peace . love . joy

having recently completed her exams, megan now finds herself having to face a week of freedom, relatively speaking, of course.

yesterday, megan found out just how big marina square was, and she's still reeling from the slight shock of its sheer size, and the pleasant surprise that it houses her favourite brand (how materialistic she's becoming!) and a number other interesting and attractive boutiques.

whilst browsing the internet some time ago (oh the wonders of technology), megan chanced upon a brand that sounds and looks respectable; not the bordering on the "trashy" or "cheap" (whatever and however you take it to mean) side. i think you must have heard of it:

and after "leafing" through the apparel chain's online catalogue, megan found that she likes the clothing line's products. the prices were not sky high, but they were not rock bottom either. which would mean she'd have to work and earn money to indulge. she has to watch herself too because she has the tendency to get carried away by things and forsaking all else, and she has no intention of watching her relationship with God turn cold and brittle, neither has she the mind to let her fingers get stiff and rusty (one cannot play the piano beautifully without trained and nimble fingers).

after a brief moment at marina square, accompanied by puiki, megan made a beeline for one of her favourite places in this confusing (i say confusing because that is the feeling evoked whenever one mentions Singapore to me) country - the esplanade. they managed to find what they were looking for (iron ladies II).

megan always had a soft spot for thai male homosexuals. no apparent reason why. in fact, it could be ventured to far as to claim that only God knew why this was so. perhaps it is God's purpose for her; that her ministry here on earth would be the gays.

today, megan helped her mum pack the dry dishes from the night before, washed the breakfast dishes and made the bed. she did that without it all registering in her already busy mind.

you see, megan loves to indulge in building a lot (and that's already putting it mildly) of castles in the air. she loves building, literally (ie. physical construction site work), so naturally, she is inclined to continue that activity metaphorically. just what sort of castles, how they look, the stability of their structures and foundations and what they house, no one will ever know, for though she prides herself on being an open book (which some may beg to differ), this is the one thing that megan stubbornly keeps to herself. it is simply not sort the thing one goes about bragging and announcing to anyone and everyone, the deepest, darkest secrets in one's dungeon of the mind.

realising the attractiveness of retail outlets, learning to balance on the tight-rope of globalised and modernised life, climbing out of the well to embrace the mind-boggling vastness of the world and the universe beyond, yes, yes i think so.

our little girl is growing up (sob).

Rules of the game:
Each player of this game starts off with ten weird things or habits or little known facts about yourself.
People who get tagged must write in a blog of their own ten weird things or habits or little known facts as well as state this rule clearly.
At the end you must choose six people to be tagged and list their names.
No tagbacks!

1. i once scalded myself on my left thigh while i was attempting to make warm ribena for my sick sister. i used hot water from the thermoflask thg and ended up in the hospital.

2. when i was in primary 1, i developed red sores on both my legs. i couldnt stand or anything. i couldnt feel anything from my hips down. the nurses had to carry me a little to weigh me when i was admitted into the hospital.

3. when i was young, i stuff my shirt into my underpants and pulled the loose ends out the leg holes of my underpants. it felt real comfy.

4. when i come home and no one's at home, i revert to my childhood habit of yanking off my pants\skirt and walking around with my top, bra and underpants on.

5. i had my first crush when i was in kindergarten. he's swedish. his name starts with a 'J'; i cant remember his name =D

6. i hate needles. i cry at the sight of them. seriously.

7. i love gays. esp thai ones. i think they're so cute!

8. i love my piano. i speak to it. i hug it. i spend quality time with it. i love it.

9. when i was in kindergarten, i wanted to be a cashier at NTUC or an astronaut (part of the first team to set foot on Mars).

10. i once applied a little pressure on a hamster at the area just in front of its hind legs. its eyes popped out a little. not out as in out of its sockets, but out as in bulged a little.

You guys are tagged:
Bryan(na)
Emay *~hugs~*
Daena -- remember your matric card!!
Timmy still got those lemon & lime twist smell 'ems =D
Shivs!
Rachel Lok /\ bet u didnt see that comin' =p

Another summer day
Has come and gone away
In Paris and Rome
But I wanna go home
Mmmmmmmm

Maybe surrounded by
A million people I
Still feel all alone
I just wanna go home
Oh, I miss you, you know

And I’ve been keeping all the letters that I wrote to you
Each one a line or two
“I’m fine baby, how are you?”
Well I would send them but I know that it’s just not enough
My words were cold and flat
And you deserve more than that

Another aeroplane
Another sunny place
I’m lucky I know
But I wanna go home
Mmmm, I’ve got to go home

Let me go home
I’m just too far from where you are
I wanna come home

And I feel just like I’m living someone else’s life
It’s like I just stepped outside
When everything was going right
And I know just why you could not come along with me
'Cause this was not your dream
But you always believed in me

Another winter day
Has come and gone away
In even Paris and Rome
And I wanna go home
Let me go home

And I’m surrounded by
A million people I
Still feel all alone
Oh, let me go home
Oh, I miss you, you know

Let me go home
I’ve had my run
Baby, I’m done
I gotta go home
Let me go home
It will all be all right

I’ll be home tonight

I’m coming back home

as one of the leaders of a sec 3 Bible study group in church, i remember we once spoke about Christ freeing us from something. and i remember it being said that we are freed from death (eternal death, that is).

