life eternal

One Life

2011-01-04T15:29:00.002+08:00

No one can sum up all God is able to accomplish through one solitary life, wholly yielded, adjusted, and obedient to Him.

~ D.L.Moody

Be With Me

2010-05-29T16:36:00.003+08:00

The trials and challenges may come thick and fast.

But having faith and trusting in my Redeemer - I must.

Because the help and deliverance that I need
Only He can provide.

Whatever it may be with me,
Be with me, Lord.

How Deep Our Father's Love

2010-01-23T11:32:00.002+08:00

This song has powerful lyrics that never fail to move my heart to ponder upon God's compassionate and unconditional love. I pray that I will daily live this life worthy of His name and His call. Praise God for this precious promise: We are indeed more than conquerors through Him who loved us (Romans 8:37).

How deep the Father's love for us,
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss,
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the chosen One,
Bring many sons to glory

Behold the Man upon a cross,
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice,
Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom

- Stuart Townend

Is what you are living for worth Christ dying for?

2010-01-19T17:19:00.003+08:00

For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.

~ 2 Corinthians 5: 14-15

2009-12-10T23:44:00.002+08:00

The great people of the earth today are the people who pray! I do not mean those who talk about prayer; nor those who say they believe in prayer; nor those who explain prayer; but I mean those who actually take the time to pray. They have not time. It must be taken from something else. That something else is important, very important and pressing, but still, less important and pressing than prayer. There are people who put prayer first, and group the other items in life's schedule around and after prayer. These are the people today who are doing the most for God in winning souls, in solving problems, in awakening churches, in supplying both men and money for mission posts, in keeping fresh and strong their lives far off in sacrificial service on the foreign field, where the thickest fighting is going on, and in keeping the old earth sweet a little while longer.

- S.D. Gordon

No reserves. No retreats. No regrets.

2009-01-28T23:05:00.003+08:00

Thank you for
starting me on this amazing journey, Lord.
Am loving every moment of it.
Am looking forward to what is to come.

I pray that through it all
I will love You more and more
each day
so supremely
so surrenderedly

This is all I will ever live for in this life.

So dearest Lord,
please continue to lead me
and walk me through
this road so worth the distance.

Choose Life

2008-11-19T16:17:00.002+08:00

See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;
In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.
But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;
I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it.
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

~ Deuteronomy 30:15-20

Every choice I make, Lord
Let me worship You
Let me glorify You
Let me choose life.

Thou has lacked nothing

2008-10-19T21:08:00.005+08:00

The Lord spoke to me in a real way during my QT this morning. As I was embarking on the book of Deuteronomy, I came across this verse which convicted my heart deeply:

For the LORD thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand: he knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness: these forty years the LORD thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing.

~ Deuteronomy 2:7

Am thoroughly overwhelmed by how great and amazing our God is as I meditated on this portion of His Word..all the way our Saviour leads us and we can certainly trust Him -- He will be with us each step of life's journey and through it all, we will lack absolutely NOTHING. How He preserved His beloved children of Israel and provided for their every need, He will certainly accomplish the very same in each of our lives. I thank God for using His truth to challenge me especially during this time. What a wonderful and precious promise from His heart..one that will see me through every step of faith that I will be making for His glory in the months ahead. Our Heavenly Father will definitely show Himself strong in our lives..and His providence for all of our needs WILL surely be very real and awesome. Am particularly blessed by Pastor Jason and Paul's recent preaching on faith, laying up treasures in Heaven and living in the light of eternity. Thank God for these reminders of His goodness and greatness through His faithful servants. I prayed to the Lord today to ask Him to meet Eugene and myself at each step of faith that we will be making in the future.

Lord, I am ready to trust You come what may, I am ready to let You lead us.
I will choose to yield to You and follow You unquestioningly. Please take absolute control of all that is within my life. I know that I have been bought with a price. This life and its rights do not belong to me. It is all from You. And it is now all Yours.

Please grant me Your unfailing grace as I journey on with You. Thank you for the assurance that I can trust and depend on You..the all-powerful and awesome One who loves us with an everlasting love, died for us and saved us for all eternity.

Thank You for giving me the comfort and peace of leaning on Your everlasting arms.
I believe that You will NEVER fail me.

People Need The Lord by Steve Green

2008-09-27T11:12:00.008+08:00

Everyday they pass me by,

I can see it in their eyes;

Empty people filled with care,

Headed who knows where.

On they go through private pain,

Living fear to fear;

Laughter hides their silent cries

Only Jesus hears.

