Looking at 2009

I Have a Shelter 

By Steve & Vikki Cook and Bob Kaufli (Sovereign Grace Ministries)

I have a shelter in the storm
When troubles pour upon me
Though fears are rising like a flood
My soul can rest securely
O Jesus, I will hide in You
My place of peace and solace
No trial is deeper than Your love
That comforts all my sorrows

I have a shelter in the storm
When all my sins accuse me
Though justice charges me with guilt
Your grace will not refuse me
O Jesus, I will hide in You
Who bore my condemnation
I find my refuge in Your wounds
For there I find salvation

I have a shelter in the storm
When constant winds would break me
For in my weakness, I have learned
Your strength will not forsake me
O Jesus, I will hide in You
The One who bears my burdens
With faithful hands that cannot fail
You’ll bring me home to heaven

Tomorrow is the last day of the year, I cant belive time flies very2 quick. I've been listening to this song again and again these past few weeks and its a great song to end this year for me. There were certainly many ups and downs throughout the year and through this song, I am reminded that I can always hang onto Jesus because he bore my condemnation and bears my burdens. I am able to come to him anytime and everytime I have problems because he died for my sin and had encountered many problems himself when he was a human. He protects me from my sin and eternal death just as an umbrella would cover me from rain and getting wet. God's unconditional grace through Jesus gives me hope in my trials and suffering in this world and it also helps me to persevere till judgement day which ultimately leads me to heaven, my true and perfect home.

I would like to wish you an early happy new year 2010 and pray that you keep persevere in your faith as it is one year closer to Jesus' second coming :D:D

Christmas is...

I woke up yesterday morning didnt feel like it was christmas but it was Christmas day. What is Christmas all about?? Christmas for me personally is a challenge. A challenge to really2 take to the heart the true meaning of it not just acknowledging it and celebrate it over and over again year after year after year. The true meaning of Christmas is that Jesus comes to this earth to save us sinners and restore our relationship with God. It is not about holidays, presents, chocolates, santa claus, traditions, christmas trees, food, etc.

As christians, i've been hearing about this message many times not just during Christmas but over and over again on Sunday's sermons, bible study, and easter. The excitement I have over the gospel faded away as the time goes by and I come to feel dry and numb. I am scared that I come to a point where I feel very numb and refuse to listen to the gospel again and it would be the worst thing that happen in my life because it means that i ignored the message of the gospel. Ig noring the gospel would lead me to eternal death and i dont think i want that to happen after tasted God's forgiveness.

Let us encourage one another this Christmas to keep feeling excited about the birth of Jesus and be reminded that Christmas is all about Jesus not presents and santa or any other things. Let us be joyful as well over his birth because through him we find salvation, eternal salvation not just temporary one.

Do you take the message of Christmas to your heart or you're too busy to ponder about it??

What response do you have towards Christmas??

Merry Christmas brothers and sisters in Christ and I wish u had a wonderful and meaningful Christmas.

Love n prayer,

ikan :D:D

This time last year

This time last year I got my hsc results back. It wasnt great according to me becoz I felt like I deserve more than I got at the time. I doubt at that time whether God really2 loves me becoz with the results that i got it doesnt seems like he loves me. It ended up that the mark I got was enough to take me to the place I am now, in uni and doing the course that I wanted to do. I believe that this is part of God's plan for me. No matter how low my mark is, he wanted me to go to uni and here I am in uni :D:D

To all year 12s out there wherever you are,

I want to encourage you to keep trusting God regardless of ur hsc results. I also pray that you would still be thankful for it. Know that God had prepare a way for u in life wayyy before u were born and his plan would be the best for u as he is ur heavenly father. Take comfort in God knowing that all he cares is ur faithfullness in how u study not how great ur results are.

Dont compare urself with other people as well if it discourage u. God created people differently with different talent so then we can help one another and ultimately bring glory to god (1 corhinthians 12: 12-30).

This is also apply to all students everywhere in the world. As exams and assignments are still part of our day to day meal, so that encouragement doesnt only apply to yr 12s students but everyone who are students :D:D

Fail in exams, doesnt mean that we fail in life. Fail in life in my opinion would be like trying so hard to do good things in this world and find out later on that it doesnt give us anything.

love n prayer,

ikan :D:D

God's grace :D:D

I was watching tv yesterday and people were kinda critisizing christians for grace. They were mucking christians around because christians believe that everyone can go to heaven only if we believe in God. Even murderers can go to heaven if they belive in God and they dont agree with that. What is the difference really between killing someone physically and killing someone's heart by saying something that is inappropriate to that particular person or people?? they're both bad and hurt in someway...do u really believe that one sin is better than the other???

