->you typedd*: blog

(Wednesday, May 26, 2010-)
+2:18 PM]*

# Day 146 - 2010

Just got back from an awesome afternoon with Jo! British India had a wonderful Rogan Josh!! The fish was not bad either, a nice balance to the fragrant mutton!

Today's reading was just awesome. It reminded me of so many things, and I can relate to much more of it from Classics 1003 :)

^11-15Entering into this fullness is not something you figure out or achieve. It's not a matter of being circumcised or keeping a long list of laws. No, you're already in—insiders—not through some secretive initiation rite but rather through what Christ has already gone through for you, destroying the power of sin. If it's an initiation ritual you're after, you've already been through it by submitting to baptism. Going under the water was a burial of your old life; coming up out of it was a resurrection, God raising you from the dead as he did Christ. When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive—right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ's cross. He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets.

I love this passage! It opens with grace, and closes with grace! Opens with the fact that the fullness of Christ is not gained by right or achievement. Neither is it by some secretive initiation like the Dionysian or Mythrastic cult. It's not some exclusive thing, it's free grace. And just to prove a point, something that the Roman people of the day would understand, Paul uses an "initiation ceremony" to explain that through Christ, the old has passed away, and this is a brand new day! Of course the "outsiders" thought that baptism was some ritualistic thing that you needed to do in order to become a Christian, but no, Paul clearly states that it's by what Christ has already done, not what we need to do! And then the message of grace continues, that while we were still in our sins, Christ died for us, wiped us clean, and prepared a new identity for us, while we were still committing "crimes". And now when we walk in Him, His grace empowers us because of what He has done, namely stripping all the sham authorities in the world, parading them naked on Christ very own "Roman victory procession". And we can all join in the celebration, cuz the enemy has been defeated, death couldn't hold You down, we're gonna lift our voice in victory, we're gonna make Your praises loud!!

the story ends like this;
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(Tuesday, May 25, 2010-)
+8:31 PM]*

# Day 145 - 2010

Today's QT is also rather direct. On how to trust God during a crisis. Well, for me, it's not really a crisis, but more of stress. Yeah, I've thrown out Assignment 6, and for that, I hope Dr Maziar keeps his word of the 1% I got early in the class :) But now, it's time to write an anointed essay on the Christian persecution in Rome. It was Christ they were persecuting, and now, I wanna write for Christ, and to speak as He would speak, and if I dare say it, to speak for Him through these 1200 words. So as Ps Kong said, I start by turning my heart to God first. Then I set my eye on God, and not the problem. Then I wait for the Holy Spirit, and then I praise God for the amazing 1200 words that I'm going to write!

It's going to be tough, to have faith that I will write a great essay, but I'm gonna trust God for His best, and give it my best after that!

the story ends like this;
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(Monday, May 24, 2010-)
+10:49 PM]*

# Day 144 - 2010

Today's QT was speaking to me quite directly.

Number my days. The phrase that Ps Kong used that really struck me was "There is a battle for the time that we have been allotted here on earth. The devil provides all kinds of distractions that are carefully designed to steal from us the precious commodity called time. Once we have lived a day, we can never get it back." And God doesn't need a loud hailer to get my attention. And so, this week, my response is to fast from facebook from Wednesday till after OCF on Friday. Goal : To be an exemplary student. That is part of being Christian. And it will give me more time to reply emails that I should have!

Second part was from the Bible, Message translation "^29-33No one abuses his own body, does he? No, he feeds and pampers it. That's how Christ treats us, the church, since we are part of his body." and this easily reminded me of Senior Pastor Mark, and how he is God's blessing to me and th church. Goal : SMS him to say thank you!

the story ends like this;
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(Sunday, May 23, 2010-)
+12:11 PM]*

# Day 143 - 2010

^{Ephesians 3}

^7-8This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details. When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God's way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities.

From QT today. What spoke to me was how God used someone who would have been best skilled in reaching the Jews, to reach the Gentiles instead. Like the cliche phrase goes, God doesn't call the equipped, He equips the called.

Paul was definitely equipped to reach the Jews with the Message, but Jesus had different ideas and trained him up to reach us instead. Relating to my own life, I guess I'm a very comfort zone person, liking like and disliking unalike. I guess this is one area I could work on. To be able to love those who are different. As Ps Kong put it, those who are of "difficult temperament". A quick episode of Glee with pool in the background showed that fast enough.

Yup. See ya

the story ends like this;
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(Tuesday, May 18, 2010-)
+10:16 PM]*

# Day 138 - 2010

Well, today has been a bad day. Mostly my own doing towards the end. But I still have no idea in the morning part.

I think something is wrong with me. In the simplest terms, I think I'm getting a little dyslexic. Spelling words wrongly when writing them down in lecture. But it's not that simple, it's not that I spell them wrong by mixing up letters, I spell them wrong cuz my brain is already processing the next word, but my hands haven't caught up and I misspell very frequently. And also, there's those where I just leave out alphabets. The worst is when my brain goes on auto-pilot. I experienced this when I was typing an fb message, and instead of weather, the word summer came out. And I wasn't even thinking of summer. So yeah. Something went a little wrong today. Pray it will get better.

Anyway. There are still things unsettled in me. Falls asleep.

the story ends like this;
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(Monday, May 17, 2010-)
+3:29 PM]*

# Day 137 - 2010

Just yesterday I was coming home from Edge Live, when I truly felt in my heart, that I was worshiping God. Yes it involved singing on the streets on the way back. But this is what literally brought tears to my eyes.

"Give it up to the One who saved you,

Give it up to the One who gave you life,

Give it up to the One who made you,

Give it up to the Lover of your soul."

And that line, just made me so emotional. Just realising how I owe everything to God. Not to mention the fact where I'm walking right now is a miracle of His blessing.

And today's QT just added to it.

Now David said, “Solomon my son is young and inexperienced, and the house to be built for the LORD must be exceedingly magnificent, famous and glorious throughout all countries. I will now make preparation for it.” So David made abundant preparations before his death. 1 Chronicles 22:5

And in the New Testament church, I am the temple of God. But is it exceedingly magnificent, famous and glorious throughout all countries? Yes I've only been to 4 in my life, but even that, is my life, my body the most glorious it could be for God?

Am I like David, who stockpiled in advance to the work God has in store to build me up?

Am I treating myself well? Am I taking good care of my body, such that it will not be a laughing stock of people. Is what I do for myself worthy of admiration towards God, or does it just point people towards stereotyping "low standards" to being synonymous with Christianity.

Then after the physical, is my social life one that is exceedingly magnificent? Like what Ps Chris preached yesterday, am I generous? Am I loving? Am I caring enough? And at that, genuine and authentic?

And then on the deepest level, is this house one that truly God isn't a guest, but it's really His home. Does God only get to stay the weekends when I'm "good" and all "churchy". Or does He have to shout across the hall to get my attention, or can He just speak gently with me?

The house of God has to be exceedingly magnificent. It has to be. Because I love Him.

the story ends like this;
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(Wednesday, May 12, 2010-)
+9:17 PM]*

# Some Things I Wanna Praise God For

1) Iron Man 2 afternoon with Ann, and dinner later at her place. Ok fine, Elizabeth is a little cute. In case you're wondering, she a little P2 girl! But the girl at Elder was wow!

2) Out of nowhere, Prof Maziar says that Assignment 5, Question 2 DOESN'T NEED TO BE DONE! Not only did I have no idea how to do it, I didn't have a group to do it in either!

3) A good Tin friend offered some jackets! Blessed be Your name, when the sun doesn't shineth down upon me!

the story ends like this;
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