(Wednesday, June 20, 2007-)
+2:40 PM]*
+2:40 PM]*
# Destiny
The Will of God.Everyone has asked this question. And if you haven't, you are just about to.
Q : What is the meaning of life?
If any of us had the answer to this, life would be so much easier right? Wrong. Knowing the meaning of life, and living it out to the fullest is two separate things. One is an event (knwoing the answer), the other, a process (living out what life means)
I know my blog is deprived of pictures, and i think it'll stay that way for quite a while, but this picture is here to help answer the question on what is the meaning of life.
Of course, the answer is not somethin I personally discovered, but was taught to me by an awesome man of God, Ps Martin Steel from the land of the Kiwis during my AWESOMELY AMAZING TO THE MAX SUPERBLY COOL CHURCH CAMP!!!
Ok ok, back to the point, the meaning of life. Logically, the answer to that should be with the Person who created "life" itself, God. And guess what, the answer is there, in His Word.
Ephesians 2v10
10For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
That's it. That's the simple answer to the most complex question in this world. Of course, there is also the part in Isaiah 43v7 that further explains the "good works" we are to do, which is for the glory of God.
So let's break it down. We arecreated to do good works. What are good works, and how is this related to this title, DESTINY, and the mosaic picture above. Let's start from the very beginning.
1. We all have a destiny which God has prepared in advance for us to do. For the Christians, we usually hear it as the "the will of God". So what is this "will of God" which ultimately makes out our purpose for existence? I'll start by saying what the "will of God" is not. It is not
[-] an event in life that will occur
[-] a specific job that we are "called" to do
[-] a position in the marketplace we are "called" to have
[-] a major achievement, like winning a gold medal or an award
[-] a certain field God wants us to be in
[-] being a pastor of a church
[-] save endangered animals
[-] build an orphanage
Yes, i know it is shocking to see all that, but let me explain, all that i listed are just events. Yes, each and EVERY one of the points above can be IN the will of God/purpose for life, but it is not THE purpose of life, meaning to say, it's not like, if we don't end up in that particular job, or achieve a particular dream, we have missed the purpose of life/the will of God. We can be doing those stuff, and still miss the will of God or not find any purpose in it.
So, what is the will of God (WOG) or the purpose of life (POL) ? Back to the basics again, we have a destiny. This destiny is not an event, but a PROCESS. And now, i shall explain the mosaic at the start. Destiny in life is very much like that picture mosaic. The complete destiny is a nice picture, but it is made up of many tiny pictures inside it. And each of those pictures represents events in our lives that colour our complete picture of destiny. So, working hard to get into law school might be one picture, and the one next to it, graduating from law school being another picture which makes our pictuer of destiny complete. Getting employed to do a small case for a friend, makes the next picture in the mosaic of destiny. The WOG/POL is not accomplished once you get into a big law firm, or win this particular case, or become an influential lawyer.
The WOG/POL is found in the events that take place each and every day as you work, or as you get fired and how you handle it. How you react to your family when you break the news, all this, though life may seem to be out of the WOG or having your POL destroyed, actually continues to complete your destiny mosaic. So in a mini conclusion, the WOG/POL comes to complete resolution as we do good works, from day to day, adding picture by picture, the good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
So now that we have a clearer picture (hehe) of what the WOG or POL is, let's break down the individual pictures. What is this "good works" that make up our destiny. According to Ps Martin Steel (which this whole post so far has been inspired through him from God), these good works are things that benefit others (and i think it includes yourself as well). He told an interesting story (which i am going to greatly summarize) about how...
There was a man who was brought to church (Ps Martin's) by one of his youth leaders. And God told Ps Martin to preach a sermon on salvation although he had another sermon prepared. So Ps Martin obeyed and at the end of the sermon, he asked if anyone wanted to accept Christ, and as you wouldn't have guessed, nobody said yes. So Ps Martin continued praying and asked God why nobody has responded so God showed him the picture of an old car in a garage. That wasn't going to help Ps Martin a lot so he continued praying and God told him that that is the reason why someone isn't answering this call of salvation, because of an old car in a garage.
So in obeying God, Ps Martin said that there is this old car in a garage that is stopping you from giving your life to God and immediately, the young man who was brought by the youth leader shouted "How did you know that?!!" and then he shouted it a few more times and left the church. The youth leader who picked him up had earlier promised to drive the young man to his destination if he'd follow him to church first, as the young man was a hitch hiker.
