New Format?

• let me try a new format of writing...

• first CG

just had our 1st CG yest... GOOD!!! CGL was good, brought us to west coast park, had QB & a freshie PS assasinate us... cool game... glad tt these newbies wanna grow closer as a CG... do remember Heb 10:19-25...

• timetable

CMI... 3 of 5 days evening & night lessons only. the other 2 almost whole day lesson till 8pm.. gross... turning into a nocturnal creature soon... pray i'll make full use of my morns, cos i not really morning person...

• PDA

not the handheld machine but personal revival, divine appointments, active obedience... just read a book, nvr have a book so convict me of my sins... pray for a radical change of heart & dispulsion of unbelief...

Church = Hospital

had a heated debate with a brother in church recently on the notion: the local church shld take pre-eminence in the work of God. that was his stand. i m the opposition with my stand: the local church & parachurch shld work in a balanced partnership.

as i discussed with james Z, i thot of this analogy which can help explain the purpose of local church & parachurch in the kingdom of God.

the universal church of Christ can be seen as a general hospital. the local church is like the wards or GPs who are there to heal the wounded & sick back to health while the parachurches are specialists, who specialized in the various areas: sec/JC & tertiary student ministries, workplace ministries etc. there is no dichotomy in this. a hospital cannot function fully as a hospital if its ward decided to pull away & be independent, neither is it a GH if all their specialists open their private clinics & surgery.

"On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick" (Matt 9:12)

i m saddened by the immaturity of the leaders of some local churches who claim that only the local church is a church & is the church of Christ. they have failed to see that there is a place for God's work to be done by parachurches in places that a local church can never go in.

Father, awake Your church leaders that they may also see the purpose of Your work in the various specialized ministries. may Your children see the need for such ministries that they may give the support for Your work there...

F.O.P. or FLOP

FOP 05 had just ended last night, i was "privileged" to be able to squeeze into the indoor stadium. yes, literally "squeezed". the queue, as i overheard some conversations, started since morning.. WOW!!! eager worshippers of God? nah, i doubt it... nonetheless, by the time grace & i reached the place, 1 long queue had already been closed & another was extremely long... the average age of the "worshippers" was 20-21 years of age. thousands of kids were in the queue & the situation was chaotic. peopl squeezed into the smallest gap they can find & sprinted when there was a wider gap. queue-cutters were overrunning both queues & there were also "clowns" for entertainment while waiting. kids threw their bags & water bottles around, shouting & making a fool out of themselves. absolutely conducts unbecoming of Christian youths.

once into the stadium, one will still not be in the mood of worship. the reception area looked exactly like a market place, with the organizers & ushers selling CDs/DVDs/program & also 7-11 booths selling food & drinks... it was in such a mess... yucks...at the seats, all i saw was ushers selling ushers selling CDs/DVDs/program like a popcorn-man selling popcorn in a concert.

oh, did i mention that the kids seem to be there for a concert? hillsongs & delirious concert to be precise. it's really depressing to see that the kids were there to worship music & the worship leaders instead of the true object of worship: Christ Jesus Himself. thru-out the whole F.O.P., or shld i say half the F.O.P. that i was there, i only felt a sense of grieve, not of praise. the audience was spirit-gifted but not spirit-filled. they could speak in tongues but i dun sense God being worship, the true spirit of worship was so absent from the whole indoor stadium that i was able to sleep even with jumping kids & booming music blasting in my ears.

to me, F.O.P. has outlived its purpose. until & unless the F.O.P. organisers realized the absence of true worship of the one true God in F.O.P., it'll continue to be a Festival of Praise to idols, namely the music & the worship leaders. there'll no longer be a revival that will come thru F.O.P.

"I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps." (Amos 5:21-23)

Saya Orang Malayu 1/2 for my final sem

i've gotten all my modules... now only left the tutorials... & of the 4 modules i m taking this sem, i managed to get 2 malay related modules : Islam & contemporary Malay society,& Malay Lang 1... Praise God!!! well, i believe S'pore is a unique place where we are surrounded by malay-speaking countries as well as having a large malay community within our country. so it's only logical tt i take some modules which will help me better understand my neighbours.

many of u would've known my desire to be involved in youth work, be it teaching or rehab etc... it'll really be helpful to be able to speak a bit of their language, at least they wun dare to speak in tongues abt me while i m around...but the main thing is tt i, being a non-malay, can speak malay, it's easier to gain their trust.. this'll assist me in doing watever the Lord wants me to do with them...

islam, in a certain manner, is similar to Christian, & the age-old debate has caused quite a bit of confusion among the pple. i m certain of wat i believe. but if i dunno wat the muslims believe & how they live their lives according to wat they believe, then how can i effectively share with them wat i believe, especially when both claim to be speaking the truth?

4 more months to go... 4 more modules to conquer... 4 more days to the beginning of my final sem... 4,4,4... translate that to chinese/hokkien/cantonese & it'll sound like die die die... die liao la... ;p

Facing the BIG Unknown With Fear & Trepidation...

only 7 more days to the start of my final Sem in NUS... feeling kinda excited, yet uneasy. excited cos i'll b ending my basic education soon, uneasy cos of the uncertainty of the future. guess wat i m struggling with is faith in God. not tt i dun trust tt He is my Lord & Saviour, but knowing His promise to me that He has "plans to prosper [me] & not the harm [me], plans to give [me] hope & a future", i still find it hard to grapple with this truth.

my mentor reminded me of Hebrews 11:1. it was a very clear definition of wat faith really is, & it helped me understand better. yet i still can't internalize it in my heart...
"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."

Claim: to take as the rightful owner. there are specific promises that God gave to each of us, some to the general believers, some to only a specific person. i have trouble claiming the promises of God. not tt i dunno that God has given us promises, but "claim" has been an overly used word by the believers of health & wealth gospel, such tt i have problems reconciling even with the correct usage of the word. it's not a bad word, but it can turn us from a discerning owner to a blinded robber.

Father, teach me to claim Your promises to me, not for health & wealth, but in the correct context which You have authorized me to claim, promises that You have specifically given me so that i may grow in faith in You through my Lord Jesus.