People need the Lord,

People need the Lord;

At the end of broken dreams,

He's the open door.

People need the Lord,

People need the Lord;

When will we realize

People need the Lord.

We are called to take His light

To a world where wrong is right;

What could be too great a cost

For sharing life with one who's lost?

Through His love our hearts can feel

All the grief they bear;

They must hear the Words of Life

Only we can share.

People need the Lord,

People need the Lord;

At the end of broken dreams,

He's the open door.

People need the Lord,

People need the Lord;

When will we realize

That we must give our lives,

For people need the Lord.

People need the Lord.

nancillas forever~*

2008-09-15T17:47:00.002+08:00

*~always precious to me..Moots, Nancilla, Weini, Ah-Na & Choby~*..You gals have been such amazing St Cats buddies and i thank God for all of ya. ♥ ya babes loads..nancillas forever! ;)

Footprints in the Sand

2008-09-06T10:44:00.008+08:00

One night I dreamed a dream. I was walking along the beach with my Lord. Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life. For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand, one belonging to me and one to my Lord.

When the last scene of my life shot before me I looked back at the footprints in the sand. There was only one set of footprints. I realized that this was at the lowest and saddest times of my life. This always bothered me and I questioned the Lord about my dilemma.

“Lord, You told me when I decided to follow You, You would walk and talk with me all the way. But I'm aware that during the most troublesome times of my life there is only one set of footprints. I just don't understand why, when I need You most, You leave me.”

He whispered, "My precious child, I love you and will never leave you, never, ever, during your trials and testings. When you saw only one set of footprints, It was then that I carried you.”

~ Margaret Fishback Powers

2008-09-04T12:16:00.003+08:00

Every circumstance that touches my life has first been filtered through His fingers of love..♥

2008-09-01T16:52:00.009+08:00

The Lord had accomplished a truly incredible soul-saving and life-changing work during the recent Philippines evangelistic campaign! It has been about a month since our return to Singapore and I am still in awe of the many wonderful things that He has done and allowed us to experience there. Praise God for granting us open doors to serve Him in a land where people are so hungry for the truth..what a joy and privilege it was to reach out to so many in need of the Saviour’s love and grace.

There is proof of a ripe and vast harvest field prepared by the Lord in the Philippines and it is such a great blessing to see that the hearts of the people are ever willing and ready to hear the gospel. Thank God for the marvelous working of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of men..He had touched and changed so many lives during the campaign. All of us were expecting God to do mighty things in the lives of the people there but He also did amazing things in each of our lives too. Praise God for His grace and favour and for going before us each step of the way!

I was particularly humbled and inspired by the dedication and commitment of our Filipino brothers and sisters-in-Christ serving at Student Movement for Christ (SMC) - a campus ministry dedicated to evangelizing to students in the high schools and universities in the Philippines. These dear brethren have great unwavering love and faith in the Lord and they gave so much of themselves to the cause of winning souls to Christ.

As faithful labourers for the Lord, they always seek to be a blessing to every one that God brings into their lives. Throughout the course of the trip, they cared for our needs and made sure that we had adequate meals and lodging, arranged transportation and assured appropriate preparation and equipment at each outreach and gospel night during the evangelistic campaign. Special thanks to Pastor Mechelle and Fily Joy (SMC Dumaguete), Renz (SMC Cebu), Ven (SMC Bohol), Ate Joy (SMC Leyte) and the many faithful servants of the Lord who serve alongside them - all of them have been so giving and selfless to us without expecting anything in return. I pray that God will bless their hearts and reward their humble labour of love tremendously.

Praise God for the incredible opportunity of being part of a servant-hearted and mission-minded team of fellow believers – Filipinos (from SMC), Americans (from Highlands Baptist Church and Falls Baptist Church) and Singaporeans (from Gospel Light Christian Church) – all with the common vision of fulfilling God’s desire that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. I am very inspired by Pastor Mike’s love for God and his fervent passion in preaching the gospel. Thank God for his wonderful servant-leadership and his mentorship in evangelism. We learnt how to challenge others to place their complete faith and dependence on Christ through various soul-winning illustrations taught to us by Pastor Mike. He encouraged us, led us, prayed with us, laughed with us, and worked tirelessly with us - praise God for using him greatly to inspire, sharpen and equip us for the mission at hand.

