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