Heavenly Father
I know that I have sinned against you
my sins have separated me from you
I am truly sorry
I now want to turn away from my past sinful life and turn to you for forgiveness
Please forgive me, and help me avoid sinning again
I believe that your son, Jesus Christ, died for my sins, was resurrected from the dead and is alive
He hears my prayer
I invite Jesus to become the Lord of my life, to rule and reign in my heart from this day forward
Please send your Holy Spirit to help me obey You
and to do Your will for the rest of my life,
In Jesus' name I pray, Amen
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
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'O' Level testimony (summary)
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The week I went to cell after the collection of my results, Ps James shared about the story of Gideon. God told me that this story was sort of like the summary for my whole 'O' Level Journey. Specifically from Judges 7. See, God sent 300 men to defeat probably hundreds of thousands of Midianites by breaking jugs and making noise. The whole purpose? To show that the victory can only belong to God because it's such a miracle... You'd think.. That's impossible!! Its crazy!! Stuff like that will only happen in the bible... Well guess what? It happened to me... Let's take this story and put it in the context of my 'O' Levels.
God took my grades and made them especially low, just like how God purposely reduced the number of soldiers to 300. Why? So that at the end of the day, I could give that glory to Him. Say, I always had good grades.. If I got the grades I received in 'O' levels, Would I give that glory to God... Well, most probably not! I'd think I did it on my own.. But when God gave me bad grades in my sec 3 and sec 4 year, It was all part of His plan to glorify His name! But just like God assured Gideon, He assured me I would get good grades. I was just afraid too to believe it was from God. And God was with Gideon the entire time while Gideon and His army dedicated the battle to the Lord. And I know God was with me when I dedicated my 'O' levels to God..
And God delivered to whole Midianite army into Gideon's hands just as God delievered the 'O' levels into mine...
And after my 'O' levels, I can confidently say that God was the one who did it, not me...
Well, you might be encountering some problems, or some giants that you may think is difficult to overcome. Maybe financial, academic or even family troubles. But remember Gideon's story... And my story... And dedicate whatever problems you have to God... Allow God to be with you... If you let God take the lead, He'll definitely deliver you from your problems... Just remember to give God the credit after he does it....
Well, Gotta Go!! Take care! And God Bless!!!
Firestorm thanked jesus at1:35 AM
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'O' Level testimony (Part 3)
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Assurance and comfirmation of my course
After the 'O' Levels, I started being a little unsure of whether I really did well and kind of doubted whether I could enter psychology. (The whole "Oh-no!-I-think-I-got-this-wrong-thing). But God always reassured me that I did well. I just didn't know if that was me comforting myself or God. During the same time, I also took an interest in the Early Childhood course. Coz I've always loved kids and I knew It would benefit my work in the children's ministry. And to show that psychology was really the course for me, God took the Early Childhood Teaching and Psychology courses and combined them together into one programme, the dual diploma programme. This meant I could to take Psychology as a core subject and Early Childhood Teaching as an elective subject and still graduate at the end of 3 year with 2 Diplomas! They sent this infomation in a little pamphlet. To me, It was like a dream come true! But guess what? To enter the programme, I'd still have to get into psychology! 9 points! I knew God was trying to reassure me of my grades and my decision into psychology but back then when i hadnt had my 'O' level results, it was more like a bone given to tempt a dog who couldn't eat it... And during that holiday, I pestered God and kept telling Him how worried I was about my results. And Although God always reassured me that I was going to do fine and quoted Phillipian 4:7 and Matthew 6:25-34 to me countless times(Links to the verses http://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-worry.html) ... I still kept worrying..
Result day eve
The day I pestered God the most about my results. Every half hour I think. I think God got so annoyed from trying to reassure me so many time that he sent 2 people to do it for Him. My 2 best friends, Joled and Jun Yan.
Joled called me that day to chat.. So I asked him if he was worried about his results. To my surprise he said something like this. "No. I just trust God with whatever the results. If He's in charge, He eventually lead me to my destiny so I don't have to worry". I was like.. Wow... I didn't expect those words to come out from him. It's so simple but so much truth in it. And that got me less worried. Then, Joled asked me to call another one of my best friends, Jun Yan, to sort of like chat up with him. I called him and asked him the same question. He gave me the verse "For God has not given us a spirit of timidity but of power and love and discipline. 2 Tim 1:7"... That totally put my heart to rest. I was like... "Ok.. God... You win..." And that night, I could sleep soundly without worries...
