Romans 13:9-10

“The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” 

1 Corinthians 2:9

“However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him—” (1 Corinthians 2:9)

The very reason why I love research so much. ;)

Looking Back

When can I look to The Lord as David had and say: "I have committed no sin."?

Galations 6:1

“ Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.” (Galatians 6:1)

Something to think about huh...

When what you want is just not the same as the next person

It's really great when you know your purpose in life. And really great when you find others who are going in the same direction as you are. But it's not so great when you find out one day that, their commitment to what you wish to do is just not the same. I mean, your priorities will never be the same as the next person. And just because it's not the same, it doesn't mean you expect them to rearrange it so it's the same as yours. Not all of us have the same important things.

I've always remembered this story about Mary and Martha. Martha was the sister who was distracted with preparations to receive Jesus into their home while Mary was the one who sought his teachings. Because of this, Martha asked Jesus why had he not told Mary to help her in the kitchen. But Jesus said that Mary had chosen the better thing and that will not be taken away from her.

I remembered a lot of teachings from this story. The first was the more obvious. Isn't it more crucial to learn everything you can from Jesus while he was still in flesh and blood on earth? Or in today's world, isn't it more important to spend time learning and getting to know Jesus rather than be worries and flustered about your day-to-day life? Because, Jesus teaches you about life and more importantly, eternal life. (For instance, he teaches us not to worry. Is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes?)

The second less obvious teaching was, who are you compared to the two sisters? Are you Martha the worry-wart? Or are you Mary, the one who knows what's truly important to her? Even so, what Jesus said meant that while Mary had chosen the better thing, Martha has her place as well. To Martha, preparing food and comfort for her guests is important. To Mary, it was learning everything she can from Jesus. So, while Mary chose the better thing, it doesn't mean Martha hasn't chosen the right thing. I can't find the passage right now but I know that in a later event, Martha was still serving guests but this time she had not bugged Mary to help her. It really means that, you have your gifts and in the same event, you might not be doing the same thing as the next person.

Everyone has their important thing and you don't go telling someone else to do your important thing.

While it's great for those who knows what are their important things, there are still many of us who are still looking for it. We're comfortable to a certain extent with how we live but there's always that nagging feeling that there's more to it. Sometimes we just need to reach out and grab it. Or just take a bold step in a direction to find out if that's really important to us. Or take a step back to realize that maybe what we're currently doing isn't meant for us.

Sometimes I truly understand how someone else gets upset when they're stood up or when no one turns up for a meeting they plan or a practice they've scheduled. I really get it if you're annoyed that someone made a commitment and failed to fulfill it.

But what I don't get is the unfair comments they say after everything you've done. Really makes you realize that, it's not the many good things you've done but the one time you mess up that matters to everyone else.

Paradox

I am the perfect example that being a Christian does not mean you're perfect.

Christian Book Fair

Just got back from the book fair at Menara PGRM (oh dear, I don't even know what it's called or where it was... I know the way there though).

Funny thing is, I did not hear about it until today (the last day of the book fair). If it wasn't for Miss Beh who needed someone to show her the way there, I wouldn't have gone either. Can't say I regret going now. (How could I? I was surrounded by books! It was splendid!)

Found out a friend, who happened to be at that fair, was working for Canaanland (a Christian bookstore); from which I bought these lovelies: "What the Bible says about" series on worship and emotions; and a book on relationships in life.

So yesh, Carolyn has books to read for the next week or so! I got bored of anime/manga so to speak and having books to read is great. Can't wait for the Five Greatest Warriors by Matthew Reilly to come out soon!

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Today's verse (from the Gideons):
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
  It will not return to me empty,
  but will accomplish what I desire
  and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
(Isaiah 55:11)

Without deeds, it is nothing

I hurt you a lot.

Yet, I want to be the only one by your side.

It hurts to be the one in a relationship who loves the other more.

Love can never be sweet and happy unless you put your dearest before your self.

What have you ever done to make your beloved happy?

I shudder as I remember the words of James...

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Faith and Deeds

(:14) What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? (:15) Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. (:16) If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? (:17) In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

(:18) But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds."
      Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.

(:19) You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

(:20) You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? (:21) Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? (By the way, if you read Genesis 15, his son was not sacrificed in the end.) (:22) You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. (:23) And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God's friend. (:24) You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.

(:25) In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? (:26) As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

Children See, Children Do

What are we doing for our future generation?
What have we learned from our parents?
What are our children going to be?
What will you be?

Your choice...

"These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates." [Deuteronomy 6:6-9]

Youth Ministry: Q-Time

"If we would talk less and pray more about them, things would be better than they are in the world: at least, we should be better enabled to bear them."— John Owen

Came home to see what daily quotes had for me, and found that the very first quote really summed up what the speaker was trying to say to us tonight.