Yes saying bad things about someone is not as bad as killing someone physically but they're both sin and God hates sin.

As the time goes by, I realise that Im just making up excuses when I say that one sin is better than the other to make myself feel better so then God would deffinitely allow me to go to heaven because Im a good person and I never do bad stuff to people around me. That shows that Im relying on my good works to get me to heaven.

Would I be good enough in God's standard by never committing crimes?? Romans 3:23 says no! because "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

If we can go to heaven by trying hard to do good works, why should Jesus bother came down to earth and died for my sin?? He certainly didnt have to do that because I wouldnt need him  to help me to go to heaven and there would be no such word as grace. As the word grace means getting something that you dont deserve. that is how I get to go to heaven. I dont deserve to be in heaven because I keep sinning in a regular basis, but God gave me the salvation anyway purely because he loves me.

Would you choose good works or grace??

What happen to those who have never heard the gospel??

Thank You God :D:D

I complain when the food that I eat is not nice or doesnt taste as perfect as i think it should be. I dont know how precious it would be for those people who are not as lucky as I am. I get to have great foods everytime i want it but yet I still complain about it. I simply take things for granted which often lead me to not giving thanks over God's gift in whatever form it is.

Its been a while since I started pondering about thanking God for all the things he has done for me. There were certainly many good things happen in my life but because of my sinful nature that always crave for more things, I feel that there are more bad things happen to me than good things thus Im angry with God more than thanking him of all the things he has given me.

Do you ever have the same feeling as I do?? complain all the time to God because what God has in his plan is not accordiing to our plan??
When I look at all my complains, I realised that its all becoz of my selfish reason. I want everything to be me centered instead of Jesus centered while as christians I meant to live a jesus centered life because I am no longer belong to the world who keep telling me that the most important thing in life is about me...me...me... and me...
All media advertisements are all urging us to have this and that to be like this and like that so then we can be a better person ourselves. Because I am no longer belong to the world, I should not live the way the world urges me to live.

What I wanted to say from this post is that I want to encourage you all to be thankful with everything that God has been given to you. It is hard definitely as I still struggle with it, but lets keep reminding one another to be thankful. Bad things definitely happen in life and when that happen it would be hard to be thankful but knowing that everything that happen in our life whether theyre good or bad are not out of God's control and they happen for our goods is comforting to me and I hope to you too.

Whats gonna happen to me??

My friend said that 2012 was a reminder that the end of the world is about to come...

My other friend said that she watched the interview of the movie stars and they were saying that they didnt believe it becoz its only a movie, people made that up...

And apparently a few people say that someone predicted that in 20 dec 2012 (or something like that) the world is going to an end...

The important thing is, what is going to happen with me when the world is ended whether its gonna be in 2012 or not??? what would i be doing after that??? is there anything after this life???

We learned last saturday at youth group that we need to becareful about how we listen to the gospel and what we listen shows the truth about our heart. Why is it important in the first place to pay attention to the gospel?? what is the gospel and why are christians so into it??

The gospel is the good news about Jesus's death on the cross to pay off our sin and his ressurection which showed that he conquered death (1 Corinthians 15). Christians are so excited about sharing the gospel because we heard about this good news and want to share it with the rest of the world.

The gospel is worth it to focus on because for me personally, the message of the gospel gives me hope, a living and certain hope that is not like any other hope that the world has to offer. A hope that gives me a secure and certain place in heaven. I wanna go to heaven and I dont think I would be able to reach God's standard to be a good person so then I can go to heaven because I keep failing when I attempted to do so. In other words, my good deeds would never be able to cover up my bad deeds because I keep failing and failing in doing so.

The saturday talk at youth group was based on Luke 8:1-18. It was about the parable of the sower and the parable represented different responses people can have towards the gospel. People can:

1. completely ignore the gospel
2. excited at first but when they face suffering, they fall away
3. hear the gospel but influenced by other things in the world thus their focus in the gospel shifted away
   
4.  hear the gospel and respond to it and persevere till the end

The passage reminds me that knowing which group I belong to is important because it allows me to look at myself and where my hearts is heading towards. If my heart is heading towards Christ then I can be confident in him that I'll be with God later on when the world is ended whether it'll be in 2012 or sooner or later :D:D
It means that I dont have to worry about doing good works and all that to cover up my bad deeds before the end of the world. Because I know I am saved through Jesus' death and resurrection not by doing good works and it is all happen on ly by God's grace.

"But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop."

Belonging

I always hate being the odd one out and i dont think anyone like being the odd one out. I came to one stage where I didnt feel belong the group of friends i hang out with becoz they would ignore me completely sometimes. I also felt that i was so boring that my friend wouldnt be happy to talk to me and straight away talk to my other friends. I didnt know whether it was my fault because I was being too sensitive or my friends really2 did that in purpose because they didn't like me.