Result Day
My anxiety came back for a little while but I didn't have to worry long. The slide with all the pupils with 6 or more distinctions came on... And I was in the list!! I had scored 3 A1s and 3A2.. And all my other results did not fall below a B3.. Of course I was ecstatic.. But at that moment, when you know it is not you who did it but God, you feel the credit goes to Him and not to yourself. My heart was filled more with thanksgiving to Him than happiness for the stellar results. I went home and I sang praises to Him and thanked him. I looked at my result slip and told God. "This result slip belongs to You. Not me. A student like myself could never have gotten such amazing grades without Your help"
God's Continual favour
When I went to Temasek Polytechnic for a course counselling session, I found that the In-charge of Psychology studies, Mr Ng, is also a christian.. and also works in the children's ministry! I am so blessed to have Him as the head! He even put me up for a scholarship interview for the course!
Well, Now I'm officially posted the Temasek poly's psychology studies course and waiting for school to start. Considering the scholarship though.. Waiting for God to tell me something about the scholarship. Well, I'll sum this up in the next post. :)
Firestorm thanked jesus at12:25 AM
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
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'O' Level Testimony (Part 2)
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Ok.. Let's continue...
Stregthened Faith and learning to be dependant on Him
The 'O' levels were now approaching. Back then, I wanted to stop cell for awhile(bout 3 weeks) to concentrate on my studies coz i got abit worried. So I informed Ps James(My youth pastor and cell leader) about it. He told me to entrust everything to God. But there was 1 verse which he quoted that struck me. That was 1 Samuel 2:30."Those who honour me, I will honour." And that verse really spoke to me. So I told God."Ok.. God.. This is Your promise to me. I'll honour you. And I'll entrust my studies to you. Help me in my studies". So I continued going to cell and church even during my 'O' Levels exams.
When it was the 'O' Levels, before every exam, I would take the time to praise and worship God. I didn't study anymore during that time coz I knew it would help much. So I would dedicate that time to Him and just enjoy His presence. I would turn on the worship CDs and just get down on my knees to talk to Him. He would say lots of stuff to me to encourage me during our quiet time. And He said this one thing which i remembered "You have honoured me, Now i will honour you". When I came out of the room each time, I was brimming with confidence. Usually, I would be scared out of my pants for any exam. But this one was different. I knew I had God with me. I carried that confidence through all the 'O' Level exams and I promised my parents I'd get my distinctions(Pretty odd for a boy who hasn't been doing well, huh?) And of course, I know you'd like to hear if God has really worked any miracles. Here's 2.
1. I couldn't find the answers to one of my physics question about energy conversion. It just didn't make sense. Then God let me remember something from sec 2(or younger) which was sort of like the missing piece of the puzzle. I hadn't touch that topic for 2 (or more) whole years and it just suddenly came back to me! I thought it was a miracle, but if you're still skepticle, here's no. 2
2. For one of the essay questions in my chinese exams, It was COMPLETELY the same as the one I had studied in a newspaper article recently. Ok.. What are the chances of that?!?!
Ok.. Miracles aside... What I'm really thankful for is how my relationship with God grew much closer during the 'O' Levels. This growing closer to God is much more important than my 'O' Levels because it is my relationship with Him that would last forever and not my academy results. :)
That's would mark the end of my 'O' levels. But not the end of God's little journey with me.. Next post is more what happens after the 'O' levels. :)
Firestorm thanked jesus at11:45 PM
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My 'O' Level Testimony (part 1)
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Woah... It's been a while since I last updated... Guess God always has to prompt me to do stuff for Him(Oooops... Sorry Pops..). Ok.. Let me digress from the whole purpose in life thing for a while... I'll come back to it... You know, ever since I was young, I was always amazed when people told me God helped them in their studies. Like God giving them a dream with all the answers to the exams or something like that. I always thought studies was more unrelated to God. Coz it's our job to work hard, not God's job. But sometimes, even though we try the best that we can and we still don't succeed, that's when God comes into the picture.To shows that He's literally 'Lord of our lives', And i mean everything.... God took me on a journey with Him during my 'O' Level period. Yup, He didn't just say,"Nah... Here's the answers to the exams". He gave me sooo much more than that.... Here's what he gave me...
Directions to my course
ok.. This one he gave me way back.. But it's a journey right? Ever since young, I loved to help people with their problems. Friendship problems, Family Problems and stuff. But I wasn't very sure of my giftings from God back then. So God sent someone to affirm me. Without knowing who I was, this man prophesied over me and said I had the gift of counselling. So I was like, Ok.. Cool. Then God sent me another person into my school, a counsellor,of all occupations, to give this little career talk. And that's when I knew counselling was going to be a big part of my life.. Piecing together the puzzle, I thought, Hey.. the next step to fulfill God plans for me would be to get into psychology. I considered getting into JC too.. But the competition with the gifted people still threw me off.
