Hello everyone... its been some time since i last posted... well, hope you all found inspiration in the 2 videos i posted and do set aside time and resources to support the ministries involved (links on right hand side) as much as your faith would have you give... =)
This week is really unique for me.. Think about this for a moment: imagine your friends are going out one evening. What are the options for things to do in Singapore? The likely answers: Movie / Karaoke session / Shopping / Some form of exercise or interest or sport. Well, all these are great... but it just seems to me that most people require some form of common activity to bring them together, some interest in common, as well as usually some money to spend, to be able to enjoy the time together. Otherwise, interaction with others is generally a bore.
Not so with the children of God... while we also do the things mentioned above, there's obviously at least one more noble and significant reason that we spend time together and enjoy the time. The basis for our coming together is not a common interest in the activity or like the need to find entertainment. Instead, being brothers and sisters in Christ we have these --> mutual love (possibly strong enough for us to lay down our lives for one another), a common purpose in life, common overriding interest in each others' lives and the lives of non believers, a common values system, and of course love and loyalty to God. Having these things, all the activities that are mentioned above can be transformed into meaningful activities that build our lives as we spend time together. Also, new entertainment and stimulation to make us temporarily happy are no longer necessary, since we are really happy just sharing our lives and loving each other by prayer support and encouragement. Of course, these are again only possible when we have a common purpose and the love is there... This is definitely why we enjoy fellowship so much, even having dinner together is so joyful.. =) hours together seem like minutes and days seem like passing moments when we are filled with love for one another...
Yup... this week, like i said i would, i had 3 sessions of extended prayer and QT.. of course the fellowship was wonderful - something that even time and money cannot buy for people who do not know God. Also, i think i finally could settle down and talk to God more about stuff... u know, take a step back and refocus on Him... and read the Bible in large chunks at a time - something i havent done for a long time... Praise God, the more i read, the more i want to read.. (^_^) well... read the psalms quite a lot, and the as i read, the words began to look so much more significant than they did usually when i skim thru the passages thinking that i read them many times b4 and knew what they were talking about...... God is really wonderful and loving... ever so patient with us and waiting for us to turn to Him and be ready to listen to Him speak to us.... also another great thing was that i found myself more able to focus on God and talk to Him as i faced everyday stuff... like a constant dependence on Him, a constant conversation with God.. have to work on this even more... really helps to focus my life (",)
.....was thinking about how we can discern God's will in my last few blog posts right? One of the things i remember best about Pastor John Piper's 1988 sermon (mentioned below) was that he pointed out an important thing to note: the quest for guidance has to be the quest for holiness. We want answers and solutions, but they only come when we are in tune with God.. and He will guide our thoughts, when we are in tune with Him and focused on Him, to the things He wants us to see...
Great stuff... will post more about it... really really thank God for this week, was great.. well hope that the coming week will be as well, though its much more busy a week for me.... also really thank God for all my brothers and sisters in Christ... you all are such a big blessing from God... ;) anyway now i'm really really tired too.. so let me end off with a psalm......
Psalm 8
For the director of music. According to gittith.
A psalm of David.
1 O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
above the heavens.
2 From the lips of children and infants
you have ordained praise
because of your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?
5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands;
you put everything under his feet:
7 all flocks and herds,
and the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air,
and the fish of the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Indeed, lets remember who God is, His infinite almighty power and what it means for us, His children whom He loves so much, this coming week.... "You have set your glory above the heavens" - indeed Lord, may Your name be glorified in our lives... may we see You clearly for how awesome and amazing You are.......
Friday, June 27, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
Anxieties: To Be Cast Not Carried
Read another good sermon... =) the way my summaries are piling up calls for good time management and discipline... another reason to throw away any excuses for wasting time...
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/1993/843_Anxieties_To_Be_Cast_Not_Carried/
(",)
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/1993/843_Anxieties_To_Be_Cast_Not_Carried/
(",)
Friday, June 20, 2008
The Goodness of God and the Guidance of Sinners
More on knowing God's will today:
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByTopic/92/621_The_Goodness_of_God_and_the_Guidance_of_Sinners/
Read it if you're interested..
Maybe will post a summary soon, maybe not..
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByTopic/92/621_The_Goodness_of_God_and_the_Guidance_of_Sinners/
Read it if you're interested..
Maybe will post a summary soon, maybe not..
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
God's Will
hello, today i did my QT on a John Piper sermon again =) let me share it with you here today~
So, how exactly do we know God's will?
