Your Heavenly Father Knows You (26/7/06)

I saw this nice pair of leather boots for men in the mall yesterday and it's on sale and it's super comfy. I have a desire to buy it. As I thought about this at night, I noticed that I needed to save more money and so there was not much I can spare from my pocket money to buy that pair of shoes. Well, the only option I've got now was to ask my dad for permission to buy that using his 'fund'. As I thought about this, I also asked God what should i do and whether or not I should get that shoes. I also put this into my prayer at night before sleep and His peace reigned within my heart through the night.
As I woke up the next morning, I did my devotion as usual. I read with an expectation that of an encounter with the Lord. As it turned out, the devotion Spoke into my heart. Even when I saw the title of the devotion this morning, Your Heavenly Father Knows You, my heart just spurned with joy, expecting Him to speak to me. These were the words that spoke to my heart:

Prayer is not designed for us to inform God of our needs for He already knows them.
Prayer enables us to experience GOd more intimately.
The more a child experiences the loving provision of a parent, the more convinced he becomes of his parent's unrelenting love.
Our Heavenly Father knows exactly what is best for us, and He is prepared to provide for every need, if we will but ask (Phil. 4:13)

After the devotion, I felt the courage to ask my dad for it and so I messaged him when I walked to uni. I didn't get any reply from him through the day. Throughout the day, I felt intimidated that my dad wouldn't be happy and propbably would be angry with me for asking that. The old mindset about my dad still hovered in my mind and I still find it hard to shake them off. When I (and my siblings) were young we never asked anything from our dad and a lot of times, we will be scolded or denied, if we asked for anything. Such mindset had placed a fear in our heart to ask anything from our dad. However I knew that my dad is not the same anymore this day. But still such small fear went through my mind.
However I took the faith to call home and ask him tonight. I've planned a few days ago that I would like to call home tonight just to talk to my dad, as most of the time when I called home, I just spoke to my mom. After Powergen meeting, I went home and called back home.
I thank God that somehow my housemate is not using the phone line at the moment, and that both my mom and dad are awake, watching TV when I called. So I spoke to both of them and spoke to my dad latter. I spoke to him about some general stuff first, then at the end he asked me about the shoes that I told him about. To my joy, he sounded cool and calm. Then he spoke to me about looking at the quality of the shoes before I purchase them. PTL! He gave me permission to buy it. God again answered my prayer mightily! I also knew that He wanted me to shake that old mindset off about my dad and not be bounded to it.

During the day, God enabled me to finish the first part of my assignment and I was ready to pass it up tomorrow (due date is on Friday). Then I can start with my latter part of the assignment earlier.

After I finished my works in uni, I caught the bus home. In the bus I was stirred to go Powergen tonight and so i messaged my friend for transport. Thank God she was willing to pick me up from my place.
As it turned out, the meeting that night was great and phenomenal and Sy Rogers brought forth a great revelation of God's footprints and the things that confirm God's existence (apart from Jesus and BIble). I was truly blessed to be there that night.
After the meeting, I took the bus home with a few of my friends and we were again blessed in the journey because we had a ride in a new bus, with a free ride, which is truly a blessing to me, because I don't need to use the bus ticket for this trip tonight.
God brought me home safely through the uni security escort after the bus trip.
Praise the Mighty and Awesome God who provides!

A Reserved Place For Me (25/7/06)

After a long and tiring day today, I rushed over to board the free connector bus at North Terrace. although it was a beautiful evening, good for a walk home, my weary body was just too lazy too walk any much more, since I've already gone to gym this morning.
I was just on time to reach the bus stop and the bus reached in a minute or two, before I coud even get a slow down/ rest from the walk to the stop.
Since I was the last to reach the stop, I let every other people board the bus first and another lady came along. We were the last to board. I wasn't so sure whether if she was here before I was, but i think she was there earlier than me, and so I let here board it first. It looked full when she was on the bus and the bus driver, Jerry, signaled me to wait a moment before I board on, just to see if there was anymore seat left on the bus. The bus does not allow more people on board than the seats that are available. As it turned out, there was just ONE MORE SEAT LEFT at the back for me. As I reached for the seat, a guy told me that I'm lucky to have the last seat. Well, I was thinking in my heart, that I was blessed by the Lord and i don't believe in luck, but only on God's blessing. I Kept thanking the Lord in my heart all my trip back home.
Very often God provided and blessed me with such awesome seat just enough and just on time for me. I truly thank God for being so good and so real to me. Of course I don't believe that it was just conincidental. For God has already planned all these even well before the Earth was formed. PTL!

