Isaiah 6:1-8 - Burning Off Sin

This is one of my absolute favourite parts of the Bible, especially when Isaiah has a totally different attitude at the end in verse 8.

There's a lot of different areas of our body that need the burning experience... such as my eyes, my brain for telling my body to be lazy, my body, my hands. Those are the main one, but in general if God desires for my entire self to be burnt then that's better in the long run for me. It's a scary thought though, whenever we pray for change, we don't realise how scary it is. Because God really does answer prayers. It's like praying about impatience, God WILL burn it off harshly by putting different things in your path... I won't say "don't go down that path" because it's a good path. I'm still walking mine, I don't enjoy it as much as I thought though I can tell you that. But we can set our eyes onto the goal. The image of Christ.

Isaiah

Devotions on the book Isaiah.

Author: Isaiah (traditionally believed)

Isaiah 6:1-8 - Burning off sin

Isaiah 11:6-9 - The peaceable kingdom of God

Isaiah 27:1-5 - A strong God

Isaiah 31:1-3 - Thinking that horses can help

Isaiah 35:4-9 - Pictures of Restoration

Isaiah 37:9-20 - The only God there is

Isaiah 43:1-4 - You're Mine

Isaiah 46:1-7 - Dependable Gods?

Isaiah 49:13-18 - The (Un)Forgetful God of Heaven

Isaiah 53:2-12 - The Suffering Servant

Isaiah 54:4-10 - My love won't walk away

Isaiah 61:1-11 - Rescue and Release

Isaiah 62:2-5 - Jesus Comes to You

Song of Songs 8:6-12 - Love is invincible

The bible always talks about how God's love for us is the jealous kind. Kind of like where v11-12 talks about how the man views his property. Hm... I haven't really come to much "insight" or "growth" through this book... I wonder if Song of Songs is better for when I've experienced more =S

Song of Songs 4:9-15 - God has eyes for you

If Song of Songs is a comparison of God's love for us, then it sure is a new perspective on His love. We always talk about His love in the broad sense, how it surpasses all love on earth, how it's a sacrificial love, how it's a jealous love etc. Even though we talk about our love as a marriage, we never literally think it.

But out of all the imagery in the passage, I think I'd rather God see me as "on who looks God's way" rather than "one with kisses like honey" or whatever =S That's too innovative for me for now.

Song of Songs 1:5-10 - Accepted just as you are

Song of Songs is a very interesting book in the Bible for me in the sense that, I LOVE flipping through it and reading it aloud to the world for fun, but I have never just sat down and read through the entire book. Maybe I'm not up to the age yet? I'm not sure.

The conversation seems to be between a man and a woman, and the woman clearly is worrying about her appearance. The man goes nah it's okay you're fine as la di da. Modern society bombards us with narcissistic ideas that we have to keep our self esteem up anyway, so what more does this book tell us? I'm yet to find out too.

Song of Songs

Devotions on Song of Songs

Author: maybe Solomon... again

Song of Songs 1:5-10 - Accepted just as you are

Song of Songs 4:9-15 - God has eyes for you

Song of Songs 8:6-12 - Love is invincible

Ecclesiastes 11:9-12:7 - Make the Most of Your Youth

The author of Ecclesiastes is writing in the perspective of an aged person, making a warning to all the youths out there to relish our lives. It's true, old people's bodies don't listen to the brain as much as ours does.

My grandpa is like 90 or something, I remember when I was younger and he was about 60-70, he played with me in the park, took me around to places etc. Now I have to take him around to places. He used to have a very just personality, very quiet and just kept to himself, and in my memory has a very clear conscience. Now he's very pessimistic and morbid, and talks about how the only thing he's waiting for is my graduation, but thinks he can't wait that long etc... it's quite saddening for people around him.

I once heard the sharing of a brother in Christ I really respect... He said that he spent 10 years in Uni and the Uni fellowship called CCF. Some people said he wasted his time, or asking him every year "are you STILL here!?" (most people in CCF stay for 3-5yrs, the length of a degree) But he said, he's really glad he made the decision, and he believes he spent his prime years in God's work and is a great blessing for him. I agree with him. How many more years can we stay up the entire night working on a promotional poster? Or making welcome back for newcomers? Or travel to different places finding props? Or do a lot of physically and mentally draining preparation for programs?

We MUST make use of our youth...