1 peter 1 says that I am strangers in this world which also means that i am the odd one out. Why am i strangers in this world?? becoz it says that we are God's elect which means that we are christians. Christians are strangers in the world because we received and accepted the offer of salvation and we do not want to go back to do things that are unpleasing to God which is sin. Romans 6 talks about how as christians, we was dead because of our sin but had been raised from the dead by God as he raised Christ from the dead. Now that we are alive, why do we wanna go back to do things that would lead us to death again??

So christians are strangers in the world because we do not belong to this sinful world.

Lets have comfort in God as christians that its okay to not feel belong to a certain group of friends or to the world or being left out, because we belong to God now and lets focus our mind and energy in God rather than on the world because the world would come to an end when jesus returns while god is eternal. In the end true friends would never ditch you no matter what condition your are in or how bad you are.

"If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you."

(John 15:19)

Forgiving Others

I was watching "the amazing race" the other day and one of the challange was you had to slide down a steep and very tall water slide to get your next clue which was the clue to the pitt stop. I was frustrated by one couple but amazed at what the guy did in the end. Basically, the girl was scared of height and water so she didnt want to slide down which made them eliminated from the race. In the end, the guy was saying something like " you have to be forgiving and no one is perfect. I thought to myself, "wowwwwwwww" He was very frustrated at her before but eventually genuinely forgave her. What an awesome attitude and I think forgiving others is one of the key to a healthy relationship, whatever relationship it is.

Before knowing what the guy would say, I thought to myself "they would break up after this race" what a normal thought i guess considering the guy was so frustrated at the girl and it was only becoz of a small thing. It seems small to me becoz its not my problem, but if i put myself in her position, i would've do the same thing as she did and it would be a big thing for me.

Hearing what the guy had to say, reminded me of God's grace and how he genuinely forgive me and my sin everytime i make him dissapointed. He never give up on me and would never break the relationship off.

I am challenged as someone who has tasted the Lord's forgiveness to do the same to others as well, whether they would be my family or friends or even strangers who happen to annoy me somehow.

"Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you." (Ephessians 4:32)

Dont let sin drag you down...

 " I know I need to study, but Im too comfortable sitting on my couch in front of tv. Exams are a few weeks away anyway and I promise I'll study tomorrow."

" I know I need to spend time with god through personal devotion, but Im too busy doing assignments and studying for exams. I get tired at night and its hard to wake up in the morning to read my bible and pray to God."

I was planning to study after I woke up the other day and do as much as I could to make my day off productive. What ended up happening instead?? Yup, procrastinating pretty much the whole day. I've been wasting my time doing things that are not necesarry/ not productive such as facebooking for hours and hours, allowing myself to sit in front on tv for hours as well, and im sure I wasted my time doing other things that I cant event remember what they are at the moment but you get the point :D:D

I know that I am wrong and I know that I need to change, but my heart is dragging me down and saying that I should be okkie with the way I live now. Why am I like this?? Here are my reasons:

• I havent been feeding myself with the word of God which would protect me from my deceitful heart
• I am relying too much on my own power hoping that I would change sometime soon
• Im lacking of motivation and focus to be productive
• I let my deceitful heart take control of my life

By God's grace, I come to realise that my sin is causing me to feel and act that way (not using my time productively and letting my heart rules what I do.) Romans 7: 14-20 describes how I do things that I do not want to do because sin is living in me and it is sin who is causing me to do the things I dont desire. Romans 7: 24-25 continue to talk about how sinful I am and God rescued me from my sinful desire through Christ which transform my mind to be slave to God not to sin.

How should I deal with sin then knowing that it is my biggest problem now??

I wouldnt be able to deal with sin if I rely on myself because I am still living in my sinful body and my heart still deceives me so I am hopeless if I rely on myself. God knows that I would never be able to do so thus he sent Jesus to deal with my sin by dying on the cross. We have Jesus who knows how to deal with sin and able to sympathise our weaknesses just as Hebrews 4:15 says : "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin."