I read "He Will Send His Angel Before You" by John Piper.
Genesis 24:1-9
Abraham was now old and well advanced in years, and the LORD had blessed him in every way. He said to the chief servant in his household, the one in charge of all that he had, "Put your hand under my thigh. I want you to swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living, but will go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac."
The servant asked him, "What if the woman is unwilling to come back with me to this land? Shall I then take your son back to the country you came from?"
"Make sure that you do not take my son back there," Abraham said. "The LORD, the God of heaven, who brought me out of my father's household and my native land and who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, 'To your offspring I will give this land'-he will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there. If the woman is unwilling to come back with you, then you will be released from this oath of mine. Only do not take my son back there." So the servant put his hand under the thigh of his master Abraham and swore an oath to him concerning this matter.
How did Abraham know God's will so surely that he said God "will send his angel before you"? It wasn't like God had told him exactly what to do in this case, but rather only revealed His will directly several times in the past in Abraham's life. Pastor John says that it was because he could read the trajectories of God's Word. What are trajectories?
A trajectory of an object is the path that you know it will take based on some other things that you know about it. For example, if you throw a rotten egg at the dustbin, based on how hard you throw, the direction, the weight of the egg, etc. you can know what path the egg will take (which is, hopefully, a path ending in the dustbin). So knowing the trajectories of God's will is like this.. knowing some things He has said and promised, and then based on those things, it is possible to know some of what He wills in our lives.
So pastor John said that Abraham deduced 3 things based on his good knowledge and faith in God's promises and commands. They are:
1. Isaac Must Have a Wife
2. Isaac's Wife Must Not Be Taken from the Canaanites
3. Isaac Must Not Return to the City of Nahor
For #1, its cos Abraham knew God's promise to make his descendants numerous and a great nation. And he knew that Isaac was the promised son and not Ishmael, whom Abraham had gotten from his own methods.
For #2, God had previously told Abraham that 400 years later his descendants, the Israelites, will come back from Egypt and carry out God's judgement on the Canaanites - this meant that the Canaanites were not good people ==> not good to get a wife from there who may pull Isaac away from God right?
For #3, pastor John says "I believe the answer is that God had called Abraham out of his land and promised him and his descendants a new land. To go back could only mean unbelief in God's promise and power to fulfill it."
So, from these 3 indications, Abraham knew that his servant should go and take a wife for Isaac from his brother's household and bring her back......
What about us? how can we discern what God's will is nowadays? Won't it be great if we know for sure what God's will is for us in our daily lives? John Piper recommends that we become meditative students of the Bible. This means we dun just memorise or read the Bible or some Christian book like 10 - 30 mins per day.. it means that we ask questions like (the following passage is taken directly from the sermon):
"What's the point of this? Where does that lead to? Why did he say this? Where is he heading here? What does this imply? To ask those questions prayerfully is to meditate. If you are not spending much time in meditative study of God's Word, then probably doing God's will on earth is not the passion of your life. And if you ever ask the question, "What is God's will?" you probably get very confused.
Listen. Satan devotes himself 168 hours a week trying to deceive you and fill your mind with junk. He has seen to it that you are surrounded almost entirely by a Christ-less culture whose mood, and entertainment, and advertising, and recreation, and politics are shot through with lies about what you should feel and think and do. Do you think that in this atmosphere you can maintain a vigorous, powerful, free, renewed mind with a ten-minute glance at God's book once a day? The reason there are church people who are basically secular like everyone else except with a religious veneer is that they devote 99% of their time absorbing the trajectories of the world and 1% of their time absorbing the trajectories of the Word. If you want to bring forth the will of God in your life like a mother brings forth a child, you must marry the Bible. For some of you it is a stranger that you greet on the way to work but never have over for a relaxed evening of conversation, and seldom invite along to spend significant time with you on vacation. Do not, then, be surprised if you are ill-equipped to read the trajectories of God's will for your own life.
Summer is a time for experiments. May I suggest one? If you are discouraged and perplexed about God's will in some area of your life, plan in the next couple weeks to find a quiet place totally alone, and read the Bible meditatively for four hours interspersed only by prayer. Here's what will happen. For some of you the clouds of confusion will lift, and the trajectory of God's will shall be perfectly clear. For others the precise decision won't come that quickly, but you will experience a wonderful purifying and stabilizing of your mind." (Emphasis added)
Thats exactly what I need to do. During the Church Camp sharing sessions, I shared that I needed extended times of prayer to discern God's will for me in making big decisions I'm currently faced with. Now that the Taiwan trip is over, its like my last chance to do it, before school starts and all the crazy stuff start coming in.
