Sure and Stedfast

"13For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,
14Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.
15And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
16For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
17Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:
18That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
19Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;
20Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. "

-- Hebrews 6: 13-20

Over in the Meadow

Watch and learn this song below! : )

Teaching this song to our new 18-24 months old kids in children service, its call Over in the Meadow. actions are similar, fun and cute : )




Cute rite, try it out in front of your computer screen and follow the guy! : )

here's the lyrics:

Over in the meadow,

In the sand in the sun

Lived an old mother toadie

And her little toadie one

"Wink!" said the mother;

"I wink!" said the one,

So they winked and they blinked

In the sand in the sun

Over in the meadow,

Where the stream runs blue

Lived an old mother fish

And her little fishes two

"Swim!" said the mother;

"We swim!" said the two,

So they swam and they leaped

Where the stream runs blue

Over in the meadow,

In a hole in a tree

Lived an old mother bluebird

And her little birdies three

"Sing!" said the mother;

"We sing!" said the three

So they sang and were glad

In a hole in the tree

Over in the meadow,

In the reeds on the shore

Lived an old mother muskrat

And her little ratties four

"Dive!" said the mother;

"We dive!" said the four

So they dived and they burrowed

In the reeds on the shore

Over in the meadow,

In a snug beehive

Lived a mother honey bee

And her little bees five

"Buzz!" said the mother;

"We buzz!" said the five

So they buzzed and they hummed

In the snug beehive

It's a counting song actually, enjoying yourself, click replay! : )

God's compassion

My mum left a note on the table in the morning saying that she might be late coming home. Later when she came back, she informed that one of our block flat neighbour auntie passed away from stomach cancer in the morning.

Just last week, my mum heard about the auntie who stayed below us who was hospitalised. The auntie was actually warded a month plus ago, but her husband kept quiet, until the 'wind' got out. My mum started to share about her, this auntie was on kidney dialysis 18-20 years ago till she did a kidney transplant. my mum was even her gurantor in the financial process. i was too young to know that, and i often saw her and her husband since we stayed so close. they helped to take care of their only daughter's baby daughter. i saw the baby from a small toddler to now a primary school attendin kid i guess.

Every now and then, when i pass by their home or see them in the neighbourhood or in the lift, i will say hi to them. But i never know that the auntie has such sickness.

And in my busyness with life, i did not even notice her MIA in the nieghbourhood.

When my mum heard about her condition, she was shocked too, and when she visited her earlier this week, the auntie had actually told the doctor to not treat her when she warded a month ago, i.e she just waiting for a time to be up.

This morning, the uncle called my mum and informed her that the auntie is in a dangerous stage. so my good hearted mum went witht the uncle via taxi to TTSH. it was rush hour. jam. when they reach the hospital's taxi stand, the auntie has already passed away.

She was not a believer.

not the only
neither was my cousin one, when she passed away last month from a long-period suffering cancer. my cousin suffered many year, was well then came back again. when i visited with my parents on new year's day, i was shocked to see that the cancer has taken away most of her flesh. what i saw left was a skeleton covered with a thin layer of skin.

She told me" very scary hor my looks, its so fast.." she used to be quite prosperous.

i dont even know what to say. i sat that watching my mum massaging her limbs. I sat and i sat. wondering why it took me so long to by visit her.

she din make it to the lunar new year. her daughters are as old as me. every lunar new year, she will give me ang bao, she watch me grow up. she and her husband are very nice people.

i miss her and i miss the auntie in my block.

..

This morning, there was silence in the air when my mum told me that my neighbour has passed away. it all happened so fast. it was a hot topic at home this week.

And i tot i heard God cried.

this song came to mind:

Jesus loves the little children,
all the children of the world,
red and yellow, black and white,
they are precious in His sight,
Jesus loves the little children of the world.

it so happen that that the most recent sermon by my pastor was on the blood of healing. on God's healing of the sick. I believe God can, and will heal the sick. period.

where is the love?
but what Pastor asked about our compassion quotient is the main issue that God wants show me and deal with.

On a scale of 0 to 10. 0 being a stone cold heart, and 10 being a super compassionate Mother Teresa type, where am i on the compassion quotient scale? Pastor say cannot play cheat and choose five, cos its not left or right. i was thinking about it.

as i type this, i realised i am probably on scale 2 or 3 right now. reason being i am too concern about my own agenda right now. and i really thank God for showing me. (if you noticed, my mum is so much more compassionate then me. she is more than wonderful.)

less i grow colder and freeze to death. thank God he offers a way out. its about how you see people: do you see them as trees(part of the landscape) or do you see them as God sees? i.e His children..

From Mark 8:22-25:

22They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. 23He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, "Do you see anything?"
24He looked up and said, "I see people; they look like trees walking around."
25Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26Jesus sent him home, saying, "Don't go into the village.[a]"


I pray that God open my eyes to see people as He sees. and to love people as He loves. In Jesus name, Amen!

God's Agenda

Yesterday was wednesday, and its the weekly prayer group meeting day, i was late and when i reach the sky garden, none of my mates are there. i try looking around, but i guess they were really not there.

i wanted to walk away since no one was around, then i decided to stay on the length of time to talk to God and to listen to Him.

