sickie

Today I chucked a sickie from work. I didn't sleep the night before cos I had a really really bad sore throat, headache and a blocked nose. Well I pretty much slept the whoe day today, getting out of bed only to eat and to drink some vitamin C and honey - it was like I was in hibernation or something. I pretty much got out of bed at 5pm - which was funny cos it's my usual knock-off time - and am feeling pretty good now. Sore throat is still there but headache is gone and nose is heaps less mucousy haha...

Sorry if you have just lost your appetite :)

yesterday

Just wanted to post quickly about City Evangelism yesterday. First of all, I am really glad that I got over my intial I-don't-really-feel-like-going attitude - I prayed several times that day before we went 'for battle' and I really believe that God slowly helped me find the enthusiasm in my heart to go out there and just do it.

I was originally meant to go with Vanessa, with William observing, but it turned out that Truc was partner-less and ended up coming with us to form two groups of two. I ended up taking William around who was a first-timer (I love taking first-timers, it always reminds me of the first time I went for CE with Cherie - I was so scared and so excited at the same time!)...

We talked to one girl in particular from Germany named Merle, and it was her first day in Perth! She was really receptive when we shared the Gospel with her she was really receptive. I don't like to pressure people into a decision so after I had told her everything, I asked if she had any questions (she said no... I think she was a bit overwhelmed with the information overload that I had just dished out, but she DID tell us that she would definitely read the This Was Your Life gospel tract and will have a read of the Gospel of John), and then I pointed her toward the Sinner's prayer. I am hopeful that God will save her soon.

I also had the opportunity to talk to William a bit more and answer some of the burning questions he had been thinking about which was a pretty cool experience. He also ended up giving out some tracts which was encouraging to see too! So all in all it was another awesome afternoon spent for God.

sowing on sunday

I want to take this opportunity to encourage everyone out there in Blog World to listen up and be encouraged to go out on Sunday for City Evangelism. OK don't stop reading just cos I mentioned the 'e-word'... I don't want to write this to guilt you into going, but at the same time, if you aren't going and you don't feel guilty, well I will just let my old buddy Spurgie do the talking:

Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you are not saved yourself - be sure of that! [CH Spurgeon]

If you feel that you are lacking a bit of enthusiasm for City Evangelism, I know how you feel... I get that oh-man-not-again feeling most of the time before each CE. We go out for CE quite often so it is easy (for me anyway) to feel like it is routine and not feel excited about it. I guess it is natural to feel like that - we are afterall, in a spiritual battle with the flesh every day and we need to make a conscious effort to fight our flesh - especially when it comes to things like CE. The spiritual ramifacations echo through eternity and consequently, Mr S.A. Tan starts to work overtime at times like these to help give you think of excuses not to come. Think about it, if we don't go, souls will continue marching into Hell... But if we do go, we can be used by God to sow the Gospel seed into the hearts of these lost souls and play a part in their eternal salvation! Now if that isn't the most awesome way of spending your Sunday afternoon - I don't know what is.

Of course you can spend your Sunday arvo in front of the TV or shopping or playing computer games or studying (I SHUDDER at the thought!) or sleeping... but what are the outcomes of these things? Who wins in that spiritual battle - the spirit or the flesh?

One of the quotes that I always remember is by CS Lewis:

All that is not eternal is eternally useless.

Think about that one for a minute... Stop reading, look away from the computer, and think about that... How much of what we do is 'eternally useless'?? God gives us a purpose in life which is to glorify Him and to make Him known to others - but all too often we have our own purposes and our own agendas... How bout this Sunday, you give God a few hours to invest in eternity? It will not only make God smile upon you, but it will also be an encouragement to people like myself who aren't really sure of what to expect this Sunday in terms of number of people heading out for CE.

And please keep CE in your prayers. Weather looks dodgy - so pray for God to do His thing with the weather too :)

the penny drops once again

I dunno... It's amazing how some things can get sooo under your skin... Recently, I have been seeing the 'other' side of people a whole lot more than usual. I won't go into detail, but I'm sure a lot of you can relate in one way or another. I have noticed that it seems to happen a lot in churches [don't know whether in churches we expect more of people, who in reality are sinners just the same; or whether church-goers have a tendency toward being judgemental either knowingly or unknowingly - I'm not too sure which it is sometimes] but I am also weary of saying anything lest I look like I am being judgemental myself.

It can get discouraging when people don't measure up to your expectations - you expect that because they know doctrine inside and out, they are the 'go-to' people for advice on doing the 'right thing', they give perfect answers (or even lead) during Bible studies, they sing in perfect pitch during service, they always say the right thing, at the right time, in the right way - that they would be awesome examples for 'the rest of us' to follow when it comes to the 'real world'... but so many times they're not, we're not, and I'm not.

I know that we are to look to Jesus as our example on how to live, and looking to man for answers is the foolish thing to do - but like I said before, these small things that we are supposed to ignore, just don't seem to go away and instead lodge themselves under my skin an irritate me to the point of disillusionment.

But after some reflection, God opened my eyes and I realised something - when we feel disillusionment with others who have done the same as what we have done ourselves at one time or another, we start to get an idea of how God (who unlike us, has never done what we have done to Him, i.e. sinned) would feel when we fail to reach His expectations (perfection). This is how He would feel if He thought like us - but He doesn't. His response to our falling short of His expectations was to send His only Son - Jesus Christ - to die and hence help us meet His standard once again. Just stop reading and really think about that... It's easy to just swallow something like that and put it in the 'what-I-already-know-basket' but just think about it...