"If you want to walk on water, you've got to get out of the boat" - Chapter 1

This is an awesome book, telling us about the relationship between risks, failures, growth and our "boats". It focuses on the event where Peter gets out of the boat and walks towards Jesus, and he wrote a new page in history where man walked on water. I'm pretty sure he's the only one I know of, besides Jesus.

We often focus on failures in life, because society tells us to succeed. Peter didn't fail. Peter triumphed on water, although only for a while, and the triumph stopped when he lost focus on Jesus and looked towards the storm. He succeeded. The other 11 disciples failed, because they missed the opportunity to feel success.

I'm a fairly risk-adverse person. I don't gamble(mainly due to my religion, but I wouldn't gamble if I were atheist), I don't buy shares. I never do anything that I think might let me fail. I enjoy my comfort zone very much. Maybe because I have a reputation to keep, it's too much on the stake. If I join a new ministry, and I have no experience in it, then I fail... what will people think of me? I also don't put the effort into making new genuine friendships. I have many acquaintances, but I feel too comfortable with my existing "close friends" to risk putting pointless energy in making new friendships. Probably due to the fear of rejection, and I'm tired.

Whatever it may be, I'm definately one of the disciples in the boat. But the water is where Jesus is...

Book Reflections

Here I'll be posting some of my thoughts after reading a book.

If you want to walk on water, you've got to get out of the boat - John Ortberg
Chapter 1 - On Water Walking

Chapter 2 - Boat Potatoes

Chapter 3 - Discerning the Call

Refuel - Doug Fields
Reflection

Redesigning of UNSW CCF website

I'm in the process of redesigning UNSW CCF's website (accessed at http://www.ccf.unsw.edu.au).

This is the prelim process of the main page template... is the template a little too business looking for a student society?

26 May 2009

Hm... The past 7 days. It hasn't been a bad week, because last week was my only week at uni that I didn't have any assignments or exams due. It's such a rare thing indeed, even though I just did a French finals yesterday. I also made a very important and large decision as I've shared in my general bloggings. So I'll share about other things.

Our band played for worship at church last Sunday. During practices we thought we were pretty okay, but on the day, we had no time to warm up before the service because setting up took ages. So when we played, the first song was a but iffy, but still acceptable. But when we go to the SECOND song, oh it was so horrible... all the guitars were not tuned to each other as we finally realised, and they were strumming differently. I can hear the drums simple down so the timing won't sound as clashy, the keyboard and I (on the bass) resorted into only playing on the first beat... but it still sounded horrible. The singers were also horrible because the guitars were playing in different keys! Everyone was feeling totally down after the second song, when the 3rd song and the 4th song came, I thought we redeemed ourselves, but it still wasn't good. It was just acceptable, decent.

After service, KS and our youth pastor came over and told us it was the BEST worship we've led to date. That was a little weird. These two people have really good ears. KS is a pro violinist and singer, and our youth pastor's ear is so sensitive to bad music that he can't even listen to FM Radio due to the bad quality. We told them about we thought our second song was horrible, but they didnt' seem to notice. God must've been blocking all their ears! From the audience, apparently we had awesome atmosphere and that everyone was worshipping wholeheartedly. It was such comfort to hear that. Thanks God. I finally truly see why it's only the heart to worshipping that matters!

Desktop

This is my current dualscreen Desktop! 26/5/2009

I cleared out all the messy things from the desktop, it's so clean now. If only my room can be cleaned this easily.

Ecclesiastes 9:7-10 - Do all to the glory of God

The author implies that God has as much fun as we do when we're having a good time. I've never thought of Him that way. The basics of Christianity seems to be "sin" and how God's really hurt to see what we're doing, so we have to be good etc etc. It hurt Him so much that Jesus had to die for us to be saved. Well it seems that God has a great time watching over us too.

It's like when a grown-up plays with a baby. We say to the baby "yes do all you want to have fun!", because all we want to see is the baby's pure laughter. I remember my baby niece was playing with mandarins, and I showed her how I can juggle 3 at a time. She also tried to do what I was doing, but basically the mandarins will just fall right after she throws them. My niece was only 1 years old. Imagine a 5yr old child throwing fruit around, I can already visualise an angry mob of relatives scolding him/her and making him/her clean up the mess. But with babies, we don't really care, because we can see how much fun they're having. In the end, I had to keep picking up the mandarins for her to throw, I think it went on for about half an hour and I was just constantly running around picking up mandarins and giving them back to her. Guess who did the cleaning up as well? But I didn't feel annoyed at all! I was actually having as much fun, or more fun, than my niece because she was laughing her head off.

