Monday, January 31, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
"Love me"
Amidst life's busy schedule, we who are fortunate enough to take time off our to-do lists have at least once, had the opportunity to stop and ponder upon the meaning of life. As cliche as it sounds, our lives are no doubt, defined by what we think it to be. John Piper in his book "don't waste your life" disagrees, and for good reason too.
Our lives, were entrusted to us; our very breadth that we breathe so naturally, subconciously, was a gift, is a gift. A gift not to be taken for granted, not to be wasted.
We were created for a reason. Whether you like it or not, we don't belong to ourselves. "For we are God's workmanship (in some translations, it says 'masterpiece"), created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" - Ephesians 2:10.
Many of us know this verse by hard. Many of us try really hard to see, what it is God has intended for us to do. Many more of us, still waiting for a thunderous revealation, miss the still small prompting of the Holy Spirit. Even more of us, try so hard, pray so hard, pray so much, that we forget to stop to listen. We forget that prayer, was never meant to be unidirectional. It was meant to be a conversation, and like any conversation, we ought to listen, more than talk. Pastor Edmund Chan said this, "...don't worry that you don't know what to do. Do what you know, and soon, you'll know what to do..." (thanks pastor David for sharing). Granted, many of us have had a calling from God into a specific area of ministry, and God really does call! Specific ministry aside though. One thing we are ALL called to do, is to Love God. To put it all together, "don't worry that you don't know what to do, love God, and soon, you'll know what to do!"
Simply, to love God.
Because when we love God, we delight in God, and we delight in bringing praise to God, and we glorify him. When we love God, we fulfil our purpose for living. We fulfil our purpose for being created. For we were created, to enjoy, delight, in a relationship with God. Our love for God, our relationship with him, ought to be the foundation of our service. Because if you think about it. If we truly loved God, everything follows naturally. If we truly loved someone, we would delight in getting to know that person, we would delight in saying things and doing things to make that person happy, we would rejoice in things that makes that person glad, and we would weep about things that break that person's heart. We would (subconciously or with effort) grow to dislike what that person hates, and mimick his/her mannerisms. We would love the people he/she loves, and we would avoid the people he/she doesn't. (God doesn't not-love anyone, for again, we are all created in his image, to be children of God, to enjoy a personal relationship with Him)
And when we truly love God. We spend time with him. At one point in my life, I was doing my Quiet Time on a daily basis. But.. I somehow or rather, ended up neglecting God for the rest of the day.. at another point in my life, I thought I had a eureka moment when I realised I could 'spend time' with God by including him into most aspects of my life (I dare not say every moment). But I ended up compromising in the frequency of my Quiet Time. Slowly I stopped doing it totally. It wasn't until I was in a long-distance relationship with a girl that I realised how I WRONG (in all aspects of the word) I was, in thinking that by talking to God constantly throughout the day, I didn't have to set aside time for him. I never realised the pain and heartache I caused God to suffer from discontinuing my Quiet Time with him just because it was inconvenient, until I felt it for myself, when someone I loved, couldn't afford to set aside time for me. For once in my life, I felt I understood how God felt.
We don't have to worry about ANYTHING at all. We are called to do ONE THING, above all else, that is to LOVE HIM.
How deep is your Love for God?
For God so loved the world (that's you and me), that he gave his one and only son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross, so that whoever believes in him (that by his blood, shed on the cross, our sins are taken away, so that we can come back to God), shall not perish but have eternal life - Adapted from John 3:16
Our lives, were entrusted to us; our very breadth that we breathe so naturally, subconciously, was a gift, is a gift. A gift not to be taken for granted, not to be wasted.
We were created for a reason. Whether you like it or not, we don't belong to ourselves. "For we are God's workmanship (in some translations, it says 'masterpiece"), created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" - Ephesians 2:10.
Many of us know this verse by hard. Many of us try really hard to see, what it is God has intended for us to do. Many more of us, still waiting for a thunderous revealation, miss the still small prompting of the Holy Spirit. Even more of us, try so hard, pray so hard, pray so much, that we forget to stop to listen. We forget that prayer, was never meant to be unidirectional. It was meant to be a conversation, and like any conversation, we ought to listen, more than talk. Pastor Edmund Chan said this, "...don't worry that you don't know what to do. Do what you know, and soon, you'll know what to do..." (thanks pastor David for sharing). Granted, many of us have had a calling from God into a specific area of ministry, and God really does call! Specific ministry aside though. One thing we are ALL called to do, is to Love God. To put it all together, "don't worry that you don't know what to do, love God, and soon, you'll know what to do!"
Simply, to love God.
Because when we love God, we delight in God, and we delight in bringing praise to God, and we glorify him. When we love God, we fulfil our purpose for living. We fulfil our purpose for being created. For we were created, to enjoy, delight, in a relationship with God. Our love for God, our relationship with him, ought to be the foundation of our service. Because if you think about it. If we truly loved God, everything follows naturally. If we truly loved someone, we would delight in getting to know that person, we would delight in saying things and doing things to make that person happy, we would rejoice in things that makes that person glad, and we would weep about things that break that person's heart. We would (subconciously or with effort) grow to dislike what that person hates, and mimick his/her mannerisms. We would love the people he/she loves, and we would avoid the people he/she doesn't. (God doesn't not-love anyone, for again, we are all created in his image, to be children of God, to enjoy a personal relationship with Him)
And when we truly love God. We spend time with him. At one point in my life, I was doing my Quiet Time on a daily basis. But.. I somehow or rather, ended up neglecting God for the rest of the day.. at another point in my life, I thought I had a eureka moment when I realised I could 'spend time' with God by including him into most aspects of my life (I dare not say every moment). But I ended up compromising in the frequency of my Quiet Time. Slowly I stopped doing it totally. It wasn't until I was in a long-distance relationship with a girl that I realised how I WRONG (in all aspects of the word) I was, in thinking that by talking to God constantly throughout the day, I didn't have to set aside time for him. I never realised the pain and heartache I caused God to suffer from discontinuing my Quiet Time with him just because it was inconvenient, until I felt it for myself, when someone I loved, couldn't afford to set aside time for me. For once in my life, I felt I understood how God felt.
