Reflect

I've been thinking again, about how one year has passed by so fast. Even though it's only september, maybe it's time we should all sit back and reflect. Reflect on what has happened these past 8 months, reflect on how God was worked in your life. Think about whether your actions have glorified God's name, think about the people you have met, and whether you have influenced them in a positive way, or they have influenced you.

Maybe we should all take a break from our busy lives, from studies, from IP, from IB, from friends, even from the computer. You never know what you might get out from it.

I doubt the word "reflection" is appealing to anybody, but take it as a time of relaxation, daydream, think. Just be quiet and be still, for that is the time when God can talk to you. I know for a fact, if we're so noisy, throwing everything at God then running off, there's no way that conversation is going to go more than a mere monologue. So dear brothers and sisters, take this teacher's day holiday, put down your work for maybe just half an hour. Listen to God.

Believe me, you'll benefit.




Once again, if there is anything you want to talk about, anything you need praying or caring for, the year five leaders are always open. Be it a listening ear, a shoulder to cry on, or just a comforting presence, God will give us time to give it to you. :D

With much much love,
Eunice <3

PR.

Prayer works wonders, and we [the year five leaders] want to pray for you. On behalf of you, with you, anything. If there is anything troubling you and you don't know who to share it with, you can drop anyone of us an email. Ben Sim, Zacary, Rachel, Liana and myself. Our numbers are at the side, but if you want it to be anonymous, I'm sure you'll figure a way out. Maybe you could put your request at the fountain before fireac starts in the morning. :D

Basically, feel free to share your burden(s) with us.

<3
Eunice

hmm, i'm not sure if any of you have heard about danza! 2009. I just wanted to share a testimony about how good God has been and His grace really is amazing. Danza!2009 is a dance concert that sandra, gracefong, larisa and i are organising. we felt called by God to do something life changing, not for any CAS project or to boost our resume, that's just quite.. superficial. We wanted to do something bold, something brave for His glory. so this is an excerpt of the email i sent to the committee of danza. i really feel so encouraged and blessed by the holy spirit. we are nothing, and He's everything.

so anyway here goes, i was just thinking about how incredible God has been to us. He has blessed us so richly and plentifully. We should really be giving thanks to Him, who is above all things (:

We were really struggling to find groups to perform, as you all know, everyone's busy with schoolwork and other commitments and they just aren't prepared to set aside time. We tried all ways and means to get participants but at the end of our "deadline", we had ZERO groups. imagine how disappointed and stressed out we were. Honestly, so many people were telling me to just drop the project and give up. But no, we persisted and God saw how hard we had worked and granted us the desires of our heart. After exhausting every single contact, we still had no participants. haha, at one point in time, i was just scrolling through my phone contact list to see who could possibly be able to put up an item. it's now 2 weeks after our deadline and we have a whooping TEN groups, see why i say God is so gracious to us? RJC, Hwa Chong, ACSI, PJC, RP, MGS are some of the groups just to name a few.

I was praying with sandra that morning and i realised that before the deadline loomed, i never really prayed and committed this whole event to God. Possibly because we were overconfident and felt that we could do this without His intervention and help since we had experience in this anyway. But He has shown us mercy, we prayed hard after our deadline and i realised that this whole event hadn't been centred around God at all. We didn't seek His will in our planning process and we just relied on our own strength, which was clearly lacking and insufficient.

Today was a really awesome day and i just wanted to share it with all of you. First, we got confirmation from mg that they would participate, it came as a shock to us because we tried so hard to persuade them but to no avail. Suddenly, we receive a call from mrs grace poh confirming that they would be keen. haha, the joy of it all (: then we met these 2 production directors who are normally so busy they don't even have time to respond to emails. but by the grace of God, they just appeared right smack in front of our face because our meeting today coincided with another dance showcase that they were doing (: so praise the Lord (: Also, we managed to get the sponsorship of tote board so that should increase our revenue slightly. God really performs miracles. just a few weeks ago, we were all so downcast and like, unprepared to give up but the situation was giving us no other way out. indeed, laying our burdens down at the feet of the Lord is really a foolproof way because God's love transcends all understanding and it's beyond anything we can fathom (:

okay i love all of you very much!! keep up with your studies!! danza is in a weeks' time! let's strive to glorify God through this and let us not get carried away by the ways of the world and focus on the wrong things. let's just remember today that we set out to do this to spread awareness more than anything else. raising funds is just a secondary aim so we'll just try our best to minimise the cost and maximise our outreach (:

let's not be disillusioned by the numerous problems we're facing now but give thanks to God for all the blessings He has granted us (: 1 tim 6:6 "But godliness with contentment is great gain"

In His name,
liana!

