One life, One Love

Spiritual Nourishment

2009-08-23T07:43:00.001+08:00

Dated: 23 Aug 2009

Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. 1 Peter 2:1-3

One unchanging law of life is that as soon as a baby is born, the first and greatest need of that new birth is nourishment to sustain it. That means that even if a baby is born sound and healthy, it would still die unless it quickly receives nourishment upon delivery.

The same is true in the spiritual realm. God’s Word will produce within the human soul a new kind of life. This new nature immediately requires the spiritual nourishment found in the Word of God. For newborn spiritual babes in Christ, God’s appointed nourishment is “the pure milk of the word” (1 Pet. 2:2). This “milk” is a necessity for continued life and growth.

In the natural, no matter how pure the milk is, if it comes into contact with anything sour, it turns bad quickly. That is why there is a warning attached by Peter: if we do not lay aside the sour and corrupted elements of the old life—malice, guile, hypocrisy, envy, evil speaking (2:1)—the beneficial effects of the Word of God cannot work within us. Spiritual milk is for the baby Christian. But it is not God’s will that Christians remain spiritual babes for too long. As that baby Christian begins to grow, he needs to stop drinking milk and start eating bread. What is God’s appointed spiritual bread? “Every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4).

But don’t stop there. If you wish to mature spiritually, you must learn the whole Bible, not just the more familiar portions of the Scripture. Beyond milk and bread, God’s Word also provides solid food.

The writer of Hebrews rebuked the Jewish believers for only feeding on milk and never progressing to solid food (Heb. 5:12-13). What a picture of many professing Christians and church members today. They often own a Bible and have attended church for many years, yet they know so little of what the Bible teaches. They are immature, with very little spiritual experiences. After many years, they are still spiritual babes, unable to digest any kind of teaching that goes beyond the “milk stage.”

There is a remedy. You need to have your “senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (5:14). That means engaging in a regular and systematic study of the whole counsel of God’s Word that will develop and mature our spiritual senses. As you get really serious with studying and living out the Word of God, you will fi nd yourself growing spiritually mature by leaps and bounds.

Spiritual Atmosphere - 21 Jun 09

2009-06-21T11:02:00.001+08:00

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. 2 Corinthians 13:14

The word “communion” comes from the root word “commute,” which means to travel. The communion of the Holy Spirit therefore refers to the moving in the Spirit. But before you can move powerfully in the Spirit, you must become familiar and comfortable with the realm or environment of the Holy Spirit. Spiritual atmosphere is something very real. We live under its influence all the time. There are times when you may come into a room and you feel so uncomfortable that you just want to run out as fast as you possibly can. Then there are other times when you come into a room and you can sense the presence and the power of God. When the Holy Spirit fills a room, exciting and powerful things happen. King Saul was totally transformed when he encountered a prophetic atmosphere (1 Sam. 10:6). One hundred and twenty priests collapsed instantly when the glory of the Lord descended upon Solomon’s temple (2 Chr. 5:12-14).

We must become skillful in discerning the moving of the Holy Spirit and the type of spiritual atmosphere we are in. A sign of spiritual maturity is knowing how to move with the “mood” and “tempo” of the Holy Spirit. Moving correctly with the “feel” of the spiritual atmosphere is so vital. There are a few ways by which we can build a strong spiritual atmosphere around us every day:

(1) Praise and worship. Heartfelt praise and worship always brings down the presence of God (Ps. 22:3; 2 Kin. 3:14-15).

(2) Attitude of faith. When we come before God, we need to let go of our fears, anxieties and worries. An attitude of faith helps us to let go and let God (Ps. 46:10).

(3) Waiting on the Lord. The head moves quickly but the heart moves slowly. The longest distance is usually between the head and the heart. We should daily wait before the Lord until we can “feel” the presence of the Holy Spirit coming upon us. Learn to delight in a prolonged worship time or prayer time before God. Give time for the words of our song or prayer to move from our head to our heart.

(4) Spiritual actions. Our clapping, kneeling, bowing and faith confessions create powerful Spirit-filled atmospheres. The lifting up of our hands is not just a nice worshipful act; it often brings down the anointing of the Lord (Ex. 17:8-13). As you learn to commune with the Holy Spirit in His tangible presence, He will take you on an adventure into the exciting realm of vision and dreams, miracles and the supernatural.

Church Worship - 19 Jun 09

2009-06-21T11:01:00.001+08:00

Then David said, “No one may carry the ark of God but the Levites, for the LORD has chosen them to carry the ark of God and to minister before Him forever.” 1 Chronicles 15:2

Let us look at the way David established the tabernacle-which is a picture of the church. This is the way God desires for us to come into His presence in a church gathering.

(1) David prepared a place for the ark (1 Chr. 15:1). We need to be people who will prepare our hearts to worship. Jesus, the ark of God, now dwells in the midst of us (Matt. 18:20).

(2) David pitched a tent. David built a tabernacle, the house of the Lord. God’s presence is indeed everywhere but He chooses to make His glory and power known in His house-the church.

(3) The Levites shouldered the ark (1 Chr. 15:2). The shoulder in Scripture is symbolic of responsibility. All of us need to learn to bear the responsibility of shouldering the presence of God in our lives. Too often, we leave that to the “professional” pastors and preachers to do it on our behalf. In the new covenant, we are all Levites for we are called into a “royal priesthood” (1 Pet. 2:9). We need to know God for ourselves, and be involved in a personal revival. We need to learn how to live in the Spirit and know the abiding presence of God at all times.

(4) The people gathered together (1 Chr. 15:3). The place of agreement is the place of power. When church members come together in true unity, God commands His blessing among them (Ps. 133).

(5) They sanctifi ed themselves (1 Chr. 15:12). God will not trust His glory and presence to those who live in sin. We are told to sanctify ourselves and not to wait for an “easy” blessing or cleansing from God. Without holiness, no one can see God.

(6) They worshiped God in proper order (15:13). In worship, there is a need for order. We need to obey God in our preparation and approach to His presence. Out of our obedience comes security and confi dence in His presence.

(7) Singers and musicians were appointed (15:16). Skillful Levites were placed in their positions. Worship leading is a serious ministry and it is not meant for anyone who just wants to “have a go” at the musical instruments.

(8) David the king was willing to be a priest (15:27). David was already the king of Judah, and he was soon going to be crowned the king over all Israel. But in the presence of the Lord, he humbled himself and operated as a priest. You may be a very successful person in society or in the corporate world. But when you come into God’s presence, you must be willing to humble yourself, put down all your titles and achievements, and like David, humbly minister to the Lord.

Carriers of God's Presence - 18 Jun 09

2009-06-21T10:59:00.000+08:00

And David and all Israel went up to Baalah, to Kirjath Jearim, which belonged to Judah, to bring up from there the ark of God the LORD, who dwells between the cherubim, where His name is proclaimed. 1 Chronicles 13:6

There was a period of time when the ark of the Lord was in captivity. The ark represented God’s presence to the people of Israel. But for 20 years, the ark was stolen and taken away by the Philistines. On the way back to Jerusalem, David decided to put the ark on a cart and that resulted in a tragedy. God’s presence cannot be carried on man-made traditions and methods. The presence of God is to be carried upon the shoulders of priests. Today, we are the priesthood of God. “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Pet. 2:9).

As believers, we are to carry the presence of God in our lives. We are to touch our world with the presence and the power of God (2 Cor. 2:14-15). We are the fragrance of Christ to believers and unbelievers. When the presence of God is upon you, people are affected when they are near you. Jesus carried a strong presence and power of God. The multitudes thronged Him, the children loved Him and they wanted to follow Him wherever He went.

People must be able to see the presence and power of God in your life. Paul says, “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (1 Cor. 2:4-5).

How do you carry the presence of God?

(1) The presence of God comes through worship (Ps. 95:2, 6).

(2) The presence of God flows through a contrite heart (Ps. 34:18).

(3) The presence of God dwells in an atmosphere of holiness (Deut. 23:14). Make it a point to spend time in worship everyday. As you walk in humility, purity and holiness, God’s presence will be manifested in a greater way in your life. You will experience His power fl owing through you, empowering you to touch your world for Christ.

A Living Sacrifice

2009-05-20T23:33:00.001+08:00

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Romans 12:1-2

The Bible says that we are all called the moment we are saved (2 Tim. 1:9). So what is your calling in life? How do you discover your calling? The answer is found in Romans 12:1. The chapter begins with the word “therefore.” That means that the apostle Paul starts off by urging the believers in Rome: “Now based on all that you have known from chapters 1-11, of what God has done for you through Jesus Christ, it is time for you to get serious with the Lord. Start living the kind of life you should be living. Start becoming the person you’re supposed to be!”

The first thing you need to do is to “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service” (12:1). What does God want? More than your love and worship, He wants your body. God wants you to put your body on His altar as a living sacrifice. That means that while you are still breathing and kicking, place your body at His disposal. Let Him live His life through you. Don’t worry if you think your body is not good enough for the Lord’s service. It may be ravaged by drugs, sicknesses and immorality. But Jesus says that anything that is placed on the altar of God becomes holy (Matt. 23:19). The moment you give Him your body, it becomes holy unto the Lord-”acceptable to God.” You will realize that the moment you hand over your body as a vessel for His use, your mind gets renewed (Rom. 12:2). You start thinking in a different way. The calling of God becomes clearer and clearer. You will begin “to prove”-which means “to experience” in the Greek-the calling of God in your life. You will learn that His calling for you is “good” (12:2)-God never plans anything bad for His children. It is “acceptable”-the more you experience it, the more you will like it and accept it. Ultimately, it is “perfect”-it will satisfy every longing and meet every need you have.

God is a realist. He doesn’t expect you to just “talk the talk,” He wants you to “walk the walk!” Let Him have free reign over your body. Be His hands, His feet, His eyes and His mouthpiece to the dying world. The moment you do that, His calling for you will become most obvious.

Crucifying The Old Man

2009-05-12T23:03:00.001+08:00

Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. Romans 6:6

How can we ever come to a place where we seldom or hardly sin? The key is found in Romans 6:6 where it says that our old man needs to be crucified with Christ. What does that mean? Let me illustrate with this example:

Say there is this terrible man who drinks heavily and smokes a lot. He watches pornography on television all the time. He visits sleazy massage parlors and constantly cheats on his wife. Whenever he is in a bad mood or comes home drunk, he becomes violent and beats up his wife and kids. And whenever his wife and children come back from church, he would use the vilest profanities and start cursing God.

One Sunday morning, his wife and kids have gone to church and the man is watching pornography on television again. He has a glass of whiskey in his hand and a cigar in his mouth.

