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Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Whatif-itis and Ifonly-itis...

How often have we been plagued with the whatif-itis and ifonly-itis disease? What if I can be taller, if only I'm 10 pounds lighter, what if I didn't do what I just did? If only she would love me. What if I'm richer? If only I had listened... and the list goes on. How often such thoughts bring about misery and depression? How often does these thoughts make you a lesser man? In the words of Thomas Kempis who wrote The Imitation of Christ, "wherever you are, wherever you go, you are miserable unless you turn to God. So why be dismayed when things do not happen as you wish and desire? Is there anyone who has everything as he wishes? No—neither I, nor you, nor any man on earth. There is no one in the world, be he Pope or king, who does not suffer trial and anguish." So be assured that you aren't the only one out there that faces disappointments, misery or anguish. I feel it too sometimes, and the past two weeks were no exception. I just wanted to share some stuff I learnt the past two weeks. First of all, don't let a fear-filled perspective rob you from the joy of life you can experience right now. If we live in fear, the power of the "whatif-itis" and the "ifonly-itis" becomes overwhelming and you would go through life without joy. At times, I feel so depressed because I feel so inadequate, to the point where I feel like I'm a failure. But when I explore beneath the surface and discover that much of the pain of failure is not just that I have not achieved something but people might think of me as failing. People's recognition and praise is so important for most people. How often do we seek recognition from God? Sometimes at the time of your disappointment, how often have you thought about the people around you who are equally or more disappointment than you and how miserable they could be because of their life issues? Remember, you aren't the only one with problems. I'd like to challenge you today that the next time when you feel down or depressed, start by praying for someone you know is hurting and in misery. I guess one important I learned is that what we think shape our being. Our attitude determines our altitude. Who we are is largely related to how we perceive the world around us. So it's very important to stay focused and have a positive attitude. It's not easy, and yes, it can be a constant struggle but when you are down, you are rest assured that there's someone out there praying for you right now. Someone who has problems of his own but makes a conscientious effort to pray for you. Are you willing to do the same? I wanna take this opportunity to thank a few people. I asked God to send an angel, and He sent me THREE on the same day. One at prayer meeting, one on Yahoo! Messenger and another one at 2.30am in the morning. You know who you are, so thanks so much! Thanks for all the encouragements and the "scolding"... Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. - Phillipians 4:8 (Msg)

Friday, March 25, 2005

Learning Obedience...

Thank you Lord for teaching me obedience
Obedience to You and not to men
That life is not about recognition
But rather, about obedience
We are spiritual beings
mastering the human experience
We were made to glorify You
and to make Your glory known

Oh Lord, thanks for sending angels
the moment I called on Your name
It was exhilirating and exciting
to know that prayers can be answered

Help me to focus on You
Let not my gifts be unopened
Because the greatest tragedy of life
is the tragedy of an unopened gift

May I be an embodient of great quality, of character, of attitude and of heart
Help me to know my value
and my life's greatest calling

I love You Lord...

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Who Am I...

Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth Would care to know my name Would care to feel my hurt Who am I, that the Bright and Morning Star Would choose to light the way For my ever wandering heart Not because of who I am But because of what You've done Not because of what I've done But because of who You are I am a flower quickly fading Here today and gone tomorrow A wave tossed in the ocean Vapor in the wind Still You hear me when I'm calling Lord, You catch me when I'm falling And You've told me who I am I am Yours, I am Yours Who am I, that the eyes that see my sin Would look on me with love and watch me rise again Who am I, that the voice that calmed the sea Would call out through the rain And calm the storm in me Not because of who I am But because of what You've done Not because of what I've done But because of who You are I am a flower quickly fading Here today and gone tomorrow A wave tossed in the ocean Vapor in the wind Still You hear me when I'm calling Lord, You catch me when I'm falling And You've told me who I am I am Yours I am Yours Whom shall I fear Whom shall I fear 'Cause I am Yours I am Yours Lyrics from "Who Am I" by Casting Crowns

Man, I just love this song. It just talks about how small we are and how insignificant and yet God made us significant. Everytime when we stumble, God is just there to pick us up. This has been a reassurance for me. Thank you Lord! I just heard some news about my customer passing away. Saddens my heart to hear such news. Will be praying for his family in HK.

