But would you have needed God?
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1 : 2-4
People whine about how unfair life is all the time. Many people find themselves asking God "why me?". Every time I face a difficulty, I find myself complaining. There are many times I just sweep the problem under the carpet because I don't want to deal with it. However, I find that it is through my most difficult moments that God is the most real to me.A friend asked me once if I had ever tried telling God to "Break me and mould me, Lord". I thought about it and decided one day to ask Him to really break and mould me. Suddenly, I had to face SO many problems. It was like everything was going wrong all at once and I had no choice but to trust that God knew what He was doing. And I realized that through all those trials, He was always there for me. It was through all those problems that I felt His presence the most and learned to trust in Him no matter what. It was through those difficulties that He broke and moulded me.
A song in the spectrum of praise goes:Thank you LordHere's a story I found quite interesting:
For the trials that come my way
In that way I can grow each day
As I let You lead
A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through the little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no further.
So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily.
But it had a swollen body and small shrivelled wings.
The man expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened!
The butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shrivelled wings. It never was able to fly. What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening was nature's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.
Many times, struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If we went through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been.
We would never fly.
Think about it. God bless.- Phoebe Lim
“You think too much”
Is it? Then why can’t I tell what’s going to happen tomorrow or the day after? If it’s in my hands, that means I’m in full control from the point of my birth to my death and that would mean I do know exactly what’s going to happen tomorrow, next month and even next year. Only then I can plan with full optimum capacity with all my capabilities and then executing them 100% perfection. That would be in my hands.
And the quotes and life “philosophies” go on but none of them answer life in totality. They only answer to certain individual’s life that matches their unique obstacles and goals in life. Some might ask, “What’s wrong with that?” Well, there’s nothing really “wrong” about it technically. But if you can settle with the fact that your conscience is horribly struck when you’re called selfish then I guess that’s your choice of your life with the principles and philosophies you want to live with.
What was I holding onto then? Nothing, just like most, I just chose to live life selfishly and my only goal is just to be with a girl I love most. In fact at that point of time, I was also challenging my friends who were Christians but none of them gave me answers that satisfy my curiosity. What was my curiosity that can never be quenched towards Christianity back then?
But that led me to tripped so hard over a sharp rock, fell flat on my face to the solid ground and then I asked myself, did I really know how to live life? I became a burden to everyone, I hurt the person I loved most, I don’t even know where exactly I’m heading with whatever I’m doing. If I really knew how to live my life, then why do I feel this tremendous pain in this huge hole in my heart seeking so hard for redemption? That cries out for repentance so badly? But everytime I try, I just fell even harder?
I was so ashamed, so humbled and so loved.
(Back to the earlier quotes at the top) I do reap what I sow not necessarily with human expectation but definitely with spiritual nourishment.
Climbing gunung angsi for the second time did not make it all that easy. We were more prepared this time, but nonetheless it was still tough. The steep stairs were the hardest part for me. Each stair was almost a foot high and the flight of stairs never ended. Every time we reached a bend, we were met with another flight of stairs and this continued a few times. It was not only physically challenging but mentally challenging as well as we did not know exactly when we would reach the top.
Well, I think our Christian lives are like climbing up a steep, windy hill. It is never easy, always an uphill battle, be it against the world or against your old nature. On top of that, it is a life of faith. Often times we do not see the end result of God's plan. We are just called to do it. This is just like that bend with the flight of stairs after it. God reveals His plans one step at a time. We have to continually seek Him out for guidance on this journey of life of ours.
So I just want to encourage you guys to keep focused on the goal which you have been called to. Lets not get lost and also encourage others to stay on the track and finish the climb!
As everyone knows, we attempted to climb up Gunung Angsi once again last Saturday. I was rather excited about this trip even though I knew climbing up the mountain would mean that my legs would be in great pain for the next week. After the last experience, I was more prepared than ever this time; come rain or shine I was ready to conquer that mountain. I also told myself that if it didn’t rain, I would like to come down that mountain in less than the eight hours it took us last time.
For the benefit of all of you who didn’t join us that day, our hike up Gunung Angsi was delayed and we only started our hike at around 11am. So when the time came to start climbing down from the peak we were essentially racing against time, hoping that we would reach the bottom before the sun went down. As we were going down, some of us started to fall behind; I was walking together with a friend that had some difficulty. All was well as we went down until the sun started setting and I knew that we still had a long way to go.
I was shocked by the fact that we lost in IBA UNPLUGGED 2010. But though the fact we lost this time I didn’t know why but I reacted very well to this. In fact I felt we never lost because God was so good to us that He gave us a new song to sing.
A few years back, when I started playing the guitar, all I ever thought of was to please and amaze people but over the years, yea fine, for a while it did worked but after a while it turned hollow, there was no joy in doing that, only temporary satisfaction because musicians will always have to work their heads all the time to keep up with the trends. As I begin to compose songs, I begin to realize as well I might write some nice tunes but there will always be someone better so musicians are so often caught in the rat race of coming out with better album, writing better songs, coming out with much more tricks and techniques in playing. Its all about being better and coming up with more catchier stuff but musicians nowadays, do they truly mean what they sing, do they make music because it comes from their heart or they make music just to impress the world? Sad as it seems, the latter applies. It is just sad to note that nowadays, everyone wants to hear something good, they do not seem to care what the song is singing about.
One of the ways I have always found effective before performing or even playing, is to kneel down and pray, to thank God for everything He has given me, and to remind myself to use it for Him, only by praying, I understand the reality of singing can be temporary, but worshiping God is forever, and as I sing today, I am reminded, that God that has been very good to me, to us in fact, because singing and playing any musical instruments can be a form of joy and worship to Him.
Um…from where should I begin? Perhaps you could understand more if you were at the young adult retreat last month.
One might ask what does low self-esteem has to do with insecurities? Trust me, due to my low self-esteem, I have all these questions (whether I will be safe? whether I will be loved? whether my dad will be healed? The list goes on and on) in the most secret place of my heart. Now, is the time for me to rebuild my confidence level.
For those of you who experience the similar situation as me, do not lose heart as you are precious in God’s eye too! For Psalm 139:8-18 says
The Shelter handed us the official receipt of our donations to them through the Recyclables Community Effort as well as they shared with us on a concerning issue that plagued the society recently - 
I checked my phone for the umpteenth time, awaiting a text message. Doesn’t she care for me?
As the Sunday School song goes,
I'm sure we all agree that there are countless ways of grabbing people's attention but one of the most common way is through our words. The very things we say and convey to others!
Through the years of nourishment and guidance of the Lord, it all came clear that indeed, if whatever words that comes out from my mouth is not for His Glory but for mine, I'm asking for trouble.
Would I rather keep quiet and gain no attention or discourage the topic when a gossip takes place?
After 24 years of establishing TTDIGC, we would like to wish our church a happy 24th anniversary!