
Til next time..may God bless you and keep you...
Peace out...
Al
Rev Mark started off by saying that EVERYONE sooner or later WILL EXPERIENCE a spiritual crash where we just "give up" and stop serving God..we will get spirtually burnt out someday and in my own personal experience, I have encountered many but I've grown stronger and more mature because of those moments...so just what happened to Elijah!?
Well, first of all, from 1 Kings chapter 1-18, Elijah had demonstrated a ministry of POWER in demonstrating that his God is greater and above all the other gods that the people were worshipping at that time BUT THEN in chapter 19, after experiencing such a spiritual high doing things for God and obeying His commands, Elijah's ministry suddenly came to an abrupt halt because he felt spirtually burnt out and just could not be bothered anymore...Elijah disappeared into a cave on Mt Horeb where he had hid, was missing in action, lonely and fearful...Mt Horeb was a place of despair for him but then something happened....you see, Mt Horeb was not only a place of refuge and despair for him, it was also a place of divine intervention and renewal which brings me to the next point....
Even though Elijah thought he could hide away from everyone including God BUT was he a changed man after his experience...you see, he thought he was alone but then God showed Himself in 3 ways to reveal to Elijah that he wasn't alone...God at Mt Horeb in that cave where Elijah was, spiritually renewed Elijah's heart by reminding him that he was His servant, that failing a task in God's eyes DOES NOT equate to failure as God gives you many chances (just look at the examples of Moses, Peter, Jonah) because God is NOT DONE with you and your life until He is truly done with you and calls you back into His presence...God does not eliminate you from the plans that He has for you in your life because of your failures but instead, He refreshes you, recommissions you, renews your spirit, directs you back to His path and reminds you that He is in control...Hallelujah!! what a God we serve...this is really the point...
So, in conclusion...we WILL at some point in our lives suffer a spiritual crash (in whatever we do for God) where we just can't be bothered anymore, where we just can't handle it anyone but yet throughout all this, God is sitting up there, watching your every move and when you stumble, He picks you up and recommissions you as His servant...relating this message back to evangelism, I KNOW for a fact that rejection is hard to take from our friends and peers who don't know Jesus and sometimes we just feel like giving up..but you know what...that's EXACTLY what satan wants you to think but greater is He that lives in you than the one who lives in the world (read 1 John 4:1-6) because He who lives in you is the very same One that overcame satan...this nullifies satan's authority over us...stop using your mouthpiece for the devil and start using them for God to speak words of eternal hope to people whom are lost...may God have mercy on us and grant us opportunities to spread His word...be bold in your prayer....be courageous for Him...so many Christians say that they're not ashamed of the Gospel, well, here's your chance to prove it...there is no half heartedness in evangelism...it's either you are for Him or against Him...there is NO middle ground...
Til next time..may God bless you and keep you...
Peace out...
Al
Song of the day : "Believe" by Darlene Zschech (I LOVE this song)
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Witness First Part 2
Hi all...dang..im gettin lazier and lazier in managing my blogs but umm here's my chance...its also coz the SC2 battlenet is down and hence I now have some free time...:P...sooo...where were we last time!?...ahh cbb summarising....just read the previous post...:P....alright so continuing on from Rev Mark's first talk in the camp, in the second sermon he focsued more about what evangelism is and also gave two effective practical tips of how to evangelise to people...
Firstly, he stated out that evangelism is a TEAM EFFORT and he used the analogy of a football team to demonstrate the fact that everyone works towards a common goal by WORKING TOGETHER and as such evagelism really starts the moment your non-Christian friend or a stranger steps into the church...a healthy church majors in evangelism but why is it that week after week we see only a few or even none who are new in our congregation? Where are these people? Rev Mark points out that one of the major reasons why churches don't grow in number is because of "spiritual paralysis"...that is to say we know we have to do it, but we just simply don't...we are too comfortable in where the church is atm...in John 3:16, God was faced with a similar situation when He had to make a choice...He KNEW we were in trouble and it broke His heart everytime we had sinned against Him BUT despite of this, He UNLIKE US most of the time did not suffer from spiritual paralysis and DID something about it...He sent His Son in the ultimate demonstration of love in history and we able to bring us back to Him through His Son's sacrifice...
So just how do we evangelise? Rev Mark went through two practical tips to do it...
Firstly, he talked about "relationship evangelism" (1 Corinthians 9:19-23)...this is a pretty straight forward concept...the first step to evangelim is to establish AND mantain a friendship/relationship with someone without freaking them out and being one of those "Bible bashers" on the streets that say "Believe in Jesus or got to hell"...even though this is true, the attitude towards the un-believer is overwhelmingly un-Christian like and would drive them AWAY rather than DIRECT them to Jesus...start off your conversation on how you would with strangers...get to know them...get to know their name, their job/uni course, their current situation etc etc etc without freakin 'em out...SIMPLE!!!....its not hard to do regardless of whether you're intro- or extro-verted...there's no excuse....