The prayer sessions that we had as a team were very precious. These times of seeking the Lord together on our knees enabled us to catch the vision of the Lord’s heart for the lost. We prayed for Him to saturate our hearts with the love and compassion of our Saviour and to make the powerful gospel fresh and real to us as we preached it from our hearts. Our hearts were filled with much thanksgiving for the multiple answers to prayer daily as souls were saved by the hundreds and doors of opportunities for us to evangelise freely were opened. The Lord also gave us sweet unity within the team despite our different cultures and backgrounds. It was simply wondrous experiencing the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit..what a great joy it was to be one in Christ, yielded and ready to be used by Him!

The Lord blessed us in so many ways! He allowed countless opportunities for us to do room-to-room evangelism within the campuses, to give tracts out freely and to hold open-air gospel meetings attended by hundreds of high school and university students. We also had numerous divine appointments and much freedom proclaiming the gospel to many groups of students during their break-time and during after school hours at the campuses. Such light, life and liberty in soulwinning could only come from our awesome and amazing God who does the impossible. It was nothing of our own doing, but all of Him - He was definitely in absolute control.

He truly has been very faithful in equipping and strengthening each of us for the work. Having never preached the gospel and giving an open invitation to trust Christ to a large crowd in a classroom setting before, I felt quite overwhelmed, yet excited about how the Lord was going to work. I knew that I had to fully depend on the Holy Spirit to grant me courage and wisdom to speak to the people. I daily exchanged my weakness and inability for His strength for it was evident that in and of myself, it was impossible meeting the needs of the many students so hungry for His Word, His truth. It was a truly challenging and inspiring experience for me claiming God’s power and going forth boldly into each classroom jam-packed with young people to share the good news. Thank God for being so patient and merciful in guiding this weak vessel into taking steps to walk by faith and not by sight! He has been so real to me and I will never forget how He showed Himself strong, granting me opportunities to trust Him completely in my inadequacies.

I thank God for the opportunity of teaming up with Mrs. Angela Tucker and Erica Ebel from Highlands Baptist Church together with Eugene during the classroom evangelism sessions at Dumaguete – both of these dear American sisters never held back from declaring the good news with passion and love when given the opportunity to do so. The Lord had instilled in them a tremendous amount of boldness and faith and it was a real blessing witnessing the might of the Spirit with them.

In all the divine appointments that we had, it was absolutely amazing seeing many people raising their hands and indicating their desire to accept Christ. The harvest truly is plenteous and ripe for the picking..at each classroom encounter, the Lord moved in wondrous ways and many teachers and students had open hearts ready to receive Him. Their hearts are so tender towards the Lord and it was evident that they have an insatiable thirst for the truth. I saw people broken over their sin, and others being delivered from their past having made the decision to forsake their sinful lifestyles and get their hearts right with God. The manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s power in breaking each hardened heart and healing every broken heart was so real to us and we have only gratefulness in our hearts towards the Master of Miracles for bringing people to repentance and to Himself.

There were many personal encounters that we had and my most memorable one was meeting a young lady who walked into our first gospel night held at Negros Oriental State University (NORSU), Dumaguete. It was then I met A for the first time. She seemed to be living the ‘alternative’ lifestyle by the looks of her attire and behaviour. Her companion followed her into the hall and both of them took their seats at the back. That evening, Pastor Mike preached strongly against the sin of homosexuality and immorality and he implored everyone to examine their hearts and to make the most important decision of their lives to trust Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. He cited Bible verses which emphasized the need for us to forsake sin and to choose a new life and freedom in Christ. He also urged everyone to awaken to the urgency of the hour and to receive the gift of salvation that night.

God worked to convict the hearts of the people and many indicated their desire to give their hearts to Christ. A did not respond to the appeal, but her friend raised her hand and made a decision for Christ. I believed that A was struggling - a battle was raging within her heart. A’s friend made her way towards the front when Pastor Mike asked for those who responded to come forward. A remained unsurrendered and sat at her seat looking downcast. I took the opportunity to introduce myself to A and to speak to her. As I opened my Bible to share some verses with her, I could feel her confusion and pain as she opened up to me. She shared that deep within her heart she is willing to forsake her sin and give up her old lifestyle. She just did not think that God could forgive her for the ways she had lived her life. Tears flowed down her cheeks. The Lord was breaking her heart. Praying silently in my heart, I asked Him to take hold of her heart and bring her to a point of surrender. I later challenged her to allow Jesus into her life as He was the only one who could transform it and set her free from her bondage to sin. By God’s grace, she eventually made the precious choice to surrender her heart to the Lord. There was immense joy in my heart when she took the step to pray the sinner’s prayer with an earnest heart. The battle within her heart ended and the Lord had the victory.

