The fight against the FLU bug!

Ever since last Tuesday, been fighting the flu bug that's been massively spreading to the people around me. I'm someone who rarely gets sick and tend to recover pretty fast after a couple of panadols and a good night rest. But somehow, this been one of the longest time for a long time, been fighting this.

Weds, tried to recover in time for staff lunch, but it got worst come afternoon. 

Thurs spent my entire off day resting at home, thinking it will recover.

Friday, felt horrible in the morning, got better when I reached the office. 

Saturday felt the same horrible feeling waking up in the morning again,but it got better come afternoon, during dinner felt the headache kicking back in, and gone home smash. 

Sunday! Woke up feeling the most super HORRIBLE  of the week with a horrible headache, extremely sore throat, and knowing a long day ahead, I just prayed and hoped the Lord will sustained me. The panadols I took helped till about lunch time, and when I started feeling the lightheaded feeling again, I knew God is telling me to rest when the panadols stopped working. Had to reluctantly miss a big tchoukball match that afternoon & a farewell dinner that sunday. Slept through the afternoon, but the headache didn't really get any better, and I suffered the night trying to sleep it off. 

Today, took leave so I cld have one more day of rest. However still woke up with that horrible feeling, of a bad sore throat and lightheaded feeling. Thought I had to go through another bad day. But THANK GOD, right now i'm feeling slightly better and hope and pray that I can spend a good day with the Lord going out of the house somewhere quiet. :)

Disciple 1- Session 11- Consequences

A glimpse to a day at a disciple 1 class...

Disciple 1 class - Session 11- Consequences, "God Punishes the People"

Below are 4 videos of Warnings responded by Hope. From Jeremiah, Isaiah and Lamentations.

Identity Shift- Rev Ben lee (14 April 2012, TSS)

For those who miss today's Saturday Service, or didn't take down the sermon notes, here's what I manage to scribe down on my iphone. 

Image is what you see, identity is who you are

"But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." (2 Corinthians 3:16-18 NIV)


Whats my core identity?

1) Primary identity

2) Life centring around a core truth that shapes my identity

3) My deepest sense of who i am and who I long to be

1) A Distorted Identity (v.16)

A "fading" glory from Moses face

"When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them. Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai. When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever he entered the Lord's presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the Lord." (Exodus 34:29-35 NIV)

God created us in His image. Before the fall, Adam & Eve could see God so clearly in their reflections.

But now we have a fallen nature.

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned— (Romans 5:12 NIV)

Forgetting easily

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like." (James 1:22-24 NIV)

2) A Restored Identity (v.18)

We have to remove our mask. Repend and turn away from our Sins & turn to the Lord.

Christ removed that veil!

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!"  (2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV)

Beholding Him "contemplate"

"The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. " (Hebrews 1:3 NIV)

We reflect/illuminate what we behold.

This brings a process of sanctification. Becomes more & more like Jesus.

Moses reflected God in a temporary way, but when Jesus came we reflect Him eternally

Why is Christ the centre of our core identity?

a) He is the source of it all

b) His love for us is one sure thing that can never be taken away (Rom 8:38-39)

c) He is all that I long for

"He had made me for himself, I am restless until I find my rest in him." - Saint Augustine

 

How do we form core identity?

a) Centre: Make Christ the organising principle of life

b) Deep: inhabit biblical truth and value structures (Col 3:16)

c) Surface: Develop patterns of decision-making around these deeper ones

"Picture God as the Sun & us as the moon. We reflect God's Light like a moon reflects the Sun radiance.When the "World" comes in between the Sun & the moon there's partial or no reflection of the Sun. "

Jesus answered, "Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going. (John 8:14 NIV)

We shift our Identity just like Jesus!

Closing song  Misty Edwards- Come as close as you want 

Gates of Heaven

JOURNEY into BROKENNESS (Chapter 6)- Nancy Leigh Demoss (Part 3)

Was inspired to share a short extract of one of the message from last week Holy week service together with the next chapter of brokenness by Nancy Leigh Demoss during our room devotion last wednesday...

