Waking up

Disappointments come and goes. Emotions sway from one side to another. Circumstances change.

Morning comes and morning go. Just like now typing away in this short break. There are meditations when things dun seem to go the way I hope it will.

Times when things seem to move so fast, that you are just in the motion of things. Till you see the sky, a breath of air, tells you there is a giver of life.

That you pause again and remember who your God is.

And when your Meditation is GOD, He leads your mind.

And when weakness come, Thy Grace is sufficient.

The bread

One of the most heartfelt thanksgiving that I can think as the months has gone by is really God Himself.

Thank God for being a Saviour God.

Looking back and looking forward, that is really the Crux of all. God is in All of all.

I yearn of a Hope in God for deliverance to the deliverer.

Going through scriptures the past few months preparing for BS and been both an arduous journey yet I realise a much enjoyable journey. Never read with such intent and purpose and understanding of scripture.

Perhaps I now understood why Jesus said He is the bread of life and He said in His very own temptation to the devil, Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

Jesus is the bread. The Word is Jesus (c.f. John 1). His very being should fill us. His very spirit shall indwell in us.

The life of God in the life of man...

What a satisfying thought..in that the bread and the giver of our lives is Jesus Himself, the redeemer to those who believes He is the redeemer.

Amen :)

A simple meal... :)

Went with 2 of my colleagues to try a HK Dim Sum stall that I heard so much about for a "simple" dinner. My colleague hails from HK..and she authenticate its authencity. Went there coz one of my colleague is leaving...so thought have a nice meal and therefore need a nice place with nice food...It is a family business...HK family who migrated to Singapore a couple of years ago...

Very sumptuous dinner. The custard bun, lotus leaf rice and prawn chee cheong fun are really nice. The rest are not too bad. Their mango pomelo desert is really really soothing and nice. Flip side is the stall is really cramped..no ambience..just a quick bite and u can't really stay for long coz the queue is long..but the food is still nice... Here are the pictures down that memory lane....

Continual Repentance

O GOD OF GRACE
Thou hast imputed my sin to my substitute,
and hast imputed his righteousness to my soul,
clothing me with a bridegroom's robe,
decking me with jewels of holiness
But in my Christian walk I am still in rags;
my best prayers are stained wtih sin;
my penitential tears are so much impurity;
my confessions of wrong are so many aggravations of sin;
my receiving the Spirit is tinctured with selfishness.

I need to repent of my repentance;
I need my tears to be washed;
I have no robe to bring to cover my sins,
no loom to weave my own righteousness;
I am always standing clothed in flithy garments,
and by grace am always receiving change of raiment,
for thou dost always justify the ungodly;
I am always going into the far country,
and always returning home as a prodigal,
always saying Father, forgive me,
and thou art always bringing forth the best robe.
Every morning, let me wear it,
every evening return in it,
go out to the day's work in it,
be married in it,
be wound in death in it,
stand before the great white throne in it,
enter heaven in it shining as the sun.
Grant me never to lose sight of
the exceeding sinfulness of sin,
the exceeding righteouness of salvation,
the exceeding glory of Christ,
the exceeding beautity of holiness,
the exceeding wonder of grace.

Pg 76, Vision of Valley, A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotion.

Rest of HK Pictures

Pictures in a nutshell. But it is 2 days till departure. My back is well and it is off to the works. From street side stall, to having claypots in restaurant, to a morning yummy HK dim sum till the final cup of coffee at Pacific Coffee by the Habour, hosted by Bruce Lee, thank God..it was a restful and wonderful trip! Enjoy the pics :)

The gladder things in life

Listening to today's sermon from Pastor Paul was very moving. He depicts the scenes leading to the crucification, the crucification, the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ very vividly.

It did all sound familiar. I am a 19 year old Christian after all. Saved at 13. Yet the vivid images, the depth and width of Jesus's sacrifice have brought a rememberence. A deep rememberance. I still forget what great love God has shown. I think sometimes my attitude towards sin is still callous. Hearing a sermon like this reminds me again how ugly sin is. My sin that is.

Jesus is precious. The crimson stain of sin, He has washed it white as snow. I hope I live my life to show that Jesus is precious. I thank God for today's message coz it is sobering. Very sobering. The harder I feel, as a Christian, as I get to know about Christ and what the bible tells about my Lord, the more grieved I can get when people deny the gospel. This Easter, 6 of my colleauges came. 3 are not saved. None professed Christ.

The hope that they will delve deep. I know what my Lord did is indeed a great sacrifice and indeed as in the words of the apostle, How could we neglect how great a salvation?!! How could we. I wish God would give them eyes to see and turn their hearts of stone.