Jesus is the answer of my problem. He fixed my problem of sin and thus I can cling to him to help me fix my deceitful hearts which leading me to allow myself to stay comfortable in sin and lacking of motivation to do what I have and want to do. My encouragement to you who have the same feeling as I do towards procrastination and sin are:

• let us fix our eyes and thoughts on Jesus who tranforms our minds to God
  
• ask God to help us fight against sin through prayer
• let us feed ourselves and protect ourselves from our deceitful hearts through regular bible reading
• keep encouraging you brothers and sisters in Christ to fix their eyes on Jesus too

"But my eyes are fixed on you, O Sovereign LORD; in you I take refuge—do not give me over to death." (Psalm 141:8)

Leading towards final exams

Time flies soooo quick, a year had gone by since i was sitting my HSC exam, the most important exam ever in my life and the hardest too. Now i think every exams are equally important. Why do I say that?? if u have the same thoughts as i do towards this particular issue, u'll agree with my view of exams. Let me put it this way:

• In primary school final exams in year 6 was an important thing because if i didnt do good in them, i wouldnt be able to go to a good high school. In fact, to be able to go to a good high school, i had to do another test which are important as well. (this happen in indo as i was in indo a few years back and im sure some selective school in australia would test ur academic skills apart from looing at ur school report before u can get into the school.)
  
• In high school, year 12 HSC exams were important as well, in fact it seemed like the most important exam ever, because without great UAI* (ATAR they call it now) i wouldnt be able to go to a good uni
• In uni, exams are pretty important as well even though u need only to pass the exam in order to pass the course but passing an exam in uni are not as easy as it sounds... besides passing, who doesnt want to get distinction and or high distinction???

One encouragement that I find very helpful regarding exam is God does not care about how great my results are in the end but he cares most about how faithful i study. Why would i study faithfully while i can just study for myself though in the end its my mark and i get to do anything i like with it?? Because i am God's creation and as a christian i am living my life to glorify God's name in all things that i do (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Study faithfully means that I do my best with my study and leave up the rest to God. In a day to day example, it'll looks like this: I study my best for my exams but not neglecting other commitments i have such as church and family. In the end, whether i get good mark or not i would thank God for that knowing that he has something plan for me and it will always be for my own good (romans 8:28).

I am not saying that we shouldnt put an effort in our study since God doesnt care anyway about our mark. I am saying that we do our best which means study hard with a different intention and focus now. Instead of striving great mark to get good job and having a security in future by relying on ourselves, we're striving good mark because we want to do our best in our study given the opportunity to do so and trusting God with our future knowing that he knows whats best for us.

Who am I- Casting Crowns

What a good rhetorical question to ask myself as i take God's forgiveness for granted most of the time. By forgetting the fact that I am saved by grace affect the way I live in a day to day basis. I can be easily influence by things that the world has to offer and say. It'll leads me to rely on tangible things for security and identity such as popularity, having an awesome boyfriend, friends, great mark in study, getting a high paid job, and many more.

"Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth,Would care to know my name, Would care to feel my hurt?" God who has the authority over all things would come down to earth for me?? He could just sit and relax in heaven without having to worry about me in this earth facing eternal death as the result of my sin. I am nothing in God's eyes and I was a sinner after all (romans 3:10-12).Why would he come down from the greatness of heaven to suffer on earth? The answer is Love (john 3:16, romans 5:8). Not because I am a good person (never kill anyone physically, never steal, loves peace), not because Im trying to do my best to behave in a good way, not because I am smart and so on but ONLY because of his great and awesome love to me that he would willingly suffer in my place and died in my place.

Being reminded that my identity now relies in Christ who died for me and loves me so much makes me wonder why do i often go back to rely myself on earthly things which in the end would dissapoint me... i assume that this is a struggle for us as christians. It is not easy living as a christian in this world that is against us. I pray that as christians, we would encourage one another to focus on Christ and to always hang onto God not worldly things.

Assurance of going to heaven

I thank God so much for revealing Christ to me and make me realise that no matter how much good works i do to balance out my bad works (so then i would earn favour in God's eyes) would never be enough because God's standard is perfect while I failed to reach it because I sin. Not only once but keep sinning and keep failing to not to sin because its around me and tempting me in everyway.

How can I be sure then whether I am going to heaven or not since I keep failing to not to sin???

Doubts and temptations come and go in a day to day basis which might lead me astray eventually. Ways that I find helpful not to be lead astray by worldly temptations and doubts are being honest and talk about my struggles with other christians who i know would keep me accountable and rebuke me if they need to as well as reminding me to go back to God's grace and rely on God.

Pray about it and feed myself with God's word are also important in bringing me back to the right way of living my life. Ultimately, I think that me myself would have to change my heart and willingly want to change after being rebuke and again pray to God that he would soften my heart to want to change in the way i live my life because he is the only one that knows my heart and change it.

I cant do anything actually to earn my spot in heaven, because I am going to heaven not because I do something to earn it but because of what Christ had done for me which was paying for my sin through shedding his blood on the cross.

High priests in the old testament had to sprinkle blood once a year to wash away their sin and also the sin of the whole nation and it has to be done in the most holy place which can only be accessed by the high priest ( Leviticus 16). What a privilage we have now as christians because we do not have to do that again every year because Christ died ONCE AND FOR ALL people not just Israelites (1 peter 3:18).

