The First few days at Work as a SPORTS INTERN in Church!... TRP Crusade Welcome Tea 2009!

Monday!

Tchoukball in morning and Introduction to my first task as a Sports intern in Church!
After that headed to queensway to buy the cheapest soccer boots in my life, an adidas boots for only $34! After that made my way to RP for the crusade welcome tea!

RP Crusade WELCOME TEA!!!

(The group that i was in!!!!! I think we were called "SHEEPS"... we won the amazing race! =P)

(The charades station!... Guess what i was doing... to describe THE "______" Commission!)

(A really good sharing by Jacob! On BEING that LIGHT & SALT!...
A statement he shared! .... "are you are student so happened to be a Christian or a CHRISTIAN called to be a Student?")

Tuesday
First official day on my job! Headed to the Third place to meet up with Bala and to get accustomed to the office where i will be based at for wesley as a Sports Intern! And well so happened when i was there, met jamie there who is involved in the sports minitry for the TRAC churches so had a nice good chat with him before i under go the next 2 mths establishing & strategising the Sports ministry for Wesley! =)

After that got a chance to meet up with some of the outram sec youths who frequent the place too! And this is really another platform i believed are opportunities where God has place us to outreach to this youths here!

After that...headed to wenhao place for a scrumtious dinner!

(THE YUMMYYYY Creamy pasta & Onion soup we ate at wenhao place)

Wednesday!

Staff lunch today!!! Im really fortunate to be interning at wesley at this time! hahah!
So happened on my second day at work already and I got a nice buffet lunch treat at a hotel for all the staffs at Wesley Methodist Church! And got to meet some of the other staffs there! And im really surprise to see that there were abt 70 over stafff in wesley! really nicee people! =)

After lunch, headed back to the cosy third place again... for awhile...
And made my way to TP later for the TP crusade welcome tea!

(Initial icebreakers at the amphitheatre!)

(Some of the stuff we did at the AMAZING RACE around TP! )

Back at the Alumni Lounge!

(Jerry led us in a time of worship.. After that Glenn(My DGL!!!)...shared a message abt our purpose on this campus!)

This is the 4th TP Crusade Freshmen Welcome Tea for me ever since i joined TP crusade 4 years ago! And im so goinggg to missss these people when i enlist! These are the grp of people that influence me and impacted me a lot in the last 3 years on Campus! And im sure all this are part, of God's preparation for me before i step into NS sooon!

Okie dokiesss! Going back to work tmr morning!!! Im really enjoying life! Working in Church is the BEST THIGN EVER! Serving God so directly in your work! how GOOD IS THAT! =)

Ben is going TEKONG on 13 July!!!!!!!

I'm ENLISTING to National Service (NS) on 13 July BMTC School 2 at 830 Tekong!!!!

After hearing the news abt my enlistment location, i'm quite sure that God has plans for me to go to this route! After first being posted to go for the vocational assessment test to NDU few mths back and then going thru all those tests and passing them, and even with the NDU medical officer given me the clearance that they want me there! All was seemed to be leading to that 90% chance of me entering there,but now all has CHANGE to that 10% of going to Tekong! So i really believed that its really a DIVINE intervention somewhere!
Now i feel a great sense of relieved that i dun have to worry so much abt my swimming and the dangers of diving! And i can be assured of a bit more freedom to be able to come to church on sundays compared if im posted to the NDU path that might "kill" me over the week and take my sundays away.hee. So well will just make the best of my times left as a civilian before i enter to a new season in life serving the God in the army! =D

Is so INSPIRED by God's Word!

After coming back from Precept lesson on the first week on the book of Daniel, i'm just so inspired by God's word and so many new insights! Certainly i have no regrets at all spending the last 9 mths or so going through the intensive in depth inductive bible study of God's Word from Genesis reading on the story of Joseph, to Titus, and than the recent long 4 mths lesson on Covenant of God and now the Book of Daniel. There's just so much of God's word that i just want to seek his Truths on!

All this lessons from GOD, has influenced much of my personal theology of God and it aid me in being rooted to the foundation of His Word. This led to renewed perspectives of living my life each day with much excitement searching the LIVING WORD of GOD. There's just so many new insights of the mystery of Him that, I'm just SOOOOO EXCITED talking about it already!

Brief sharing of lesson learn't today..

"¹⁶All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; ¹⁷so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. " 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (New American Standard Bible)

1) The above verse cleary shows that the SCRIPTURES is the ABSOLUTE WORD of GOD that is not from men but totally INSPIRED from God or God-Breathed(NIV). And this is the certainty we know that we can follow and obey an absolute Truth that trains us into righteousness!

