HIS Timing Is Everything!
Sometimes the things God does we may not be able to comprehend. We may wonder if God knows what He is doing when we are praying so hard for our friends and families salvation and only to see them walking further away from Him; or when we were taught to love our neighbors but instead was put into ‘unlovable’ situation where it is hard to love; or when we have been praying for something good to happen to us and only to find ourselves in more things to worry about. There may be a lot of times where we just could not understand what God may be trying to do. But, be well assured that God does know what He is doing. For who has understood the mind of the Lord? The Lord says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9)
It is indeed an honor to be able to wait upon the Lord for we will experience His peace that guards our hearts as we witness the mighty works of His hands working through us for His glory. “But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint”(Isaiah 40:31). In everything, there is nothing as good timing as God’s timing.
hp
What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger
Sorry for sending out the prayer letter so late – my mock exams only finished yesterday (hallelujah!). Thank you all for your prayers, and I can really say that God has been gracious and merciful throughout the two weeks of my exams. I suppose it’s good to get stressed out early on in life, then you’ll get used to it and you’ll find it easier to cope when things get harder later on, when you start working, taking care of your family etc. “It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.” (Lam. 3:27)
I think this can also be extended to life in general. It’s good if we face problems, trials etc. and learn how to deal with them now rather than later on. It’s like getting chicken pox – if you’ve got it before, you can rest assured for the rest of your life! But of course, you must make sure that you survive it the first time(!). Ok, so maybe that isn’t the best analogy, but you get what I mean laa. The Bible puts it like this: “Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.” (Heb. 12:12,13).
When we face trials, if we aren’t careful, we may end up backsliding in our faith rather than persevering and maturing in it (James 1:2-4). So the Bible tells us to be strong & persevere, so that instead of being overwhelmed by the trials we face, we may actually grow stronger. As the old saying goes: “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”! If we can develop a strong, unwavering faith from early on in life, it will definitely help us through later when things get tougher and the temptations of the world get stronger. So when you next feel stressed, out-of-control and frustrated, don’t give in to despair. Commit everything to God and start building a deep and strong relationship with him that will help you through the trials and challenges ahead.
JW
Each Step Of Faith
Some journey seemed short while some seemed to be so long. When we first started a hike, it seems to be so easy and there were no obstacles at all. But as the stairs are getting longer, every step we hike seemed to be so heavy. As our strength is draining out, the thought of giving up came so easily. Each stop seemed to be so tempting, causing us to make a detour or to retrace to go back down. The thought of reaching the peak seemed to get further away from us.
Our walk with Christ may seem to be so easy when we first started off walking with Him. But after awhile, each step we take may seem harder especially when we started to lose focus and juggle with several things, like work, school’s exams, our own desires and wants; that we started to forget what make us first started walking with our Father. May we be reminded day by day that God’s love for us are not determined by the circumstances that we are facing for Christ died for us even before we know Him or willingly accept Him. He had already showed us His love on the cross and because of that, we can have faith (Forsaking All I Trust In Him), that no matter how tired our journey here may seem to be, we can still have the confidence to say that the Lord is my Shepherd and I shall never be in need. He is our strength, our light and our all in all. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us (Romans 8:18)
hp
YouthQuake 2010 – R U Ready 4 God 2 Rock Your World?!
Youthquake. Where do we even start? Let’s skip the boring bits shall we? And head straight to the interesting chunks. Well first off we were immediately delighted by the cool temperature we experienced up in Genting. It was definitely a welcome break from the blazing heat back in Penang. Oddly, the campsite was awfully quiet for a camp that was to hold 400 hyped up teenagers. To our surprise the whole place was almost void of people. We discovered that we were one of the earliest churches to arrive. How sad is that? We are the furthest away and we ended up being the earliest.
Once the people arrived, “Let the games begin!” Only; there weren’t any. Everybody was so late that we didn’t have any time for ice breakers. The first day was not all that interesting though, except for the part where we got to reunite with our dear friends which we haven’t seen for a whole year. That was definitely the highlight of the day; the sight and sound of old friends greeting and talking to each other after what felt like an eternity of separation. Let me stop there before this starts to sound like something else.
