It seems that every new day brings some fresh challenge into my life. Whether for good or for bad, i am determined to remain unbowed, though sometimes it is really difficult. This is a persuasive arguement that a wrote sometime ago, read at your leisure :)
We all strive for perfection. Perfection in the things we do, in the way we look, our understanding of things around us. We leave no stone unturned in satisfying this desire, no path too dark or untendable. In the race to get to the desired end in mind, it is so easy to forget the flaws and imperfections that make us human. Often, the best of who we can be, is the current fixation in our lives. A fellow student in school who scores straight As, is an athelete, and is popular and successful. The fashion style or haircut of a famous actor or actress, her mannerisms or her charisma. Our desires for everything we dont have, his success, her looks, even God’s understanding and eternal life. We are distracted and pulled in so many directions, trying to be everything but ourselves. But who is ourselves? Are we defined by our moral values? Our looks? Our acheivements? How successful we are financially or in the number of friends and connections we have? Are we made of the ideals we undertake, the actions we do?
Morality and virtue can be reasoned with logic and expounded into circular logic to be only good--when applied in the right situations. We must not do acts of kindness in the airport, others might take advantage of us to smuggle goods. We must not give money to the old and poor along the streets because there has been cases of fake ‘ beggars’ being picked up by opulent cars after a day of ‘ work ‘. We live in a society where i have to stop and wonder, no to CONSIDER, whether its alright if i help an old woman carry her groceries up the overhead bridge. So what kind of person am i?
Not everyone is borned a historic figure. Not everyone is born with greatness in mind. Not everyone is borned perfect. Thus it is so easy, in our struggle for perfection, in our quest to be remembered, to live out our lives through simulated perfection. Drama serials on television, epic storys in the movies, adventure and fantasy in story books. We see the beauty and flawless features of actors and actresses, the meaningful and adventure filled lives of heros in movie scripts. Destiny in the worded lines of story books. So much so that everytime we look in the mirror, we are filled with dismay, and an unimaginable disgust for what we are NOT.
Take away all this, what am i left with? Who am i then? Without a name, or a label telling me who, what or where i belong--my name, my family tree, my home address, my occupation, my contacts. When i was borned, my acheivements to date, my latitude of experiences, my abilities. Can i tell you who i am? I do not know, but i am certain of this. No matter the fallacy of the world, of the society, of your spheres of influences, you are your own person. There is a choice. No matter how the logic and reasoning of your principles and ideals are dissected and torn apart in front of you, hold fast. The choice is still yours to make.
Life puts us in different situations, some less fortunate than others, but the life is still ours. There is a choice to be. It cant be said that virtue was not convenient, or i did not want to do that, but i had to. A decision was made by you, in your brain, and the order to carry it out sent to your body--A choice. Yours. Morality merely supports and influences who we are, but the choice is still ours, everytime, everyday, of what we do about it. In the end, from the greatest to the least, we all perish, what and who we are, depends on how we choose to live the life that has been given us.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
Tolerance vs. Refinement
This is an article taken from the Chinese section of last week’s ‘My Paper’. I’ve attempted to translate it here, so pardon me if it sounds weird. I’m still more comfortable with translating English to Chinese. Of course not very pro, otherwise I wouldn’t have gotten a certificate of participation for some bilingual translation competition in sec 3. I used to collect meaningful and well-written essays submitted by readers of the Chinese newspaper. Hardly do that nowadays, so I really only have that few clippings. This article about tolerance vs. refinement somehow relates to the bible’s teaching on being slow to anger. So ENJOY!!!
All those pent-up anger and frustrations from work we yearn to vent them out but if we complain too much to our friends, they may get irritated or something. Therefore, many people will tell us to be more tolerant and gracious about it.
People like to equate tolerance to refinement but Ms Shenton, the author, begs to differ. She believes that tolerance is a low level thing whilst refinement is a high level thing. (I hope I won’t be using too much thing)
When we talk about tolerance, we often have this mentality: I can’t afford to offend you now, so I’ll tolerate. But you wait and see, one day...... Such tolerance has a deep underlying motive; you tolerate only to hide or protect yourself. However, your eyes are dead-fixed on your target. When the time is ripe, you will jump out and attack.
In reality, these people are highly respected. They are deemed to be intelligent and material for success.
Their tolerance is in fact a plot, a hideous act. What’s more scary is that such tolerance can perverse the human mind.
Let me tell you a story from the ancient history of China. Before the Tang dynasty was this short-lived Duo dynasty. The good-for-nothing emperor of this Duo dynasty is called Yang Guang. He demonstrated tolerance to the max.
Before he became an emperor, he could take a lot of things lying down. He was not particular about his dressing or meals and did not have a servant. He even married an extremely ugly wife.
In this way, he tolerated for 10 years. Both the emperor and his subjects felt that he would make a good emperor.
Who would expect that after this fellow became an emperor, there was a drastic change in his personality. He became extremely extravagant and useless. Not long after, Duo dynasty fell.
This is the result of tolerance.
Tolerance can enable a person to grab certain kinds of benefits but such perverseness often causes him to do the wrong things. Once he can take it no longer, he will resort to foolish acts.
Refinement is different. It is like pardoning and forgiveness; it’s a higher intellect. Refinement also requires tolerance but such tolerance does not derive from the basis of revenge and self-centredness. This tolerance is to get rid of the anger which enters the body, maintaining the stability of the mind and emotions throughout.
Tolerance is a kind of attack. Because you need to attack, you need to defend. Refinement does not require defense, because you have never thought of attacking.
To become a company’s managerial talent, the more you need to turn tolerance into refinement. Because of the power and influence you hold in your hands, if you survive on mere tolerance, you will vent it out on someone someday when you can hold it no more. In the end, you will only turn your organisation into scattered sand.
If you can turn tolerance into refinement, you will consider first the benefits of others. It’s not easy to be refined but once you grasp the different elements, you can develop your own charm and become the great general.
That was some food for thought....
An interesting question revisited
Girlfriends and wives love to ask their spouse this age-old question. We hardly hear men ask this question maybe because women are really quite bo liao sometimes. If your mother and me both fall into the sea, assuming both of us can’t swim and you can only save one, who will you save?
Dead-meat: Many men will avoid answering because either way makes you a heartless creature.
Liar: He will say save the mother in front of the mother and say save the wife in front of the wife. So fake!
Excuse me: Just say they can’t swim let alone save the other two.
Resourceful: This is what I heard employers will ask. Your purpose is to make any hopeless situation look hopeful! Before you save anyone, call the fire engine or whoever. While waiting for help to arrive, save one of them and hopefully the other also gets rescued later on.
Cheesy: This is what I heard from my colleague. Of course save the girlfriend/ wife (without hesitation). His parent(s) have already passed on.
Romantic: This is a really good one and first time I’ve heard about it from another colleague. With this one, you can’t go very wrong. The boyfriend says he will save the mother. How can you forsake you mother for a girl who’s not even your wife right, so a pat on his back. But after that, he will jump into the water and die with his girlfriend. This is so terribly touching. How can it not melt your heart?
To the guys out there, good luck!!!
Random talk
There’s this toilet below my office which I normally use. Pasted on the wall is a sign which reads “Please lift the toilet seat before you pee”. Huh? Then what’s the toilet seat for? If it’s for guys only, I can understand, but not for every one right?
I think the bus handle is an amazing invention except that I don't understand why there's allowance for so much movement. It doesn't help that when the bus makes a sharp turn, I have to stabilise myself with all my might. I don't suppose I'm that light but it seems like I'm the only one so prone to sliding from one end of the bus to another.
I always thought Proforma Invoice was Performa Invoice. Sam Heng will know what I’m talking about. I’m actually that blind not to have noticed that even though I’ve handled many Proforma Invoice.
Angeline – A Story of Love
All those pent-up anger and frustrations from work we yearn to vent them out but if we complain too much to our friends, they may get irritated or something. Therefore, many people will tell us to be more tolerant and gracious about it.
People like to equate tolerance to refinement but Ms Shenton, the author, begs to differ. She believes that tolerance is a low level thing whilst refinement is a high level thing. (I hope I won’t be using too much thing)
When we talk about tolerance, we often have this mentality: I can’t afford to offend you now, so I’ll tolerate. But you wait and see, one day...... Such tolerance has a deep underlying motive; you tolerate only to hide or protect yourself. However, your eyes are dead-fixed on your target. When the time is ripe, you will jump out and attack.
In reality, these people are highly respected. They are deemed to be intelligent and material for success.
Their tolerance is in fact a plot, a hideous act. What’s more scary is that such tolerance can perverse the human mind.
Let me tell you a story from the ancient history of China. Before the Tang dynasty was this short-lived Duo dynasty. The good-for-nothing emperor of this Duo dynasty is called Yang Guang. He demonstrated tolerance to the max.
Before he became an emperor, he could take a lot of things lying down. He was not particular about his dressing or meals and did not have a servant. He even married an extremely ugly wife.
In this way, he tolerated for 10 years. Both the emperor and his subjects felt that he would make a good emperor.
Who would expect that after this fellow became an emperor, there was a drastic change in his personality. He became extremely extravagant and useless. Not long after, Duo dynasty fell.
This is the result of tolerance.
Tolerance can enable a person to grab certain kinds of benefits but such perverseness often causes him to do the wrong things. Once he can take it no longer, he will resort to foolish acts.
Refinement is different. It is like pardoning and forgiveness; it’s a higher intellect. Refinement also requires tolerance but such tolerance does not derive from the basis of revenge and self-centredness. This tolerance is to get rid of the anger which enters the body, maintaining the stability of the mind and emotions throughout.
Tolerance is a kind of attack. Because you need to attack, you need to defend. Refinement does not require defense, because you have never thought of attacking.
To become a company’s managerial talent, the more you need to turn tolerance into refinement. Because of the power and influence you hold in your hands, if you survive on mere tolerance, you will vent it out on someone someday when you can hold it no more. In the end, you will only turn your organisation into scattered sand.
If you can turn tolerance into refinement, you will consider first the benefits of others. It’s not easy to be refined but once you grasp the different elements, you can develop your own charm and become the great general.
That was some food for thought....
An interesting question revisited
Girlfriends and wives love to ask their spouse this age-old question. We hardly hear men ask this question maybe because women are really quite bo liao sometimes. If your mother and me both fall into the sea, assuming both of us can’t swim and you can only save one, who will you save?
Dead-meat: Many men will avoid answering because either way makes you a heartless creature.
Liar: He will say save the mother in front of the mother and say save the wife in front of the wife. So fake!
Excuse me: Just say they can’t swim let alone save the other two.
Resourceful: This is what I heard employers will ask. Your purpose is to make any hopeless situation look hopeful! Before you save anyone, call the fire engine or whoever. While waiting for help to arrive, save one of them and hopefully the other also gets rescued later on.
Cheesy: This is what I heard from my colleague. Of course save the girlfriend/ wife (without hesitation). His parent(s) have already passed on.
Romantic: This is a really good one and first time I’ve heard about it from another colleague. With this one, you can’t go very wrong. The boyfriend says he will save the mother. How can you forsake you mother for a girl who’s not even your wife right, so a pat on his back. But after that, he will jump into the water and die with his girlfriend. This is so terribly touching. How can it not melt your heart?
To the guys out there, good luck!!!
Random talk
There’s this toilet below my office which I normally use. Pasted on the wall is a sign which reads “Please lift the toilet seat before you pee”. Huh? Then what’s the toilet seat for? If it’s for guys only, I can understand, but not for every one right?
I think the bus handle is an amazing invention except that I don't understand why there's allowance for so much movement. It doesn't help that when the bus makes a sharp turn, I have to stabilise myself with all my might. I don't suppose I'm that light but it seems like I'm the only one so prone to sliding from one end of the bus to another.
I always thought Proforma Invoice was Performa Invoice. Sam Heng will know what I’m talking about. I’m actually that blind not to have noticed that even though I’ve handled many Proforma Invoice.
Angeline – A Story of Love
This is a story from those little books that you get from gift shops. My friend gave this to me quite a long time ago but I’m revisiting it to share with you and bring some warmth to your heart as well. Enjoy!!!
Somewhere in the evening sky a little angel lived on a puffy white cloud. Her name was Angeline.
One day she saw herself in a shiny raindrop...... And realised that her wings were very, very small. Angeline tried to think of ways to make them look bigger.
“I know, I’ll glue extra curly fuzzy feathers all over them.”...... But they just blew off.
Then she thought, “I’ll paint them bright colours”, and ran for a brush......But she just looked funny.
She even tried to hide them under a giant, enormous straw hat with lots and lots of fancy flowers...... But she just looked silly.
Angeline felt very sad. “How could anyone love an angel with such itsy-bitsy wings?” She softly whispered.
Then she started to cry.
As she gently wiped away a tear, she felt a bump. A big, dark cloud blew by and almost knocked her over. Angeline watched it slide past and sadly thought, “I’ll always look strange. I can’t fix my wings and they will never grow.”
Suddenly she had an idea.
“I’ll jump into this cloud and sail far away into the sky where no one will ever see me.” So she hopped on the fluffy cloud and floated like a big, white bubble into the still blue night.
With a big sigh, the little angel tucked herself in and fell fast asleep. But as she glided along she began to slowly sink deeper and deeper into the cloud’s soft, black center.
Angeline tumbled upside down and sideways until...... She finally landed on the bottom with a gentle thud.
She was all alone and very, very scared.
Suddenly she looked down and saw a beautiful rainbow.
