A Friend Receiving Christ! =)

Recently had the honour to see a good friend of mine turning to Christ before my very eyes. It left me with a great joy seeing his receptiveness to the Holy Spirit conviction and I really remember all the prayers for him. Especially during the morning office devotion with my room-mate before I met him in the evening.

Tracing back...to a couple of old blog entries...

Mid July 2011.

Almost an answered prayer after 5 years...

http://benlau89.blogspot.com/2011/07/almost-answered-prayer-after-5-years.html

28 Aug 2011

An extract from my sharing at Camp Awareness Sunday.

“There’s one more story very close to my heart which I would like to share with you all, 5 years ago, there was a good friend of mine from school whom I was praying for & been trying to share Christ with and bring to church. But year after year, I actually failed and we rarely met up after we went our separate ways in army. Less than a couple mths ago, I was randomly prompted one day to send him an sms to invite him for a normal Saturday service in church. And I was actually ready to expect another rejection as I just sent that sms just to test that prompting, but to my surprise he actually replied YES. And when he came to church that day, I just ask him what made him said yes, and his reply was he also didn’t know. As he said that, I just knew the Holy Spirit was behind all this, in prompting me & for my friend to actually agree to come. From that very day onwards, found out that God has been speaking to him & he has been coming to church with ever since that day. And right now I just know that his very close to actually accepting Christ as his Lord & saviour one day & he actually finally agreed to come for this year end ym camp after I failed to invite him 5 yrs ago!”

26 & 27 Sep 2011 (The 2 days of bible study which led to The Conversion!)

Last Monday, at the very last minute felt this prompting to just ask him along for this lecture abt revival by our Bishop at TTC since my small grp normally meets that night. And as there was a long journey from Dhoby Ghaut to Upper Bukit Timah, thought this was a good time to go through this bible study material titled "Firm Foundation" which talks about the basic foundations of one faith. While going thru the questions & letting him read the Scriptures. Slowly but surely God's words just spoke right into his heart & it led him to have a better understanding of God's grace for him & how it wasn't the works that leads one to Christ.

^"8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not of works, lest anyone should boast. ¹⁰ For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:8-10

Come tuesday, saw his level of faith to receive Christ jump from 50% on Monday to 85% at the end of the bible study on tuesday & 100% after further thought on God's words. That was when the bus reached our destination opposite railmall, Once seeing his heart prepared to receive the Lord, went through the "sinnest prayer" with him in the middle of this overhead bridge at about 6.45pm on 27 Sep 2011. And such Joy came into my heart to see the Holy Spirit convicting his heart to finally accept our Lord & Savior after 5 years. =)

Night Cycling around Singapore!

After 6 years since I did my last night cycling with some of my classmates after our o'levels, I told myself that I might never want to do another one again due to the bad experience we had where we had one of our bicycles tires puncture halfway riding to Changi Village & we took turns trying to ride that bike too & fro!

And now this time, had a more fruitful & purposeful Night cycling as a bunch of us ymers & friends came together for this overnight adventure! =)

Started 11pm at East Coast Park...

And the 17 of us cycled to our first destination!

Some of the photos courtesy of Matt ho & Andrew!

Gluttons Bay@Esplanade

Even cycled through the underpass, up this escalator!

Through the F1 track...

Through the streets towards little india...

Took a break waiting for the others...

Our next stop.. Swee Choon@ Jalan Besar...

Had nice dumplings....

Headed for some DURIAN at geylang later...

Before ending our last food stop at this Tau huay coffee shop in geylang...

(Had quite an interesting conversation about our small grps at this stop)

After this cycled back all the wayyyy back to east coast park just in time for the sun rise!

6.30am!- Sunrise!

What a night with great fellowship! And making a couple of new friends! And most of all really Thank God for his protection & stopping the rain! =)

Have we Lost that Passion?

Recently heard this sermon by Rev Edmund Chan...

‎"Christianity started as a PASSION in Jerusalem,came to Greece & became a philosophy, came to Europe & became a culture, came to Rome & it became an institution,came to America & it became an enterprise"... have we lost that passion when it all started in Jerusalem?

My new stash of Christian books! =)

The new stash of books that I bought or was giving by others in recent mths! 3 of them was bought by me within the past 9 days! As they were my favourite Christian writers! =) Can't wait to READ ALL OF THEM!

— with An interesting eye catching cover book from David Mak!, Edmund Chan Latest book that was fresh from the oven from the recent IDMC 2011!, Edmund Chan Classic book!, Given to me from Jacon & his wife! Just finish reading this!, Reading this book on John Wesley Theology now! Courtesy of Pastor Ivan! =) and JOY UNSPEAKABLE! The book that I was searching out for Months!

A Day With The Lord

A day spend with the Lord.... and it all started after attending a plenary sessions from the recent IDMC conference last weekend. And in response to one of Edmund Chan message, decided to make a date with the Lord & commit that day to Him. And finally had the chance to do it today on my off day! And certain feel refresh dwelling in His Word & being in His awesome presence today! =)

Macritchie...

(Spend the first 45mins at this bench before it started to rain!)

