Friday, August 29, 2008
awesome week. awesome God.
this whole week was 1 whole crazy week. God really blessed me much this week, with exams and studying and everything. it was full of joy=) right from the start of this week, monday one of my sheep decided to walk right with God again! was really super happy for him, was smiling from one end to the other. and really thank God for tt!and throughout the whole week as i serve God there were fruits and when it was studying, God helped me to be effective as well! tho most times i din sleep very well but God was the source of my energy and helped my mind to be fresh and study well! and times when i was kinda stressed after i talk to God and committed all i have to God, my stress was traded with God's joy! and everytime i enter the exam hall, i enter with such a joyful heart that i can't express it, tho there's small fear here and der in my heart. but just knowing that God is control was enough to overcome it all!and especially the last subject's exam. the last time i took it for term test i barely passed it by God's grace cos i studied the wrong subject! and think cos of that, since tt time this subject has been a terror to me especially theory parts. i was really afraid i will fail the paper haha, but hours before the exam as i was studying, God really helped me throughout, providing me the strength to study at 5am+ ! praise God! and when i was at the exam hall, the questions weren't much of a problem to me! thank God for everything! i really can't imagine doing it w/o God, cos i think i would have crushed even before i face the paper if nt for God! i finished the paper way early, arnd 1 hr before it ends. and its not because im able at all! it's really because my God is far greater than all fears and obstacles that stands infront of me. this time round, we(me and God) are victorious in all aspects of my life. ministry, studies, discipline. was teaching one of my sheep last week on overcoming temptations, and was really convicted on one of the things i said.which is that, we should never be used to getting being defeated by satan. always being defeated at the same area, discipline, laziness, discipline, laziness. really want to encourage everyone to stand up against areas of ur life that u often fall defeated in. its time to stand up with God, be victorious in that area and have breakthroughs! simply because we ARE called to be VICTORIOUS! Christ-followers are ppl who are called to be and is designed to be victorious ppl. let's claim our victory!=)time to make the best out of our whole weeks, let's start it well and end it well. for it takes zeal to start the race but character to finish the race. wad a true saying from pastor jeff. let's grow in our characters=) jiayou!
aloy; 11:36 PM
Monday, August 25, 2008
impt ppl=)
haha im not really a fan of doing surveys and quizzes haha.so i'll just take this one question out of those many questions=)Who do you think is the most important people in your life ?
there are a few people whom are really impt to me=)-my family( dad, mum and bro =D)-my sheep / people who i am taking care of=) (sean, daniel, martin)-ED1! ( prana, daryl, ben, howard, vylan, rasheed, nicholas, paul, mandon, yihao, ming wei, andrew , hao jun excluding my sheep haha)-dennis chua, bing liang-alvin lim =)-the tp grads, ex and current ( lestari, ahbe, geck, yanyu, denise, ying jie, jeslin, florence, fiona, meng excluding the guys cos alrd mentioned haha.)-ex-ED1(s) (joseph, nicholas, benjamin chan, newell=))-friends that i've spent my first year with God=) (wee kiat and derrick)-and last but not the least, two of my dearest friends which i've known since primary school. star and qin=)[not in sequence of priority=)]-and of course from the bottom of my heart, a friend that walked with me thru tough times, dark times, low times and times of victory, times of fun that has been with me practically my whole life, laying down his life for me before i even knew he existed. Jesus.hey doesnt mean ur name not mentioned, ur not impt haha. ur impt but they are more impt to me=)i've somehow spent my life with them and these are the names of the people that i enjoy spending time with and dun mind spending time with. and yes u ppl are more impt than my favorite soya milk! be honoured! haha. but really thank God for u wonderful ppl that God placed in my life, really enjoyed serving and spending time with u guys! and really treasure the fun times we have and all ur presence=) jiayou in growing and knowing God even more man! shall see each other at the end of this race God has called us to run=)and i saw these really cool quotes of esther leow's blog.'Courage is fear turned inside out. It is impossible to be courageous if at first you weren't afraid.' - Dr. Bob Rotella
If you want to see the rainbow, you first gotta face the rain.