As for the next three days, you can expect a whole truckload of crazy stories just waiting to be told. We started off the days with devotion, breakfast and worship after which we moved on to our separate workshops. As usual worship was awesome not because of the amazingly skilled musicians and singers that were up on stage but of course they definitely helped! Later in the day, we would have our teambuilding games. It would undoubtedly be the highlight of the day right? Well; some might disagree, because, we had to get a tad bit too physical. Confused? You might be asking, “You’re playing games right? So shouldn’t you be physical?” Well, we didn’t only run around the stations playing our games because in one of those stations, we had to do, wait for it. 1000 pushups, 1000 sit ups, 500 star jumps and 500 squats. A lot isn’t it? But of course we split it among our team of 20, we can’t be expected to do all those individually. Are you crazy?
And on the third day He rose again. Oh wait a second. Sorry about that, wrong story. What I meant to say was, on the third day we repeated the same schedule but instead of teambuilding, we had something called “Creative Ministries” and it’s where we choose an area that we’re interested in, for example drama, singing, etc, and we go learn about how we can use those skills in the ministries of our respective churches. It was a load of fun of course and if you want to find out about the juicy details about what happened during that time; ask us because I don’t have the space to fit it all in here. That night we had probably the best session of the whole camp. Fun Night!! So many awesome things happened that I just don’t know where to begin! Though there was that ONE thing. The reunion of the Bangsai Boys!! And this time with a new member! They performed their number one hit all those years ago, “I Want it That Way”. The crowd jeered; I mean cheered them on with screams and shouts as they stepped on stage. And the rest; is history.
Same old same old on the fourth day, except for the team building games, this time, we didn’t have to do army like exercises (Thank God). BUT, we had to carry a few of our team members using a tarpaulin that was far too small for the job. This time our body didn’t suffer; our fingers did. And it was a pain worse than the aching of our bodies two days prior. I’ve been talking so much about our activities, now let me give a little justice to the amazing campsite that we were blessed with to be able to hold our camp in it. First things first, the view was absolutely and mind bogglingly spectacular! Some of the best I’ve ever seen. And there were plenty of places for us to just chill and relax. Not only that, but those places were outdoors in the cool breezy weather with clouds passing right through you. What more could you ask for? But alas on the fifth day it comes to an end. The greatest camp of the year has to come to a close at some point. We had our sad goodbyes to those whom we’d probably never see again for another 12 months, and we set off into the mist and clouds on our way back to our normal lives again. As the sun shines on our cozy little white bus, 30 young teens lie within it. 30 young teens that are bringing back the seed that have been given to them, ready and eager to sow the fields and reap its harvest.
ben
Disturb Us Lord…
Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when
with the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wilder seas
Where storms will show Your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask you to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push back the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.
A prayer by Sir Francis Drake (1540 – 1596)
A Blessed New Year to all!…my prayer is that we will allow God to mold us more to be like His Son, bringing us closer to His will and to glorify Him in all that we are; as we journey with Him throughout this year 2011.
jL
In The Potter’s Hands
To those who had just come back from YouthQuake, a very BIG and warm WELCOME BACK to Penang. Though Peacehaven may be a nice place, but nothing is as good as to be back home, right?
One and a half more day to go and we will be drifted swiftly into a brand new year of 2011. This year indeed has been a tough, easy, happy, sad, frustrating, depressing, promotion, ‘demotion’ (hopefully no one has this J ) and many other more for us. But whatever it is, we have learned to give thanks in all circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5:18) for we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).
As we looked at what 2010 had brought us, I am sure there may be some regrets or failures which we could not forgive or to be forgiven, but let us be like Jeremiah and pay a visit to the potter’s house and witness how the potter shaped from the clay that was marred to form it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him (Jeremiah 18:3-4). The Lord says, “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand” (Jeremiah 18:6). That is a promise and assurance that nothing is final till the potter finished its good work in us. What is required from us is to be a soft clay; a heart that is NOT hardened towards the teachings and disciplines set by our Potter.
Lastly, if you have some extra time, please do looked through the prayer list that Joshua and myself had compiled week after week and you will see how faithful our God has been to us. Though not all prayers are answered immediately, but we have learned that God’s timing is not our timing and His replies are always either a yes, no or wait. I guess most of us ( I for sure), struggle the most with the answer to wait…
Wishing all of you a very blessed New Year and thank you to all of you for being an encouragement to me by just being yourself and allowing me to grow together as a family of God with you.
hp
Joshua House 