What Christ did...Calvary...I thank you God. What glorious foretaste divine of my Saviour and the abode that I will come into the presence of my Lord when I pass away from this life.

The gladdest thing in this life is to name the name of my Saviour. His great love that in all of this, I shall display the Glory of my Lord.

Being a Balanced Christian

Stumbled a sermon entitled above.

Very sobering message. And recalled alot of things that was said and discuss before.
Text was taken from Psalm 90.

The preacher recalled the life of a missionary couple that gave their all to the mission field but neglected their teenage daughter only to regret in their old age.

I recalled countless insolence in my battle to win an argument but lost a soul in the past. Today I see that in others and I wish I could have opportunity to tell them so. I see also Christians going into semantics of bible interpretation and making an issue. I see Christians going into bible versions and making a whole load about it. I see Christians going into preaching style and condemning others but making one style the best of all.

We forget we defend and contend really the truth that is once delivered to the Saints. That is what is written in Jude. What is this truth? It is the truth of the bible. It is the truth of God who saves sinners through Christ. The truth that guards against any lies that does not uphold the truth of God. Lastly, we must remember we will die one day which is the most important and the simplest reality. Our days are numbered. Lets defend what should be defended and not be wasting time on what isn't necessary in the first place. In light of time, it is a vapour.

The devil is crafty at this. Really. A battleground disguised.

Psalm 90 speaks about the prayer of Moses. In whatever Moses does, he saw it in God's eyes. The eternity of God outweighs everything and Moses uses that to balance the right view of God to the right view of life.

Christians have been wounding themselves, thinking that they are defending the truth but instead they are zealous for a form not for God. Because truth builds love and when love is lost, it cannot be from God.

I have much to say about the semantics Christian are fighting. I love the gospel. I hope this is the message we defend. If there is anything that we should fight for, at least be the important peripherals that points back to the gospel.

Wasting lives on wasted time. What is the point?

Just putting some laments here. Grace shall lead me home. Sigh at times.

Rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the truth. Rejoice in the message that saves both your soul and the souls of others...

God's Highest Way

It is amazing how God answers prayer.

I look at Isaiah 55:8-9 and I stopped to realise, indeed God has shown Himself to be immaculately more wise than my feeble sight...

8 “ For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD.
9 “ For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.

Had been much troubled and stressed by my project's progress. Been delayed severely and so had to stayed back many nights in the laboratory to try and complete my experiments. Because of this, there are many nights, I had insufficient rest and time has always been tight.

Constanly been praying for deliverance and sometimes I dunno the way God will answer but has in a way "accepted" that this is part of God's design and purpose that He has sovereignly allowed this times of stress to have me continually depend on Him on grace. I didn't know He planned to show me a great work of grace.

Last thursday, I realised this amazing thing. My project is funded by the Prime Minister Office and the fund came through a project manager who oversee my project progress. That was last year January. The funding is from last year April to this year October. So time is really tight. My project is delayed due to many unforeseen hipcups and failed experiment trials.

The project manager quit his job in Prime Minister Office and join my company as a Research Policy Manager. I saw him in my company's auditorium when I went back to attend a talk. He told me he has joined HSA to oversee research policies. It was a surprise he joined us. We chatted and soon turn our conversation on the project he oversaw. Told him my progress and difficulties and he gave me advice on how to apply for project extension and how to write justification.

I am just totally blown off. Here am I desperate for time, in need of more time and dunno how to answer to the funding agency, i.e. Prime Minister Office if I failed to meet the proposed timeline. But God, but God provided the answer in the form of a man who oversaw my project..He agreed to advise me how to go about doing it. It was the perfect and highest adviser I could ever have.

It is just so amazing. So divine. So out of the world! That the answered prayer of God is above all human wisdom. I would never anticipate that God would take such a move for such an answer.

How on earth could I expect this? How on earth could I expect this???? Amazing Grace indeed. Thank you God. What a light at the tunnel which for months seem so bleak!!!!

What God said is Isaiah is indeed true. What a tremendous revelation of God. An ant on hot pot. But God has once more shown Himself to be stronger, I should say strongest than I could possibly imagine. How sight has failed but the faithfulness of God hsa prevailed yet again.

What a turn of events? Humanly impossible. But God, you did it. Thank you so much. Love so divine. Grace so divine.

Thank you my dearest Jesus!

Change

My PC hasn't been working well. Hence I thought I better backup some of my files.

Manage to read many articles, seen a few pictures, browse through some of the thoughts I had, read through some the songs I have written over the years.

