Security

God's been talking about putting my security in Him. Come to think of it, without me even being aware of it many times I've put my security in temporal things. When I was younger I will put my security in my studies, CCAs, relationships or friends. Now probably, to a certain extent, I am putting my securities in my job or ministries.

I realized that it's important to have a heart check every now and then. Bumped into this song called Amazing Love by Paradise Band while I was browsing my music list. A simple song. The lyrics said "To feel your amazing love..this moment is all I dreamed of..To feel your amazing love..Jesus take over". God's amazing love is enough for us. (Tried to play n recorded the song without warming up. Heh. Apologies for the technical hiccup, will come out with more refined version, meanwhile hope this can still bless everyone.)

Amazing love

by Ollie Sebastian

Verse

I am incomplete without you

I want to be here by your side

In your mercy find your purpose

I don’t need to hide

You inspire every heart beat

All salvation is restored

You are the first the last forever

I give you my all

Chorus

I feel your amazing love

Your amazing love

This moment is all that I dreamed of

I feel your amazing love

Your amazing love

Jesus takes over me

Bridge

Take all of me

Take all of me

Take all of me

Take all of me

Chords:

Verse:

Am Em Dm

Am Em F G (to chorus)

Chorus:

C Cmaj7 Em F

Bridge

Ab Bb C

Faithful

Posted this in the cell blog. Think should post it here too, since I have not been updating this blog for ahem...a couple of months :P

I always told people around me that God is good no matter what..

Used to say what Job said “I was born with nothing, and I will die with nothing. The LORD gave and now He has taken away. May his name be praised! (Job 1:21)”

It is easy to say, but I realized that these things we said will only be true during the time of adversities. The time where (like Job) God is taking the “precious things” in our lives.

The question is whether the “precious things” in our lives works for our good. They might not, but God is! (Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”)

I felt that God is taking these "precious things" from my life. One at a time these few months. Not an easy process, many time I stumbled and for the very first time I got angry with God. The process is still going on even right now, but I realized that all these happened so God can show me the condition of my heart. I can now thank God for these trying period for now I can see his faithfulness despite of my faithlessness.

I don't normally sing, nor I compose songs. But I think broken people do things that they don't usually do.

Faithful

Verse:
O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me
All my fears and all my tears
You enfold me in Your arms of love
All my days
You designed before they come to be

Bridge:
Fall in Your embrace
Heard your gentle whisper
“My grace is sufficient for you”

Chorus:
I will sing
Because You are faithful
I will praise
For what You’ve done in me

Bridge:
When my world is tumbling down
I look to you and give you thanks
For you are good

Psalm 42 - Life is unfair (confirmed + chopped + guaranteed) BUT God is good

“Another “not-so-happy” Psalm.” That’s what I thought when I first reading this. But God kept on bringing me to this psalm this week, in particular verse 5 and 11.

“Why am I discouraged?
Why is my heart so sad?

I will put my hope in God!

I will praise Him again, my Savior and my God” (NLT Version)

Reading the whole psalm again, I can really identify with what the psalmist was facing. It was not an easy week for me. Deadlines are approaching and everything in the office bottlenecked at sales. What make thing worse was my colleagues’ suggestion to “invite” another people from my previous company to join us. In business world this is called “poaching”, not an ethical thing to do. I had left my previous company for around 10 months; however I still respect my ex-boss. After a couple of discussion I finally stand my ground and say the final “No”. I thank God that my other colleagues just agreed.

While doing things ethically is something that I want, I was discouraged by my sales result, the revenue figure that has not been moving up much, discipline problems with new staffs, and what make things worse even the interviewees that I short listed did not show up. I felt so alone. It’s like I am doing all these for God, however things are just not right.

That was when God spoke to me through this verse” Why are you discouraged? …I will put my hope in God!..” God was saying it’s not your sales result, it’s not your staffs performance, it’s not the interviewee definitely, that I should put my hope in. It is God! I could choose to wallow in my discouragement, but I chose to Praise God for his faithfulness. It’s not about me it’s about God!

