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."