This Christmas has been less "happening" than usual. By less "happening" I mean, there's much less fanfare and "high" happy moments of gift exchanges and all. But I'm thankful for 3 things that resonate with me this Christmas:
1. I got to spend Christmas playing in a band with my fellow comrades in church
It's encouraging to know that we are in this together, serving in God's ministry. The childhood friends I've grown up with in church, have not left the faith and we're still fighting side by side together. That's something to really be thankful for, really- That by God's divine grace and mercy, we're still in this battle. We didn't just inherit the faith from our parents naturally because faith is a gift from God and we're born of the Spirit, not by natural descent.
The point is not about the glamour of being in a band, although, I do enjoy playing in a band and making music. The point is not about being good enough, because my keyboard playing is still not up to a good standard. The point is not about having the best music talents. But it spurs me on to know that my fellow comrades are still fighting this battle with me. Indeed, one soul saved is enough for heaven to rejoice, and perhaps, for me to rejoice as well.
It's such a high calling, and I feel so unworthy everytime I look at myself serving God and His people. Sometimes I wonder why I'm even here. Haha. But I suppose, it's really by God's grace and mercy through Christ that makes my life worth living and make this new life and purpose possible.
2. I'm thankful that my ex-school classmates were able to join me for Christmas service with my church family
I'm thankful for the friendships that have lasted even after school days and we're all in different vocations. I'm thankful for these friendships and people in my life. And I'm also thankful that they could come today to hear the Christmas story, which is the most important story of all. My prayer for them, and myself is that the Christmas story will resonate and become alive in their hearts, and in their lives. That Jesus will become more and more of a reality. I'm also glad they could get to know my wonderful church family.
3. I got to spend Christmas with my own family who've come to know Jesus one by one
As I browsed through the old wedding pictures when I was at my cousins' place for Christmas celebration, I realised that they were not believers when they got married many years ago. But yesterday, they hosted our extended family's Christmas dinner and led our family to pray. I held my aunt's hand and prayed with her for the first time as a sister in Christ. Sometimes these things just blow my mind. I'm joyful that we can pray together as a family and remember one another.
This Christmas for me, is about relationships. Relationships do matter most to all of us. This Christmas, I'm honoured to be able to spend it with my closest friends, comrades, family and knowing that we can have a relationship with God because of Jesus.
I look forward to the day when we will be kings and queens together with Jesus as the King of Kings. That will be the most wonderful and joyous day ever.
For now,
I want to continue to have the time of my life fighting dragons with my fellow comrades. And I don't wanna give up doing that.
“Safe?”.... Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.- The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Friday, December 21, 2012
Favourite speaker and author
Will share some of the good stuff if I do stumble upon any. :)
Thursday, December 20, 2012
only Hope.
This letter really challenged me to remember the only Hope there is. Sometimes we look to other things in the world to give us hope, meaning, purpose and solutions to life. Studying the social sciences doesn't help in this aspect but sometimes I tend to believe that human wisdom is enough.
Clearly, it isn't. And we've failed terribly.
A letter written by Ravi Zacharias:
"Dear Friend,
The tragedy that shook Newtown, Connecticut, and indeed the entire nation, defies analysis. What must have gone on in the mind of this young man for him to walk into a school of little children and wreak such devastating carnage numbs the soul. At the same time this was happening, I was under the surgeon’s blade for minor surgery. When I left the recovery room and returned home, among the first pieces of news on my phone was the news of this mass killing. Something within me hoped that I was still not clear-headed, but I knew deep inside that I was reading an unfolding story of horror and tragedy. What does one say? What is even appropriate without violating somebody’s sacred space and their right to scream in protest? I am a father and a grandfather. I simply cannot fathom the unbearable weight within a parent’s or grandparent’s heart at such a personal loss. It has often been said that the loss of a child is the heaviest loss to bear. I have no doubt that those parents and grandparents must wonder if this is real or simply a terrifying nightmare. My heart and my prayers are for them and, indeed, for the family of the assassin. How his father will navigate through this will be a lifelong journey.