Pray for me that I will do this not just once but a few times.
If this sermon of John Piper touches you, you can read it at http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByTopic/92/354_He_Will_Send_His_Angel_Before_You/. But whether you read it or not, I hope that we can together find out God's will for our lives and walk closely with him. How else can we have assurance in life? But if we do see the trajectories of God's will and follow them,we can be confident of God's power and triumph in every detail of our lives.
"He Will Send His Angel Before You".
So, how exactly do we know God's will?
I read "He Will Send His Angel Before You" by John Piper.
Genesis 24:1-9
Abraham was now old and well advanced in years, and the LORD had blessed him in every way. He said to the chief servant in his household, the one in charge of all that he had, "Put your hand under my thigh. I want you to swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living, but will go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac."
The servant asked him, "What if the woman is unwilling to come back with me to this land? Shall I then take your son back to the country you came from?"
"Make sure that you do not take my son back there," Abraham said. "The LORD, the God of heaven, who brought me out of my father's household and my native land and who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, 'To your offspring I will give this land'-he will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there. If the woman is unwilling to come back with you, then you will be released from this oath of mine. Only do not take my son back there." So the servant put his hand under the thigh of his master Abraham and swore an oath to him concerning this matter.
How did Abraham know God's will so surely that he said God "will send his angel before you"? It wasn't like God had told him exactly what to do in this case, but rather only revealed His will directly several times in the past in Abraham's life. Pastor John says that it was because he could read the trajectories of God's Word. What are trajectories?
A trajectory of an object is the path that you know it will take based on some other things that you know about it. For example, if you throw a rotten egg at the dustbin, based on how hard you throw, the direction, the weight of the egg, etc. you can know what path the egg will take (which is, hopefully, a path ending in the dustbin). So knowing the trajectories of God's will is like this.. knowing some things He has said and promised, and then based on those things, it is possible to know some of what He wills in our lives.
So pastor John said that Abraham deduced 3 things based on his good knowledge and faith in God's promises and commands. They are:
1. Isaac Must Have a Wife
2. Isaac's Wife Must Not Be Taken from the Canaanites
3. Isaac Must Not Return to the City of Nahor
For #1, its cos Abraham knew God's promise to make his descendants numerous and a great nation. And he knew that Isaac was the promised son and not Ishmael, whom Abraham had gotten from his own methods.
For #2, God had previously told Abraham that 400 years later his descendants, the Israelites, will come back from Egypt and carry out God's judgement on the Canaanites - this meant that the Canaanites were not good people ==> not good to get a wife from there who may pull Isaac away from God right?
For #3, pastor John says "I believe the answer is that God had called Abraham out of his land and promised him and his descendants a new land. To go back could only mean unbelief in God's promise and power to fulfill it."
So, from these 3 indications, Abraham knew that his servant should go and take a wife for Isaac from his brother's household and bring her back......
What about us? how can we discern what God's will is nowadays? Won't it be great if we know for sure what God's will is for us in our daily lives? John Piper recommends that we become meditative students of the Bible. This means we dun just memorise or read the Bible or some Christian book like 10 - 30 mins per day.. it means that we ask questions like (the following passage is taken directly from the sermon):
"What's the point of this? Where does that lead to? Why did he say this? Where is he heading here? What does this imply? To ask those questions prayerfully is to meditate. If you are not spending much time in meditative study of God's Word, then probably doing God's will on earth is not the passion of your life. And if you ever ask the question, "What is God's will?" you probably get very confused.
Listen. Satan devotes himself 168 hours a week trying to deceive you and fill your mind with junk. He has seen to it that you are surrounded almost entirely by a Christ-less culture whose mood, and entertainment, and advertising, and recreation, and politics are shot through with lies about what you should feel and think and do. Do you think that in this atmosphere you can maintain a vigorous, powerful, free, renewed mind with a ten-minute glance at God's book once a day? The reason there are church people who are basically secular like everyone else except with a religious veneer is that they devote 99% of their time absorbing the trajectories of the world and 1% of their time absorbing the trajectories of the Word. If you want to bring forth the will of God in your life like a mother brings forth a child, you must marry the Bible. For some of you it is a stranger that you greet on the way to work but never have over for a relaxed evening of conversation, and seldom invite along to spend significant time with you on vacation. Do not, then, be surprised if you are ill-equipped to read the trajectories of God's will for your own life.
