For too many years we've felt like the fear of the Lord was a bad thing, when we didn't realise this is the very thing that will lead us to life! Without the fear of the Lord, you're not gonna understand why, why you should follow Jesus. Without a proper understanding of the fear of the Lord, we wouldn't understand the power thats available to us through the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes we lose our joy in Him.. I know. I've lost my joy many times. But in the end, you always come back to the one that is joy - Him! One verse I've always held on to, "Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and provide me with a spirit of willing obedience." Psalms 51:12, :)

Today is the 21st May 2011, the day of the supposed "Rapture" as claimed by Harold Camping. The rapture is taken from 1 Thessalonians 4:17 where it says, ".. and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."

Hmmm, you know... Thinking about this rapture and end of the world thing..... Doesn't it say somewhere in the Word of God that... Erm.... What was it again? Sounds familiar... Oh yeah.... I think it went something like... ... BUT ABOUT THAT DAY, NO ONE KNOWS, NOT EVEN THE ANGELS IN HEAVEN, NOR THE SON, BUT ONLY THE FATHER. ... the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect Him! (Matthew 24, Mark 13)

Its really sad to see how some people can focus on just one part of Scripture without looking at the entire thing. When Paul said, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work" I really don't think he meant using the Bible as some means of predicting when the world will end, y'know? Who are we, as the pot that God Himself shapes, to act like Him and say when the end will come?

I've realised that a lot of people are NOT sure of their salvation. On Friday I was talking to a friend and he said, "Addmaths! Oh God... I feel like dying. I hope I die tomorrow." because his addmaths exam was on Saturday. So I asked him, "Hey, if you die, are you sure that you're going to go to Heaven?" and he just sort of paused and looked at me. "You know what.. I don't know.. I just really don't know." He's a Christian and goes to church faithfully, and he loves God. But he doesn't know if he's going to Heaven or not.

Another friend of mine really freaked out and got totally upset about the whole rapture thing on 21st May. He was so scared that he was going to die. It shows the insecurity of a person, because deep down inside every single person, no matter if they're Christian or not, they wonder. They wonder what will happen to them if they die. Even if they deny it and shake off the notion that there is a life after death, there is that one small inkling of a doubt - What if... there really is a Heaven and a Hell? ... Where will I spend eternity...? And it even happens among Christians! Christians who are not sure of their salvation and whether they are going Heaven or not after they die.. If you actually begin to ask around the people around you, you will realise that a lot of them simply are not sure of whether they are truly saved or going to Heaven or not. Its really, really, really sad.

John 5:24 “I tell you the solemn truth, the one who hears my message and believes the one who sent Me has eternal life and will not be condemned, but has crossed over from death to life."

Today? Bad day! I managed to make a really close friend angry, because I couldn't keep my own opinions to myself. It was my wrongdoing too, because I was angry. Should have put more self-control into it, since I've realised over and over and over again that I should never ever ever ever open my mouth OR write on the internet about how angry/disappointed/sad I am with someone. Like it says in Proverbs 18:2, "Fools have no interest in understanding; they only want to air their own opinions." I was obviously a huge huge huge fool at that moment! Instead of taking time off to read the Bible, pray and talk to God about how disappointed I was, I 'aired my opinions'. So now I'm suffering from the consequences, but its okay.. God is gracious and He loves me all the same. I'm sad now of course, but still. I love Jesus:)


Me: ..... seems like I keep getting taken advantage of to do things for someone and it happens over and over again, am I being too nice?
Jesus: ... Seems like I kept healing the people and making miracles, yet they still mocked me over and over again; I was persecuted and put to death on the cross for them, was I being too nice?

Worship can only be worship when we KNOW the God we are worshipping. Knowing God is NOT the result of worship; it's the reason for it. Worship is the consummation of a relationship that is already present. This is perhaps the biggest misunderstanding that I see in the Church today. We are routinely taught to believe that we can know the heart of God through worshipping Him. Nothing is more demoralizing then watching a group of people who have little or no intimate knowledge of the heart of God, as they try their best to worship Him in an effort to know His heart. It's a parallel reflection of the dating world where people sleep together BEFORE relationship is established in an attempt to "get to know" one another.

.... He'll wait as long as it takes for you to know His heart because that's the most important thing in the universe to Him. Until you know Him personally, you simply have nothing to worship about.