That Sunday, his family has a wonderful time in church. But as they approach home, they become very fearful. Would daddy be drunk when we enter the door? Would he beat us up again? But when they step into the house, they are shocked. The cigar and whiskey are by the table but the man is not smoking or drinking. The television is on but he is not watching it either. He didn’t shout, curse or swear at them. He didn’t get violent or beat them up. What happened?

The man had just died of a heart attack! And when he died, he also became dead to sin-to all his bad habits and vices!

The Bible says that at Calvary, Jesus took your old nature, the old man, the “old you”-who likes to sin, rebel, lie-and nailed it together with Him to the cross. In exchange, the new man, the nature of God in Christ, becomes alive in us. When we live out the life of the new man, the power of sin has no more hold on us.

A very important truth is that Romans 6:6 starts with the word “knowing.” That word means “knowledge by experience” or “knowledge by supernatural revelation.” That is why it is so crucial to have personal encounters with the presence and the power of God. Religious information to your head alone will not help you become victorious. You need daily encounters with God to live out the overcoming life in Christ.

Chicken Hotpot at Novena Square

2009-05-10T22:56:00.003+08:00

Its Mother's Day today! So my family decided to dine out at somewhere nice. We were at Novena Square where we came about this new eating place call "Chicken Hotpot". Its a small eating area and we don't really know what is it about, but decided to go ahead and eat as it seems like some good stuff. It has franchised all over the world, very good reviews from Shanghai and Hong Kong and even from our very own Singapore's "Food Detectives". Little did I know that I'm in for a pleasant surprise =)

We've ordered a medium chicken hotpot and a small beef hotpot for me. When it arrived, we were fooled by it's initial look. It look nothing more like just claypot chicken with meat and not much of soup based. My mum was asking me how do we even do hotpot steamboat like this? (There is a fridge with other side-dishes if you want). As we were eating, the service crew came over to add in more soup based to almost the brim. By now, we were already enjoying the tender beef and chickens. After which, I went over to the fridge to grab a plate of duo meow and some mixed meat.

Oh just a little about the fridge. Besides eating from just whatever you have in the hotpot, you can also take side-dishes from the fridge. The range is as follows:
$1 - Vegetables: From duo meow to mushrooms and all sorts of vegetables including bitter gound.
$2 - Meats: Ranging from fish meat to lap chiong and some other stuff
$3 - Mixed meat, beef strips and other more expensive stuffs.

Then with these, you can make your own hotpot steamboat. Its really delicious, especially the beef hotpot. No regrets! With more soup based been added in and with its original herbs and spices, I was literally sipping the soup dry but the service crew keep topping up the soup for me. Oh btw, the service there is good too. The service crews will keep walking around and top up the soup-base for you before it runs low, without you having to ask them. The boss also served us and asked if we like the food. When my parents had finish eating their meal, I'm still guiltly sipping the soup and searching for bits and pieces of beef bits and duo meow in the soup like a glutton =p

When we paid the bill, we realized there isn't even any service charge and we weren't charged for the wet tissues either. Quite a good deal yeah?

My personal recommendation: If you are a meat lover, order a medium beef hotpot, go for beef stripes, duo meow and tao pok. Satisfaction guarantee!

Too bad I dun have a camera phone, can't take any pictures. But if you want to know more info, do visit www.chickenhotpot.com. There is one more outlet in Shenton Way.

Daily Devotion: Power, Sex and Money

2009-03-29T12:35:00.003+08:00

But he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for the LORD has said to you, “You shall not return that way again.” Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself. Deuteronomy 17:16-17

Hundreds of years before Samuel anointed Saul as the first king of Israel, these provisions were made concerning the king’s character.

First of all, a king should not be given to the lust of power. Leaders who are inwardly insecure are always clamoring for power, prominence and position. Jesus says that leadership is not lordship, but servanthood: “And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Matt. 23:12). Decide to be a servant-leader today.

Secondly, a king must not have a weakness for the opposite sex. Biblical leaders like Samson, David and Solomon all fell in this area. Next to the Lord, the most important relationship you would ever have is the one with your spouse. Communication is the key to life. Put aside quality time each day to share your thoughts, feelings, desires and visions with each other. Have consistent, healthy sexual relations in your marriage. “Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control” (1 Cor. 7:5). In other words, sex is effective spiritual warfare against the temptation for adultery. What do you do when you have lost the “first love” for your spouse? Jesus says, “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works” (Rev. 2:5). That means that you need to go back to the beginning activities of your relationship. Start courting each other again. Keep the romance in your marriage strong.

Finally, a king must never have a soft spot for money. Paul says, “I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:12-13). While you are to desire the multiplication of your fi nances, learn to live within your means. Work out a plan to get out of debt as soon as you can. Be a tither and a generous giver in the church. Giving is always effective in dealing with the lust for money. A king should be a person of the Word, and a person of humility and accountability. These same character qualities are needed for all godly leaders in our time.

Taken from Pst Kong's Daily Devotion dated 29 Mar 09

Tiny Clip-on TV

2009-02-01T08:04:00.001+08:00

This is the latest invention from Japan. Now we can watch tv programs wherever we go. Est price is 1k. Wonder if it's a hot product when it comes to Singapore.

Judy Jacobs - Because of who You are

2009-01-26T00:23:00.003+08:00

This is beautiful song written by Judy Jacobs.

Because Of Who You Are
Because of who You are, I give You glory
Because of who You are, I give you praise
Because of who You are, I will lift my voice and say
Lord I worship You because of who You are
Lord, I worship You because of who You are

Jehovah Jireh, my provider
Jehovah Nissi, You reign in victory
Jehovah Shalom, my prince of peace
And I worship You because of who You are

Jehovah Rapha, You're my healer
Jehovah Shammah, You're always with me
Jehovah Sabaoth, You're my strong deliverer

Holy Are You Lord

2009-01-21T22:42:00.002+08:00

Terry Macalmon - Holy Are You Lord

Hear the sound of heaven, like the sound of many waters
It's the sound of worship, coming from the throne
Cries of adoration, as men from every nation
Lift their voice to make His glory known, singing

Chorus:
Holy, holy, holy are you Lord
Holy, holy, holy are you Lord
The elders and angels bow
The redeemed worship you now
Holy, holy, holy are you Lord

Rihanna's Umbrella - Hokkien Version

2009-01-14T23:38:00.002+08:00

This is the hokkien version of the ever-popular Umbrella Song, spoof by the Papaya Sisters during STAGE, a yearly performance that spoof various famous events, issues or even songs =)

Power of Your Name

2009-01-04T23:13:00.002+08:00

Lyrics:
Surely children weren't made for the streets
And fathers were not made to leave
Surely this isn't how it should be
Let Your Kingdom come
Surely nations were not made for war
Or the broken meant to be ignored
Surely this just can't be what You saw
Let Your Kingdom come
Here in my heart

I will live
To carry your compassion
To love a world that's broken
To be Your hands and feet
I will give
With the life that I'd been given
And go beyond religion
To see the world be changed
By the power of Your Name

Surely life wasn't made to regret
And the lost were not made to forget
Surely faith without action is dead
Let Your Kingdom come
Lord break this heart

I will live
To carry your compassion
To love a world that's broken
To be Your hands and feet
I will give
With the life that I'd been given
And go beyond religion
To see the world be changed
By the power of Your Name

Your Name
Is a shelter for the hurting
Jesus Your Name
Is a refuge for the weak
Only Your Name
Can redeem the undeserving
Jesus Your Name
Holds everything I need

I will live
To carry your compassion
To love a world that's broken
To be Your hands and feet
I will give
With the life that I'd been given
And go beyond religion
To see the world be changed
By the power of Your Name

Oh Holy Night

2008-12-18T21:08:00.003+08:00

I was searching for some Christmas carol when I chance upon this Mariah Carey's version of Oh Holy Night. Phew.. It blew me off. Here you go folks.

Oops, the embedded video function is disabled by request. Guess its due to copyright regulations. Anyway, you can still link to the video via the URL.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsdthxI3wvA

When You Believe

2008-12-18T21:06:00.002+08:00

This is the theme song from the movie "Prince of Egypt". Was so touched by the lyrics when I first heard the song.

Abundant Blessings

2008-11-26T20:52:00.002+08:00

Thank God for His abundant blessing. This is our building fund period. Some time ago, the Lord had spoken to me and challenged me to triple the amount that I initially wanted to pledge(realistic amount). This is what I learnt to be an ideal amount some weeks later in a CGM. And the amount to pledge is somewhere between the realistic and ideal amount which is the faith amount. Sacrificial yet something that can be fulfilled.

Of course I will not be revealing how much I pledged. Just want to share that 1 week after I had pledged the amount, I received a blessing, which I shared as a testimony during CGM, of half the amount of my total pledged amount. Last night I received a red packet from my aunt, believed it's for my upcoming birthday but no idea why is it so much, but it's also half the amount of my total pledge. This is the first month of the building fund and I've yet to give to my first month pledge, yet the Lord has already blessed me a 100% increase of what I've pledged. Hallelujah!

"Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it." - Malachi 3:10

Worshipping You

2008-11-01T10:44:00.002+08:00

Part 1

Part 2

Sang this song during CGM last night. Falling in love with the lyrics of the song. Think this should be the theme song for our Arise and Build 08.

I want to sing

2008-11-01T10:43:00.001+08:00

Miss singing this really old song during service

I will fly

2008-11-01T10:41:00.000+08:00

Love this praise song. Flying high with God's love

Deb Fung - Psalm 139

2008-11-01T10:27:00.002+08:00

The first song by Deb fung that I fall in love with - Psalm 139

Lyrics of this song are the exact words from Psalm 139 - NIV version

O Lord, You have searched me and You know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
You perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
You are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue, You know it completely, O Lord.

You hem me in - behind and before;
You have laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Where can I flee from Your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, You are there; if I make my beds in the depths, You are there.
If I rise on the wings of dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,"
even the darkness will not be dark to You;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to You.

For You created my inmost being;
You knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
Your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.

How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of the sand.

How lovely and beautiful this song is, isn't it?

Hillsongs - Take It All Eng/Spanish

2008-10-30T21:34:00.000+08:00

Kofta Meatball

2008-10-13T21:17:00.002+08:00

Was chilling out on Friday night with the cg after Enriching Life Series Pt 1. Went to the nearby Coffee Club at Hotel Rendezvous and this special dish caught my attention.

Kofta Meatball

The dish: Lightly spiced morsels of ground beef covered in our fabulous Neapolitan sauce, served with a mild Greek yoghurt and Turkish bread

Can't remember much of the description but part of it says something like "one that you are not gonna share with someone else". Haha, yeah, it's true, really delicious. Thumbs up for this dish. Managed to took a picture of it. Yums...