(Started of my quiet time reading from 1 John 3:21-24)

Selwyn Hughes- God- "on the inside"

^"21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God ²² and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. ²³ And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. ²⁴ The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us." 1 John 3:21-24

The Holy spirit comes to a christian, not simply to inspire him, but to indwell him. It was not always so. In Old Testament times, the Holy Spirit came upon men to endue them with special power for specific purposes- then He would depart and return to heaven. This is why the Old Testament prophets longed for the day when the Spirit would dwell with men, not to fulfil a temporary purpose, but to abide permanently.

That day has come. Since Christ's victory at Calvary, and the subsequent outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the Spirit is here to reside- and preside. As we obey the commands of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Spirit witnesses to our hearts that He lives in us.

(the view from my bench...)

In that time, sat down and ask God for His Agenda & Word for me today... And God responded quite immediately... "the Word & Truth is already in your Heart, Trust in my Spirit leading. and words from Romans 8:16 came to me in assurance of that".... He than reminded me to "Lay yourself aside, Trust in my leading..."Dwell in the Truth"... And as I was starting to enjoy that conversation...

It started to rain heavily... and ran for shelter at a hut just below the hill...

Under the Shelter...

(Under the shelter of the rain, started to write more stuff & listen to God, before it got really humid & uncomfortable & ants was actually bitting my leg...so decided to change location... and head for the bus stop)

Took a bus & train down to NEX at Serangoon ...

And decided to continue my date with Jesus at Mad Cafe where there was this afternoon tea time offer. =)

(Got a tea time meal in a cosy corner of the restaurant. And this was where decided to read the book of Matthew. And as I read from Matthew Ch 1 to Ch 14...Fresh new revelation of His gospel just came alive!)

After those readings...continued more time of listening to God and jotted more revelations of His Truth!...

As I pondered more on His responses, started ask questions about the camp comm, YM Camp & God just led me to a few verses & Truth from His Word just kept coming right after another, and even a frame work of his thoughts came as I drew it down as seen in the (photo).

After that wonderful conversation.. decided to go for a new location, and headed to the library, and continued asking him questions about the ym camp prayer meeting on sunday... and God just led me to more verses... And after that decided to complete the day doing my Precept Homework! =)

(Ended the rest of the time doing my Precept homework day 2! And ended the evening refresh feeding from his Word! =)

What an enjoyable date with Jesus today! =)

Army Half Marathon 2011 (4 Sep 2011)

Completed my second half marathon last Sunday after deciding to sign up for it earlier in the year to motivate myself to continue running at a regular basis after my ORD.

And wells, contented & enjoyed this run, improving my timing by 3mins from last year AHM, of 2 Hrs 10 mins to this year 2 hrs 7 mins. And although I wasn't as fit as last year due to the compulsory run mileage we had to clock in the army. Still had a decent timing with the minimum runs I did & good thing didn't get a cramps like in my full marathon! Phew! Was sooo cautious that I decided to stop for 5mins just to do some stretches at the 10km mark. =)

Some highlights from the run!

3.15am: Woke up!

4.10am: Met up with Shawn & Kenneth as we made our way to esplanade!

5.30am: Met up with Gifford before the actual run!

(Started of the run at 5.45am! And ran with gifford for the next 14km plus...)

(Ran past the bible hse at the 17km mark)

(The route past our church!)

(Passing by my office!)

(Saw some Naval divers at the last 200metres and decided to go for a sprint to overtake them just for some personal pride =P)

Life is like a Rubber Band!

Been thinking about this notion for awhile, that in life we are always in this constant "tension". We are always trying to balance & reason between what's right or wrong in our philosophy,our theological views or it can be just a tension of our vision to our current reality. And if we do not hold this tension well, we can be pulled to either end of the spectrum which may not be exactly good.

One example to this is this "Creative Tension Model" which I first came across in this leadership course in the army. And when I heard about it again recently, I had this sudden enlighten to see that this Secular model can be viewed in a Christian perspective of how we can lead our Life according to God's purposes.

A quick background of this "Creative Tension Model"

"Fritz calls this a tension-resolution system and he gives the example of stretching a rubber band – as you stretch it, this creates tension and the tendency of the rubber band is to pull back to resolve the tension in the system. Imagine that your vision is represented by your right hand and your current reality is represented by your left hand and you have a rubber band around both hands. The greater the gap between your vision and your reality, the more the rubber band will stretch, the greater the tension that will develop, and the stronger the motivation and energy in the system to resolve that tension."

Let's take this example, God inspires a committee of a shared vision for the ministry. Everyone is all excited and ready to pursue to that vision. It's always easy to be idealistic at the start, but when time passes by & "Current Reality" kicks in. Circumstances & pragmatism can actually pull our vision down to ease the tension to our current reality when we lower our expectations & vision. This is always the easy way of dealing with circumstances or problems that occurs along the way. However, if we have this deep assurance of a vision & direction that's inspired from God, I believe we should faithfully work towards that vision instead. If we just continue faithfully serve our Lord to our calling, I believe we will see the fruits in His timing. Heard this quote from John Bevere once, that "we are not judge by what we do, but we are judge by what we are called to do." It's having this deep eternal perspective of God & we just pursue towards that vision that God has called us to do. And soon enough, the Current Reality will move upwards towards the vision instead.