but from the Easter sermon by Pastor Kow, i learnt 4 more thgs we are freed from =]

1. we are needn't feel guilty of our past
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace...
~ Ephesians 1:7
...having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us; He took it away, nailing it to the cross.
~ Colossians 2:14
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those whoare in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
~ Romans 8:1-2

2. we needn't worry about the future
So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.
~ Matthew 6:34
i can do everything through Him who gives me strength.
~ Philippians 4:13

btw, did you know that there are 365 "Fear Not"s in the Bible? that's one "Fear Not" for everyday! God is telling us that we've nothing to fear, nothing to worry about when we place our trust in Him and Him alone. His grace is sufficient for us =]

3. we are free from purpose-less living today
For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
~ Ephesians 2:10

what we're looking for is a life that is significant not successful;
and to achieve that, we ought to discover God's purpose for our individual lives and live it.
so Pastor Kow challenged us, and now, i'm challenging you =] :
be driven by God's purpose in your life!

4. we are free from having to earn our way into heaven
Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation.
~ Romans 4:4
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
~ Romans 6:23
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast.
~ Ephesians 2:8-9

it was put this way:
heaven is a perfect place.
to get there, there are 2 and only 2 roads you can take.

the first: you have to be perfect to get there.
that is to say, you are without sin (sin = anything you do that displeases God AND anything you didnt do that displeases God). heaven is a perfect place, so if you, being imperfect, enters it, it becomes imperfect. therefore, you must be perfect to enter it, and it will remain perfect. good deeds alone will not get us to heaven; can you guarantee that your mind thinks only of the good of others and not bend to temptation of sinful thoughts?
the first way is practically impossible. human beings are imperfect. there is no way we can not sin since we were but babes.

so God opened a second road for us: Jesus Christ.
God provided a ticket for us to heaven through that perfect Son. He took all our sins, past, present and future, with Him on the cross and died. He took the painful penalty we would have faced without Him. He allowed our slates to be wiped clean =] . all we have to do is place our trust and hope in Him. to follow hard after Him. to leave our nets, past life of fishing for selfish interests and pleasures, and boats of the world, to hop on board His boat and pick up His nets, and start fishing for the souls of men.

the choice is up to us which road to pursue.

i choose Jesus Christ.

dear God, as much as i know how, i ask You to come into my life. i accept Your free gift of salvation and i say this so everyone hears, so You can hear me, so i can hear myself, so the devil hears me. Jesus Christ is my Lord, He is my Savior. i belong to Him.
amen.

for some of us who have fallen away from God, but who are yearning to crawl back into His glorious and righteous presence, Pastor Kow referred to Isaiah 54:7.

"...The LORD will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit - a wife who married young, only to be rejected," says your God. "For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you," says the LORD your Redeemer.
~ Isaiah 54:6-8

we need no longer hide our faces from God because we feel ashamed of our sins. God forgives us if only we ask.
and that's all that matters: our salvation, God's purpose in our lives and our living out that purpose.

No golden throne for the KING OF KINGS,
but a rugged cross of suffering.
No crown or robes that we might see
the splendor of HIS MAJESTY.
No royal court, but a tomb alone
til an angel rolled away the stone.
Come worship CHRIST!
Our Lord adore.
HE lives!
HE lives forevermore!

~ Robin Fogel

O sacred Head, now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down,
now scornfully surrounded with thorns, thune only crown:
how pale thou art with anguish, with sore abuse and scorn!
How does this visage languish which once was bright as morn!

What thou, my Lord, hast suffered was all for sinners' gain;
mine, mine was the transgression, but thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here i fall, my Savior! 'Tis i deserve thy place;
look on me with thy favor, vouchsafe to me thy grace.

Wht language shall i borrow to thank thee, dearest friend,
for this thy dying sorrow, thy pity without end?
O make me thine forever; and should i fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never outlive my love to thee.

~ 'O Sacred Head, Now Wounded', Bernard of Clairvaux

Bernard of Clairvaux, the writer of the ancient hymn O Sacred Head, Now Wounded sought, by means of his medieval imagination, to stand before the cross. It's the finest lament to be found in the hymnal. It moves from empathy to contrition and finally to thanksgiving.

The Gospels tell us that the only followers of Jesus who stood before the cross were the disciple John and some women. They were standing "at a distance" (Luke 23:49). What they witnessed was more than a man being tortured to death. As Jesus pushed up, again and again, on the nails that had been driven through His feet, gasping for enough air to utter one of His seven last words, the witnesses were also seeing the death of all their dreams.

Until we understand this, we will not "get" Easter. To stand before the cross and watch Jesus die was to become painfully aware that it appeared to have been all for nothing. Good Friday meant not only the death of Jesus; it was also the death of all hope. It was a lived-out lament. As Frederick Buechner said, "The miracle of the cross is that there was no miracle."

The medieval poet found his way to this hopeless place and put words to his experience for you and me. We cannot count how many believers in the past have arrived at the foot of the cross with the help of the desolate words of the first few verses of this hymn.

There is no language, nor are there words to thank Jesus for His "dying sorrow". The only appropriate response is to give ourselves completely to Him, to ask that He would "make me thine forever".

This is a wonderful example of the end of lament. The joyful place at which this hymn finally arrives could not have been reached any other way except through the darkness of lament. This is not simply a catharsis; it is an example of worshipping God well.

~ Michael Card for Our Journey, April 6 2007