Life is unfair..But....GOD IS GOOD!

Worship for Sunday Cell Group

2009-01-17T07:56:00.000-08:00

Sunday cell group worship. Anyhow whack..so please dont mind the vocal...

Security

2008-10-05T07:42:00.000-07:00

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

Chords:

Verse:

Am Em Dm

Am Em F G (to chorus)

Chorus:

C Cmaj7 Em F

Bridge

Ab Bb C

Faithful

2008-09-13T09:45:00.000-07:00

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

2008-02-16T03:28:00.000-08:00

“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???

2008-01-20T07:11:00.000-08:00

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?

12 Blessings - Family Harmony

2007-10-09T08:26:00.000-07:00

Okaaaaay... Back after 6 months!!

This one is for Dank and Mark, for the sermon that they missed during encounter weekend..Hee..

Everybody wants family harmony. In fact God made family to reflect our spiritual relationship with Him. Hence a family is a place for each of its member to receive love and care.

Principals for family harmony is recorded in Colossians.
Colossians 3:18-21
Wives submit to your husband as is fitting in the Lord
Husbands love your wives and do not be harsh on them
Children obey your parents in EVERYTHING for this is pleases the Lord
Fathers do not embitter your children or they will become discouraged

In fact relationship between children and parents is so important to God and it is his heart beat to "turn the heart of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers" (Malachi 4:6a)

There are 3 kinds of relationship that need to be nourished in a family.
1. Husband - Wives relationship
SWITCH ON your mind to submit and to love.

It is not easy for wives to submit. In fact it is written submit to your husbands - NOT Christian husbands. Submission is not an easy thing to do. It takes a great deal of faith to submit, believing that God will look after your life despite of how the one in authority (husbands/leaders/bosses) treated you.

While for husbands, its even more stressful! Husbands should love their wives like how Christ loves His church, i.e. willing to lay down your live for your wive (Ephesians 5:25)

2. Children - Parents relationship

TURN ON your EMOTION to obey and encourage

Obeying parents takes high priority in God's check list. In fact, this is the only commandments with a blessing attached to it.
Exodus 20:12 -> Honor your father and mother, SO THAT you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

3. Family - God relationship
ACT ON your will to remember and restore.

While each family members are not perfect, God is.

It pleases the Lord to see us obeying our parents DESPITE of the circumstances. Yes, it is true that our parents made their mistakes and sometimes it hurts us, but when that happens we should always turn back to our heavenly Father and surrender the hurts to Him. It is God's will for us to love and honor our parents.

It is true that children hurts their parents, brothers hurt their sisters and husbands can hurt their wives. However God is always there to restore these relationship. GOD's will is for the family to unite and love one another.

Below is my personal testimony on how God recovered my personal relationship with my father:

I often quarreled with my parents during my teenage years. And its not just me! My mom and dad also quarreled frequently. Home was not a place where I want to be after school. I would rather be involved in many CCAs and other activities than going home straight. I felt so alone at home.

Things did not change much after I received Christ. I know that my parents love me, but I just felt that I was not treated fairly. "They just could not understand me!" I thought. I turned to God and 'complain' about my parents. During these period I found out that God is the perfect father who understands me, He wanted me to forgive and love my parents as He forgives and loves me. I couldn't remember when exactly, I finally decided to hold my anger whenever I felt that I was treated unfairly; instead of arguing I chose to serve them and listened to their advices. Things slowly improved, but mum and dad still quarrel pretty often.

Then something happened in my 2nd year of senior high-school. To over-simplified things, my parents want me to move to another school, while I wanted to stay in my previous school. One day my dad came to me and told me " Son, you think about it and let us know your decision, its up to you to decide." So I came to him and told him that I wanted to stay on in the old school because all my friends are there. Guess what... My father got angry with me and told me that I have no will to be successful and if I decide to stay I can just go out from the house. I was so hurt. I still remember, after that quarrel I did not talk to ANYONE, not my mom nor my dad nor my brother for 1 week. After a week I started talking to my mum and brother.

Life in the new school was fun. Months after months passed, but I still chose not to speak a single word to my dad even though we meet EVERYDAY at dinning table. Until around 6 months, then God spoke to me again on this command of honoring my parents. He touched me, and revealed to me that HE is the only perfect father, He had forgiven my wrongs so I should forgave my dad.

So after 6 months or so.. I started praying for God to open an opportunity to reconcile me with my dad. The opportunity came. Representative from NUS and NTU came to my school. I know that my dad really wants me to go overseas to study. So my mum arranged for me to go alone with my dad to NUS and NTU public talk in Jakarta. I remember the first sentence that I told my dad after 6 moths was "NUS is not bad" and his replied was a simple " Yes" hahaha....