My baby nephew had a similar story. He wasn't even 1 yrs old at the time. We were at the bistro of a classy hotel, everyone was dressed nicely, the ambiance was quite and the waiters were polite. Then there we where in the corner, with a baby banging chopsticks on the china bowls and plates. My nephew was clearing having a ball, he was screaming at the top of his lungs with excitement, obviously happy with the percussion music he was making. The waiter looked over and eyed us... I smiled back at him genuinely and he saw that I was enjoying the music as well. He didn't really stop him and walked away, the other customers raised their tolerance levels as well for my nephew. Can you just visualise yourself doing that in a hotel? I think they'd be calling security right away.

It's like that with God I guess. We're His lamb. Exclusive to Him only, just like how my nephews and nieces are exclusively my relatives and not yours. I love seeing them have fun, and they might be doing really stupid things, but it makes me happy none the less.

Therefore, seize life! Take a walk around the hood and notice all the beautiful creation... we often deprive ourselves with spending extra time just to enjoy ourselves, because we think it's just a waste of time and a stupid thing to do. But God has fun when we do.

Ecclesiastes 7:2-3 - Pain

I haven't experienced sorrow in a long time, and if the author of Ecclesiastest is right, that means I haven't been learning much. C.S. Lewis wrote that "God whispers to us in our joy and shouts to us in our pain." But what we want isn't pain... we want to learn and hear God at the same time as feasting. I don't think there's a problem with that, as long as when we do go through sorrow, we sit down and think what we can learn.

Prayer Answered... a little quick

Well referring to the dilemma I had earlier this week, whether to go into politics or not... God answered me pretty quickly. The problem was that if I decided to go into politics, then I'll have to drop some church ministries to free up some time.

I spoke with a couple of my mentors in my walk... I decided that I won't do anything that ANY of my mentors disagrees. Because even though it seems like it's a small decision in life, whether to commit yourself to a taskforce is a decision similar to whether to join a sports club, but it requires me to drop my serving, and is that what God wants me to do? I knew that if that wasn't God approved, I will not receive the blessings of my mentors. All of them agreed to support me, except for one who asked me to rethink and don't rush my decision. Ask God to give me an answer rather than reason with myself. I did just that.

The day after I prayed about it, I received a phone call from my boss saying that my casual hours are getting more and more difficult for him to justify to management, as they're looking for full timers. So I told him I understand the situation, and backed off myself. Well in a sense it's more like getting fired, but it was a mutual one. This solves many problems. Time is no longer an issue, and I've always wanted to quit my job but I was held back by the money I was getting. I knew God had so much more for me to do with my time, than to earn money. Heck I'll be spending the rest of my life working anyway, this prime time is supposed to be for serving.

Lord, I thank you for answering so quickly, because I'm a very indecisive person. I also thank you for giving me the opportunity to work at that place because it was such a miracle for me to get that job. It won't make sense if I became a Jonah and moan that you took away something that you gave me... So take me where you want!

Amen.

Ecclesiastes 6:1-9 - What's the point?

Ecclesiastes is a really good book... it's about someone who's got it all - money, fame, power, reputation, wisdom, familiy... everything. A lot of these things are motivation and drive for people to improve, to try and achieve more than you have now. People spend their entire lives and still doesn't achieve all that this book talks about. And yet, God sometimes showers particular individuals with what we call as "all". In the end, these people might not have the ability to enjoy it. Or they realise that even after having all these stuff, they haven't found the purpose of it all... What's the point?

Well, like most university students, I dream of having an amazing future. Prosperous, challenging, rewarding, life changing... But nobody ever thinks about wanting the ability to "enjoy" life, rather than gaining access to different methods to enjoy life. Why can't we just take life as it is? I drive a pretty old car, it's a Camry Sedan from the 90s. Like anyone who reads this will think, well, it's time to get a new car... a small one, not a family car like a Camry. Or even better, a sports car. But what's the point? We don't really know, we just want it.