After parting with A that evening, I thought that that was the first and only time I was to see her. Little did I know that God had greater plans. Before the start of our 3rd and last gospel night at NORSU that week, I headed to Freedom Park, a popular hang-out place of campus students, to invite people to join us for the event. It was then A came up to me and offered her help. At that very moment, I had been praying for someone to give me a hand in rounding up the students in the park and directing them to the gospel night venue in NORSU..and A was a definite answer to prayer! In a jiffy, she set off to work. Before my very eyes, Christ had converted this precious soul to become a saint and now she had become a soulwinner for Him! A crowd of young people followed A back to that same hall where she gave her heart to Christ 2 nights ago. The Lord had used her to invite about 25 newcomers and a number of them trusted the Lord that evening. I was touched to tears seeing her saved and now serving her Lord.

Before we parted, she indicated that she would like to know more about SMC and attend the Bible Studies there so I allowed her to meet fellow SMCians who shared more details regarding the ministry to her. Both A and me had a time of prayer together after and I prayed that the Lord will continue to mould and shape her life, that He will use her greatly to serve Him at SMC. Before we parted, we rejoiced in the fact that even if there was a possibility that we might not be able to see each other again in the Philippines, we will meet each other again in Heaven. Please pray with me that the Lord will continue to do a deep work in this young lady’s life and that she will grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord. This encounter with A, orchestrated by the Lord, has left a deep impression on my life, and also on the lives of A’s friends who trusted the Lord. He truly can do amazing things through one heart, one life that is completely consecrated and surrendered to Him. It is my hope that the Spirit’s power be manifested in each of our lives just as it was in A’s.

We have such a great prayer-answering God, an amazing mountain-moving God..we rejoice to know that 20,643 people heard the gospel and about 11,400 of them made a decision for Christ at the end of two weeks! To all faithful prayer warriors who have been labouring in prayers for this evangelistic campaign: your labour is not in vain in the Lord! All of you have fought spiritual battles for victory on your knees and without each of you interceding for God’s power..the hearts and minds of the people would not have been so open and prepared to receive Jesus Christ; the souls of many people would not have their eternal destiny set in heaven. We experienced a number of spiritual attacks whilst we were in the Philippines, but Christ had the ultimate victory..because He used each of you to intercede for the ministry. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you so much for being such willing servants for His work! Please do pray with us for the thousands who have heard the gospel and commited their lives to Christ. Please also continue to pray that the follow-up and discipleship of the new converts through SMC and partnering churches will be fruitful and effective - that fruit will remain and that many will dedicate their lives to serving Him in SMC.

It is God’s desire that all of us will gain a greater sense of where He wants to use us in His master plan. Through all the experiences I had in the Philippines, God had left such deep impressions on my heart that I have decided to take bigger and bolder steps to make evangelism a lifestyle. I pray that I will always respond to the Lord as He directs, and that He will help me take my eyes off from myself and increase my burden for the lost. It is so true that when you choose to take a step of faith for Christ to be used by Him, you will never be the same. He will become so real to you that the ways you think, minister, give and pray will never ever be the same. The Spirit transforms and fills you at each step of faith you take for His glory and at the very end of our journey of faith with Him, we can all look forward to that glorious day in Heaven when we will be reunited with all of these precious souls again, and each of them will tell us that through our steps of faith in serving Him - God became real to their hearts and lives too.

Each of us can make a difference. The experiences I had in the Philippines made me realise this fact more then ever - that we can be that one to make a great difference for Christ, for a person, for eternity.

Will you be the one?

In a world full of broken dreams

Where the truth is hard to find

For every promise that is kept

There are many left behind

Though it seems that nobody cares

It still matters what you do

Cause there's a difference you can make

But the choice is up to you

Chorus

Will you be the one

To answer to His call

Will you stand

When those around you fall

Will you be the one

To take His light

Into a darkened world

Tell me will you be the one

Oh sometimes it's hard to know

Who is right and what is wrong

And where are you supposed to stand

When the battle lines are drawn

There's a voice that is calling out

For someone who’s not afraid

To be a beacon in the night

To a world that's lost its way

There are still some battles

That I must fight from day to day

Yet the Lord provides the power

For me to stand and say

Chorus

I will be the one

To answer to His call

I will stand

When those around me fall

I will be the one

To take His light

Into a darkened world
I will be the one

(Two SMCians, Sandra and Emily, shared this song entitled “Will You Be The One?” with a group of us during our journey to the campuses in Leyte. *Composer: Al Denson)

As sons and daughters of God, we face a crucial choice: will we turn inward and focus on the new life we have in Christ only as it benefits us? Or will we look beyond our very selves, giving ourselves completely to God and opening our hearts to His purposes for us? I pray and trust that the Lord will enable all of us to make that right choice to take the stand to say that we will be that one to answer His call...to serve Him wherever He leads us.

