Last Saturday I was extremely demoralized.First, I heard that most of the YP's won't be following the bus to GLO for the GLO reunion service.At first I had quite a number of them who gave their response to attend that event. However, as the day draws nearer, one by one drop off. I heard some of them had themselves grounded by their parents, some of them have placed their exams to be their ultimate focus in life and some of them just couldn't be interested or bothered.
Well, I don't blame any of them actually because why should I be discouraged by the surroundings when I should have the conviction that comes from within?Nevertheless, being human is always frail. I was telling Justin on how demoralized I was when the numbers of youth dwindles for that event. He knew I was lamenting about it because I did it when he came to pick me up to church.However, I thought to myself that if I don't go then I will open myself to more temptations by staying at home alone. So I told myself that there should be a blessing in disguise if I go one, so I went with some confidence in my heart.
As we traveled to Taiping, I noticed that Uncle Kha Kooi was somewhat disappointed with the youth attendance seeing so many empty seats that was in the bus. I guess he was really hoping that the youth would had come to show support to GLO since GLO was suspended for this year. He would wished that the youth should come as an encouragement to GLO.Well, sometimes we see all our hopes would lead to a dead end even though the motives are right.I begin to see the light of life through the reality that shows around us when we thought that God would certainly bless us when we ask for the right things but that is just a mere expectation which we created in our minds. Where in the Scripture do we see righteous wishes would always end up with fruitful results? If that's always true then the theme of 2 Corinthians would not be dwelling on the attribute of God where He is the God of all comfort for those who clings on Him in times of trials.
Our response should always fall back on Him because in the end, it is only Him who knows what is beyond that rainbow. It is only God who has control of everything so it's best to always depend on Him whether in good times or bad times.
When I was in the church hall listening to various people sharing on the pulpit about GLO, I was thinking to myself whether should I quit my job and enroll myself to be a full time student at GLO. Hahaha..I wished I can do that but I wished I knew about GLO earlier in my life. If I knew about GLO when I am in the age of 17, I would certainly go for full time rather than wasting my time in RBS..Seriously, I can't recall anything I learnt from RBS..It's so blank now even when I think of it.I could remember bible camps sermons even more than what I can think of when I was in RBS! Sien..it's really sien when you find yourself wasting one month in Camerons and learnt nothing significant in life but get yourself full of rashes after that camp. The water there is extremely toxic..I can justify that! Argh..the Sieness..anyway, out of topic..
Then came Mr Ung preaching on a strong message taken from 2 King 6:1-7 which speaks of the floating ax head. I wondered what can he speak on from such that verse. When he started to expound and relate the activities of GLO with the pool of ministries in the world, then it started to make a whole lot of sense.
Firstly, he relate the sons of the prophets cutting down trees with the assembly working through GLO to offer solid discipleship from the Word. And then, it seems as if the sons of the prophets was working together to cut down beams but after a while each of them seems to be disoriented and worked individually without having the similar focus as before. This symbolizes that there was once upon a time where the assemblies had the similar focus together to build up GLO school together to build up disciples for God, rooted in the Word of God and equiped with good works. But as time passes by, GLO school was becoming more and more like the other institutes. The unique identidy of GLO was soon slowly fading away.
Then as it went on, one of them had their ax head fell into the pool of water. That symbolizes
that GLO school identity was becoming like the rest of the other organizations which are available in the pool of bible institutes. It was then GLO tried to emulate what the rest of the bible schools were capable of.It has lost its cutting edge where GLO normally could provide.
He was emphasizing that GLO should offer something that others could not offer. According to him, bible seminaries were inter denominational, RBS are practical but lack of depth and BSF are devotional where fellowship of Christians from all denominations could come together but never touched the doctrines of the Church. It is at this point of time when GLO came to realize that they should come back in one accord and work together to provide something that no other institutes can provide which is the firm teaching of the Word with assembly church practice distinctives.
It was stated that now as GLO picks up its ax head which floats from the pool, and fixes it back into the handle. The handle represents the title/name and the ax head represents the Word of God. The iron is hard so as the teaching of God is hard to swallow and receive but as the story pointed out despite of its hardness of iron, the ax head floats! This is something that needs to pay more attention at.Even though the teaching of the Word is hard to receive but it is presented in a way that it is gentle enough for the students to accept it. It is now time for GLO to take up the ax head and fixes it on its handle where the name should reconcile with its cutting edge.
