Brokenness

Ok, to start Liverpool lost to AC Milan 2-1 last night. Firstly, I would like to thank Gabriel for offering to pray for me last night. Really appreciate it but I understand God's hand in the whole game even in soccer.

To start, for Liverpool to enter the Champion's League Final ahead of Chelsea and Manchester United who finished the league 15 and 21 points respectively ahead of them (ahem) is already God's Grace and I thank him for that.

Secondly, the Lord is showing the team that it is necessary to be humble and be broken in order for greater works to appear in the team. Recently, I have noticed that the team have become arrogant in some aspects of the game and I believe God has to do some surgery in them as well.

This then brings me to ponder upon the issue of brokenness which has been mentioned by PS Khong last Sunday.

"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." -Psalm 51:17.

Have you been injured in sports before?

Maybe a broken ankle or a dislocated shoulder from tennis?

I know I have injured my ankle many times when I was playing basketball in the past. But if you ask anyone, they would tell you that the worst injuries suffered in sports would be a broken part of the body. In the case of Cisse, it is a broken leg.

Years back, my brother suffered from a broken hand due to soccer when he was in secondary school. My father used to console him that a broken hand when healed will become stronger that what it used to be and this theory has actually been confirmed by doctors in the hospital.

Praise the Lord!

When God breaks you, he makes you stronger through his grace. I remember how I came to know the lord in the army. It was also due to a broken bone in my body, a broken finger to be exact.

Through a broken finger, the Lord took me out of BMT and put me in a situation where I had the time to come to know the lord through the people that he put around me and the opportunity to be a blessing to others in my camp. Through a broken finger, he showed me that I could not just rely on myself to get myself places in the army, not my results or my physical fitness.

When I tried on my own strength to go for my recourse and be a commander during my NS days when I recovered, the lord had to show me again that that was not my purpose in the army by giving me chicken pox during my first book out in my recourse, ( ironically, it was spread to me by my friend whom I brought to
church over the weekend), forcing me to return to Hendon camp to be a storeman for the rest of my army days.

When I came to realize that my results or achievements mean nothing as opposed to the greater designs that God has for my life, I understood that my calling and purpose in life can no longer be fulfiled by just achieving good results. I had to place my life in God's hands and just trust him for my life.I had to accept that God has a plan for me by placing me in the Commando Camp and I thank God for the blessings and I had to be broken not once but twice by God to show me his plan for my NS days.

Have you had a time in your life when you wanted something but the lord gave you something else? Maybe the Lord has something better for you and he just wants you to circumsize your future to him.

I know and I thank the Lord for the time of brokenness that he gave to me during my army days and I know that the continual breaking and repairing of my spiritual bones will make me stronger spiritually just like how a broken bone becomes stronger when healed.

I thank God for breaking me and I pray that the Lord will give you a powerful experience too. Amen.

“If the Lord bid me fly, I should trust Him for the wings.” John Wesley

Obedience and Legalism

Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. (Romans 3:28)

Even so faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (James 2:17)

What is the difference between obeying God and legalism?

Legalism is following the word of God but so is obeying the Lord but why does the Bible always carry a bad annotation to the word legalism?

Reading through Romans today, I came upon the answer to the question.

The difference is in the heart. Obeying the Lord comes from grace. Works done in obedience is an expression of Love to the lord because you have been saved by the grace of God. However, legalism is works done to earn the grace of God.

Sometimes, I feel that I am doing some things out of legalism rather than out of obedience. Why do you spend your weekday nights for youth meetings or weekends for church and meetings? Is it because you have to do it like how Maybelle and Jess feels that if you do not believe in the bible you will go to hell?

Romans 4:4 Now to the one who works, his pay is not credited due to grace but due to obligation. 4:5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in the one who declares the ungodly righteous, his faith is credited as righteousness.

Do you always have to find time in your life for God? Whether is it to do your quiet time early in the morning or finding time to read the bible?

I believe that the key issue is not the reading of the bible in the day or the doing of the quiet time that determines your relationship with God? It is the attitude or the heart that draws you to read the bible or do your quiet time in the morning. Why do you do your reflections or for me, writing this blog in the middle of the night? Sharing my daily thoughts and reflections to people that maybe reading the blog, maybe my friends, my people in the cell?