Walau Seribu - Chinese version

2008-10-06T22:39:00.003+08:00

This is the mandarin version of Walau Seribu sung during our chinese service in Jurong West which one of my friend in camp introduced me to. It's really touching and the lyrics is very meaningful. I think its because mandarin has a vast variety of words, thus enabling us to better express the meaning of the song.

Awesome young korean guitarist

2008-09-06T10:55:00.005+08:00

Was browsing through guitar videos and I came upon this amazing korean guitarist who I think is about 9 - 11 years old. And found lots of video by him.

More than Words by Eric Clapton

Mission Impossible - Inspired by Tommy Emmanuel?

Africa - Tommy Emmanuel style?

Canon In D - Does it looks like the scene in the movie 10 promises to my dog

California Dreaming classics

Raindrops keep falling on my head classics

Any many many more ... Just search for Sungha Jung

SG Bay Run

2008-08-21T19:00:00.003+08:00

Hah, this is a photo of my number tag. Lucky number, can go buy 4D for those who wants. Lol. Its gonna be my first time participating in Army Half Marathon aka Singapore Bay Run. Never in my life have I run for 21km before. And recently something is not quite right with my knees.

I know it's gonna be fun but those who manage to read this post, please keep me in your prayers too. Hope that nothing will happen to my knee after the run =)

Have an enjoyable weekend folks!

1st Anniversary

2008-07-28T19:52:00.012+08:00

Haha, well its being so long since I last updated my blog. And yes I've been super busy for the past few weeks, some of which my friends and even colleagues at work can get to see. So what am I sooo busy with? Well... It's going to be unveil really soon. Something that I had started working on, towards my first anniversary with my lovely gf, even before I went into OCS. Phew... Taking far too long to do up something like this? You rate it urself =)

Took me 9 months during my OCS time, working only during weekends to get to this far

Working extra hard at the last days, to finally achieved this. Not completed though. It may look small but its A4 in size. Haha, probably the biggest achievement I had so far? =)

Lovely precious moment cross-stitch that comes in a precious moment box and a card. Hehe

My lovely gf with her surprise baby breath flower of only she knows why

ahhh.. Our cute Jojo, looking curiously at us when we were busy taking photos

Truffle made from 70% chocolate - Dark chocolate mousse cake served with raspberry sauce, seasonal fruits and ice cream @ Chocolate by the Bald man Max Brenner. A MUST Try!

Look how happy we were after tasting the heavily chocolate truffle. Hahs..

Ministry

2008-06-24T05:51:00.003+08:00

The foundation of ministry is character
The nature of ministry is service
The motive of ministry is love
The measure of ministry is sacrifice
The authority of ministry is submission
The purpose of ministry is the glory of God
The tools of ministry are the Word of God and prayer
The privilege of ministry is personal growth
The power of ministry is the Holy Spirit
The model for ministry is Jesus Christ

Life as a Commissioned Officer

2008-06-19T21:03:00.002+08:00

Yeah, finally commissioned last Sat as a 2LT, being waiting for this moment for 9 months. Frankly speaking, its kind of weird because ironically it seems like all of us have been waiting for this day to arrived. But the moment we were commissioned, we felt so sian, due to all the heavy responsibilities that we will soon have to take up upon our shoulders. It's not something to kid about especially when you have lives under your charge. Well, I will say that its a life-changing experience and a very good opportunity to learn many stuffs.

I will really like to thank God for placing me in a "8 to 5" job with such a nice upper-study (Senior) guiding me. He prayed for me while we were talking in my room. He also told me that there will be a weekly Christian Fellowship during lunch time. He's really a cool and nice dude who's been very hospitable to me. Together, we shall shine for Christ our Lord

7 days to Commission!

2008-06-08T18:15:00.002+08:00

Hey folks, I can't imagine that I will be commissioning in 7 days time. Time seems to fly pass so fast. From the day I entered in BMTC to 7 days later, I have been serving my NS for a year already. Sad that I don't know my posting yet. Wondering what's in store for me after I commission. Heavy responsibility upon my shoulders. How's life like being an officer? dots dots dots..

Quote of the week: "If you think like you always thought, you will get what you always got"

To live in God's abundance blessings and to be who He intended you to be, you will have to change the way you think and think like how God sees and thinks. Amen

Taiwan here I come

2008-04-13T18:18:00.001+08:00

Will be flying off for Taiwan for 3 weeks later tonight. Will be missing lots of you big time. Please do keep me in prayers for journey mercy. Thanks folks. Love you guys

Musselicious

2008-03-30T02:01:00.002+08:00

Had dinner with Dew at this restaurant, The Mussel Guys Seafood and Steak Restaurant at Vivocity. The food was amazingly good. I had seafood baked rice while Dew had her medium done sirloin steak with king prawn. They are very generous with their mussels in their baked rice. Its very fresh and taste very good partly due to its melted cheese and mayo underneath I guess. And as for the medium done sirloin steak, its sooooooo tender.. Gosh, I never had eaten such nice piece of beef. I'm not exaggerating. Too bad couldn't take a photo of it. Folks, you have to go and try to know it. It's something that you can't miss. Their seafood platter is like wooo hoo, seen people ordering it. Its like whoa... when it's serve. They have interesting beverages too, one of which is King Durian.

A good place to catch up with friends in a nice setting air-conditioned room or can choose to have a romantic dinner with your date next to the sea. Here's their website: www.musselguys.com.sg

Movies Reviews

2008-03-22T10:15:00.004+08:00

Lately, I've been watching quite a few movies and there's 2 that really touches my heart: The Leap Years and The Water Horse.

Genre: Romance/Drama
Director: Jean Yeo Lay Kuan
Cast: Wong Li Lin, Ananda Everingham, Joan Chen, Qi Yu Wu, Tracy Tan, Sylvester Loo, Vernetta Lopez, Nadya Hutagalung, Paula Malai Ali, Allan Wu, Jason Chan Keng-Kwin
Runtime: 1 hr 30 mins
Released By: GV/Mediacorp Raintree Pictures
Rating: PG

Synopsis:

Inspiration from the author- Dr. Catherine Lim
Some years ago, while conducting an English language workshop on a hot, dreary afternoon for a large group of students in Singapore, I suddenly felt sorry for them, and decided to tell them a story. It was a romantic love story calculated to make any sixteen-year-old sit up and listen with full attention. I told them about a young Singaporean girl who unexpectedly meets her dream man on a special day - 29 February 1988 - when a quaint old Leap Year custom allows women to make the first move in a romantic encounter. Our heroine does precisely that. Hereafter she and the dream man, both exceptionally attractive and brimming with life’s hopes and dreams, are caught in a dizzying spin of events that Fate seems to like visiting upon young lovers. “You will come together at last. But not yet, not yet,” says Fate mischievously.

The lovers meet every 29 February over 12 years, in breathless negotiations of the many pitfalls along the path of true love which has never run smooth anyway, before their hopes are finally fulfilled in a spectacular millennial culmination worthy of love’s loftiest dreams.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This romance story really touches my heart deeply about how a girl took a leap of faith and holds on strongly unto something which seems so impossible and crazy to many others. Can you imagine waiting for someone who appears only once every 4 years, stay for only a night and he's gone like a wind. And this goes on for 6 cycles which is 24 years? I think its probably the best local production I've seen so far. Very localize, with lots of dialogues in cantonese, scenes from the temple near my house, Chinatown and etc.. Even the songs in it is mostly from Corrine May! One thing I can tell you guys is that don't expect what you seen in the trailer to be the same as what you get in the show. Everything is a twist and you will be surprised how well the various scenes in the trailers unfolds itself and blends into the whole movie. Go catch it! Its a sin to miss it! Muhahaha

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep

Starring: Alex Etel,
David Morrissey,
Emily Watson
Geraldine Brophy,
Ben Chaplin

Directed by: Jay Russell

Snippets: Angus, a young Scottish boy, finds an unusual egg on the beach. He takes it home and cares for it until it hatches, revealing a creature unlike anything he's ever seen. With elements of a turtle, horse, frog, and alligator, could this be the mythical Water Horse of Scottish lore? Angus raises the creature as his pet and the family does its best to keep its existence a secret. But that gets more and more difficult as it grows and grows. Soon Angus and his family must find a place for their water horse -- somewhere secluded and safe. Somewhere, perhaps, like nearby Loch Ness.

Its a story based on the famous Loch Ness Monster Legend. The scottish story has lots of beautiful scenery of the Loch Ness. A wonderful story of how a boy found this egg, hatch it and the water-horse "monster" thought that he is its father. Was aggressive to others except for this boy, Augus. The legend of this water horse is as follows, that there can only be 1 water horse living on earth at any one time. Its both a female and male mammal. Before it dies, it will lay a egg, dies before the egg hatches. Its amazing how this water horse can grow like 10 feet overnight? My favourite scene is where its been chased by this bulldog, and it hides on a pond statue, acting like part of the statue itself and then show that "smurk" face after the dog couldn't find it. It's so cute! What's more interesting is that it seems to understand human language as Augus talks to it. Its a very clever mammal and emotional one too. As for the rest, I'll leave it for the story to unfold to you folks. I was told that the story wasn't nice, but I find it touching except that it contains certain military elements in it. I heard sobbings here and there in the cinema.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Will be posting up several songs from movies such as Juno, P.S I Love You and The Leap Years. Enjoy =)

NEWSONG

2007-11-04T03:18:00.001+08:00

I have uploaded several new worship songs that really touched me, in my player. So guys, feel free to play around and listen to the various songs. There's these 2 songs by the band, NEWSONG that I wanted to highlight.

I tried uploding and send these 2 songs with its lyrics and some write-ups that I tot of, via the cg mail quite sometime ago, even before I enter NS but I think the cg mail doesn't allows songs to be send through.

I was looking through Benny Hinn's "This is Your Day" tv program when one of them feature Benny Hinn inviting this band, Newsong for his healing crusade and I was instantly hit by their song, so decided to get hold of their cd and check them out.

Arise, My Love - This is the song that was sang during the healing crusade which captured me. In my player, its entitled Track 07. The song beautifully describes the death and resurrection of Jesus who takes away our sufferings, washed away our sins and defeated Satan.

Arise, My Love
Not a word was heard at the tomb that day.
Just shuffling of soldiers feet as they guarded the grave.
One day, two days, three days had past.
Could it be that Jesus breathed His last?

Could it be that His Father had forsaken him?
Turned his back on his son dispising our sin.
All hell seemed to whisper 'Just forget Him, He's dead.'
Then the Father looked down to his son and he said

Arise, My love.Arise, My love.
The grave no longer has a hold on you
No more death's sting
No more suffering
Arise...Arise...my love.