its so so cool and so so true! man, u really cant have courage when there's no fear. do feel scared or afraid sometimes? great, thats an opportunity for u to be courageous with God!and indeed to see and experience smth beautiful, you first have to experience and go thru smth tough. then only can u see and experience the fullness of the beauty, the results.God thank You for being in my life and placing me in ur wonderful family, that really cares, loves and concern=)
aloy; 12:04 AM
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
walk in the shades.
was on the bus home jus now and as i was looking out of the bus windows, God jus spoke to me about how God is actually like the trees by the roadside.the 1st thing God spoke to me about is the trees by the roadside, only when we choose to walk in its shade then would we able to receive the comfort that the the trees provide.similar to our walk with God, cos its only when we walk with God and in God's ways then will God be able to provide comfort for us whenever we need it. and this is similar to walking in the shades.but however, there is always a choice to walk out of that shade and walk in the sunlight. and then the shade that the trees provide can no longer reach you. because its a choice you've made, to not want the tree to provide the shade with you.similar to our walk with God as well, and that is an example of us, disobeying God and walking away from God's ways. as there is always a choice to walk away from God and choose to walk in areas that don't have "shades" or rather God's presence and that would mean that you are refusing the comfort and help that God can provide you with. however that is your choice. then imagine with me a day that is so scorching that you are dieing to stand/walk in the shades but you are out of the shade and no where near any shade. i bet thats the most torturing part and also the part that we complain of being tough and tiring, not realising that we are the ones that chose to walk out of the shade.and that is again similar to our Christian walk. many times we complain that serving / walking with God is too tough and tiring, but seldom do we realise that we are the ones that chose to walk out of God's ways and to not walk with God.and then as i was thinking thru, God helped me realised another fact on overcoming temptations. the scorching sun can be like our temptations as well, that when we stand in the sun it may not be scorching at first u may even enjoy it, but after awhile when it gets real hot and you find that you can't take it.like how God is the tree, the tree is the solution to ur standing in the scorching sun(exclude buildings or wadsoever haha! imagine a world with only trees and roads.=p ) God is the one that WILL provide the protection that we need against the tempations and when you don't walk with God or in God's ways, then definitely u ARE the most vulnerable to the temptations. since u r wide open to it.now think again, do you think its not very wise to walk in a very scorching weather when you long to have shades over you. but however you are walking the totally opposite direction of where the shades are? that is what we are doing exactly, when we tell God we want to overcome and not fall into temptations but yet we don't walk with God or in God's ways.God is always there, whenever we need Him, we can seek Him but yet like how the trees by the roadside which doesn't force people to stand in their shades that they provide, God doesn't force people to walk with Him or in His ways. in the kingdom of God, there are no must(s), there are only should(s). those should(s) are definitely solutions to ur life's questions, that is only if u choose to follow. even if sometimes you don't understand yet.
be wise=) choose to walk in the shades today.=)
aloy; 8:34 AM
Monday, August 18, 2008
never ending need.
there's a hole in our hearts where only 1 thing can fit in, and that is our never ending need. Jesus. our heart has a cross shaped hole where only Jesus Himself can fit in perfectly, the times of emptiness, helplessness and many more can be taken away when Jesus is fitted into that hole of our heart.question today, is Jesus in that hole of ur heart or is smth else in it?i really hope to live this out man.if u can handle things, do it with God! so God can bring the best out of you.if u cant handle things, do it with God! so God can show u the best of Him.i think i need God more forever! i lack much, but that just means God can move much! so yeah God move in my life much and move in our groups much much much! let Your word be our standards. amen=)let's never stop growing in God!=) jiayou everyone!we have a never ending need for God, thats the truth.
aloy; 12:05 AM
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
impact.