How can I be sure then that I am definitely going to heaven??

• I have Christ now as my high priest who sacrificed himself for me thus I am sure that I am going to heaven through his death and resurrection :D:D

"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." (Romans 3:23-24)

Laziness that might leads to Regret

I've been very lazy to do all the works i have/wish to do such as uni assignments and start preparing for final exam as I hope I started earlier in the week but hasnt been happening *sighss :(:( What have I been doing all week instead??

finishing up my assignment because its due last wed and procrastinating pretty much most of the time... (:(

I got a smacked in the head earlier on before I posted this blog by Josh Harris'video about Self control. He doesnt specifically talks about lazy in study but the idea is there. As I've been struggling with laziness and lacking of motivation for a few weeks now, God slap me in the face and wake me up to do other things that I should be doing instead of procrastinating and procrastinating... Investing my time in a more useful things than just sitting in front of the computer for the whole day and just never stop till the night comes and I get tired.

I keep telling myself to study faithfully but what I've been doing is not studying faithfully becoz procrastinating is deffinitely not a form of studying faithfully. What would studying faithfully looks like in a day to day basis???

• it means i would use my time wisely
• it means i have to control myself not to procrastinate
• it means that i would rely on God regardless on the results i get
• it doesnt mean that i have to study 24/7 but it means that i have to be commited in all other things that i have to do as well apart from studying
• it means im doing my best and not being lazy with my study

Matthew 25:14-30 ("The parable of the talent) encourages us not to be like the lazy servant who did not do anything regarding the talent that was given to him and thus the master took away the talent and give it to the other dilligent servant. I am given the opportunity to study and if what i do is being lazy and not using the opportunity given wisely, God might take away my opportunity and give it to other people and it would be too late for me to regret.

I personally thank God for the bible which reminds me to the fact that I am so lucky to have this opportunity to study that I often take for granted and I would continue to pray that as brothers and sisters in Christ, we would encourage and remind one another not to be lazy in terms of anything that we do and I pray that we would glorify God's name in all things that we do.

"Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us."

1 Peter 2: 12

Father We Commit to You

I first listened to this song at my cousin's wedding and I thought to myself... what a wonderful song this is. It is wonderful as it reminds me about how great and awesome God is. He is awesome because he is always with me and never leaves me alone, in happiness and in sadness, in pain and in joy, in suffering and in gladness, whatever situation im in, he is always with me.

Commiting life to something or someone is a big issue that needs to be think carefully. Why would I commit my life to God??

• because he knows whats best for me thus he wont make any poor decision regarding my life
• he gave himself up for me to pay for my sin

Why wouldnt I commit my life to someone who protects me and loves me so much till the point of death...

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." ( John 3:16)

In a relationship or stay single...

Seeing the picture on the right reminded me of a friend who happen to remind me about being single or dating, and I would like to share a bit with u here :D:D

A friend of mine reminded/ challenge me to think again whether what I wanted is according to God's plan (in terms of marriage and dating)... Society today influences me to think that singleness should be a BIG NO in my life dictionary and if im a single then i failed.How grateful i am to know God and he gives me a new purpose in life. Im not a failure anymore and if i dont happen to get married later on I know that God has a different plan for me and it is all for my best and since he created me, he knows what is best for me:D:D

The same friend of mine said " what matters is how you see life, the purpose of your life. As christians we live to be in a relationship with God, to worship and glorify God and that is what matters most."
That particular sentence is what strikes me and challenges as well as encourages me to change the way i think about life and see life and I hope it does the same to u :D:D




"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." (romans 8:28)

Good skit, I recommend u to watch it if u havent :D:D

Lifehouse Skit- "Everything"

Genuine relationship is not legally binding

Communication is the key thing in a relationship.
Good communication leads to good and healthy relationships while misscommunication leads to negative relationships and im sure that everyone wouldnt want to have negative relationships with people around them.

Im talking about 2 ways communication here not just oneway. Oneway relationship wouldnt results in good relationship either, because only one person talk and eventually that person will feel rejected and broken relationships will be resulted from that action.

Think about ur relationship with ur friends, family, boyfriend or girlfriend and think about what would happen if 2 ways convo happen compare to oneway convo...

God calls us to have a relationship with him. To be in a relationship with God means to be a christian. So being a christian is NOT about being legalistic in doing all the things that we do but having a 2 ways communication with God through praying and bible reading. We dont only talk to God through prayer (which is vital) but to listen to God too by reading God's word because God speaks to us through the scripture.

Lets think about bible reading and praying as having a 2 ways communication with God instead of thinking of it as something that we as christians should do in a daily basis. It is good to do it in a daily basis but dont feel guilty if u dont read it for a day or so because u wouldnt feel guilty if u dont talk to ur friends for a day right?? indeed you would want to talk to them.

