Interview with God

An Interview with God

Abortion

soaked in His love

soaked in His love...
every single day
i did not have enough love
for people around me.
but through Him,
i now have.
"Amazing Love
how can it be?
That Thou my God
shouldst die for me."
~ Charles Wes­ley

spent today with God!

spent today with God!

morning - a cloudy start
memories flowed
flashbacks of
how youth ministry started
in the chinese congregation
how eng & chinese youth min
became one youth fellowship
how the Lord lead and guided
the 2 groups into 1
in spite of
uncertainties,
initial unwillingness
& struggles
it is so AMAZING!
only have deep heartfelt
THANKFULNESS to God
what else can i say?

the rest of the day spent
contemplating on
3 images that i saw
during my morning walk
and on
the kingdom parables in
Matthew 13

is there more to life?

is there more to life?

You Laid Aside Your Majesty

You Laid Aside Your Majesty
Noel Richards

You laid aside your majesty
gave up everything for me
suffered at the hands
of those You had created
You took all my guilt and shame
when You died and rose again
now today you reign
in heaven and earth exalted

CHORUS:
i really want to worship you, my Lord
You have won my heart and i am Yours
for ever and ever, i will love you
You are the only one who died me
gave Your life to set me free
so i lift my voice to You in adoration


mind-boggling indeed

King of kings, Lord of lords, prince of peace,...
yet allowed Yourself to be clothed in human skin
to be vulnerable,
to suffer injustice,
to be restricted in time & space,
to be away from the Father, away from the intimacy of the Holy Trinity

You showed us what it meant to be fully alive
yet humbled Yourself to the point of death,
death on the cross, the most cruel form of punishment inflicted in the history of mankind

why would You want to do that?
is the human race really worth the effort?
i will never be able to fully understand...

A tribute to Mrs. Rita Leicester

A tribute to Mrs. Rita Leicester

Last week, i was looking at obituary section of the straits times. i saw a notice put up by the family of the late Mrs. Rita Leicester thanking all who were at her funeral. At that moment, my heart somehow felt a sense of loss. Quickly, i went through the newspapers to trace back her obituary, which i did quite easily (considering i have six weeks worth of backdated newspapers, but that is another story altogether). She went home to be with the Lord on 28 Jun 2007 at the age of 64. I wished i had seen the obituary earlier. i wished i had a chance to be at the wake or funeral. i wished i have given her a call earlier in the year. i wished... The only comfort is that i will still be able to see her again some day when i go home to be with the Lord.

The late Mrs. Leicester was my art teacher in TJ. i was a science student, and in those days if you were a science student you were not allowed to do art. But Mrs. Leicester joined TJ in the year i was repeating my 1st year. She changed this rule completely. Because of her, i am able to do art in science stream. Not only that, i get to do four A-level subjects (art being my 4th subject) instead of three (all repeat students can only do 3 subj in my time). As i reflected, the Lord had really used her to change the course of my life. If she had never come into my life, i would most probably be doing engineering or some scientific or mathematical kind of job.

She was an inspiring teacher. Though during my days in TJ, sometimes her artistic nature and temperament drove me nuts, she was still a fantastic teacher. She taught well. She was the teacher who taught me how to paint batik from scratch. Most art students already knew the craft as they were O-level art students. Though i may not be as good as many of my art classmates, never did i feel inferior because she never compare me with them.

She gave her students lots of freedom. She trusted us a lot. Every week she would set the tasks, and allowed us to come into the art room as and when we like to complete the tasks. She understood that we all loved art and we all have other subjects and ccas to cope with. With this, it meant that she had to be in the art room for longer hours so that she would "bump" into us at least once a week to sit down and evaluate our progress with us. However, she would still do it and this gave me time and space to balance my life.

Though I graduated from TJ, she never graduated me out of her student list. She remembered me by name. When I became an art teacher, and was unsure about guiding my students O-level art projects. She had retired by then, though she still continued to teach some enrichment art classes. She needed not do it, but she came to my school to help me. She spent an afternoon going through all the projects (almost 40 pcs) and explaining what i could do to help each student. For that, i am deeply grateful for what she had done in my life.

After i left teaching, i bumped into her one day at the entrance of St Hilda's Sec a few years back. She was teaching batik to the students there. She invited me to teach alongside with her in her enrichment classes to which i did not take up her invitation.

She has lived a full life. I thank God for her devotion to her work and her love for her students. I have been greatly blessed. What would my life be like if our paths never crossed...

School Hols!

Thank God for school hols!
since the end of my NT2 exams, i've been tidying up my home a bit at a time.
borrowed 2 books on packing n organising from the library. they were an inspiration.
hopefully my home will be a very different place (more warm & welcoming) before my new school term begins. i've also managed to bake and cook. it is so therapeutic to indulge in a passion. :-)
another thing that i managed to do is to bring daniel and anna to the bird park. altho entrance fee was rather costly, it was fun. totally enjoyable and fulfilling. as we slowly take time to marvel at His creation, daniel also did some sketching. the wet playground is the best. daniel and anna got themselves soakingly wet. din manage to take many fotos, camera batteries died after 2 or 3 shots. sigh...
As of now, i'm looking forward to family camp later today till 6 May. My in-laws will be there. May the Lord use this camp and church members to reach out to them. I'm praying that they will not hesitate anymore, and respond to His love.

