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".

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.

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 :)

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!!

Busy busy

wahhh.. been really busy these 3 days... back soon........

O Sacred Head

Picture the cross in your mind, with our Lord on it...


O Sacred Head, Now Wounded

O sacred Head, now wounded,
with grief and shame weighed down,
now scornfully surrounded
with thorns, thine only crown:
how pale thou art with anguish,
with sore abuse and scorn!
How does that visage languish
which once was bright as morn!

What thou, my Lord, has suffered
was all for sinners' gain;
mine, mine was the transgression,
but thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior!
'Tis I deserve thy place;
look on me with thy favor,
vouchsafe to me thy grace.

What language shall I borrow
to thank thee, dearest friend,
for this thy dying sorrow,
thy pity without end?
O make me thine forever;
and should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never
outlive my love for thee.

So begins my Good-Old-Hymns series.. My thoughts on this hymn coming soon.... One of my favourite.

Hope the words touch your heart like they do to mine everytime i hear this hymn or read the lyrics...

BBBB+B+

my results! actually, most of my friends checked this morning... i just checked... well... must thank God that i survived the modules originally not really meant for humans to study.... especially quantum mechanics 2 which was really really really really really super difficult and the exam was totally unexpected .... but i actually got B... thank God...

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Well.. my CAP has further dropped to 3.73 from 3.74 last sem... and i guess any hope of 2nd Upper Honours is goneeeee.... dun even need to think about 1st class which has been looong gone already....

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Right now, thinking about whether to take honours or not.. cos simply very tired of going back to school again and facing the same type of boring lectures and super time consuming lab stuff... all incomprehensible..... well gotta really pray about it... the last time i was quite sure about going for it.. but just want to reconfirm that its the right decision... dun want to make a wrong decision lah...

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Actually, rather irritated with the relevant professors for not giving me a higher grade for some modules... like... for goodness sake, what do they expect man..... or maybe they think that average grades are like B.. and B+ is already not bad... well... they should wake up to reality cos the amount of effort put in by the students probably deserves them at least A-..... or A for that matter.. especially those with small classes of less than 20 students... OK. end of complaints..

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Is it possible to be thankful to God and still unhappy with the results? Going to think about that for a while... but i guess i'm not really upset about the results at all.. just wonder about what kind of effort is needed to do better.... yup... at least thank God that i passed all, even the famously diabolically difficult Quantum Mechanics 2... thank God that i didnt do worse which could well have been the case, thank God for bringing me thru the semester, thank God for seeing me thru 3 years in NUS so far, and thank God for His love and companionship throughout the boring days in school....

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Yup... Quantum Mechanics 3, along with other insanely challenging modules not meant for humans, and an honours year project, coming up next year should i decide to enter the battle one last time... perhaps this time, i'll bring my trusty axe along with me (to use in the honours students' room), which is, of course, my older acoustic guitar.. gonna add some mean upgrades to the weapon.

Meanwhile... going to really really enjoy the holidays............ my last longest holiday of my life.

Yesterday

hello everyone... yesterday supposed to post also right? well... i was having this crazily splitting and exploding headache after the sun's rays from the 6000K surface attacked me during the day... all the way till night time... haha... well thank God that i could still sleep well.. just that whenever i get a bad headache basically i cant do a thing at all... well thanks to my brother who gave me a massage-more-painful-than-the-headache-itself, my headache was cured for the moment and i went to take 1 panadol and slept immediately...

Today woke up with the headache 99% gone but it started getting worse in plaza singapura where me and weihong went to buy the tickets... cos the aircon was freezing cold and my muscles at the neck were getting tenser by the minute.. in the end slept for sometime and it finally got completely cured sometime in the afternoon... =) thank God...

Went to visit my grandma yesterday and today too... she doesnt look very good cos the whole day been sleeping and cant really open her eyes and today didnt talk at all.... up to the point they suspected she got a stroke.... well just continue to pray for her, tomorrow will go for CT scan for her head to check for blood clots...

hmmm.... ok.... guess thats all for now... dunno what else to update... =) maybe another post in a few mins! oh yah... looking forward to the movie..!! =)

Finally starting...

Finally starting my series on Ephesians which i'm studying for QT now... this is the 2nd time i'm reading this book, cos the first time i dun think i absorbed it a lot... its a commentary by James Montgomery Boice... think u all must have seen before, at least for the Genesis 3 thick books =) well the Ephesians one is only 1 book and a lot thinner.. well this time i'm sure after blogging about it, will be able to retain much more and apply it in my life (",)

Ok.. so what's Ephesians all about? the preface of the commentary says that basically, Ephesians is about the Church, beginning with God's work and ending with His glory. Its a "mini course in theology" =).. so its good for people like me.. and you...

"Like Romans, Ephesians deals with the most fundamental doctrines. But even more than any other great doctrinal book, it stresses the sovereignity of God in salvation and the eternal sweep of GOd's great plan, by which believers are lifted from the depth of sin's depravity (corruption) and curse to the heights of eternal joy and communion with God."