Summer is a time for experiments. May I suggest one? If you are discouraged and perplexed about God's will in some area of your life, plan in the next couple weeks to find a quiet place totally alone, and read the Bible meditatively for four hours interspersed only by prayer. Here's what will happen. For some of you the clouds of confusion will lift, and the trajectory of God's will shall be perfectly clear. For others the precise decision won't come that quickly, but you will experience a wonderful purifying and stabilizing of your mind." (Emphasis added)
Thats exactly what I need to do. During the Church Camp sharing sessions, I shared that I needed extended times of prayer to discern God's will for me in making big decisions I'm currently faced with. Now that the Taiwan trip is over, its like my last chance to do it, before school starts and all the crazy stuff start coming in.
Pray for me that I will do this not just once but a few times.
If this sermon of John Piper touches you, you can read it at http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByTopic/92/354_He_Will_Send_His_Angel_Before_You/. But whether you read it or not, I hope that we can together find out God's will for our lives and walk closely with him. How else can we have assurance in life? But if we do see the trajectories of God's will and follow them,we can be confident of God's power and triumph in every detail of our lives.
"He Will Send His Angel Before You".
A prayer I should pray, at least for tomorrow
Dear Lord,
So far today, I am doing all right. I have not gossiped, lost my temper, been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or self-indulgent. I have not whined, cursed, or eaten any chocolate.
However, I am going to get out of bed in a few minutes, and I will need a lot more help after that. Amen.
Read it quoted in a very interesting book today, called "Today Matters" by John C. Maxwell. Funny and true.
So far today, I am doing all right. I have not gossiped, lost my temper, been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or self-indulgent. I have not whined, cursed, or eaten any chocolate.
However, I am going to get out of bed in a few minutes, and I will need a lot more help after that. Amen.
Read it quoted in a very interesting book today, called "Today Matters" by John C. Maxwell. Funny and true.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
A Broken and Contrite Heart God Will Not Despise
Just came across a good sermon..
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/2008/2832_A_Broken_and_Contrite_Heart_God_Will_Not_Despise/
Hope it blesses you all :)
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/2008/2832_A_Broken_and_Contrite_Heart_God_Will_Not_Despise/
Hope it blesses you all :)
Monday, June 9, 2008
At last... my new guitar!!
hello... this is not a post to announce the arrival of my new guitar.. that happened sometime ago.. instead, here're the pics, hope u all like them...
I like the smell of wood especially when it sounds so good... the guitar features stuff like:
a solid Sitka Spruce top ("solid" means that it is not laminated or ply-wood, its one layer of 1 kind of wood), indian rosewood back and sides, a rosewood fretboard, branded grover tuners (which are really accurate and precise and reliable), and a nut and a saddle both made of a material that u all will have to guess... haha... those who already know, dun say!! let the rest guess... =) post the answer on the tagboard.....
Anyway, the guitar sounds fantastic and i can play it for hours without getting bored... any chord sounds good on it :) just in case u all want to know, its by Maestro, a singapore brand, made in singapore, and the model is EJ-3 which stands for elite series (just one of their series names) and the shape is jumbo, which explains the FAT shape and big strumming sound, especially the resonating bass notes (",)
Ok... here're the photos..
Front view... its in the foam case.... not a good photo. bad lighting and rather blur =/
This is the sound hole with pearl inlays around it... this is probably the best photo... :)
Another photo of the sound hole..
The fretboard... rosewood... the strings going above it at regular intervals is nice isnt it?
This is what they call the headstock of the guitar. Grover tuning machines, very accurate like i said....
Top view, in the foam case that i bought together with it..
Close-up of fretboard..
The Indian Rosewood back and sides. Indian rosewood is good because it gives a good balance of clarity and richness and volume... i think....
Close-up of the spruce top... nice wood grain... =)
Maple was used to bind the sides of the guitar as shown above, instead of plastic on cheap guitars...
Finally, the saddle is the white piece of thing in front of the 6 round things. What is it made of...??
Ok... have a few more photos but not going to post them cos they're not very nice anyway... hope u all like my new guitar like i do.. probably will get to play it some time lah... =) next post on the Church Camp coming up..... bye!!
Monday, June 2, 2008
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