Feet Washing

it was a memorable Maundy Thursday.
i washed my mom's feet and she washed my feet.
it was a very special experience.
it would not have happened without God.
never would i have imagined that this would happen a year ago.
God is just so amazing!
thro this i was reminded of how my mom (when she was still a pre-believer) had shown me unconditional love.
the Lord reminded me of her great love for me and the sacrifices she made.
all these had actually enabled me to received His love early in my life.
i'm so blessed.

learning to trust God - a lifelong process

just as i thought i have learnt to trust God more,
i realise i'm a beginner at a new level of faith.
God is love, perfect, all-knowing, all-powerful,
all-sufficient, glorious, faithful, yet just and righteous.
what more can i ask?
what more to fear?
dear God, teach me to express this knowledge in all ways of my life...

Blessed New Year

Blessed New Year Everybody!

Floral arrangement by SACC member, Ang Chew Kim (2006)

Thank you for all your love and support throughout this year (",)
Most of all, may all the glory and honour be unto God our Father.

I want to thank God for His protection over little Daniel today. Being the first day of the Lunar New Year, we were visiting my aunty. Daniel, enjoying his lunch of noodles, tried to take a sip from his glass of water. All we heard was a loud crash and Daniel crying really loud. When I turned, I saw him covering his left eye with his hands. Apparently, the glass had slipped off his hand and fell to the floor. Immediately, we rushed to him and try to find out if bits of glass had flown into his eye. As I comfort him, my uncle also attended to him, while my aunty tried to clear the area of the glass pieces had shattered all over the floor. My father quickly grabbed toddler Anna away from the area. Still crying, Daniel said that something had hit his eye and it was rather painful. Thank God, he was able to open his eye for us to examine. Thank God, as we probed further, he said that he did not feel anything stuck in his eye. His eye also looked pretty normal and he is able to see clearly. This is really God's protection and blessing upon him.

When he was crying and covering his eye, my heart really dropped. At that instant, I was really scared that my family might have to spend the rest of the day at a hospital or something. But not for long, somehow anxiety did not overwhelm me but a sense of peace prevailed over my heart (Though I do not know why at that moment, I know it is from God. For He had promised peace beyond human understanding). Indeed, God has worked in His own miraculous way to show the family (especially my father) of His reality. Daniel spent the rest of the day happily playing with his cousins because of God's protection over him.

From this incident, I am reminded once again of God's love and He really loves the little children (it's real, and not just plain lyrics of some children sunday school song).
Thank you once again, my dearest heavenly Father. May all the glory be unto You!

Learning to trust God more

Dear God,
I know You are always in control. Even when things do not seem to go my way, or the way it should be in my opinion, You are still in control and they are still within Your will. Teach me to trust You more each day. Shape me to be more like Christ each day.

God egoistic?

Is God egoistic since he wanted everybody to worship Him?

i'm just thinking: does God need anyone to worship Him in the first place? He's so glorious, almighty, yet gentle, amazing, righteous, yet loving. He is all-sufficient, and does not need anyone to worship Him to give Him more glory. Even if all mankind does not worship Him, I am sure even the rocks will raise their voices to worship Him.

God wants a relationship. He does not want empty worship.
He created us and knew the plans He had for our lives. (Just like when we make something, say a bag, we know a bag is for holding things, and it is not for writing or cooking.)
He knew what is best for us, even when we have not come into being on earth.
He knew that our lives would be far more enriched and fulfilled if we allowed Him to be the King in our lives.

When Jesus was living on earth, He described God's desire
for a close relationship with man through the story of the prodigal son...
A man had two sons. The younger son told his father, 'I want my share of your estate now before you die.' So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.
A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.
When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, 'At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! I will go home to my father and say, "Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant."'
So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. His son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.'
But his father said to the servants, 'Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.' So the party began. (taken from Luke 15:11-24, Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers.)

Just like the father described in the story above, God is like that. He desires us, his children to remember he is truly the Father who loves us and return to Him.

On the other hand, we are like the younger son who abandon the father. We do not acknowledge God in our lives. We fail to recognise that He is truly our heavenly Father. Even when we do, we would still go against His wishes.

Our worship stems from the relationship we have with God as our heavenly Father. Our earthly fathers may be fantastic, some may not be very good, and some may even be very bad, but our heavenly Father is ever-loving, ever-present. No matter how far we drift from Him, how badly we treated Him in the past, He is still there waiting, looking out for us to return back to Him, just like the father described in the story above.

If you still do not have a relationship with God yet, do not hesitate to give it a go. God is waiting. Say a simple prayer like the one below (praying is just talking with God): "Dear heavenly Father, I thank you for being the loving father described in the story. I am sorry to have do you wrong by not acknowledging you as father. Please forgive me. I want to return back to you through what Jesus has done on the cross for me. In Jesus name, Amen." (Amen is I agree, or yes in the Hebrew language.)

If you want to find out more about God, or if you have just said the above prayer, do visit a bible-believing church near you.