I'm Amazed!!!

It's a rainy Saturday evening and I find myself walking around the crowded Tampines mall Century Square complex looking for a Chinese Chess set for my Gkidz boys to play. I'm kind of surprise that there is not a shop in the entire complex that actually sells chinese chess but I found something much better!

The latest Planetshakers CD!

I was quite discourage last week when i hit Mount Zion last week to look for planetshakers old album 'Reflector' as it's out of stock. But miraculously, the track is actually included inside this album. The odds of that happening.

Jesus Loves Me!!!

Jasper Bro!

Margined Lifestyle

Yesterday night I was listening to an audio sermon by Pastor Benny Ho entitled "Finding Balance in a Busy World". Ps Benny mentioned in one segment that being in such a steessful world we live in, we need to learn to draw MARGINS in our lifestyle to prevent ourselves from burning out / to find balance. And Ps Benny mentions we need margins in:

1. Emotionally – Get in touch with our own inner world
2. Physically – Recuperate from tiredness
3. Financially
   
4. Spiritually – Time to connect with God

As I reflected, I felt that I needed to draw margins under Category (1) Emotionally, (2) Physically and (4) Spiritually.

So today, I took leave from work for my monthly solitude time. And this was how I drew my MARGINS:

1. Physically - Had a good sleep and only woke up at 11:00am today!
2. Emotionally - Spend time to catch up with my parents, went grocery shopping with my Mum, and watch a slow-moving DVD (For One More Day) to get in touch with my emotions.
3. Spiritually - Solitude time just soaking and reading the Word of God through Psalms 120-125, witnessing and declaring the awesome attributes of God

We all need to learn to draw margins in our lives, else we would not be able to last the long haul. Margins in our lives will enable us to pause and sharpen our tools and be more effective. Margins at times require us to Say No to people and requests around - Remember, we are NOT indispensable and we are NOT God (we are not omnipresent).

Do you feel like you are burning out? Maybe it's time to re-look and draw your MARGINS.

Growing Faith in Difficult Times

"Faith develops out of the most difficult aspects of our existence, not the easiest. The person of faith is not a person who has been born, luckily, with a good digestion and sunny disposition..... It is Christ, not culture, that defines our lives. It is the help we experience, not the hazards we risk, that shapes our days." - Eugene H. Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

Pause and do a stock take on our spiritual walk. When was the last time we really cried out to the Lord in desperation? When was the last time we felt a really sudden surge in our faith? When was the turning point in our Christian walk where our faith suddenly went one notch higher?

Honestly, it is typically during the rough patches in life that we will cry out to God for help. We can easily get by each smooth sailing or 'nothing much' days without the need for God.

A simple equation can easily look like this:

Difficult times => Faith in God grows

Normal times => Faith stagnates or gradually goes downhill

The truth of the matter is that it is NOT the difficult times that make our faith grow. In fact, it is the desperate crying out during the difficult times that causes our faith to grow.

If God hadn't been for us — all together now, Israel, sing out! - If God hadn't been for us when everyone went against us, We would have been swallowed alive by their violent anger, Swept away by the flood of rage, drowned in the torrent; We would have lost our lives in the wild, raging water. Oh, blessed be God! He didn't go off and leave us. He didn't abandon us defenseless, helpless as a rabbit in a pack of snarling dogs. We've flown free from their fangs, free of their traps, free as a bird. Their grip is broken; we're free as a bird in flight. God's strong name is our help, the same God who made heaven and earth. - Psalm 124 (The Message)

There is that natural tendency within us to cry out to the Father for help during these tough moments because we know in His promise to us that "God's strong name is our help" and we CAN put our faith and trust in Him. God will NEVER fail us.

My prayer is that we all do not need to wait till tough times that we turn to call upon God, but that everyday we can call upon His name in all that we do.

We can do so, because God is a God that 'doesn't go off nor leave us'!

Inspired by Martin King Luther Jr

(link http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm)

I Have A Dream...

That one day, in spite of individualistic tendencies and the delicate complexities of rallying individuals, the people of the united tribes of EJA will overcome the unfavourable odds, and at the annointed moment, decide to have a noon-time meal together.

In keeping with the teachings of a certain teacher to "not give up on meeting up", to fellowship, to enjoy each other's company, to learn from the brother or sister whom one sees every week and think nothing more of it, to just hang out without the distraction of an official agenda.....

I have a dream, that these people will make effort to spend at least 1/84 of their standard 168 hours/week to meet up in non-regulation time. Let us not wallow in the defeat of excuses, I say to you today my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties in the form of "meeting friends" and "got project", I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in A 2:42.

I have a dream that one day these people will rise up and make good the saying,"devoted to the fellowship." That one day beyond the yellow doors of expo, the sons of taxi drivers, the daughters of engineers will be able to freely chill out on their own accord.

A dream that sees many individuals, one body, moving off in unison towards Expo Mrt to their destination of fellowship. A dream that one day, in the looseness of our lips, the words "you don't joke la!","mai xian" or something to that effect, will appear less and less.

And out of that void comes a fountain of encouragement and truth to hearten the people. And that will be the day, when all of God's people will let ring the words,

"Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last from hiding behind busy-ness and the poison of our tongues!

-Anon

Where is God on Your Weekdays?