“Oh my,” she sighed, “Maybe if I jump on this rainbow it will take me somewhere... Anywhere... Away from this gloomy, sad place.”
Angeline began to slide down...down...down until... THUMP!
She landed on a soft warm blanket. Angeline could see nothing in the shadows. “Oh no, another scary place.” The angel stared into the darkness and realised she was on a little girl’s bed.
Then she saw the little girl...Hiding behind a big pillow.
“I’m so afraid of the dark,” she whispered.
“I know just how you feel,” Angeline cried. “But I’m here now so you don’t have to be frightened anymore.” And with that the little girl scooped up the angel in her arms and held her tight.
Her tears dried, her cries stopped and she drifted off to sleep.
Angeline never felt so loved and cared for. She was so happy that even her wings looked a little bigger. And from that day on the little girl and the angel were together, wach helping the other in their own way.
And just as there are stars in the sky, there’s a special angel for every little girl and boy...... waiting to be held and loved.
Whether you feel like the angel or the little girl, I hope the story meant something to you. What I make of this story is two different ways of looking at it.
Firstly, God loves us like the angel and the best part being He understands every fear that goes through our heart.
Secondly, we put ourselves in the angel’s shoes and realise we are never too inadequate to love others. The point is whether we are willing to find that someone who needs your love to love.
meapple
Sunday, May 18, 2008
19th may prayer request!
My sister is crying again... she came down suddenly last night while my mom and i were watching TV and asked if she was fat. According to my mom she has been doing that alot recently, until my mom told her that she had to stop thinking like that, that such thoughts were untrue... Anyway my mom was so happy that she and a friend attended a church event yesterday, the topic of discussion was about cutting... and today she is crying badly again. She locked herself in her room, and wont let my mom in, until mom got the key... Sigh, it really seems to have no end, and if i weary so about this, how much so does my mom?
Sorry have not been posting much, mainly because there hasnt been many nice things to post about. Prayer request!-- May God help my sister to overcome her problems and mindset, give my mom strength as she helps my sister, and grant me the emphathy and patience to continue loving her.
Sorry have not been posting much, mainly because there hasnt been many nice things to post about. Prayer request!-- May God help my sister to overcome her problems and mindset, give my mom strength as she helps my sister, and grant me the emphathy and patience to continue loving her.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Isn't it still water?
Methodist churches practise baptism in three modes: immersion, pouring and sprinkling. Have you ever wondered what’s the difference between them?
The most unanimously agreed on and biblically supported method is immersion. In fact, it’s much easier to find articles on the net arguing about the other two methods being objectionable. The significance of immersion lies in its reference to our burial with Christ “by baptism unto death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4). To come out of the baptismal water is like rising from the dead to newness of life, “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom 6:11).
Pouring speaks of the cleansing we receive by the “washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit which He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior” (Titus 3:5-6). Similarly, pouring also signifies the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the believers (Acts 2:17; 10:45).
Baptism by sprinkling has perhaps an older tradition, with its roots in the Old Testament ritual of sprinkling the blood of the sacrifice upon the garments of the priest to signify that “he and his garments shall be holy” (Exod. 29:21). To be sprinkled means that we have been set apart for God’s service. More often, however, sprinkling with blood (Lev. 4:5), water (Num. 8:7), or with oil (Lev. 14:16) signifies cleansing.
However, baptism is still baptism. The attitude and intention are much more important than the mode that one chooses to undertake. I’m in no position to argue which modes are right or wrong but I’m sure God need not work in only one way. At least we agree that baptism is a mandate from God. That’s what matters. People like to argue over ways of doing things, stance on certain issues, which denomination is better blah blah blah..... Intellectually stimulating though it may be, sometimes it may not be a bad thing to have different denominations. As my TRACkers pastor said, different kinds of services and church environment may appeal to different kinds of people. Every one is different and if they can find one where they are comfortable worshipping God in, we should rejoice. In other words, we can reach out to people using a variety of baits. At the end of the day, we are still brothers and sisters in Christ isn’t it?
However, baptism is still baptism. The attitude and intention are much more important than the mode that one chooses to undertake. I’m in no position to argue which modes are right or wrong but I’m sure God need not work in only one way. At least we agree that baptism is a mandate from God. That’s what matters. People like to argue over ways of doing things, stance on certain issues, which denomination is better blah blah blah..... Intellectually stimulating though it may be, sometimes it may not be a bad thing to have different denominations. As my TRACkers pastor said, different kinds of services and church environment may appeal to different kinds of people. Every one is different and if they can find one where they are comfortable worshipping God in, we should rejoice. In other words, we can reach out to people using a variety of baits. At the end of the day, we are still brothers and sisters in Christ isn’t it?
Workplace Woes
Today’s my 5th day at my workplace, somewhere near Boon Lay. My nightmare begins the moment I get out of the train at Boon Lay MRT. It doesn’t help even if you’re that close to the escalator because people literally rush or run to the escalator. I never realised the morning traffic there is so bad. Really can’t imagine what the place would be like when there’s a track fault or train delay. To make things worse, bus 252 which I need to take is at berth 9, right at the extreme left end of boon lay’s gigantic circular bus interchange. Very far loh and I queued at the wrong lane before. The queues are so long you can hardly tell which belongs to which bus number until I see people boarding the bus but my queue didn’t seem to be moving.
Actually I feel like quitting already; maybe because I’m lazy. It’d be great if I can work on alternate days. If I want to quit, there shouldn’t be any problems with the job agency. But how should I break the news to my direct supervisor. Even if she doesn’t blow her top – spending so much time teaching me how to do stuff and me irritating her with questions – I think she’ll curse and swear at me every day after i leave. The best thing now is if they find a permanent, I have all the reasons to stop working. Then again, if I go somewhere else, won’t I have to pick up from scratch and go through all the pain again?
The receptionist at the 1st floor counter seems to be having an easier time than me. General enquiry phone calls are rare. It makes sense doesn’t it? How many people need to call a crane company? She spends her work hours watching vcds like CSI, FBI, etc. She needs only to help us mail out the letters. My supervisor makes me call Fedex all the time so sparing the receptionist of more work. I’ve called Fedex quite a number of times to send documents and parcels to China, Malaysia, Korea, etc. The number of times which they call Fedex is more than the times we send emails. Never mind that when I’m filling out the form, I can’t tell which is city and which is province. Because the company wants to cut cost, the pen we are using now is so lousy no matter how hard I press, the carbon print on the last sheet is still very faint. But Fedex is really Fedex. It’s so fast. The thing I want to send out always disappears the next moment I go to the counter. Fedex must be a really really huge company with tons of workers. Can’t imagine the amount of paperwork they need to do. Fedex is literally operating all over the world!!! I wonder if they serve Sahara Desert too.
Of course there’re good things to be mentioned too. The radio is always on in the office so it’s good for me at least because absolute silence like in the church office unsettles me. But coz the radio is so lau pok and dusty, it sometimes changes channels on its own. Lol...Because someone drives, we get to go to a different place every day for lunch. They are used to their 45 minutes lunch break, so they walk and eat really fast. Stressed stressed......
Since my office is located somewhere in the Jurong West Tuas area, there’re plenty of warehouses there. 3 of my colleagues including my boss are mad over the bed sheet warehouse sale. They have decided white is a bad colour to buy because the side where the husband sleeps always ends up with some dirty yellow mark, the outline of the body. What is this man? Never heard of such a thing in my life!!! On Friday, there’ll be a Meiji warehouse sale. Oh man, I love meiji. I recall how I was addicted to chocobeats for a period. I ate almost 10 tubes until I got sick of it. Not to mention I ate so much of Sam Leong’s chocobaby. So I’ll see how and try to buy as much as I can. :p
So far I’ve been pretty accurate with the numbers portion of my work. Does it mean I’ll make an ok accountant? Haha...
The receptionist at the 1st floor counter seems to be having an easier time than me. General enquiry phone calls are rare. It makes sense doesn’t it? How many people need to call a crane company? She spends her work hours watching vcds like CSI, FBI, etc. She needs only to help us mail out the letters. My supervisor makes me call Fedex all the time so sparing the receptionist of more work. I’ve called Fedex quite a number of times to send documents and parcels to China, Malaysia, Korea, etc. The number of times which they call Fedex is more than the times we send emails. Never mind that when I’m filling out the form, I can’t tell which is city and which is province. Because the company wants to cut cost, the pen we are using now is so lousy no matter how hard I press, the carbon print on the last sheet is still very faint. But Fedex is really Fedex. It’s so fast. The thing I want to send out always disappears the next moment I go to the counter. Fedex must be a really really huge company with tons of workers. Can’t imagine the amount of paperwork they need to do. Fedex is literally operating all over the world!!! I wonder if they serve Sahara Desert too.
Of course there’re good things to be mentioned too. The radio is always on in the office so it’s good for me at least because absolute silence like in the church office unsettles me. But coz the radio is so lau pok and dusty, it sometimes changes channels on its own. Lol...Because someone drives, we get to go to a different place every day for lunch. They are used to their 45 minutes lunch break, so they walk and eat really fast. Stressed stressed......
Since my office is located somewhere in the Jurong West Tuas area, there’re plenty of warehouses there. 3 of my colleagues including my boss are mad over the bed sheet warehouse sale. They have decided white is a bad colour to buy because the side where the husband sleeps always ends up with some dirty yellow mark, the outline of the body. What is this man? Never heard of such a thing in my life!!! On Friday, there’ll be a Meiji warehouse sale. Oh man, I love meiji. I recall how I was addicted to chocobeats for a period. I ate almost 10 tubes until I got sick of it. Not to mention I ate so much of Sam Leong’s chocobaby. So I’ll see how and try to buy as much as I can. :p
So far I’ve been pretty accurate with the numbers portion of my work. Does it mean I’ll make an ok accountant? Haha...
Random stuff
To Elisabeth, last week’s digital life section of The Straits Times featured very pretty and classy laptop bags but quite expensive also. At least there’re already such bags out there which can out so many other things apart from the laptop, so I don’t need to design one for you anymore! Lol..............
I never had much luck in lucky draws – those you send in or during prom nights, lucky dips, spinning the wheel, scratching the card which is very fun, those win-things-by-chance events. So I certainly believe lotteries, sweepstakes, Toto and 4D are a total waste of money. I did this survey for brightsparks hoping I would actually win the top prize of a itouch but yea, obviously I didn’t get it. This captions contest in the weekly Sunday Times seems attractive and maybe my chances will be quite high since people hate to use their brains to think. But neither do I; no time to think and don’t want to kill my brain cells either. As if not enough are dead. The last time I really won something should be eons ago. It was this travel scrabble set which I got from NKF at that time. Hope it was bought legitimately. Haha.... love it a lot coz I love scrabble.
Do you know Felicia Chin changed her chinese name since four months ago? Not like anyone would care but her new name’s quite nice. Her old name, feng ling, sounds like feng li which is a pear. Haha...
Do you know Felicia Chin changed her chinese name since four months ago? Not like anyone would care but her new name’s quite nice. Her old name, feng ling, sounds like feng li which is a pear. Haha...
Prayer for 11 May to 17 May
Thank God for our earthly parents who are providing us with the best of everything they could give with a simple wish that we can stay happy and comfortable. Ask God to help us love them verbally, physically, patiently, gratefully, generously, attentively and honourably although it may seem difficult or impossible at times. Pray for any problems, if there are, between our parents and us to be resolved by God’s divine intervention. At times, we may not understand where our parents are coming from or what is going through their mind. Other times, our parents just appear plain unreasonable and overly-protective. Whichever the case, pray that God will be the bridge between us; that as we seek to grow closer to Lord Jesus, our love for our parents will increase also.
meapple
Mid week meeting on the 15th May
Hello everyone, this weeks mid week meeting will be on Thursday, at 6pm at holland village. The restaurant we will be eating at is called Essential Brews. It is along the row of shops where swensens and starbucks is. The price range is from 20.95 to 25.95 for a set dinner. It is inclusive of a soup of the day, a drink, and a main course. Most of the dishes and drinks there are flavoured with floral or tea herbs, and there are many unique interesting dishes. Also, nerine will be joining us this week, so ya! Hope to see you there! Please Sms me confirmation by Wednesday night!
Monday, May 12, 2008
Heya, i have an idea...
Hey meapple! Im glad to see you still posting! The past weekend i was sick and feeling not just a little lethargic, so i did not check the website or post anything, and i was afraid that you might feel like you were talking to yourself afterall and stop too, so ya, im glad i worried for nothing :). This week nerine's SYF is over on tuesday, so she would be joining us for our mid week meeting, bringing the number to about five out of nine :). P.S im also hoping she would start posting regularly. I think if we persevere we might actually reach 7/9 eventually or even 9/9 on certain weeks. But besides the joy of seeing everyone making time to turn up everyweek, im glad to see that our pcm is growing closer. The more we communicate, the more we will know about each others' thoughts and lives, building a stronger friendship between us. I feel that this is very important, to build a sphere of trust and faith outside of our seperate lives, so that when one of us is in need of help, we are there to provide unjudgemental and stauch support. Not to say that we should not rely on God, or that he alone is not sufficient for our needs, but people are also tools used by God, like the three friends who loved Job enough to travel all the way to his house during his trials, to sit with him without uttering a word for seven days, unable to provide comfort, but unwilling to give up. I wonder, at this stage if one of us were to end up in the hospital, how many of us would be willing to take time away from our busy schedules to go visit? Im not sure if i will. But i hope in the future when i hear such dire news, my first question would be " which hospital? " instead of merely " what happened? ".