When a mass-killer like this ends by taking his own life, there is an even deeper sense of loss. Everyone wants to know, “Why?” Not that the answer would soften the blow but it would at least give some clue, some release to speak, to hear, to try to work through. But all we are left with is twenty-eight funerals and lifelong grief. To all of those who have suffered such loss, may the Lord carry you in His strength and bear you in your grief. You will be in our thoughts and prayers.
My own attempt at saying something here is feeble but carries a hope that somebody listening will make this world a better place. My heart goes back to Angola Prison in Baton Rouge where I met such people whose savagery took them to that destination. It was interesting to see a Bible in every cell and to hear many talk of how it had become their only means of life and hope. Someone with me said, “If we had more Bibles in our schools maybe we would need less of them here.” To the skeptic and the despiser of belief in God, I know what they will respond. I am quite convinced that the one who argues against this ends up playing God and is ultimately unable to defend any absolutes. Hate is the opposite of love and while one breathes death, the other breathes life. That is what we need to be addressing here. The seeds of hate sooner or later bear fruit in murder and destruction. Killers are not born in a moment. Deep beneath brews thinking and the animus that in a moment is uncorked. We are living in a society that nurtures hate on many sides with the result that lawlessness triumphs.
Even in ideal settings, killing can take place. Murder began in the first family when a brother could not stand the success of his sibling. The entire history of the Middle East–five millennia–is a tale of two brothers. Centuries of killing has not settled the score. Maybe in Adam Lanza’s case we will find a deep psychological reason behind what he did. But that does not diminish the reality that there lurks many a killer whose moment will come and the nation will be brought to tears again. We can almost be certain of that. Yes, we can discuss all the symptomatic issues—security, gun control, early detection signs, and so on. These are all worthy of discussion. But it’s always easier to deal with the symptoms rather than with the cause.
I wish to share what I think we must address or we head down the slope to a precipitous edge of brutality. The fiscal cliff is tame by comparison to the moral devastation ahead if we do not recognize the malady for what it is. Hate is the precursor to murder. Jesus made that very clear. Playing God is the dangerous second step where we feel we are the ultimate judge of all things and that we have the right to level the score.
Here, I would like to address our political leaders and media elite: You may personally have the moral strength to restrict your ideas to mere words but many who listen to you do not. To take the most sacred privilege of democracy and transform it into the language of aggression plays right into the hands of hate-mongers. This is not the language of a civil society or of wise leadership. It is not the ethos of a culture of co-existence. It is not the verbal coinage with which we can spend our way into the future. Our political rhetoric is fraught with division, hate, blame, and verbal murder. Our young are listening. Remember that what you win them with is what you win them to.
As for the entertainment world, what does one even say at a time like this? Calling for gun control and then entertaining the masses with bloodshed is only shifting the locus from law to entertainment. Do our entertainers ever pause to ask what debased values emerge from their stories? The death of decency is audible and visible in what passes as movie entertainment and political speech. This is the same culture that wishes to take away Nativity scenes and Christmas carols from our children. God is evicted from our culture and then He is blamed for our carnages. America is lost on the high seas of time, without chart or compass. The storms that await us will sink this nation beyond recognition if we do not awaken to the rapid repudiation of the values that shaped this nation. The handwriting is on the wall. Freedom is not just destroyed by its retraction. It is destroyed even more painfully by its abuse.
There is one more thing. It is so obvious but is seldom ever addressed. All these recent mass murders have been done by men. Many of them young men, yes, even mere boys. Jonesboro, Columbine, Virginia Tech, now Newtown. Is there something within our culture that doesn’t know how to raise strength with dignity and respect? Is this how boys are meant to be? From bloodletting in hockey games while thousands cheer to savagery in school shootings while thousands weep, we must ask ourselves what has gone wrong with us men? Where are the role models in the home? Is knocking somebody down the only test left for strength? Is there no demonstration now of kindness, gentleness, courtesy, and respect for our fellow human beings? One young man on death row in Angola Prison told me that he started his carnage as a teenager. Now in his thirties with the end of the road in sight, he reached his hand out to me and asked me to pray with him. Life was lost at the altar of power and strength.