Academic knowledge
But looking at the cut-off point(COP) for psychology studies, I thought I my grades could never make the cut. It was 9 points(Currently 8 for 2009)!! The lowest COP for all the courses! And my school counsellor told me I had to get at least 2 points less to assure my place in the course! Let's look at my grades back then. I flunked(or almost flunked) my major E maths exams. I almost failed my physics and chemistry exams. And I failed(with a D7) for my Amaths. My class position was 36/40. I couldn't understand and apply any of the math or physics concepts, which always leads to me not completing the papers. There was no way, no chance I could ever make it to psychology if I kept it up.
But somehow, nearing the end of the school year in sec 3, God tweaked my brains. Suddenly, I could understand all the math and physics concepts and apply them! I realised that when I could do all the worksheets and revision questions my teachers gave me. And I was like,"Hey! I couldn't do this before!" And from there, I cultivated my interest in my subjects. So much so that maths papers became my past time. God even sent a friend to motivate me to study by meeting up with her at Mac Donald's and studying through long hours!(I would have never managed to do that at home with the TV and the computer). And of course, my grades improved. But I still hadn't reached my course's expectations...
That was just the tip of the Ice-berg.. The exciting bits are in the next post... Stay tuned.... :)
Firestorm thanked jesus at10:37 PM
Friday, December 26, 2008
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New Year/Christmas purpose
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Hey Guys... Sorry for not posting so long.. Guess i had other stuff to do... I'd almost forgotten about this blog until God reminded me... :)Well, This post is kinda late.. It was supposed to be reserved for christmas.. But oh well, It's never too late to receive Christ. :)Ok. I'm not gonna post about the christmas story (nativity story). I think everyone already knows about that. You know. Jesus being born and all. God kinda gave me another thing to blog about.You know. Christmas and New Year kinda always signifies a new start. New year. New school. New resolutions. But really. Take away all the hypes, the parties, the presents and all you get is only just another year. And you think to yourself.. Hey, It's just another year.. Everything is gonna stay somewhat the same. And year after year it goes on like that... And life just passes you by. So why are we here on Earth?? We study, we work and we go about our routine.. The next thing we know, we're probably on our deathbed. So what's there to life? Eat, sleep and reproduce? Then why weren't we born as crocs or something and we can give birth to lotsa croc babies, eat as much as we want and bask in the sun and sleep? I mean we have gotta have a higher purpose in life than just eat, sleep and reproduce! We're humans with brains and feelings for Pete's sake!! So what is our purpose? Here's a regular singaporeans path of purposes.1. EducationOk. In Singapore, so soo sooooo evident. Everyone's like pushing us to have a study hard. Get a good job that pays well. And live THE life. Bungalow, Condo, Cars and stuff like that. So we work.. And we work really hard. We slog, we mug. We go crazy on tuitions. Most of our teenhood is filled with nothing but studies. And sometimes, we have no choice but to study cause our parents push us to the extreme. "Get good grades. You don't have to come home if your grades aren't good enough." So we study... Life seems meaningless now but you think, maybe after i get a good cert, i'll get a better life. And true enough, we get a degree. Bachelors, Masters pHd. And of course we get good money. Which brings us to the next point...2. MoneyOk. We have the greens. But look at what's taking up our time now. Is it enjoying life with the money? Well no for most of us coz money is never enough. And not much people is willing to splurge hard earned money. To earn this money, we step on people along the way. We offend people just to get to the position that pays well. Doesn't feel very good to step on people to climb up the social ladder, does it? But we'll ignore that for the greater green. We haven't been spending enough time with the family. We just toil and toil. And maybe we think, Hey, I'll enjoy all of this when i retire.3. ???We retire. We have every single gadget at our disposal. But cause we didnt treasure the family time we had, we only have technology to accompany us as we age. Hardly any human touch. Maybe our kids that we painstakingly raised may visit us once a week. But they just seemed so distant. They've all gone out to the working world. We now long for a relationship, someone to talk to us and accompany us. But nobody close seems to have the time. All that's waiting for us is death. Well, we thought we had a purpose in life. But all we did really was to eat, sleep and reproduce. 4. No purposeSome of us just live life as it passes without a purpose. And sometimes, You think deep. What's life? Why am I here? Each year passes and nothing seems to change. Why am I here? When I die, I leave everything behind. Is there meaning to life? And then the next thing you think about is all the bad things that have happened. Is life really worth living? Suicide enter your thoughts. There is nothing to really live for.. I work and I pay. I have so many problems. I might as well end it all. People who have nothing to leave behind end it all. That's why we have teens committing suicide. People who cannot bear to leave anything behind simply bear with it and live a sad life without a purpose.There may be alot other purposes you may have in life. But eventually, it may be a purpose that may not last or may fail you. Then you end up in step 4. Is that all to life? Can we fill that hole in our heart that lives for a purpose? Of course we can. That's on my next post. :)Before i forget, Have a merry christmas, guys!