I was truly blessed with so much spiritual truths in one evening. Thank you Lord for encouraging me in GLO despite of me being discouraged by the surroundings.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
The faithfulness of God
Something happened yesterday that made my heart rejoice with thanksgiving and filled with joy.
Something that the youth commitees have been praying fervently for.
Something that I thought would never come true due to so many obstacles that stands in the way.
But God in His sovereignity proved me wrong. Not only wrong, but faithless. I have always had a little more doubt than faith concerning that prayer which I made to God. I did not fully place my trust in God even though I knew it in the head that I should have faith. Sometimes I think I know more when I ought to simply believe it.
Most of the times, God had answered my prayers in alot of ways according to my plea when I put faith in it.I always thanked God for answering my prayers when I realized that it was His doing because I was expecting that kind of response from God.
Today, I realized another important trait about God through experience. This verse appeared in my mind immediately when I was still praising God today:
If we are faithless,
He remains faithful;
He cannot deny Himself.
2 Timothy 2:13
God remains to be faithful even though I was faithless towards Him. His character is truly unchangable and His attributes endures forever. In this, I rejoice even more greatly when in my weakness, God used it for His opportunity to show how mighty He is in my life. Thank you God for such an experience.
Next year's bible camp speaker will be George Dawson. God willing that he will be able to make it that time. Amen
Something that the youth commitees have been praying fervently for.
Something that I thought would never come true due to so many obstacles that stands in the way.
But God in His sovereignity proved me wrong. Not only wrong, but faithless. I have always had a little more doubt than faith concerning that prayer which I made to God. I did not fully place my trust in God even though I knew it in the head that I should have faith. Sometimes I think I know more when I ought to simply believe it.
Most of the times, God had answered my prayers in alot of ways according to my plea when I put faith in it.I always thanked God for answering my prayers when I realized that it was His doing because I was expecting that kind of response from God.
Today, I realized another important trait about God through experience. This verse appeared in my mind immediately when I was still praising God today:
If we are faithless,
He remains faithful;
He cannot deny Himself.
2 Timothy 2:13
God remains to be faithful even though I was faithless towards Him. His character is truly unchangable and His attributes endures forever. In this, I rejoice even more greatly when in my weakness, God used it for His opportunity to show how mighty He is in my life. Thank you God for such an experience.
Next year's bible camp speaker will be George Dawson. God willing that he will be able to make it that time. Amen
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Account 13th September 2008
It's 12:25 AM now and I just got back from a whole day of activities. Usually I'm already asleep at this time cause I have a strict schedule which I had to wake up at 6am everyday to get to work.However, tonight wasn't that usual night.Tonight I decided to pen down some of my thoughts and experience which I had today.(Although I know I should go to bed now since 7 hours later will be the Lord's Supper in church!)
It was an eventful day for me today as I begin the day by hanging out with Justin to the movies to watch "Money No Enough 2" which I had watched it 2 weeks ago with my mum.Well, although I have watched it already, I decided to watch it again with Justin just to have some laughs and spend some fellowship time together.It was a good comedy with a solemn ending at the end which touched most people's heart and makes them consider themselves.(I'm not going to spoil the movie for those who haven't watch it yet..)I gotta admit that this movie is a timely reminder for most people in this era and it serves as a good community show.
After the movie, we went for lunch in Nandos and met Jonathan Low with family there.We had a good time of fellowship there as well since I haven't really chatted with his family for quite some time.As for Jon Low, he's always teasing me with a girl which I have no interest on and most of the time, the conversation revolves around teasing here and there. Sigh. Gotta find a partner soon to stop his crap and tease.LOL
After that lunch, Justin and myself headed to church to 'anticipate' who would join the tracting in Youth Park which lo and behold, only 9 youths turned up including myself. It was a small group indeed but nevertheless that didn't disappointed me since I didn't really put high expectations on them.However, it striked me that some of them really had the zeal and passion for evangelism even though most of them had no idea what to say or what to do.It's really the heart that matters.Boldness and speech can be trained up or given by God but conviction only comes from within which matters the most.This shows that there are serious Christians afterall in our youth group and I rejoice to God for that!