"This letter is a combination of Christian doctrine and Christian duty, Christian doctrine and Christian life, what God has done through Christ and what we must be and do in consequence." - John Stott

Chapter 1

Ephesians 1:1-2
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ephesus:

• a place like modern day cities! (Eg. Singapore)
• political and commercial centre of a large and prosperous region

Where was Paul when he wrote this? When was it?
Most likely:

• In prison
• Already accomplished much for God (imagine like one of us bring many many many friends to church and they all become disciples. Something more than that.)

So, why did he not introduce himself like this: "Paul, an apostle of Christ who planted the many churches scattered around asia"? Because he wanted to emphasize how he became an apostle instead of what he has acheived. The important thing he wanted to bring across was the work of God and not his own achievements. If not for the "will of God" in choosing and saving Paul (and us too), there's no chance we can ever become His children or serve Him (this concept will be covered more in time to come).

Next, Paul addresses them in 3 ways. Looking at these 3 ways, we can learn something about ourselves as Christians:

• the saints
• the faithful
• in Christ Jesus

1. Christians are saints.
In today's society people use "saint" to describe someone who's good. This wasn't the original meaning. In the Bible, to be a saint means to be set apart (dedicated). Once we become Christians, we have a new nature, a new set of loyalties, and a new agenda. We belong to the kingdom of God. We change citizenship from the current world to Heaven. But there are things we need to continue to set ourselves apart for God. We need to change a lot of our priorities, our way of thinking, our value system, our goals in life, the things which make us happy or sad, and the way we handle life. Are we really set apart for God? If we are, i'm sure many problems will seem smaller and many daily worries will be gone cos we know that God will provide. Its the way to true joy.

2. Christians are faithful
Faith has 3 elements.. Intellectual, Emotional, and Volitional (Commitment). When we hear the gospel and the Christian beliefs, we respond to it intellectually and we accept it as truth. But we also have another aspect which is the emotional loving response and gratefulness that we feel for our salvation. Then, we must make a personal commitment (which involves the will - decision) to God. All these are already done in the past since we're already Christians, but how are we faring today? DO we continue to respond to God and love Him and make a commitment to serve Him?

3. Christians are in Christ.
We are joined to Jesus in one spiritual body. This means that we will be glorified together with Him in future... In fact our joining to Christ was planned from eternity in the past by God the Father and will be fulfilled fully when, soon, we share in Christ's eternal glory forever and ever. There will be no end to it! Thinking of this makes me happy =) ... When life gets tough, especially when its tough to be a Christian, we can remember and be comforted.

Finally, Paul says "Grace and peace" to them.. Only with God's grace and peace can we continue to survive in this world so full of temptations and difficulties... in the coming posts, look out for more on how to live as Christians here in this world... :)

Okay... wah.. seems like a loooong post.. if u made it this far, congrats.. haha... thanks for reading my thoughts.. most of them are summarised from the commentary but i added some myself... ok hope that this helps u all also in your walk with God...

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Anyway, today went gym with my brother and Wei Hong... not too bad, thank God for the time and that i finally got to exercise.. it always takes extra effort to achieve something good.. well continue to pray for my grandma, she seems a bit better today but its probably cos of all the anitbiotics and stuff... yup... ok thats all for now... going to sleep soon... see you all... guitar pics? er... soon.. soon.. =P

Revived, again?

Hello everyone.. ok.. this is the actual revival of my blog and not the previous one... well, decided to start blogging and try to do 1 meaningful post per day for this holidays.. hope it works out! (meaning i have to be more disciplined and manage my time better)

Ok.. First post of 2008.. and about half the year is already over... well, really glad that God has brought me thru the 3rd last semester in NUS and the results will be coming out in a few days' time. Not worried about it lah... Cos worrying is basically useless... wont help at all... want to trust God that He'll provide whatever I need and continue to lead me...

Newsflash:

I bought my new guitar last tuesday!! its from Maestro, a local manufacturer. Cost me $699 and the foam case cost $99.90. So roughly $800. Haha.. but since I tried soo many guitars to choose this one, it must be good, right...? to my ears it sounds great... like something worth >$1000.. Pictures coming soon!!

Have you all received the SMS for this saturday's and next monday's movie? Here're the details:

Sat 31/5:

6:55pm, Plaza Singapura

Meet: 6pm for dinner (separately w ur friends)

6:45pm at level 7 movie ticket booths

$8

Mon 2/6:

6:30pm, Lido

Meet: 5+ for dinner (separately w ur friends)

6:15pm at top level

$7

Buy ur own popcorn and snacks!! AND: SMS ME QUICKLY FOR TICKETS!!!!

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Do continue to pray for my grandma, there's a bit of complications and she has some difficulty breathing... Back in the critical care unit now and on antibiotics...