Psalm 18: 28-36

"You, O Lord, keep my lamp burning;
my God turns my darkness into light.
With your help i can advance against a troop;
with my God I can scale a wall.

As for God, his way is perfect;
the word of the Lord is flawless.
He is a shield for all who take refuge in him.
For who is God besides the Lord?
And who is the Rock except our God?
It is God who arms me with strength
and makes my way perfect.
He makes my feet like the feet of a deer;
he enables me to stand on the heights.
He trains my hands for battle;
my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
You give me your shield of victory,
and your right hand sustains me;
you stoop down to make me great.
You broaden the path beneath me,
so that my ankles do not turn."

love,
liana!

sharing on worship

Sharing by Shaun Lim on 19th August 2009 on the nature of worship:

Can our worship ever be ‘bad’ and unpleasing to God? Yes; 1 Samuel 15:22 says “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as obeying the voice of the Lord?" Saul disobeyed what God told him to do, and kept the best Amalekite cattle and sheep to sacrifice to God instead of destroying them. The sacrifices offered by Saul in this case were unpleasing to God because he was just sacrificing for the sake of it and for getting the approval of Samuel, without the true intention to glorify God. Worship offered to the Almighty that is half-hearted or hypocritical is worse than not worshipping at all. Revelation 3:16 – Because you are lukewarm – neither cold nor hot – I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

Hindrances to worship today:

1. Lackadaisical approach to worshipping
o Blessed environment in ACS(I) – worship sessions held weekly at Chapel, FireAC daily worship, other instances – worship becomes very “normal” and not exciting and refreshing each time
o God being omnipresent and with us always, at our beck and call, so to speak
+ He has offered us this privilege, but we as puny humans end up treating him and time with him lightly
o When we worship, we meet God! Yet we sing for the sake of singing and repeat some memorized words to a memorized tune – not transformed by it!
o Worship is praise and honour offered to the Almighty, to worship lightly and mechanically borders on blaspheming His Name
o Ancient times – only the High Priest allowed to enter the Holy of Holies – awesome glory of his presence
o God is the same yesterday and today – He is still the same God who struck 70 people down at Beth Shemesh in 1Samuel 16:19 for looking into the ark of God
+ God is Love but He is also Holy – if we don’t feel humbled by his presence, we have not come into the holiness of God

2. Peer Pressure within the ACS(I) Community
o Irony – often the peer pressure is more to appear holy and Christian, rather than to be persecuted for Him
o Within Christian communities of FireAC, BB or CF, pressure to worship and be Christ-like just because the rest of the community is doing so
o Usually a positive effect because there is accountability in Christ as a group
+ but may lead to people being coated in a “shiny plastic shrink wrap” of holiness, covering an inside decaying Christian soul
o Worship Him for the true intention of doing so and for Him instead of for your peers to see

3. Emotionalism in worship
o Lack of faith in worship – lack of faith that God will come, that God will be in our presence, that God will touch our hearts
o Resultant attempt to engineer ‘holy feelings’ by increasing the volume of the music, singing more emotionally stimulating songs like Power of Your Love, arranging different songs to configure the atmosphere
+ Feebly plays on emotions to take the place of God in our worship
o Often confusing emotions with the Holy Spirit – worship then becomes events of secular high rather than communion with God
o Worship should just be about you and God, not about anything else – music and songs are an aid to an end, not an end unto itself
o Very important because it is very easy to lapse into this – both are intangible feelings which we may often mix up whether deliberately or accidentally
+ Worship is not about the music or the quality of the singing etc – have faith that when you worship, God is there – and He will be there.

4. John 4:24 – God is Spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth
o Worship in spirit, not in our physical senses and body
o Sense God and worship him in the Spirit man, to sense him in the Spirit rather than to worship with merely our tongues and music, or seek to hear, see, feel or touch God tangibly
o Body as three parts – body soul and spirit. Worship through our mind, emotions and body, but it is our spirit that worships Him and communicates with the Holy Spirit
o Worship near him, not from afar – in times past, Jews worshipped through their High Priest and as sinful man as holy God, separated by sin
o Jesus’ death tore the veil and has He has become our High Priest forever, and we may enter into his presence – enter into his presence and delight in his love each time we worship!

He does not seek worship as such. God is not so insecure that he requires worship in itself, but He desires worshippers whose hearts are surrendered to Him. The reason that he desires this is so that He can have the relationship with us that He has always wanted; an intimate relationship.

the world vs GOD

Hello all you lovely people out there,

Today I was doing my mock TOK essay and I suddenly thought of this just now. You know how we say that religion, our religious believes and values affect the way we think? But have you stopped to consider that the world has also influenced the way we think?

