Proverbs 18:10-15 - Humility

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Humility is a HARD thing to learn. It's even hard to describe, really. Would someone humble consider themselves humble? Either way, pride is definitely something that I need to work on. In verse 12, quoting from The Message "Pride first, then the crash, but humility is precursor to honor." I reckon is quite true. But the environment that we're in kind of makes us want to be really proud of ourselves. We grow up in compliments and appreciation. What's the difference between self appreciation and pride anyway?

14 Feb 2009

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Yep it's valentine's day today. For some people, they spend days and days thinking about what to do, making handmade chocolates, organising for bouquet deliveries, booking restaurants, planning the day etc. There's another bunch who hates valentines day, condemning it as commercialised and hates all the fuss about it. Then there's the people who don't even think of this Saturday as valentine's day and wanted to plan something on it, only realising that nobody can make it due to valentine's day.

I heard a story yesterday from a guy who's girlfriend absolutely hates valentine's day and requested for him not to do anything about it. So, like most guys, he celebrates on that and is so relieved that he doesn't have to spend days stressing about how to meet the expectations of the girl. He decided to go out with her on Sunday instead of Saturday. Well, we all think that he's not going to be alive on Monday. We'll see.

Besides Valentine's day, a lot has happened this week, including my return to Homeland. I must promote Cathay Pacific for them because they let me put 35kg through the baggage thing and I had 4 handcarry baggages. They let me through fine! Well it's either they're nice, or I absolutely truthfully prayed that it's really out of my hands whether I can go back to Sydney safely. That might be a bit of a stretch.

Monday was the first day I used my brain in 2009. After being an airhead bum for nearly 3 months, I realised that no matter how familiar you think you are with something, over a period of time, you'll forget it! Constant practice is what makes your body remember those things longer.

Well there's too much encounters this week to summarise, from driving again like a newbie but still safe on the road, to being able to wake up and be more refreshed for work than I was before I left etc. But most of all, when I came back to Sydney, God gave me 2 spiritual gifts. I think ultimately, he knew what I really needed, mentors. I came back amongst the herd, and saw that we finally have a shepherd, well we've always had The Shepherd, but you know... The atmosphere is totally different, there's direction, there's change, there's unity.. a lot of things that only a leader can bring to a herd. Because although sheep will just follow other sheep, the FIRST sheep is always led by a non-sheep.

Proverbs 16:21 - The Importance of Words

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The Chinese have a saying that if you pour out water (on the floor) it's hard to get it back into the basket. The same goes with time and words. James talks about how if someone masters their tongue, that is the hardest thing they can do. Well I'm far from there. Even though mean words don't come out of our mouths much these days because people are more "sociable", sarcasm and things like that are very trivial.

There's this person who jokes around a lot, is very sarcastic and light hearted. One day that person made a claim that was quite serious and everyone took it as a joke that the person was trying to be funny by being serious. There's no moral to the story, but that's just how it is, which somehow contradicts with some of the things we learn doesn't it?

Proverbs 14:2-13 Wisdom on your doorstep

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Proverbs is an amazing book. It goes to show again that wisdom lasts forever. I think there's a general perception that in the olden days people are less lazy, and all we care about nowadays is fun and... well probably just fun. Older generations keep accusing that generation Y's are so lazy and we don't know what we're doing etc etc... But actually, this type of behaviour has been around since proverbs!

From The Message 14:4 reads "No cattle, no crops; a good harvest requires a strong ox for the plow." which is a little different than the NIV translation. Stop lounging around guys! There's heaps of harvest for us to reap. But what type of harvest are we talking about here, is probably another long discussion. Nonetheless, we have to make use of our productivity which is such a blessing to have in the first place.

Proverbs 14:12-13 from The Message, again reads differently to NIV, "There's a way of life that looks harmless enough; look again - it leads straight to hell. Sure, those people appear to be having a good time, but all that laughter will end in heartbreak." There is so much temptation out there. We often think it's okay to do a lot of things because most of the population does it, well the Bible also said that most of the population will not receive eternal life! What that way of life is, will have to be figured out as one becomes closer to the Truth, or the Light or the Word or God. I always see people around me leading that kind of life, and I wonder if other people look at me and think the same. Society has molded us in a way that living this kind of life is something to take pride in, something that you can boast about, in fact we call that way of life "life" in our language don't we?

How to cook an Eggcellent breakfast in 1minute

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Serving size: Serves 1
Cuisine type: Australian
Cooking time: 1minute

Ingredients
1 Egg
1g Salt

Method
Break the egg into a bowl, but if you like thin eggs, get a shallow wide'ish dish-like bowl. Poke the yoke with something so it breaks, otherwise the egg will explode... which will be another fun "how-to". Add 1g of salt. Put the bowl in the microwave and cover it with something microwavable. Microwave it for 1minute.

Voila!

You get a nice muffin style egg that DOES NOT stick to the bowl so you can just rinse it with water afterwards. breakfast done in max. 2 minutes!

Vids

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Recipes
How to cook an Eggcellent breakfast in 1min with no mess to clean afterwards!

Idiotic Moments
I Adore - The Musical

About

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This is just a blog to store all reflections on my (hopefully) daily devotions. And some nonsense in other parts of the site.

Project Start Date: [Phase 2: 5 September 2008] [Phase 3 (current): 10 February 2009]

Current Devotional Book: The Message//Remix:Solo - An Uncommon Devotional (seriously, 10/10 buy it from Koorong for $16.95) by Eugene H, Peterson

Current Other Book: If you want to walk on water, you've got to get out of the boat. By John Ortberg

Current Progress in Annual Reading Plan: Proverbs

Author of Blog: University Student in a Christian family. Services in youth ministry, music and University society. - and recently also politics!

Current Desktop: Click Here

Proverbs 10:22-32 - Self Examination

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When we read proverbs, we often read them as if they are talking about other people. Eg. in verses like Proverbs 10:23 "To do evil is like sport to a fool, but a man of understanding has wisdom", we don't pride ourselves as being a man of understanding, but we always think of the "fool" as "others". Looking into the mirror to examine myself, the proverb is not as distant as I thought.

How often do we laugh at or start rude jokes? It seems to be accepted quite well by society, and it definitely gets us the attention we seek. We've lost our alertness in morality as we integrate with worldly behaviours, and if we don't carefully examine ourselves, we always fail to identify our weaknesses. After all, society tells us that we have to think positive and have pride in ourselves, right?

Before I even finished closing my eyes to pray, a song popped into my head. "Lord I come to You, let my heart be changed renewed. Flowing from the grace that I found in You." I didn't even remember the name of the song until a fair bit of the song has gone through my head. I wouldn't have even picked this song if I was picking one to worship during devotion, but if you think carefully, the lyrics actually fit quite well, at least for me it did. Proverbs 10:22 "The blessing of the Lord makes one rich". Not in the common sense. It's different to people praying and wishing for wealth in front of idols.

After self examining, I saw where I was at. Not that I didn't realise it beforehand, but I just didn't want to address it. I have become an aquaintance of God. Like those Facebook friends we have who we'll say "hi" when we bump into each other at Uni, but we won't make the extra effort to meet up with them like we do with our closer friends. I treated my relationship with God as something that happens when and if it happens, unlike the good old days of when I would look forward to it and make extra effort to communicate. Even though recently, most people would think I had the time of my life, I must be so satisfied with having a huge holiday and buying all these things etc etc. My life had been so puny compared to an abundant life full of blessings I once experienced and cherished so dearly.