The Bible only speaks of one remedy for this: the transformation of the heart by making Christ the center. Those who mock the simplicity of the remedy have made evil more complex and unexplainable. Every heart has the potential for murder. Every heart needs a redeemer. That is the message of Christmas. The world took that child and crucified Him. But by his triumph over death He brings life to our dead souls and begins the transformation within. Unto us a child is born and He shall save us from our sins.
Before the first murder was committed, the Lord said to Cain, “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” To gain mastery over sin there is only one way. Just as Victoria Soto put herself in the way so that the children in her class might live, Jesus Christ put himself in the way that we all might live. That is the beginning of the cure for us as individuals and as a nation. All the laws in the world will never change the heart. Only God is big enough for that. "
Clearly, it isn't. And we've failed terribly.
A letter written by Ravi Zacharias:
"Dear Friend,
The tragedy that shook Newtown, Connecticut, and indeed the entire nation, defies analysis. What must have gone on in the mind of this young man for him to walk into a school of little children and wreak such devastating carnage numbs the soul. At the same time this was happening, I was under the surgeon’s blade for minor surgery. When I left the recovery room and returned home, among the first pieces of news on my phone was the news of this mass killing. Something within me hoped that I was still not clear-headed, but I knew deep inside that I was reading an unfolding story of horror and tragedy. What does one say? What is even appropriate without violating somebody’s sacred space and their right to scream in protest? I am a father and a grandfather. I simply cannot fathom the unbearable weight within a parent’s or grandparent’s heart at such a personal loss. It has often been said that the loss of a child is the heaviest loss to bear. I have no doubt that those parents and grandparents must wonder if this is real or simply a terrifying nightmare. My heart and my prayers are for them and, indeed, for the family of the assassin. How his father will navigate through this will be a lifelong journey.
When a mass-killer like this ends by taking his own life, there is an even deeper sense of loss. Everyone wants to know, “Why?” Not that the answer would soften the blow but it would at least give some clue, some release to speak, to hear, to try to work through. But all we are left with is twenty-eight funerals and lifelong grief. To all of those who have suffered such loss, may the Lord carry you in His strength and bear you in your grief. You will be in our thoughts and prayers.
My own attempt at saying something here is feeble but carries a hope that somebody listening will make this world a better place. My heart goes back to Angola Prison in Baton Rouge where I met such people whose savagery took them to that destination. It was interesting to see a Bible in every cell and to hear many talk of how it had become their only means of life and hope. Someone with me said, “If we had more Bibles in our schools maybe we would need less of them here.” To the skeptic and the despiser of belief in God, I know what they will respond. I am quite convinced that the one who argues against this ends up playing God and is ultimately unable to defend any absolutes. Hate is the opposite of love and while one breathes death, the other breathes life. That is what we need to be addressing here. The seeds of hate sooner or later bear fruit in murder and destruction. Killers are not born in a moment. Deep beneath brews thinking and the animus that in a moment is uncorked. We are living in a society that nurtures hate on many sides with the result that lawlessness triumphs.
Even in ideal settings, killing can take place. Murder began in the first family when a brother could not stand the success of his sibling. The entire history of the Middle East–five millennia–is a tale of two brothers. Centuries of killing has not settled the score. Maybe in Adam Lanza’s case we will find a deep psychological reason behind what he did. But that does not diminish the reality that there lurks many a killer whose moment will come and the nation will be brought to tears again. We can almost be certain of that. Yes, we can discuss all the symptomatic issues—security, gun control, early detection signs, and so on. These are all worthy of discussion. But it’s always easier to deal with the symptoms rather than with the cause.
I wish to share what I think we must address or we head down the slope to a precipitous edge of brutality. The fiscal cliff is tame by comparison to the moral devastation ahead if we do not recognize the malady for what it is. Hate is the precursor to murder. Jesus made that very clear. Playing God is the dangerous second step where we feel we are the ultimate judge of all things and that we have the right to level the score.