Indeed many things have changed. Circumstances might not have in the sense of my job, the church I attend, where I stayed. But as a person, as I compared the way I think in the articles I have written, through the thoughts I have penned. Indeed, one way or another, your thought processes have changed.

Mellowed, careful and more careful. In almost a second, I felt that is like natural progression. Young people, especially babies doesn't know barriers. They have no fears just pure dare. Dare to do anything and feeling the pain thereafter.

I realised that I have placed more guards in my thoughts and in my actions.

Perhaps I should reconsider certain things that I adhere to. There ought to be always risks. Past experiences while painful in some are still valuable lessons. To keep guard and remember the pain, is to deny its lessons.

I look at some of the things I pen, I realise while I believed I have overcome them, yet in certain ways, I had not been living the same anymore. Perhaps it is a rude relisation.

Change is needed. From within.

There is going to be a change of environment, perhaps soon. But I think it is more pertinent that I consider the way I am going to live this life again.

Change for the better. Change that I believe I will see more of God and less of myself.

Wisdom

Is wisdom about pain?

That teeth that brings sore and swelling is annoucing its arrival but putting a discomfort at the corner of a dark cavity. Making entry of food less of a pleasure but more of a chore.

Is wisdom about denial?

Just sore and not really painful. Hopefully over in a couple of days.

Wait and see.

Hope it doesn't drive me to meet the tooth fairy I haven't seen for a long time. At least for an extraction.

Fingers are crossed.

Chisel and drills....A thought of a cavity under heavy construction is not a sign that I hope to see...Well, just wait and see.

The Escalator

I took a step towards an escalator. A step onward and it elevated. Slowly it did, closer to the 6th floor that I wanted to go.

Stepping another step, it was the next escalator. It took another six floors up.

12 storeys in all. Many people flashed by in all of the 12 storeys. Looking at each one faces, they had a story to tell.

Life is made of stories. Each has something difficult and different to relate, to tell. The 12 storeys escalator was in a shopping mall I chanced upon in Mongkok, Hongkong. It was an exceptional long ride, hence it was a very slow ride. So slow, that for once unlike in Singapore, I could look long and hard at everyone's expression.

I looked upward. Even I had a story to tell because it was difficult and different from everyone else.

Walking around, I came to a shop and so went in. It was a shop in a corner. There were wooden blocks everywhere. There was a calligrapher inside the shop.I took one wooden stick. She engraved a story.

A story that can only be worded on wood. DIfficult and different.

More Hong Kong Days

Ok by Day 3...I got my back ache...so..nothing more to say..Haha...Only on Day 4 night and Day 5 then manage to go out...and of course Day 6...think I just put everything in and some commentaries...

Didn't take a pic of my packeted dinner on Day 3...

Day 4



Thank God for the amazing ointment which after applying allowed me to go outside with my roommate to tug into a feast of sorts.. a eat out dinner meal..Think I might have shed a tear..

Day 5

Server error....to be resumed haha Something wrong with blogspot..cannot upload pictures...

Exhaustion

Pastor just preached about the horse being killed.

And here I am down with flu, tonsilitis and a nose that runs like a tap.

Too many late nights in the lab. Had been getting loads of results from the experiments but overworking like this is no solution...

Think finally I am going to succumb to an MC tomorrow..much needed rest. Body definitely cranking. Thank God for this sickness. What a stark reminder....

I am human and of dust after all...

Day 2 - Hong Kong

Think I put up Day 2 also. Visited our peers in the HK lab in the morning, had lunch with them and had free time after that. Went with a few of my colleauges to Mongkok by MTR...the place is busting with activites street food, loads of clothings and DVDs..loads, my colleagues just dispersed and did their own endeavours. I just went wandering..taking wherever my nose leads ...haha



Taking the MTR...


Streets of Mongkok...


Famous Mango Shake in HK...my colleague told me it is nice..so buy one and try...and u know what...it is nice...very the nice


A snack store..sell Smelly Bean Curd..did try when my colleague bought a packet..a tiny bit..the smell is not that bad but the tast is crispy and crunchy and a bit sour...Can live without it but the taste is ok...


Giant Squid Tentancles. Deep fried. Thankfully. Taste great....An outer crisp and a soft inside...nice


A coffee break before another long walk...


Finally Roast Goose...what I came to HK for :P


Combined with Rose wine Honey Chicken...perfect combo!


A pic of the teahouse where I had my dinner :)

End of Day 2....didn't take a pic of the hotel bedroom...zzzz Lessons start tomorrow..