When someone hurts you, when someone gets soooo under your skin, whesn someone discourages you, when someone causes you to feel disillusioned and disappointed, when someone doesn't meet your expectations of who you want them to be - and instead of thinking about what they have done wrong, YOU sacrifice what is dearest to you to help them become something that they TOTALLY don't deserve to be... THAT is what real love is.

all that she had

This verse caught me...

Mark 12:41-44 And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.

In a different translation, verse 44 reads:

All the others gave what they'll never miss; she gave extravagantly what she couldn't afford—she gave her all.

I have read that verse so many times in the past, but reading it in the second version really made it stand out to me so much more! She gave EXTRAVANGENTLY... She gave her ALL... Made me a bit convicted about how selfish I can be when it comes to offering - not just in my money, but also in my time. I would definitely not say that I have been an extravagent giver, I see my time outside of work hours as 'my time' and I often just give God what I will never miss or what has become part of 'my routine'. I treat my time as if I own it but like everything in this world, I am just a steward or caretaker of what really belongs to God - I just keep forgetting that...

I also read recently that the best gift to give someone is your time - because it is something that once you use it, you can never get it back. It really confirms with me that I need to give back to God what belongs to Him and use my time for Him. It will be hard, but I don't want to just keep giving God what I won't miss - He deserves so much more.

the big 6-0

It's my dad's 60th birthday today! So Happy Birthday DAD!! It's hard to believe that my folks are so old - but I guess that means that I am getting old too. Soon they will be crossing over to the mouldy oldy stage but thank God that they're still pretty fit and healthy :)

My Dad is pretty cool - One thing is for sure, there ain't too many blokes out there like my pops! He's a character-and-a-half. I think he's put up with me heaps and we've definitely had our fair share of 'misunderstandings' but thank God that I get along with him pretty well nowadays! He can still be pretty embarrassing but I guess that all comes as standard in any Dad - I just got a bonus amount in mine! :P

The other day my bro and I were recalling some memories with Dad - like him telling us bedtime stories starring our cousin, Fei Gor Gor, who got up to all kinds of adventures (my Dad used to fall asleep mid-story, and we'd have to wake him up to make him finish the story!). My Dad has also been a great spiritual leader for our family too - leading us in Bible reading and prayer on most nights (I think this really helped me grow up with God's Word hid in my heart). There have been plenty more fond memories and I just really thank God for the gift of my Dad! :)

all came down to one uncle

My dad's friend, Uncle Samuel, from back in the day came and stayed at our house last week, and on wednesday night, he took me and my family out for the obligatory thanks-for-everything-dinner at Northbridge Chinese Restaurant [my family's new 'South Ocean' - my dad tends to have favourite restaurant phases (last one was South Ocean) and goes there until he gets sick of it and then changes to a new one... and right now the restaurant of choice is Northbridge Chinese Restaurant (as a matter of fact, I started typing this post while waiting to go there tonight)... No complaints about it tho - their cheew-yoon pai guat (chilli and salt spare ribs) is awesome and they have soup and dessert 'on the house'].

Well anyway.. (that was a bit of a side-track) At the dinner, I found out something really interesting about my dad's side of the family's salvation. Uncle Samuel was telling us about how he became a Christian, saying that originally, his older brother was the first one in his family to become a Christian [this brother was a Pastor in the United States but recently passed away... Waaaaaay back in the day, he actually gave Adrian and I yellow teddy bears in Los Angeles when I was 3 and he was 5.. I remember this quite clearly because Adrian and I had a bit of a tussle with one of these bears and the bear flew into a puddle of muddy water - I lost it, and bawled my eyes out - but this uncle went and washed and dried the bear and gave it back to me which was really sweet and all, but after the whole muddy puddle incident, I ended up wanting the other bear - stupid Adrian!]. And this brother was actually my Uncle Keith's friend (Uncle Keith works in the Salvation Army in Perth). Apparently, Uncle Keith tried evangelising so many times to this Uncle Samuel's brother who constantly ridiculed him for being a Christian - but eventually said to him one day 'Take me to your church' and then became a Christian himself shortly after. He then went on to bring Uncle Samuel and the rest of his family to know Christ as their Saviour!!

But that's not the cool part... Yeah! There's more to the story fellas and fellarettes!!... We found out that night that my dad's side of the family used to be non-Christian!... I KNOW! Crazy crazy stuff!... This was a pretty big shock as my bros and I always thought that my dad's family were Christians from the get-go, but apparently not!! My dad shared with us that originally Uncle Keith was the only Christian in the family, but by God's grace, one by one, both my Grandpa and Grandma, my Uncle Kenneth, Aunty Ruth, My Dad, Aunty Pauline, Uncle Kin and Aunty Ruby put their faith in the Lord too! I was absolutely floored to realise that the salvation of two families came down to my Uncle Keith - who seems like one of the more quiet and awkward uncles of the lot of them. To this day, out of all my uncles and aunties, Uncle Keith is probably the only one who continues to evangelise heaps in his old age (not sure how old he is, but my dad is 60, my Uncle Ken is 70 and he's somewhere in between). I guess it shows us that to be used by God, you don't need to be eloquent, charismatic, courageous or bold - you just need a willing heart! It also really makes me realise the truth of God's Word when it says:

Acts 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

My Mum is still waiting for her prayers to be answered for her side of the family but when I see God work in Jie Aom and my auntie's (Jie Aom's mum) hearts, I believe in my heart that they are starting to get answered too. =)