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

And how shall they preach, except they be sent?

~ Romans 10:13-15a

That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the LORD, that it is mighty: that ye might fear the LORD your God for ever.

~ Joshua 4:24

The Power of Prayer

2008-08-29T17:16:00.002+08:00

The prayer power has never been tried to its full capacity. If we want to see mighty wonders of divine power and grace wrought in the place of weakness, failure and disappointment, let us answer God's standing challenge, "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not!"

~ J. Hudson Taylor

The great people of the earth today are the people who pray! I do not mean those who talk about prayer; nor those who say they believe in prayer; nor those who explain prayer; but I mean those who actually take the time to pray. They have not time. It must be taken from something else. That something else is important, very important and pressing, but still, less important and pressing than prayer. There are people who put prayer first, and group the other items in life's schedule around and after prayer. These are the people today who are doing the most for God in winning souls, in solving problems, in awakening churches, in supplying both men and money for mission posts, in keeping fresh and strong their lives far off in sacrificial service on the foreign field, where the thickest fighting is going on, and in keeping the old earth sweet a little while longer.

~ S.D. Gordon

Only He Himself Mattered

2008-08-28T17:50:00.002+08:00

I had utterly abandoned myself to Him.
Could any choice be as wonderful as His will?
Could any place be safer than the center of His will?
Did not He assure me by His very presence that His thoughts toward us are good, and not evil?
Death to my own plans and desires was almost deliriously delightful.
Everything was laid at His nail-scarred feet, life or death, health or illness, appreciation by others or misunderstanding, success or failure as measured by human standards.

Only He Himself mattered.

~ Victor R. Edman

Worship

2008-08-26T18:01:00.003+08:00

Worship is the occupation of the heart, not with its needs, or even with its blessings, but with God Himself. It is the outpouring of a soul at rest in the presence of God.

~ A.P. Gibbs

Father, please grant me a heart filled with unwavering faith in Your greatness and goodness.
A heart that is completely yielded to You..a heart that is always yearning to worship You in spirit and in truth.

2008-08-22T15:57:00.003+08:00

My greatest inheritance - heaven and its glory.
My greatest victory - over death through Christ.
My greatest neglect - so great a salvation.
My greatest crime - to reject Christ.
My greatest bargain - to lose all to win Christ.
My greatest profit - godliness now and forever.
My greatest peace - passes all understanding.
My greatest knowledge - to know God and Christ.

2008-08-21T18:01:00.001+08:00

A soulwinner is a nobody who is seeking to tell everybody about Somebody who has the power to change anybody.

- Michael Gott

Are you able?

2008-08-19T16:35:00.003+08:00

Able to suffer without complaining,
To be misunderstood without explaining?
Able to endure without breaking,
To be forsaken without forsaking?
Able to give without receiving,
Able to ask without commanding,
To love despite misunderstanding?
Able to turn to the Lord for guarding;
Able to wait for His own rewarding?

~ Mildred White Stouven

Born for God

2008-08-15T14:44:00.003+08:00

I am born for God only.
Christ is nearer to me than father, or mother, or sister -- a near relation, a more affectionate Friend; and I rejoice to follow Him, and to love Him.
Blessed Jesus! Thou art all I want -- a forerunner to me in all I ever shall go through as a Christian, a minister, or a missionary.

~ Henry Martyn

What is Joy?

2008-08-01T16:19:00.001+08:00

Joy is not gush: joy is not jolliness. Joy is simply perfect acquiescence in God's will, because the soul delights itself in God Himself..rejoice in the will of God, and in nothing else. Bow down your heads and your hearts before God, and let the will, the blessed will of God, be done.

~ Amy Carmichael

2008-07-30T21:28:00.002+08:00

There is a need for us to give ourselves for the life of the world.
An easy-going non-self-denying life will never be one of power.
Fruit-bearing involves cross-bearing.
There are not two Christs – an easy-going one for easy-going Christians, and a suffering, toiling one for serious believers.
There is only one Christ.
Are you willing to abide in Him, and thus bear much fruit?
Would that God would make hell so real to us that we cannot rest; heaven so real that we must have men there; and Christ so real that our supreme motive and aim shall be to bring Him joy by the conversion to Him of many.

