peace . love . joy

Colossians 1:9-14
9 We have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
11 May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy,
12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,
14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Many people think that a commitment to Christ is something you make once-for-all. It’s like slapping down a million-dollar bill, thinking that your commitment is covered for the rest of your life: “OK, Lord, I’m emptying my wallet of all of its contents. Here’s that million-dollar bill-it’s everything I am and have and ever will have. It’s Yours. I lay down my whole life!”

I like that picture, but I would change it a bit. A commitment to Christ is surrendering everything you are and have, but instead of putting that once-for-all bill in the offering plate, living for Christ is more like giving a million dollars in single bills over your lifetime.

Commitment translates into faithfulness to Christ each moment of every day. Faithfulness at that place of temptation.
Faithfulness in a difficult trial.
Faithfulness as I’m walking into work, too busy for anyone but stopping for that person I know needs a word of encouragement.

Our commitment to Christ is something we lay down a little bit at a time over a lifetime.

The apostle Paul spent his million-dollar bill this way. He was faithful in persecution, faithful when his motives were misunderstood, faithful when he lacked the comforts of home and security. Why did he do it? He was laying down his life a day at a time. His driving ambition was to be found faithful—
worthy to bear the name of Christ.

He wrote about it all the time.
In Philippians 1:27 we read: “Let your manner of life be worthy.”
Ephesians 4:1 tells us: “Walk in a manner worthy of the calling.”
In Colossians 1:10, Paul prayed that we would “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.”

Of all the ingredients that go into walking worthy of Christ, faithfulness tops the list. This goal drives the heart of every follower of Jesus Christ: “Today I want my life to be pleasing to Him. Tomorrow I want to keep doing this. Next week, next year, in 10 years, I still want to be devoted to Christ and His cause. I don’t know what’s coming, I don’t know what the cost will be, but I want to be found faithful.”


Living for Christ is like laying down a million dollars in single bills over
your lifetime.

What attitude do I harbor today
could hinder my faithfulness to
Christ over a lifetime? Show me,
Lord, how to be found faithful.

In what ways can I lay my life down
for You, Lord?

~ Our Journey Feb 9



be near
You are all
big and small
beautiful
and wonderful
to trust in grace through faith
but i'm asking to taste...

for dark is light to You
depths are height to You
far is near
but Lord, i need to hear from You

be near, oh God
be near, oh God of us
Your nearness is to us our good

be near, oh God
be near, oh God of us
Your nearness is to us our good, our good

Your fullness is mine
revelation divine
but, o, to taste
to know much more than a page
to feel Your embrace...

for dark is light to You
the depths are height to You
far is near, but Lord
i need to hear from You

be near, oh God
be near, oh God of us
Your nearness is to us our good

be near, oh God
be near, oh God of us
Your nearness is to us our good,
our good

~ shane barnard

this week's recess week *hallelujah!!*

und here's my to-do list for this week :

1. 212 assignment 3 & 4
2. 212 readings
3. 204 readings
4. 203 revision for Quiz
5. Beethoven's first movement of G major sonata
6. 111 assignment \ project
7. sec 3 camp worship & devotion practice & preparation
8. Caroline's interview transcription

yep =]

seems a lil daunting, but i'm positive that with God's help, i can conquer mountains, i can swim to the bottom of the ocean with a single breath, i can fly.

I entered my closet, I had to clean away a cobweb. Immediately I was confronted with a painful truth - I had not spent time in my prayer closet. This doesn't mean that I haven't prayed but I realized that I haven't really spent quality time with the Lord. In other words, I haven't worked much on our relationship. Needless to say, I repented of this and cleaned those cobwebs out.

Each of us needs a place where we can get away from the world and spend some time with the Lord. We ALL need this time. The problem is that we don't fully recognize this until something brings our attention toward it. Prayer is an essential element in the life of every Christian. Without it we are only but a shell. We may look like a Christian on the outside but without prayer, we are hollow on the inside. In fact, the Bible tells us that there are some definite benefits to us for doing this. Matthew 6:6 states that when we go into our closet and meet with God in secret that He will reward us publicly. Now that doesn't mean we will have a new car in the driveway or unexpected check in the mailbox but the secret to our strength is in that time we spend in the closet.