Anyway, i was traveling on the bus today, when i had an idea. To help us know more about each other, i propose to start a chain mail. Not those bad luck letters that curse you if u dont send to other people, but one that hopefully would demostrate how things will bear fruit in time. Let me explain myself. It would be an envelope containing a piece of paper segmented into nine portions, each portion bearing each of our names. We would write a single word describing that person under his assigned portion, and then mail it to the next person, who would do the same thing and so on. finally when it comes back to the original person( probably me ), i would flip the paper over and segment it again into nine portions, writing each of your names at the top again. Then i would write TWO words i think describes each of you under the assigned portion. On the next cycle i would add another piece of paper, and the description would be THREE words. The objective would be to see how our views of each other grows as our friendship progresses. It would also be a form of encouragement as we affirm each other. As the number of words increase, they would not need to be in sentences, it can just be individual words, eg ( Proud, Kind, Bluntly honest, Fiercely intelligent, happy-go-lucky ) What do you think? Any suggestions or objections? Please comment and tell me what you think.
Anyway, i was traveling on the bus today, when i had an idea. To help us know more about each other, i propose to start a chain mail. Not those bad luck letters that curse you if u dont send to other people, but one that hopefully would demostrate how things will bear fruit in time. Let me explain myself. It would be an envelope containing a piece of paper segmented into nine portions, each portion bearing each of our names. We would write a single word describing that person under his assigned portion, and then mail it to the next person, who would do the same thing and so on. finally when it comes back to the original person( probably me ), i would flip the paper over and segment it again into nine portions, writing each of your names at the top again. Then i would write TWO words i think describes each of you under the assigned portion. On the next cycle i would add another piece of paper, and the description would be THREE words. The objective would be to see how our views of each other grows as our friendship progresses. It would also be a form of encouragement as we affirm each other. As the number of words increase, they would not need to be in sentences, it can just be individual words, eg ( Proud, Kind, Bluntly honest, Fiercely intelligent, happy-go-lucky ) What do you think? Any suggestions or objections? Please comment and tell me what you think.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Find Us Faithful
On Monday, I decided to be healthy and so went for a slow jog in the evening. I ended up walking half the time... There’s quite a lot of people given it is a normal working weekday, so either these people are super ultra rich and therefore don’t need to work or they are simply too healthy!!! It seems like the government’s effort in promoting healthy living through physical exercise kind of paid off :) Congratulations!
A couple of interesting observations made. I saw this dog literally wearing ‘shoes’. I haven’t seen a dog wear something like that except of course on tv when their owners dress them up like a clown for Christmas parties. These shoes I saw weren’t those pretty canvas types with laces and definitely not shiny heels or beach sandals.....haha.... From a distance, it looked like each foot was bundled with a black garbage bag. It’s quite a funny sight; at least it drew quite a few stares apart from mine. On a closer look, the shoes look quite comfy and for a while, it reminded me of the bandits in maplestory (for those who have played it before) because of the black gloves they wear. I hope the owner wasn’t afraid the little run would actually dirty his doggy’s feet coz that’s totally a clean freak :O
Then, I saw this Caucasian family also with a dog. Don’t ask me what breed, I never bothered. Just another skinny dog. Lady boss keeps stopping to teach the dog some manners because it was obviously pushing and it ain’t a very nice thing to do. So she at the top of her voice said, “Dog, you are pushing..............naughty dog.” This poor dog hasn’t a name so it’s called DOG. I realised a similarity there in training obedience in both an animal and a child. The other day when the kindergarten children were making their way to the pantry for breakfast, the teacher was holding back this girl at the lift lobby. The teacher told the girl that she is no to jump in the lift again. The girl was allowed to go off only after she responded. Quite similar eh except that the dog can’t say yes. It’s obviously a nightmare raising kids, and it doesn’t seem any easier training a dog. So why d people find trouble for themselves? Dog-lovers, please enlighten me!!!
Today I went to SGH to visit my uncle. All the beds were occupied. A lot of operations going on nowadays. 5 out of 6 in the ward are elderly men. Weird thing, men hurt themselves more easily? The remaining guy was a pretty young man, a tough-looking one in fact. He hurt his right elbow i suppose and therefore an interesting way of wearing his shirt. Basically the right arm didn’t go through the sleeve. Imagine!!! Looks quite man loh. One of the times when you can see the weak side of a guy is probably this ba.
Pastor Lynette has covered pretty thoroughly on how faith without deeds is dead. I’m inspired to touch a bit on faith on a personal level, something which I shared for devotions in TRACkers. The scripture reading is taken from Genesis 12. We all know Abraham is a god-fearing man and a man of great faith. Nearly every time God instructs him to do something, he proceeds without questioning.
What’s interesting in the first four verses is that God wants Abraham to leave his homeland and everything behind. And he followed with obedience. In the later chapters, this same obedience is demonstrated. He just believed that God would deliver on His promise. Like later on in Genesis 22, Abraham was told to sacrifice his only son Isaac as a burnt offering. He actually did just as he was told without hesitation. And seeing his faithfulness, an angel came to stop him as he prepared to slay his son with the knife. We look at ourselves and we realize that ‘Hey, why can’t we be like Abraham’. We ask ourselves: Do we question or doubt God every time He tells us to do something that perhaps disrupts our own plans or gets in the way of things that we want to achieve.
But we can take comfort in that Abraham has times when he lacked faith too. In Gen 12:10-20, the king shows Abram if he trusted in God and told the truth, everything would have been all right. Pharaoh was so far from any design to kill Abraham. Instead, he took particular care of him. Pharaoh charged his men not to hurt Abram in any thing even after the truth was uncovered. But Abraham was so fearful that he got his wife and servants to tell a lie to ensure his safety. We often perplex ourselves with fears which are altogether groundless. Many a time we fear where no fear is. Even if there’s a reason to fear, we pray to commit to God all our anxieties but we don’t really trust completely because we are so gripped by fear. Although we understand the nature of our Father, we are just afraid that we’re taking the wrong step in life when pursuing the various educational careers and options, afraid we won’t rise to where we are, afraid we can’t get a certain GPA, afraid our Sec 1s will not grow up into Godly men and women under us, afraid of deaths around us, afraid our God has been a lie all this while, etc (I’m not sure if you fear and what you fear).
We need not be discouraged. Abraham also showed a lack of faith before but God is in the business of growing Abraham into a man of great faith, and this requires circumstances where Abraham must trust God. Likewise, we should seek to grow in faith. Faith is an amazing thing. It is believing that the blessing of the Almighty would make up for all we could lose or leave behind, supply all our wants and answer and exceed all our desires. When we have faith, we are not easily discouraged by the difficulties in our way. What we undertake, in obedience to God's command, and in humble attendance on his providence, will certainly succeed and end with comfort at last. I am still learning too....
This irish prayer was given to us on a small card by our teachers before our O levels which I still find relevant today:
May God give you...
For every STORM, a RAINBOW,
For every TEAR, a SMILE,
For every CARE, a PROMISE,
And a BLESSING in each TRIAL.
For every PROBLEM life sends,
A FAITHFUL FRIEND to share,
For every SIGH, a SWEET SONG,
And an ANSWER for each PRAYER.
PRAYER for May 4 - May 10
Thank you, Father, for revealing your faithfulness to us time and time again. Forgive us, oh Lord, when we of little faith choose to take things in our own hands. Father, whichever level of faith we each are at now, help us to grow deeper in faith. Take our faith to a new level because want You to use the events in our life to teach us what faith is all about. Father, we also want to pray for faith to be no longer something we keep to ourselves. Because of the faith we have in You, help us to practise it through deeds which are seen by our family, neighbours, freinds and spheres of influence. For we know that as the body is dead without th Spirit, faith without deeds is dead also. Thank you for promising us salvation as long as we have the faith but help us understand that Christian living isn't just about paying lip service and telling others how important faith is. Many times in life we have to walk in faith, so grant us the peace which transcends all understanding, claiming the promise that You have nothing but the best for us. Amen.
“Faith is not a mushroom that grows overnight in damp soil; it is an oak tree that grows for a thousand years under the blast of the wind and rain.” (Barnhouse)
A couple of interesting observations made. I saw this dog literally wearing ‘shoes’. I haven’t seen a dog wear something like that except of course on tv when their owners dress them up like a clown for Christmas parties. These shoes I saw weren’t those pretty canvas types with laces and definitely not shiny heels or beach sandals.....haha.... From a distance, it looked like each foot was bundled with a black garbage bag. It’s quite a funny sight; at least it drew quite a few stares apart from mine. On a closer look, the shoes look quite comfy and for a while, it reminded me of the bandits in maplestory (for those who have played it before) because of the black gloves they wear. I hope the owner wasn’t afraid the little run would actually dirty his doggy’s feet coz that’s totally a clean freak :O
Then, I saw this Caucasian family also with a dog. Don’t ask me what breed, I never bothered. Just another skinny dog. Lady boss keeps stopping to teach the dog some manners because it was obviously pushing and it ain’t a very nice thing to do. So she at the top of her voice said, “Dog, you are pushing..............naughty dog.” This poor dog hasn’t a name so it’s called DOG. I realised a similarity there in training obedience in both an animal and a child. The other day when the kindergarten children were making their way to the pantry for breakfast, the teacher was holding back this girl at the lift lobby. The teacher told the girl that she is no to jump in the lift again. The girl was allowed to go off only after she responded. Quite similar eh except that the dog can’t say yes. It’s obviously a nightmare raising kids, and it doesn’t seem any easier training a dog. So why d people find trouble for themselves? Dog-lovers, please enlighten me!!!
Today I went to SGH to visit my uncle. All the beds were occupied. A lot of operations going on nowadays. 5 out of 6 in the ward are elderly men. Weird thing, men hurt themselves more easily? The remaining guy was a pretty young man, a tough-looking one in fact. He hurt his right elbow i suppose and therefore an interesting way of wearing his shirt. Basically the right arm didn’t go through the sleeve. Imagine!!! Looks quite man loh. One of the times when you can see the weak side of a guy is probably this ba.
Pastor Lynette has covered pretty thoroughly on how faith without deeds is dead. I’m inspired to touch a bit on faith on a personal level, something which I shared for devotions in TRACkers. The scripture reading is taken from Genesis 12. We all know Abraham is a god-fearing man and a man of great faith. Nearly every time God instructs him to do something, he proceeds without questioning.
What’s interesting in the first four verses is that God wants Abraham to leave his homeland and everything behind. And he followed with obedience. In the later chapters, this same obedience is demonstrated. He just believed that God would deliver on His promise. Like later on in Genesis 22, Abraham was told to sacrifice his only son Isaac as a burnt offering. He actually did just as he was told without hesitation. And seeing his faithfulness, an angel came to stop him as he prepared to slay his son with the knife. We look at ourselves and we realize that ‘Hey, why can’t we be like Abraham’. We ask ourselves: Do we question or doubt God every time He tells us to do something that perhaps disrupts our own plans or gets in the way of things that we want to achieve.
But we can take comfort in that Abraham has times when he lacked faith too. In Gen 12:10-20, the king shows Abram if he trusted in God and told the truth, everything would have been all right. Pharaoh was so far from any design to kill Abraham. Instead, he took particular care of him. Pharaoh charged his men not to hurt Abram in any thing even after the truth was uncovered. But Abraham was so fearful that he got his wife and servants to tell a lie to ensure his safety. We often perplex ourselves with fears which are altogether groundless. Many a time we fear where no fear is. Even if there’s a reason to fear, we pray to commit to God all our anxieties but we don’t really trust completely because we are so gripped by fear. Although we understand the nature of our Father, we are just afraid that we’re taking the wrong step in life when pursuing the various educational careers and options, afraid we won’t rise to where we are, afraid we can’t get a certain GPA, afraid our Sec 1s will not grow up into Godly men and women under us, afraid of deaths around us, afraid our God has been a lie all this while, etc (I’m not sure if you fear and what you fear).
We need not be discouraged. Abraham also showed a lack of faith before but God is in the business of growing Abraham into a man of great faith, and this requires circumstances where Abraham must trust God. Likewise, we should seek to grow in faith. Faith is an amazing thing. It is believing that the blessing of the Almighty would make up for all we could lose or leave behind, supply all our wants and answer and exceed all our desires. When we have faith, we are not easily discouraged by the difficulties in our way. What we undertake, in obedience to God's command, and in humble attendance on his providence, will certainly succeed and end with comfort at last. I am still learning too....
This irish prayer was given to us on a small card by our teachers before our O levels which I still find relevant today:
May God give you...
For every STORM, a RAINBOW,
For every TEAR, a SMILE,
For every CARE, a PROMISE,
And a BLESSING in each TRIAL.
For every PROBLEM life sends,
A FAITHFUL FRIEND to share,
For every SIGH, a SWEET SONG,
And an ANSWER for each PRAYER.
PRAYER for May 4 - May 10
Thank you, Father, for revealing your faithfulness to us time and time again. Forgive us, oh Lord, when we of little faith choose to take things in our own hands. Father, whichever level of faith we each are at now, help us to grow deeper in faith. Take our faith to a new level because want You to use the events in our life to teach us what faith is all about. Father, we also want to pray for faith to be no longer something we keep to ourselves. Because of the faith we have in You, help us to practise it through deeds which are seen by our family, neighbours, freinds and spheres of influence. For we know that as the body is dead without th Spirit, faith without deeds is dead also. Thank you for promising us salvation as long as we have the faith but help us understand that Christian living isn't just about paying lip service and telling others how important faith is. Many times in life we have to walk in faith, so grant us the peace which transcends all understanding, claiming the promise that You have nothing but the best for us. Amen.