I'm praying that its coming out of a heart of gratitude for the lord who has saved me through grace and me wanting to share the faith with others that are reading rather than just trying to glorify myself or trying to get into God's good books by earning salvation which is in fact already given to me due to God's grace.

My prayer for the day is that the people of Christ would do good works out of grace that overflows from them rather than being forced to do good works to earn their right to heaven. And that the lord would bless us whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered ; whom the lord will never count against sin.(Romans 4:7-8). Amen.


“If the Lord bid me fly, I should trust Him for the wings.” John Wesley

Bridge to Terabithia

Today, I went to watch this show with my dad at Golden village today expecting it to be another graphic based children story like Chronicles of Narnia. In some aspects, it was similar but largely different.

About the background of the movie:
The show was based on a story written by Katerine Paterson in 1977. Paterson won a Newbery award for the book and there were surprising moments of spiritual dialogue in the film. I looked up her wiki profile, and found that she’s born to missionary parents. And thinking back now, there are much to ponder about regarding the story.

Spoilers Alert:

It’s a story of two young teens, Jess and Leslie, who don’t fit in at school in small town USA. Leslie recently moved in beside Jess and they become friends who imagine an alternative reality called Terabithia in the forest behind their houses. Through the movie, there is a constant conflict between imagination and realism of life.

At one point in the movie, Leslie accompanies Jess and his family to church (she’s never been to church before). After church, the scene is Jess, Leslie, and Jess’ younger sister - Maybelle in the back of a pick-up truck driving home.

Here’s the conversation:

Leslie: I’m really glad I came, that whole Jesus thing, it’s really interesting, isn’t it?

Maybelle: It’s not interesting, it’s scary. It’s nailing holes through your hands because we’re all vile sinners. I made Jesus die.

Leslie: You really think that’s true?

Jess: It’s in the Bible, Leslie.

Leslie: You have to believe it and you hate it. I don’t have to believe it and I think it’s beautiful.

Maybelle: You gotta believe the Bible, Leslie.

Leslie: Why?

Maybelle: Because if you don’t believe in the Bible, God will damn you to hell when you die.

Leslie: Wow Maybelle, where did you hear that?

Maybelle: That’s right, huh Jess? God damns you to hell if you don’t believe in the Bible.

Jess: I think so.

Leslie: Well I don’t think so. I seriously do not think God goes around damning people to hell. He’s too busy running all this (arms wide open, stretched out to the sky).

What do you see in the picture above? Ugliness or Beauty?

Some times I wonder, why do we believe in Jesus? Is it because we fear what after-life has for us, that we will be 'damned' to hell if we do not believe in him?

Just recently, I was chatting to a friend over the phone. He had been a Christian for some time but he had a similar thinking as to Maybelle in the story. He felt that God was 'sadistic' and we had no choice but to believe in him or else we will go to hell. Its either God or Hell. No choice at all.

I remember the first time I came to service when I was in secondary 3. It happened that that day, the sermon was on Revelation. It was of the signs that the world was coming to an end. During that sermon, there was a conflict within me.

The same question kept on popping up in my mind.

Heaven or Hell?

Jesus or Satan?

Redemption or Death?

Not much choice there isn't it. But what if we see the story of Christ from another aspect just like Leslie in the story.

The bible suddenly becomes beautiful or what Christ did for you on the cross and that through his death we have received salvation. Isn't the idea and concept of him sacrificing himself to save you just beautiful. The open mind of Leslie had helped her to see beyond the physical brutality of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. If we see the story from her view, doesn't it just make you want to come to Jesus.

Another key theme in the story is about imagination and realism of life.

Quoted from an interview with the writer Paterson:

There's a trend lately to provide books and films for Christian audiences that are "safe for the whole family." Perhaps your books have been challenged because they're not necessarily "safe" for children. What do you make of the idea that children's books should be "safe"?

Paterson: Well, don't give them the Bible, then, because it's certainly not a safe book. Safety and faith are different things. If you want everything to be safe, then you can probably just totally do without the imagination. If you're so afraid of your imagination that you stifle it, how are you going to know God? How can you imagine heaven?

Maybe in Singapore, this is a question that we all have to ask ourselves. Are we stifling the imagination of children when they are young?

We have been forced to go through an education which is extremely results-orientated with no room for creativity. We experience the realism of life before the beauty of life itself. We see the realism of the crucifixion before the beauty and significance of the crucifixion of Jesus on the cross.