~ Hudson Taylor

Go Forward

2008-07-29T15:24:00.004+08:00

Our Lord told us that the field is the world. In politics today men are thinking in terms of international affairs, in business all the continents are being combed for markets, and even in daily life every newspaper reader is becoming world-conscious. And yet, we, the people of God have not fully realized that we are to be a testimony to the world. We say that the door of heaven is shut to everyone who does not come through Christ, and while millions are dying without having heard His name, we are shamefully cold and indifferent toward foreign mission work.

Shall we beat a retreat and turn back from our high calling in Christ Jesus? Or dare we advance at God’s command in the face of the impossible? Let us remind ourselves that the Great Commission was never qualified by clauses that called for advance only if funds were plentiful and if no hardship or self-denial were involved. On the contrary, we were told to expect tribulation and even persecution, but with it victory in Christ. Surely His answer today is just what it was in Moses’ day, “Speak unto the people that they go forward.”

Our way is plain. We must not retrench in any work which we are convinced is in His will and for His glory. We dare not turn back because the way looks dark. Of this we may be sure, that if we have been redeemed by Christ’s blood, and our called into His service, His work done in His way and for His glory will never lack His support. We must go forward in the face of the impossible even if we know only the next step.

And whether we labour in the churches, or in evangelistic work, or in missions, we must all seek to answer the cry of this godless civilization by turning men to Him who saves from the penalty and power of sin. This bewildered age needs to know that only the foundation of God standeth sure. God is using these days to tear many a man loose from the things to which his heart has clung. It is ours to show them incorruptible riches which bank failures and economic conditions cannot touch. It is ours to show them in the salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in personal communion with Him a joy unspeakable and full of glory that cannot be affected by any outside circumstances.

We too must press forward, for it is no time for delay when a million souls a month pass into Christless graves in China, with other countries adding their hundreds of thousands. We must bring them that message that will deliver them from the power of Satan and bring them into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

For every Christian there is this challenge of man’s need and of God’s command to make all haste in the propagation of the gospel. Let us be sure that we are engaged in what is really His work, and then despite the difficulties, the remembrance of His faithfulness in the past will give us renewed hope and courage for the future.

People of God, does it not thrill our hearts today to realize that we do not answer such a challenge in our own strength? Think of it! God Himself is with us for our Captain; the Lord of Hosts is present in person in every field of conflict to encourage us and to fight for us. With such a Captain, who never lost a battle, or deserted a soldier in distress, or failed to get through the needed supplies, who would not accept the challenge to “Go forward, bearing precious seed”?

~ John Stam, April 21, 1932

2008-07-28T16:16:00.003+08:00

It’s as clear as daylight to me that the only worthwhile life is one of unconditional surrender to God’s will, and of living in His way, trusting His love and guidance.

When we consecrate ourselves to God, we think we are making a great sacrifice, and doing lots for Him, when really we are only letting go some little, bitsie trinkets we have been grabbing, and when our hands are empty, He fills them full of His treasures.

~ Betty Stam

Will you be the one?

2008-07-28T10:07:00.003+08:00

In a world full of broken dreams
Where the truth is hard to find
For every promise that is kept
There are many left behind
Though it seems that nobody cares
It still matters what you do
Cause there's a difference you can make
But the choice is up to you

Will you be the one
To answer to His call
Will you stand
When those around you fall
Will you be the one
To take His light
Into a darkened world
Tell me will you be the one

Oh sometimes it's hard to know
Who is right and what is wrong
And where are you supposed to stand
When the battle lines are drawn
There's a voice that is calling out
For someone who’s not afraid
To be a beacon in the night
To a world that's lost it's way
There are still some battles
That I must fight from day to day
Yet the Lord provides the power
For me to stand and say

I will be the one
To answer to His call
I will stand
When those around me fall
I will be the one
To take His light
Into a darkened world
I will be the one

~ Al Denson

Thanks so much for sharing this meaningful song with me, dear Indays Sandy and Emily..thank you for answering God's call to be the ones to take His light into this darkened world.
May Christ's cross be your cause, and His purpose, your passion.
Praying for both of you to be used mightily by the power of the Holy Spirit to be a shining light in our generation.

With love,
Ate Daphne :)

What are you living for?