“Faith is not a mushroom that grows overnight in damp soil; it is an oak tree that grows for a thousand years under the blast of the wind and rain.” (Barnhouse)
P.S. Jun Bin, remind me to give you your Christmas card!!!
meapple
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Guess the location of our mid week meeting!
When stars shine and moonlight glimmer
Swirling eddies of foam and ripples gather
Magical spheres of warmth and light floating
Against a wall of waters gushing
Waters dancing to your laughter, resounding,
Caressing fingers of the wind playfully, running
Warmth of your smile against setting sun, glowing
Among these we shall have words of all things, pleasing
So cast your cares and worries to the winds
Let your hair down and dance within
It’s a time for love, heart and fellowship
In a place made pleasant by your companionship
Thus under soothing trees and rustling leaves
Surrounded by graceful spectacles of waters weave
Amidst joyous laughter of warmth and glowing light
Let us, my dear friends, enjoy this night!
The location of our next mid week meeting would be at united square, next to newton MRT. If anyone needs directions feel free to ask me. We will be meeting next wednesday, at 6pm, please reply via post or sms to me to confirm. If u cannot make it, please inform me of what time or day you would be free in future weeks so i plan these meetings better :). Any last minute changes are also fine, so dont feel pressured or obligated to come if u are not feeling well or have urgent things to do. But i do hope to see you there. Well wishes all! Bon
Swirling eddies of foam and ripples gather
Magical spheres of warmth and light floating
Against a wall of waters gushing
Waters dancing to your laughter, resounding,
Caressing fingers of the wind playfully, running
Warmth of your smile against setting sun, glowing
Among these we shall have words of all things, pleasing
So cast your cares and worries to the winds
Let your hair down and dance within
It’s a time for love, heart and fellowship
In a place made pleasant by your companionship
Thus under soothing trees and rustling leaves
Surrounded by graceful spectacles of waters weave
Amidst joyous laughter of warmth and glowing light
Let us, my dear friends, enjoy this night!
The location of our next mid week meeting would be at united square, next to newton MRT. If anyone needs directions feel free to ask me. We will be meeting next wednesday, at 6pm, please reply via post or sms to me to confirm. If u cannot make it, please inform me of what time or day you would be free in future weeks so i plan these meetings better :). Any last minute changes are also fine, so dont feel pressured or obligated to come if u are not feeling well or have urgent things to do. But i do hope to see you there. Well wishes all! Bon
Cheers and a toast to Gods people( And important notices!) PLEASE READ!!
Heya peeps, this is happin3ss, and for once i will say that im Bon :P
Anyway enough about sad stories, enough about stern sermons, where are the songs of birds on carefree winds? I just want to congratulate Teo Mei Ping, for completing her internship in trackers and church. I think its a great thing to be able to serve, especially for so long, doing rather mundane and under stimulating jobs from nine to five. Way to go, and the drinks are on you the next time we go out k? :D :D Anyways, i guess im gonna be very free from now onwards as i would be doing a private course, sooo i would probably write alot of stuff and post it here, be sure to check in from time to time k?
Ya, anyway, todays sermon got me thinking, am i in anyway serving God? If so am i doing enough? If not, how do i take action? I for one think im not serving enough, and i want to take action. But i am unable to satisfy this immediate and pressing urge as im not sure how to volunteer. This isnt exactly a new dilemma and i was hoping elisabeth or tim could help me out. I was thinking that maybe our pcm could serve together in the same ministry? So that if any of us run into problems the rest would be able to better identify with the problem and help. It just happens that many of us are already serving as teachers or guides to the secondary ones, maybe i dont have the training to teach yet, but maybe i could be involved by interacting with and thus keeping tabs on the students, heh. Anyway, in order to encourage one and all to visit this website, im going to be posting information on our weekly outings here, so if anyone wants to find out ( and EVERYONE needs to find out ), please check the website frequently, thanks!
As for the song of birds on carefree winds... I was thining of incorporating a short worship session in our midweek meeting. Maybe just singing a song together before we eat? Doesnt have to be nice or loud, but loving God is something we all have in common right? This is where i need help from our pcm songbirds... to help pick a simple song that we all can chirp along to? I can help print the lyrics if need be, or carry a radio on my shoulders and act like those 'a hip and a hop' rappers. So ya, our group is so talented it would be a criminal waste not to let everyone hear our chirping and croaking. Heh, soooo ya, look forward to the beautiful vocals of our pcm songbirds and frog princes next week!
Anyway enough about sad stories, enough about stern sermons, where are the songs of birds on carefree winds? I just want to congratulate Teo Mei Ping, for completing her internship in trackers and church. I think its a great thing to be able to serve, especially for so long, doing rather mundane and under stimulating jobs from nine to five. Way to go, and the drinks are on you the next time we go out k? :D :D Anyways, i guess im gonna be very free from now onwards as i would be doing a private course, sooo i would probably write alot of stuff and post it here, be sure to check in from time to time k?
Ya, anyway, todays sermon got me thinking, am i in anyway serving God? If so am i doing enough? If not, how do i take action? I for one think im not serving enough, and i want to take action. But i am unable to satisfy this immediate and pressing urge as im not sure how to volunteer. This isnt exactly a new dilemma and i was hoping elisabeth or tim could help me out. I was thinking that maybe our pcm could serve together in the same ministry? So that if any of us run into problems the rest would be able to better identify with the problem and help. It just happens that many of us are already serving as teachers or guides to the secondary ones, maybe i dont have the training to teach yet, but maybe i could be involved by interacting with and thus keeping tabs on the students, heh. Anyway, in order to encourage one and all to visit this website, im going to be posting information on our weekly outings here, so if anyone wants to find out ( and EVERYONE needs to find out ), please check the website frequently, thanks!
As for the song of birds on carefree winds... I was thining of incorporating a short worship session in our midweek meeting. Maybe just singing a song together before we eat? Doesnt have to be nice or loud, but loving God is something we all have in common right? This is where i need help from our pcm songbirds... to help pick a simple song that we all can chirp along to? I can help print the lyrics if need be, or carry a radio on my shoulders and act like those 'a hip and a hop' rappers. So ya, our group is so talented it would be a criminal waste not to let everyone hear our chirping and croaking. Heh, soooo ya, look forward to the beautiful vocals of our pcm songbirds and frog princes next week!
Friday, May 2, 2008
BY HOOK OR BY CROOK
Hope your week has been good thus far. You all know where I was doing my internship; no names mentioned. Wednesday morning, I was sitting at my cubicle when I heard an extremely loud noise. It sounded like a wall had just collapsed. Quite scary actually. Imagine a part of our building had just fallen away. Nothing seemed to be amiss until the receptionist opened the door to someone’s office. Lo and behold! A broken brick had fallen through the false ceiling (those with removable boards) onto the table, knocking out everything in its way. Now, this is scary because should the occupant of that office have been around at that time, her head would not be spared. Thank God this young lady is enjoying herself somewhere far far away and won’t be back for at least another week or two. The brick is believed to be some debris but since the ceiling is hollow, it is bizarre where the brick fell from. Elisabeth’s mentor, as hilarious as usual, was video-recording the ‘crime scene’, complete with self-invented commentaries.
I just happened to be thinking about all the interview places I went to in the last two years. Many times, the security and lift systems amongst many other things make me feel lost and embarrassed.
I was at this place and I thought for once I could bypass the security counter and just take the lift. I went in, the door closed but I couldn’t press number 18. Luckily I wasn’t trapped. It was later that I discover you need a security pass to flash at this something before you can press the button. So basically if every one in the lift is going to a different floor, everybody has to flash his or her card. Now, this is bothersome but yeah, it was a tastefully designed lift. After the interview, I was crossing a road which has been blocked out. Forgetting the traffic light wasn’t even working, I pressed it furiously out of habit. I always believe the more times you press, the system will be made to believe that there’s a lot of pedestrians waiting to cross, so it’ll change to green light faster. This lady who saw me doing this must have thought I was mad or something.
Usually when you wait for a lift, you just need to press either the up or down button. Whilst I was at this Ministry, in place of the up and down buttons was a gigantic number pad. I thought to myself surely I don’t need a password to take the lift. At least the security person didn’t tell me anything. It was not until someone came over that I realised you are supposed to press the number of the level you are going to. And boy, this is the most efficient lift I have ever seen.
There was this mini luggage-checking system at this other Ministry. For a moment, I felt like I was at Changi Airport. Kind of exaggerating, not as if there’s a lot of money upstairs. But I suppose terrorists just need to cripple a ministry to create fear and unrest in the entire country.
There’s this statutory board whereby you have to exchange your IC for a security pass. After which, there’s this MRT gantry thing which you need to pass through. Initially, I didn’t know where to tap my card because there’s no sign which says “Tap here”. Unlike the MRT one, there’s this small door bell-like thing in place to tap on. Weird. On Monday, I was pacing outside the interview room waiting for my turn. I was told the panel would sound the bell as a signal to go in. When I heard this faint ‘ding’ sound, I wasn’t sure where it came from and the HR person wasn’t within sight for me to check. I wasn’t expecting those loud canteen bells anyway, so I entered. I heard the panel talking about confidence so I kind of knew I entered at the wrong time. Luckily they weren’t too alarmed. I just told them I mistook the lift bell for their bell.
Now that one of my house lifts has been changed to the stop-at-every-level kind, I think some of the older residents think that when you want to go down, you press the up button to ask the lift to come up. Oh dear! Back to my headline: By hook or by crook. We’re all familiar with this phrase and might have even used it in our essays before. Did you ever ask yourself why is it by hook or by crook? What does it mean? Since crook refers to a thief, cheat or criminal of sorts, I always thought it means you can resort to bad and underhand methods if the proper ones don’t work as long as you achieve your aims. Anyway, it’s wrong and the origin of this phrase isn’t very interesting either.
What I want to talk about is how this phrase applies to God’s calling for us. This is something Pastor William showed me from a book. Hopefully I remembered correctly. We all know what a hook is. As for a crook, it is a staff used by the shepherd. It has a curved handle normally wide enough to fit around the neck of a sheep or goat, allowing a herder to catch an animal that is straying and reroute them to a different direction. Crook represents the shepherds who are really those in full time ministry because their role is to feed and look after the people. We are all called to be fishers of men. Therefore, hook represents us or even the lay people. We like to think that God’s calling is for the full-time ministry people but in actual fact, we all have a calling. A calling to bring the Good News to pre-believers. The difference lies only in whether we are doing it as a church staff or in our respective professions. What can we be sure of then? We will fish for men BY HOOK OR BY CROOK.
PRAYER FOR THE WEEK
Pray for forgiveness especially since we tend to ignore God when we are caught up with our work and give little regard to God agenda. If there is something in our life that is not right with God – prayer life, walk with God, service in ministries, habits, sins - and we have been wanting to do something about it for weeks, months or even years, let us procrastinate no more. Pray for God to grant us that willpower to change and not wait for another tomorrow. If we have made a commitment to God or God is calling us to do something, pray that we will cast it aside no longer and but seek to fulfil His will in our lives.
Please take a look at this Global Day of Prayer 2008: http://www.globaldayofprayer.com/10days.php
Lastly, just want to make a small plea. When smses are sent out, can we all try to reply as promptly as we can, even if it’s just a simple acknowledgement, so as to facilitate arrangements?
Thanks!!!
meapple
I just happened to be thinking about all the interview places I went to in the last two years. Many times, the security and lift systems amongst many other things make me feel lost and embarrassed.
I was at this place and I thought for once I could bypass the security counter and just take the lift. I went in, the door closed but I couldn’t press number 18. Luckily I wasn’t trapped. It was later that I discover you need a security pass to flash at this something before you can press the button. So basically if every one in the lift is going to a different floor, everybody has to flash his or her card. Now, this is bothersome but yeah, it was a tastefully designed lift. After the interview, I was crossing a road which has been blocked out. Forgetting the traffic light wasn’t even working, I pressed it furiously out of habit. I always believe the more times you press, the system will be made to believe that there’s a lot of pedestrians waiting to cross, so it’ll change to green light faster. This lady who saw me doing this must have thought I was mad or something.
Usually when you wait for a lift, you just need to press either the up or down button. Whilst I was at this Ministry, in place of the up and down buttons was a gigantic number pad. I thought to myself surely I don’t need a password to take the lift. At least the security person didn’t tell me anything. It was not until someone came over that I realised you are supposed to press the number of the level you are going to. And boy, this is the most efficient lift I have ever seen.
There was this mini luggage-checking system at this other Ministry. For a moment, I felt like I was at Changi Airport. Kind of exaggerating, not as if there’s a lot of money upstairs. But I suppose terrorists just need to cripple a ministry to create fear and unrest in the entire country.
There’s this statutory board whereby you have to exchange your IC for a security pass. After which, there’s this MRT gantry thing which you need to pass through. Initially, I didn’t know where to tap my card because there’s no sign which says “Tap here”. Unlike the MRT one, there’s this small door bell-like thing in place to tap on. Weird. On Monday, I was pacing outside the interview room waiting for my turn. I was told the panel would sound the bell as a signal to go in. When I heard this faint ‘ding’ sound, I wasn’t sure where it came from and the HR person wasn’t within sight for me to check. I wasn’t expecting those loud canteen bells anyway, so I entered. I heard the panel talking about confidence so I kind of knew I entered at the wrong time. Luckily they weren’t too alarmed. I just told them I mistook the lift bell for their bell.