since saturday shirley mentioned about putting the note on standby mode for sony ericsson phones. then i finally rmb-ed about this function.and so ytd before i sleep, i type what i want to keep in mind or to integrate into my life into standby mode. to remember that God is in charge and another learning. and today the whole day i was really constantly being reminded everytime i look at my phone, God is in charge.. God is in charge! my whole day i really place everything into God's hands and let God take control of it. from the start of my day til the end.the whole of today seems super busy for me especially with the presentation and the retest i was panicky and cant focus well. and so as i started my day at home i remember that God should be in charge and i told God, God im going to focus on what i have to accomplish first and i'll leave the rest til later because You are in charge and i know that You can help me because You have done so, so many times more than i could ever rmb.
and as i prepared for my presentation and subject assessment, thank God! God helped me to memorise most of my work for it. and when it was my turn to present, God really helped me to be confident and He really blessed me with the questions my teacher asked to assess me. i didnt even noticed i was already being assessed! it was a breeze thru my presentation! praise God!after that i went to study for my lab test, thank God for my classmates which helped me to spot out several impt things to take note of tho after all that i was still quite worried cos the first time i took the test, i was in a complete blurred state where i took alot longer than usual to setup the 1st step and i wasnt even sure i could pass the retest. but i really did my best study what i can, understand what i canand as i headed towards the lab and along the way i saw my note on standby mode and i remembered God is in charge! everything is in God's hands, God ia in control! and i went into the lab quite confidently, not because of what i've done but cos God is in control. the lab retest was quite a breeze for me as well! thank God for helping me rmb things i forgot! and i think i got arnd 23 or 24 out of 25=) praise God!i was on the bus home with my laptop, shoe bag and my bag. and i hate to go on buses with my arms full of things especially if its during a crowded timing! cos its kinda troublesome and it troubles others as well. i was sitting at the back of the bus. there's no bell near it and as i got closer to my stop, the bus got more crowded. and to get to the bell i have to get to the middle with all my belongings dangling here and der. i was super sian-ed and i was hoping someone would press the bell! and the stop i intended to alight at reached, no bell pressed. so the bus went on.but the interesting part is what goes on from here, i remembered again God is in charge! and so i prayed God the next stop(still close to my house) please send someone to ring the bell!! and as the bus turned and was closing in on to the stop, no one pressed the bell yet and i began to like panick a lil, and i believe that's a slight wavering of faith and i told God, God take away that disbelief from me! even if its a little! i remembered i heard it from somewhere someone prayed this prayer. and held on to it til the last moment.then the person sitting RIGHT beside me got up and pressed the bell! i was so amazed! the person that God sent to help me was jus right beside me all along! and as i got down, i remember the fact that God answers our prayers even before we pray it! everything is in God's plans and only when u pray, do you realise that God has placed that blessing in ur life, and its not just another lucky thing that happen to u! thats the difference of praying!and i love this quote from one of pastor shirley's blog post.If you venture into high sea, end up lost in a squall and can laugh at the storm anyway, I think you have a pretty good understanding of who’s in charge of the boat.i think its true=) when u face problems and yet you are not worried about it, then you definitely know whose in charge of your problems=)you can be concerned about something, but you shouldnt be worried about it! because being concerned stops at you know there's a problem, you do what u can and u leave the rest to God's hands! and you have the peace of God in your heart=)BUT being worried doesnt stop at anything, you'll be basically thinking negatively about the problem endlessly til its solved and most imptly u take things into your hands! and in the process of it is the distrust and lack of faith in God!