Secondly, Rev Mark talked about "invitation evangelism"....there are two ways of evangelising by this method...firstly, it feeds off from "relationship evangelism"...once you've established a stable relationship with the person then muster up the courage to ask him/her to come to church or a evangelical rally for example BUT be prepared for rejection...hey...whats life without taking a calcaulated risk now and then?!...its our duty to bring people to Christ and so driven by that purpose and desire to please God in winning souls for Him, we should embrace rejection and praise Him for the opportunity even though it didn't go our way...am I suggesting that you will lose a few friends along the way? ABSOLUTELY!!! but SOMETIMES it's JUST worth it and besides if you think about, a SENSIBLE person would be mature enough to not end a friendship based on such a small petty insignificant rejection...so be daring...:)...and I mean that..
So then another way of carrying out "invitation evangelism" is to be one of those courageous/brave people on the streets that hand out pamphlets/information cards to countless strangers that pass them by WITHOUT knowing who they are...now...again...brace yourself for rejection and if you meet one of those people that question you about your faith and you get stuck in answering their question just say something like this "even though I may not know the answers to all your questions, just COME, SEE and TASTE that the Lord is good for yourself and He will reveal Himself to you"...now now...I must make this point clear...I am NOT SUGGESTING that you can use that excuse every single time because it is your responsible to know WHY you believe in the things you do so don't get lazy and complacent...
Well, thats pretty much it for this post...nice and simple...make lots of friends, establish a stable relationship with them, relate with them, help them in anyway you can, invite them to come to Christian events and just be yourself...know that it was God who loved us first and as an outpouring of that onto us, we must share His love to people who have no idea on what they're missing out on and finally, EMBRACE rejection and think ahead about the bigger picture in giving God glory in every evangelistic opportunity that you have because it is for Him that we are doing this for...Hallelujah!!!
Til next time..God bless you and keep you....
Peace out...
Al
Firstly, he stated out that evangelism is a TEAM EFFORT and he used the analogy of a football team to demonstrate the fact that everyone works towards a common goal by WORKING TOGETHER and as such evagelism really starts the moment your non-Christian friend or a stranger steps into the church...a healthy church majors in evangelism but why is it that week after week we see only a few or even none who are new in our congregation? Where are these people? Rev Mark points out that one of the major reasons why churches don't grow in number is because of "spiritual paralysis"...that is to say we know we have to do it, but we just simply don't...we are too comfortable in where the church is atm...in John 3:16, God was faced with a similar situation when He had to make a choice...He KNEW we were in trouble and it broke His heart everytime we had sinned against Him BUT despite of this, He UNLIKE US most of the time did not suffer from spiritual paralysis and DID something about it...He sent His Son in the ultimate demonstration of love in history and we able to bring us back to Him through His Son's sacrifice...
So just how do we evangelise? Rev Mark went through two practical tips to do it...
Firstly, he talked about "relationship evangelism" (1 Corinthians 9:19-23)...this is a pretty straight forward concept...the first step to evangelim is to establish AND mantain a friendship/relationship with someone without freaking them out and being one of those "Bible bashers" on the streets that say "Believe in Jesus or got to hell"...even though this is true, the attitude towards the un-believer is overwhelmingly un-Christian like and would drive them AWAY rather than DIRECT them to Jesus...start off your conversation on how you would with strangers...get to know them...get to know their name, their job/uni course, their current situation etc etc etc without freakin 'em out...SIMPLE!!!....its not hard to do regardless of whether you're intro- or extro-verted...there's no excuse....
Secondly, Rev Mark talked about "invitation evangelism"....there are two ways of evangelising by this method...firstly, it feeds off from "relationship evangelism"...once you've established a stable relationship with the person then muster up the courage to ask him/her to come to church or a evangelical rally for example BUT be prepared for rejection...hey...whats life without taking a calcaulated risk now and then?!...its our duty to bring people to Christ and so driven by that purpose and desire to please God in winning souls for Him, we should embrace rejection and praise Him for the opportunity even though it didn't go our way...am I suggesting that you will lose a few friends along the way? ABSOLUTELY!!! but SOMETIMES it's JUST worth it and besides if you think about, a SENSIBLE person would be mature enough to not end a friendship based on such a small petty insignificant rejection...so be daring...:)...and I mean that..