Now that one of my house lifts has been changed to the stop-at-every-level kind, I think some of the older residents think that when you want to go down, you press the up button to ask the lift to come up. Oh dear! Back to my headline: By hook or by crook. We’re all familiar with this phrase and might have even used it in our essays before. Did you ever ask yourself why is it by hook or by crook? What does it mean? Since crook refers to a thief, cheat or criminal of sorts, I always thought it means you can resort to bad and underhand methods if the proper ones don’t work as long as you achieve your aims. Anyway, it’s wrong and the origin of this phrase isn’t very interesting either.
What I want to talk about is how this phrase applies to God’s calling for us. This is something Pastor William showed me from a book. Hopefully I remembered correctly. We all know what a hook is. As for a crook, it is a staff used by the shepherd. It has a curved handle normally wide enough to fit around the neck of a sheep or goat, allowing a herder to catch an animal that is straying and reroute them to a different direction. Crook represents the shepherds who are really those in full time ministry because their role is to feed and look after the people. We are all called to be fishers of men. Therefore, hook represents us or even the lay people. We like to think that God’s calling is for the full-time ministry people but in actual fact, we all have a calling. A calling to bring the Good News to pre-believers. The difference lies only in whether we are doing it as a church staff or in our respective professions. What can we be sure of then? We will fish for men BY HOOK OR BY CROOK.
PRAYER FOR THE WEEK
Pray for forgiveness especially since we tend to ignore God when we are caught up with our work and give little regard to God agenda. If there is something in our life that is not right with God – prayer life, walk with God, service in ministries, habits, sins - and we have been wanting to do something about it for weeks, months or even years, let us procrastinate no more. Pray for God to grant us that willpower to change and not wait for another tomorrow. If we have made a commitment to God or God is calling us to do something, pray that we will cast it aside no longer and but seek to fulfil His will in our lives.
Please take a look at this Global Day of Prayer 2008: http://www.globaldayofprayer.com/10days.php
Lastly, just want to make a small plea. When smses are sent out, can we all try to reply as promptly as we can, even if it’s just a simple acknowledgement, so as to facilitate arrangements?
Thanks!!!
meapple
My first year in secondary school, my story
I know it sounds really cliche and a little bigotry but, bear with me. It all started when i was 12 going on 13, during my first year in SJI. I was very popular, and got elected by a majority vote to be class chairman. It might sound insignificant, but at that time, it was a symbol of popularity and something to boast about. I was good at everything, third in the entire school in academics.
But with it came a price, i manipulated others to further my own goals. Used gossips to tear down others, directed friends to my own ends.
Then one day, the image still raw in my mind, a staunch friend of mine since day one, a simple jolly chap, turned on me. He scalded me with such venom that i was at a loss, shocked at the words coming out of his mouth. I just stood there, as the others quietly crowded by watching as he sneered at me, his usually amiable features twisted into a mask of comtempt. Then in the corner of my eye, i saw one of my rivals, smirking at me. In truth as i look back, i cant say for certain that he had anything to do with it, but it hurt. Something just clicked in place right then, and the sky slammed into me. I turned and walked up the stairs, hands gripping the railings to boost me along, wounded and at a loss. After that i just worked, and worked. But no matter how much i did, it didt seem sufficient. My grades dropped, my classroom duties always seem to be done shoddily, basically it went downhill. The week of my birthday, i worked extra hard, burning the midnight oil to free that special sunday for play. I succeeded, only to find out that i was too tired to play on that day. I just stopped, nothing left to give.
The following events seem to take place in a haze of memory, i seem to have slept for five days, waking for short periods of an hour or two to eat, then going back to sleep. Subsequently i dropped out of school, but not until i was forced to see the school councillor, who made me stay in school for lengthy periods of time doing nothing in the library. What i did was so out of the norm that i was embarrassed to meet my classmates, and shunned them. In the end i felt like a hunted animal, playing hide and seek with my former friends. I fell from grace, and my duties were taken away, friends slowly became strangers, and my teachers became shorter and shorter with me. They didt understand what was happening, nor did i. One day, when i was meeting with my form teacher to discuss my immediate future and what i am going to do, she lost her temper. She asked me to do things, and always i said i will try, but always i failed, so when i replied similarly she just snapped at me, " If u want to do it, then just do it! " She is fabulous teacher, patient and kind. It was hard.
I dropped out of school entirely for the rest of the year, and changed counsellor after counsellor. The school councillor suddenly turned cold and severe with me, no longer the friendly face i took comfort in, and i stopped seeing him. But outside visits to different doctors continued. That is the story of my first year, at lest the highlights, heh, the rest is rather mundane, but all in all i am behind by two years, having dropped out again the next year after two months. I then went to Saint Francis Methodist, where i stayed for 4 years and completed my secondary four this year. Well, there it is :), succiently, a part of my life's story thus far.
The above is a truthful account that i wrote a year or so back, having posted it on a support website meant for people suffering from depression or mental illnesses in singapore. Somehow i have never fully recovered from that day, and i always tire easily. Since then, i have changed schools several times, and each time, my attendance has been less than 10%. My psychiatrist has always given me blanket MCs to cover my absences and placate my teachers. My relationships with friends has always been strenuous at best, but i have always been a magnet for needy people, those who appear different or socially not accepted because of various difficulties. I guess my own experiences go a long way to understanding some of the problems they face.
Anyway, this is one of the reasons i am leaving Ngee Ann, mainly because i get exhausted after a few days in school, and need to rest for a day or two. Understandably, the school finds this hard to tolerate, and the work in class just piles up. Sorry that i have not told you guys until now, reason being that its hard to tell so much face to face, and also because i know how absurd or illogical it sounds that the reason for my not going to school is because im " tired ". Anyway, i felt that if we are to be closer to each other in the pcm, we need to be honest and willing to share, something that im glad to do.
Monday, April 28, 2008
A poem to consider
Tearing my eyes away from smiles and laughter
Everyone so bright, so together
Aftertaste of memories past, so bitter
Realising I know not where to go, hither
Failing to fanthom the fatherless feathers, falling
Under the big blue blanket, billowing
Looking longingly for your love, lifting
It actually spells " tearful " with the first letter of every line, using the method of acrostic writing! It uses many other literary tools, as well as abstract analogies. Interesting and meaningful.
Bon
Everyone so bright, so together
Aftertaste of memories past, so bitter
Realising I know not where to go, hither
Failing to fanthom the fatherless feathers, falling
Under the big blue blanket, billowing
Looking longingly for your love, lifting
It actually spells " tearful " with the first letter of every line, using the method of acrostic writing! It uses many other literary tools, as well as abstract analogies. Interesting and meaningful.
Bon
Sunday, April 27, 2008
A miracle in my life, a rather interesting one at that :P
One of the miracles that happened, which i often recall so i dont forget what God has done for me, happened when i was 14 going on 15, in Saint Francis Methodist. I was in secondary one, and met a girl, lee cheng from malaysia. At that time, i was very much young and innocent. Me and another guy friend, along with lee cheng and another girl, were the most outspoken and dominant in class. Thus it was somehow mutually agreed that we would become attached together on the same day. It was one of the most planned and coordinated relationship i ever had so far :-/. Anyway, we were chummy and got along happily, going out together, doing work together, and basically time flew.
As the relationship progressed and one thing led to another, we began kissing. And mind you, i had no idea what a kiss was besides what i saw on TV. Somehow i expected it to mean more than a wet disgusting stain on the lips, but it was what other couples did, so i guess we should do it too. One day, while we were doing our project work at her house, she suddenly kissed me. And not just any ordinary kiss, but a french one! I was so shocked at the explosion of my senses that i jerked back. It was after that, along with other smaller incidents( she asked me why i kept holding her by her tummy, and me replying cluelessly 'where else should i hold you then?' ~ ) that lead me to realise that she was at lest more matured than me in this aspect.
But it wasnt until an incident some time later that i started praying fervently for a smooth breakup.
We were in my room with my friend and his girlfriend, chatting and playing, with loud laughter and lots of jumping around. Soon, when it was late afternoon and they left, she suggested we play a game. The game was to try and hold her down and not let her get up. I was tired from the long day, but said ok. This is where the concussions i received from butting skulls with her must have fuzzed up my memory. Suffice to say we tussled and that girls are alot stronger than they appear to be. I held her down with my arms legs and yes even my head, but still she bucked me around like a ronto on a bull. After just a short while we both were exhausted, and lay there panting. Soon after, she went home. It was only later in hindsight that i realised she wanted the physical contact, and yes i was at fault too. I was horrified at the prospect of how things could have gotten out of hand irrevocably, and was shellshocked. The realisation was like a slap to my face, and i began to see i was treading on thin ice.
So i began to reduce my contact with her, not going out with her unless it was in a group, an so on. And i began to pray, attending regular services and special events, constantly praying for a breakup. And one day, after a huge event in church, where i prayed really really hard at the altar calling, i received a call from her while walking home. She proposed to break up because her mom had come to know about our relationship!! YAY! Er i mean, ok, i should be sad and sensitive and stuff, but i was seriously awed and elated, and i guess thats when i made a big mistake. In my awe and relief, i told her i had been praying HARD for a breakup for some time now. Diao, stupid i know. She was all honey and understanding during that conversation, and i went home happy. Then the next day came, and hell has no fury like a womans scorn. Period. Well to sum up a long and unhappy period, she shifted class and started spreading gossip and bad stuff about me... how i know? One of her new friends marched into my classroom and grabbed me by my tie, yelling in my face -.- Anyway... the friend apologised to me later and well, it was an experience :)
Bon
As the relationship progressed and one thing led to another, we began kissing. And mind you, i had no idea what a kiss was besides what i saw on TV. Somehow i expected it to mean more than a wet disgusting stain on the lips, but it was what other couples did, so i guess we should do it too. One day, while we were doing our project work at her house, she suddenly kissed me. And not just any ordinary kiss, but a french one! I was so shocked at the explosion of my senses that i jerked back. It was after that, along with other smaller incidents( she asked me why i kept holding her by her tummy, and me replying cluelessly 'where else should i hold you then?' ~ ) that lead me to realise that she was at lest more matured than me in this aspect.
But it wasnt until an incident some time later that i started praying fervently for a smooth breakup.
We were in my room with my friend and his girlfriend, chatting and playing, with loud laughter and lots of jumping around. Soon, when it was late afternoon and they left, she suggested we play a game. The game was to try and hold her down and not let her get up. I was tired from the long day, but said ok. This is where the concussions i received from butting skulls with her must have fuzzed up my memory. Suffice to say we tussled and that girls are alot stronger than they appear to be. I held her down with my arms legs and yes even my head, but still she bucked me around like a ronto on a bull. After just a short while we both were exhausted, and lay there panting. Soon after, she went home. It was only later in hindsight that i realised she wanted the physical contact, and yes i was at fault too. I was horrified at the prospect of how things could have gotten out of hand irrevocably, and was shellshocked. The realisation was like a slap to my face, and i began to see i was treading on thin ice.
So i began to reduce my contact with her, not going out with her unless it was in a group, an so on. And i began to pray, attending regular services and special events, constantly praying for a breakup. And one day, after a huge event in church, where i prayed really really hard at the altar calling, i received a call from her while walking home. She proposed to break up because her mom had come to know about our relationship!! YAY! Er i mean, ok, i should be sad and sensitive and stuff, but i was seriously awed and elated, and i guess thats when i made a big mistake. In my awe and relief, i told her i had been praying HARD for a breakup for some time now. Diao, stupid i know. She was all honey and understanding during that conversation, and i went home happy. Then the next day came, and hell has no fury like a womans scorn. Period. Well to sum up a long and unhappy period, she shifted class and started spreading gossip and bad stuff about me... how i know? One of her new friends marched into my classroom and grabbed me by my tie, yelling in my face -.- Anyway... the friend apologised to me later and well, it was an experience :)
Bon
Friday, April 25, 2008
Christianity -- Cult of yaweh?
I was browsing through Borders book shop yesterday, when a book about christianity and its historical roots caught my eye. I perused through its pages briefly and was deeply intrigued. So much so that even though what i read led me to feel a little disg usted, revulsion, i couldt put it down. It referred to Christianity as a cult! It pointed out that not all the 66 books in the bible may be actual factual events.
We all know that the Bible is regarded as the Living Word because no matter how many times u have read it before, it can appear to you in a different way at a different point in your life. Within reason, the same text can be perceived in many ways, all based on the readers personal circumstance. Also, in those days, the text was not regarded as something sacred, and those who recorded it included in their writings their own intepretations. Thus it was inevitable that the same citation of a given text, was intepreted and recorded differently. It soon came to be that Israel and Judah had two very different set of texts of the same belief. The book claims that historically, in the beginning, it was believed that Yaweh, the God of Israel, belonged to a council of other gods who were also in charge of other cities, was under the main god El. That he held heavenly council with the heavenly hosts. Yaweh was potrayed as a warrior god, riding on flaming chariots to fight for Israel. It was only in later years that Yaweh overtook El, and became featured as the sole god. It was this view that Yaweh was a warrior god that led to the people of Israel to seek other gods in time of peace. The cult of Baal, god of fertility, in neighbouring lands thus appealed to the Israelites, and they took it as their own.
