Wednesday, May 28, 2008
PSALMthing We Can All Do...
We are coming to the end of the book of psalms and 1 common thing that we can pick out from the last few psalms is this: PRAISE THE LORD.The last few chapters of the book of psalms have strongly encouraged me to praise the Lord in everything. It can be simple things like getting a cab to go to school (thank God that I have found the discipline to cut own on that), receiving some help from your friends or lecturers, or even for a wonderful day.
I feel good when ever I praise the Lord, it some how lifts my spirits up and gets me set on preparing for a seemingly tough day. Even when things don’t seem to go right, I know I can trust God for the solutions that I need. God has given me numerous reasons to praise Him throughout the period of reading through the psalms. 3 main reasons why I praise God is because
1. He is good
God is good all the time and I will always praise Him in whatever situation I’m in (Even when it comes to writing an 800 word CHINESE Essay). The world may be unfair but God is good. It is through certain situations that I learn lessons (such as unity, patience etc.)
2. His love never fails
God is always there for us. He is our rock, shield, strong tower, shelter, refuge. He is a faithful God whom I can put my trust in (making decisions, organizing my time etc.). His love for us reaches to the heavens and each one of us is special and dear to Him. I like what the psalms say: For the Lord takes delight in hi people; he crowns the humble with salvation. Let the saints rejoice in this honour and sing for joy on their beds. (Ps 149:4-5)
3. He refreshes my spirit
Over the past few weeks, I have been super tired from all the work that I had in school. God was the pillar that supported me through this period. The time spent with Him, praying, worshipping and reading His word has given me the strength to do seemingly impossible things.
Truly, it is a joy to praise the Lord. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Labels: Devotion, PSALM devotions
Sunday, May 18, 2008
God's Dream Team, The Calling to be a Levite...
We are part of God's dream team. We might have come as individuals, but let us be one in heart to serve the Lord and to serve others.Thanks be to God, who reminded me that He will be the one brings about unity in our family, both physical and spiritual, friends and those around us. And out of this unity will come forth the abundance of God's blessing. I pray that God will bless our relationships within our cell as well as the leaders who have went for the Youthnet 144 retreat.
Besides unity, The Lord has recently prompted my heart to seek and learn more on what it means to worship Him. Indeed, worship determines our destiny and the way we worship the Lord shows how much we enthrone Him. I pray that I will have the willingness to be taught as I embark on this journey of seeking the Lord to learn more on the aspect of worship. I thank God for the sudden realization of how important His word is to me. May the Lord teach me how to be teachable, how to hunger more of His word.
Labels: Devotion, Thanks Giving
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Our Foundation, Our Destiny
I was pleasantly surprised by this video that was found in youtube. It is a short video showing part of a message titled "How great is our God!" by Louie Giglio. In one section of the video, he talks about Laminin, an amazing molecule in the human body. Through this video, I was reminded clearly that God is the foundation in our lives.
In Colossians 1:15-17, it says ‘He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.’ Truly, our God will always hold us together no matter what situation we are in. There are times in our life that we face hardships in our market place. You might not find favor with people because of whom you are and where you are coming from.
In today’s youth service, we had the privilege of listening to Pastor Tommy Tenney’s message, ‘One Night with the King’ which was based mainly from the story of Esther. The leading character in the story was noticeably Esther, a beautiful Jewish girl whom King Xerxes of Persia chose to be his queen. Throughout his message, Pastor Tenney talked a lot about how favour was the keyword in the book of Esther and how we could gain God’s favour.
I gathered some learning points from pastor’s message:
-You don’t need everyone to like you. Like I mentioned earlier, you might not find favor with people because of what you maybe doing for the Lord. Even Jesus, who is perfect by nature, did not find favor with some of the people that he met. Know that God honors those who do things for Him. One nod from God is definitely far better than the disapproval of men.
-There are some things that you can do to gain God’s favor. For instance, you can use your special talents that God has given you to please Him. It really does help to know what our King likes and what He doesn’t as seen from the story of Esther. Truly, the best way to know what God likes is to read the bible. So would you read your bible today?
- Never underestimate the potential of one encounter. Esther chose to obey God to approach the king of Xerxes even if it means going against the protocol and sacrificing herself for her people. She could have been killed in that one encounter if the king had not raise his golden scepter but nevertheless, her attitude of saying ‘if I perish, I perish’ has showed her approach in obeying the Lord and God honors those who obey Him.
