Big Blue

The feeling of insignifcance...and the lure of awe.
Everyday's routine is like a springboard..to be released and be free.

I remember being in the Secoia Giant Redwood forest in Yosemite Park. That lostness of the biggness of the tree. Yes for once, I felt small in comparison. These trees are huge. Really huge.

Watching a documentary of the blue whale swimming along the California coast brought back memories of the 39-mile drive I had along this stretch of coast that overlook the Pacific ocean. I wish to return to that stretch of road. It was a wonder. A wonder. A real wonder.

God is great. He is really great.

Crossroad

I have prayed and considered this grave matter.
There will be a day of reckoning. There will be a day when all of us MUST die.

I take it as fear. Time is never never on our side. I have lived as though it is. Day by day, moments passes by faster than the MRT train I take.

There will be a day when I will die. Consider this, I have lived feeling the abundance of time yet it is not a value or amount that I know. Yet I have not lived in a way of reckoning.

I must consider this seriously to take the right path as the road towards another crossroad unfolds.

Sometimes

Sometimes I do wish life would be quieter so that I can listen.
Sometimes I do wish life would be slower so that I can catch up.
Sometimes I do wish life would be more accomodating so that I can grow steadily.
Sometimes I do wish life would be paced so that I know time hasn't slipped by.

There are many sometimes, and sometimes I wish there isn't any sometimes.

Perhaps a laughter, a wink but sometimes I do wish that I would gain more than I lost.

Sometimes.

Is there anything?

Is there anything to implore? Is there anything to seek?
For life to stand unyielding and unmovable? What must move my heart?

Can I trust my heart that is decietful and corrupt from the days of my youth?

For I sow corruption and yield wickedness.

There is only beauty in one. Righteousness in one. Filth and corruption is not found in Him. Only a love that abides, that is everlasting, the blood drawn from Emmanuel's vein. Precious it is that no man can measure its worth.

Seek no further my friend.

Your ashes for His beauty. Look to the cross and see the Christ that saves. Look and be saved.

The world will only turn uglier if only your gaze look more intently on His beauty.

The biggness of God

John Piper made these words ring a resonance, "If we imagine God for less than who He is, it is idolatory." "Right affections for God comes with a right view of God."

I agree with what John Piper said. He went on to say in America, there is an attempt to make God look small.

I heard from John MacArthur that we must believe God is able, that is the basis of faith (paraphrase). This is what we often lack.

Going back this reservist is quite an experience. Talking to my peers and hearing their talks, I observed something, people are hungry for success. They pit one another at their sucess stories, they ask how to be successful. Prosperity in material wealth is their goal. It may surprise you if you realise there were Christians engaging in this talk and showing great interest and desire to delve into how to be successful.

I just felt that we have dimmed our greater treasure in Christ. Shall I say the greater treasure we have is the greatest treasure. Christ. Christians not embracing Christ, Christian looking to Christ to be their success feeding their worldly pursuits. It is hard for anyone without Christ to see light that we shine, we live, we thirst, we love Jesus above all things. We engage people with their same thrist. It is no wonder that we have more similarities than differences to the world. When Christians engages the world, the world embraces him or her. Though it is told that friendship with the world is in enmity with God. The Christian's thirst is not wealth. It is righteousness. Christ is our righteousness.

Jesus made it clear, the world would hate you because they hated Him first. We don't show difference with the way we lived, the world would not resist. Christianity have dived low, simply we were taught that God is our aide to success. Perhaps we don't live by faith in God but a faith God who we idolize for His gifts, believing God is our genie, God is a dole-eyed empathising God that idolize our incapacity to be successful, that the centre of His worship is us.

What blamphemous idea is that? The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. We love Him because He first love us. Divine love is thought-out by God in whom He predestined, He foreknew, He justified, He also glorified through the slaying of His son. That is God's divine, highest and most gracious love. To degrade God's love to our own tool and not total worship is indeed idolatory. The love of God is unimaginably impossible, full of grace, mercy and power and if that dun implore us to love, what else will? It is a love that has glory all magnified.

I hope this experience would not make my heart shudder but strengthened. God's banner will always be held high. We need to know God. His highest good for us is that we hold Him highest in our life. The biggness of God never change. The only thing that needs changing is us. Our view of God must evolved to match who He really is. The transformed life will testify that. Our practise with our position in Christ.