The Earth trembled and the tomb began to shake,
and like lightening from Heaven the stone was rolled away.
And as dead man the guards they all stood there in fright
As the power of love displayed its might
Then suddenly a melody filled the air
Riding wings of wind, it was everywhere
The words all creation had been longing to hear
The sweet sound of victory, so loud and clear.

Arise, my love. Arise, my love.
The grave no longer has a hold on you.
No more death's sting no more suffering
Arise...arise....

Sin, where are your shackles?
Death, where is your sting?
Hell; has been defeated.
The grave could not hold the king.

Arise, My love.Arise, My love.
The grave no longer has a hold on you
No more death's sting
No more suffering
Arise....Arise....Arise

Light Your world - We should be doers of the word and not only hearers. Salt of the Earth and Light of the World. This is what we learned in church. There are many out who has a need to meet, a hurt to heal and lost souls to be save. Just slow down our daily pace, focus and we'll realized that there are people like this around us. We should let the love and light of God shine through us and help others, experience the love of God. This is Track 05 on the playlist

Light Your World
Two doors down one rocking chair is rocking
She sits there all alone, her husband dead and gone
The best years of her life they spent together
He was always strong, but now she's on her own
And the telephone never rings
No one laughs, no one sings
It's quiet thereDoes anyone care?

Chorus
Light your world
Let the love of God shine through
In the little things you do
Light your world
And though your light may be
Reaching only two or three
Light your world

A knocking at her door breaks the silence
She looks out to see a little boy from down the street
She cracks the door, surprised that he came over
Flowers in his hand like a little gentleman
He said, 'I picked these just for youI hope you like the color blue
Could I stay a while I love to see you smile.'

(Repeat Chorus)

It only takes a little time
To show someone how much you care
It only takes a little time
To answer someone's biggest prayer

(Repeat Chorus)

Updates ..

2007-11-04T03:14:00.001+08:00

Hey folks, here I am back blogging again, after so many weeks in camp and been super busy over the weekends. Now that I'm in OCS, time is really a premium precious thing to me. Was helping out Pris's wedding last Sun and that took up like almost the entire civilian time I have for the week.

Things have been alright. Though the training may be tough but life goes on. Here I am, in the wee hours, working on my assignments, doing my e-learning and also blogging. Haha, something that I really wanted to do after I haven't been blogging for such a long time.

Thanks Yuying for your blessing =) The Saviour King cd is great!

Mixed Feelings ...

2007-09-24T05:21:00.000+08:00

Well, just wanna blog my last entry before I leave for SAFTI Military Institute in an hour's time. I felt happy for many of my friends who made it for SISPEC. And well, I'm having some kind of mixed feelings right now. Nervous? Excited? Sad?

Well well... Hmmm... After a long week's rest, guess it's time for my muscles and brains to work again. Gonna prepare myself well for the 3 weeks confinement. New environment, new poeple that I'm gonna meet. Loved ones that I'm gonna miss very much.. Sigh..

See you guys in 3 wks time. Take care yea? And yup, pls do keep me in prayer. Thanks =)

The revolutionized Bao

2007-09-21T12:45:00.000+08:00

Was looking through forums on food earlier on and came across this new kind of Baoz out in the market. Sort of similiar to dunkin' donuts style, pretty interesting. Check it out:
http://eatandtrain.blogspot.com/2007/09/mr-baoz-e-revolutionized-bao.html

Short trip to Muay/ Sept 16, an auspicious day?

2007-09-17T09:27:00.000+08:00

Went for a short trip to Muay, Malaysia ytd with my family for a short trip to spend time with them and to relax myself after 3 months of "suffering" in Tekong... haha. No shopping involved this trip, compared to the usual trip that I went before with the same agent. But boy, sure I had an interesting experience throughout the trip.

Spend some solitude time with the Lord on the bus while the rest went down to the temple on our first destination. After which we had lunch and some funny incident happened due to a wedding lunch taking place in the restuarant.

After lunch, they went deep into a village for some poker card reading. Not wanting to join them, I equipped myself with my camera and decided to explore around for the 3 hours waiting time. This probably is the most fruitful takeaway from my trip over there. After reading up with what I can do with my camera, I finally understand what my camera is capable of doing and really appreciate it very much.

Ever seen such round mangoes?

Hmmm not sure if its a woodpecker or a humming bird on top of a TV cable pole - artistic shot?

Kids trying to "fish" Jambu fruits from nearby tree

Kids having fun along the village

Another artistic shot?

Testing the capability of my camera - Close-up of a red dragonfly

What about this yellow dragonfly? Any close to National Geographic or Animal Planet standard's?

Miss some old kampung village?

Went for dinner after that and I realized that many couples were getting married ytd. Besides the wedding lunch, saw a bridal car passing by at the village and at the restuarant where we had our dinner, there held 4 wedding dinners simultaneously at different function rooms. We even shared and used 1/4 of the last function room that held a wedding function. Interestingly, we helped to clap our hands to welcome the bride and groom when they suddenly walked into the room. Compared to their wedding dinner, what we have here in SG is so luxurous, bride and groom walking in with fanfare entries in big hotels with many tables of guests. Over there, they just simply play a mandrain love duet song over the KTV system and the bride and groom just walk into the room to their VIP table and everyone just sit down and carry on doing their own stuffs. According to my mum, for them in Muay, to be able to hold their wedding dinner in a restuarant is a luxury for them already. Interesting isn't it? Is 16 of Sept an auspicious day?

Another interesting factor during the trip was that I managed to finish reading a book entitled, Tuesdays with Morrie - An old man, a young man, and life's greatest lesson. Tuesdays with Morrie is a very interesting colleage final thesis of a US journalist, Mitch Albom with his Professor, Morrie Schwartz in a storybook form, about how to live life and life's greatest lesson when both of them rekindled their relationship in the last month's of Morrie's life. Mitch visits Morrie in his apartment every Tuesday and talked about different topics in life, thus naming this book - Tuesdays with Morrie, which is US No. 1 bestseller.

The content is so good that I've learnt so much lesson about life from it. As the book is coming to an end with Prof Morrie's death. I suddenly felt a surge of sadness growing in me and left me pondering much about the things I had read in the book. I felt there are so many things to be done in life, everything that is written in the book, is so in-line with what we learned in church today. Culture, money, love and etc ...

Here are some snippets from the book to share with you guys:

Morrie's Aphorisms:
- "Accept what you are able to do and what you are not able to do"
- "Accept the past as past, without denying it or discarding it"

- "Learn to forgive yourself and forgive others"

- "Don't assume that its too late to get involved"

"Dying ... is only one thing to be sad over ... Living unhappily is something else ... the culture that we have does not make people feel good about themselves. We're teaching the wrong things. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it. Create your own"

About the world ~

"The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in. ... Let it come in. We think we don't deserve love, we think if we let it in, we'll become too soft. But a wise man name Levine said it right. He said, 'Love is the only rational act.'"

About feeling sorry for yourself ~
"I ask Morrie if he felt sorry for himself. 'Sometimes in the mornings', he said. 'That's when I mourn. I feel around my body, I move my fingers and hands - whatever I can still move - and I mourn what I've lost. I mourn the slow, insidious way in which I'm dying. But then I stop mourning. 'Just like that?' 'I give myself a good cry if I need it. But then I concentrate on all the good things in my life.' '"

"Mitch, I don't allow myself any more self-pity than that. A little each morning, a few tears and that's all. "

"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." - Henry Adams

"Each night, when I go to sleep, I die. And the next morning when I wake up, I am reborn." - Mahatma Gandhi

Tonardo thru Mac

2007-09-17T08:58:00.000+08:00

Went for fei-lou-ship (fellowship) after church last Sat at Taka Mac. Dinner didn't went well while we are in the midst of it when the security guard of the departmental store came over to tell us that we have to finish up our dinner in 5 mins time and leave the place cos he need to lock up the place.

The thing is that we just bought our food from the Mac counter and settled down for our meals. We were pretty irritated by what happened because the guard told us that he need to chase us off cos he need to lock up the place by 9.30pm but it was already 9.50pm. If this is the case, then I think the staffs at Mac should stop taking dining-in orders by 9.15pm and not allowing us to order our food at 9.30pm and caused the ugly scenario to happen.

Nevertheless, we had a great time catching up with one another.

Curry sauces that we had, able to make a pot of curry

Food is here! Snatch it up everybody!!

Enjoying our food ...

The tonardo (caused by us) that had went past our table

POP LOH! ...

2007-09-08T17:06:00.000+08:00

3 months ago I was still wondering how will my NS life be like.. Many tots filled my mind and soon in a blink of an eye, everything was over and I had successfully pass out from my BMT!

Vigorous exercises, field camp, sitest, Live rifle range, Live hand-grenade throw, shell-scrape digging, 24km route march, IPPT, SOC run-down, drill competition and etc ... Its all ended. Had our last lunch at Tekong with Nasi Lemak set. This reminded me of my first meal that I had when I first came over to Tekong, just that now my hair was shaved and I'm eating in my smartest 4 than to my civilian clothes, a combat-fitted soldier with all the necessary basic military knowledge than to one who's mind was filled with all the what's in-store for me.

Had many rehearsals to prepare ourselves for the passing out parade. When the actual parade come, things happened very fast and everyone seems to be in a rush to get out of the island. Didn't have much opportunity to go around taking photos with the others in the platoon as I was accompanying my mum cos she attended my parade alone. But still, managed to take a few of these ...

Putting on "Jockey Cap Ceremony" by my mum

Picture with my mum after she had put on my jockey cap for me

From left to right: Desmond, Sam, Shawn & Cyrus

Me and my buddy: Dean

3 months in Tekong had certainly passed by very fast, now I'm awaiting to know my posting and hoping for the best for the next phase of my life in NS.

From Boys to Men

2007-06-16T02:19:00.000+08:00

Its 6 hrs away from my enlistment!! 2am right now and I'm still blogging away. Lol. Suddenly I treasure my civilian time so much, so guess I know how it feels when we have limited civilian time when we are out on the weekends.

Guess I'm pretty much prepared already. Had my graduation ceremony yesterday. Everything was great, but it was very nerve-wrecking when I'm on stage. Gosh... Don't even know why I'm feeling so nervous. Tsk tsk tsk. Sweet yet sorrowful because I'm successfully graduated but sorrow cos this is where we depart from one another and live our life on. You may view my graduation photos over here

After the whole thing, went to celebrate advance Father's day for my dad. Sent my poster for framing service and laminated my certs earlier on. Went over to Jason's place for my last cell group meeting before my enlistment and had a short guitaring session with Ivan. Thanks Ivan, I've really enjoyed and learned much from that session alone. Will practice hard!