Firestorm thanked jesus at3:59 AM
Monday, November 24, 2008
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Sin (Summary)
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Hey guys... Haven't posted for a bit... Lots of stuff going on... OOopps... Sorry, Lord jesus... Anyway, I just came back from my youth camp... God did so much in my life man... Sooo sooo much..... Cool~~ I love Jesus! Woots! Ok... Anyway, back to the subject... Let's recap sin...
What is Sin? Sin is the wrong things you do that grieves the Holy Spirit and makes God sad. It hinders your relationship with God in two ways.
1. Hinders God's blessing from flowing
2. Drags us further away from God because of the lies of the devil
3. Stops us from reaching our full potential
No. 3 is a new one which i realised during the camp. So i'm gonna talk abit about it. No.3 and No.1 are abit linked actually. You see... When we sin and we don't obey God, the blessing don't flow through us.. Let's say you have an anger issue.. On a personal basis, maybe your full potential is to influence lots of people and make new friends. But because of anger, people stay away from you... Not cause they hate you or anything, maybe they're just afraid of you.. But then you feel that they hate you and don't want to be your friends(lies of the devil..). You become a more angry person and the cycle repeats until you're so thrown off you wanna commit suicide. Then alas, the devil has won. Don't let him win!!! The best way is to stay away from sin.. How??
1. Confess
2. Repent
3. Always be sensitive to the spirit
Ok. When you confess, its not just, "Hey God, I'm sorry. Forgive me of all my sin. Thank You God. Amen". I know. I used to do that. When we confess, we have to know one thing. Through what we did, we broke God's heart. The God who loves us soo soo much. The God who created you. The God who takes care of you and provides for you. The God who had you on His mind before He died. And the God who promised you an eternity in Heaven with Him for those who follow Him. Just imagine. You create something that can come alive. That thing does some wrong things and makes you very angry. Not only that, they want to go against you and try to kill you and get rid of you. What's the 1st thing you wanna do?? Get rid of that creation, right? How dare they, your puny creation, go against you! Might as well just get rid of them a create better ones! But what did God do? God not only did not destroy us(ok.. other than the Noah's ark period), but he sent His son to die for each and everyone of us... and even promised us that we can be with Him after death. Can you feel the amount of God's love? And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Then you do something that makes Him really sad. Do you just blatently tell God, "Aye.. Sorry ar.. Just forgive me of my sins k? I rushing la.. There's things i need to do... And i'm very tired.. Ok.. I'm done.. Amen"? No right? It's just not right. It's like Cain's suka suka anything will do offering. So when you come to God. Make sure you're sincere.Then repent. It's no use telling God "sorry" and doing it again. Then you might as well not apologise. And then be sensitive to the spirit. When you're tempted and the devil tries to pull you back into the sin. And you feel something telling you not to do it.. Then don't. Listen to some christian music or something. Submit to God. Resist the devil. And he will flee from you. Be wary and you won't fall into the devil's trap again. The post is getting a little too long. So i'm going to end off with a personal experience from youth camp.