It doesnt mean that we can have an excuse for not reading the bible because its okkie anyway if i dont talk to God today because I would want to talk to him more tomorrow (what normally happen is that once we tend to delay something, we'll delay it for even a longer period).

Pray instead of complaining

Complaining is part of everyone's day to day life. How many times do u complain in a daily basis??? small complain such as "i dont like the food" counts because they are still a complain...
why do u complain and what do u complain about??

Complaining doesn't do any good to anyone...it means that we are not thankful with what has been given to us (as christians, i believe it means that we are not thankful with God's gift).
How lovely would it be if someone say 'thank you' to u after the long hours and hard work u put in finding them a special present instead of complaining about it because they dont like the present we gave??

Romans 8:28 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose"

God plan everything for us and he done that because it is for our good.What is bad in our eyes doesnt necessarily mean they are bad in God's eyes too. Remember human's standard are very different with God's standard.
Sometimes things doesnt go the way i wanted it to be, but knowing that God has a plan for us and it would be the best plan, it gives me a new hope that all the things that are happening to me are according to God's plan and it is for my good,as romans 8:28 says.

Lets keep reminding one another to value God's gift (whatever it is) with joy and thankfulness, not complaining as what we often do. I would definitely encourage you to pray instead of complaining because pray would show your dependece on God but complaining is just a totally different thing regarding showing our dependence. It doesnt showour dependence but rather showing our displeasing attitude in God's eyes.

Christians vs hypocrites

"Christians are just a bunch of hypocrites because they always say do this and do that but they themselves dont even do it!"

does that statement sounds familiar?? or perhaps we used to say that statement to other person (either with exact/similar words or ideas)??? or someone had encountered you before with that statement??
what is christian and what is hypocrite anywayyy?? are they different or the same???

a hypocrite is:

• a person who PRETEND to do good things (such as fast, pray and being generous to people) to be honoured by other people THUS they dont do it from the heart (matthew 6: 2,5,16) in this case they are pretending to be a christian.
  

a christian is:

• someone who is forgiven (romans 3:23-24)

Christian and hypocrite are NOT the same. They are totally 2 different groups. Bible believing christian would genuinely admit that they are bad people because they are bad people and would humbly and honestly asking God for help, and this is not hypocrisy.

Being a christian is not a matter of having a perfect life and not sinning at all because this is impossible as we still live in our sinful body (romans 7: 15-17). THUS a christian will still keep sinning and this is why we need our brothers and sisters in Christ. As brothers and sisters in Christ we should keep encouraging one another and rebuking one another so that we all will keep walking in God's way.

How can we do this?? Church is a place where we can build relationship with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Bible believing Christian goes to church NOT to be save but to keep encouraging and spurring one another in Christ (hebrews 10: 25)

Can i say a person is a christian by going to church and being involved in church activites??
No, because someone is regarded as a christian not by the things they do but because of what Jesus had done for them.

Can a christian be a hypocrite??
Bible believing christian would not a hypocrite.

Lets not let bad behaviour by certain people who consider themselves as a "christian" hinder us to think and respond the truths about Jesus.

which type are u??

Matt Chandler spoke at RICE rally* last night and the theme for RICE this year is "torn identity."
He describe that we as a single person can fall into three different categories. They are:

1. the ones who are saved
2. religious lost
3. completely lost/ ignorant

"the ones who are saved" are christians who realised that they are a sinner and need forgiveness and it is only through Jesus that they have a new life and receive salvation through faith in his death and resurrection. This is a secure position to be in as we have hope in God that we'll have eternal life and he is faithful in keeping his promises.

"religious lost" people are those people who look like a christian outside but inside they are not really a christian...they can be going to church all their life and busy doing church stuff and doing a lot of ministries / church thing but outside church they are a different person...by this i mean that they are living 2 different lifes...when they are at church they are acting as a christian and when they are outside church they are acting as a non christian and they stuck with this repetitive cycle or even they confuse themselves and/or people around them perhaps who know them from both sides of their lifes.

"completely lost" people are those people who just dont know God at all or they know about God and/or admit that he is God but still rejected him because of various reasons (they dont wanna be bound by all the christian rules, they are having fun with the life they have at the moment, etc). In response to that they will be separated from God forever which is what the bible calls 'hell' (separation from God)

So according to those three categories, which group do u think you can relate urself most with??

we want to make sure that we are standing in the save position and will always stand firm in that position until Jesus comes for the second time which can only be done through the power given by God because we wouldnt be able to do it by relying on our own power. certainly!