The first part of Ephesians 2 says
1As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature.

Yeah, sure. You may be thinking. Maybe you don't believe that this applies to you. Maybe you don't believe that you have ever followed the ways of the world. Then how about the time you lied? How about the time you cheated? How about the time you laughed when someone bullied someone else? How about the time you didn't feel disgusted at the conversations dripping with sexual innuendos? How about the time you sweared? How about turning away from God?

Have you ever thought about the day when someone comes up to you and asks "Do you love God?" and points a gun at your head. What would you react. The other day in the car, I was just thinking about how our government is starting to tighten their control over religious activities taking place in schools. And it just felt like one day, someone might point a gun at my head and kill me for being a Christian. But this is reality, guys. This kind of things are taking place in the world.

-I've digressed-

I was talking about following the world and being influenced by it. The world has changed by so much, and now the thin lines between right and wrong are smudged. We are no longer sure of what is right in God's eyes. PMS (pre-marital sex) is rampant, and so is abortion, affairs, porn, drugs, vulgarities, tattoos, blasphemy, and disobedience. But we always have to turn back to the bible.

25 And if we are careful to obey all this law before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness. -Deuteronomy 6.

We proclaim God's words with our mouths, so we ought to turn back to Him. I want you to ponder in your hearts today. Ask yourself whether you have put God first in your lives. Whether you have listened to Him more than the advise of the world. Ask God to give you wisdom to perceive what is right or wrong.

Isaiah 55:7
Let the wicked forsake his way
and the evil man his thoughts.
Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

God loves you,
eunice

hearT

Dear friends,

As we conclude the one-week prayer movement, hearT, let's make a commitment to pray consistently for the school. There may be no more event in the chapel for now, but don't stop seeking Him! Also, if God has revealed anything to you during the week, or if you had an epiphany or a realization, I urge you to write it down and ACT on it!

Let's not allow the weariness of the upcoming school week to overcome us, or the routine of moving from class to class every day make us apathetic and self-absorbed. May we be active hearers and doers of God's word, spurring each other on in love and humility :)

Reminder: Normal FireAC meetings will resume from tomorrow onwards! :D See you there.

In Christian fellowship people should experience authenticity.

Authentic fellowship is not superficial, surface-level chit-chat. It's genuine, heart-to-heart, sometimes gut-level sharing.

It happens when people get honest about who they are and what is happening in their lives. They share their hurts, reveal their feelings, confess their failures, disclose their doubts, admit their fears, acknowledge their weaknesses, and ask for help and prayer.

Authenticity is the exact opposite of what you find in many churches. Instead of an atmosphere of honesty and humility, there is pretending, role-playing, politicking, superficial politeness, and shallow conversation. People wear masks, keep their guard up, and act as if everything is rosy in their lives. These attitudes are the death of real friendship.

It's only as we become open about our lives that we experience authentic fellowship. The Bible says, "If we live in the light, as God is in the light, we can share fellowship with each other...If we say we have no sin, we are fooling ourselves" (1 John 1:7-8 NCV).

The world thinks intimacy occurs in the dark, but God says it happens in the light. We tend to use darkness to hide our hurts, faults, fears, failures, and flaws. But in the light, we bring them all out into the open and admit who we really are.

Of course, being authentic requires both courage and humility. It means facing our fear of exposure, rejection, and being hurt again.

Why would anyone take such a risk?

Because it's the only way to grow spiritually and be emotionally healthy. The Bible says, "Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed" (James 5:16 MSG).

What does it mean to be a child of God? =)

If someone asked you now, 'Who are you?', what would you say?

Perhaps we might say our name, maybe even add our surname, or go "I'm so-and-so's son/daughter/brother/sister/cousin/friendetc."

And if that person asked again, 'But really, who are you?'

Other than thinking this person was rather nosy (haha), possibly this time we might elaborate to say "I'm a student of XYZ school/ member of XYZ church etcetc."

But have we ever considered ourselves, a child of God?

Do we know what it means to be a child of God?

Oftentimes what stops us from sharing the gospel, ministering, reaching out to others in our classes, homes, ccas... From doing something "so-called" radical for God, is the simple excuse; "I'm just a normal girl/guy trying to live a normal life."

"I'm not good enough"

"I don't know how to start"

"I just want to be a normal person like everyone else"

But where do all these perceptions come from?

From the narrow-minded, closed view of ourselves as being just 'the son/daughter of so-and-so' or 'a student of XYZ school'.

Let's start realizing what it means to be a child of God today. You're not just a student, not just any other normal teenager.