The biggness of God. Sovereign, absolute soveriegn and all-conquering God. Nothing matters except He be worshipped. My life to give, yet He has taken into His everlasting love abode. Security in Christ, where shall I find my fear?

My Christ is all.

Day 04

It is day 04. We were moving towards our location. Surrounded by rubber trees and still rubber trees, our morales were depleted. Yet we continue to take stride.

We sought to position ourself in anticipation of the enemy attack. Hours lapsed. Still no sign. The occassional rasp from the trees brought reasons for us to fear. That we engage in comat and brings to a premature ends to our lives. We thought of our love ones.

Night fell. We havn't slept a wink. Some of us gave in. The snores was quickly amplified by the dead silence of the night. Yet, one by one, the symphony of snores became a ringing invitation that any attack now would mean instant annihilation.

Soon the night turned to day. It was comforting to see the first ray of light penetrating through the forest canopy or rather the plantation. A deep intake of relief breath soon followed by a slow tiring stride to my waiting car. Another day of war is over.

I shall rest another for tonight the hottest battle may ensue. There is no time for regrets only war. The battle must go on but at this point, this soldier must rest.

Being green

Thank God for a very neat camp. Personally I felt the messages were very good coz the message is so bible-based and is so well explained. Felt light illumination in understanding and rather than a message that is applicative, it is implicative. Coz of my position in Christ, my response should grow towards Christ-likenes.

Thank God also for the workshop on "How to study the bible?"...at least it throws some light on my personal responsiblity to ensure I dun misquote scripture out of context or worse misunderstood scriptures for what it didn't intend to mean. Thank God. In a way, "Drawing Near" to me seems defined that I have through this camp, knew God deeper coz His Word was taught with such clarity. I guess I was green in a certain way.

Well from Campus retreat camp to army camp. Being green today certainly wasn't comfortable...HahaHa...It is going to be 12hr clockwork like shift work. Wow..can't believe this camp could be so shiong..haha...well being green certainly cause your life to change drastically...Guess this would be a very different 2 weeks. Serving the nation...still feeling green thinking of this nationalism thought...can't wait for the 2 weeks to be up, but meanwhile, to get use of being green once a year. Haha. The cookhouse do serve very good food, with greens that is..

Stepping up

"Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation,be constant in prayer." Roms 12:12

We often while our time in trivialities. While there are things we do to relax, to unwind, there are times where excessiveness creeps in.

The indulgence of rountineness dulls our mind or it creates a lack of God-interest. What I mean is not that we can't speak godliness but we do not live godliness.

In 1 Cor 9:27, Paul says ,"27No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize."

Paul says that his one and only singular purpose in life is to run to reach the upward call of Christ Jesus to bring people to Christ. Yet more amazing than that, he says he will subject his own body, his own life under the lordship of Christ so that he would not be disqualified in the reward. He meant that he is not being disqualifited from being a gospeliter. He preached the gospel of grace, so he must lived the life of grace that is evident by holiness.

A love for God. A zeal for God cannot be by speech alone. It cannot also be by action only. Paul proclaim in 1 Corinthians 9 something before he wrote this epistle very personal. He defend not himself but He wants to draw men to know the Lord he serves is worth everthing. Everything. If that is true, his life is the Lord's everything as well.

This is the gospel he lives and therefore the gospel he gives. I quote Romans 12:12 because simply the deepest most of person joy in God comes from the hope Christ gives that produces peace in suffering that comes when we are devoted in prayer. None of us apart a life of devotion of Christ, can live Christ and produce Christ-exalting life messages to others unless we first ourself is all in love with Christ.

God-interest predominates our life and not self-interest.

Clear or not

Some things when you do, you are unclear about why you are doing.
But as you do, things become clear.
Then it become unclear again.

Doubts seems to be easiest to creep in. While confidence is good, I think the better of all is still being mindful.

Things and circumstances do change and unless we are wise as serpents yet gentle as doves, we create strifes that does nobody any good except the name of Christ be shamed.

Emotions always run high and the hardest to put out. Yet truth must keep our mind focus on the road ahead. Take stock time and time again. Question yourself. Preach to yourself. Do whatever it takes but keep yourself remember the Lord's goodness and resolve still to do good in the midst of the worst of circumstances. This is the hardest yet the most essential.