^"3For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. ⁴They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths." 2 Timothy 4:3-4 (New International Version)

2) Do one actually speak correctly of the Word of God or just hear from "teachers" of the word who speak the things people only want to hear?

(Below is the part that really got me much awaken! & also led to me having a deep discussion with nicholas (my crusade disciple) about later after precept..)

Read the whole of Ezekiel 13(for whole context)...

(an extract...)

" ¹Then the word of the LORD came to me saying,

²"Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy, and say to those who prophesy from their own inspiration, 'Listen to the word of the LORD!

³'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Woe to the foolish prophets who are following their own spirit and have seen nothing. "Ezekial 13:1-3

The above verses clearly shows that Ezekiel was warning the people for man who prophesy from their own inspiration.. and Kay Arthur the teacher of precept made a claim that really shooked nick and me quite a bit... she shared abt the tele-evangelist in America who always seems to be "SEEKER-FRIENDLY" prophesying of things claimed to be from God? And she rebuked them to say that the only WORDS that are FOR SURE of God are those that is the SCRIPTURES which already talks abt the WILL OF GOD for us! (yes that's true) ...i do not know for sure what those tele-evangelist said? But i know that many preachers nowadays speak many words which are just nice for people to hear?(remember 2 Timothy 4:3-4)

And many claim to say... "I sense God saying this and that".... (this is the area which is a little Grey right to me) This is the part which got me thinking a bit more? I used to be quite skeptical about such preachers who claims abt such things before? Until God renewed my perspective on this over the years,about the movement of the Spirit and as long my discernment's of them are mutual i wld take it by faith its from God?

But now again with Kay Arthur rebuking such preachers with reference of the Word? It made me think twice again... even times when i sense God speaking to me? is it my own inspiration? or really its from GOD? As the times and situations are different now from the times of the prophets of the Old testaments to now the time when we are living in the covenant of grace? Where the Word of GOD is right before us in Scriptures and living in us too! Do we need to have such Words from God out of context of the bible? Well that same Spirit of God who spoke such prophecies to daniel, to elijah to ezekial is the same God living in us today right?

So should i take the stance from the perspective of a fundamentalist?(a more conservative and safer view, but than again are we restricting the movement of the Spirit then?) Or those which maybe controversial of a postmodern preacher? (if the movement of the spirit says something out of the context of the bible?)

These are questions which i will be seeking and searching from the Word of God till i find a good answer from God to this!...although i got some response to them off hand now,I would rather pray about it more before sharing a post to this frequently asked questions one fine day! =)

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 1:1

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only,who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. " John 1:14

What's your thoughts?

God's Simply Amazing! (You should read this!!!!)

It sure been amazing week for me! I guess something that really made me so excited this week was having the DIVINE APPOINTMENT in meeting up with some of my close friends from st.gabs... and this is possibly the first time since sec sch days that we actually had a proper meet up like what we did on thursday! Well in the end it was only a very small grp of us.. keith,shahreel and tw who came later... And why i wld say it was a divine appointment was... first before meeting up with them, i was led to pray if God cld just give me an opportunity to talk abt Christ to my friends!

AND WELL...God's Prayer was answered! Somehow it happened through our conversations! I didn't know how it led to it! but it just started when we were talking abt our Faith! And the amazing thing was... at that table there was a Roman Catholic, Methodist and Muslim, and it was an amazing sharing as we shared our different views of life,heaven and hell! And in the 10 over years that i know them,i think we never really dwelled in such a spiritual conversation like that before. And they were the ones that knew how i was like before my experience with God and how i am like now!

And learning abt God's COVENANT from precept the last few mths was really useful in this particular circumstance, as the Holy Spirit just led me to share something that brought us all in mutual agreement which is first...we all believe in God. Which personally for me that same God of Abraham,Isaac and Jacob is also the same God for the muslim and definitely the Roman Catholics too! So that was the bridging gap to our common understanding of our history... but bcoz of what we learn from the WORD of GOD that ever since the Abrahamic Covenant (When God promise Abraham of a "SEED" to come and than followed by The OLD COVENANT (The Law of Moses aka the 10 commandments) which the muslims still follow. And next with the many prophesies of the messiah to come by all those prophets which describe with many facts of how the messiah wld come on earth which now leads to what that differ us from the Muslims and Christians. Which is that NEW COVENANT which followed after the Laws... which goes back to that "SEED" of Abraham which was to become JESUS CHRIST who was born under the Law and was made the Savior for us all as he died for all our Sins & Forgiven us! And when he redeemed us on the Cross, it broke the veil of the tabernacle which was where the OLD COVENANT was being practice at! Which states that we can now all come to Christ by just believing in Him and accepting Him to our Hearts! (AMAZING RIGHT!!!! How God's purposes all just come together so nicely like that!)