Rather, you're His precious child, His little warrior in this spiritual battle on earth (guerilla warfare if you might call it ;] ) against the evil one, working to win souls for Christ's kingdom. And where-ever you are, at home, in school, outside, that's just one of the battlegrounds our Heavenly Father has placed you in with a very special purpose and plan for your life.

So, start listening to the promptings of the Holy Spirit today, that special 'inbuilt transceiver for battle commands' ;) It could be praying for a troubled friend today, or inviting someone to church, sharing the gospel with a non-believer, and even organizing a class prayer group! =)

Claim the victory in Christ today!

Keeping you all in prayer,

pet

¹⁷When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. ¹⁸Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. ¹⁹A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. ²⁰In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.

Yes, these verses may not make much sense to you, but the background is not what I'm focusing on today. If you are interested in reading up, read Acts 19. These few verses are Acts 19:17-20.

You may wonder what God is trying to say from these verses. If I read this verses like last month, maybe I wouldn't have realised the importance. But see, they openly confessed their evil deeds (v.18) and some of them practiced sorcery (v.19). Sorcery is like black magic, evil. It's the opposite of what God is, God does not accept this kind of behaviour.

But again, this is not what I want to say. Maybe this might not have much connection to what the verses say, but I want all of you to remember today that God is forgiving God. Verse 18 said that many who believed came and openly declared their evil deeds. Not all accepted by God were righteous, none of them were in the first place. Moreover, EVIL deeds. Why is evil is emphasised?

I remember that day clearly in my head, the day I read this passage. And that night, I knew that God was a forgiving God, and if we just turned to Him, begging and asking for forgiveness, He will grant it. Because He loves us.

Take HearT

hey guys, something I posted on my personal blog:

I’m stuck at home with diarrhoea/food poisoning, and I suppose it did come timely for me.

I don’t mean to be sick, but the whole entire process of purging really pointed out something to me. It’s been a long, long weekend, and many things I’ve come to realise that I need to purge from my heart, thoughts and mind.


"Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean' by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean.’ " Mark 7:15


Thank you, Lord, for setting your boundaries for us, protecting and guarding us in this manner, and for restricting me when You knew our human weaknesses.

Forgive me and us all for falling short of Your glory, and may You make us clean and pure once again.

It takes great faith in knowing that we have been forgiven, and I must say! nothing beats knowing that we have been saved by His everlasting grace and mercy (:



Take hearT, my dears, Take hearT.

national day!

Hello brothers and sisters,

Firstly Happy National Day :D I'm not sure how many of you followed the 40-day fast for our nation (at www.lovesingapore.org.sg) but whether you did or not, I encourage you to set aside some time today, or this week, to pray especially for Singapore. Give thanks for the many blessings that we have as Singaporeans, bless our government and our leaders, cry out for the lost and pray earnestly for our generation which will eventually rise up to lead the nation. Ask the holy spirit to lead you; there is much to pray about.

As a side note, please feel free to utilize the prayer request box at the side :D

A lost generation

Just a short post, nothing much to say.

Just recently, I have been bugged by a thought:

Does God compromise on His standards of holiness?

I don't know why but it keeps bugging me. These few weeks have been eye-opening; a time when I find out things about people, things I never expected from them. And now I wonder; how lost can our generation be?

I heard a sharing once in my church about the problem with our generation of Christianity. Rather than maintaining and upholding the standards of morality that God asks off of us when we live as Christians, we bring the standards down to our level instead so that we can be more comfortable living our lives that way WE want to. Does God compromise?

Since then I have been guilty of my failings to live a Holy life; times when I say, "It's ok God, just a bit won't hurt" or "It's ok God, I'm just trying to make friends here".

Are we any different from anyone?

Are we a light for others or a stumbling block?

Can people see Christ in us?

Oh God let us be, a generation that seeks, seeks Your face oh God of Jacob

What if... Today was your last day to live?

As students, we often got so caught up with tomorrow. The mundane monotony of terms and semesters of school days, growing assignments, and the never-ending deadlines...

... can often delude us into thinking there will always be a next month, next week, next day.

The world deceives us that there will always be a tomorrow.

But what if

Today was your last day to live?

What if

Tomorrow was your friend's last day to live?

1 Thessalonians 5:2 'for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.'

Friends, let's not take every day for granted, and make every day count for God =) There is still much to do, people to be ministered to, friends and family who desperately need to know His love, and loved ones who need to be brought back to the path they have strayed from. So take that chance now, before it is lost forever.

'The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.' 1 Peter 4:7-10

Live every day for God as though it is your last! =)

Keeping you all in prayer,

<3,

Pet