///////

You can’t direct the wind but you can adjust the sails

Today is Teachers Day, and there is one teacher that has stuck with me for an amazing 9 years. Since I was a shy and quiet 8-year-old till now, there is that one teacher that has stuck through with teaching and helping
me - My piano teacher. I am doubtlessly blown away by her dedication to her job, her passion for all things musical, her store of patience that never seems to run out & the incredible love she has for her students.

She's the teacher that has tolerated all my laziness, put up with my excuses, persevered and persisted in motivating, inspiring & encouraging me, ever long-suffering with my unwillingness to practise the piano. She has seen me through the very first years that I touched the piano and loved it, till the years where I just lost my interest altogether and hardly touched the piano at all. She never once scolded, admonished, berated or reproached me with anger and frustration - how incredible is that?

Had I had any other teacher, they would have definitely given up on me altogether. But she never gave up on me. She actually understood that the piano was not my passion like it was hers, it was just something that I had to go through and finish. Her understanding and her heart is what makes her SO different from all the other teachers I have met - She treats her students as more than just a job or obligation... She treats them as an actual individual.

I'm still overwhelmed by the fact that she has NEVER given up hope on me, NEVER told me that I would not be able to pass my examinations, NEVER stopped telling me that I could do whatever I put my mind to do. You see, if you had actually seen the way I treated the piano, never practising it (unless you count the 2 hours a week in piano tuition as practise), putting it off incessantly, only practising 2 weeks before my examinations and then barely passing it... Understand that its INSANELY AMAZING that she never gave up, because honestly, if I were my teacher, I would have put myself off as a hopeless case and only teach because I was paid.

9 years later from meeting her, I am just so astounded that I have been ultimately blessed with an incredible teacher, guide and mentor. I do not think I will ever find another teacher that has beared and tolerated my behavior as she has, and its difficult for me to believe that in just 3 weeks time, my journey with her will be over. I'll be done with the piano. I'll no longer be under her, listen to her laugh about her adventures in Australia, Cambodia, Sabah and Bangkok, talk about her shopping sprees and the best places to find food... It brings me to tears that I will no longer see the best teacher I have ever had week by week anymore.

I can't say that I regret taking up the piano, because its taken me places in the ministry that I've never thought possible - but yeah, I'm glad its over. At the same time though.. I'll miss it. I'll miss having this amazing person inspiring me to be my very best.

I'll miss my piano teacher.

My heart breaks when I remember the past,
when I went with the crowds to the house of God and led them as they walked along,
a happy crowd, singing and shouting praise to God.

Why am I so sad? Why am I so troubled?
I will put my hope in God, and once again I will praise him; my Savior and my God.

Here in exile my heart is breaking, and so I turn my thoughts to Him.
He has sent waves of sorrow over my soul; chaos roars at me like a flood,
like waterfalls thundering down to the Jordan
from Mount Hermon and Mount Mizar.

May the Lord show his constant love during the day,
so that I may have a song at night,
a prayer to the God of my life.

{Psalms 42:4-8}

[C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity]

Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised.

But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards.

You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.

Everyday He blesses me with grace I don’t deserve.. that’s the kind of loving God I serve.

Hypocrisy, ὑπόκρισις;
"Jealous" "play-acting", "acting out", "coward" or "dissembling".

I'm sorry for my hypocrisy. I'm sorry that I've led out a life that hardly represents who God whats me to be. But thats the beauty in Christ, He takes all that we are and turns it into everything He wants it to be. I'm still in the process, and all I have to say is sorry.

We are delivered from sin, but not the presence of it. As Christians, we are not under dominion to sin, but we are called to overcome that through our New Nature (Romans 6, anyone?) So of course sin has no dominion over us, Christ does. However, that does not stop us from falling into sin.. We live in this fallen world, in fallen bodies. But somehow God chose us from the very beginning to be His chosen people, that through us He might be glorified. So I am a saint of Christ, as Paul considers the believers throughout the New Testament. Think of the church of Corinth in the bible. There were reports of pride, sexual immorality, abusing of spiritual gifts, misunderstanding of Christian doctrines - and yet when Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, he addressed them, ".. to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints..." although they were in sin. We can't ignore the sin our lives like it's not happening because it is. You can't tell me you don't sin, that would be a lie... which is a sin. We are in Christ, and we are definitely dead to our old nature, sin has no dominion over us, but we do not lie and delude ourselves when we sin.

When I sin, I do not run away and try to cover it up. God definitely knows better, and His light will shine the truth on every single dark and dusty corner. When sin occurs, it gives us a chance to run all the more to God, knowing that His grace and mercy welcomes us every step of the way. The Devil might try to remind us how shameful our past or our sin was, BUT the image of Christ on the cross serves to remind us how great and how wide His love for us is, and how his amazing grace cleanses us from all iniquities and sorrows!