Would You Send An Angel...

Lord, would you send an angel
to tell me that I'm doing okay
Would you send an angel
to comfort me when I'm sad
Would you send an angel
when I'm laughing and need someone to laugh with
Would you send an angel
when I feel lonely and need a companion
Would you send an angel
when life takes a beating
Would you send an angel
when there's no electricity
Would you send an angel
when there's a storm and I need shelter
Would you send an angel
to pray with me
Would you send an angel
when I'm crying deep inside
Would you send an angel...
Would you send an angel...

Friday, March 18, 2005

Humble & Broken...

I was reading through my journal and I came across an entry which I wrote after I attended IDMC last year. I came across a section where I wrote about what Pr. Dr. Philip Lyn shared about Pr. Edmund Chan and what he appreciated about him. 1) He was humble & broken. He was a man of humiliy & a man with such brokeness. When Pr. Dr. Philip Lyn was praying for himself, he could hear Pr. Edmund going, "Me too, Lord, me too". 2) Sharpness of his mind He was able to articulate certain spritual truths through life experiences & through scripture. 3) Deep sense of his own heart as a place of restendness Just being close to him, you can't help but feel refreshed. Wow! I though tto myself, this is someone I would want to model after. I have great respect for Pr. Dr. Philip Lyn, and for him to share something like this, you can't help but just admire and love the man. Pr. Edmund Chan is truly an ordinary man used by God to do extraordinary things. Here are some principles that I learnt when I was there:- 1) The "With Him" principle Here is a man where you would want to be with. You stand next to him, and you want to learn all you can from him. Be it watching a movie together or learning spiritual truths, you just want to be near him. No wonder, people like Matthew and the rest would just drop down everything they were doing and followed Him. 2) The "Generosity" principle Pr. Edmund Chan not only offered his place to stay when Pr. Dr. Philip Lyn visited him in UK. But more oever, he spend 2-3 days of his vacation with Pr. Dr. Philip Lyn. He intentionally flew to KK to spend time with him. Imagine, a busy man like Pr. Edmund Chan who has been booked for till 2007, he is willing to spend 2-3 days of not just his time, but holiday to be with Pr. Dr. Philip Lyn, now, that is generosity! 3) Principle of articulating spiritual truths "Pr. Edmund was able to forge together spiritual truths through life experiences, deep soul searching issues, inner life issues through the refined Word of God", said Pr. Dr. Philip Lyn. It's important that each disciple should learn this principle. Since we should all be drawing our knowledge and understanding from Him who first gave us knowledge and understanding.

What can you learn from this? What can you do better?
Oh Lord,
My prayer is that you would break me, humble me,
through all the turmoils & difficulties in life,
that I would remain as a man
small and secure in You.
I do not want the world
for all I want is You.
Sweet Lord,
I am not worthy of Your grace,
Let alone Your Love,
But Lord, Thank you, Thank you!
For You love me above all else.
Lord Jesus,
I do not know how to lead others.
I do not know how I can impact others.
I do not know if I can run the race well.
But Lord, I want to place all my trust in You.
So help me Lord, my life is in your hands,
use me Lord!
Purify my heart,
Cleanse me from within,
Fill me, that I would not be lacking in anything.
All glory to You!
Amen!

Monday, March 14, 2005

A Tribute to All Daughters...

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Every home should have a daughter,
for there's nothing like a girl
To keep the world around her
in one continuous whirl.

From the moment she arrives on earth,
and on through womanhood,
A daughter is a female
who is seldom understood.

One minute she is laughing,
the next she starts to cry,
Man can't understand her
and there's just no use to try.

She is soft and sweet and cuddly,
but she's also wise and smart,
She's a wondrous combination
of a mind and brain and heart.

And even in her baby days
she's just a born coquette,
And everything she really wants
she manages to get.

For even at a tender age
she uses all her wiles
And she can melt the hardest heart
with the sunshine of her smiles.

She starts out as a rosebud
with her beauty unrevealed,
Then through a happy childhood
her petals are unsealed.

She's soon a sweet girl graduate,
and then a blushing bride,
And then a lovely woman
as the rosebud oepns wide.

And some day in the future,
if it be God's gracious will,
She, too, will be a Mother
and know that reverend thrill.