* RICE is an event where youths around Sydney who go to youth groups get the opportunity to bring their non christian friends mainly to hear the gospel about Jesus.

Hardships mode = on

"where is God when we need him???"

that is a typical question we comes accross in times of suffering/trials in this life no matter in what form they are...
the "footprints in the sand" story by Mary Stevenson (google it up if u dont know them :D:D ) reminds us that God is a God that will never leaves us alone especially in times when we tend to think he is leaving us alone ( "why when i needed u most, you have not been there for me?" )
from the story, i came to realise that we are so selfish thinking that God is leaving us alone to deal/face our troubles...i mean how do we know that when there's only 1 set of footprint thats our footprints???

2 corinthians 1:3-11 tells us that hardships happened so that we'll rely on God since we deffinitely cant rely on ourselves because we do not have the power to face them alone. In God, we have hope to be delivered from hardships and get comforts from him which then can be shared to our brothers and sisters in Christ as they might face the same hardships.

Christianity and Law

I was sitting in a lecture tday and listening/thinking through what the lecturer said about "what do we think about law?" and "what do u think law means??" It reminds me to all the law we have in the bible... i didnt know why was that in my head but it was a good reminder as i meditated on it that as christians we are not obeying the laws to earn our spot in heaven. We are actually obeying it because we were transformed to be a good person that longs for God and want to be like Jesus and thus using jesus as a model to shape our changing behaviour.

Romans 6: 1-14 explains that we were dead through sin but made alive through Christ. And we were dead through sin because we were sinning against God which can be said in another word we're doing bad things in God's eyes. Since God loves us he sent his one and only son to died in our place as John 3:16 said. As we are alive in Christ, why do we wanna do bad things again that will lead us to death??? its like being saved from a car accident because we were speeding but then moments later after we found ourselves save we were speeding again which would eventually lead us to a car accident...

does this sound familiar???
" i dont wanna be a christian becoz that means im signing up to all these christians regulations"
" being a christian means u have to be holy becoz u cant do this and that because if not then u're not a christian!!!"

being good all the time is definitely hard especially there are heaps of temptations around us but lets keep persevering in it and keep encouraging one another to do so too. let us enjoy too having have to obey God's law knowing that it will glorify our creator's name plus benefit us in the end.

" The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the Lod are trustworthy, making wise the simple."
psalm 19:7

is God selfish???

Ezekiel 36: 22- 23
"Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone. I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I show myself holy through you before their eyes."

sounds like God is selfish aye...thinking only about his glory ot for everyone elses' glory!!! Why should he cares about everyone elses' glory though??? who else cares about glorifiying their name...animals/plants??? certainly not...so im refering everyone elses here as us, yes as u and me...
so why should God cares about our pride/ name??? he created us so basically he own us and therefore he is worthy to be glorified by us.
Let me put it this way, if i created something that is alive and can talk, i centainly want my creation to glorify me and tell other ppl about me who created it so that ppl will think im smart or something like that by being able to create things like that...wouldnt u feel the same???

is that mean that we are selfish??? yes we are selfish definitely because God created us but we want ppl to glorify our name instead of our creator's name...

Why is God worthy of our praise???
1. he created us
2. he has the power that we do not have (forgiving ppl like u and me from their sin)

So, is God selfish??? totally not!!! but rather he deserves our praise...

How do we know that the bible is true??

Many people argue that the bible is not true because who can guarantee that all things that is in the bible is 100% true and all those things were really happen??? who knows that people might misinterpret them since we are now using the translation bible which means that it wasnt written in the language we speak today???
As human it is normal to think like that and to have doubt about the bible. I used to doubt a lot too about the bible. I even doubt that all the things that was said in the bible including the miracles that happen were true. I mean those stuff doesnt happen these days and i wasnt there to witness those things so it is very hard indeed to believe in the bible.

Many people also argue "how can i believe in the bible if i dont even know/see that God is exist??" What do we want?? miracles to happen so that we will believe that God is exist??? will we really believe in God if those miracles happen these days like wht most of us have to say "if u can prove that God is exist, i'll believe it" do we really mean that or we're just using that as an excuse because we dont wanna believe in God knowing that those miracles wont happen these days???
I mean even people in Jesus' days who saw Jesus' miracles were ignorant and doesnt believe in him, so how can we guarantee that we will believe in Him after seeing miracles???
John 6: 42 says that the people were grumbling becoz they didnt believe in Jesus is the son of God even though beforehand they saw/ experienced he did miracles ( feeding the 5 thousand and walk on the water)

How can we be sure that the bible is trustworthy??
- All scripture is God's breathed (2 timothy 3:16)
- it was written by eye witnesses who lived on Jesus' days
- it was written by many people in different time but they're talking about the same thing which is all about God.

what am i gonna do next knowing that the bible is true and it is trustworthy???
what am i gonna do the next time i have doubt about the bible thus the word of God???
knowing that it is the word of God, what should i do with it???