When we got to Youth Park, we split ourselves into 2 groups. One led by Kok Wei and the other led by myself as we go separate ways to 'hunt'.I didn't had the boldness to approach anyone as I haven't done this for quite a long time so my fears overshadowed me.As I continue to walked along with the rest of them (Jeff,Mark,Sarah and Zara), I went to reach out by myself as I felt it harder to lead a group because it was quite awkward to have a bunch of people crowding around someone to be witnessed to.That person sure takut wan if kena mobbed by us.Heh
I went on to give chinese tracts to many chinese speaking people, mostly old ones since I had language barrier to reach out in Mandarin or Hokkien.However, I managed to bump into one auntie that could speak English when she indicated to me that she doesn't know how to read the chinese tract which I gave to her.I gathered my courage and tried to share to her in one on one basis by going into a spiritual conversation with her.As I was talking, the sky started to rain and suprisingly, the auntie seems like interested in the topic so we went and look for a shelter to continue our discussion.
She made some points stating that we cannot really define what is good and what is wrong as each of us have our own standards on what is good and bad which lies on every individual's interpretation.Well, I just simply agree with her to a certain extent but told her that there is a common set of right and wrongs where everyone else have in common which is the conscience.It is the conscience that bears witness against us when we do wrong or when we do right.I told her that no one in their right mind would think that murdering someone is a right thing or a lawful thing to do.Even if there's somebody with such mindset, the law will certainly take action on that person by the authorities.
Next, she made the comment on no one really knows that there's a God or not.I answered her back by showing her the nature around here.With such complicated design of nature itself, there's got to be a master designer behind the scenes working at them.Things are too great to happen by chance and if chances can takes it place so easily, then why wouldn't things get 'created' every once a while?Yet she still wasn't convinced at that point until I told her that there is someone who admited himself to be God and proved to everyone that He is God by being resurrected from the dead after the 3rd day of His death.He proclaimed it and proved it to mankind.
Then, she questions the validity of that statement and says that history is written by men and it could be a bias thought.I agreed with her to a certain point but chose to proclaim to her that history is just men writing down what happens.It states clearly what really happened at that time and it is used for the future references.If we were to disregard the historical events of Jesus then we could even question the fact that World War 2 was just a fiction of imagination, or man landed on the moon could be a hoax?(Actually, I still believe that man never really landed on the moon itself! hehe..I believe it was a stage thingy because human beings just can't go near that zone as the pressure will vaporize them already..off topic..will discuss later)
Whatever it was, she finally came to a point of openess where I managed to share to her the gospel of Christ and that's really a blessing from God.It really took alot of faith to be focused on preaching the gospel than to end up with an intellectual argument with her.And in that meantime, I managed to gave a few tracts to those who was sitting in that same booth.
After that, we headed back to church and had a nice meal with Kok Wei and Jeff. We shared our experiences and it was refreshing plus encouraging at the same time to have godly chatter over a meal together. I really longed for moments such as these because most of the time, fellowshipping over a meal always ends up with crap and nonsense.Sad but true indeed.
Then after that, Jeff and myself managed to catch movie together in Queensbay..this time, we watched 21 which I already watched also a month ago.I decided to watch it with Jeff since he didn't had the chance to watch it yet so I would just accompany him that night.That movie was well scripted and gave a few good lessons to learn from it.A person can really change because of money and ultimately, it always starts with something small..something like a small desire and if fanned properly, it will certainly grow and eats its way into you.Ultimately, this is a great reminder to me..
"What profits a man if he gains the whole world yet loses his own soul" and with this I would end my entry tonight. God Bless. =)
It was an eventful day for me today as I begin the day by hanging out with Justin to the movies to watch "Money No Enough 2" which I had watched it 2 weeks ago with my mum.Well, although I have watched it already, I decided to watch it again with Justin just to have some laughs and spend some fellowship time together.It was a good comedy with a solemn ending at the end which touched most people's heart and makes them consider themselves.(I'm not going to spoil the movie for those who haven't watch it yet..)I gotta admit that this movie is a timely reminder for most people in this era and it serves as a good community show.