During one of the last sessions of the camp, Simon encouraged us to fight off our giants. I had a giant. A sin that I committed quite frequently. Like I'm being trapped in a vicious cycle. I confessed and tried repenting. But I wasn't very sincere. I wanted to get out of the sin. But I alway's failed. Cause I had the intention to do it again. In the activity, we had to write that giant in a paper. I wrote it down. Then we had to walk up to the "cross" and paste it there. Like pinning that sin on the cross with Jesus there and allowing the sin to die with Jesus on the cross. God spoke to me during that time. As I was writing, I was just listening to God. He said "Before you go up there, wait, don't follow the crowd. Go only when you're sincere and you really really want to give up on that sin." I waited. And it really came down on me. I felt extremely guilty. I decided to cast that sin to God. Why? Because it broke God's heart. Everytime I did it, I could feel God cry. Just like Jesus wept when Lazurus died. I didn't want to do something that hurt him over and over again. So I walked up to the cross. In front of the cross was a long queue. Then God showed me an image of when He died on the cross. Its like he was telling me. "You think this queue is long? Imagine all the world queuing up and and casting all the sins upon me during that moment of time." As i walked up to the cross, I saw all of the sins of people pasted there. I saw in the image, the Holy son of God taking up all our sins, pinned down by not only the nails. But also the sins of the world. So much sin that His Father turned away. And there i was, adding to all the other sins. I realised the real true meaning of "God dying for our sins", I should rephrase that. God didn't die for our sins. God died BECAUSE of our sins. But God didn't blame me. Instead, God continued to love me and bless me. Providing for me. Sending me the Holy Spirit. And just loving me with no strings attached. I walk down the stage(the area where the cross was at) and immediately broke down and cry. Crying because I knew I broke God's heart. Crying because of God's immense love and forgiveness. Crying because someone so small, so insignificant and so sinful like me was being cherished by the creator of Heaven and Earth. The feeling is really indescribable. You have to feel it to understand. And just like that. I felt God taking away that guilt and shame of the sin. I felt totally relieved after crying. God had heal me and helped me turn away. Then we took down the sin from the "cross" and burnt it at the campfire. The sins in our lives burnt by the flaming spirit of God. I was healed.
"Thank you" isn't even enough to describe how thankful i am for Jesus. Because of Jesus's amazing love for us, we should love Him back too... Amen...
Firestorm thanked jesus at4:51 AM
Friday, October 31, 2008
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Sin (Part II)
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Hey Guys... Let's go on to Sin Part (II)
Ok... So for christians who really love God... What does Sin mean to us??? To put it very simply, it damages our relationship with God... But its only indirectly... Noo.. God wouldn't punish us for our sins anymore but God will try to change us... And that may be a very painful process that almost seems like punishment.... Ok.. So what if we sin?? Leaving everyone else out of the picture, how will we be affected? Let's look at a very earthly example... A boy was really really naughty.. He loved to throw tantrum, disturb everyone until it drove them nuts and of course, cry until he gets what he wants.. Even though his parents told him not to, he still insists on doint it.... So one day, the boy and his parents were shopping. And the boy saw a toy he really really wanted.. So he used his sweetest possible voice to ask his parents... His parents thought about it and said.. "No.. You've been misbehaving.. So unless you change, I won't buy the toy for you". The boy begged and cried... He said sorry numerous times... But do you think his parents would give in to him??? No! But subsequently, he changed over the months and became a well-behaved boy.. His parents saw the improvement in behaviour and decided to buy it for him... The boy didnt even have to ask for it that time and the parents willingly got what the boy wanted! Ok.. So how does this relate to God and us? God is the parent, The boy is us, His children.. The naughty deeds are our sins and the toy is our blessings and prayers requests... I believe you can figure the rest out... So do you ever wonder why.. when you pray for something, the prayer doesnt get answered? Its not that God doesnt hear your prayer... But maybe there's something that is stopping God from answering your prayers? I remember my pastor always says, before you pray, confess your sins before you make the prayer request.. Well, i think its not just confessing our sins.. Its confessing our sins and CHANGING to stop doing that sin. Before God really answers... So in conclusion, all im trying to say is.. Sin stops God from pouring all the potential blessing that could be bestowed unto us...
Ok.. But how does it damage our relationship with God? I mean even though God doesnt shower us with as much blessing, we would still love our Father God, right? So what actually damages that relationship? Right! The devil... Sin is the devil's trump card on both christians and non-christians... For non-christians, its well, not going to heaven.... But for christians, its the lies that the devil can conjour up from your sin.. "God doesnt love you anymore" "You're a dirty creature, you don't deserve God's love".... The devil might not tell you that in an audible voise but the minute you feel that you're drifting away from God because of your sins.. SNAP! You've fallen into the devil's trap.. And from there, the devil drags you further and further until you don't know God anymore... Its not that God let you go... But its YOU who chose to let go... You felt inferior and non-deserving of God's love and that's why you left God.. And God doesnt force you to stay if you wanna go...
Ok... So you're trapped in a never ending cycle of sin... how will you change that? Well, you have to believe that God will change you, And don't think that you can change it yourself. Coz you can't. Pray about it... And keep holding on to God... And God will change you. He'll give you time to seek him... But if all else fails and he has to hurt your pride or reputation to stop you from commiting such a sin again... He will... And trust me, it wouldn't be nice... Examples? Pastors who have "fallen from grace". If God can lift you up, he can break you down as well... So turn from you're sins while God's mercy still shine on you... Yup.. That's all... Have a great weekend! Maybe I'll round up the topic of sin on the next post.. :)
Firestorm thanked jesus at11:43 PM