Cobwebs are usually an indication of something that has been dormant. It represents a place with no life or activity. Have our prayer closets become a place with no life or activity? Have we neglected our time with the Lord?

The failure to pray doesn't always mean that we don't want to pray or that we aren't sincere about our intentions to pray. To be honest, we get lazy and easily allow distractions to pull us away from our time with God. It is amazing how many distractions the enemy can put in front of us to pull our attentions away from spending this time with God. We really have to make a conscious effort and be determined that we are going to pray. It isn't always going to be easy or fun.

We want revival. We want to see God moving in our lives. If so, then where is the prayer? Are we actually praying?

If we are serious about change we won't just sing songs that we are "hungry for God" or that we are "desperate without God." Our actions will sing those songs from our hearts through the prayers we pray.

If you remember, Elijah was frustrated by being outnumbered by Baal's prophets yet when he prayed to God, God was there and instructed Elijah what to do. (1 King 18) When Elijah obeyed and when it came time for God to show up, Elijah prayed and God sent fire down from heaven to consume the sacrifice. When you read this chapter, it is evident that Elijah had a relationship with God, he obeyed God and he trusted God.

We might not duplicate what Elijah did when he prayed with fire coming down from heaven; however, if we want to see change in our lives we need to pray. You have to believe that your chances are better if you pray than if you do nothing. Things might not happen immediately but one thing will happen – YOU will change. When we earnestly pray, trust God and obey what He tells us to do, it is impossible for things in our life not to change.

Let's clean out those cobwebs with the cries of our prayers to the same Lord God of Elijah!

~ Adapted from Milton Hooper ~

1. Coca-Cola was originally green.

2. The most common name in the world is Mohammed.

3. The name of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with.

4. The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.

5. There are two credit cards for every person in the United States.

6. TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

7. Women blink nearly twice as much as men!

8. You can't kill yourself by holding your breath.

9. It is impossible to lick your elbow.

10. People say "Bless you" when you sneeze because when you sneeze,your heart stops for a millisecond.

11. It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.

12. The "sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.

13. If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die.

14. Each king in a deck of playing cards represents great king from history. Spades – King David, Clubs – Alexander the Great, Hearts – Charlemagne, Diamonds – Julius Caesar.

15. 111,111,111×111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

16. If a statue of a person in the park on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air,the person died as a result of wounds received in battle.If the horse has a all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

17. What do bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers all have in common? Ans. – All invented by women.

18. Question – This is the only food that doesn't spoil. What is this? Ans. – Honey

19. A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.

20. A snail can sleep for three years.

21. All polar bears are left handed.

22. American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first-class.

23. Butterflies taste with their feet.

24. Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.

25. In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.

26. On average, people fear spiders more than they do death.

27. Shakespeare invented the word 'assassination' and 'bump'.

28. Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand.

29. The ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.

30. The electric chair was invented by a dentist.

31. The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.

32. Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over million descendants.

hey, people, people!! it's Chinese New Year!! come on, look alive, man, look alive!!

HAHA =D

did you know that happier people live 8 years longer than negative ones??

so, whip out that lip gloss, girls and go polish those pearly white, guys (and girls =p), it's time to work those cheeck muscles!!

anyhow, just had this strange thought. the thought itself aint strange and it aint original, but it seemed a strange time to pop up in my consciousness..

we should tell people we care for how much we care for them. this works especially well when they least expect it.

then follow those 3 interesting words up with acts to prove it.

i dunno, suddenly, i felt like what if their thread of life is going to be snipped? what if the sissors of the 3 fate sisters are being sharpened right now and the blades are being stretched open and slid into position with the thread between them? what if they are being lowered right now??

will that person know how much i care and how much i love him\her?

yes, i know actions speak louder than words (or so they say), and we dont have to be a broken recorder and keep repeating those words over and over and over til it gives us all a splitting headache.

but still, to tell someone "i love you" is really special, esp when it is not expected at that point in time.