So Ps Martin didn't hear of that young man till a year later. The young man had accepted Christ and told Ps Martin that once he left that service and went to his university, it is as if every Christian there found him and told him about God and brought him to their church and two months later he accepted God. He couldn't earlier as he was planning to repair an old car he had bought over the weekends, and wouldn't have time for church cuz of the car.
So, how is this related to our destiny in life? Our destiny in life is not merely to eb a youth leader, or a pastor. But, it is more like this. Every action in that story, comes together to complete the pictures of many destinies.
For Ps Martin
--> to obey God to change his sermon and talk about an old car in a garage
For the youth leader
--> to bring a hitch hiker to church
For the young man
--> it was when he got picked up and stayed for the service
All these events are just parts of the WOG acting in many different lives of people who obey God to do good works. So becoming a pastor deosn't mean you have achieved the WOG or found your POL. But rather, it is the good works you do, that complete your picture mosaic of destiny.
So now that we know it's good works (i know its rather long eh? and believe it or not, this was all during the first session, first night during church camp!!) which are the good works we are to do? Because a picture mosaic cannot be made up of random pictures. We are not called to do all the good works in the world. We would just tire out. We would be leading a meaningles life, and the final picture of destiny will be so distorted, unrecognisable... unaccomplished. Wasted.
The next discovery for us in accomplishing the WOG/finding our POL, is knowing which pictures are we to take in completing our mosaic of destiny. This is where the first part of the Ephesians 2v10 comes in. For we are God's workmanship.
In each of us (consisting of the physical and the spirit (or character of the person)), we have been created with a spiritual SIM card. What??? Yes, each of us are the workmanship of a creator God who crafted us with a SIM card in us. What SIM card? Maxis? StarHub? M1?
SIM here refers to
Are the remaining 19 less spiritual/holy because they don't think of the kid? Are they any less kind/compassionate because theyenjoy rugby? No. It is because one of them has resonated to the call of his SIM Card within him.
The second related illustration is this. Ps Martin took Ps Mark's phone and said that in the air around us, there are thousands of EM waves (ok, i used the more proper EM terminology, but u get what i mean) at different frequencies bouncing all over the place, yet none of the handphone ring. But if we dial Ps Mark's number, yet another frequency will be added tothe thousands in the air, but Ps Mark's SIM Card will resonante and ring to that one call. That one frequency.
That's how it's like in our life. There will be needs all around us, that we can do good works for, but not all good works are within our picture of destiny. It could belong to your neighbour, your friend, colleague, it could be shared between u and ur friend. Eventually, all these good works will add up, to make the clear and complete picture of the body of Christ. Be it starting from YA, CFC, Emmanuel, the Ignite Network, Churches in Singapore, Churches in Asia, The Church of Christ. We will all have our destinies coming together to unfold the great tapestry of time, the perfect, complete Will Of God.
So that's the basics of what the church camp wanted to start on. Accomplishing the WOG in our lives, and that ties in perfectly to our theme
And some updates of me in Malaysia
-i had an awesome time in SG on saturday, the most amazing YA service yet!
-great time on sunday with Bible study with cell and honourary member Jayne, Sorry Chellie, ur sheep got "stolen"
-travelled back to Malaysia which took quite long cuz of one part where 5 FIVE! lanes became one...
-reached back Malaysia and then had to teach tuition
-first class was a Form 3 class which was not too bad, and then the Form 1 was .. err.. a little too young for me...
-reminded me of my time in TJ. Anf my classes, i just wanna say thank you once again for the awesome time ihad with you guys!! You guys are so much more fun than these "kids" hehe
-really appreciate it that u guys gave me the respect to not make noise when i gave work, to listen to me when i talked, to ask questions and make your stand known
-i appreciate all these things more now, now that im teaching these younger kids who either blankly stare at me, or talk to each other.. IN CHINESE... EESSSHH!!!
-played mahjong!! haha! 3 person mahjon is so so so so FUN!!!
-First night (until 3am) i won all the money in mahjong and poker!! woo hoo!!
-Second night (2.40am) i won quite a bit of money, and exploded (full 10 points) 3 times that night!! And one i even won 9 bucks!! Considering each point is only 10 cents!! Ha haa!!! EXPLODE EXPLODE!!!
-Now my favourite word in mahjong is not Pong!! or Kong!! anymore.. it's explode!!!! WHEEE!!!
-more updates soon
-txs for doing the test, hope you enjoyed it!
-should i do one more?
-txs Alvin for the hp batt
Labels: Destiny, Explode, Jayne, mahjong, Purpose of life, Tuition, Unleash Your Potential, Will of God, YA
the story ends like this;
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