The Holy Spirit reminded me that Jesus is the Prince of peace. Where Jesus is, there will be peace.

i needed that peace. For too long, i have been occupied with my own agenda, my work's agenda. Man's agenda that is.

i have not been going to prayer meeting since the 1st time. we have different lunch hours, so have to literally sneak out if have to go.

so yesterday when i managed to sneak out, and end up not finding my mates, i find my self hungry.

hungry for the presence of God, the Bible said that when 2 or 3 gather in His name, His presence will be there. So i hunger. i have not felt this way for such a long time. God is good.

I read a email about a fellow prayer group over at Raffles place this afternoon. For a summary, during this CNY period, the group decided to split into pairs and go around blessing folks with $2 and a bible verse inside the red packet. End up with this initiitaitive, they get to know the folks, most are cleaners, flyers distributor, old folks. some pray and blesss for them:

RAch, Charmanine and I went to Hong Lim complex around the hawker centre. I must confess that I need to take some effort to identify the people that we were hoping to bless as its easy to see them blended into part of the colourful landscape that was shouting at us for attention. Charmaine very quickly spotted an aunty with a cart of cardboards and we went over to her. Then, we learnt that the ability to speak in dialects is very important as none of us knew how to speak Cantonese to the aunty. But, the aunty went to get a friend to translate for her and we learnt quickly to check among ourselves the languages we can speak. Rach spotted the second aunty who was the cleaning lady at Chinatown point. She was very open to share her concern of job security. She was afraid that her employer would find her too old for the job as there were younger people readily available. The third aunty was selling tissue at Hawker centre. She shared about her concern for her children who are not married and dont have a steady job. We prayed a short prayer for her before heading off to grab our lunch.

Note that names of character are changed. The above is just a story of a small grp just this very week. Imagine many of this lovers of neighbours walking around the streets of singapore touching the lives in the name of Jesus.

i will love to see that. won't you?

But first, i figured i have to put aside my Man's agenda and work on God's agenda. that's quite a mountain. : P

May we all be lovers of our neighbours.

cool.

Praise God for His love for us.

Grace of God

" But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them - yet not I , but the grace of God that was with me. " 1 Cor 15:10

God is good, this few days, I have been seeking Him over certain issues, and He brought me to a book about grace of God by Ps Joseph Prince. I read a few chapters, and as the sharing of grace is pretty new to me, i was still absorbing it in and need some more firmer teachings and perspective on it.

And then i went to attend a church meeting this evenin, and one of the pastor just started sharing on the grace of God, so i was so thankful. one thing is that the book has been with me almost two years and i have never get reading it. and i just picked it up and God starts teaching me new things.

So its really about timing.

i always believe that our God is a living God. This means to me that God is someone who will speak constantly to us. He is real and He is living and He does not stop there in the Bible.

Bang!
The other day, i was in the car with my family members going for new year visits, and my eldest brother was driving. And we had a mini accident, the driver in front cut into our lane and did a e-brake as the car infront of her did a e-brake too. it was too late for my bro to react and our car banged into the lady's car.

It was my first car accident experience.

Besides the 'troubles' over the cost of paying for the car repairs of the other party. and some bruises on my gf and mum's limb. I really thank God, because i saw the greater grace of God at work.

First, there was no serious injuries on either parties, and that no one banged us from behind, cos its really sudden on a busy road. Second, the lady admitted she was in the wrong too, so she talked nicely , and dealt with it in graceful attitude. and the matter was dealt with maturely. so thank God for that.

And God probably delayed us into something not- so- pleasant ahead.

By the grace of God, we are ok as a family, not much harm none, and it probably had bring us closer as a family. but i m just seriously thankful that we are ok.

You add up all this little things in life, and then you point it all to Jesus, then you realise that

the grace of God flows in every area of our life, big or small, we just need to receive it and in turn release it others, so that this grace will not flow in vain. so that God be glorified.

If God is graceful to us, can't we be graceful to others?

Spiritual Crossroad

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is -- his good, pleasing and perfect will. " Romans 12:2

Often in life, we will find ourselves in crossroads. when we have to make decisions to turn left or right, or to go straight. many times though, we might find ourselves Hentak Kaki (to borrow a drill command) - meaning to stay marching in same position..

I find myself in this very position, not on terms of career or serving or relationships ( although this all could be true too), but on " spiritual terms" .

I find myself at the cross road of following Jesus with all my heart .

It's true.

It's true that I have prayed the sinner's prayer and invited Jesus into my heart. It's true that I attend church services, cell group, serve and called myself a Christian, I pray and I have a relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. It's true.

But it's also true that I am not walking 100% with the Lord. I read the bible, i listen to sermons and teaching, i understand. But yet i do not always follow His word. Yes, sometimes, i do, but sometimes i don't too.

And its really frustrating when i find myself not always yielding to His will.

i just sense that God is questioning my committment level to Him and His kingdom. right to the heart level. When we talk about the kingdom of God, it means that there is a king, and that king is our Lord God Almighty, who is loving and compassionate wants to enjoy a deep intimate relationship with us. God is good. But He requires us to submit or surrender fully to Him so that we may really have a eternal life with Him. (and its starts today, don't have to wait till we get to heaven)

i think i will not play hide and seek no more with the Lord, but i will really face the truths about me and allow God to work. but its a decision on my part. I have decided to repent of my past, and allow of the Holy Spirit to renew my mind (read Roman 12:2 above) and follow Christ 101% from this day on.

May the Lord help us.

Amen.