Well, I've recevied many 'take-care message' and blessings from friends, members and 'mummy' thus far. Am really grateful for all these. Please keep me in prayer. Thanks everyone!

2 more days ...

2007-06-14T11:00:00.000+08:00

hmmm 2 days away from my enlistment, am kind of nervous and wondering how's things inside gonna be like. Anyway for this entire week, I've been going out day after day non-stop with my mum and friends spending time with them like never before. Lol really feel like spending my last hours with them before my 2nd phase of life begins.

Now that my mum had stopped working, been spending lots of time with her at home and going around to shop for my NS stuffs. Really felt so blessed all these and every morning she's like prepare lots of nice breakfast instead of the normal bread for me. Thank God for blessing me with a mum like this!

Thanks Sihan for organizing the outing with the rest of the guys. Had much fun too and of cos, not forgetting the shopping spree on Tues with Henry. Wahahaha!! Shop shop shop! and my mum was like going into NS alr no chance to wear still want to shop so much? lol.. But well, really thanks so much guys!! This is one of the best moments I have with all of u =)

Later on will be my graduation ceremony and tmr night will be my last cell group meeting before enlistment, so yep, photos photos and MORE PHOTOS!! (with hair).. muhahaha

Fish '&' Chips @ Manhattan Fish Market with the guys

Fang Ming and Zhen Eng

Reeve!!

Sihan (organizer) and Eric

Fang Ming's BMW X5

Crayfish Ramen @ Ajitsen Ramen - Mum's treat

Lamb chop with mashed potato @ Villa'ge - Henry and Paige

Back from KL!

2007-06-14T09:35:00.000+08:00

Woah finally I'm back from KL. Overall its a pleasant trip for me and my family. Thanks Jason for his recommendation for the travel agency, guides and etc... The service on the bus was really good; attitude and service of the steward is good, they make sure you are fed with food and biscuits, feel comfortable with movies and music and hot drinks throughout the journey to KL.

We reached KL around 11.30pm and took a cab to our hotel - Royale Bintang (I will recommend this hotel and will definately choose to go back to this hotel again), check-in and went down to the night street for supper. Was quite surprised that the entire street sells food till really late in the wee hours, some are 24 hrs. So there won't be lack of food to eat over there. Haha and what surprised me was that when we went back to my hotel room, I saw 2 ladies with an extra bed waiting outside my room. I had requested for an additonal bed for my room with my family earlier on but the thing is that we had informed the receptionist that we are going out for supper, and I know that the room service ppl can have access to our rooms and they can just leave the bed there.

So seriously I do not know how long have they been waiting outside and I felt really bad about it. So we are like asking them how come they don't want to go in with the access key and just leave it there. And their reply was they are told that if the guest is not in his/her room, they are not supposed to go in although they have the access key. For whatever reason I don't know but one thing that I'm sure is that I know I can trust the hotel staffs and leave my things in the hotel room without any worries that they will ransack my stuffs or take some stuffs away which I experienced quite a few times at diff hotels before.

The next morning we went down for breakfast and the food is good with lots of variety! Then we set off for Berjaya Times Square(Vivocity). Witnessed a 1st International KL dancing competition over there, its very interesting. Then we moved off to Lot 10(Lido) for lunch and some shopping. After which we proceeded to Sungei Wang and Bukit Bintang Plaza(Far East) and I got most of my tops there. Seriously there's nothing much to buy over there for my parents and relatives. My relatives only bought some baby clothings and I got a few tops. The rest are spend on eating only. I also realized the KL is dominated mainly by Starbucks. I walked past like 10 starbucks, 1 coffee bean and 1 dome? Haha. After all the shopping, we went back to the hotel for a rest and went down for the Latenight Chinatown Buffet. The food was phew... fresh and delicious! Haha.. After which we took a cab over to Chinatown. Was very crowded n pretty chaotic over there too but didn't buy anything. Then we decided to walk back to the hotel. The distance was like er... dunno how many kilometres but I only know we walked really long! I'm like telling my mum I can train for my 48 km for NS lol.

Went to Plaza Low Yat(Sim Lim square) and KLCC(Takashimaya) the next day but too bad cannot go out to the twin towers since its only open from Mon-Thurs. Left KL at 4pm and reached SG at about 10.30pm. Halfway through the journey the bus broke down to the rain. Heard that the sensor of the bus come into contact with water or something and its not functioning properly. So they arranged for a back-up bus for us. I will rate a 7/10 as an overall experience. Hees.

Please view the photos I took over here

Extravagant Worship Snippets 1

2007-06-06T10:18:00.000+08:00

Friends, recently I've been reading a book called "Extravagant Worship" written by Darlene Zschech. She is known to many of us as the worship leader of Hillsong Church. Through this book, I realized that she is not just a powerful worship leader but also one incredible spiritual leader.

The first time I saw the book, I was thinking deep down in me, "Woah, this is an interesting book, what could be in the contents of a book written by a worship leader of a chuch? How to sing and worship in a way to get into His strong presence during service and our daily quiet time?" - Is all I thought of, but lo and behold, when I begin to read the book, something in me exploded as I begin to read her teachings about being an "extravagant worshipper".

Here are just some of the reviews by people who know her and read this book:

"God is using Darelene to impact the way people worship all around the world. My family and I have been impacted by her ministry and her passion for the presence of God. More than a gifted songwriter and singer, Darlene is a true leader who is pasionate about worshiping the Father in spirit and in truth and is committed to raising up others all the world to do the same. SHe is real, transparent, and vulnerable as a worship leader, but more importantly, she is the same person when she is not in front of thousands. I am honoured to endorse Darlene's ministry. As you read this book, I know you will never be the same again." - Don Moen

"Darlene's passion for the Lord and worshiping Him is clearly heard through her music and song. Be inspired as you read treasures from the heart of a true worshiper." - Michael W. Smith, singer and songwriter

"Darlene's passion. spirit and music have captured the hearts of millions of worshipers around the world. However, as a personal friend, I've been able to see her as a wife, mother, pastor, and leader. Darlene's humility, insight, and expereince will help you to unlock the door to the secret place. If you're ready to know God more, get ready to read!" - Alvin Slaughter, music minister and concert artist

"When chuch historians reflect on the worship revolution that happened around the turn of the twenty-first century, Darlene Zschech will be credited for playing a major role" - Bill Hybels, Senior Pastor, Willow Creek Community Church

"... What truely blesses me is that she is the same person whether she is on or off the platform. She remains the same gracious, humble woman whose heart has always been to worship and glorify God ... If you long to become an extravagant worshiper, the this book will inspire you, as Darelene shares her journey to attain her foremost desire and passion: to be an extravagant worshiper herself!" - Brain Houston, Senior Pastor, Hillsong Church

So here I am, to share some snippets from the first chapter of her book about what true worship is about, to those who haven't have the chance to read this book.

As paraphrase from her book:

Everyone in the town knew her as a sinful woman, a prostitute, but her selfless display of extravagant worship changed how everyone remembers her now. Jesus was in Bethany, reclining at he table in the home of Simon the Leper. "When she learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them" - Luke 7:37-38

Imagine the depth of this woman's tears being enough to clean the dusty feet of Jesus! Imagine the gratitude that moved her to boldly display her devotion and adoration of the Man reclining at the table. With tears flowing from a sobbing heart, she washed the Lord's tired feet and wiped away the soil with tresses of her hair. Then she perfumed His feet with oil from her alabaster jar that was valued at a year's wages. Her love for Jesus knew no bounds. When the others voice their disapproval of her extravagance, Jesus said, "Leave her alone. She has done a beautiful thing to me."

So what does it mean to be an extravagant worshipper?
Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines it as "2a: exceeding the limits of reason b: lacking in moderation, balance and restraint c: extremely or excessively elaborate 3a: spending much more than necessary b: profuse, lavish."

Extravagant worship means to be elaborate in our offering of admiration of Him; our worship is to be over and above reasonable limits previously established. The cause of Christ pumping away in our veins should cause extraordinary praise to the Father.

When we stand before the Lord to worship Him, we are to worship Him in truth. To do so, we must ask ourselves, "How big are the debts Jesus canceled for me?" How generous was He towards me when considering the pain my sins inflicted upon Him? How much thanks do I owe Him for canceling the consequences of my past? Am I overgenerous with my worship? Do I exceed the limits when praising Him? Or am I merely doing what is required, merely fulfilling the basic level of commitment? Am I simply trying to earn my right of passage? If our worship is spiritual and truthful, we will search our souls and appraise the value we place on His love for us.

The Oxford English Dictionary describes extravagant as "wasteful." This particularly grabbed my attention, for one of the most beautiful accounts of extravagant worship in the Bible is this story of how the gift of perfume from the sinful woman was considered "wasteful" by those around her. But as she poured out her costly perfume from the alabaster jar, she must have wished she had even more to give Him. As she poured out her tears in offering, He washed away her brokenness. As she loved extravagantly, He forgave extravagantly. Her action of elaborate love toward her Lord is a powerful example of true, heartfelt worship.

Her act of worship had nothing to do with music or song, but it had all to do with being extravagant in devotion to her Saviour. What is worship, and what are we doing when we worship? True worship, the kind of worship that God seeks, is described in John 4:23-24: "Yet a time is coming and has onw come when the true wroshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth."

Friends, true worship is when one's spirit adores and connects with the Spirit of God, when the very core of one's being is found loving Him, lost in Him. True worship is not about songs being sung; it is not about the size of the band; it is not about the size of the choir. Although music is a wonderful expression of worship, it is not itself the essence of it. The core of worship is when one's heart and soul, and all that is within, adores and connects with the Spirit of God. In fact, regardless of how magnificent the musical moments are, unless one's heart is fully engaged in the worship being expressed, it is still only music. The song of a pure heart this is yearning for more of God and less of oneself is the music that holds the key to many victories and delights the heart of our King!

Amazing Quiet Time

2007-05-27T23:39:00.000+08:00

I was having QT yesterday morning as usual. Started off a little late thus I'll only have 40 mins for it else I'll be late for work. After been impacted by Ivan's entry about how Zilun, the zone secretary led the prayer focus and will not start to pray until the presence of God is there, even though they only have a limited time of an hour, I did not go straight into prayer but worship with the 2 new songs.

As I flow from "Stay with You" to "One life, One love" as smoothly as I can, I was surprise to realize that all of a sudden, it seems like I can switch between the chords smoothly and play my Bm and F#m without any problem, as thou I had mastered the barre chords. In the midst through the song, I have already sensed the presence of God. After I'm done with the song and wanted to stay praying, I sensed that the Holy Spirit telling me to play it one more time! So I picked up my guitar and played through "One life, One love", singing in the spirit.