God Shall Provide The Transport (24/7/06)

I was so excited for today, as I’ll be going for the ‘Living The Life You’ve Always Wanted’ class tonight. As I walked to university this morning, I received a call from Ps John to confirm my attendance for tonight.
In the evening, after I’ve completed my works in university, I headed home for a light tea before I board the bus to church. As I was going to church, I was a bit concerned about my transport home after the class. To be coming back home alone on the bus at night sounded scary to me. Somehow, His peace still lived in my heart and I can sense God saying to me that He will provide the transport for me to go home after the class. I really don’t know how or who, but I held firm to this promise that He will provide.
I joined the class and it was truly a good one, though I was hesitating to go at first because I thought it wouldn’t be anything new to me. During the break in the middle of the class, I was overjoyed and happy to see Alvin there. Little did I think that I would see him there that night. God answered my prayer and provided me with transport home through him.
I truly thank the Lord for the provision and for His mighty grace and plan.
PTL!

Prepared Heart for the Sunday Encounter (23/7/06)

I was supposed to sing in the choir in Paradise Central this morning, but I wasn’t feeling so well last night (runny nose) that I messaged my friend, who was picking me up this morning, that I wouldn’t be able to sing in the choir, thinking that my voice might be affected tomorrow.
I woke up early this morning and did my devotion as usual, and I asked the Lord to speak to me this morning and to prepare my heart well for another encounter with Him in the church this morning. As it turned out, His words spoke to my heart in my devotion and prepared me for the message in the church this morning. As it turned out, His words in my devotions met with the message by Pastor Matt Heins this morning that it just flowed along. These were the words that spoke to my heart in my devotion this morning.

When you were converted, God made everything available to you;
How you implement what He has given you is your choice (2 Peter 1:3-9)
We are to work diligently on our faith,
Yet always be aware that only God can bring about lasting change in our lives…
Through the work of the Holy Spirit…
When you sense God developing an area in your life, join Him in His activity
So that His salvation will be demonstrated fully.

Prov. 23:12 Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge.

The following is Pastor Matt Heins message this morning, titled “Guarding Your Seed”

Guarding your seeds (potential/talents) by investing into them (e.g. investment in the bank account)

Six seeds or deposits of God:
1. Intimacy -personal relationship and connection with the Mighty God
2. Interaction with other people* building significant relationship with other people through:- Love- Grace - Acceptance* We can love, be gracious, and accept because He first Loved and Graciously Forgiven and Accepted us
3. Involvement- to make a commitment to grow and get involved and God will MULTIPLY our gifts or talents (just like the bank account)
4. Instruction- to continue to learn more from the Words of God and to have a learning spirit(2 Timothy 1:14-17)- we need to embrace challenges to help us grow
5. Investment- to invest our talents and gifts in the house of the Lord and God will multiply them
6. Influence- to make an influence to the deposit of the whole world (friends, family, work, university etc)
+ Finally he ended his sermon by saying, “Guard the deposits with the help of the Holy Spirit”

Another revelation that He showed me about the messages today was an illustration of a sower/farmer. God has given us the seeds when we accepted Him into our lives. The next step is ours, which is to scatter them at the right place/soil to make it grow and produce fruits and multiply into hundreds and thousands. That step of sowing the seeds on the right soil is the most important part.
I truly believe that Paradise Church is the good soil for me to sow my seeds and I’m so happy that I’ve found the soil where I can sow and multiply what I’ve got.
That were truly great messages that God had spoken to me and the whole church today. I was glad that I said the prayer, so that God could prepare my heart well for these words He had revealed to me today and also an encounter with Him even in the worship.

PTL, the God of revelation!

The Bus Is Coming (22/7/06)

I did house cleaning today after my devotion this morning. Indeed it had been long since the last time I cleaned the house. Having my own time cleaning the house was so much fun, that I don’t have to be afraid of waking my housemate up in the morning with the loud vacuum machine. He’d gone out for a day-trip with his friends. It took me two hours to clean my room, living hall, toilet, and the kitchen. During cleaning, I had conversation with the Lord in whispers and in songs. His joy and freedom overflow within my heart as I sang and vacuumed.