"If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal." See, I'm done with this pretense and this lie, I'm done with myself. “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

The word of God is a powerful thing, sharper than a double-edged sword. Tonight I was in church and suddenly the thought just came - What if, Hannah, you lived on the very word of God? What if it became your bread, your water, your breath, your thoughts - What if the Word of God became the very substance of your being? It rang through my head over and over again, What if the He became the very substance of my being? What if I lived exactly to His word, and became what He was; no more just a clanging cymbal or a noisy gong? What if He became my very substance?!

Jesus said the most important commandment is "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength."

What does it mean by loving Him with ALL our heart and soul? It means no longer letting it run astray to meet idols and welcome distractions - Man's Heart, its the essence of his soul, is the part of man which decides how he will respond to what he has learned through his spirit, soul and body. It is the single most precious thing that you could ever choose to give to the Father. Soul is the term that describes our inner nature. Heart is that deepest, most innermost part – your control center – that decides what is important to you; and then radiates that out into your soul, mind, and strength. That is why it was first in the list; and why God has to be your “first love”.

I think that part where it says, "... with all your MIND" is the part that is often overlooked by many. What does it even mean to love God with all your mind..? I believe loving Him with all your mind is when He becomes the absolute centre of your thoughts. When you're daydreaming during the day? Every waking thought, every random thought during the day, everything you think of before you sleep - What does it mean to love God with All Your Mind? Think about it.. What do you think of the most? When you love a person, your mind constantly runs off to think about that person, and nearly every thought is dominated by that person. What would that person think of me doing this/that, what if that person could see me now, what can I do for that person... Jesus?

And loving Him with all our heart, and all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength - it leads to one thing. It leads to HIM being the very substance of WHO WE ARE, the substance of that which we breathe in and breathe out and eat and drink and live and have our very being. He said it, and I'll believe it, it is possible for me to love Him with all I have.. But for now; word of God, speak into my life, make it so real to me, change me and transform me into all You want me to be. For now; Spirit of the living God, cleanse me with hyssop and I will be clean, restore to me the joy of your salvation. I'm tired of this life, and I was made for so much more than this sickening hypocrisy - I'm glad that in Christ, there is no condemnation or guilt.

See, if life was perfect, would you still know God? If you had everything you could ever want to have and more, would there be any room for God to work in your life? Its through all the dry valleys that you know He's there, even when He seems so far off - He's not. Believe it.

“Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.” {Luke 12:21}

This is it, for now. Honest words.

God has placed within each of us the potential and opportunity for success. Yet it takes just as much effort to lead a bad life as it does a good life. Still, millions lead aimless lives in prisons of their own making - simply because they haven’t decided what to do with their lives. It always costs more not to do God’s will than to do it. In fact, “a lot of people confuse bad decision-making with destiny” (Kin Hubbard).

Dissatisfaction and discouragement is not the absence of things but the absence of vision.


The Bible says, “Where there is no vision the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18). That’s not God’s plan for you.


When you are an original and walk in God’s plan, you shine like a star in the firmament. Copies are like the darkness in which they float. You can predict a person’s bright future by his awareness of his destiny. Life’s heaviest burden is to have nothing to carry. The significance of any person is determined by the cause for which he lives and the price he is willing to pay. What you set your heart on will determine how you spend your life.

A man without principle never draws much interest.

Do not take lightly the dreams and hopes God has given for your life. Cherish them, for they are like children birthed within you. As long as God’s direction is your friend, don’t worry about your enemies. It is not the man with a motive but the man with a purpose who prevails.

////

John 11:35 "ἐδάκρυσεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς," Jesus Wept.