- God has a destiny for me and my destiny is determined by my worship to the Lord. We were created to worship the Lord How I worship the Lord is how I enthroned Him. Worshipping the Lord does not just mean singing songs of praise and worship only. It also includes how we are living our lives, be it spending time with Him or living out a prayerful life, and how we are serving the people in our market place. Do we worship the Lord in everything we do? Do we put God first in all areas of our lives? Do we give our best in doing things for God? Pastor Tommy Tenney reminded us that passion towards God as well as compassion towards humanity are both necessary in our lives. Let us be a ‘Mary’ and a ‘Martha’, to be a God chaser and at the same time serve men. Worship the Lord in everyday of our lives for it pleases Him.
There is no doubt that we serve a wonderful God, may we be the person that God has called us to be…
Labels: Devotion
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Psalmone Who Approves My Everything
I was reading psalm 127 today and basically God reminded me 2 things:1) Read His Word with the right attitude, with the right hard.
-Even in the midst of being busy, I should not rush through reading God's word nor succumb to my laziness and end up not reading His word. I have rather been too hasty in reading God's word and often find myself missing out things that He might have wanted to tell me.
2) God is my approver in all things that I do.
In verse 1-2 of psalm 127, it says ‘Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat— for he grants sleep to those he loves.'
Unless the Lord approves of the things you are doing, all your efforts will be in vain. I can be staying up late, working hard on my projects, but I must remember that God is the one who sustains and provide me with the results I desire, if not all my efforts will only be in vain.
This means keeping the fear of the Lord in my mind always and yes, there are times where I do forget to put God first in some things in my life. There are times where I do forget to spend time with God instead occupying myself with television programmes or even computer games. However occupied I may be, God has His unique way of reminding me through His word that without Him, everything that I do is in vain. But God is a great God, for even though we are nothing but dust, God is willing to invest His time in us and even has a special plan for us all.
Do I think about my future? Definitely, but I remember that my future is ultimately decided by God and I do not need to worry about it. Be it my career, my relationships or even the ministry I will be in, I want to trust God that He will give me what He thinks is best for me.
Live a life pleasing to God. Praise be to God for He is a God who cares for us…
On a side note, praise be to God for healing me from my bad flu. Though I’m not fully recovered, I want to thank God that I was even able to make it to school today. All the glory to Him for my steady recovery..
Labels: Devotion, PSALM devotions
Sunday, May 4, 2008
As I'm Reaching For You...Once Again
It's been a long while since I last blog and I confess that laziness has been a major factor that contribute to me been M.I.A. I have been going through a lot of big changes like being in a new class and moving on to the main comm. in my IG. Being busy might be the worst standard excuse that I have for not giving my time to God and I truly want to change my attitude. However, while I was in the midst of being busy, God never fail to remind me of drawing close to Him through Pastor Khong's sermon.Indeed I was convicted today by pastor's sermon on 'The Word And I'. It's time that I get right with God once again. I have to be a doer rather than only be a hearer of God’s word as said in James 1:22-25. I ask myself from time to time whether do I fear the Lord and I have to admit that I wasn’t as ‘holy’ as people thought I was. I had my own problems which I chose to solve it on my own then to rely on God at times. The truth is I did not put God first in whatever I did. Words without action were just not good enough. I did not really understand how to fear the Lord.
Thanks be to God, for He ministered to me in a big way for the past few weeks. I have learnt what the real meaning of fearing the Lord was and why we should fear Him through Pastor Khong’s message last week. But that wasn’t just enough; I still had the mentality that I was too busy to spend time with God. And so, He spoke to me through today’s message of taking His word seriously. It was like a long anticipated wake up call that I had been waiting all this while.
I found myself recalling what God wanted me to do in my life. I realize that without aligning my heart to God’s heart, I will never be able to grow in those areas that God has shown me. I have come to realize that no matter how hard I work, in the case my studies, my future has already been decided by God. God is reminding me that as long as I put in my effort, He will do His part in giving me His best. The same goes for my skills in guitar playing. I can always practice the guitar but the improvement will only come from God. Over time, I found out that I improve most when I really do worship the Lord.
As I was recalling about the things that God wanted me to do in my life, I noticed that I have missed out one crucial thing from the vision I had from God. It has always been about me and not God, everything I did was for myself. I had not spent my time with God, the time which He held dear. Through my busyness, I have neglect God. I did not put in the effort to really know God because I thought I knew Him already. I really thank God for this wake up call.
It is through this wake up call that I remember the purpose for setting up this blog. To be a light, a light that will shine God’s goodness in my life and to let people know that the God who blesses me abundantly is also willing to bless them. From this day on, I want to be honest in my blogging. I want to make the decision of living out a life of being obedient to God..Thank you Lord, for all you’ve done for me. I know my future is secured in Your hands and my trust is in you.
Psalm84:12
Aaron
Labels: Devotion