We don't have to worry about ANYTHING at all. We are called to do ONE THING, above all else, that is to LOVE HIM.
How deep is your Love for God?
For God so loved the world (that's you and me), that he gave his one and only son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross, so that whoever believes in him (that by his blood, shed on the cross, our sins are taken away, so that we can come back to God), shall not perish but have eternal life - Adapted from John 3:16
Friday, January 28, 2011
What a day!!
Visited Dad in his royal deluxe suite hospital room (not ward) together with ben and mickey.. thank God we got there in time! I never knew hospitals had such limited parking space!! Had to uh hmm.. park illegally and dash back in the rain.. totally drenched but oh well.
Visited Dad in his royal deluxe suite hospital room (not ward) together with ben and mickey.. thank God we got there in time! I never knew hospitals had such limited parking space!! Had to uh hmm.. park illegally and dash back in the rain.. totally drenched but oh well.
Had breakfast at delifrance with banana!! It was nice, chilling and joking.. until a bird shit/shat/shitted on me!!! First time in my life... o.O Who wants to buy lottery?
After that.. sentosa to meet our UniAdelaide singaporean junitos!!!!! Goodness.. super tiring running around playing the games! But we had fun! Thanks guys for organising!
Off to cell for 'lou-hei' at YAYA cell!!! It felt good to be back after so long!!!! Pity the next one will be just before I leave on a jet plane again :( :(
And then.. the night was still young!! Off to bedok 85 for supper!!!!!! Fried oyster, bar chor mee, chicken wings, stingray, and how can you do without, sugarcane juice :D :D
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Of a bird, a frog, a squirrel, an 'Inu' and a model
And so after a year of silence, i'm back.
With the fun, food and laughter of the past couple of days spent travelling from Penang down to Ipoh, KL and finally Singapore, with the most awesome bunch, still fresh on my mind, I begin to write. Yet my vocabulary fails me as I struggle to find the words to express myself. It's only been 24hours since our trip ended but i'm missing them already. The adenaline from running around malaysia and singapore, catching the right buses and trains (even those that didn't open their doors when they were sposed to) still coursing through my veins. The Food (spelt with a well deserved capital F) still lingering on my taste buds, literally since I just had another taste of Ipoh and Penang's biscuits for breakfast. Yet nothing compares to the cammaraderie and friendship forged as a result of spending 11 days, for Tori, 7, together almost from sunrise to sunset, save for the moments spent asleep, dreaming in eager anticipation of the following day's events. It's a magical bond that ties people together, watching out for each other as we crawled, climbed and waded over and through rock crevices and underwater streams, feeding each other the best foods our homes could offer, looking out for each other on the roads, writing and singing nonsensical melodies about tortoise-shaped 'kuehs', curling hair that was never meant to be curled, laughing ourselves silly and yet sharing from the bottom of our hearts till morning.
It feels somewhat odd, now, that the next time we'll see each other again will be amidst the stresses of academic work, for some, economic.
But no matter, unlike food and adrenaline, friendships last a lifetime. And it is for a lifetime that we shall strife to make it last :) I can't wait for the next time we're gathered! David, get your kitchen ready! We're coming to 'tear it down' :)
Anna's accomplishment, telling a lame joke and acting cute.
Inspired to fly
Say cheese!
My Xiao Long Bao!!!
Need I say more?
Wassssuupppp!!!
My wish is your command...
Evil Mozzies!
With the fun, food and laughter of the past couple of days spent travelling from Penang down to Ipoh, KL and finally Singapore, with the most awesome bunch, still fresh on my mind, I begin to write. Yet my vocabulary fails me as I struggle to find the words to express myself. It's only been 24hours since our trip ended but i'm missing them already. The adenaline from running around malaysia and singapore, catching the right buses and trains (even those that didn't open their doors when they were sposed to) still coursing through my veins. The Food (spelt with a well deserved capital F) still lingering on my taste buds, literally since I just had another taste of Ipoh and Penang's biscuits for breakfast. Yet nothing compares to the cammaraderie and friendship forged as a result of spending 11 days, for Tori, 7, together almost from sunrise to sunset, save for the moments spent asleep, dreaming in eager anticipation of the following day's events. It's a magical bond that ties people together, watching out for each other as we crawled, climbed and waded over and through rock crevices and underwater streams, feeding each other the best foods our homes could offer, looking out for each other on the roads, writing and singing nonsensical melodies about tortoise-shaped 'kuehs', curling hair that was never meant to be curled, laughing ourselves silly and yet sharing from the bottom of our hearts till morning.
It feels somewhat odd, now, that the next time we'll see each other again will be amidst the stresses of academic work, for some, economic.
But no matter, unlike food and adrenaline, friendships last a lifetime. And it is for a lifetime that we shall strife to make it last :) I can't wait for the next time we're gathered! David, get your kitchen ready! We're coming to 'tear it down' :)
Anna's accomplishment, telling a lame joke and acting cute.Audrey and bird
Inspired to fly Say cheese!
My Xiao Long Bao!!! Need I say more? Wassssuupppp!!! My wish is your command... Evil Mozzies!
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