In that era, worship and learning of the sacred text could only be done in temples or other designated places of worship. This is mainly due to the scarcity of paper, and news spread mainly by word of mouth. Because of this, when the temple of Yaweh was destroyed twice, many records were either relocated or destroyed. The book also claimed that historians could not find evidence to support the mass deaths and relocation of the entire hebrew community during the Ten plagues. This led the book to speculate that not all the texts in the bible are literal translations, but merely myths or stories to bring across certain points.
I wanted to buy the book and read more, but was reluctant because i was afraid it might be...wrong. It felt like being unfaithful or betrayal to buy a book that dismissed my religion as merely a cult. Sigh, obviously my report on what little i read is incomplete and has many holes where my memory failed me. Also i believe that in the course of their theological studies, pastors have most definitely come across such degrading views or books, and still held on to their faith. Their continued faith and stauchness overshadows my doubts, and i will not forget the miracles God has done in my life despite other books, views, or people that proclaim otherwise during the course of my life.
Bon
Thursday, April 24, 2008
TO FEAR OR NOT TO FEAR?!?!
A few days ago, my friend told me she didn’t receive the interview letter from NUS med school while her friends did. Maybe the letter is still on the way? Maybe the letter may just appear later? Who knows? Indeed, she’s disappointed but that didn’t discourage her from wanting to be a gynecologist, unlike some of us who change our ambition every other week. Guess what…For a while in JC, I wanted to become a doctor too! Why…not sure if it’s fair to make a statement like this….I feel we’re sorely lacking in good doctors. I don’t doubt their knowledge and expertise but how many doctors out there truly care for their patients? Like it or not, being a doctor means giving up your life for your patients. A medical student must be able to pick things up fast and cope with the demands of the gruelling course. I’ve witnessed my friend’s abilities and know that she is more than capable to surmount the challenge. Isn’t it sad when there’re people out there applying for medicine for fun knowing they’ll reject the offer later and causing much misery to those who have identified it as their calling. How many times do nurses have to suffer the wrath of doctors? Nurses seem to be having a really tough time ensuring that everything is in place for the doctors. Some claim they want to be doctors because they hope to help the poor and sick in developing countries. It is a noble cause no doubt but sure hope they mean every single word of it.
Talking about the university which has distinguished itself to be uniquely different. CEOs of big companies have spoken well of these graduates but it really isn’t a place for everybody. To friends yearning to study there, first open your eyes wide. Feels as if students there are conditioned to become a certain fit or rather, students there are already of a certain fit – the kind you can’t miss. Whatever you call it - foretaste of the corporate world or survival of the fittest. You must be prepared to ‘fight’ and ‘kill’ if necessary. A place which breeds another kind of elitism, to the point where some become rude, pompous and forget what respect for others means. You may beg to differ but to me, a good school is one which accommodates students of various learning styles and allows them each to develop their fullest potential and find their niche. There’re many paths to success and who says loud and aggressive always win the deal.
Enough of the world, it’s still more comforting to return to the domain of God. We are told to fear the Lord for the “fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” but have we considered what it really means? Do we sometimes obey God because we are afraid we will suffer his wrath and be denied of His grace and blessings. He's after all the righteous judge. One of the things which would immediately come to my mind is tithing. The principle of tithing is in fact very powerful. Tithing is not just merely giving one-tenth of our income to the Lord. When we give 10% of our money and time to God, the remaining 90% will be blessed in turn. Yes, it’s this powerful!!! It is said in Malachi 3:10 – Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. Remember our good old school days when we find ourselves doing better in the exams because we trusted God and spent time praying to Him and resting instead of cramming pointlessly. In essence, tithing is not even about how much we give to God. One tenth is just a guideline. If we can give half our fortunes away without meaning anything, God rather we not give. Tithing is about giving our best to God cheerfully, gratefully and unconditionally.
We must, however, not go away with the wrong impression of God. How can we be so frightened and scared of a God the same way we are scared of someone who threatens and demands? Isn’t He the kind and loving Father who desires to develop that intimate and personal relationship with us? Then what kind of fear is it that the bible is talking about? Just as we are fearful of disappointing a loved one, we should be fearful of disappointing God’s standard for us. We revere Him so much that we want to respect Him, submit to His discipline and worship Him in awe.
Blessed indeed are those who have something to give to others. Do we then sometimes feel we are superior to be in a position of a giver/donor than a recipient who is often deemed as helpless? Seems after all, the life of the recipient is pitiful. In God’s kingdom, some are weaker than others and some are stronger but the point is not about who is the stronger one. What He intends for us is to do our part and focus on God. My mentor, Helen, went to Vietnam recently for a mission trip. The pastor there told of an incident whereby a group of female believers gathered in the secret to celebrate Christmas. Not only did the police raid the place, they raped the women too. How atrocious!!! It’s so easy for them to stop believing in a God who seems to not protect them despite their faithfulness. Isn’t it easier to be a Christian here in Singapore whereby persecution is nothing like what these ladies have suffered? I think the answer is obvious.
PRAYER OF THE WEEK
Praise the Lord that Lynette and Jun Bin are able to join us for dinner this week!!! Pray that our PCM group (the name will come soon) will grow closer together as we invest time in fellowshipping with one another. The next best thing after dwelling in the presence of God is to spend time with God’s people. Pray that we will be constantly reminded of the reasons why we are put into each others’ lives. And that we may inspire, encourage and spur each other on towards greater spiritual growth.
In line with last week’s sermon, let us also pray that we will offer God the best and nothing but the best for we deserve nothing that we have in this world. Pray that we will give him the firstborn of everything. It isn’t about the amount that we give but our heart which dictates what we give and how willingly we give.
STORYTIME
Don’t we sometimes fear sufferings too? Like to share this short excerpt from Max Lucado's On the Anvil: Stories on being Shaped into God's Image with Sam Leong, Elisabeth and all who are going through a rough patch. Lucado’s stories and cartoons are simply lovely. He uses wood people, stars and dots to convey powerful messages!!! Enjoy…
A blacksmith places a smouldering iron on the anvil to be remoulded. The smith knows the type of instrument he wants. He knows the size. He knows the shape. He knows the strength.The hammer pounds and the softened metal responds. But the response doesn’t come easily. It doesn’t come without discomfort. To melt down the old and recast it as new is a disrupting process. Yet the metal remains on the anvil, allowing the toolmaker to remove the scars, repair the cracks, refill the voids, and purge the impurities.And with time, a change occurs: What was dull becomes sharpened, what was crooked becomes straight, what was weak becomes strong, and what was useless becomes valuable.Then the blacksmith stops. He ceases his pounding and sets down his hammer. In the still silence, he examines the smoking tool. The incandescent implement is rotated and examined for any mars or cracks.There are none.Now the smith enters the final stage of his task. He plunges the smouldering instrument into a nearby bucket of water. With a hiss and a rush of steam, the metal immediately begins to harden. The heat surrenders to the onslaught of cool water, and the pliable, soft mineral becomes an unbending useful tool.
“For a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” (I Peter 1:6-7)
meapple
Talking about the university which has distinguished itself to be uniquely different. CEOs of big companies have spoken well of these graduates but it really isn’t a place for everybody. To friends yearning to study there, first open your eyes wide. Feels as if students there are conditioned to become a certain fit or rather, students there are already of a certain fit – the kind you can’t miss. Whatever you call it - foretaste of the corporate world or survival of the fittest. You must be prepared to ‘fight’ and ‘kill’ if necessary. A place which breeds another kind of elitism, to the point where some become rude, pompous and forget what respect for others means. You may beg to differ but to me, a good school is one which accommodates students of various learning styles and allows them each to develop their fullest potential and find their niche. There’re many paths to success and who says loud and aggressive always win the deal.
Enough of the world, it’s still more comforting to return to the domain of God. We are told to fear the Lord for the “fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” but have we considered what it really means? Do we sometimes obey God because we are afraid we will suffer his wrath and be denied of His grace and blessings. He's after all the righteous judge. One of the things which would immediately come to my mind is tithing. The principle of tithing is in fact very powerful. Tithing is not just merely giving one-tenth of our income to the Lord. When we give 10% of our money and time to God, the remaining 90% will be blessed in turn. Yes, it’s this powerful!!! It is said in Malachi 3:10 – Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. Remember our good old school days when we find ourselves doing better in the exams because we trusted God and spent time praying to Him and resting instead of cramming pointlessly. In essence, tithing is not even about how much we give to God. One tenth is just a guideline. If we can give half our fortunes away without meaning anything, God rather we not give. Tithing is about giving our best to God cheerfully, gratefully and unconditionally.
We must, however, not go away with the wrong impression of God. How can we be so frightened and scared of a God the same way we are scared of someone who threatens and demands? Isn’t He the kind and loving Father who desires to develop that intimate and personal relationship with us? Then what kind of fear is it that the bible is talking about? Just as we are fearful of disappointing a loved one, we should be fearful of disappointing God’s standard for us. We revere Him so much that we want to respect Him, submit to His discipline and worship Him in awe.
Blessed indeed are those who have something to give to others. Do we then sometimes feel we are superior to be in a position of a giver/donor than a recipient who is often deemed as helpless? Seems after all, the life of the recipient is pitiful. In God’s kingdom, some are weaker than others and some are stronger but the point is not about who is the stronger one. What He intends for us is to do our part and focus on God. My mentor, Helen, went to Vietnam recently for a mission trip. The pastor there told of an incident whereby a group of female believers gathered in the secret to celebrate Christmas. Not only did the police raid the place, they raped the women too. How atrocious!!! It’s so easy for them to stop believing in a God who seems to not protect them despite their faithfulness. Isn’t it easier to be a Christian here in Singapore whereby persecution is nothing like what these ladies have suffered? I think the answer is obvious.
PRAYER OF THE WEEK
Praise the Lord that Lynette and Jun Bin are able to join us for dinner this week!!! Pray that our PCM group (the name will come soon) will grow closer together as we invest time in fellowshipping with one another. The next best thing after dwelling in the presence of God is to spend time with God’s people. Pray that we will be constantly reminded of the reasons why we are put into each others’ lives. And that we may inspire, encourage and spur each other on towards greater spiritual growth.
In line with last week’s sermon, let us also pray that we will offer God the best and nothing but the best for we deserve nothing that we have in this world. Pray that we will give him the firstborn of everything. It isn’t about the amount that we give but our heart which dictates what we give and how willingly we give.
STORYTIME
Don’t we sometimes fear sufferings too? Like to share this short excerpt from Max Lucado's On the Anvil: Stories on being Shaped into God's Image with Sam Leong, Elisabeth and all who are going through a rough patch. Lucado’s stories and cartoons are simply lovely. He uses wood people, stars and dots to convey powerful messages!!! Enjoy…
A blacksmith places a smouldering iron on the anvil to be remoulded. The smith knows the type of instrument he wants. He knows the size. He knows the shape. He knows the strength.The hammer pounds and the softened metal responds. But the response doesn’t come easily. It doesn’t come without discomfort. To melt down the old and recast it as new is a disrupting process. Yet the metal remains on the anvil, allowing the toolmaker to remove the scars, repair the cracks, refill the voids, and purge the impurities.And with time, a change occurs: What was dull becomes sharpened, what was crooked becomes straight, what was weak becomes strong, and what was useless becomes valuable.Then the blacksmith stops. He ceases his pounding and sets down his hammer. In the still silence, he examines the smoking tool. The incandescent implement is rotated and examined for any mars or cracks.There are none.Now the smith enters the final stage of his task. He plunges the smouldering instrument into a nearby bucket of water. With a hiss and a rush of steam, the metal immediately begins to harden. The heat surrenders to the onslaught of cool water, and the pliable, soft mineral becomes an unbending useful tool.
“For a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” (I Peter 1:6-7)
meapple
Sunday, April 20, 2008
SURRENDER!
hey everyone! Just wanted to share something with you all. As you all know, i'm going through a really difficult time in school. I've been really down and troubled this few days and finding it difficult to adapt to the new school environment. But many thoughts came through my mind and made me reflect and really cry out to God for help even in this time of need.
I've been really exhausted from school last week. I'm sorry if i've been really down and affecting everyone around me. But fret not! I've gotten over it and I'm better now. Just as I return to youth service this sunday, after missing it for the last 2 weeks, I was really looking forward to coming to service to be in church and experiencing Him again. I wanted God to give me a special touch especially during this down side of my life. Sometimes i wonder if God saw me through my A levels and gave me incredible results so that my faith will be tested in such a time like this. I know that if I hadn't experience God during my A levels, i know i wouldn't have persevered on and have the courage and faith to face the many difficulties in this new and challenging course. During service today, somehow i wasn't able to sing any of the worship songs. Maybe because my heart was troubled and weary and all i needed was a time to cry out to God and to surrender everything to Him. Somehow during the service, my eyes kept welling up with tears as the congregation sang each song. The emotions that have always been hidden in me finally was poured out and expressed. I knew that everything I was feeling at that time, God knew. He was always there watching over me.
Coincidentally, today's sermon was about TRUSTING and SURRENDERING everything to Him. WOW! I knew I wasn't here by chance and God has used many ways to comfort me and to assure me of His presence wherever I go. Today's service was really meaningful to me as it reassured me of my FAITH in Him and to persevere on and just TRUST in Him. Today's service really gave me a new perspective to the problem that I was facing. It gave me strength not to fear of my future and gave me the courage to face tomorrow. I know God has placed me in this situation for a reason.