I bought a new top of the line laptop a couple of months ago. But I do recall promising myself that I won't buy a new laptop until my old one breaks. My old one works perfectly fine at the moment, but I just want a laptop that performs so well that I don't need to wait for anything to open, I click it and it appears. But what's the point? In the end I probably save 5min of waiting time per day, I can play more demanding games on that laptop too... nothing too important though.

"We work to feed our appetites; meanwhile our souls go hungry." This is the summary of what's going on in our lives, especially Gen Y. This generation grew up thinking that anything is achievable, if I want to go to Europe for a holiday, then I'll work many hours a week and in half a years' time, I'll have $5000 ready. But each time we feed ourselves, we realise that this money actually goes into waste... it doesn't satisfy us as much as it's supposed to. It's like eating 1 million tic tacs for dinner, it just doesn't work.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-16 - Don't go it alone

It's true that we're created to work together. God said to Adam that it's not good for him to be alone, that's why there was Eve. It goes also with the Chinese proverb, that one twig by itself is easily broken, but 3 together is hard.

We see that in many cases, of people falling and being picked up by another. I was told there's a new game out at the moment, called Left for Dead. The survivors have to run away from these "zombies" who are NPC minions of the other team. When you see your teammate survivors fall on the floor being swamped by zombies, you can go over and help them get away from there and stuff. It should be like that with us, because we are fighting a war as well.

Ecclesiastes 2:4-10 - Giving in to every impulse

Pleasures I pursued in the past week:

1. Eating out unnecessarily
2. Bludged and gamed during assignment times
3. Skipped lectures just for chills
4. Spending unnecessarily more money on my hair at a top salon

Motives

1. To enjoy the pleasures of taste, and to feel the elegant ambience.
2. To escape the stress and go with the laziness
3. Laziness and the temptation of spending time with friends
4. Just wanted to pamper myself, reward myself for no particular reason

What does it mean to pursue pleasure? I don't know, is it supposed to lie to us? Probably. It tells us that we need it, that it's better for us. But in the end we probably have to end up doing extra to catch up. Spending unnecessary money would mean that we can buy less later, or we have to work more. Skipping lectures mean that you'll be worse off in the exams.

Everyone loves a bit of pleasure... but what pleasures are worth pursuing? We can't say we want to live a life without pleasure in a prayer to God, because that most-likely won't be from your heart. And when God grants your wish, you will be crying and nobody will pity you.

The aim for this week is to notice every motive behind pursuing any pleasure, be it big or small. I'm bludging today already, and the motive is to gain more sleep... Is it worth it?

Ecclesiastes

Devotions on Ecclesiastes
Author: maybe Solomon (son of David and King over Israel in Jerusalem)

Ecclesiastes 2:4-10 - Giving in to every impulse

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 - Don't go it alone

Ecclesiastes 6:1-9 - What's the point?

Ecclesiastes 7:2-3 - Pain

Ecclesiastes 9:7-10 - Go all to the glory of God

Ecclesiastes 11:9-12:7 - Make the most of your youth

Blog

2010 Dec 06 - 2nd week of worklife
2010 Apr 13 - Dance with my grandma
2010 Apr 13 - Concrete Angel
2010 Apr 13 - What to do
2010 Mar 23 - 活著就是祭 
2010 Mar 12 - I Remember
2010 Mar 2 - The way you move ain't fair, you know?
2010 Feb 23 - Patience is a virtue, with rewards
2010 Feb 18 - Safety Bubble
2010 Feb 16 - Person in Denial
2010 Feb 13 - Prejudice
2010 Feb 9 - Today was a Fairytale
2010 Jan 21 - Waiting on an Angel
2010 Jan 5 - Obedience
2009 Dec 14 - My dearest brother
2009 Dec 9 - Where's everyone?
2009 Dec 9 - Praying small g prayers to our big G God
2009 Nov 11 - Horses are Vicious
2009 Nov 10 - The Good Side
2009 Nov 9 - Boundaries
2009 Nov 7 - Non-Widescreen Monitors
2009 Nov 7 - Prayer Groups...
2009 Nov 6 - Horrific Fate (My life is gone) [OT: Amazing Grace (My chains are gone)]