When I ended the song, I realized that I'm left with only 10 mins but I did not panic because I knew that even if I only have 5 mins, one touch from God can even feel like an hour, Amen? So I began to pray, Boy oh boy, the presence of God is so strong that I began to weep, the moment I closed my eyes. Never have I wept like this before during my QT. And folks, have you ever realized that when someone is praying when he/she is filled with the Holy Spirit, he/she sounds differently? The tone, voice, the words he/she use is different from when they normally pray.

And yeah, that happened to me. I sounded differently, prayed differently, it seems like I don't even need to think much about what to pray. Words just flow after one another and bible verse just comes naturally as I speak. Phew, it such an unforgettable experience with the Lord. After I'm done with my praying, 10 mins have exactly past and I went to prepare for work.

Thank God for this amazing experience. Hallelujah!

Amazing weekend with Pst Benny Hinn

2007-04-16T06:51:00.000+08:00

Just got over the weekend with Pst Benny Hinn in the Singapore Indoor Stadium (SIS). The experience was incredibly amazing!! Its only been 3 nights with him and it had impacted me SO much. How I wish I can experience it for the rest of my life. By the end of the 3rd day, I'm so impacted by him that I'm wanted so much and prepared to be in Benny Hinn's ministries at all cost! I believed those in the choir will agree with me too. Its like we are ready to lay down our lifes anytime just to follow Pst Benny around the world for all his crusades to minister to the people as his choir!

Over here, pls allow me to share with all of you a flashback review of what happened in 3 days:

Day 1, Fri 7.40pm
I can sensed that Pst Benny Hinn felt that the anointing of the Lord tonight isn't very strong as things are really rushing through although we had a 3.5 hrs of crusade conference. As choir, we entered the hall at ard 4pm and rehearse thru the songs with Pst Jim, Pst Benny's music director which is also our conductor. Plan for a series of song sequence + altarcall songs, followed by 'Nothing is Impossible', the entry song that Pst Benny will enter the hall with.

So when the moment is here, instead of the sequence, we immediately started off with 'Nothing is Impossible' and Pst Benny entered the hall already. Sharing with us his testimony of what's going on recently. He just finished his crusade in India with 6 mil attendance andIndonesia with 1.5 mil attendance some time back and a group of 10 arabic ppl approached him and invited him to their nation to preach a healing crusade. And you shl know muslim countries do not allow Israelities. What's more if Pst Benny is a Christian. You shl know what I'm trying to say right?

So Pst Benny was telling the group of ppl that he can't enter Arabic countries cos his passport bears the word Born in Israel. And know what the group of Arabic ppl said? "If you say yes, we'll give you a new passport in 5 mins time!" Woah, can u see how much they wanted him to go to their countries? So Pst Benny was telling them he will go if their government officials allow him to do so. So he went to meet the President and asked permission. And guess what's the reaction of the Arabic President? He stood up at the back of his hse with out-stretched arms and said: "Welcome to my country". Can you believed that! A muslim country actually opened up to a Israelite and welcome Christianity to his country!!

Then he preached his Salvation message, had altarcall for salvation, followed by performance by the choir again, collect offerings with his offering message of financial prosperity when we give to God's works and not to building fund or any other things, which is the reason why Pst Benny was once heavily in debt cos he gave plentifully to many things in church but not to God's work. Then preached the healing message that Salvation and healing are twins and they come together as one which many churches today left out abt the healing part when we only preached abt salvation. He took many scriptures from Matt to show us that all the multitudes that followed Jesus to the hill to hear Him preached, had been healed by Him beforehand.

Then the healing begins. Testimonies were shared after that. Ppl with stroke, came in wheelchairs, tumours, a lady from Malaysia with bladder and uterus cancer whom the doc had removed her uterus from the body, an old lady who had deafness for 62 yrs since born due to fungus infection that ate up her ear drums n partial bones in her ears and a lady from Indonesia who had a 2m metal rod and 46 screws in her back to enable her to stand up straight who couldn't bend over at all and many others, were all healed that very night!

Shortly after that, Pst Benny promised that tmr will have double the anointing and bid farewell, ushered Pst Kong into the back of the hall and Pst Benny left too.

Day 2, Sat 7.30pm
The anointing tonight is really strong and you shall see what's going on:
The choir entered the hall at 4pm, learned a new song and rehearse through some sequence. When the event begins, we managed to go thru part of the sequence and followed by 'Nothing is Impossible' and entry of Pst Benny Hinn. After performance from the choir he went straight into the word of Salvation, half of the floor area were packed with ppl responding to salvation after the message. Then collection of offering, performance by choir again and then he preached the healing message. Many ppl were healed that night but they didn't get to testify when they came up to the stage as Pst Benny felt that the anointing is so strong that he's prepared to slain the stadium.

Those who were healed, came up to the stage and were slain instantly. Then he went down to the floor, to the west gate and when he shouted "TOUCHED", he slain all of them. Went up to the stage, "TOUCHED" and slain all those in the East gate, instructed those in floor area to hold hands and pray loudly. Shouted "TOUCHED" all the whole floor area slain, I even saw some in the terrace area in the north gate got slained. Then he turned to choir, instructed us to quickly hold hands and pray aloud and he shouted "TOUCHED" and the whole 1,000 strong choir got slain backwards from the bottom up. Screamings, crying and trembling filled the choir. Then we managed to got up. By this time, I'm praying while crying and screaming at the top of my voice for Jesus.

Then Pst Benny slain the Pastors one by one. Slained Pst Kong, instructed his helper to hold him up. Pst Kong was so drunk in the spirit that he couldn't even stand straight, slained 2nd time, got him up and slained 3rd time and Pst Kong couldn't get up after that. Slain a pastor from a church not in Singapore and he was trembling terribly on the stage. Slain another pastor from Indonesia and he literally flew backwards. Held him up and slained again and once again he flew backwards and trembled terribly. According to some, the pastor have not been touched by the Holy Spirit for a long while, thus when he's slained, the power came so strongly upon him that he literally flew back.

Then Pst sensed something in the spirit and quickly instructed the whole church to shout 'Hallelujah' at the count of 3. So after he counted 1,2,3, I shouted 'Hallelujah' at the top of my voice and the whole choir was slained from left to the right like as thou a hand just wave passed us with a force. Didn't know what happend after I'm slain. But according to others, ppl all over the stadium was slained too.

After I managed to got up, Pst Benny was still slaining other pastors when he suddenly said "Change of Flow" and according to Silin he looked very fierce while saying that. Then he was saying a prayer den suddenly the choir was slain again from the right to left this time round. I wasn't been slain thou ppl ard me are all down. A guy in front of me and a few futher down wasn't slain too. So I just continue to pray.

Towards the end of the service, Pst Kong managed to get up. He speaks differently after he was slained. So Pst Benny was asking him to pls bless the choir for the anointing that we had brought down. So Pst Kong just gently said: "Choir... Be blessed". And for the last time all of us were slain backwards again. This time round, Holy laughter filled the choir. But I didn't get to experience it.

Pst Benny saw a vision and told Pst Kong that Singapore will be use mightly as a center of healing among asia and other countries and Pst Benny was mentioning abt the Israel tour in Nov 4th to 13th which he will sponsor all Pastors. As for non-pastors the tour cost USD$950. And he's considering to bring the choir along at a cheaper price. Hallelujah!! Now I'm really excited.

Day 3, Sun 4pm
If you skip reading the first 2 days, you muz read the entry for this day. Its simply awesome and absolutely amazing for what happened.

We went thru the sequence with new songs and learned a new song from Ms Egre (dunno how to spell her name) entitled: You turn my morning into dancing. Its a very nice song indeed. So when the event finally begins, we have Pst Jim and Ms Egre leading the Praise n Worship for this session and we followed thru the sequence and finally to 'Nothing is Impossible' for Pst Benny Hinn to enter as usual. So after the whole intro, we got settled down. And Pst Benny got those who are in the stadium but are not from Singapore to remain standing.

So he will usually ask the overseas Pastor, followed by those in the crowd from his/ her country to sit down and rest remain standing. There are ppl from Indonesia, Malaysia as usual, then ppl from Sri Lanka, Haggai Institute, UK, Sweden, Burmar, India, Japan, Korea and surprisingly there is a very big group of ppl from Mainland China in the midst of the crowd waving and jumping frantically, seeming very excited abt it.

Its time for us to perform again and when Pst Benny turned to us, he realised the choir was standing throughout the whole thing and forgot abt us. So he was asking are our hands tired? And we shouted 'No!' cos we really wanted to sing for him so much. He was taken aback and was commenting that we are the only choir that talk to him like this. And he definately like our "Wooo... Wooo" thingy. And was asking Pst Kong is this a special asia thing? And Pst Kong's reply was its a City Harvest thing!! LOL!! Wooooo.....

Pst Benny was very excited because for all his healing crusade, never have he ever had a group from China that came for it. So after the performance by the choir, before he preached the salvation sermon, he wanted to do a short film for his TV Show: "This is Your Day". So he got all the ppl from China to come up to the stage as he's really excited abt this group of ppl from China. And to my surpirse there are many others from the other side of the stadium, came running down to the stage too.

So Pst Benny was interviewing them for the film-taking with a chinese interpretor from our church. Firstly Pst Benny was very curious how did they found out abt his crusade. So a guy told him that 2 yrs ago, they came as a small cell group of 20 and Pst Benny promised the congregation to give them 3 times the anointing. Then they got back to China and grew from 1 to 4 cell groups, to 8 cell groups and now they have 500 ppl with them! Ok for those who dunno what's amazing about this is that. In China, the government prohibits Christianity and those who carrys a bible will be prosecuted. Many Christian leaders in China was put to jailed, prosecuted and executed for it. So imagine these group of 500 ppl have to gather secretly, risking their lifes in them homes to pray every week.

Then there's this lady who gotten one of Pst Benny's book 6 yrs ago which was given to her by her friend, like Pst Benny's anointing so much that she illegally installed a satellite in her hse just to watch Pst Benny's "This is Your Day" Tv show every day! I can see that Pst Benny is really touched by what they are doing for Him. And now he's curious to find out whether can they sing for him 'How Great Thou Art' in Chinese. And they really sang it very nice. Gosh I was like how did they even get hold of his ministry songs in the first place!! When all this are prohibited in China. And I think they even managed to sing 'Holy Spirit Thou Art Welcome in This place' in Chinese. Gosh they sounded REALLY angelic. They even have the aged, 60 + over and a lady in wheelchair who came down just to see Pst Benny face to face! And the lady received healing on the spot. By now Pst Benny is really moved to tears by them.