To all of you, don't be discourage when you're facing any problems of this world. Just remember to SURRENDER TO HIM, TRUST IN HIM and HAVE FAITH IN HIM. He will make straight the paths. Who knows! God may just uncover solutions to your problems. Here's a verse for all of you! Have a good week!
Elisabeth
"Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do noy be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."
Joshua 1:9
I've been really exhausted from school last week. I'm sorry if i've been really down and affecting everyone around me. But fret not! I've gotten over it and I'm better now. Just as I return to youth service this sunday, after missing it for the last 2 weeks, I was really looking forward to coming to service to be in church and experiencing Him again. I wanted God to give me a special touch especially during this down side of my life. Sometimes i wonder if God saw me through my A levels and gave me incredible results so that my faith will be tested in such a time like this. I know that if I hadn't experience God during my A levels, i know i wouldn't have persevered on and have the courage and faith to face the many difficulties in this new and challenging course. During service today, somehow i wasn't able to sing any of the worship songs. Maybe because my heart was troubled and weary and all i needed was a time to cry out to God and to surrender everything to Him. Somehow during the service, my eyes kept welling up with tears as the congregation sang each song. The emotions that have always been hidden in me finally was poured out and expressed. I knew that everything I was feeling at that time, God knew. He was always there watching over me.
Coincidentally, today's sermon was about TRUSTING and SURRENDERING everything to Him. WOW! I knew I wasn't here by chance and God has used many ways to comfort me and to assure me of His presence wherever I go. Today's service was really meaningful to me as it reassured me of my FAITH in Him and to persevere on and just TRUST in Him. Today's service really gave me a new perspective to the problem that I was facing. It gave me strength not to fear of my future and gave me the courage to face tomorrow. I know God has placed me in this situation for a reason.
To all of you, don't be discourage when you're facing any problems of this world. Just remember to SURRENDER TO HIM, TRUST IN HIM and HAVE FAITH IN HIM. He will make straight the paths. Who knows! God may just uncover solutions to your problems. Here's a verse for all of you! Have a good week!
Elisabeth
"Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do noy be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."
Joshua 1:9
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Experience in School
Hey! I'm really glad that we have this blog for us to communicate. It's really a great idea. Anyway, i'm fine in the new school environment that i'm in. Last friday was my first day where i met all my friends from the same class. At first, I felt that i was simply alone and i wouldn't know anyone from my class or even my course. But to my amazement, i knew a few people. I remember asking God for a friend that I can go with on my 4th year to Australia. And true enough, he granted me a friend who is also on the same scholarship as i am. wow! God can really work wonders. Soon, I found out friends from the same JC as i was and connections with other people too. Although orientation was a little boring and draggy(I'm super glad that it was only 1 day), I really felt blessed to have people whom i know and can relater to.
On my first few days in school, lessons was really great. Although a few days ago, I started questioning myself whether I truely like Biology and I was afraid and paranoid about it because I recalled how i didn't really enjoy studying that subject in my Secondary School days. But i didn't feel bored in anatomy or physiology lectures. Somehow, I have this impression that I am studying much more than what my friends are doing. Somehow, I don't really know where this drive and determination come from to study hard and to find out things which I don't really understand. Sometimes I do question myself whether the very nature of me is to be curious and find things out for myself. But i was glad to find out that i have fellow school mates/ course mates that are believers of Jesus. It's really comforting to be around people who believes in the same God. I'm really glad to meet this people and I'm sure this people are placed in my live for a reason.
I didn't have Biology background in JC. I couldn't really understand what my lecturer was talking about. I felt lousy and just wanted to find out more for myself. I know I want to do well for my studies not only because it's the requirement of my scholarship but also doing it for God. After all, i know i don't deserve the A Level results that He hasn't given me. But i know, in return I should just do my best. He is our strength. Somehow, I feel that God has placed me in this journey in a polytechnic for a reason. Maybe it's to prepare me for my education in Australia. Maybe it's for my dream to be an Occupational Therapist and a missionary working overseas and maybe it's to be independent and not to always rely on people around me. God has a GREAT plan for each of us.
Just wanted to encourage all of you out there who are struggling and facing difficulties in life that God knows the every path that we take and He will direct us to wherever He wants us to go.
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."
Jeremiah 29:11
On my first few days in school, lessons was really great. Although a few days ago, I started questioning myself whether I truely like Biology and I was afraid and paranoid about it because I recalled how i didn't really enjoy studying that subject in my Secondary School days. But i didn't feel bored in anatomy or physiology lectures. Somehow, I have this impression that I am studying much more than what my friends are doing. Somehow, I don't really know where this drive and determination come from to study hard and to find out things which I don't really understand. Sometimes I do question myself whether the very nature of me is to be curious and find things out for myself. But i was glad to find out that i have fellow school mates/ course mates that are believers of Jesus. It's really comforting to be around people who believes in the same God. I'm really glad to meet this people and I'm sure this people are placed in my live for a reason.
I didn't have Biology background in JC. I couldn't really understand what my lecturer was talking about. I felt lousy and just wanted to find out more for myself. I know I want to do well for my studies not only because it's the requirement of my scholarship but also doing it for God. After all, i know i don't deserve the A Level results that He hasn't given me. But i know, in return I should just do my best. He is our strength. Somehow, I feel that God has placed me in this journey in a polytechnic for a reason. Maybe it's to prepare me for my education in Australia. Maybe it's for my dream to be an Occupational Therapist and a missionary working overseas and maybe it's to be independent and not to always rely on people around me. God has a GREAT plan for each of us.
Just wanted to encourage all of you out there who are struggling and facing difficulties in life that God knows the every path that we take and He will direct us to wherever He wants us to go.
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."
Jeremiah 29:11
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Hi everyone, Sam Heng here..
For me, this week was the start of my 2nd year semester, and it took a little getting used to having to get back to school again, especially having to walk from one end of NP to another for lectures.
With school starting, this only means that its closer to my cca's recruitment date. At this point in time, i think the whole exco wants to do a good job, hence all the deadlines to deal with. I admit, it is stressing, especially when there's really too much to do in such a short period of time. It is demanding, especially when so much is expected of you and you're not sure if you can deliver. Sometimes it can be frustrating, especially when people refuse to cooperate or when things just dont go as planned.
I think alot of times in life we face situations which challenge us or which we feel are too difficult for us. Just wanted to share this prayer thats really meaningful:
God grant me serenity,
to accept the things i cannot change,
Courage, to change the things i can,
and wisdom, to know the difference.
Personally, im still trying to apply that prayer in my life.
Anyway, if you guys want to change the blogskin, i dont mind trying to create one when im free, but that would most probably be after my cca's recruitment. Hope you guys wont mind that im still a beginner at blogskins =x
Hope everyone has a great week ahead!
Samantha (:
For me, this week was the start of my 2nd year semester, and it took a little getting used to having to get back to school again, especially having to walk from one end of NP to another for lectures.
With school starting, this only means that its closer to my cca's recruitment date. At this point in time, i think the whole exco wants to do a good job, hence all the deadlines to deal with. I admit, it is stressing, especially when there's really too much to do in such a short period of time. It is demanding, especially when so much is expected of you and you're not sure if you can deliver. Sometimes it can be frustrating, especially when people refuse to cooperate or when things just dont go as planned.
I think alot of times in life we face situations which challenge us or which we feel are too difficult for us. Just wanted to share this prayer thats really meaningful:
God grant me serenity,
to accept the things i cannot change,
Courage, to change the things i can,
and wisdom, to know the difference.
Personally, im still trying to apply that prayer in my life.
Anyway, if you guys want to change the blogskin, i dont mind trying to create one when im free, but that would most probably be after my cca's recruitment. Hope you guys wont mind that im still a beginner at blogskins =x
Hope everyone has a great week ahead!
Samantha (:
Problems
Tuesday, 15 april 08
My sister is crying again. Sigh, she cried late last night as well, and seems disturbed throughout the day. She is moody, and often puts on a false facade around people( being esp nice or patronising). However, she is still very much in control of her logical faculties, and is often sharp and direct, and thus very hard to talk to. She gave me a card for my birthday yesterday, and decorated it with her own sketches of two puppies in a basket. I guess it took her effort to do so...
Her exams are in two more weeks, and she is lamenting that she cant study, and cant cope. I guess it sounds really simple to the point of being dismissive when i say she probably just cant let go of the results and is just afraid of failing or having to stay back a year. Thus the pressure and stress she is inflicting on herself is countering whatever efforts she is putting in academically. My lecturer told me yesterday that stress induces the pituary gland in our brain to release the chemical Cortisol, which causes memory loss. Although temporary, it probably inhibits her ability to learn and memorise her work.
My mom is really affected by her behaviour, and her erratic attitude leaves us all guessing at what she might do next. Despite my mothers and grandmothers best efforts to keep tabs on her all the time, we still worry constantly about her state of mind. Especially so when she goes out or comes back late. Often my mom sleeps at irregular hours, waiting up for her to come home or to go and fetch her home. She also puts down her work and comes home to accompany her, despite this being her peak period in the company. My dad isnt helping, and i cant help but feel resentful towards him. He drinks heavily, even in the morning and i only see him during meal times before he disappears again into his room. He only goes to the office when its absolutely nescessary, and leaves my mother to hold the fort in office alone. The situation in the office is detoriating and is precarious at best. The partners are taking advantage of his constant absence and are becoming bolder and more demanding. They choose favourites among the staff causing the others to chaff, and complain to my mother. Despite all this, my mom still remains strong.
Well, i didt go to school today. Tired. Exhausted. Unexplainable. Unexcusable. Sigh, what can i do about it? No idea, no solutions.
Bon
My sister is crying again. Sigh, she cried late last night as well, and seems disturbed throughout the day. She is moody, and often puts on a false facade around people( being esp nice or patronising). However, she is still very much in control of her logical faculties, and is often sharp and direct, and thus very hard to talk to. She gave me a card for my birthday yesterday, and decorated it with her own sketches of two puppies in a basket. I guess it took her effort to do so...
Her exams are in two more weeks, and she is lamenting that she cant study, and cant cope. I guess it sounds really simple to the point of being dismissive when i say she probably just cant let go of the results and is just afraid of failing or having to stay back a year. Thus the pressure and stress she is inflicting on herself is countering whatever efforts she is putting in academically. My lecturer told me yesterday that stress induces the pituary gland in our brain to release the chemical Cortisol, which causes memory loss. Although temporary, it probably inhibits her ability to learn and memorise her work.
My mom is really affected by her behaviour, and her erratic attitude leaves us all guessing at what she might do next. Despite my mothers and grandmothers best efforts to keep tabs on her all the time, we still worry constantly about her state of mind. Especially so when she goes out or comes back late. Often my mom sleeps at irregular hours, waiting up for her to come home or to go and fetch her home. She also puts down her work and comes home to accompany her, despite this being her peak period in the company. My dad isnt helping, and i cant help but feel resentful towards him. He drinks heavily, even in the morning and i only see him during meal times before he disappears again into his room. He only goes to the office when its absolutely nescessary, and leaves my mother to hold the fort in office alone. The situation in the office is detoriating and is precarious at best. The partners are taking advantage of his constant absence and are becoming bolder and more demanding. They choose favourites among the staff causing the others to chaff, and complain to my mother. Despite all this, my mom still remains strong.
Well, i didt go to school today. Tired. Exhausted. Unexplainable. Unexcusable. Sigh, what can i do about it? No idea, no solutions.
Bon
Monday, April 14, 2008
Are you my warrior???
Hi peeps, meapple here. For this once I'll say I’m mei ping.
Bon, that’s like an entry or two from you every day. You sure can write. Keep it up!!! I think it’s not that we don't want to publish our post. We just haven’t finished typing I think. Is our web link gonna be forever stuck with net gen??? Can we have a nice blog skin? I’m sure our professional sam heng knows how. Ok, I’m so not complaining. A million thanks to nerine and co. for setting up this blog. Muacks….
Anyway, just want to share a little something that happened yesterday. I was in a lift with two of my neighbours. One is a German guy or so I think. Can’t really tell his nationality. Doesn’t look American or Australian so German loh. I think I can manage a Korean from a Japanese much more easily. There’s this other old man from China. He came into the lift, smile smile and so the German guy asked ‘ni hao ma’ in Chinese. Which is like wow….we get so impressed when foreigners speak our language isn’t it. I have never really spoken to them except for having taken the old man to the post office before. Yar and so the friendliness of this German guy caught on with me and I asked him where’s he from. Actually I always wanted to ask but he looks kinda fierce, so I thought forget it. And this is when trouble begins. He uttered a mouthful of stuff which I totally cannot make out. It sounds so long I decided it must be Uzbekistan or something. Don’t ask me where’s that. I don’t have the slightest idea. I just ‘huh’ him back a couple of times. And guess what he said. It’s a place. I’m like ok, like we would be talking about food or animal? He could have spared me much agony if he told me earlier it was near Turkey. *sweatz*
By the way, I went to the Tuas area for some interview yesterday morning. And I mean it when I say it feels so out of Singapore. It takes like forever to get out of that place to the boon lay mrt. The bus looped here and there and it didn’t help that every one on the bus was foreigners. Sam Heng, you know how it feels right... ...
For those yet to know, Jun Bin and I are your very honourable and prayerful prayer ics *smirks* We want to encourage you to yes, PRAY. I was thinking of having a prayer column on the blog but I don’t know how, so it would be great if you can just post your prayer request on the blog and be real specific about how we can pray for you so we can all pray more accurately. If you prefer to email or sms, I’m sure we’re all fine with it. Nothing is too insignificant or small to be prayed about. Try to put up a prayer request with your blog entry every week. I must be the freest now amongst all of us but if need be, just drop by and say hi!!!!!