We are safe if we do not trust God for the miracles in our lives. We are safe if we do not take the step of faith. But if we go deep, we will be able to look far with an open mind, we dare to imagine of heaven on earth and that would lead us to dream big.

Think, for a moment, of our Lord’s wounds on the cross. They are beautiful. The crown of thorns on Jesus’ head is beautiful because of why Jesus wore it: he wore it for love; he wore it so that we could be forgiven for the sins we commit in our thoughts. The holes in his hands are beautiful because they bring us forgiveness for the sins we commit with our hands; the holes in his feet are beautiful because they bring us forgiveness for the times we’ve walked willingly into temptation and failed to avoid the near occasion of sin; and the hole in his heart is beautiful because through it we can be forgiven for the many times we’ve put other things before God—for the times, in other words, when we’ve allowed something else or someone else to occupy the first place in our heart.

It’s incredibly beautiful when people like you and me make tough, personal sacrifices for others; but it’s infinitely beautiful when an eternal God sacrifices himself for his imperfect and sinful creatures—as Jesus Christ did for us.- Fr. Ray Suriani

In the movie, Leslie who had come from an unbelieving family saw this beauty beyond both Jess and Maybelle who came from a believing family because she was able to see the story with an open heart and an open mind.

My prayer for the day is that may God help us to do the same and that we will dare to imagine for the greater miracles in our lives. To be able to see the beauty of the life rather then the mundanity of life. To see the beauty of God shining through our lives.

And to conclude: This show is highly recommended. Do place this show in your must-watch shows for the month along with the other blockbusters like Spiderman 3 (highly recommended as well), Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and Shrek 3.


“If the Lord bid me fly, I should trust Him for the wings.” John Wesley

The Rich Man

10:17-27 Now as Jesus was starting out on his way, someone ran up to him, fell on his knees, and said, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.’” The man said to him, “Teacher, I have wholeheartedly obeyed all these laws since my youth.” As Jesus looked at him, he felt love for him and said, “You lack one thing. Go, sell whatever you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” But at this statement, the man looked sad and went away sorrowful, for he was very rich.

Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” The disciples were astonished at these words. But again Jesus said to them, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” They were even more astonished and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and replied, “This is impossible for mere humans, but not for God; all things are possible for God.”

How pertinent that my daily bread today was about the story of the rich man and it was just after the talks by Jackie Pullinger over the weekend.

Over the week, Victor asked me for money to help his mother pay her medical bills. I have been thinking about this for quite some time till this weekend when I heard the talk by Jackie Pullinger. She is a very down-to-earth lady who believes in giving generously to people in need even if she may not see the returns, although giving may not be monetary but it means sacrificing something in return such as time, sleep or effort.

During the 2nd lecture on Saturday when she asked if we Christians are just soul-hunters, a chord struck in my heart. I asked myself, am I just after the soul of Victor to bring him to the lord? Or am I truely a friend to him, willing to bless him even if I may not see the returns.

Immediately, I heard the Lord telling me to reply him about lending him the money for his mother's medical bills. I just decided to give even if it was going to inconvenient me and even if it means I'm going to have to save on my meals for the next few days.

But I decided to do it on two conditions:
1: That I was allowed to visit him and his mother and pray for them for healing.
2: That I was allowed to hand the money over to Victor's mother directly.

In the verses above, I felt that the lord really cares for the world.

Firstly, he loves the rich man who wholeheartedly followed the law both inwardly and outwardly as God can see the attitude of the person in following the law.

Secondly, he cares much for the poor. Although the man followed the laws wholeheartedly, he lacked the generousity and heart for the poor. He was unwilling to sell all he has and give to the poor.

When reading through the verses again, I come to think that sometimes as Christians, we talk about serving God, reading the bible and following the law. However, do we love the world?

Joh 3:16

For his is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

God loved the world so much that he gave his son to die for our sins. And Jesus died for the greatest sinners in the world regardless of whether they believed in him or not. It was all the same.

Remember the Balestier Rapist in the newspaper recently?

Yes, Jesus died for his salvation.

Remember Osama bin Laden who caused the 9-11 or even Hitler who started the Halocaust?

Yes, Jesus died for their salvation.