So i myself was pretty amazed as i shared with them all this, as i would have never been able to share it so fluently without the help of the Holy Spirit! And well Shahreel if your reading this, you know i really believed from that deep conviction from my Heart that what was talk abt simply was a DIVINE MEETING that God place before us! =)... So let me know if you so happened to read this post! As you know i truly believed that same God for me, and for YOU do really want to touch your life and fill your life with His Love and just forgiveee us for all the Sins that we done! And we can become that new person in Christ like what God did to change my Life for him! =)

WELLL! When you thought that all this DIVINE INTERVENTION stops there! Do you know as i wrote this post, Paul Ooi from church just sent me a mailer abt a post he just read which was exactly what we were actually talking abt in GAP on Friday and what i'm writing about NOW!...

below is the abstract of it..(READ IT!..it blew my mind as it was the EXACT thing that just happened to me!)
Click here for full link to 18/4/09 devotional material

ABSTACT..
"Beware of Unusual Circumstances
TGIF Today God Is First Volume 2, by Os Hillman
04-18-2009

"Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit?" (1 Cor 12:7-9).

Whenever something unusual happens in daily life, these are often signs that God is up to something. We must have a heightened sense of awareness of what God may want to do in these situations...

Jesus often spoke supernaturally into the lives of others based on the circumstance of the moment. He often spoke of their current condition in life and invited them to make a change.

As you go about your day, there are situations that we can find ourselves in that are open doors for bringing Christ into the circumstance. In fact, He is the one orchestrating the circumstance!

Next time an unusual situation develops, be aware that God may be creating such a circumstance to bring His glory into the situation.

AMEN!!! What an assurance of God's Word! =)

What is FAITH?

A couple months ago, God revealed to me something about faith which i never really saw before, and it just make me so excited whenever God make such revelations to me! And right now i just can't wait to share my thoughts on this topic called Faith, and also to start my opening post to my new BLOGSKIN which i have not changeee since 26 march 2006 where i first started blogging 3 years agooo!

Well as you can see that image at the top i have chosen for my main blogskin, shows the time when i was at a kelong trip last year in 2008 at this secluded beach in batam just basking in the presence of God's indescribable nature! With the amazing beautiful white fluffy clouds and vast clear sea before me! It really amazes one how such complex intricate life system came about came about? It cldn't have just appeared like that right? The only best possible solution i believe with a strong convction and assurance to this great mystersty is there's a need for a GREAT BEING and greater reality above our very own human minds to have created all this beautiful nature before us today...

Anyways was doing my precept study on Convenant and few mths back there was this section on Faith with the verse from hebrews 11:1 which i read...

"¹Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

²For by it the elders obtained a good report.

³Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." Hebrews 11:1-3 (KJV)

And when i read this famous verse suddenly i had this revelation which i never had before although i read the NIV version of this verse quite a number of times...God just showed me what he meant by that! Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen means the persuasion is not the outcome of imagination but is based on fact, such as the reality of the resurrection of Christ ... 1 Cor 15 (a summary of 1 Cor 15 talks about the many witnesses of Christ Resurrection during that period),
and as such it becomes the basis of realistic hope. So there are evidence to it, people have seen it, and it is a fact. But we do not see it because it happened many years ago.

"Faith always has been the mark of God's servants, from the beginning of the world. Where the principle is planted by the regenerating Spirit of God, it will cause the truth to be received, concerning justification by the sufferings and merits of Christ. And the same things that are the object of our hope, are the object of our faith.

It is a firm persuasion and expectation, that God will perform all he has promised to us in Christ. This persuasion gives the soul to enjoy those things now; it gives them a subsistence or reality in the soul, by the first-fruits and foretastes of them. Faith proves to the mind, the reality of things that cannot be seen by the bodily eye. It is a full approval of all God has revealed, as holy, just, and good.

This view of faith is explained by many examples of persons in former times, who obtained a good report, or an honourable character in the word of God. Faith was the principle of their holy obedience, remarkable services, and patient sufferings.

The Bible gives the most true and exact account of the origin of all things, and we are to believe it, and not to wrest the Scripture account of the creation, because it does not suit with the differing fancies of men. All that we see of the works of creation, were brought into being by the command of God." - Bible Commentary of Hebrews 11:1-3 by Matthew Henry

Another way of looking into FAITH is something which i inferred from john piper as i prepared this sharing...