Continuation...

True Brokeness by Nancy Leigh DeMoss at a Campus Crusade for Christ Staff Conference in 1995 (Part 1)

The Heart God Revives - Nancy Leigh Demoss (Part 2)

3 expressions of humility: Sinner- Dr Matt Rawlins 

 Jeremiah 17:9, 10 NIV “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? "I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve."

All people become “defensive” when they become threaten, vulnerable or embarrass.

Let’s change the word “defensive” into control. Our heart condition is to be in control.  Learning how to be vulnerable in our relationships, loving ourselves and neighbour. As God knows our heart, He is not ashamed of us. Are we able to talk about vulnerability? That human weakness of ours?

The problem in a church is not sin, but walking vulnerability with one other.

It’s about hearing each other heart, not just about trying to fix it.  

Having said that, below is an extract of the next chapter from the book brokenness which follow up so nicely with His message. 

JOURNEY into BROKENNESS (Chapter 6)- Nancy Leigh Demoss (Part 3)

“Being broken is both God’s work and ours. He brings His presence to bear, but we have to make the choice... All day long the choice will be before us in a thousand ways.”- Roy Hession

Brokenness requires both God’s initiative and our response.

i)                   The Word of God has the power to soften the hardened soil of our hearts and shatter our stubborn self-life. Psalm 29:4-5,”The voice of the LORD is powerful...  The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars...”

ii)                 God uses circumstances to expose our need and bring us to the end of ourselves.

iii)               God has given us the body of Christ. Proverbs 27:6 “Faithful are the wounds of a friend...”

1.     GET A FRESH VISION OF GOD

The closer we get to God, the most clearly we see ourselves as we really are. When we step into the light of God’s holiness, our lives are brought into sharp relief.

To know God, to live in His presence, and to be occupied with a vision of His holiness is to know how foolish and frail we are apart from Him and to be broken from a preoccupation with ourselves.

Isaiah 6:5  “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts.”

2.     DON’T WAIT FOR GOD TO BREAK YOU- CHOOSE TO BE BROKEN

Don’t wait for God to break you. “Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God” (See 1 Peter 5:6)

“God be merciful to me a sinner”, “Have mercy on me, O God”

“We must learn to live with the roof off and walls down.”

3.     ACKNOWLEDGE SPIRITUAL NEED- TO GOD AND TO OTHERS

If we want to live a lifestyle of humility and brokenness, we must learn to live with the roof off and the walls down.

Living with the walls down toward others can become a wonderful means of God’s grace in our lives.

4.     DO WHATEVER YOU KNOW GOD WANTS YOU TO DO 

Has God spirit been tugging at your heart?

If you want to have a revived heart, you must choose to run head-on into whatever it is that your pride is telling you not to do.

The battle inside will stop the moment you wave the white flag of surrender and say “Yes, Lord”. The longer you delay, the harder you resist, the more difficult it will be to obey God. Don’t hesitate a moment longer. You can’t begin to imagine the joy that awaits you on the other side of the cross, the power of His resurrection life that will be released through your death to self, and the wholeness that will emerge out of your brokenness.

"Oh Father, we confess our great need of Your grace- grace to let You search our hearts; grace to offer to You the sacrifice of a broken, contrite heartm grace to put to death our prude and self-will; grace to walk in the pathway of humilty, as our belived Savior humbled Himself for us; and grace to keep looking to Him as our only hope of eternal salvation. Through our brokenness, may Christ be seen, magnified, loved, and worshiped by others, till He returns to make all things new. Amen. "

YM Easter Production, 8 April 2012

YM Easter Production, 8 April 2012

Jesus Christ paid a very costly price by dying on the cross for the sins of the entire world! 3 days later He was resurrected! And more than 500 over witnesses were accounted to have seen that very event where WORLD HISTORY was CHANGED FOREVER!

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16