1 Peter 2:23
"When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly."

When the speaker spoke of Q-time, he was glad it was not titled "quiet" time but rather it can be taken as "quality" time; or what he prefers to call: personal devotional life. The foundation that makes us who we are. What we are really speaks of how much time we spend with God. This particular verse was one of the points the speaker brought up. What we face everyday is what Jesus faced before. He came to earth to show us how to face these things. When our boss seemingly hates us or our friends turn their backs upon us or when things just seem worrisome (like an upcoming exam...) we should just tell it to God and tell it again until we find peace. For:

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
(Phillipians 4:6-7)

YM 1% challenge.
Give God 15 minutes of your time each day.
Just 1% of your time a day.

1 Chronicles 29:11

“Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.”

Father in heaven, I pray that you will help me remember that in all things, we are aiming to glorify your name and that in all things, you are the center of everything. I pray for your blessings and that you will remember me for what I am doing not so for my own selfish ambition but that our church would be a blessing unto your name and not a hindrance to our faith in you. Give your children understanding, patience, grace, and most of all be in our midst as we work things out. I pray that whatever the outcome of this meeting, we will remember that it is your will and not ours that we seek. Let your will be done and if it is so, give us peace in recognizing this. I ask for your presence to be with us during this meeting and let us not be taken over by emotion or selfish pride. In Jesus Name, I pray, Amen.

Finally Here

The final finals is here. Will I do alright? I can't quite be bothered with undergraduate studies anymore but a recent mid term result tells me I need to worry and worry much!

Proverbs 16:3
"Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed."

For us success is but a simple truth: to bring glory to God. Committing our works and plans to Him means surrendering them to His will and trusting that His name will be glorified. How easy it is to forget that God longs to bless us and empower us for our eternal good and His glory; and definitely not for our own selfish ambition.
- Paraphrased from Heartlight

Proverbs 13:4

"The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied."

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Oh Lord that I may remember that life is nothing but a passing phase and that life in heaven is everlasting. May I live my life on earth fully toward your purpose and not fall back into the temptation of laziness.

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+ the PTPTN website was not made to love Malaysians +
+ slow semester this time round... +
+ taking things one step at a time +
+ struggling to be proactive +
+ began applications for honours +
+ chocolate place at One U has really, really good food! +
+ and good chocolate of course... +
+ watch toradora! it's worth your time +

Hebrews 11:6

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

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+ been slumping +
+ going through exams +
+ three more papers... +
+ wrote a new story! +
+ joo said she can't believe I wrote gore +
+ it wasn't all that gory! +

A. W. Tozer

"I think a new world will arise out of the religious mists when we approach our Bible with the idea that it is not only a book which was once spoken, but a book which is now speaking."

- Taken from Defending Contending on Quotes.

Just Noticed

It's been awhile since I put up photos. It may be time to put up somemore pictures soon. Yi Voon's and Pui Ming's birthday had just passed (Voon's was a month ago and Pui Ming's was just yesterday). For Yi Voon's b'day, the only reason why there was no photos was because the waiter didn't let me take photos of food in shogun =( Made me lose interest in taking any more. (Sounded like a good excuse at that time...)

My phone is currently getting overcharged on top of my dear brother's CPU. Sigh. Forgot about it after rushing out of my room to switch off the very loud alarm at 6 AM. It was a good thing everyone else continued (or pretended to continue) sleeping. (Oh, and at that time, I was pleased to see my character leveled up and not dead in WLO. This is the only game you can play sleeping, that is, if you just want to get a high leveled character without effort and enjoying the other parts of the game.)

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Okay, now that that was over, I have a nice video to share with you. It's called "Lifehouse's Everything Skit". It was a skit I saw some of my teenage youth members practice for a sunday school event a while ago and it was a skit my shepherd in Aussie said she was going to do.

It was also a skit that made me cry...

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Now don't you think that was an awesome story? We were first friends with God who showed us everything in this world and even though the pleasures (or pains) of this world drew us away further, and further from Him, He has never forsaken us. Even when we're at the lowest points of our lives or when we feel confused and lost to the point where we don't know what is what anymore, He is still there, calling out to us and saving us when we're overpowered by what we cannot handle. Our only saving grace and our only salvation.

Is it not great to know a God who is our friend and father?

Ethical Or Not

I'm often reminded everyday why it is so important to know who God is and what following him means.

This may be a little irrevelant to what I just said but while studying, I came accross several slides on ethics in science. Everytime they asked the question "is this ethical?" or "is this immoral?" or "is this right?" They would refer to the vaticans, the muslims, the protestants, the jewish, etc. Or should I just sum it up and say 'the religious'?