romans 8:31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?nothing can be against you already! why worry?!bottomline. know that God is in charge=) or rather let God take charge=D things that are not within our control, is for God to take control=) do u have many things that are out of control in your life? u know why they exists? because you need Jesus to help u take control of the uncontrollable.and hahaha 1 last thing!=) really encourage ppl to blog! as you never know when God can use ur life's experience to bless others! you'll never know or understand how much impact u can make, because God is the one that amplifies that very impact infinitely. jiayou everyone!=)
aloy; 11:13 PM
Monday, August 11, 2008
right positioning
really thank God i was able to attend service man! i was quite frustrated and in disbelief that i almost had to miss service for school stuff! cos i almost needed to go back to school to do project on sat, praise God school had to close so my group didnt meet up, had other plans instead! whee!but man.. sad tt some of us cant attend service to fellowship and know God more cos of parents, tuition etc. its alright man! God will make a way for everything=)during service 2 new brothers joined us! ming wei and andrew! praise God for the 2 new brothers that came to know Him! hope they enjoyed the service and man, i look forward to seeing them know God even more! WOO!after service we have a district lunch near esplanade and so before that we went to carrefour at suntec to buy food etc. and there was this row of rocher like chocolate, which costs.. guess what? JUST $1! we were in shocked when dennis told us about it, me and qin went in to buy straight away haha! and its not bad de! not lousy types, but quite ok de. woo God blessed=D after buying food and everything we went to the place and ate, was really fun eating together! haha!after awhile we got into teams and just played captains ball. it was super fun tho super tiring lol. a few of them wanted to be the goal keeper cos wanted to rest but out of all this fun really learned this principle of positioning ourselves in the right positions especially if u r in a position to influence others and lead them to God. making sure that u r in the best position for the team to advance and then making sure that the others are in their best positions as well. and lastly to advance as a whole team to victory! teamwork is sooo impt! great games guys!and after all the playing it began to rain.. oh no.. the purpose of us being der is to enjoy tgt and also to watch fireworks tgt. then if it rains our purpose is gone! we joined together in prayer for the rain to go away and decided to stay on tho it was drizzling still. and guess what? thank God He stopped the rain! and we were able to enjoy the views of fireworks=)
quite nice eh?=) this was worth the wait haha, and of course the fellowship that was there. i so enjoy the presence of friends around haha.positioning ourselves and our team right. the key to great victories.positioning ourselves and our team with God. the key to MIRACULOUS victories. WOO!=)so excited for the changes in our grp, it'll be a new and exciting one. it's a different type of experience and we need to do it right with God.jiayou TP grads! everything's ending soon, HONG KONG is within our sight! just 3 more weeks! 3 more weeks! jiayou everyone for ur projects and presentations! cya!
aloy; 12:13 AM
Sunday, August 03, 2008
DMM retreat!
ytd was great! starting with our lunch at Just Acia, at dhoby ghaut. man food was nice and there was free flow of drinks and ice cream! ultimate shiokness haha. ultimate fattening as well LOL. had loads of fun der man!shall skip other happenings in between haha! skip right to our DMM retreat. DMM (david's mighty men) is basically a group of people in your caregroups, that support the group and the leader in charge of the group. those games u play in caregroup, worship sessions etc, dun just come impromptu! its planned and organised beforehand! and many other things, but yeah thats the brief idea of it.we wanted to cycle overnight from east coast then travel to geylang to enjoy food! but man, when we reached it was too late to rent bikes for overnight, the cheaper ones haha.($6 per bike, compared to other shops its half the price!) so we decided not to rent bikes haha.. aww... but! our plan to eat wasnt stopped haha! we met up at eunos station and took bus down to geylang to eat, and our first stop was a dim sum shop! neat stuff they have der! quite nice haha, but oh we travelled for a VERY long time walking haha, cos we kept walking in the wrong directions before we got the correct one.didnt take picture of the food, we forgot to! argh! but seriously its nice!=) just that its abit ex tho haha.then we walked down to have beancurd and soya bean drink! WOO!and i present to u.. the greatest drink of all
the soya bean drink! haha i love it man, a cold soya bean drink after walking and a meal is like.. ahhh... heavenly.our next stop was supposedly the durian stall at first, but had some miscommunications haha! ended up walking towards eunos station already! but haha our journey is still far from ending!on our way walking there we went crazy haha!i think i'll let the pictures speak for themselves haha!