2008-07-08T17:31:00.004+08:00

I hope you will be a missionary wherever your lot is cast..
It makes but little difference after all where we spend these few fleeting years,
if they are only spent for the glory of God.
Be assured there is nothing else worth living for.

~ Elizabeth Freeman

2008-07-08T11:51:00.006+08:00

If there be therefore any consolation in Christ,
if any comfort of love,
if any fellowship of the Spirit,
if any bowels and mercies,

Fulfil ye my joy,
that ye be likeminded,
having the same love,
being of one accord,
of one mind.

Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory;
but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
Look not every man on his own things,
but every man also on the things of others.

Let this mind be in you,
which was also in Christ Jesus:
Who, being in the form of God,

thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
But made himself of no reputation,
and took upon him the form of a servant,
and was made in the likeness of men:

And being found in fashion as a man,
he humbled himself,
and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross.

Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him,
and given him
a name which is above every name:
That at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow,
of things in heaven,
and things in earth,
and things under the earth;

And that every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

~ Philippians 2:1-11

2008-05-28T14:14:00.003+08:00

Only Christ
enables us
to live this life
not somehow,
but triumphantly.

Thanks be unto God
who always causeth us
to triumph in Christ.

~ 2 Corinthians 2:14a

2008-05-14T16:34:00.003+08:00

I need my soul
to have a fixed,
unflinching gaze
on Christ,
wherever He takes me.

No matter what shakes my world
His mighty and everlasting arms
are underneath it all.

I can trust You, Lord.
I can trust You
with my life.

I believe that
with You alone,
the impossible
becomes possible.

I Belong

2008-04-07T16:16:00.002+08:00

Not angels, nor demons, no power on earth or heaven
Not distance, nor danger, no trouble now or ever

Nothing can take me from Your great love
Forever this truth remains

I belong, I belong to You
I belong, I belong to You

Not hardship, nor hunger, no pain or depth of sorrow
Not weakness, nor failure, no broken dream or promise

Nothing can take me from Your great love
Forever this truth remains

I belong, I belong to You
I belong, I belong to You

~ K. Scott

Be Wary of the Adversary

2008-04-02T11:19:00.000+08:00

Satan promises the best, but pays with the worst; he promises honor, and pays with disgrace; he promises pleasure, and pays with pain; he promises profit, and pays with loss; he promises life, and pays with death.

~ Thomas Brooks

Your Heart

2008-03-03T19:54:00.001+08:00

As the waters cover the sea
So Your everlasting love covers me
Guiding me on
To roads unknown
I trust in You alone

I will rest in Your open arms of love
A true haven of peace and rest
Keep me there, Lord
And draw me nearer
And closer
To Your heart

Of Chapters and Choices

2008-02-22T14:25:00.002+08:00

Plan the various forms of your life’s ministry in chapters.
Chapters are divided by various things - age, strength, singleness, marriage, employment, children at home, children in college, grandchildren, retirement, etc.
No chapter has all the joys.
Finite life is a series of tradeoffs.
Finding God’s will, and living for the glory of Christ to the full in every chapter is what makes it a success, not whether it reads like somebody else’s chapter or whether it has in it what only another chapter will bring.

Always develop a wartime mentality and lifestyle; that you never forget that life is short, that billions of people hang in the balance of heaven and hell every day, that the love of money is spiritual suicide, that the goals of upward mobility (nicer clothes, cars, houses, vacations, food, hobbies) are a poor and dangerous substitute for the goals of living for Christ with all your might and maximizing your joy in ministry to people’s needs.

~ 'A Prayer for Women' by John Piper

A New Year

2008-01-16T14:00:00.000+08:00

I am the new year.
I am unused, unspotted, without blemish.
I stretch before you three hundred and sixty-five days long.
I will present each day in its turn, a new leaf in the book of life for you to place upon it your imprint.
I am an unspoiled page in your book of time.
I am your next chance at the art of living.
I am your opportunity to practice what you have learned about life during the last twelve months.
Each hour of every day, I will give you sixty minutes that have never known the use of man.
White and pure I present them; it remains for you to fill them.
With sixty jewelled seconds of love, hope, endeavour, patience and trust in God.
All that you sought and did not find is hidden in me, waiting for you to search it but with more determination.
All the good that you tried for and did not achieve is mine to grant when you have fewer conflicting desires.
All that you dreamed but did not dare to do, all that you hoped but did not will, all the faith that you claimed but did not have -- these slumber lightly, waiting to be awakened by the touch of a strong purpose.
I am your opportunity to renew your allegiance to Him who said, "Behold, I make all things new."
I am the new year. I am here -- but once past, I can never be recalled.
Make me your best!