After finishing the cleaning, I looked at the clock and saw that it was a quarter to one. So I quickly hopped into brief shower and got changed, trying to catch the free connector bus at 5 past 1. I skipped my lunch because I wasn’t feeling hungry yet. As I was leaving the house, the clock showed that the time was nearing. So I hurriedly said a brief prayer, ‘O God, help me to board the bus, Lord!’ Then God gave me a flash of a vision in my mind about where the bus was at that time. It was a half of a bus stop away from where I was supposed to board mine, about two junctions away from the street. I can see it turning at the junction. Assured that it wasn’t gone yet, I hurriedly put on my shoes and locked the door and ran to the stop. As I was running out from the walkway of the apartment, I saw the bus driving by. Then I had the adrenaline shot and ran as fast as I can to catch the bus, which was stopping for a passenger to get down. The door was just closing when I got near the bus. Knowing the driver’s name, I shouted, ‘Ian!’ Wow! I was just on time to board the bus. Thank God for the vision and the good timing.
I headed down to the city and I dropped by Wooleys to get some stuff and I bought a huge lettuce, a box of raisins (thinking of baking a simple cake with lots of raisins) and a large peanut butter, which happened to be on sale (good price). Then after that I headed to catch the 99B free bus down to the market and China Town.

I bought a packet of carrots and tomatoes from the market, which was on bargain at the moment. It was just so crowded with lots of people headed up and down the lane. This reminded me of ‘pasar malam’ back at home. After that I went to get a tray of two dozens of fresh eggs from the grocery store in China Town. I normally shared with my housemate. But this few days we were not coping very well and I don’t felt like helping him with the eggs. But I thanked God that He has deposited forgiveness and love into my heart, as He had loved me and forgiven me first, that I could freely forgive, love and accept others. So I just bought the whole tray. I can tell you that it’s not easy to buy a tray too because it wasn’t light and I’ll have to carry it all the way home with the rest of my stuff. Sometimes I wondered also whether if all my efforts and sacrifice were appreciated or not. But each time that came into my mind, I thank God He has also deposited His Holy Spirit to strengthen and comfort and speak into me, that He reminded to that though others may not know about such sacrifice, the Lord knows and my rewards are in heaven. With these words, the words of intimidation just died off. PTL!

After buying the eggs, I looked at my watch and realized that it was half past one and the bus could have already reach or gone at the stop near the market. I didn’t rush over the bus stop and I was thinking of waiting for another 35 minutes for the next bus to come. But I wouldn’t like to wait for so long. So a thought of catching another free bus to catch the free connector, which will bring me home, at another stop, came to my mind. I truly believed that this thought was given by the Lord. I hurried to the nearest stop of the free bus, 99C and waited there a while I squeezed as many stuff into my backpack.

I waited a while and still no bus. So another thought came into my mind of catching the 99B freebus. It sounded good and so I crossed the road. As it turned out, I saw the 99C freebus coming to the stop I was heading and thank God I was on time for the bus again. When this bus stopped at the Victoria Square, another thought of adventure came into my mind as I saw the 99B freebus opposite the road. So I jumped off the bus and hurried to cross the road to catch the 99B. As it turned out, I was just on time that the traffic light turned red for the pedestrian to cross the busy road. PTL!

The 99B brought me over to Rundle Mall, where I got down and hurried to the stop where the Connector Freebus will be stopping in a few minutes time, the war memorial statue. I looked at my watch and saw that I was just on time according to the timetable. Well, somehow I can feel His peace and satisfaction within me, as I waited for the bus. I was so satisfied because I took up the challenge of the adventure to catch the connector bus instead of staying back in the market, waiting for the next bus to come.
Well, now only I understood the content in the book I was currently reading – Wild at Heart – how adventure was God’s intent for mankind. That’s the satisfaction I was talking about. Hehe….
Well, at last I managed to catch the bus, which brought me home straight to where I caught the bus that afternoon.
I was thinking about buying roasted chicken from Foodland after that, but finally figured out that I should leave that for tomorrow, as I still got a piece of chicken in the fridge. I thanked God for such leading too, as I already overshot my budget for today’s spending.
So I spent my time cooking my lunch, which turned out to be dinner as well, because I ate them happily at about 5pm. A bowl of soupy mixed veges (zucchini, lettuce, sliced fresh tomatoes, with some cauliflower), a dish of fried noodle and a piece of roasted chicken.
PTL for such an adventurous day and for speaking to me and strengthening me to do all that I did today!

Hallelujah!

God Continued His Message through this Book (30/6/06)

God spoke to me through this book that I'm reading now - Wild At Heart, by John Eldgredge. God spoke to me last week through Ps Matt Heins' sermon message, where I have shared that we need to see our current position now and admit to it before we can move on with the journey of our lives. When I read through one of the chapter of this book the following spoke into my heart in continuation of the message:

Only when we enter our wound will we discover our true glory.... There are two reasons for this. Fist, because the wound was given in the place of your true strength, as an effort to take you out.... Second, it is out of your brokenness that you discover what you have to offer the community...... the power is in us, When we begin to offer not merely our gifts but our true selves, that is when we become powerful.