That comes to every Mother
whose heart is filled with love
When she beholds the "angel"
that God sent her from above.

And there would be no life at all
in this world or the other
Without a darling daughter
who, in turn, becomes a Mother!

-Helen Steiner Rice
This is a tribute to all the women who attended the Women of Worth Conference 2005 at DUMC on Sunday & Monday. Learning how to appreciate womanhood and knowing the role that women play in the Father's eyes. I've been blessed by so many of you and one entry is just not enough to sum up all the wondrous things you have blessed me. As we celebrate womanhood, I'd like to say a big thank you to all of you, women! I've been giving an opportunity to bless the women through the Women of Worth Conference. There were 10 men who came together and spent 7 hours preparing 410 roses for all the women at the conference. We ended about 1.30am. We did everything from cutting and trimming the stock and leaves, dethorning, wrapping the aluminium foil with wet cotton, tying the ribbon and the card together and finally presenting the flowers to the ladies on Monday at the end of the conference. Here are some pictures from our escapade!
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The finished roses...

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Cutting the cards to precision...

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The QC Manager, Pr. Chris...

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The Merry Men...

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As you can see, we are all working... hard!

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Ian, getting ready to give the flowers to the ladies...

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The flower bearers...

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Wan Tee, he's the man!

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Presenting the flowers...

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That's me!

Sunday, March 13, 2005

Jesus Son of Mary or Jesus Son of Joseph...

