Be broken – A fragrance of Christ

Friday 18/5/12 6:25 am

“blonk!” The bottle of 100ml perfume slipped and spilled all over the floor. How careless of me to drop it, even though it cost me only S$2.90. The whole toilet smelled good, but I smelled bad inside me :( As I picked up the broken glasses, I carelessly cut my right thumb! Cleaning up and bandage myself took away the time for my short early devotion.

So my reflection and meditation as I drove the girls to school was on brokenness. “I break, and I cut myself.” In my quietness, I felt the Holy Spirit prompting - To be an aroma and fragrance of Christ, I need to be broken. What an irony. Who want to be broken? It is painful. Yeah, I hurt myself you know, LORD! The last 3 weeks was good, the Presence of God is real. Since the David & Greta Peters’ seminar, I have encountered the filling of the Holy Spirit. It’s amazing to truly understand how to Walk in the Spirit. Now, it seems that God is telling me to move to being brokenness. I am afraid … and the pain of my  right thumb lingers …

…

Friday 18/5/12 8:05 pm

Should I attend the leaders’ prayer meeting? It’s for leaders and core servants, not for me lah. Perhaps I can learn something? Well, might as well just go and see since I am new to this church.

Interesting, they allowed time for leaders who felt a word from the LORD to stand up and share. A sister stood up and felt God wanting her to tell all who were present to be broken! We need to (1) Allow God to Break in; (2) Be Break through in our life; (3) Enjoy a Break dance like King David (2Sam 6).

A mere coincidence that I choose to come and here is what I heard? Isn’t that what God is showing me in the morning and kept me thinking about it all day? And yet at night, when I think I want to hear and see something different, it is still the same message even though I am not suppose to be there. It’s for leaders and core servants of the LORD.

¹⁵ For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; ¹⁶  to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things? (2 Cor 2:15-16 NASB)

Amazing how the Spirit leads.

Agape

Going back to School!?

After much thoughts and prayers, I sent an email to the School of Theology (English) of the Singapore Bible College to ask for the application form.

I want to apply for the MA (Bible Studies). If I can get into SBC again, I will study Hebrews and learn to read the Bible in Hebrew.

This is still preliminary. Let’s see how things turn out to be.

Sowing & Reaping

Everyone needs to understand and learn the meaning of sowing and reaping.

It all started when Auntie Lily invited us (my daughter and me) to join her in FARMVILLE in facebook. Euodia then started clicking on the icon, “play Farmville”. It was just a small plot of land. And so we planted eggplant and strawberry. Nothing much, looks boring.

After many days past, she again went into the farm, only to find that all her plants had overgrown and withered. She was sad but learnt a great lesson. Living things can die. We learn the lesson that what we sow, we will reap. So, we got more meticulous and pay more attention to what length of time each plant takes to grow, bear fruits and wither if we fail to harvest them.

Farmville gets interesting when we make neighbours. We can also send and receive gifts from neighbours. We also visited our neighbours’ farm and took pictures. The children love to visit Auntie Lily’s farm. We also learnt from her farm; how she arranged the animals and the decorations she had. It’s very beautiful. Farming becomes a community affair! Harvesting time is always an excitement for the children. Some plants take days, others a few hours before fully grown. We need to know them well or else they will wither. I am also thinking about who I should invite to start a farm in Farmville.

There are many more things we’ve yet to explore. But we will.


Spiritual life is also about sowing and reaping.

Is your spiritual land (farm) vacant? Do you visit it daily? How about getting more “neighbours” to help you spiritually? Or maybe visit your neighbours’ spiritual farm and see how they grow theirs? We need to send spiritual encouragement to one another also. There are friends who have no Spiritual life yet. Shouldn’t we also invite them into this Spiritual Farmville (Kingdom)?

Each time I lock into Farmville, I am reminded to also tend my spiritual farmville.