So then another way of carrying out "invitation evangelism" is to be one of those courageous/brave people on the streets that hand out pamphlets/information cards to countless strangers that pass them by WITHOUT knowing who they are...now...again...brace yourself for rejection and if you meet one of those people that question you about your faith and you get stuck in answering their question just say something like this "even though I may not know the answers to all your questions, just COME, SEE and TASTE that the Lord is good for yourself and He will reveal Himself to you"...now now...I must make this point clear...I am NOT SUGGESTING that you can use that excuse every single time because it is your responsible to know WHY you believe in the things you do so don't get lazy and complacent...
Well, thats pretty much it for this post...nice and simple...make lots of friends, establish a stable relationship with them, relate with them, help them in anyway you can, invite them to come to Christian events and just be yourself...know that it was God who loved us first and as an outpouring of that onto us, we must share His love to people who have no idea on what they're missing out on and finally, EMBRACE rejection and think ahead about the bigger picture in giving God glory in every evangelistic opportunity that you have because it is for Him that we are doing this for...Hallelujah!!!
Til next time..God bless you and keep you....
Peace out...
Al
Songs of the day : 1) "Awakening" by Chris Tomlin
2) "Our God" by Chris Tomlin
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Witness First Part 1
Hi all...this post has been a long time due but due to sc2 commitments and laziness its FINALLY here...:P...I hope this blog finds yall in good spirits...I wish the same can be said about me though...I've got a dry cough goin on with a lil difficulty in breathing and my voice sounds like I'm goin through late puberty...0_0....
ANYWAYS....I just want to share with you the theme talk messages from the youth camp that passed about a month ago..:P...so here's part 1...and yes, you guest it, the theme was evangelism focused...
ANYWAYS....I just want to share with you the theme talk messages from the youth camp that passed about a month ago..:P...so here's part 1...and yes, you guest it, the theme was evangelism focused...
Theme Talk 1:
Ok...so our speaker was Rev. Mark Lim even though he doesn't like to be called a Rev...in the first theme talk, he titled it "priority shift" and his whole sharing was exactly about that...he started off by looking at Luke 15 in the three stories about having something lost then found..whether that would be sheep, money or a lost son...he drew from these parables that it parallels to the spiritually lost people out there in our world...if we are to witness first, we must first of all do a major priority shift...how do we do that you ask?!...well pastor Mark gave three points to this:
1) The lost are lost
Firstly, in order for us to witness first and to realise the urgency of evangelism, we must acknowledge that the lost are lost regardless of how you think of them as...the spirtually lost person is a spiritually lost person, there is simply no going around this reality...I think too often we don't evangelise because we are not committed enough to define someone as "spiritually lost" and we put it off and say to ourselves "I'll do it some other time"...the fact of the matter is this, unless we go and FIND these spiritually lost people, they will be forever be lost...that's the first point...very basic principle...we need to start seeing people as a one who needs Christ because unless we do that, we will NOT see the urgency to evangelise and shift our priorities for their sake...if we model it on the example of Christ, He Himself came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10) as we should too...
2) The lost belong to God
Secondly, in order for us to view evangelism as an urgent matter in our priorities is to acknowledge that every person who is lost belongs to God and thus precious to Him...a lost person belongs to God regardless of how evil he is, how bad that he is, how good he is or how manipulative he is, the fact remains, that he is precious in God's eyes...even before God found us, we belonged to Him just as the same as when we were found in Him...God yearns for the return of the spiritually lost (parable of the prodigal son) back to Him...the fact that every soul on this planet is precious to God should send a surge of urgency in changing our priorities to gearing towards winning souls for His sake because if we don't and just sit there, we are populating hell...
3) The lost are the priority
Lastly, the lost should be our priority...in the parable of the lost sheep, the shepherd LEFT the 99 that he already had and went out looking high and low for the one that was lost because he valued it so deeply...back in those days, sheep weren't just viewed as a useless and weak animal that was only good for food as what most of us would view them as today, they were a PRECIOUS possession of the shepherd and also a sign of a person's wealth...the sheep were also very intimately connected to the shepherd...Jesus in the same way leaves the 99 that He has already saved and is constantly finding the one that is lost...this is not to say that He doesn't care about the 99 that's already in His care, it simply means that He would go to the ends of the Earth to find just the one soul because He too is intimately connected to that lost soul...
We and the whole church must take responsibility to witness to the lost and to share the Gospel to the many lives that are lost out there in our world...too often we take the "bystanders' perpective" where we don't really "care" about the lost or that "it's someone elses' job to witness" or we think to ourselves "don't worry, God will give me another opportunity sometime down the track"...well my response to that would be, He's given you the opportunity to witness NOW rather than later...
So in conclusion, the first theme talk is about acknowledging that the lost are lost, that every lost person is PRECIOUS in God's eyes and that we need to shift our priorities to look out for the lost and find them in Jesus' name because that's what we are on this Earth for...
Til the next post...God bless you and may He make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you....
Peace Out!!!
Al
Song of the Day : "Throne of Praise" by Don Moen
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