Someone asked me this question the other day. And I thought that it was interesting. If Jesus was not the literal son of Joseph, why is Joseph's genealogy given in the Bible? What would be the point? To answer this question, we need to first look at another question. How do we trace our bloodline? People who were adopted were considered "sons", and their "seed" throughout history. Even today, when people are adopted, they are considered part of the blood line in family trees, and take the family name, and inherit family fortunes as if they were the "seed". Matthew 1:23, "Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son," The writers of the New Testament understood that in order to be a "son", one need not be a physical descendant. This is proof. Answer: First, let us be quite clear that Jesus was not the literal, biological son of Joseph. The Gospel of Matthew leaves us in no doubt that Jesus' conception was miraculous and that no human (or "divine") intercourse took place (Matt.1:1-25). Rather, what was conceived in Mary was "from the Ruach-Ha Kodesh (Holy Spirit)" (v.20, Jewish New Testament). Therefore the only genes that could have been present in Jesus were from Mary's genealogical line, and even then we do not know to what extent the Holy Spirit modified these. It may even be that the genes were completely made anew using Mary's physical matter (we do not know to what extent Jesus resembled His earthly mother). So why is Joseph's genealogy traced? There are probably several reasons. Firstly, for legal reasons. Irrespective of whether Joseph was the biological father or not, he was at least the legal father. To all intents and purposes, Jesus was an adopted son. Secondly, the father is the head of the household and the genealogy of children was always traced through the male line in Hebrew culture (the opposite was true in Egypt which was a matrilineal society, genealogy being traced through the female line). As the adopted child of Joseph, Jesus nevertheless obtained the name of Joseph, and was called Jesus, son of Joseph. Thirdly, the Gospel teaches plainly that we are all the adopted sons and daughters of Abraham by faith. Even though those who are Gentiles have no blood lineage back to Abraham, they are nevertheless his sons and daughters through faith in Christ. Likewise, we become the sons and daughters of Christ through adoption. The principle of adoption is important, and the origin of the one to whom we are adopted to is therefore important. And the origin of Christ is God. The purpose of Joseph's genealogical tree in the Gospel of Matthew is to establish kingly descent. Joseph was a pure descendant of David and therefore entitled to sit on the throne of Israel in place of the upstart Herod. But even if Jesus did not belong biologically to Joseph's Davidic line, He certainly did through His mother Mary. Mary was a descendant of Nathan, Solomon's brother and son of Bath-sheba, the wife of David. Joseph was a descendant of Solomon, Nathan's brother. There are important spiritual principles hidden up in these two genealogies. They are, if studied with the eye of the Holy Spirit, a beautiful picture of the redeeming mission of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus came as two parts of a unique whole -- He came as God and as man -- as pure spirit and as earthly flesh. To effect His redeeming work a Virgin Birth was absolutely essential. Jesus Christ had to have two genealogies, therefore -- a divine genealogy and an earthly one. Mary provided the earthly one and Joseph, by proxy, provided the "heavenly" one. For the Hebrews, genealogy meant everything. It lay at the heart of the Mosaic dispensation. Jesus came to bring the Mosaic dispensation to its completion -- to fill it up spiritually, as it were, by elevating it to its true spiritual position, and not the lower, fleshy, school-master position which it occupied under the Old Covenant. He not only lived the outer covenant perfectly, without sin (the Mary dimension) but also lifted it into a new dimension (the Joseph principle). Though Mary had the biological line establishing Jesus as the legitimate King of Israel, Joseph, by proxy for our Heavenly Father, represented quite a different line -- a spiritual one. Though he himself had the biological line requirements too, it was not that which was of the utmost importance -- for Jesus came not as a political Messiah (on the first occasion) but as a spiritual one. The Kingdom He came to establish was "not of this world". Matthew was a Hebrew and he alone of the four Gospel writers wrote in Hebrew. He was writing to a Hebrew audience, for whom genealogy was important. Luke, who wrote in Greek, was writing to a gentile audience. Mark and John, who wrote in Greek also, mention no genealogy at all. In a way, the latter three represent the "completion" or the "filling up" of the Law of Moses -- filling the outer, physical vessel (represented by the Gospel of Matthew) with the Spirit of God (represented by the other three Gospels). Throughout the Gospels, and particularly John's Gospel, we detect a force or movement, as it were, which is trying to elevate the human consciousness above the physical and into the spiritual. It cannot be any accident that Matthew's Gospel is the first chronologically in the New Testament, for it is the stepping stone from the old thinking and the first tentative steps into the new. Matthew, writing to the blood descendants of Israel, is preparing the stage for the Great Adoption by all those who believe into the same great family of God. The fact that Matthew's Gospel contains accounts both of Joseph's genealogy and Jesus' miraculous conception can mean only one thing: that we are to understand that a marvelous work and a wonder is about to take place on all levels of Creation, from the physical (genealogical) to the spiritual. If Jesus had been naturally conceived and the writer had wished to stress this, then the story of the Virgin Birth would never have been included because it would have been a blatant contradiction. Indeed, it would have been so laughable that nobody would have believed the apostles' message. But for we who have found the Christ, and have been reborn in His Spirit, the presence of Joseph's genealogical line is no mystery. For as Joseph adopted God-in-the-flesh on the earth, so God-in-the-flesh has adopted us in heaven. We, too, have received a "virgin birth" but on a different plane. Our rebirth on the spiritual plane is the fruits of that planting on the physical plane. We too have a biological line through our mothers and fathers and they are important to us so that we know to whom we belong on the earth. But as all Christians know, we also have another genealogical line through adoption, making us children of heaven and citizens of a better world. We have been adopted by one who was adopted Himself, the One we know who has experienced everything and knows us through and through. God, in His infinite wisdom, left nothing incomplete. Taken from : Genealogy of Jesus Christ

Friday, March 11, 2005

Finally!

Finally, I remembered my login and password! Been trying for weeks to log on but I couldn't. I was quite sure that the password I used was the same. Only came to realise today that my login was not "Yahkid" but was something else. Haha, so finally, I can blog again! This is what happens when you don't blog for a long time. Just a quick update on what has been happening in my life thus far...

  • I gained 3kgs after a weekend in Penang. Celebrated my cousin's wedding and my dad's 60th birthday there. I had like 3 breakfasts, one after the other. Chow Kuay Teow, Otak-otak, Penang Laksa, Fried Oyster, mmmmm.... just the thought of it makes me hungry already!
  • Finally got my 29" TV setup with a nice TV cabinet and a DVD player in my room. What is missing now is a PS2 and a mini-bar.
  • I'll be playing bass for DUMC's 25th Anniversary!
  • And here are some pics from the wedding...

Image hosted by Photobucket.com My Family

Image hosted by Photobucket.com The men in my family. Gordon, Thian Aun, Dad & Me. As you can see, we had too much to drink.

Image hosted by Photobucket.com May, Li Li & I

Image hosted by Photobucket.com Shawn & I. Go Fifty Cents!

Image hosted by Photobucket.com Sharene & I