Here, I would like to address our political leaders and media elite: You may personally have the moral strength to restrict your ideas to mere words but many who listen to you do not. To take the most sacred privilege of democracy and transform it into the language of aggression plays right into the hands of hate-mongers. This is not the language of a civil society or of wise leadership. It is not the ethos of a culture of co-existence. It is not the verbal coinage with which we can spend our way into the future. Our political rhetoric is fraught with division, hate, blame, and verbal murder. Our young are listening. Remember that what you win them with is what you win them to.
As for the entertainment world, what does one even say at a time like this? Calling for gun control and then entertaining the masses with bloodshed is only shifting the locus from law to entertainment. Do our entertainers ever pause to ask what debased values emerge from their stories? The death of decency is audible and visible in what passes as movie entertainment and political speech. This is the same culture that wishes to take away Nativity scenes and Christmas carols from our children. God is evicted from our culture and then He is blamed for our carnages. America is lost on the high seas of time, without chart or compass. The storms that await us will sink this nation beyond recognition if we do not awaken to the rapid repudiation of the values that shaped this nation. The handwriting is on the wall. Freedom is not just destroyed by its retraction. It is destroyed even more painfully by its abuse.
There is one more thing. It is so obvious but is seldom ever addressed. All these recent mass murders have been done by men. Many of them young men, yes, even mere boys. Jonesboro, Columbine, Virginia Tech, now Newtown. Is there something within our culture that doesn’t know how to raise strength with dignity and respect? Is this how boys are meant to be? From bloodletting in hockey games while thousands cheer to savagery in school shootings while thousands weep, we must ask ourselves what has gone wrong with us men? Where are the role models in the home? Is knocking somebody down the only test left for strength? Is there no demonstration now of kindness, gentleness, courtesy, and respect for our fellow human beings? One young man on death row in Angola Prison told me that he started his carnage as a teenager. Now in his thirties with the end of the road in sight, he reached his hand out to me and asked me to pray with him. Life was lost at the altar of power and strength.
The Bible only speaks of one remedy for this: the transformation of the heart by making Christ the center. Those who mock the simplicity of the remedy have made evil more complex and unexplainable. Every heart has the potential for murder. Every heart needs a redeemer. That is the message of Christmas. The world took that child and crucified Him. But by his triumph over death He brings life to our dead souls and begins the transformation within. Unto us a child is born and He shall save us from our sins.
Before the first murder was committed, the Lord said to Cain, “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” To gain mastery over sin there is only one way. Just as Victoria Soto put herself in the way so that the children in her class might live, Jesus Christ put himself in the way that we all might live. That is the beginning of the cure for us as individuals and as a nation. All the laws in the world will never change the heart. Only God is big enough for that. "
Monday, December 10, 2012
Is there a place for the C-M-I people to serve in leadership positions?
I am not one of those natural leaders.
And honestly, I'd rather be led than lead.. unless the leader really Cannot Make It BIG TIME or if there is no other available leader. Coordinating people and exciting people are my greatest weaknesses, which is also why I don't really respond to many forms of publicity, or gimmicks that well. I don't have a lot of interests and not many things/people excite me. If left to my own, I would rather just.. be with people who matter to me, read, blog, write...and chill.
And I'm not happening or exciting. Sometimes I think that I am a boring person. I like reading boring stuff, doing boring things. and I like serious stuff. I'm a naturally boring and serious person. to play with the youths and connect with them, takes me right out of my comfort zone. It does get slightly easier over the years though, and there are definitely times that I do enjoy playing with them.
My main service in church is to lead small groups of youth in Bible study, and to fellowship with one another. Many times, I wonder why God would use me to lead people as a youth facilitator when I'm not ANY of what it means to be a successful leader. Like, why me, when I am not good enough based on my personality, my abilities? And why me, when I don't feel that I am spiritually and morally good enough and emotionally available enough at this point in time? Why me, when I am not loving enough?
Honestly, I don't even know what is good enough. But I just know that I am not because I see a lot that is lacking in myself in many aspects. I really cannot-make-it (CMI).
As I ponder, I don't really fully know the answers. but I think there are certain truths I would want to continue to hold on in this period of discouragement and doubt:
1. My approval from God is based on Jesus' work on the cross, and not mine
Just as God chose to save me when I really cannot-make-it more than big time, it should not be surprising that God does not choose people to serve Him based on their abilities, personalities or any other attributes.
no matter how good I am as a person to serve in church cannot help me gain any more approval from God than what Christ has already done for me.