Come, join me in “FARMVILLE”, …

to learn about sowing and reaping,

and be a community of “spiritual” farmers…

“A man reaps what he sows. … for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

PS: This will be my last post. I rather be a farmer than a blogger. See you at FARMVILLE.

Adios!! :)

Encourage an environment for Growth

Sharing of information and knowledge is vital for growth.

This is what happens in my workplace.

Every Wednesday, 5:30pm, an engineer will do a half-hour presentation on any topics of his interest or expertise to the company. They will be assessed for their presentation. An award will be given to the best presenter. I am one of the judges. Last Wednesday (29 July), a mechanical engineer gave a talk on SCREW. Like he said, we need to know about screws and how they screw up our lives.


In a working environment, we can enforce compulsory learning and training. But can we do that in a church?

In my younger days as a Christian with the Polytechnic Navigators, studying and reading the Bible was normal. Not memorizing Bible verses was abnormal. Everyone who was with the Navigators for one year would have memorised a minimum of 60 verses. It is common to ask one another, “How’s your Quiet Time?” This is what we term a discipleship environment.
We can never survive spiritually alone; there is a tendency to follow the crowd. It is very easy to memorise Bible verses when everybody is doing it. Even in every Bible camp, we had Bible quiz and memory verses quiz. So that created excitement and encouragement.

BPCES does not have a tradition of Bible reading and memorizing Bible verses. Very seldom do we hear or read about each others devotion (except my blog, maybe). So I would say there is no discipleship environment in BPCES. As such, you don’t expect worshippers to be excited about bringing friends to evangelistic events.

How the church grows and move will depend on the leaders and committee members to set an example. They need to lead by example. How the BSG moves will also depend on the BSG leaders. They need to create a learning environment by sharing their lives openly, how they integrate their spiritual learning with their daily life.

In order to grow, it all starts with a healthy discipleship environment.

Create one. It is never too late.


It is him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ (Col 1:28 NRSV)

Death is the beginning of another New Life

Attending a funeral wake is better than going to a birthday party.

Although there are tears in a funeral, the emotions can be much deeper than just the fun and laughter in a party. The impact is more lasting.

Each time I attended a funeral wake, I am reminded of my earthly journey. One day, it will be my time to go. I must make use of the time left for me here, to do my master’s will.
Attending a non-Christian funeral always leave me very sad, sad that another soul has lost in eternity. But a Christian funeral is always a joyous occasion. We know that death is not the end of life, but the beginning. It is the beginning of a new journey in heaven with the Creator LORD.

Last night, at Jenny Lim’s mother funeral wake, this verse kept ringing in my mind: “For me to live is Christ, to die is gain”. Yes, death for a Christian is gain because it is a passage to a better place where there is no pain, sorrows and tears. Thank you, LORD, for Jenny’s mother who has known you and gone to be with you.

Thank you, LORD for being my Savior.

It is better to go to a house of mourning
than to go to a house of feasting,
for death is the destiny of every man;
the living should take this to heart.
(Ecclesiastes 7:2)

Never Too Old to Learn

I have finally done it!!

For the past few weeks, I was busy preparing the power point. Hence, all the focus is on doing this Understanding Biblical Narratives Power point.

Spend alot of time reading and searching the web sites for good illustrations. Also, I have studied many Bible passages for using as examples in the power point.

So no time to update this blog.

Never too old to learn :)

Planning Ahead

“Oh no! I forgot my Guides’ T-shirt!!”

We were already travelling along the Pan Island Expressway to school yesterday morning when my eldest daughter suddenly realized that she had left her clothing at home.

“Can we turn back?” She pleaded.

Doing so will get everybody late for school. Not a very good idea. Knowing that she needed it only in the afternoon, I told her I will go home and get it for her during lunch.