Jesus wept, He wept so he knows exactly how I feel when I weep. When I reluctantly hand him the pieces of my heart and how I know that I must feel worse before I can feel better. And how I know that this is the Jesus that I want, the Jesus that I seek, the Jesus that I will never have any less of; how I know that He knows exactly what I want and what I need and what I am living for and what I would die for. This is Him; Him in me and me in Him, Him in me and me in Him, I remind myself day by day that this life I live is not for me. We have all had broken hearts, broken by this world, the expectations of others, broken by another, broken by material things, broken by the dissatisfaction that comes from living for what is less than what we were made for, we've been broken by our very own selves; we are all broken, have been broken, in one way or another. What an intimate lover, what a ridiculous statement, that I am in love with someone that I can not see, given my heart away with no reservations to a man that is no longer walking this earth but a holy king and a bloodstained saviour that did what He did two thousand years ago, but still does every single day to those who choose to fall into his intimate love. With you Jesus, consumed and overwhelmed through everything that I have never thought possible, somehow somehow somehow I'm learning to trust in the one thing that I can not sense or see or rely on by my human sense. This is what faith is, this is what faith calls forth, believing in that which everything else screams at us to not believe in. I'll crawl on my knees through the dusty roads and scrape and graze my very self as I walk through the dry valleys before I can dance on my very own mountaintop experience, but my spirit will soar every single day that I die to myself a little more, each day I will die, I will die and die and die and die some more, forget my past and move forward towards what is true. Sweet surrender, so easy to fall off our lips but so difficult to fall into. Come, what is stopping us from falling into this surrender and letting go of all that is holding us back, the things we have done and said and thought and cried over? Jesus wept; remember, Jesus wept, He knows what it is like to weep, and so it is okay for us to weep over the smallest things because we've got Him, we've got Him and thats enough.

I'm done building my own kingdom, no more seeking worthless idols

Like sheep we have all gone astray
We must choose this day
Whom we will serve?

We will not give our hearts to another
Will not give our hearts to another
We belong to the Lord
We will not give our hearts to another
Will not give our hearts to another
We will only serve the Lord

The Student's Prayer

Based on Psalms 23...

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not flunk;
He keepeth me from lying down when I should be studying.
He leadeth me beside the water cooler for a study break;
He restores my faith in study guides.
He leads me to better study habits
For my grades' sake.
Yea, tho' I walk through the valley of borderline grades,
I will not have a nervous breakdown;
For Thou art with me;
My prayers and my friends, they comfort me.
Thou givest me the answers in moments of blankness;
Thou anointest my head with understanding,
My test paper runneth over with questions I recognize.
Surely passing grades and flying colors shall follow me
All the days of examinations;
And I shall not have to dwell in this school
Forever!
Amen!


SO instead of studying, today I went out and bought a new notebook to write my notes in during church cause my old one is finished:) SO instead of studying, I spent my time tweaking it a little..

At first it was just a plain white notebook. But now I've blessed it haha! :) Can you remember which verse this was inspired from? I didn't want to add the two white strips there, but clumsy me accidentally dripped glue and I had to figure out a way to cover it up. :(





John 3:29-30 :)


You can learn more about HE>i here, it is actually a company that sells lotsa stuff. Its home base is on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii :) I first heard about it from tumblr, and the picture was also taken from tumblr.

This much I know

I know that I could search a thousand seas and the highest of mountains, I could run across the millions of miles and roads that intersect around the world, search among the midst of a hundred different cultures and races, but I could never find another Love that satisfies like this. I could fall in love with the beautiful languages and cultures that will sway my heart. I could run along like a wild child on this earth and have the very breath of the sky in my hair and feel the dirt & soil under my fingernails; I could fall in love with this earth but I could never love it the same way as the One who created it.

I could lose myself in material things and aim for the very best in life, but could mere possessions take the very place in my heart? Scour the shops for something so precious, but even the brightest diamonds could not make me feel the same way as the Love I have experienced. The prettiest dresses could not make me feel as beautiful as the way He tells me, "You are beautiful." The most expensive shoes could not make me walk as confident as when He says, "I reside in You, and you in Me. This is who you are."

I could lose myself in a lover, feel the tingles when his touch grazes slightly against mine, feel the butterflies - But it would never be the same as losing myself in the Love that I cannot see. I could have a lover that knows my secrets and dreams, but never could I find another Lover of my soul, who knows my very thoughts and darkest shadows of my life, who knows the very depths of my heart and would not love me less. This Love that I have found, this Love that has found me, can never compare to any kind of love that I could try to replicate on this earth. Can never compare to loving another human being by my own strength. This Love, that connects my soul with God's heart; this Love is so different. When you have experienced it, when you have known it, cried over it, been broken by it, lifted up because of it, This Love can never ever compare to others.

This Love is the only thing that truly satisfies; He is the only way, the only Truth and the only Life. No one can come to Him except through Love itself. This Love is what I was made for, this Heart was made for Love. His Love. Nothing else can ever satisfy, except This. This is His rest, His passion, His voice, His being. How can I ever be the same again? How will I ever chase after other lovers the same way again when I have tasted and drawn from the very River of Life?