Wow! THat was truly a good description of what is within us.

Have you entered your 'wound'?

Have you discovered your glory?

Physical Touch (28/06/06)

I went to Powergen meeting this Wednesday evening. The meeting was really awesome, as the presence of the Lord was all over the place and in the meeting.
I truly can feel it in the air when we sang the new song Sweep Me. As I closed my eyes and lifted my hands in worship to the Lord, I felt the Lord’s hands just touched mine. I felt it so real especially on my left hand. I felt like His palm was over my palm and I can feel His gentle big hands holding on mine, as we sang (as it was also) through the lyrics of the song. Wow! The experience was really awesome and indescribable. That song was well-written and I truly believed it was a God-inspired song.
Thank you God for such a great encounter! Hallelujah!

The Language of Our Life (25/06/06)

I slept earlier last night to prepare myself to sing in the choir early on this Sunday morning. Before I sleep, I prayed that God would prepare my heart well for an encounter with the Mighty Lord tomorrow. I believed He will speak to me this Sunday morning.
I managed to wake up early in the morning to do my devotion before David picked me up from my place to church. I truly thanked the Lord for blessing me such compassionate and caring brother like him, who is willing to sacrifice the distance, just to pick me up, so that I have such great opportunity to serve the Lord in the choir.
We managed to sing well this morning, although there were some parts that we missed. But God showed up to me in the preaching by Pastor Matt. The message that he preached this morning just clicked in so well with my devotion this morning. It was as if that God made his sermon a continuation of what He wanted to tell me, from my devotion this morning. Indeed truly I believed that He had prepared my heart well for such great message this morning.

My devotion book spoke about how Paul’s life has been great examples to our Christian life. How in each circumstance he was in, he always used it as an opportunity to grow and for evangelism. “Regardless of his circumstances, Paul’s concern was how he could use his current situation to tell others of God’s good news of salvation.”

Often when we encounter a new situation, our first thoughts are not about God’s kingdom.
When we face a crisis, we can become angry or fearful for our own well-being,
Rather than looking to see what God intends to do through our circumstances.
If we remain self-centered we will miss so much of what God could do through our experiences, both for us and for those around us.

In Ps. Matt’s sermon this morning, he started with this as an intro to his sermon – The Language of Our Life. God has a purpose for every situation that we are and had been through. They are opportunities for us to grow in every area that HE has designed/purposed, even from the beginning of the world.
From this Ps. Matt continued to bring forth more words of revelations from the Lord.
How we look and act at our current situation speaks forth a great message of our life to the people around us. He also used Paul as an example to this message.
He challenged us with this question – What is the message of your life? OR What message are you building in your life?
With that, I believed that our action/reaction to the situation we are facing each day are very important. It will determine of where you are going or your future. Firstly, we need to know and see our (real) current position first. Secondly we need to admit our position with honesty and truthfulness. Then only can we move on to our future.
He illustrated this through the example of how Jesus dealt with the Samaritan women at the well (John 4:4-30). He made her acknowledge the reality of her situation, which is building in her lives right now. With that Jesus opened up her eyes and changed the message of her lives – how she so shameful to speak to the society before this encounter, and how her language changed into faith of evangelism when she went and reported in the city about Jesus, the Savior.
Until you know your current position, you won’t know
Where you are going!
He also spoke from Epehsian 10:6 – how we, as Christians, need to take our stand firm in our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, so that we will not be shaken.
Know where you are standing and what you are standing on.
This will determine the strategy of our fight against the enemy.
I truly believed this message was for everyone, whether or not you are a Christian. We truly need to know and truly face our current position first and deal with it first, before we can truly move on towards our future or to grow ahead in influence and in life.
Another analogy I would think about in regard to this sermon was WE are all building a building in our lives each day. What we do each day would determine the structure and the strength of the building we are building each day. If we used “bad bricks” to build this building, it would collapse easily when storm hits the structure and vice versa. So our attitude/action/response towards each situation is the bricks that we will use to build this building. Good attitudes are good bricks and bad attitudes are bad bricks. We would not be able to know the result of our works until when this “storm” hits. Therefore we need to keep watch of our response in every situation we are each day.

Where are you standing now?
What message are you building in your lives?