2009 Nov 6 - iPhone to my rescue (OT: Came to my Rescue)

2009 Nov 5 - Come on it's Fail Break (OT: Come on and Celebrate)

2009 Nov 5 - Evilness as the absence of God's love

2009 Nov 5 - Malachi 3:3 says

2009 Nov 3 - Is that really you?

2009 Nov 2 - Reminisces

2009 Oct 30 - Duty vs Passion

2009 Oct 29 - Would I die without my phone?

2009 Oct 4 - Calling... Answering... Pruning...

2009 Jul 6 - Wake Up!

2009 Jun 30 - 再遇恩師

2009 May 26 - Redesigning of UNSW CCF Website

2009 May 23 - Prayer Answered... a little quick
2009 May 20 - New Change in Direction

New Change in Direction

A recent opportunity has come across in my life, and that is to be involved somewhat into politics. There's a new taskforce that is aimed at a certain ethnic group, and of course, are based around Christian beliefs. It's a really inspiring project, to stand firm in our beliefs in politics.

A lot of Christians see politics as something that's dark and full of temptations, so we leave it "for someone else to do". And it's true! But because it's so dark, the presence of devout Christians play a big part in the operation or the direction of today's society. Because we are the light.

Being committed to this will require pulling out of some existing services... I'm thinking of dropping my musical commitments for our Band for now. I haven't decided on what else to drop yet, please guide me Lord. Or if this isn't even your plan for me, please let me know.

Proverbs 30:1-9 - The Skeptic and The Believer

Society encourages us to be skeptical, don't take everything as you're told. We challenge tradition and existing ideas. It's a good thing. That's how people discover.

Fortunately for me, there's no spritual basics that I have to be skeptical about, it's more like common sense to me. But verse 9 is awesome, it talks about striking a balance between needing God enough to not neglect him, and being independent enough not to doubt him.

So the item I've chosen to fast on is games and TV for the day. The book suggests for us to reflect on how God provides for us even during those times. But since I've eaten already, I'll choose the activities that I do most when I'm idle.

Proverbs 29:7-27 - Noticing the Needy

Biblically, the needy or the poor people are the widows, orphans and foreigners. In some sense they still apply but there are more people who are needy nowadays I think.

I consider myself quite cold hearted when it comes to the poor, except for the misfortunates. I feel very sympathetic towards the misfortunate people such as the disabled, work injured etc, but I think they don't like sympathy anyway. Other than that, I think I have a prejudice against the healthy poor.

Numerous times I've been told that it's not up to me to judge the poor, whether they are abusing the system or genuinely need help. Mainly because I've never felt their hardship.

"The good-hearted understand what it's like to be poor; the hardhearted haven't the faintest idea."

I think I haven't the faintest idea.

Proverbs 28:4-12 - Word to the Wise

This chapter of Proverbs don't really have a theme like some other ones, it's like a whole collection of different wise sayings. But one thing that keeps coming up here is the comparison between the rich and the poor.

The two verses that really struck me is "He who keeps the law is a discerning son, but a companion of gluttons disgraces his father." in verse 7. The Message words it differently "Practice God's law - get a reputation for wisdom. Hang out with a loose crowd - embarass your family". Usually with books like Proverbs The Message speaks clearer to our generation, but this time I like NIV more, because "loose crowd" is a very vague definition. Nobody classifies their bunch of friends a loose crowd, because friends are something you choose. But NIV phrases it as "companion of gluttons" which speaks strongly to us. We are a generation of gluttons, are we not? It reminds me of The Pardoner's tale, because gluttony is something that's promoted and seen as "the life".

I remember talking with some friends and we agreed that it's always better to order a table with too much food, and know there will be leftovers, than to order "just enough" food so everyone's full. Because if there was "just enough" food you always think you can still keep eating if there were more. Therefore we don't have a "just enough" we only have a "that will do" amount in our mindset. Just enough food will satisfy our hunger, but it won't satisfy our gluttonous desire to feel Too Full. We don't want to be not hungry, we want to be exploding from out stomachs out.

God Marks

Prayer Page 2009
Prayer Page 2010

God Encounter
God Encounters are blogs to recount on all the experiences of God!
22 Jul 2010
8 Jun 2010
7 May 2010
30 Apr 2010
26 Feb 2010
21 Feb 2010
15 Feb 2010
30 Nov 2009
10 Nov 2009
4 Nov 2009
19 Oct 2009
16 Sep 2009
9 Sep 2009
4 Sep 2009
7 Jul 2009
26 May 2009
14 Feb 2009