From Hebrews 11, Verse 3 is directly related to this definition of faith as "the evidence of things not seen." It says, "By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible."

Do you see the connection? Verse 1 says "faith is the evidence of things not seen," and verse 3 says that faith understands that the world - what is seen - was made out of what is not seen - the word of God. So verse 3 is a specific illustration of the definition of faith in verse 1b.

Romans 1:20. "Since the creation of the world [God's] invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood by what has been made." The word "understood" here in Romans 1:20 is the same as the word as in Hebrews 11:3, "By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God.

“Hebrews 11:3 seems to say that the evidence that God made the world is faith. Now think about this for a moment. What shall we make of it? Here's what I make of it. Faith - at least in part - is the spiritual seeing or perceiving of the fingerprints of God on the things he has made. Now the fingerprints of God on the things he has made - the order, the beauty, the greatness, the "irreducible complexity" –john piper

(Perceiving nature right before your eyes at a micro level)

Illustration:

But so is the seeing of these fingerprints a kind of evidence.

It's just the other side of the coin. If you ask me, "How do you know my school has a new Mac computer,at level 5," I will say, "I saw it when I went there." My seeing is evidence that it is there.

I think that is the way faith is the evidence of things unseen. We all look at the same fingerprints, but some see and some don't. Those who see have the evidence - the testimony - in themselves. How can that be?

Take this analogy of the "HIDDEN 3D images" aka Stereograms...

These are pieces of art that, on one level, are one thing, but at another level are something quite different. At first glance all you see is the surface presentation. But if you let your eyes focus more deeply, or more distantly, you may see a train or a boxing kangaroo or a globe not only appearing, but actually standing up off the page. Now some people stare at these pages for several minutes and see nothing but color and chaos. But others almost immediately see the head of Beethoven or a lamb. If someone says, "How do you know a lamb is there?" the answer is, "I see it." Your seeing is the evidence. They may not see it, but that won't change your mind.

Now this is what it is like for some to look at God's creation. Some see color and chaos. Others have a deeper view and suddenly God's fingerprints come into focus. What evidence can they offer? They see it. It is as undoubted as a lamb in a 3-D image. No one can talk you out of it.

(Stare through this picture until you see something...Can you see a 3D shark popping up?)

You may ask, "Should that be called faith?" Didn't Paul say (in 2 Corinthians 5:7), "We walk by faith and not by sight"? How can faith be "sight"? Paul meant that Christ is not present physically on earth to see with physical eyes, but is in heaven. He did not mean that there is no spiritual perception of God's reality. Hebrews 11:1 says, "Faith is the conviction - or better, the evidence - of things not seen."(NASB) And then the writer illustrates this in verse 3 when he says that "we understand by faith" that God created the world. In other words, faith is not just a responding act of the soul; it is also a grasping or perceiving or understanding act. It is a spiritual act that sees the fingerprints of God. This does not mean that you believe them into being. That would be wishful thinking - the power of positive thinking. That is not authentic faith. Real faith is based on real Truth. It looks deeply at the world God has made - looks through it, so to speak - and by the grace of God, it sees the glory of God (as Psalm 19:1 says) standing forth off the creation like a 3-D image. -John Piper

Adding to this...reading from 1 Peter 1:5-9 which means that faith obtains the future entrance into salvation,safe existence which will be provided by God at the end of the present season...

^"5 who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶ In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, ⁷ that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, ⁸ whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, ⁹ receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls. " 1 Peter 1:5-9

(Me standing before the GLORY of the LORD!!! And basking in the presence of the ALMIGHTY LORD who is the GREATER REALITY who created the sun the sea, the earth and everything that you see before us today and all this alone are enough evidence to show that GOD exists!)

References:
John Piper- http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByScripture/26/999_What_Faith_Knows_and_Hopes_For/

The Kelong Boys 2!!!!!

The Kelong Boys Version 2!!!! 10-12 April over the easter weekend!
Ever since our last kelong retreat last year where the kelong boys were formed! We now expanded and multiplied inviting moreee guys from wesley ym to join us in this Spiritual Men's retreat! This time it was at a different setting which was actually much more scenic than before and it was a 5 star Kelong with proper sanitaries! =).. only thing compared to the last time one was the food previously was better.

Day 1- Good Friday
Arrival at Harbourfront macs at about 8.15am!


(had a nice hearty breafast!)...(we waiting for our ferry)

(in the ferry!)