i think this is THE ultimate picture of the day haha.really had great fun haha! we talked, singed and frighten ppl !(actually we only tried to frighten one person haha.) oh and i finally came to conclusion why we love to play with yiqin=) because his responses are unique, interesting and hilarious haha! he is indeed a unique creation of God=Dback to our journey to eunos haha!we decided since we cant have durians, we'll grab some stuffs from a 24hr shop to eat and drink while we continue talking. and when we stepped into the shop, to a great level of excitement! i SAW IT!
its THE SOYAMILK! its my favourite of favorites, a chocolate flavoured soya milk! oh man... i look forward to heaven more now haha! cos i want to taste the best soyamilk haha! hah forget that, i think heaven has drinks even better than soyamilk.then we went to qin's hse nearby carpark's top floor. sat down and talked, in fact for every station we went to eat or drink we asked one specific person questions that he must answer haha, its to help us know each other more=)this is our last station
eating peanuts while chattingand our last few photos before leaving the place
don't u think my bro looks like a ghost in the background haha! at those timing and during ghost festival haha!(tho i dun believe in ghost festival) its super hilarious!
haha this looks cool as well, feels like as if we are possessed or smth lidat lol. we din take this with that intention tho lol, and we werent possessed hah.really got to know all of them even more and deeper, things that i dun know previously and guys seriously i love this type of times man! i love to know ppl more and i love times where i can just spend quality time with ppl, especially close friends! and the family of God is one place we can definitely be ourselves, no mask no nothing. we accept each other for who we truly are, i know i do and i know ppl around me that i know they do too. even if u do things that are so hideous that if its brought to light u feel like u'll rather die, we'll still accept u knowing those facts about u.DMM. or rather i would call it, a group of friends that are serious in serving God and giving God our best. this is the best type friendship u can get other than ur friendship with God. to do things for a single purpose, to help each other in times of need, to be there for the person. to really simply be a friend and a support for one another.if u are not in the DMM yet, grow in God much more! be serious about serving God and know why ur serving God so hard! come and serve God seriously together with us, because we know what we are doing. we love Jesus.lastly guys thanks for ytd's night man! its one crazy night that i'll never forget, i had so much fun knowing u guys and being with u guys. our friendship will never end, not even death can end it now since we have Jesus.
bonded by Jesus=)let's live our live for Jesus and with Jesus. do everything with God becauseif u can handle things, do it with God! so God can bring the best out of you.if u cant handle things, do it with God! so God can show u the best of Him!what a powerful truth that is=) jiayou everyone!
aloy; 11:34 PM
Friday, August 01, 2008
chosen to love, not to work.
one of the things that struck me this week was this, we were chosen by God to love, not to work! we were chosen to love God and love people. but some of us may have already dropped into working for God and u may find some of the symptoms below familiar. u feel really tired out easily / quite disinterested in things u do / not wanting to give your bestand those things happen because simply we're not doing it for God, not to begin speaking about doing it with God.one example God showed me was this, do u call buying things for ur husband/wife a work? or do u call inviting ur friends to ur best friend's party a work? do call doing things for people u love a work? because when u buy meals for people u love, u dun say im working for them. but rather its an act of love that you do it. are you working or loving?=)Things i learnt todayand today as i speak to one of my friend about obedience to God, that obedience is a one-way thing. its either u obey or not, and as i spoke, i need to contact this friend of mine to ask him some things and its kinda awkward cos i feel that he's not really comfortable in communicating with me, not jus assumption but also because of certain things that happen. and being a typical a person that tries to hesitate haha, i ask again and if im required to talk. then so be it, i'll obey.but that still is not perfect obedience, cos perfect obedience is doing w/o any hesitation. i have so much to learn on putting obedience into practise. its never easy man, it takes courage to obey and it takes to put aside our values for God's values to come in. God help me in this! obey obey obey. i seriously seriously need to grow man.obedience to God is clear cut. its either obedience or disobedience. same goes to what you need to obey, its clear cut. its either right or wrong, and of course obey the right things! and right things = what God tells u / commands u to do.but thru all the hard decisions u make to follow God, what comes next are God's blessings to u=)and disobedience robs away that very blessing that God had intended to give u.
aloy; 10:50 PM