To those reading this entry out there, can you feel how strong the love for Christ of China is right now?? They are dying to risk their life to do anything just to get to Jesus!! Then all of us prayed for open doors in China. Then the same guy who spoke initially testified that he saw a vision of God greatly opening up a door in China and said that China is such a big countries and there are millions of ppl waiting to be save! He sounded really on fire as he speaks, just like a pastor! Then Pst Benny got all of them to hold hands and slain all of them on stage. Take note, all these took place while the film for "This is Your Day" clip is going on.

The whole thing is really really touching and all of us can feel the love they have for Christ that the choir guys were weeping, including me. This itself is so powerful that Pst Benny dun even need his salvation message. He just said for those out there who wants to know the Jesus that they do, raise up your hand and come out of your seats now! The whole floor was 3/4 filled with ppl responding to Salvation, calling out to Jesus!! Can you see how amazing the whole thing was???

After this Pst Benny got everyone to go back to their seats and wanted the choir to perform again. Then he preached the offering message using only the verse from Luke 6:38. And he was sharing when he was younger, he went to Pst Oral Roberts hse one day and he asked Pst Benny to read that verse. Den he asked him, how many times did the verse mentioned 'Give'? Pst Benny said 1. Den he asked again, how many times did the verse mentioned "Recieved"? Pst Benny said: "I don't know. I don't say the word 'recevie' in the words at all." So Pst Oral asked Pst Benny to repeat the verse again and asked the same qns. And Pst Benny repeated the same ans. So now Pst Oral said looked carefully, the verse said 'received' 7 times.

Luke 6: 38: "Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure you use, it will be measure back to you."

Give - 1 time
It will be given - 1 time
To you - 2 times
God measure - 3 times
Pressed down - 4 times
Shaken together - 5 times
Running over - 6 times
Put into your bosom - 7 times!

Woah.. So Pst Oral was telling Pst Benny to test the Lord out. So Pst Benny went back to his church, gave his weekly offering and started writing, 'Dear God, get me out of debt', on the plain white back of the offering envelope just like our church. He did this for months but nothing happened. Pst Oral also asked him did you give to God's work? So Pst Benny was thinking abt it so he went back to his office and started sending out cheques to all the different churches, even to pastors that he may not like. Note that during this time, he's heavily in debt. So his secretary was very worried and called all the board of directors down. 7 out of 9 left the church on that day claiming that they will not want to be in a church with a pastor in debt!

2 who remained with him asked him nervously if he realy saw a vision from God abt this and Pst Benny confidently said "Yes". And even up till today the 2 of them are still with Pst Benny up on stage sitting among the pastors. And so, I was saying Pst Benny did the writings behind the envelope till 1 Sunday, he's left with only 10 cents in his pocket. So when it came to offering time, he really doesn't want to give it out cos that is what he is left with! But God spoke to him to take that 10 cents out! And Pst Benny was like God you ain't serious right?? But God spoke to him strongly, put that 10 cents out! So he nervously took the 10 cents out of his pockets and put it onto the brass offering plate.

After service, he went to this delicious chicken restuarant with his group of friends and Pst Benny always pays the bills for them. This time round, there is this plump girl who fell in love with Pst Benny joined them for lunch. So when its time to pay the bills, Pst Benny was thinking to God what can he do now since he had alr given his last 10 cents to God. And suddenly the plump girl raised up her hand and said, this week its on me! Woah Thank God!.. Haha...

But after sometime, Pst Benny was still in debt so he went back and asked Pst Oral what's happening? So Pst Oral was asking him, do you believe in God? Pst Benny was replying of cos he do! Then Pst Oral said then praise Him for it! For that when you praise God for his works, it creates faith.

So Pst Benny went back to church and wrote down 'Dear God, I praise you for that I'm getting out of debt. Amen' at the back of the envelope for 6 mths! Then one day after service, this man with his wife whose hair curls up like a tall tower and have a piece of jewel on top of it, asked Pst Benny to have lunch with them and handed him a cheque of telling him that the Lord spoke to him to give him a cheque to clear his debt! Woah amen!!

Then Pst Benny got us to sing "Let God Arise" and preached the healing message from Matt abt how Jesus healed the multitudes, a leper, paralytic, 2 blind men and perform many healing miracles for days continuously without complaining that he's tired because He's a healing Jesus! Then Pst Benny began to minister the sick. This time round the queue to share testimony is really long, all the way to the back on both sides. Then halfway through the sharing, Pst Benny felt the anointing to slain so he instructed them to just bring them up and slained them.

Then halfway thru, he turned to the choir and told us to hold hands and continue praying. Pst Benny was saying some prayer which I can't really make out what he is saying den all of us are slain from the left to right and instantly filled with Holy laughter. It was louder den it was ytd. But I didn't experience it but was trembling all over. Then when I'm abt to recover from it, Pst Benny instructed all the Malaysians to come down to the stage front. Den he turned to us and said that the choir shall received double the anointing and we were filled with the Holy laughter once again, so loud that the whole stadium could hear it! I only exp some giggling...

Didn't know what happened. But when I got up, Oh my goodness! The whole floor area was so packed that it filled all the way to the back and those in front were all slained. So before the whole thing ended, he promised to go into China and Malaysia. He even told Pst Kong that he loves him so much that when he goes to China he will bring him along. And he called out the pastor from Indonesia and told her that he will be back in Jakarta for a crusade in June 2008 and guess what? He told Pst Kong that for him, he will come back to Singapore anytime he wants!! WOAH!! Praise the Lord. And this is something that I'm really excited about. He turned to the choir and told us, he is serious abt bringing us to Israel with him and he will be discussing with Pst Kong abt it!! So when all of them left, Pst Jim bidded us goodbye for the last time and told us: "See all of us in Israel this Nov!"

Wahaha I'm really so excited abt it!! Anyway I just confirmed with CMPB that I'm enlisting in June, so will POP from BMT in Sept and will plan to schedule a week of overseas leave in Nov, save up and do anything at all cost just to go to Israel for Pst Benny Hinn!

Came home last night, was so impacted that I immediately search for his ministry website. Can catch it over here at "http://www.bennyhinn.org/". Watch his "This is Your day' for Monday session. It takes only like 20 mins of your life but it will truely touched you! Watch out for the one abt the little boy. Delirious was there too and listen to the "Arise, My Love" by Newsong. Its such a beautiful song

For those who didn't attend Sun's session, hopefully it will be uploaded into the clip n witness the whole China thingy yourself!

Reminiscence

2007-04-10T23:49:00.000+08:00

Have had spent half a day doing my graduation award filming in the morning before proceeding to work for the next half of the day. Was dead tired but the experience was absolutely fun! Now I finally understand why actors/ actresses must spend so many days just to film one scene, cos I myself have had so many NGs caused partly because I tongue-tied while reading my scripts but mainly due to the surrounding!

There will be NGs whenever a car drove past, loading and unloading of pellets from lorries or even when someone walk past and the area was next to a carpark, so imagine how many NGs there will be? Lol. I remembered this scene while I was reviewing one of my NG which really makes me Laugh Out Loud. I had already completed reading a long script of mine then suddenly there was this indian worker who carried something like decorative leaves walking past me from the back? Then my eyes went rolling and have a "Woo.. who's that behind me" reaction. Wah he came in really at the wrong timing lor, but looking at my own reaction is damn funny!

After which, I followed Mr Tan L.K around the different spots in NP to take scenery shots which according to him is for publication purposes? But having shared so much about the filming experiences, wonder what's going on?

After sharing all the testimonies of how God had gave me wisdom in my studies during cell group meetings, I've finally emerged as a Gold Medalist in my cohord which means I top my cohord with the overall results + CCA points for the whole 3 years in Poly.

While filling up my graduation interview form for the school, I chanced upon this question:
Are there any interesting or unusual aspects that you would like to share with us? (eg. despite the odds, you made it, you ran a business while studying to support your family, you have a unique hobby that became your inspiration, etc.)

And my reply was:
Nothing unusual in particular, but I do admit that life can be very struggling and tiring at times when I had to juggle between many activities every single day alongside with my studies. Classmates who know me witness the busyness in my life.

But I usually start off my day with quiet time spend with God, lifting my tiredness and worries to Him and trusting my life in Him. Life may be full of struggles and tiredness but somehow or rather I still manage to make it.

----------------------------------------------

With this, looking back at my life for the past 3 years, being involved as a committe member for a campus-concert CCA, a President for my division society, a secretary for a Singapore Instuition branch and juggling alongside with teaching Tkd classes after school, handling a relationship commitment and took part in POS for the Emerge Conference 2006, I remembered those times where I have to run around the school to attend meetings after meetings then cab down to CC to teach classes, reaching home late at night, hold event discussion over msn till the wee hours, not having time to do my tutorials and practical works. I think its simply amazing that I'm still able to make it up there.

I want to make it clear over here that this entry is not to boast my results or whatsoever, but instead to testify the greatness and goodness of God. Classmates always commented me as the busiest man in the world that they know of and seriously wonder how can I do it? Even my director was shocked and curious abt my capability of handling so many events while keeping my studies up there while interviewing me. I won't deny that life is really full of struggles.

These are only things that they see as a surfaced. But there are times where I broke down in front of my lecturers and ex-President from the stress level that I am facing. Life is really tiring during my poly days with abt 4 hrs of slp daily due to all these commitments. But it is not how tired and stress I am. Its about how amazingly refresh I can be everyday when I start off my day with quiet time spent with God even during my exam period!

Looking back at all these, even I am thinking woah, how did I managed to do that? It is something that one will not be able to go on for long with its physical body. What's more if I'm able to survive it for 3 yrs? For this is not the works of man alone but of God! God is so good that He takes away all my physical tiredness, worries and exchanged it with strength and joy to live thru each day. Isn't He simply wonderful? Amen?

Ransacking through Mr Tan L.K's computer for photos taken since year 1 as I will need to provide 10 photos to describe my life in NP, I managed to find many photographs of interesting memories. Thus I'm going to compile it into a video and wanna share it with u guys as I reminiscent through the good old times.

===========================================================

========== Watch out for this spot! ============

===========================================================

Presence of God @ Work

2007-03-23T07:21:00.000+08:00

While at work today, I felt the Lord speaking and revealing to me a lot of things such as the specific gifts I have from the Holy Spirit, what I want in life, my personalities and etc.. I finally know what I want to do in my life. I felt so much in me that I can't concentrate on what I'm doing.

Its the first time I felt God speaking to me so tangibly that I wanted to stop what I'm doing and listen to Him. I wanted very much to go home and type out every single thing but I can't, so I can only scribble all I want to say on a piece of paper.