Science if often thought of as a body of knowledge or a society that is apart from religion. Simply because science is not governed by doctrine but by discovery (in a very loose sense). Yet, every time they need to make a decision on "is this right or wrong?" they refer to religious views.

Shouldn't we, as Christians, always be ready to give them answers as God says in the Bible? Shouldn't we always be prepared such that God's views are always at the tip of our tongues? Shouldn't we always be able to say what the Bible says?

Random Blogs I've Visited Recently

Recently, after joining the innit community at nuffnang, I've been blog hopping a lot. I found out a lot about Malaysian bloggers in that they are certainly a very interesting bunch of people. Most of them made me think of how society respond to many things and how secluded I've been in my own world. However, there are many too that gave me valuable insights and made me glad I was blog hopping.

One of the blogs I found was Joie de Vivre. It's a christian blog by a born again christian that challenges christians and their faith. By challenge, I mean that reading the blog made me realize how imporant it is for Christians to step up and not only defend our faith but step out of our comfort zone and obey the command to make disciples of all nations. You should give it a read! It's definitely worthwhile.

April.07.2008:Monday
+ should have added this blog as well +
+ not sure if it's true +
+ but what if it turns out to be true? +
+ better help and be fooled than not help and be scorned +
+ The Journey of the Homeless: click for an interesting read +

 

Random thoughts

Reading other local bloggers made me really think that the reason why there are many who do not know that christianity is not a religion but a relationship is because there are so few of us making this clear to them. Many times we are just stating "religious" comments like "Christians should do this" and "Christians should do that" but we never ever say "Jesus said this" or "Jesus said that". Is our faith truly just knowing we'll go to heaven and that's it? Doing good work is just the first level of faith and if we do not know how to move on, honestly, why are we Christians? What truly makes us different? That we carry the message of love? NO!

I believe in eternal life and I believe that there is only one true God. I believe that believing in Jesus is the only way to heaven and that I am a sinner from birth. I believe that hell is real and I believe that Jesus died so that my sins are washed away and I'm saved from eternal damnation. I want to live a life worthy of Jesus in that I want to live every day knowing God's word and knowing that saving souls is more important than the next assignment due. I've been stumbling for too long in the dark not knowing if my sins are forgiven but today, I know that they are and I know that as long as I stand for Christ he will strengthen me.

Being a Christian is easy. It's true! I became a Christian at the age of 3 by just asking to be one. But the life I've lived since I was a Christian has been filled with such challenges that I've never truly wanted to share with anyone because of how personal it is and how difficult it was. Carrying the cross every day is real. The hardest part about being a Christian for me is accepting that all we can do is plant the seed and gather the harvest. As to whether the seed grows into a mature plant or if any seed grows at all, is up to God.

Staying Healthy

This morning, I heard a very interesting message from our senior pastor this CNY morning. 3 John 1:2 was a greeting for a friend of the apostle John. Our pastor says that John was the most spiritual apostle and in his letter he wishes his friend good health. It is an indication that a healthy body is just as important as a healthy spiritual life. (Here I remembered that there was a verse, 1 Cor 6:19, that says we should take care of our body, that is God's temple.) So yea, while wishing health to others may seem commonplace and ordinary, it's truly wishing for someone to have something as important as a healthy spiritual life.

Today, I've decided to list out the points I took back from the sermon. =)

• 3 John 1:2
• Health is important; important for your spiritual life as well (as indicated by John).
• Romans 12:2
• Paul encourages us to be renewed in our minds.
• We should be transformed by the renewal of the mind to be able to test and approve what God's will is.
• To be transformed is a continuous process.
• This mind renewing process concerns the understanding of God's will.
• Our level of thinking should not be stagnant such that we do not understand God's will further.
• There are three levels to understanding God's will.
• Level 1: Taking good will (any good will) or good things to be from God.
• Level 2: Seeking to understand what pleases God (through the understanding of the Bible).
• Level 3: Seeking to understand what is God's perfect will.
• Therefore, we should not limit ourselves to doing good things.
• Do what pleases God.
• Seek to understand His perfect will.
• Most importantly, have a part in the fulfilment of God's perfect will.

He called us all to have a part in the church's cell group and to be involved in mission. Although, cell group is by no means separate from the church because as christians, we cannot be separated from the body life of the church. God's original plan was not for us to live alone. We are not to be separated from other people (your spouse, or family, or anyone from any race or gender on this earth). This should be our attitude.

Cell group is there to help us promote personal growth and church growth. The church itself has one purpose and one only: mission. The church exists for the very purpose of mission.

God won't forget our contributions. It's only possible if you have the desire. We should consider it as part of our lives. To be involved in mission. (I personally believe that if you want to contribute, God will provide.)