2. I can trust God with everything because He is in charge of ministry, including the things I can do, and the things that I can't
I don't need to be worried when I fail or that my personal weaknesses would get in the way of ministry, because God is still fully in control of all things and in Him all things hold together.
Ultimately, it is not what I can do, but what God can do. Not about my glory, but His.
3. I can trust that God has placed me in where I am for a purpose, and be a good steward of all that He has given me
If God places me to serve where I am, He will be faithful in helping me through everything that is ahead. I just need to be faithful, and God's grace is sufficient for me.
4. He uses trials to change me more into His likeness
In difficult times like this, as His child, I know God is not a sadistic parent who just wants me to go through suffering with no purpose. But if His chief aim is to change me to be more like Him, then I can be assured that ill be more like Him through this process, uncomfortable as it is.
Jesus Himself was not without suffering. in fact, He was familiar with suffering. He suffered because He focused on a goal that is worth suffering for - that all of us will have the hope of being re-created in the image of God. It is not surprising then when God can use suffering to make me more like Him.
So can CMI people serve in such leadership positions?
I suppose we can, as long as we have Christ in our lives, as our Lord and Saviour.
And honestly, I'd rather be led than lead.. unless the leader really Cannot Make It BIG TIME or if there is no other available leader. Coordinating people and exciting people are my greatest weaknesses, which is also why I don't really respond to many forms of publicity, or gimmicks that well. I don't have a lot of interests and not many things/people excite me. If left to my own, I would rather just.. be with people who matter to me, read, blog, write...and chill.
And I'm not happening or exciting. Sometimes I think that I am a boring person. I like reading boring stuff, doing boring things. and I like serious stuff. I'm a naturally boring and serious person. to play with the youths and connect with them, takes me right out of my comfort zone. It does get slightly easier over the years though, and there are definitely times that I do enjoy playing with them.
My main service in church is to lead small groups of youth in Bible study, and to fellowship with one another. Many times, I wonder why God would use me to lead people as a youth facilitator when I'm not ANY of what it means to be a successful leader. Like, why me, when I am not good enough based on my personality, my abilities? And why me, when I don't feel that I am spiritually and morally good enough and emotionally available enough at this point in time? Why me, when I am not loving enough?
Honestly, I don't even know what is good enough. But I just know that I am not because I see a lot that is lacking in myself in many aspects. I really cannot-make-it (CMI).
As I ponder, I don't really fully know the answers. but I think there are certain truths I would want to continue to hold on in this period of discouragement and doubt:
1. My approval from God is based on Jesus' work on the cross, and not mine
Just as God chose to save me when I really cannot-make-it more than big time, it should not be surprising that God does not choose people to serve Him based on their abilities, personalities or any other attributes.
no matter how good I am as a person to serve in church cannot help me gain any more approval from God than what Christ has already done for me.
2. I can trust God with everything because He is in charge of ministry, including the things I can do, and the things that I can't
I don't need to be worried when I fail or that my personal weaknesses would get in the way of ministry, because God is still fully in control of all things and in Him all things hold together.
Ultimately, it is not what I can do, but what God can do. Not about my glory, but His.
3. I can trust that God has placed me in where I am for a purpose, and be a good steward of all that He has given me
If God places me to serve where I am, He will be faithful in helping me through everything that is ahead. I just need to be faithful, and God's grace is sufficient for me.
4. He uses trials to change me more into His likeness
In difficult times like this, as His child, I know God is not a sadistic parent who just wants me to go through suffering with no purpose. But if His chief aim is to change me to be more like Him, then I can be assured that ill be more like Him through this process, uncomfortable as it is.
Jesus Himself was not without suffering. in fact, He was familiar with suffering. He suffered because He focused on a goal that is worth suffering for - that all of us will have the hope of being re-created in the image of God. It is not surprising then when God can use suffering to make me more like Him.
So can CMI people serve in such leadership positions?
I suppose we can, as long as we have Christ in our lives, as our Lord and Saviour.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)