"The great danger of Christian discipleship is that we should have two religions: a glorious, biblical Sunday gospel that sets us to free from the world... and, then, an everyday religion that we make do with during the week between the time of leaving the world and arriving in Heaven. We save the Sunday gospel for the big crises of existence. For the mundane trivialities... We use the everyday religion of the Reader's Digest reprint, advice from a friend, an Ann Landers column, the huckstered wisdom of a talk-show celebrity. We practice patent-medicine religion." - Eugene H. Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

A Christian faith reality check question which all of us need to constant ask ourselves (especially on weekdays) is this:

"Where has all the knowledge we have learnt from Sunday sermons and cell meeting gone to on weekdays?"

One moment we are all on spiritual highs during the weekends in cell meetings and Sunday services. The next moment (sometimes less than 24 hours later), we are wallowing in the dreadful pits of defeat in life and seemingly God is the last thing on our minds.

We rather go in search for nice hearing advices from friends, cool inspirational motivating speakers, and occasionally flipping through teenage magazines trusting those ever-changing advices! Where is God on our Weekdays?!?! Chucked aside when things starts getting busy?

Christianity is neither a religion nor a CCA... it is neither a "feel good club" nor a "one-stop-solve-all-problems" rehabilitation centre.

Christianity is a life ordained by God. We have direct access to God when we choose to walk in His path and grow in knowing Him more. In His path, we do not need to turn to the world's religion. In God, we have the Master Helper!

I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip—he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD watches over you—the LORD is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life; the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore. - Psalm 121 (NIV)

Fed Up with Evil

"A person has to be thoroughly disgusted with the way things are to find the motivation to set out on the Christian way. As long as we think... another scientific breakthrough might save the environment or another pay raise might push us over the edge of anxiety into a life of tranquility, we are not likely to risk the arduous uncertainties of the life of faith. A person has to get fed up with the ways of the world before he, before she, acquires an appetite for the world of grace." - Eugene H. Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

Fed Up -> Coming to a point beyond frustration where one recognizes the need to seek an alternative solution or way out.

Are you fed up already with the ways of the world i.e. striving, backstabbing, where work doesn't guarantee results, economic downturn, insecurities in human relationships...etc?

Or are you just frustrated and are pulling your hair in trying all sorts of human efforts to resolve all these seemingly unresolvable problems? (Somehow the problem grows worse when we do more!)

Are you Fed Up? Why not turn to Jesus!


I'm in trouble. I cry to God, desperate for an answer: "Deliver me from the liars, God! They smile so sweetly but lie through their teeth. "Do you know what's next, can you see what's coming, all you barefaced liars? Pointed arrows and burning coals will be your reward. I'm doomed to live in Meshech, cursed with a home in Kedar. My whole life lived camping among quarreling neighbors. I'm all for peace, but the minute I tell them so, they go to war! - Psalm 120 (The Message)

The army life...

Hello... its VaZe here bringing you some teachings from army....
Yes... I promised that i'll cut on army talk outside camp, but i feel that this is some basic fundamental principles that i want to bring across to everybody...

My life in army is very relaxing physically, but still challenging mentally as...
I have to live with all the:
- people who uses vulgarities like punctuation marks
- regimentation -> no moving around the camp, change into all sorts of attire, etc...
- platoon mates who are not happy over every minor issues (bread & butter issues)

You see, when u start to live with 50 other men on the same level, 50 different personalities, 50 different expectations, there bound to be disagreements and conflicts... One guy not happy with another guy for telling him to march properly, a group of people outcast 1 person as the person is not doing his duty well...

For me? I believe that army is my paradise... Not in the sense that i'm a glutton for punishment, but that its a good training ground to build some character, build some life prinicples...

When i first stepped into Tekong, i asked myself what do i want to see myself doing here... and i set only 1 boundary for myself:
- No vulgarities

Eventually, as time passes, i began to add more prinicples to my army life as i read the Word of God daily:

- No reading of FHM, Maxim or similar materials to set a good example as a Christian as well as to stop all the lust of the flesh

-No Chao Keng as God reminded us in 2 Timothy 2:3-6 that as soldiers of God, we endure all hardships and please our commanding officers

- No complaining and murmur about my duties, be it guard duty or confinement, as in 2 Cor 11:23-29, Paul says that he face pressure everyday, yet he boast of his sufferings, not complain about his sufferings...

- Humility -> I learn to take humble pie in all circumstances, lower my expectations on people when they work with me... Not to boast of my achievments, give a listening ear to the people around me, help resolve misunderstandings, go an extra mile to help my section mates, watch my tone when I speak so as not to provoke people, encourage my platoon mates to get things done...

- Excellence - As toilet I/C, i always report to the tolilet the earliest, and leave the toilet the last during cleaning... I have to do most of the dirtiest things, remove chokes in toliet bowls, scrunbbing the corners of the toliet walls... I have to even do my duty even when i'm not feeling well so that all the other cleaners are motivated to do as well...

- Discipline -> I learn how to discipline myself to do quiet time, read Godly books when other people are sleeping on their beds to have an early rest

After applying so many prinicples in my army life... People began to look to me one way or another... Platoon mates who has no one to confide in about their family or girlfriend problems come to me to talk... People invited me to do bible study with them, invited for prayer meeting, people are glad to work with me, even for guard duty...

On my part, I managed to share the gospel with my section mates, encourage one of my section mate with bible verses as he cannot seem to shoot accurately and is depressed... I encourage some of my platoon mates to stay positive during confinement, resolve some tensions between my platoon mates... I loan my bible, Christian books to people to read...

In short... what i want to say is that the Word of God should turn into active living prinicples that u anchor on everyday of your life... Then as you apply these prinicples, u see urself growing more, u see urself able to manage all the challenges with great ease...

Ending verse: 1 Cor 15:58 - Therefore stand firm my brothers, let nothing move you, for your labour in the Lord is never in vain