If your fish seems to be drowning or your dog is putting on weight and you want us to pray about it, feel free. If all’s going well in your life, praise the Lord. But if you feel there is a general need to pray for all who are in poly and jc, please do also raise it up. Sometimes we may have overlooked such things which are in essence very important. We’ll learn to care more about each other as we think of each other more in our daily prayers. And who knows God may impress a verse, word, vision or anything upon us to encourage our fellow brothers and sisters. We have to start somewhere if we want to become prayer warriors for one another. Let us start here will we?
There’s actually a lot of things we can pray for on our own. Do start with praise and thanksgiving. If you sometimes feel so totally brain dead, you can always pick a psalm and pray each verse as in elaborate on it and turn them into your own prayer. If we look at the weekly prayer focus in our bulletins as well as the last two pages, we will see the many needs of the people and ministries to be prayed for. Do you know that even as we come and go from the Sunday service, there is a group of people who gathers faithfully every Sunday morning to pray for the congregation that we will be transformed and touched by the word of God. 1 Chronicles 4:10 says, ‘Jabez cried out to God of Israel, “Oh, that you would BLESS ME and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be WITH ME, and KEEP ME from harm so that I will be free from pain.” AND GOD GRANTED HIS REQUEST.’ And yes, God may not answer our prayers but if we don’t pray, how can God even answer. Let us not put God in a pot k. I encourage you to make an appointment with God to attend the upcoming Corporate House of Prayer on 2nd May. Prayer is a very important pillar of any church. Let's go as a pcm group.
Ok, now you know why I don’t have a blog. Coz I can’t stop writing when I start.
PRAYER REQUESTS:
1. Even as I go for scholarship or uni interviews, pray that God will continue to close and open the doors of opportunities for me according to His will. Pray that God will reveal his plan for me and grant me the serenity especially in times when I feel helpless and lost.
2. Pray also that God will show me more and more of His kingdom work during my church internship this month.
3. Pray for those who have just started poly; that they will settle into the new environment quickly and place Godly friends into their lives.
4. Pray also for the poly people who have resumed school term that they will feel rejuvenated and a renewed sense of energy, all powered up to face the new challenges ahead, drawing strength from Father.
5. Let us not forget our Nerine fighting on in JC. (You are not alone) Pray that she will be able to manage her time well as she juggles her many commitments including those in drama. Pray that she will lean on God when exhaustion sets in for we know God can give us strength to accomplish things we cannot do by our own human abilities. Pray that as she represents her class for a debate competition this Wednesday, she will be able to speak with confidence, calm and clarity and know that her preparation is more than sufficient to see her through.
In closing, I want to share with you this prayer:
O Holy Spirit of God
Visit now this soul of mine,
And tarry within it until eventide.
Inspire all my thoughts.
Pervade all my imaginations.
Suggest all my decisions.
Lodge in my will’s most inward citadel
And order all my doings.
Be with me in my silence and in my speech,
In my haste and in my leisure,
In company and in solitude,
In the freshness of the morning
And in the weariness of the evening;
And give me grace at all times to rejoice in thy mysterious companionship.
John Baillie (A Diary of Private Prayer)
Mark 11:24 - “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
-Your beloved meapple-
Bon, that’s like an entry or two from you every day. You sure can write. Keep it up!!! I think it’s not that we don't want to publish our post. We just haven’t finished typing I think. Is our web link gonna be forever stuck with net gen??? Can we have a nice blog skin? I’m sure our professional sam heng knows how. Ok, I’m so not complaining. A million thanks to nerine and co. for setting up this blog. Muacks….
Anyway, just want to share a little something that happened yesterday. I was in a lift with two of my neighbours. One is a German guy or so I think. Can’t really tell his nationality. Doesn’t look American or Australian so German loh. I think I can manage a Korean from a Japanese much more easily. There’s this other old man from China. He came into the lift, smile smile and so the German guy asked ‘ni hao ma’ in Chinese. Which is like wow….we get so impressed when foreigners speak our language isn’t it. I have never really spoken to them except for having taken the old man to the post office before. Yar and so the friendliness of this German guy caught on with me and I asked him where’s he from. Actually I always wanted to ask but he looks kinda fierce, so I thought forget it. And this is when trouble begins. He uttered a mouthful of stuff which I totally cannot make out. It sounds so long I decided it must be Uzbekistan or something. Don’t ask me where’s that. I don’t have the slightest idea. I just ‘huh’ him back a couple of times. And guess what he said. It’s a place. I’m like ok, like we would be talking about food or animal? He could have spared me much agony if he told me earlier it was near Turkey. *sweatz*
By the way, I went to the Tuas area for some interview yesterday morning. And I mean it when I say it feels so out of Singapore. It takes like forever to get out of that place to the boon lay mrt. The bus looped here and there and it didn’t help that every one on the bus was foreigners. Sam Heng, you know how it feels right... ...
For those yet to know, Jun Bin and I are your very honourable and prayerful prayer ics *smirks* We want to encourage you to yes, PRAY. I was thinking of having a prayer column on the blog but I don’t know how, so it would be great if you can just post your prayer request on the blog and be real specific about how we can pray for you so we can all pray more accurately. If you prefer to email or sms, I’m sure we’re all fine with it. Nothing is too insignificant or small to be prayed about. Try to put up a prayer request with your blog entry every week. I must be the freest now amongst all of us but if need be, just drop by and say hi!!!!!
If your fish seems to be drowning or your dog is putting on weight and you want us to pray about it, feel free. If all’s going well in your life, praise the Lord. But if you feel there is a general need to pray for all who are in poly and jc, please do also raise it up. Sometimes we may have overlooked such things which are in essence very important. We’ll learn to care more about each other as we think of each other more in our daily prayers. And who knows God may impress a verse, word, vision or anything upon us to encourage our fellow brothers and sisters. We have to start somewhere if we want to become prayer warriors for one another. Let us start here will we?
There’s actually a lot of things we can pray for on our own. Do start with praise and thanksgiving. If you sometimes feel so totally brain dead, you can always pick a psalm and pray each verse as in elaborate on it and turn them into your own prayer. If we look at the weekly prayer focus in our bulletins as well as the last two pages, we will see the many needs of the people and ministries to be prayed for. Do you know that even as we come and go from the Sunday service, there is a group of people who gathers faithfully every Sunday morning to pray for the congregation that we will be transformed and touched by the word of God. 1 Chronicles 4:10 says, ‘Jabez cried out to God of Israel, “Oh, that you would BLESS ME and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be WITH ME, and KEEP ME from harm so that I will be free from pain.” AND GOD GRANTED HIS REQUEST.’ And yes, God may not answer our prayers but if we don’t pray, how can God even answer. Let us not put God in a pot k. I encourage you to make an appointment with God to attend the upcoming Corporate House of Prayer on 2nd May. Prayer is a very important pillar of any church. Let's go as a pcm group.
Ok, now you know why I don’t have a blog. Coz I can’t stop writing when I start.
PRAYER REQUESTS:
1. Even as I go for scholarship or uni interviews, pray that God will continue to close and open the doors of opportunities for me according to His will. Pray that God will reveal his plan for me and grant me the serenity especially in times when I feel helpless and lost.
2. Pray also that God will show me more and more of His kingdom work during my church internship this month.
3. Pray for those who have just started poly; that they will settle into the new environment quickly and place Godly friends into their lives.
4. Pray also for the poly people who have resumed school term that they will feel rejuvenated and a renewed sense of energy, all powered up to face the new challenges ahead, drawing strength from Father.
5. Let us not forget our Nerine fighting on in JC. (You are not alone) Pray that she will be able to manage her time well as she juggles her many commitments including those in drama. Pray that she will lean on God when exhaustion sets in for we know God can give us strength to accomplish things we cannot do by our own human abilities. Pray that as she represents her class for a debate competition this Wednesday, she will be able to speak with confidence, calm and clarity and know that her preparation is more than sufficient to see her through.
In closing, I want to share with you this prayer:
O Holy Spirit of God
Visit now this soul of mine,
And tarry within it until eventide.
Inspire all my thoughts.
Pervade all my imaginations.
Suggest all my decisions.
Lodge in my will’s most inward citadel
And order all my doings.
Be with me in my silence and in my speech,
In my haste and in my leisure,
In company and in solitude,
In the freshness of the morning
And in the weariness of the evening;
And give me grace at all times to rejoice in thy mysterious companionship.
John Baillie (A Diary of Private Prayer)
Mark 11:24 - “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
-Your beloved meapple-
My first day at school...
Super tiring!!
Today was a day when i finally had to accept the fact that my topography skills are, like the hokkien would say, KANA SAI. I wandered around campus till my shoulders ached from my backpack ( no i wasnt going to climb any mountains >.<), my toes felt numb from being stubbed so much cause i was changing direction all the time, and sweat was pouring down my face due to the heat ( at lest i would like to think that was the cause >.<). Not exactly the ' cool ' beginning i envisioned.
Sigh lessons were really grating on the nerves, and dealing with unfamiliar programmes and notes didt help. I actually preferred the 4 hour maths lecture and tutorial to the 2 hour ELTECH lesson, mainly because the ELTECH teacher was a fossil who couldt get past reiterating the names of the scientists who discovered... THE ATOM~.
Well i guess i did meet some friends, but i was really disinterested and couldt really be bothered to initiate conversations. Maybe my expectations were too high... after all it is the first day of school...sigh, well i guess i would have to grit my teeth and find out :-/.
GOOD DAY AND GOD BLESS.
BON
Today was a day when i finally had to accept the fact that my topography skills are, like the hokkien would say, KANA SAI. I wandered around campus till my shoulders ached from my backpack ( no i wasnt going to climb any mountains >.<), my toes felt numb from being stubbed so much cause i was changing direction all the time, and sweat was pouring down my face due to the heat ( at lest i would like to think that was the cause >.<). Not exactly the ' cool ' beginning i envisioned.
Sigh lessons were really grating on the nerves, and dealing with unfamiliar programmes and notes didt help. I actually preferred the 4 hour maths lecture and tutorial to the 2 hour ELTECH lesson, mainly because the ELTECH teacher was a fossil who couldt get past reiterating the names of the scientists who discovered... THE ATOM~.
Well i guess i did meet some friends, but i was really disinterested and couldt really be bothered to initiate conversations. Maybe my expectations were too high... after all it is the first day of school...sigh, well i guess i would have to grit my teeth and find out :-/.
GOOD DAY AND GOD BLESS.
BON
Remember to publish your posts or we cant view them!
Hello! This is Bon!
Thanks for being the first few who took time to post online. I would really like to read your posts, but am currently only able to read the title as the posts are not published( meaning its private ). There is an orange "PUBLISH POST" button at the bottom left of the typing box that would enable everyone to read your post. I know there might be some reservations regarding this, but hopefully we can make our posts private and for our PCMs' eyes only soon. Please continue to post online!
Much appreciated.
Thanks for being the first few who took time to post online. I would really like to read your posts, but am currently only able to read the title as the posts are not published( meaning its private ). There is an orange "PUBLISH POST" button at the bottom left of the typing box that would enable everyone to read your post. I know there might be some reservations regarding this, but hopefully we can make our posts private and for our PCMs' eyes only soon. Please continue to post online!
Much appreciated.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Hello everyone! Welcome!
Heya!
This is Bon, and i will be posting an entry on this blog at lest once a week, and i look forward to reading your blogs too! I know its really hectic and busy as school is starting ( as in like TOMORROW!! ) but please try to write a little something here every week! It can be about anything, and any length, from prayer requests, versus of God's Word, to about how your feet ache after your shopping spree in orchard :P. The goal of this is to help us communicate and know each other better, to have a common place of our own to find support and friendship :).
It was only when i went to Ngee Ann Poly that i began to appreciate our weekly cell group meetings. I look forward to our meetings as a place where i can find smiles, laughter and companionship away from the stress of studies, the complications of relationships, and generally everything unpleasant that happened during the week. It is also a relaxing time of quiet contemplation, to consider and discuss God's Word, to learn more about our religion and of the lives of our fellow christians.
Thus, although school and social life is demanding more and more of my time, i am determined to set aside time for God, for you, and for the rest of my cell. I would like to know you more, and look forward to debating issues and hearing of interesting happenings during your week. Hope to hear from you soon!
This is Bon, and i will be posting an entry on this blog at lest once a week, and i look forward to reading your blogs too! I know its really hectic and busy as school is starting ( as in like TOMORROW!! ) but please try to write a little something here every week! It can be about anything, and any length, from prayer requests, versus of God's Word, to about how your feet ache after your shopping spree in orchard :P. The goal of this is to help us communicate and know each other better, to have a common place of our own to find support and friendship :).
It was only when i went to Ngee Ann Poly that i began to appreciate our weekly cell group meetings. I look forward to our meetings as a place where i can find smiles, laughter and companionship away from the stress of studies, the complications of relationships, and generally everything unpleasant that happened during the week. It is also a relaxing time of quiet contemplation, to consider and discuss God's Word, to learn more about our religion and of the lives of our fellow christians.
Thus, although school and social life is demanding more and more of my time, i am determined to set aside time for God, for you, and for the rest of my cell. I would like to know you more, and look forward to debating issues and hearing of interesting happenings during your week. Hope to hear from you soon!
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