Praising God

we had a discussion a few days ago at music practice about "praise"
what does praise mean:
- looking up to someone and worship him/her
- singing
- acknowledging someone and glorify that person's name
- few other ideas tht i couldnt remember:(:( :):) perhaps u can/ want to add some ideas?? :D:D

we often think of praise as singing only in church and tend to only praise him when we're at church, but what does the bible really say about praising God?? Lets look at Romans 12:1-2: " ¹Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual^a]">[a] act of worship. ²Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."
That verses is telling us that we have to offer our body as living sacrifice which should be our act of worshipping God and in a way praising God too becoz when u praise someone u'll worship him/her too.

Then what does it mean to praise God with our body and how do we do it in a practical way??? do we dance for him, do we sacrifice our body to him??? what do we do?? Romans 12: 1-2 is urging us not to conform to the pattern of this world in viewing God's mercy and having a new mind so that we are able to understand God's perfect will. So it means that in a practical way, we are encourage to be different from this world and not following its rule. For example, if the world is telling us to show off our talent when we sing/ play music, we dont do it because we knows that if we do that we're not viewing God's mercy as we sing/ play music (even christian music/songs) but rather to gain glory for ourselves and its not an act of viewing God's mercy. To offer our body as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God means that we act differently with the world and change our minds so that we can understand his perfect will for us.
To praise God with our body means that we're using our body to please God and praise him and it doesnt only happen through singing. Singing is only oneway to praise God but its not THE ONLY way to praise God. To use our body means that in everything that we do in our day to day lifes, we praise him through doing those things and by having a new and transformed mind, we are able to discern God's will and act in a way that is pleasing him.

So to praise God with our body is to use it everyday and praising him with it through things that we do everyday and by having a transformed mind we are able to differentiate what should we do that is pleasing him.

Knowing all this, what should we do so that we'll praise God everyday through using our body???

i hope u find it encouraging guys to change the way u live knowing that we are given this body so that we can used it to praise him just as i did find it encouraging... :D:D
lets praise him becoz he is an awesome god and how do we know that he is awesome???becoz he loves us and sent jesus to died for us in the cross in our place even while we were still sinners (romans 5:8) :D:D

Religion vs Gospel

Philippians 3: 1-11

Earlier today I listened to Mark Driscoll's talk from his church website and he was talking about religion and gospel and he was preaching from Philippians 3:1-11 and I thought I would like to share it with you here.

That passage is talking about how Paul is reminding us to rejoice in the Lord because of his grace. Because of what Jesus had done on the cross and the fact that we do not have to do anything to go to heaven becoz Jesus did it for us. We dont deserve it but yet we get it anyway:D:D (those of us who go to church would hear this so many times but do we really get wht it means???). For those who do not know Paul, he is a guy in the bible who was a very2 bad guy because he persecuted christians in those days, he killed many christians for the sake of obeying the law. He then became a christian becoz God appeared to him on his way to Damascus. As he become a christian, he is now persecuted by people instead of persecuting people.

So, Paul is encouraging us to keep rejoicing in the Lord because of his grace. He is also reminding us to becareful with false teaching about God. Many religion will tell its followers to do good things so then they can be a good people and in the end go to heaven and Jesus is not enough to make us go to heaven. But how can we really go to heaven? well from Christians point of view there is only one way to heaven and to the father which is through Jesus (John 14:6). Many religion teaches people that to go to heaven you have to do good things so that God will accept u or do as many good things as u can while u're alive to balance out ur bad behaviour.

BUT:
- how many good things do we have to do to balance out our bad behaviour since we sin all the time??
- are we able to reach God's standard???
-what if we died but we havent finish doing good things to balance out the bad behaviour we did??
- what sort of good things i should do to meet god's standard???
- what is god's definition of good people??
- am i a good person in God's eyes??

Why would Paul convert to a christian if going to heaven is through being a good people and following all the law because he certainly did follow all the law thus he persecuted christians because the law said that at those times. Paul is missing something which is Jesus, God had mercy on Him by giving him grace and allowing him to share this great news to us.
Mark said that religion is rubbish because many religion teaches people to do good things and to be a good person dont do this and dont do that so that we can go to heaven neglecting the fact that the only way to go to heaven is through Jesus.

I guess, from this passage i wanted to share to u guys that i found it very encouraging knowing that i am saved by grace alone not by my works and i hope as christians you will be reminded of his grace and find it comforting.
The final question that I guess worth asking esp to myself is "what does it mean to live as christian knowing that I am saved by grace?"