After the movie, we went for lunch in Nandos and met Jonathan Low with family there.We had a good time of fellowship there as well since I haven't really chatted with his family for quite some time.As for Jon Low, he's always teasing me with a girl which I have no interest on and most of the time, the conversation revolves around teasing here and there. Sigh. Gotta find a partner soon to stop his crap and tease.LOL
After that lunch, Justin and myself headed to church to 'anticipate' who would join the tracting in Youth Park which lo and behold, only 9 youths turned up including myself. It was a small group indeed but nevertheless that didn't disappointed me since I didn't really put high expectations on them.However, it striked me that some of them really had the zeal and passion for evangelism even though most of them had no idea what to say or what to do.It's really the heart that matters.Boldness and speech can be trained up or given by God but conviction only comes from within which matters the most.This shows that there are serious Christians afterall in our youth group and I rejoice to God for that!
When we got to Youth Park, we split ourselves into 2 groups. One led by Kok Wei and the other led by myself as we go separate ways to 'hunt'.I didn't had the boldness to approach anyone as I haven't done this for quite a long time so my fears overshadowed me.As I continue to walked along with the rest of them (Jeff,Mark,Sarah and Zara), I went to reach out by myself as I felt it harder to lead a group because it was quite awkward to have a bunch of people crowding around someone to be witnessed to.That person sure takut wan if kena mobbed by us.Heh
I went on to give chinese tracts to many chinese speaking people, mostly old ones since I had language barrier to reach out in Mandarin or Hokkien.However, I managed to bump into one auntie that could speak English when she indicated to me that she doesn't know how to read the chinese tract which I gave to her.I gathered my courage and tried to share to her in one on one basis by going into a spiritual conversation with her.As I was talking, the sky started to rain and suprisingly, the auntie seems like interested in the topic so we went and look for a shelter to continue our discussion.
She made some points stating that we cannot really define what is good and what is wrong as each of us have our own standards on what is good and bad which lies on every individual's interpretation.Well, I just simply agree with her to a certain extent but told her that there is a common set of right and wrongs where everyone else have in common which is the conscience.It is the conscience that bears witness against us when we do wrong or when we do right.I told her that no one in their right mind would think that murdering someone is a right thing or a lawful thing to do.Even if there's somebody with such mindset, the law will certainly take action on that person by the authorities.
Next, she made the comment on no one really knows that there's a God or not.I answered her back by showing her the nature around here.With such complicated design of nature itself, there's got to be a master designer behind the scenes working at them.Things are too great to happen by chance and if chances can takes it place so easily, then why wouldn't things get 'created' every once a while?Yet she still wasn't convinced at that point until I told her that there is someone who admited himself to be God and proved to everyone that He is God by being resurrected from the dead after the 3rd day of His death.He proclaimed it and proved it to mankind.
Then, she questions the validity of that statement and says that history is written by men and it could be a bias thought.I agreed with her to a certain point but chose to proclaim to her that history is just men writing down what happens.It states clearly what really happened at that time and it is used for the future references.If we were to disregard the historical events of Jesus then we could even question the fact that World War 2 was just a fiction of imagination, or man landed on the moon could be a hoax?(Actually, I still believe that man never really landed on the moon itself! hehe..I believe it was a stage thingy because human beings just can't go near that zone as the pressure will vaporize them already..off topic..will discuss later)
Whatever it was, she finally came to a point of openess where I managed to share to her the gospel of Christ and that's really a blessing from God.It really took alot of faith to be focused on preaching the gospel than to end up with an intellectual argument with her.And in that meantime, I managed to gave a few tracts to those who was sitting in that same booth.
After that, we headed back to church and had a nice meal with Kok Wei and Jeff. We shared our experiences and it was refreshing plus encouraging at the same time to have godly chatter over a meal together. I really longed for moments such as these because most of the time, fellowshipping over a meal always ends up with crap and nonsense.Sad but true indeed.
Then after that, Jeff and myself managed to catch movie together in Queensbay..this time, we watched 21 which I already watched also a month ago.I decided to watch it with Jeff since he didn't had the chance to watch it yet so I would just accompany him that night.That movie was well scripted and gave a few good lessons to learn from it.A person can really change because of money and ultimately, it always starts with something small..something like a small desire and if fanned properly, it will certainly grow and eats its way into you.Ultimately, this is a great reminder to me..
"What profits a man if he gains the whole world yet loses his own soul" and with this I would end my entry tonight. God Bless. =)
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