(arrival at batam!)

(we split into 2 grps to go into 2 separate vans)


(our first stop...some kelong restarant for lunch!)


(walking towards our sampan!)

(the sampan to the Shalom kelong!)


(the first boat)



(First boat to arrive at SHALOM KELONG!)

Our swimming pool!

(we immediately jumped in once we arrived!)

(played some "waterpolo-captainball-rugby"....)

(the kelong polo boys!)

(Andrew had a cramed leg during out intensive match!)

(The KELONG BOYS 2009!)

(Relax timeeeeeee!)

(first dinner!)

(First night session! We were very grateful to have 2 awesome worship leaders, yangshen and bobby to lead us in a time of free worship before adriel gave a sharing on A Men's Purity!)

(after that... some of us went on a crazyyyyy fitness moment led by "PHYSICAL INTRUSTOR"...Kheng hao.... we all had to do an average of 100 push ups first to pass!... which i did about 160 push ups in total, followed by about 4 sets of 50 cruches,front,left,and right abs obliques and abt 30 pull ups in total all back to back that one night! I kinda died after that!... super aching the next few days)

Day 2- Saturday....
Some of us woke up pretty early to go for a morning walk at the beach when we noticed the awesomeee sight at low tide...

(the morning walk where we saw some awesomeee creatures upclose with us!)


(guess who was the real one pee-ing?)


(the lovely starfish we saw!)

(King fisher!)


(Crabs!)

(More Crabssssssssss!)

(Crab hunting!)

Some of us took a boat to this island where the beach was much clearer!




(Glenn adn Me doing our trademark XT sign!)


(Ian Fong and Me beneath the sun rays!)

(played some ball games by the sea!)

(Played some thumbgame,followed by murderer...and than Polar Bear aka Killer whales since it was in the sea!hee)

(this was quite amazing...we realised that deeper into the sea...instead of getting lower... it the tide was lower as there was some land part further in...thus it seemed we were like walking on water suddenly! Amazing right!)

Night time

(*THIS IS NOT THE ACTUAL PHOTO!...this is from the net..but i used this picture bcoz this was very similar to the sight we saw that night ..This timeee the STARSSSSSS WEREE like a even more than what we saw the last time! It wasss like milllions millions more! And the photo here is quite similar to the amount of stars we saw that night!......It was just super duper indescribable feeling to be under that night sky, especially when they off the master light on the kelong for a short while so that we cld enjoy the night starry sky to the MAX!!! But well we only cld stay there gazing at the stars for abt 20 mins! And for our short time we saw 1 shooting star!!!... thought I saw another one after... but everyone thought I was dreaming... =/)

(our final night session led by Adriel again on a Men's Leadership...after that we broke into 3 grps which isaac,yangshen and me led in a time of discussion on the message)

Day 3- Easter SUNDAY!!!
We woke up at 6am for our very own easter sunrise service!

(This was really an impromptu session which was led by the Spirit as the transition from the free worship to adriel short sharing to the others sharing was all not planned at all!)


(see the change in the sky)



(see the change in the sky)

(Adriel shared a easter message)

(time of worship at the jetty!)


(Some of us!)

After that we continue to do more walk around the low tide beach...to see some amazing creatures...

(A video of wenhao and benlei killing crabs!)

(mrs Crab)


(I think this is a mud skipper?)

(A close up view of the many crabs we saw!)

(we think the starfish is mating!)

(A video of how this 3 star fish did a super flip!)

(the many many many crabs!)

( A HUGE storm that was approaching us.... A De ja vu of our last kelong last day!)
'

( Watch how this EPIC storm swept thru our kelong!!! And how it made everyoneee soooo crazy!!! hahha!
ENJOY THIS VIDEO!!!!!! =)!)

(THE KELONG BOYS braving the storm!... the storm was literally over us by now!)

(THE KELONG BOYS braving the storm!... the storm was literally over us by now!)

(THE KELONG BOYS doing push ups!)


(This is one classic video... as Ian Fong was sleeping... we crept into his room and poured a couple of crabs on top him...he was so oblivious to it for quite a while... and
the MOST FUNNY PART was after this video...which sadly the video was cut off by then... was...when he realised muchhh later that there was a crab on him..which followed by a LOUDDD SCREAMED!!!!!!!!!)

Played some polar bear game before we left!

(kheng new eye patched)

(the polar bear match!)


(on our way back home!)

This is sure one memorableee kelong retreat which bonded this 19 guys from wesley ym! and we sure came out stronger than before...both physically and Spiritually.... =)