Have a brilliant chinesische Neujahr !!

May God Bless you and keep you always
May He grant you the knowledge and the power of memory that He will always be by your side and never forsake nor leave you
May the Holy Spirit dwell in the temple of God (YOU)
May the you always remember the blood spilt for you
May we always remember God is God.

i think i'll change the blogskin soon..

it cant publish chinese characters, thai characters, German alphabets..and i seriously doubt it can publish arabic characters..

you know me, man. i love languages. i may not master them all, but i like learning new ones and attempting to improve learnt ones.

so i dont really appreciate a skin much if it cant publish those symbols.

unless someone can be so nice as to tell me how to configure this whole skin thg to allow publishing of 'foreign' language symbols =D

feel so occupied, not that i'm complaining much, though..

i mean, my parents are happy to see me studying and working (btw, i got the part-time job working for Prof Pluss, =])..

but i just feel so..how shall i describe it..a little tired..

i've readings to catch up on, thank God for the mid-term quiz by Shirley, a great excuse and motivation to start reading the boring textbook with an even more boring cover page.

thank God for Jonathan London. he's my favourite lecturer\tutor =D
great motivation in himself for me to be up to date on my readings (except for the textbook which i just got back frm valerie)
really lucky that he's my lecturer and tutor for the most boring-est course i could ever take - HS 203 : Economy and Society

thank God for CH! really lucky that i've him to explain stuff to me that (even though i've read up on it in many different places,) i still dont understand.

thank God for friends that i've made. new ones, like (another) Jonathan from HW class, Isabel, Hafizah "FiFi" and Alvina. and "older" acquaintances whom i'm getting to know better like Suf, Shaun, Bryan, Daryl, Jalobi and Jenni
sometimes, i wonder why i'm in school and i dread going to Boon Lay, but i think of God and the dread melts. then i go to school and see smiling faces that i recognise, a friendly wave, a "hi, megan, you look ~" by the one and only Sangee (~ = depending on how i look to her at that point in time), and i feel happy i'm in school.

sociology of language just started to get interesting =D

*gosh, i just realised i'm really lucky. in other words, really blessed! hmmm..*

right now, i'm rushing to finish off the work frm Caroling (it aint much, but u know me..the super last-minute worker)

tmr, think i'll still go for the GoFish meet at 6, but i dont think i'll make it for training on sunday - i've got to study for the quiz (5 chapters plus lecture notes for monday, and i havent even torn open the plastic wrapping =( )

so today's to finish up the interview transcript.
i've learnt to watch how i speak. this lady sounds terrible! sounds all merged (2 words sounding like 1), intonation's all wrong, variation in tone's all wrong and too sing-song-like (but the song aint nice), ugh!! i know, i know, who am i to judge her speech style, i am not miss perfect english either, but i do know when i start to feel ugh-ness and disgust while hearing others talk. there's a time for everything, so know when to switch, and when you are putting on a show with your speech \ choich of accent, try to maintain it until the end (curtains down).
SINGAPOREANS, I KNOW WE LOVE SINGLISH, BUT PLEASE, WHEN IT'S TIME TO SPEAK IN STANDARD ENGLISH, PLEASE DO, AND TRY NOT TO LAPSE BACK INTO SINGLISHY SPEECH!! IT'S REALLY HORRENDOUS.

man, skating with celebrities's over, beauty and the geek's over..friday nights are gonna be boring with just 9.30's Midsommer Murders to look forward to..

oh, well, enough rest, back to work!

btw, i love this song medley! i love Spirit : Stallion of the Cimmaron!

the musical arrangement and the scenes and the lyrics..gosh! so beautiful and free! makes you feel like bursting with joy and freedom and running through meadows with the wind in your hair! *sigh*

well, that's my dream..

til then, enjoy =]