On the other extreme, he died for all the poor people in the world too, just like the homeless children in the papers in Iraq or the beggar on the road without a leg begging for food every morning at your MRT stations.

Yes, Jesus died for their salvation.

We, as Christians, are told to be imitators of Christ. We do not have to die for them as it was done when Jesus died on the cross. But do we have a heart for all these people? Do we turn away when we see someone coming up to you for donations?

But lord, we do not know if the money will go to the children or will it end up like another NKF.

But lord, someone else will help them.

But lord, I am not self-sufficent.

My prayer for today is that we will stop looking for excuses to turn away from the poor and needy but do our best to bless them either monetary or even by giving a simple prayer to the beggar that you see on the road. Lord, I pray that you would soften the hearts of our people so that we will always remember the poor and not be indifferent to them.

Lord, although Victor have not replied me regarding the message yet. I pray that he would understand that no matter what, I would try within my means to help him even if it means just praying for him. I pray for your grace over your people to always have a heart for the poor in the world. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

“If the Lord bid me fly, I should trust Him for the wings.” John Wesley

Forgive me Father, for iSinned

Posted on: May 10, 2007

The iRosary is a pretty cool concept that helps make the rosary more attractive and flexible to younger believers who own an iPod. This is made possible by using the iPod's famous white earphones cable which comes with a single bead that can be shifted. The position of the bead can be measured and heard as audio beads along the sensitive range of the cable. Thus the iRosary will be able to help young uns learn the prayer, with appropriate mysteries inserted automatically in between. Heck, you can even choose the level of difficulty, depending on where you are now in your spiritual life.

Source:http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2007/05/forgive_me_father_for_isinned.html

Just wanna share this in the morning.

Family

Today, we were supposed to have a Mother's Day celebration at about 7pm in the night with my brother and my sis-in-law.

Before I left the house, there was an email by my spiritual dad, Chris, about the family appreciation dinner last night which I did not go to as the Mother's day celebration dinner was actually supposed to be held last night but was postponed as my brother had to prepare for in-camp this morning.

In the email, I was particularly touched by this particular verse again.

"See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse." ~ Malachi 4

Just before we left the house, my mum took quite a long time preparing herself as she thought that we would be going to a big restaurant for dinner tonight. However, we were rushing for time as we were supposed to meet my sis-in-law, Serene, at Eunos Mrt at 7 and it was getting late. On top of that, my sister had to prepare for her physics test tomorrow and she wanted to just get the dinner over and done with and was rather harsh to my mum in some instances.

The whole atmosphere became quite bad when my mum realised that we were only going to have a simple dinner at the food court as Serene had to pass a rabbit to her spiritual daughter. My mum was quite unhappy with the arrangement at first but it became better as I talked to her in the mrt to my brother's place. Thank God for that.

On the way there, I received an sms that my brother had actually booked out of camp and would join us for the dinner. I was quite surprised at that as he was supposed to be in-camp and was not supposed to be out till 2 weeks time but praise the lord for arranging him to be with us tonight to celebrate mother's day.

When we finally arrived at Eunos mrt, I was already 7.20pm and we just had to wait for a while for Serene to hand the rabbit over to her spiritual daughter. After that, we took a cab over to Black Canyon Cafe next to Tanjong Katong Shopping Centre to have a Thai Mother's Day dinner. The food there was good and quite reasonably priced at around $50 for 5 dishes and rice.

I enjoyed the time with my family there and I had a good time talking to my mum.
She was having some worries that she could not handle her job at a printing company next Monday as she is computer illiterate but I know the our Lord is a good and faithful God and he would guide her through her week in her new job.

What initially felt like it was going to be a bad evening eventually turned out to be a great time and a good Mother's Day where we reflect and appreciate my mum for what she has done for us in our lives. I will not be who I am now if not for my family at home and my spiritual family at church.

Right now, my sister is still struggling with her work and her studies as the dinner dragged till about 9 and her work in JC is totally draining her. But I just know that God will guide her through the day tomorrow and grant her the wisdom and strength to get good results in her Physics test and her project work as our Lord is a faithful God.

I pray that the lord will continue to show himself in our family and reconcile the family through him and him alone. I know that by this time next year, my family would be able to sit down on the table together and say grace before having a simple dinner.

A simple vision that only God can fulfill. Amen.

“If the Lord bid me fly, I should trust Him for the wings.” John Wesley