I could try to run after different lovers. I could immerse myself in the search for something to fill my soul. But deep down, I will know, there is nothing else besides Him. I will be reminded of the peaceful satisfaction and rest that can only be found in His Love. The relentless pursuit of Him for me - I will know, no matter how much I try to push the matter to the back of my head or how much I deny it; I have tasted His spring of Love, I have felt His breath move my spirit, I have felt His hand hold my heart and I can never be the same again.

Tel Aviv-Yafo (Hebrew: תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ‎, "Spring Mound"), Israel


The mountain valley city of Sana'a, Yemen


The Khor Virap monastery stands before the snow-capped flanks of Mount Ararat, Turkey


Skyline of Cairo, Egypt


Gulf of Oman, Matrah

Its amazing to think that somewhere, not exactly on the other side of the world, in the regions that encompass Western Asia and North Africa, people are living. And in the millions of people, scenery & landscapes, culture, life, God had a hand in it.. He loves them!

When you choose to pick up the cross daily, life is no longer the same. Life no longer becomes the thought of, what can I do for myself today to benefit me and to make my life more enjoyable? ; but your life changes into that of always wanting to please the Father. It no longer is based on earthly pleasures, but on a sight set on the higher pleasures stored up for us in heaven. Choosing Jesus, is to choose to remodel your life entirely after Him.

Simply being a Christian and yet at the same time worrying about what others would think is not even part of the parcel - being a Christian means that it is your Father's opinion that matters the most, if not the only opinion that matters. It is the thought of, "What does my Father think of this?" before you choose to do something, the thought of, "I hope this brings joy to my Father," when you choose to love a person, the knowledge that "This is what my Father would do, and this is why I do it." Its the willingness and the heart to always want to be on the right path, to bring happiness to the One who created you, to be a Person After His Own Heart.

Once again, He > I ; He must increase and I must decrease. His attitude and character must all the more increase in the reflection of my being; when others see me, I want them to see more of Him and less of me.

Often the world tells us to, "Try harder.", "Suck it up.", "Get over it."

God asks, "Can I carry that for you?"

Sometimes we ask ourselves, why do we always seem to try so hard? We try so hard to get acceptance from others and we try to hard to become like the people we idolise, people that we think are pretty or handsome or seem to have it all together - Why don't we try that hard to be like Jesus? Why isn't He our main idol in our life, one that we aim to be like, in our actions, words and personality? How come He is just a God-figure to us, always there, of course; Great and Almighty and All-powerful, a God in control of all our times and situations, definitely an omniscient God, but how come He doesn't seem to be like an idol in our lives?

The Bible says that idols are evil and we should not have idols in out lives, but what if we made Jesus our idol? You have to understand the context of this, of course; I do not mean an idol that you put on a shelf and adore every day, that you bow down to and worship - I mean it in the way of an idol that you treasure, and want to be like in every aspect. You know girls nowadays idolise Korean superstars? They pick their favourite one and start assimilating themselves into being the very being of that Korean superstar. Their whole life revolves around the star; they eat what she eats, talk like how she talks and acts like how she acts. The hobbies of the superstar become the hobbies of the idolater.

What if Jesus became our Korean superstar? It might seem disturbing - and even sacrilegious! - that I compare Jesus to a Korean superstar; But if you think of how people treat the superstars, its the stars themselves that get treated more like Jesus than Jesus Himself. Think about it. Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice for our sins, the ultimate portrayal of humility, pure and righteous in every way. What if He become more than just a Saviour to us, what if He became our treasure? Jesus was the very one that said, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

And yet we wonder why our hearts are not consumed by Him - maybe we have the wrong treasures in our jars of clay?

“You have no place in which to pour your troubles except the ear of God. If you tell them to your friends, you but put your troubles out a moment, and they will return again. Roll your burden unto God, and you have rolled it into a great deep, out of which it will never by any possibility rise.
Cast your troubles where you cast your sins; you have cast your sins into the depths of the sea, there cast your troubles also. Never keep a trouble half an hour on your own mind before you tell it to God. As soon as the trouble comes, quick, the first thing, tell it to your Father.”

— Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Osama's dead, but.

"Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked?," declares the Sovereign LORD, "Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?" [Ezekiel 18:23]

"Rejoice not when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles or is overthrown." [Proverbs 24:17]

No matter how awful his life was, how awful the things he did, Jesus still died for him. Jesus still loves him. Even if he was a lost son, he was still a son.

How can we rejoice while our Savior weeps over every unrepentant sinner?