Sunday, February 22, 2009
To know your life's purpose, you need to have self-awareness as well. Taking a leaf out of Jesus' book, one can see that He knew God was in control through
1) wickedness of man & Satan (Luke 4)
2) denials and betrayal (John 13)
3) suffering of pain and shame (Luke 23)
When we face any of these, do we instinctively trust that God is in control? Or do we begin to fret and worry excessively and try to control the situation ourselves? Or worse, do we blame God for it?
Jesus was also fully aware of He is - Son of God. Hence, he need not prove Himself nor did He have the fear of losing out (i.e. He was not kiasu/kiasi). He was able to take on the lowest of roles (washing another's feet) because of this.
If you are a born-again Christian, let me tell you who you are. You are
1) A child of God, co-heirs with Jesus Christ (Romans 8:17)
2) A New creation in Chrst Jesus, of infinite worth and deeply loved (2 Corinthians 5: 16-18) -hence you ought to have a sense of value and security
3) Completely forgiven, fully pleasing and totally accepted in Him - sense of satisfaction and stability
4) Absolutely complete in Him and one of a kind - sense of significance and sufficiency.
Do you know who you are or are you still finding your identity? If you truly know who you are, then you have nothing to prove, nothing to lose and nothing to hide. But if you don't, then you will live life as though everything can be taken away from you.
Lydea blogged at 2:57 AM
May your light shine...
in the darkness...
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Surprise! Im blogging again! and Im gonna do a series. Just wanna share what Dr Goh Seng Fong has blessed my church and I last sunday about our life sentence or purpose. He had a lot of points, so Im gonna share with everyone in small bits so its easier to digest!
Unconditional Love
For this section, I didn't quite fully grasp the link to the title. He spoke really fast so I must have missed something. However, I think he started with this to drive home the point that the purpose of our life starts with God and well God is love.
When we say that God is love, what do we really mean? You may hear of the term agape love to define God's love and it simply means unconditional love. This love goes far beyond our human understanding or capability - we are unable to fully comprehend its scope nor will we ever be able to give such a love to the same extent that God does. But lets try to explain it in simple terms:
- It is ETERNAL and INFINITE. There is never a time that God does not love us, even before the world was created (John 17:23-24). Maybe someone will say to you that they will love you forever, but we are only mortal and our lifespan is limited. God on the other hand, has been around since the beginning of time and will continue to exist till the end of time and He loves us even before we knew Him.
- It is more than a passion. It is His nature and character and it will not be changed, no matter what happens (1 John 4:19). It is not a feeling that can fade or is subjective to our behaviour.
- It is with foresight (this love is definitely not blind!) He sees not only the present, but also the past and the future. Our strengths and flaws, our ups and downs. And He still loves us. (Song of Solomon 2:4). Will we still love a person if we knew how much heartache that person will bring to us? Will we still love the person the same if we knew all about their flaws?
I thank God NOTHING can separate us from His love (Romans 8:35f), not even when we ignore or deny His existence. Isn't it wonderful that the One who knows us best, also loves us the most?
Lydea blogged at 1:33 AM
May your light shine...
in the darkness...
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Its been 3 months... gomen! Time flies when your (a) busy (b) holidaying (c) slacking (d) all of the above. Lets do a short recap of what has happened (or lack of) since the last time I blogged:
November - Exams - the last of them! Well, in my uni life that is... I won't miss them (i think) but i do prefer them to assignments
December - Convention + AGM + brother's convocation + family holiday in Melbourne/ Tasmania (for pictures, please see my facebook profile) Thank God for preserving my family throughout the trip and for the hospitality we received (special thanks to Melvin, Zee, Annette & family)
January - mid Feb - placement with Asian Women's Welfare Association (AWWA) TEACH ME services. TEACH ME = Therapy and Educational Assistance for CHildren in Mainstream Education.
I shan't bore everyone with the details, but all I can say is thank God for His faithfulness and patient guidance. I was struggling during placement and I must admit, that prior to this, my confidence was misplaced. After 2 smooth going placements, I thought too highly of myself. But thank God that He never lets me go and allow me to think that way for too long and I was brought back to earth with the placement that just passed. Although I am pretty sure that my coursemates had it much worse in terms of workload, I was having difficulty with the placement and through it, I saw my inadequacy. By God's grace, I managed to clear the placement, but I am also fully aware that I have lots to improve on, which I have the next few months to work on whilst doing my data collection.
Yes, I will be in Singapore for the next few months, most likely till July. So to everyone who is dying to meet up with me here, contact me! Haha... so thick skinned right =P Anyways, as the title says, this is just a prelude, so I shan't write an essay this time. But look out for the next post!
Lydea blogged at 8:58 PM
May your light shine...
in the darkness...
