Thursday, July 31, 2008
H'lo
got this in my mail...and thought I'd share it with you guys...
The will of God will never take you,
Where the grace of God cannot keep you,
Where the arms of God cannot support you,
Where the riches of God cannot supply your needs,
Where the power of God cannot endow you.
The will of God will never take you,
Where the Spirit of God cannot work through you,
Where the wisdom of God cannot teach you,
Where the army of God cannot protect you,
Where the hands of God cannot mold you.
The will of God will never take you,
Where the love of God cannot enfold you,
Where the mercies of God cannot sustain you,
Where the peace of God cannot calm your fears,
Where the authority of God cannot overrule for you.
The will of God will never take you,
Where the comfort of God cannot dry your tears,
Where the Word of God cannot feed you,
Where the miracles of God cannot be done for you,
Where the omnipresence of God cannot find you.
Cheers!
Li Yenn =p
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Wobbly Steps
Spent Sunday afternoon at Aaron's learning to play poker with some friends. I need to work on my 'poker face'! Anyway, after poker we went to another friend's place, where Aaron made roast lamb for dinner which was scrumptious =D That's when I told him about the cell blog hahah.. Didn't anyone tell him about it?? I didn't realise he didn't know. Whoops! Sorry Aaron.. It's either our bad, or you WERE told but you were just blur =)
Just wanted to share a little something that I read:
Wobbly Steps
by Melanie Chitwood
"I'm not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made.
But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ,
who has so wondrously reached out for me.
Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this,
but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward--to Jesus.
I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back." Philippians 3:12-14 (MSG)
Devotion:
After several months of continuous stress and challenges, I felt like giving up and saying, "This is just too hard, God. Find someone else for this assignment!"
Then, through an adorable little girl, God gave me encouragement to press on.
One-year-old Catherine is learning to walk. She takes a few wobbly steps and then falls down. She sits for a minute, as if to gather her determination, and then she pushes herself back up on her little legs. With each step Catherine attempts, we cheer her on like it's the greatest thing we've ever seen, as if we've never seen anyone walk before.
Then, when Catherine is getting tired or frustrated, her mom reaches down and holds her little hand. Catherine looks up at her mom, where she finds just the extra encouragement she needs to push herself back up and keep going. One wobbly step after another.
I think that's how God looks at us. Even our wobbly, uncertain steps please Him. He will never give up on us, and He will never be disdainful of our imperfect attempts to obey Him. He sees our hearts, which want to please Him, and He cares much more about our surrendered hearts than our perfect performance.
When we feel discouraged, frustrated or tired, we need to fix our eyes on Jesus where we'll find just what we need to press on.
Dear Lord, You know just how I feel. I feel discouraged, tired, and overwhelmed. I find such comfort in realizing that You know all about my feelings and all about my circumstances. As I set my eyes on You rather than my problems or my imperfect performance, I thank You that you will give me strength to press on and not to turn back. Thank You for holding my hand and walking with me. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
My big debut? haha!
I thought this was really an excellent idea on Trina's part, and so, I'll have to lend my support in one way or another in keeping this blog alive and happening right?
I wish there was some way I could convey how good God has been over the past few months as I was settling down and finding my place here in Melbourne. He brought friends, no, family, brothers and sisters who continue to encourage me as I run my race. There were times when I felt so broken, so upset or so lonely, but always, always, Jesus was there, be it in Spirit, or in His Word, or in the voice or hug of a friend or all three at once =).
There were times when I drew away from Him, but one of the awesome things about God is that even when you turn away from Him, His hand is still there, offered to you in love and forgiveness, no matter what you've done. I have fallen short, and while I lay there in the dust weeping in my brokenness, He came, and picked me up, carrying me when I felt like I had no more strength to go on.
So today, I don't want to go on and on for too long, I just want to say... No matter what you've done, no matter what you were in the past, no matter what mistakes you've made...He is waiting for you. If you feel like He's a distant figure out there watching you dispassionately, take it from me, Jesus is never really very far away. Like Trina said, when you take that one step towards Him, He takes many many steps to you in return...in fact, sometimes He comes running all the way. All it takes is that one step, that one prayer, that one cry in genuine desperation for Him...and He'll be there.
