J: 080316 - Carry your own cross

Today's sermon by Rev. Wang was about carrying our own crosses as Christ carried His cross to save us human from doomsday.

Rev. Wang showed us this interesting comic, which I think presents a pretty clear view and direction to us :P...picture says a thousand words, as some might say :)

J: 080313

“Just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.” (Revelation 15:3)

Yes. Just like the passage mentioned in the entry, there are numerous times we think God’s tests are too tough for us; or there are other times we see how weak we have been when we are doing God’s work as if God’s not prepared us for the tasks. But the truth is, God IS PREPARING us during those hardships, the tests He gave us; God is shaping us with His Words, His Ways, His Grace, and His Love.

I know I will be thankful to God when things start to go well in my life; I know I will be grateful to God as I complete a service for God as easily as snapping my fingers. However, I also know that I will begin to walk away from God if everything goes as smoothly as I anticipate; I will feel numb, cold, hard, insensible, just like the “old oak”; I will forget how beautiful praises to God used to sound; I will start to lose faith in Him.

So yes, Lord, I know I am still facing struggles and I am aware that serving you is a life-long journey. Please continue to equip me with Thy Words, Thy Ways, Thy Grace, and most importantly, Thy Love.

J: 080312

“And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him.” (Mark 9:26)
“Followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” (Heb. 6:12)

I had discontinued my devotional readings for a while. What seems coincidental is that every time I restarted reading the Spring of Desert entries of the dates accordingly, the messages again reminded me of the lesson of faith. How weak my passion for God has been as I have been losing Faith on my spiritual life. It gets me wonder: why is my heart not filled with God’s grace consistently? Why am I committing the same sins over and over again even though I know He is watching? Why do I not leave all my burdens to Him while I know He’s the almighty being?

Evil never surrenders its hold without a sore fight. We will never pass into any spiritual inheritance through a nice picnic at the backyard or a nice walk at the park. It appears that I haven’t really been trying hard enough to let God enter my soul, let Him fight the fight with me, let Him drive the sloth out of me. I am still not inheriting the promises provided by God due to the facts that I am not trying hard enough to be one of His followers. I am still hesitating when voices are whispering at me to follow His words; I still focus on solving the problems myself when the tests are placed upon; I am still standing infirmly as I am waiting for my Lord to lay my path before me.

Today, there was this trace amount of desire for God that slipped through the brick wall of my heart, and I decided to continue to reflect God’s words on my life, again. Here I am Lord, praying to you, please open my heart and continue to touch my soul and fill me with your grace.

T: 20080228

最近雖然天天讀經, 讀荒漠甘泉...但是常常只是 "嗯...說的真的很對...我非常同意.."
就算有reflections..又因為時間不多 沒辦法打下來
多半都是寫在小本子上...

上禮拜天..去了許久沒去的教會...聽到了詩歌...
我的眼眶熱了...落下了幾滴淚...
我這個人很容易受感動, 音樂常常是第一個能讓我深受感動的之一
看著大家唱著詩歌, 那種enjoy的表情 唱給上帝聽的表情 讓我深受感動
they may not be the best choir i've heard in my life
but they definitely enjoyed singing to God

有時候讀經, 感覺是種"責任"...i have to do it...if i don't, i am not a truly Christian..blah blah blah
或者會想 不夠虔誠...
但是回到起點, 抱著這種"負責任"的心態讀經, 又能得到什麼呢? 即使得到, 我想也是再表面上touch一下, 過幾天又開始了這種cycle.

從教會回來的那天, 我就想要把我的感想寫下來 但總是因為怠惰 而放棄...
就又這樣擱置了許多天
昨天晚上, 我感冒不舒服...一個人躺在床上...有點不舒服 有點睡不著 心中抱著很多想法
漸漸地..心中響起了禮拜天聖歌隊獻詩的那首至好朋友就是耶穌...
在我的腦海環繞...遲遲不退...我就這樣帶著這首詩歌在我腦海裡睡著了
隔天醒來我知道, 如果我再不提筆寫下(或者再不打出來)就真的是失去意義了

如果不把上帝當作是我們的好朋友來看待, 我們就不是真正的基督徒
真正的基督徒不是 "聖經讀的多熟", 不是"金句隨時朗朗上口"...不是"我天天讀荒漠甘泉沒有間斷"也不是"我的reflection打到多長"
我真正想要的, 不是這種有物質上的表現..(我不知道怎麼講耶..i think u know wut i mean)
而是心靈的充滿, 真正重要的是心中有耶穌啊.

心中有耶穌, 再來提這些附加的條件才是最正確的.

J: 080225

“Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you.” (Joshua 1:3.)
What He has promised, will be given to us. Last Saturday night was one of C&C’s biggest events of the year – The Cha-Cha of Love Dance Night.

The whole committee spent weeks and even months planning it from scratch. And the “fruit” was sweet~ the event went amazingly well~ soooo much better than I could’ve anticipated~

Observing from the DJ’s post, I could see smiles, hear laughters, and even feel the vibration on the floor, in Waltz’s and Cha-Cha ~

During the night, I was filled with so much joy that I couldn’t help it but start dancing~ I indulged myself in the atmosphere, which God’s grace rained upon~ There have been numerous prayers for this event along the way and God truly listened~

It was as if we devoted our passion, our time, and walked all over the promised land; such sweetest fruit was what we were granted with~I want to thank you and praise you, my Lord~ Your grace is truly sufficient~ : )

Happy Lunar New Year~

Happy Lunar New Year~
Here’s my belated new year resolution:
- I wish to become a more mature man. Start with house cleaning at least every week. :P
- I wish to strengthen my mind and soul now that I have strengthened my body :)
- I wish that we can finish Stream of Desert together by the end of the year.

Speaking of Stream of Desert, these past few days w/o writing any reflections…seemed to make me not think hard enough about the daily message :P… so yah..I am thinking about writing a reflection every 2 days … so that you can still drop by from time to time and leave some comments :)

How’s ur life holding up?

T: 080131

感謝主, 讓我知道在眾多應許之中, 其實最重要的是主, 而不是那些隨之而來的"禮物".
即使我們什麼都沒有了, 在那一無所有的當中, 其實最重要的, 是主的同在. 我們必不將恩典看過於主. 反璞歸真這個成語, 用在今天的entry上, 真是再適用不過了. 讓我們拋開那些美麗的禮物, 應許, 回歸到我們的本質, 單單追求神.

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我想我應該會改變我以後寫reflection的方法, 以後可能會變的更短, 可能一個禮拜選一篇最有感覺的來寫. 不然我想, 我會只是為了回應才來寫的, 這樣就失去我們的初衷.