Finally experience the importance of a prayer life and understand the point of my life being born through prayer. And for the first time I experience what is it like to be in the world but not of the world. Its a lil struggle to constantly communicate with my colleagues and people around me while being aware of the presence and the things that the Holy Spirit is doing at the same time. Praise the Lord for His presence. I love you Jesus!

Indeed its an interesting day for me today while at work first by experiencing His presence, secondly, I was stunt by an incident when a UPS guy came up to me at the mobile counter with a package, cos I'm still quite new over here, so I do not know how to deal with it. I brought the parcel and invoice to my colleagues and manager and apparently it caused a commotion over it. Because a lady in USA actually sent her daughter's KG 800 hp over to our service centre via UPS and she paid a total amount of SG$418 just to send the parcel over by air! The reason for this is that her daughter loves the phone very much. All these excludes any repairation expenses if needed, to the phone. Can you imagine how noble is the lady?? Gosh.. Never will I expect someone to spend so much just to UPS a hp with very basic faults over to us... The power of love... tsk tsk...

Over here I wanna share an interesting article that I saw in this week's 8 days magazine. Its about Joscelin Yeo, whom many of us know her as the Singapore swimming Champ! Its entitled " Ex-national swimmer JOSCELIN YEO has new life coach - and He's really famous " Wonder who's the He? Its God! Apparently Joscelin had retired from competitive swimming and am working full time in New Creation Church as a youth counsellor. And here's what's so interesting that I found about this article:

"I dont' think I'm religious, but I do say that I'm spiritual - there's a difference. Religious people are into your do's and don'ts. I'm not really into that. I do believe in God, in the things in the Bible. To me, it's not solely about doing what's right or wrong - it's just being true and honouring God with your life. I don't profess to be doing the right thing all the time but, by His grace, I try to. I enjoy working with youths. It's something I've always wanted to do. I counsel them on any issues they might have, and I also do programme development for the youth ministry. Before I start work, I actually do my quiet time - just spending time on the Word in the morning."
- Quote from Joscelin's article

Finally I'm online!

2007-03-04T23:49:00.000+08:00

Phew... Finally I get to come online after my yuan xiao dinner with my family. Being busy for the whole week and didn't had time to come online..

Finally had my Prom Night at Swissotel Merchant Court on Friday night. It was fun with lotsa of pics taken with my classmates. But too bad didn't managed to take with all of them. Was voted as Prom king for my course, gonna straggle those who sabotaged me!! Well, I did the most unexpected stunt in life which I dunno why I did it and I think I stunt quite a lot of people including lecturers, for that they finally saw the other side of me, besides being the studious kid in poly for 3 yrs. After which, we(Fang Ming, Vincent, Alvin, Reeve, Sihan and me) walked ard Clarke Quay and they wanted to enter MOS but too many ppl... den we suggested to walk to Esplanade and the guys wanna enter DXO but Vincent forgot to bring his IC.. lol.. so we can't enter and ended up ending prawn noodles and sting ray at Makansutra. Then we cab over to River valley road Prata house to meet Fang ming's female friend, Lyn and 2 other of her girl friends. Had a drink over there den we walk over to Cineleisure, rot around and walked to Istana park with me entertaining them with ghost stories and finally took the train home.
After a quick bath and breakfast, I went straight to work. Almost died man, felt like a dead man walking. After work, went home and KO instantly till the next morning with 2 wake up session for dinner.

Anyway, its being a week since I worked in LG Electronics Service centre as a data entry personnel. It super straining for my eyes, think my degree gonna increase again. My eye hurts everyday after I knocked off.

On Monday, went for Strikeforce MTT and finished the whole Flightphesy sequence within my 2nd session and tried stripe on drums for the first time. Was quite nervous for the trail test cos its my first time handling the strip-on drums and playing the whole sequence when its only my 2nd session for Flightphesy!!!

On Wed night, rushed down to Jurong West CHC after tkd class to celebrate Boon's bdae. Was not very successful cos we entered the auditorium with a surprise at the wrong timing and we had guest, Andrew Nyler and David Homes with the music team practising for Praise n Worship session. After the speech given by Boon and all the celebration stuffs, took 2nd last bus of 157 and reached home at ard 1 plus am.

So yeah was drained for the whole week and now I only managed to memorize till Part B of the Flightphesy sequence. Gonna memorized the whole sequence by tmr evening for the test with strip-on drums plus movement.. Oh man... God bless...

Ah Boy, You Deaf Ah?

2007-01-23T06:49:00.000+08:00

Last week, there was an article in the newspaper entitled: "Ah Boy, You Deaf Ah?", mentioning about having youngsters blasting music off their hp or mp3 in public places is on the rise.

Last night I took the MRT home from Genevieve's place and the train carriage was quite vacant. A second later, I heard very loud thumping beats from a distance away. I scanned the area of 2 carriages away from me where the direction of the sound is, but I don't see anybody with a hp blasting music. Everyone around there just look at each other with their earphones in their ears, minding their own things. So you can imagine how loud the music was when the distance was more than 2 carriages away yet I can hear every single lyric clearly. The person could probably be using a N73 or N80?

Putting that aside, I don't mind if the guy is playing some sentimental or nice music where he can share with everyone else. But no, he is blasting off techno! I'm not trying to put down techno-music listeners over here cos I myself also listens to techno. But hey can't these people be more considerate? For me, I seriously dun mind them doing such things in a place where there are only young people, thou it may be a lil' annoying. But considering a public place where there may be elderlys and even foreign visitors, what will they think of these people with their music?

The train carriages were quite vancant, probably that's why the music can be heard so clearly. How I wish there were much more people in the train and all of them will be giving the person the killer-stared look, so that he will learn how to lower down his music and blast it off at the right place at the right time.

But that's all for now folks! God bless him with his music for all things were created by God and we shall treat everyone for whom he/ she is in God.

Delirious?

2007-01-15T06:37:00.000+08:00

Had an awesome time during service today with Delirious? leading us in the Praise n Worship. Its really great to have them back. Their songs always touched me in my heart with their lyrics. During the song, "Majesty" I experienced something which I nv experience before in my life; after singing the 1st chorus, I came to a standstill, next I felt it within my face that my spirit is trembling inside. Its a very strong feeling and I can literally saw my spirit being shaken as thou someone is shaking me up, 3 times! And next, tears just flow down my cheeks uncontrollably for the rest of the song. I wonder what's that, self manifestation? Haha... I dunno, but I know its the work of God in me..

Had a great time fellowshipping with the cg after service in Suntec before going for my ministry. Finally able to catch up with the crossroad sequence with the help of practising the drumming sequence in the morning before I left house. After ministry, I'm finally able to play the whole crossroad sequence.. Phew... Praise the Lord

Back to the service, during the offering message, this answer for offering giving suddenly struck me thus I decided to blog it out:

Many times, people are asking me why must the church always ask us to give offerings? Why money? But I do not really know how to explain to them, so now I finally understand it myself.

A: Our purpose in life is to do the calling of God and be more Christlike. By being a giver, we are most like God. Why?

John 3:16 : For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life

Q: But why? Why must it be money and not other things?

A: See that God gave his ONLY begotten Son and this means he gave His most precious. Ever heard of the phrase: "Where your treasure is, your heart is", we believe that this is about the area in our finances. Ain't its true? Be true to yourself, aren't issues related to $$ sensitive to you? When you are buying gifts for friends whom you are not close to, you won't want to spend much on it, but why when it comes to buying gifts for your loved ones, ie: your gf/ bf, it doesn't matter how much it cost, so long he/ she likes it, you will get it for him/ her. Why is this so? Because money is our treasure and we are willing to give it to only those that we truely love.

Thus, that's the reason why we give money as an offering, because this tells God how much we love him, not in terms of the value that we give but how precious the amount is to us and how much of the precious value we are willing to part with, for His sake. This links to the next question.

Q: Sometimes pastor was saying that don't give your loose changes as an offering to God, you can keep it to youself, God doesn't need it. And people are asking me, why is pastor saying that? It seems like our church only want big offerings and not small little coins.

A: Look beyond what pastor is trying to say. Why did he mentioned that you can keep your loose changes and not give it to God as an offering? Because loose changes are of no precious value to you. Ask yourself, when you want to get a gift for your loved ones, will you use what you are leftover with for the week to buy it? No! cos the amount isn't precious to you. So the same applies here. What pst is trying to say is to encourage us to give a precious amount to the Lord, not actual value in terms of a few coins. Even a few coins can be very precious to a person. Why is this so? Look at the next question

Q: If I'm only left with a few coins for the week, and that is all I can give. Will God mind?

A: Luke 21: 1 -4: And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites (2 cents in their era). So He said, "Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; for all these out of their abundance(left overs) have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had."(Precious value)

So like I was saying, God doesn't look at the value, He looks into our heart, how precious the amount is to us. Say for example, 2 people give 10% of their weekly income as an offering. A small little primary school boy only have $4.50 for that week, so he gives 45 cents. For a CEO, he has $1,000 as a weekly income and he give $100 as a weekly offering. Thou the little boy can only afford 45 cents and the CEO gives $100, it seems to be a very big difference but ain't both of them giving the equal sacrifices to God? See what I mean?

Q: But if we keep giving to God, ain't we worried that we do not have enough to spend?

A: Deut 8: 18: And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day

God is the creator of all things, and this includes money. Therefore, we believe that we will never be able to outgive God. We gain faith by hearing and hearing by the word of God. BUT, Faith without action, is DEAD. Thus, by giving, we exercise our faith since we believe that we will never be able to outgive God, thus, we trust in Him in the area of our finances that we will not be in lack. The more you exercise your faith, the greater it grows.

Q: Someone once asked me an interesting question. What if a very very poor man who comes to church but even have problems settling his own meal. Must he still give?

A: This is the only reply I can give: "Let it be done according to your faith"

Welcome to my blog

2006-11-22T00:44:00.000+08:00

Phew, yet another blog created by me. But this time round its different because God spoke to me about creating this blog. Thou I know that God wants me to create a blog but I do not know what layout, design, theme and content to work on. Prayed through it and thank God, The Holy Spirit inspired me with all these ideas.

There are several reasons for creating this blog. Firstly, God spoke to me to create a blog that will touch the lives of many.

Secondly, thou I'm not really good at out-reaching, but I really want to share with friends how great our God is. So since I'm IT savvy enuff to create a blog that contains Testimonies and other stuffs to let others read about the goodness of God.

Thirdly, I believed that many out there have a misconception about going to church and things that we do in church, thus preventing them to open their hearts to the lord or even not coming to church. Thus, this is where I want to expose the truth to them, so that they will not have the wrong concept from hearing what others said.

I've a lot to update about the contents in the blog. Thus, its kind of still under construction. So please pardon me if you keep seeing changes the next time you visit my blog =)