Leaving you all with an excerpt of a beautiful song I love... =) I'm sure for most of you it's super familiar! ^__^
A thousand times I've failed
Still Your mercy remains
Should I stumble again,
I'm caught in Your grace
Everlasting
Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending
Your glory goes beyond all fame
In my heart and my soul
Lord I give You control
Consume me from the inside out
Lord let justice and praise
Become my embrace
To love you from the inside out
To all the oldies, I am looking forward to seeing you all again and catching up come December!
And to all the new ones and YOUR new friends that you will be bringing in (hehe)... I'll bring a little of my craziness into your lives when I get home yay =D.
~love
ven xhin ^__^
Saturday, July 12, 2008
SHOUT! Jesus comes to us!!
We are blessed to have them to usher the presence of the holy spirit in Maranatha!
Today we leart that, WE do not receive God, by doing good things doing good deeds in our lives... we will still have the emptiness in our hearts... but we should allow God to approach us... open the door to him to fill in the space of our hearts... Amen???
Bro in Christ,
DannyBoy!
p.s Missing u guys overseas !!!
Friday, July 4, 2008
Thoughts of my morning... over cookies and rasberry tea!!
ARGH!! early mornings on a friday is soo not cool!! Especially if u do not have class on Fridays... i mean... GOSH!!! u know when u have free days... where there is no lectures and tutes..... guess what! ... u got Assignments, proposals, meetings, Computer Graphics assignments that fills up ur free time!
After worship practice in church yesterday nite. i have been thinking over my thoughts sf taking a break from worship team... as i have been running against time since the last month plus, lacking time for all of my commitments...and embarrassing to say... its pretty obvious when i couldn’t get the timings right...didn’t have time to work on the killer solo to goreng for Saturday and Sunday’s worship sessions… it does show that I have been lacking practice… I felt that as a member of the worship team I did not do my obligations to find time ... everyday has been me running against hands of time.
Its not just worship team that I have been neglecting to make time for my priority as a scholar: focus on education…
I guess I have to persevere through this time…
You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. Hebrews 10:36
Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. James 1:12
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Journey's Beginning
Hi everyone! *beams*
Yes, the idea is that a few of us will start posting here every now and again in addition to our personal blogs. WHY? Simply because this is our cell blog and it takes a unified initiative (plus a loving kick up the bum from me) to get things rolling here. I thought it'd be really neat if cell members shared their thoughts corporately here on this site from across the world. Wherever you are, share your experiences, your thoughts, and your testimonies so that we can all be encouraged as we run this race together.
I guess I should start then hey? :)
The last couple of months God has really taken me on a journey. What kind of journey, you may ask. Well, a journey of growth. Simple as that. Jesus has always been knocking at the door of my heart, and I've always been really stubborn about letting Him in. And you know what? Jesus is such a gentleman. He won't ever barge into your life unless you specifically open the door and ask Him to come in.
At the time, I desired in my heart to walk with God, but things in my life weren't changing - I was stuck in a rutt. And just like a scientific experiment I knew that if I wanted different results, I had to do things differently. I've learnt, that when you take the difficult first step, God takes many many steps towards you in return. The ball is always in our court. What choice will we make? How will we respond in this circumstance? I knew that my decision would determine whether I would go to that next level with God. And so I made a choice. I decided I wanted things in my life to change. I wanted a deeper relationship with my God. I wanted to know Him intimately.
I've actually been a christian all my life, but quite frankly, it feels like I was born again only a few months ago. I think that's the worst thing about 2nd generation christians. We get so comfortable leading an ordinary "christian" life - riding on the coat tails of our parents' salvation, and not really experiencing for ourselves the power that's found in Christ. What's the point of learning the logos word of God (the plain text in your bible) if it doesn't get applied to our lives and become the rhema word (the revealed word that has power). Lasting change only comes when there's a revelation in your heart; when the lightbulb comes on; when your eyes get opened. And that's what happened to me. That was the beginning of my journey :)
Since then, God's been doing tremendous things in me and through me and I can't wait to share more about my walk in later posts.
As far as first impressions go, I hope that was okay for my first time posting here! I really wanted to be open and to just share my heart with the rest of you. Hopefully this is a palatable introduction to whatever else I post here in the future :)
Luv ya all
Trina xx