Right after I spoke the 1st sentence, I felt God's peace. I remembered my father's expression when he spoke his simple "Yes", it is an expression of great relieve. Slowly I started to talk to my dad. It was not easy for both of us, afterall 6 months is a considerable amount of time. But God was working. He recovered my relationship with my parents, my dad especially.

I can see God's work even after I came to Singapore. I thought I will be separated from my parents and that's the end of our relationship. I prayed that God will bless my family with peace as I left my parents in Indonesia. I realized that we actually got closer and the relationship grew stronger after I left! I was and still am amazed on how God works in my family.

Now my parents don't quarrel anymore. I learned to be more patient and understanding towards my parents. I realized that mum and dad only want what is best for me. They love me so much. Its just sometimes they do things differently from what I expect. I chose to honor them and love them. God is faithful in my family, He restores and mends broken relationship in the family. Praise be to God!!

I CAN WALK!! (Again)

2007-04-16T02:55:00.000-07:00

I could walk normally after the miracle service, however through out the week the pain came back. My ankle was swollen. May be because I walked a bit too much when I was in NUS(my toilet and bathroom were renovated, that's why I moved back to Sheares hall).

Anyway, I went to church on Sunday a bit limping again. I told God, "God, my ankle is still painful. Can you do something about it?" During the altar call I went forward (again not to be prayed for, but to serve as a consolidator). Inside my heart I was like "God I want to be healed, why can't someone else be consolidator." As I came forward I realized many of my guys came forward, and I realized how selfish I had been. God is a God who answers prayers. When I was praying for Joseph Lee, I realized that the pain in my ankle is no more!! Praise God!! I can walk again!!

Lesson learned:
1. Healing from God can instaniously or through a process.
In my case God healed me to a certain extent on miracle Sunday last week. However I kinda lost the healing because I did not take care of my ankle. What I should have done is to rest my ankle and continue to claim healing for my ankle. Well, God is gracious enough to heal my ankle again yesterday though.

2. Ask, Seek, and Knock (Matthew 7)
How much do you want God's blessing(healing is one of them)? God promise to us is: Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened.

In asking God's blessing there are 3 ways:
1. To ask.
2. To seek.
3. To knock.
Each of them has different intensity. God always answers prayers. The question is...How hard do we pray?

I CAN WALK!! (Miracle Sunday)

2007-04-15T18:08:00.000-07:00

This is overdue by 2 weeks, but then again its better late than never...

I always hear people testifying about healing that happens to them, how God get rid of illnesses from small ones to big ones, from a slight flu to a deadly cancer. I praise God for all these miracles, however I have never experience anything until the Easter week Sunday. Easter Sunday supposed to be a miracle service.

Two of my friends came(They are married couple). The husband came with leukimia(blood cancer). I came with a sprained ankle (do not play soccer without shoes... its bad for your ankle).

During the altar call for those who need healing my friends came forward. He raised his hands to receive Christ. Praise God! Few days later, I met this couple and ask them about the conditions. The blood test seemed normal however we still do not know if he has been healed completely from the cancer. To know if he has been healed normally he has to go through a bone marrow test (which is more painful than giving birth according to some people). He will be taking this test in a couple of months, so lets keep on praying for Mark!

As for me, when I walked back to hall 9 from sending this couple to taxi stand in EXPO, I suddenly realized that I can walk properly!! Before that I was limping because my ankle hurts so much. Praise God for He is God heals!!

For I know the plan I have for you, plan to prosper you not to harm you

2007-02-12T05:11:00.000-08:00

Its been awhile since I last updated this. Guess it takes a bit of discipline to maintain a blog. Hee.. This testimony should be dated 2nd of February instead of 9th. Gonna be a long entry.

I just gotta give thanks to God, because in all things He works for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28).

Just a bit of background. I am doing sales(telesales) in the conference industry. Basically calling the decision makers(CEO, Directors, VP, etc.) in MNCs and big local companies. God had blessed me abundantly. I have been promoted twice every year and am currently an assistant manager, leading my own sales team. The money is good. Everything is well and I am supposed to be promoted as a sales manager at the end of March (It means more money!) Something that I have been looking forward for since my day one in the company as a sales executive. I thought, "This is the fruit of my labor! After 2.5 years I'll be a sales manager and earn big bucks!"

It seems that God has other plan for me. These past few months He has been prompting me to surrender my career and finance to Him. I headed off the notion as soon as it 'pop' on my head. My initial response was " Go away Satan!" Haha.. Then followed by some lame excuses. "God, I am making a lot of money and I will make more! I will use the money for Your glory! I will fund all my cell group's expenses, sponsor reach out activities, cell chalet, etc. etc." or things like " I will have a great influence over the people in this company as soon as I become a manager/director" I mean, I am doing very well, I'm on the right track to be a sales manager then maybe sales director and then may be GM "Take it all God, all but my career." Career and money became my source of security without me realizing it.