I don’t know how many of you are going through times when you don’t know what is happening around you. Things doesn’t seem to go well even though you are obeying God. God’s promise is this: “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 47:10)

Have a blessed weekend!

Who is God???

Proverbs 1:7
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and discipline"

The word knowledge in this verse means experiential knowledge. It's like you know an apple is sweet because you ate the apple. You experience the sweetness of the apple.

Are you sure you know the REAL God? Yes, all of us "know" that God is a loving God, we "know" that God wants to be with us, etc. He always forgives our sins, bla bla bla...BUT..How much do you actually know about God??

We might be worshiping false image of God without we knowing it.

How did we develop this distorted image of God?

1. Past Experience

Let me tell you my story

When I was young, I often made my father angry. When he was angry, he wouldn't speak and ignore me for days or even weeks. I have to come to him and say "Dad, I'm sorry". My dad usually will say " What for?". I had to admit to him what I did wrong and tell him that I'm sorry again. If I'm lucky enough, he will say "Okay" but there were times where he didn't accept my apology and he would continue to ignore me, until I came again to him after a couple of days and ask for his forgiveness again. (My dad is a good man, I am proud of him. It's just he was hard on me when I was a kid)

This distort my image of God. I thought "Since God is my heavenly father, he must be like my father" So whenever I sinned I will come to God and ask for His forgiveness again and again. I was afraid, not sure that God would forgive me even after I ask for his forgiveness.

One day, I was reading bible alone and God showed me 1 John 1:9
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all our unrighteousness."

It shocked me. I realized that God will surely forgive my sins if I confess it before Him and repent. I do not have to ask His forgiveness and worried that He won't forgive my sins. He is NOT like my earthly father at all

I learned that what we experienced might distort our image of God. GOD wants to reveal His real self.
God reveals Himself through many things, but I believe during this season of reading Psalms, He wants to show His characters to us through these Psalms we are reading

2. Idol in our hearts/Covetousness

We want many things in our lives. We want to get into good schools, we want to get good grades, we want more $$, we want to have girl friend, etc etc etc. The list can go on and on and on.

Nothing wrong with wanting something.

But the question is: Do you treasure all these more than God? Do you treasure your study more than God? Do you treasure your future more than God? Do you treasure your friends more than God?

A good example from the Bible would be this guy called Balaam.(You can read from Numbers 22 - 24)

Balaam is a prophet. By right he suppose to follow God and obey God. However there is this king(Balak) who wants to hire him to curse the Israelites.

As a prophet, Balaam knows very well that God is in Israelites side. (Numbers 22:12 But God said to Balaam "Do not go with them. You must not put curse on those people because they are blessed")

But Balak the king said (Numbers 22: 16-17): "Do not let anything keep you from coming to me, because I will reward you handsomely and do whatever you say." It's like a king telling you, I will give you anything you want! I will give you 100 million bucks if you come and curse the Israelites.

The end result was Balaam went to try to curse Israelites. And God was angry because of what Balaam did (ver 21-39)

Are we like Balaam? When circumstances arise, will we obey God or will we do what seems good for us? We change God's image when we deliberately disobeying Him because we want something that we perceive good for us.

May be it's a sin. We enjoy sinning so much and we distort God's image, saying that God will always forgive us. It is okay to sin. We abused God's mercy. While actually we learn from the bible that God is a just God. He doesn't leave sin unpunished. We distorted God's image.

May be it's something that we want. We want to have good grades, so we cheat. Saying that everybody do it, God doesn't know what we are doing. Actually we know from the bible that GOD is all-knowing God.

So how???
Psalm 19:7-11
"The law of the Lord is perfect reviving the soul.......
By them your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward."

Psalm 119:105
"Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path"

It's through the Word of God we know who God really is.

God wants to have intimate relationship with you. He wants to be your friend, your best friend in fact. But how can you be a friend for someone if you do not know the person well?