"Tension" on Theological Views

Another example of Tension is our theological views. And would like to highlight a disclaimer that what i'm about to share from this point onwards are just my personal views, influence from my background in a methodist church,readings & discussion with different people. You can disagree with me & I won't want it to become an argument of theological beliefs over here.

One tension that i've been searching & struggling over the years to keep strongly too is the "tension" between the "Charasmatic" & "Reformed" views we have today. I'm not being politically correct to choose the inbetween & balance both ideas. But i believe that if we sway too extreme alone to either side of the spectrum it may not be totally good too. Sub-conciously a lot of our theological views today comes from a reaction of our past experiences that lead us to having a "knee-jerk" reaction in having strong views on either side alone. And because of this, we tend to totally ignore the many other rights on the other side because of such reactions. One example, if we fall to either end of the spectrum & are not careful. We may become too liberal in our theological views, we begin to take scripture out of context to what we humans just want to hear or just to have this feel good experience? or we can go to the other extreme & become so legalitic until we are working out our own self-righteosness, imposing our self righteosness on others and miss the whole point of the grace of God.

Both sides have appropriate scripture backings of how great theologians in the past have framed their theological views. And this theological views are in relation to their respective context & periods of time and because of such reasons we have no right to compare them per se. Or have argument over whose right or whose wrong, as we will never fully comprehend in our mere human understanding on the mysteries of God.

Having said that, we shouldn't be apathetic about our Faith and ignore it totally as well, and be ignorant about our understanding of our Faith. We still need to have some form of biblical foundation to our understanding of God. Having the proper theology & perspective of who God is actually changes how we live our life and how we carry out God's plans & purpose on this earth.

This is where I one to make a personal concluding statement, derive from Titus 3:2 "...to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone." Our views of God may differ in some aspect but we shouldn't go to the extend to slander or slam another church. We may not agree on certain doctrines, but sometimes agreeing to disagree may be best in preserving the unity of believers. Would like to end of with one of my favourite quotes paraphrase from Warren Wrisbee to unify an example of two great theological views of the past. "We should have a backbone of a Calvnist & a Heart of an Armenian". =)

"So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” John 13:34-35 (NLT)

Additional Biblical References to "tension" of Theological views:

Ephesians 4:29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

Titus 3

1 Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, 2 to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone.

3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. 8 This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.

9 But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless. 10 Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them. 11 You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned.

Camp Awareness Sunday

28 Aug 2011, is probably the biggest Sunday service for me thus far, as our camp comm came together for meetings as early as 4 mths ago to brainstorm & planned for this service to really encourage the youths to sign up for the year end 10th milestone YM Camp! Besides the planning of the service, this was my debut preaching at a YM Service too.

And as the big day finally came, God taught me a huge lesson on Trusting & Surrendering all preparations to Him. Started of a little overwhelm when was thinking abt the vario

us sequences of the service & as service started, I kept looking at my sermon script during the

A.I. & Pastor Ivan who was sitting next to me had to tell me to close my script & to just trust the Lord. And as I did that, suddenly this sense of peace from the Lord just filled my heart & I cld just worship the Lord so freely after that!

Looking on hindsight, being there to see everything just falling into place so nicely from Pre-service prayer all the way to the end of service, especially seeing everyone serving in their various roles so faithfully with Joy! Just makes one turn to the Lord in Awe & Praise to Him! =)

Seeing how the ushers serve the people so joyfully, seeing the cross-trainers putting much effort in making it an AWESOME A.I to start the service, to the band, sound crew,clicker, who put in so much effort to prepare for the service early in the day & playing & singing their hearts out during worship, followed by amazing acting from our 2 actors Eric & glenn who came early for rehearsals,than there's the 12 stones team all deployed with their cameras & the other camp comm members running around at the registration booth! And all the leaders doing their part in bringing their small grps together & coming early to pray for the service! This is certainly a shared vision to see everyone working in such UNITY to make that camp awareness sunday service happen! God be Praised! =)

Photos & Videos of the Exciting Service programme courtesy of 12 stones...

8.00: Preparations

8.45: Pre-Service Prayer
9.25: Crosstrainer A.I- THE YM CAMP QUIZ GAME!
9.40: Worship
10.10: Camp Announcements
10.15: Exclusive Special Camp Video & Skit
10.30: Sermon: SHINE FORTH- Light Up the World
10.55: Introduction of Camp Theme Song
11.00: Camp Registration

Atmosphere Initiative- YM CAMP QUIZ!

(Hans the host for the YM CAMP QUIZ!)

(Our Chairman praying for the YM Full Time Staff Team)

The Camp of An Altar call Scene, of a boy name Chris... See the videos for the flashbacks....

(Scene of Prayer Minister praying for Chris)

Sermon- SHINE FORTH- Light Up The World

(Made my debut preaching at YM about the camp theme, a message that is very close to my heart after internalising this message since the start of this year. Sermon Script here... http://benlau89.blogspot.com/2011/08/shine-forth-light-up-world-28-aug-camp.html)

YM Camp Theme Song 2011: Shine

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