Human has a tendency to forget things, people, and also a whole lot of others. Most of the time, we too forget about God. In our “busy and hurry” society and work, we loose sense of the Almighty, only to come to Him when help is needed and prayer to be done. That is what I want to show her. I can help rescue her forgetfulness. But she too needs to learn to be alert, watchful and plan ahead. This is not the first time it happened. Previously, it was when we just drove off one street away then she remembered something she did not bring along. It’s going to get habitual, would it?

Would she remember this lesson?

As for me, I will help her to remember by asking before we drive off: “Have you forget anything?”

PLAN YOUR WORK, WORK YOUR PLAN

All things have a life span

Recently, a lot of things start going “dead” almost at the same time.

About a few weeks ago, the heater finally died on us. It tripped the whole house electricity when we switched it on. It has been serving us faithfully since day one, about 17 years ago. Finally, it decided to call it a day. We have yet to get it fix. So, no hot water for now until the plumber is free to get it done.

Then, the fan starts giving way. No, it is still not fully dead. Just making a lot of noise when we turned on the power. Something likes a motor boating sound. I guess, it will soon say bye-bye to us. Another faithful equipment, also serving us since day one.

There is another faithful household item that finally calls it a day – the mirror light. My wife last weekend told me about it. I have forgotten about it as I don’t use the lamp. I will try to find a time this week to change the bulb.

The not so faithful one is the printer cable. I have changed it so many times. Why, oh why, it looses connection so often!!! I have just bought a new cable.

What will “die” next?

Then, a verse came to my mind (Ecc 3):

A time to born and a time to die;
…
A time to weep and a time to laugh
…

Yep, one day, you and I will be dead.

The question is: “Have I been faithful in fulfilling God’s purpose while I am alive?”

Letters from NKF – old versus new

Mr. T. T. Durai taught me to be more "personal" in my writing,

And also the courage to write.

Yes, Mr. Durai, the man we love to hate.

(Just don’t quite like NKF leh!)

About 2 weeks ago I received a letter from the New NKF and was too busy to read it. I was in a better mood the last weekend to read what NKF have to say.

The way the new Chief Executive Officer of the New NKF wrote was very different from Mr Durai. It was a letter to thank and update us donors of what NKF has done, no different from any charitable organization. This set me thinking about Mr. Durai. Oh how I like to receive his old NKF letters.

Mr Durai’s letters addressed you personally. Reading his letters is like hearing him talking to you. There is this personal touch and emotional grieve for the suffering patients (sometime names are mentioned, and you know they are real people in real needs) when he wrote in his letters. Words like, “Mr. Lim, I am sure you …”; Mr. Lim this and Mr. Lim that … connects me to the cause of the NKF.

I became a donor through reading his letters way back in 1994 or 1995. (It was such a long time; I may have mistaken it by a year or two). Thereafter, I even volunteered to be an ambassador of NKF. The NKF ambassador approaches people and encourages them to donate to NKF.


Perhaps it was his style of writing that I feel for the patients in NKF. Also, there were frequent updates of newsletter and invitation from NKF.

I use to keep his letters until the NKF saga in 2005. Then I threw them all away. Still, I continue to support the NKF financially. Givers never quit. But I am disappointed about NKF management.

His writings may have influenced the way I write and blog. I try to make it personal, like talking to you. You know, my greatest phobia is composition. I never passed any composition in school. Blogging is the last thing I will ever do. After every post, I think I make a fool of myself.

(Still learning to write properly, leh!)

Mr. Durai, thank you.


PS: NKF = National Kidney Foundation (for those who are blur)

Chiastic Writing

My next post will be in Chiastic structure. Can you detect it?


A Mr. Durai taught me to write
B .....He gave me courage to write
C .......Don’t quite like NKF
D .........Received New NKF letter
E ...........Style of Old NKF letters
X .............I became an NKF donor & Ambassador
E' ...........Develop a feeling for NKF patients
D’ .........Keep Old NKF letters
C’ ........Disappointed with NKF
B’ .....I had phobia in composition
A’ Mr. Durai, thank you