I kept on hardening my heart and closing my ears until 2 weeks back. During sanctification week, God spoke to me very clearly through Ps. Roland. He said most of the time, we cannot hear God's voice because we are affraid. We perceive God as a big boss up there who told us what to do and what not to do. However perfect love casts away all fear (1 John 4:18).

God asked me 3 questions that day, the same questions that He asked Adam when men first fall into sin (Gen3:9-11).
Question 1: Where are you? I miss you son.
He asked me this not to judge me for being rebelious, He asked me as a father who miss His son (wanted to cry but told myself guys don't cry heh).

Question 2: Who told you (that your career and money could give you that sense of security)?
He revealed to me that He is the one who owns this entire world, if He look after the birds in the air how much more will He give to His son.

Question 3: Have you eaten the fruit I told you not to eat? (Have you put your security in your career and money)
I confessed to God that I did.

I don't usually hear God's voice audibly. God will usually put some notions or prompting in my heart, however He spoke to me audibly that night. His words was: "Do not worry my son. I know my plans for you, a plan to prosper you not to harm you." I wept (so much for guys don't cry).

I still have a lot of doubts. I know God wants me to resign and offer my career to Him. Its not easy though. On sunday, the message was about fear. Its as if God is affirming me to take the leap of faith. The same evening I printed out my resignation letter. I was very anxious. I couldn't sleep. Then I tell God, "God, if you really want me to quit, ask someone to sms me." Guess what.. Few seconds later, Vincent sms-ed me psalm 23. That's like totally cool. God heard and answered my silly request.

The next day I gave the letter. Still anxious, but when I was in my director's room God gave me peace. I even shared the reality of God with him. God is good, I found favor in my director's eyes. I will be staying for a couple of weeks to make sure that the conference that I am handling is taken care of. He offered to write a testimony for me and he will give me off whenever I need to go for other interviews.

I still have not applied for any job yet when I resigned. However I felt enormous peace and sense of freedom. Indeed, I have been set free from worries and fear of man. I know that God holds my future and I can rest assure that He will meet all my needs. A foolish faith it seems, but doesn't God use the foolish of the world to put its wise men to shame? (1 Corinthians 1:27)

"But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him(2 Corinthians 2:14)"

Sons of God.... In all things give thanks!

2007-01-27T08:27:00.000-08:00

Work is pretty stressful this week. Selling an event that supposed to be the best conference produced by the company does bring a lot of pressure, especially when the number of delegates has not been increasing for the past 3 weeks. Further more one of my senior staff just resigned last week.

But thanks be to God! It seems that God wants me to learned a thing or two.

1. I am a son!
A son is a son. My earthly father did not disown me when I did not do well at school. Nor will he love me less when I broke a few thousand dollars worth of ceramics (I was quite naughty last time :P). Its nothing like '"If I obey God's commands this week, then I'll be His son and He will bless me." Again I realized God's love is unconditional. A son is a son despite of his performance. Of course having said that, it doesn't mean that I will slack. In fact as a son, I will try my very best to please my father.

2. Give thanks!
"But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him" 2 Cor 2:14
I realized that its easy to give thanks when things go smoothly. But what if things don't go smoothly? Well... My first reaction would be asking God for help.. But where's the thanksgiving part? Do I need to give thanks still? The answer is YES! Phi 4:6" Do not be anxious over anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
I did that, I surrender my anxiousness to God, I prayed, and I give thanks over my situation at work. I give thanks because I know that God will lead me to victory (...who always leads us in triumphal procession...)

I believed that God will lead me to victory when I started my week, I went through this week as a victor, and at the end of this week(Friday) I really saw the victory. To close the story, we doubled the number of delegates this week. For the past 1.5 month we managed to get 16 delegates for the conference, but at the end of this week I had 32. God is good!

Have you given thanks today? ^_^

AWESOME! My very first blog!!!!

2007-01-22T07:42:00.000-08:00

I finally created a blog!!! Yay!! Well... Err...Actually I created this sometime ago, I couldn't even remember. Until when I was about to sign up the blog went "this email account already registered" ..or something along that line. Talking about short term memory. Geez. I vaguely remembered I created this blog after some planet crush program. Guess I was just to lazy to post anything after I registered that time. Oh well... I somehow managed to retrieve my ID and pasword. God is good. Heh.
In the light of using cyberspace to influence youth, I dedicate this blog to my cell group. To share God's goodness and His work in our lives. ^_^