~ Author Unknown

2007-11-26T15:24:00.002+08:00

I know that Your grace
can change
all of these things
and all that is
within me
my soul
and
my heart

Lord
I humbly ask
that
You in
Your greatness
and
Your glory
will
sweeten
outward pain
with
inward peace
overflowing from
the riches of
praise,
prayer
and power

Please
astound
me Lord
and
move me
inspire me
in life's
precious
moments
with
the remembrance
and the joy
that
You
are
my God.

True Power

2007-11-22T12:03:00.000+08:00

For true power to prayer, hold nothing back.
Be surrendered to Christ.
Go all out for Him.
Forsake all to follow the Saviour.
The type of devotion that crowns Christ Lord of all is the kind that He loves to honour.

~ William Mcdonald

A Yuppie's Prayer

2007-11-12T15:06:00.001+08:00

Dear Lord, day in and day out,
I'm in the daily grind,
Meetings here, desk work there,
Always on the go, You'd find.

I know somehow You've put me here,
In my work, to make a difference,
Help me stop and take stock,
Let me have the perspective that makes sense.

I lay my work and lifestyle at Your feet,
With heart willing in submission
To Your will and dream of my life,
For which You have the best plan and vision.

May what I earn not be for naught,
Never should I use these for selfish gain,
Rather, those in need, lend a helping hand.
With hope my faith will never wane.

May those I love in my life,
Never be neglected by me.
All my relationships good and strong,
As best as they can be.

And as I go along this life's journey,
Searching for my place,
Guide me along, protect my way,
Till I thank You face to face.

2007-11-06T21:12:00.000+08:00

If the blind put their hand in God's, they find their way more surely than those who see but have not faith or purpose.

~ Helen Keller

2007-11-06T20:45:00.000+08:00

Far away, there in the sunshine, are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they may lead.

~ Louisa May Alcott

Strength Bestowed

2007-11-01T11:16:00.000+08:00

I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way. ~ Mark 2:11

That was surely a very strange command to give to a paralyzed man. He could not rise up. He could not lift up his bed. He could not walk a step. He was as helpless as a corpse. Why did Jesus require of him such an impossibility? But as we look on the helpless form we see that it at once starts up. The limbs move, the man rises, takes up his bed, and walks away in the presence of all the people. As we watch him going his way, we learn that when Christ gives any command which seems impossible, He always gives strength to perform it. As the man’s will began to obey Christ’s bidding, power came back into his long-paralyzed body, and he was able to rise up and walk.

It is the same in spiritual life. We have no power in ourselves to do Christ’s will, but as we begin to obey the needed grace is given. Young people often say that they are afraid to enter upon a Christian life because they cannot do what will be required. In their own strength they cannot. It would be as easy for them to climb to the stars as unaided to live a noble and lovely Christian life. Human strength in itself is inadequate to life’s sore needs. But the young Christian who sets out in obedience to Christ, depending upon Him to open the path of duty, will never fail of needed help at the moment of need. Older Christians also often shrink from duties because they have not the ability to perform them; but for them, and for all who attempt any work of service in obedience to Christ, it is true that the effort to obey will always bring with it the strength to obey. We should notice too that the strength will not come until we try to obey. If we will not attempt to do our duty, we shall remain for ever poor paralytics; but as we put forth the exertion the life will flow into our souls, and we shall be strong.

~ J.R. Miller

2007-10-28T22:47:00.000+08:00

We live in an incredibly beautiful world and it is sad that we fail to realise this at times. It is definitely through witnessing perfect moments of soul-restoring beauty that we can testify that God has made His amazing imprint upon our lives by casting His shadow and power upon this universe.. =)

away alone

2007-10-27T23:50:00.000+08:00

Hot tears
of frustration and pain
well up in her eyes
Stifled cries
Unanswered questions
locked
within
the deep recesses
of her heart
Never to be verbalised
heard
or known

Everything would have been so different
if you were
still here with me.
A completely different life
it would have been
for you
and
for me

But now
with
the many
what-could-have-beens
that plague
her heart
and
her mind

She makes
her journey through life

Alone

He thinks about you

2007-10-17T10:51:00.000+08:00

When a tear is wept by you, don't think that your Father does not see it. Your sigh is able to move the heart of Jehovah; your whisper can incline His ear to you; your prayer can stay His hands; your faith can move His arm. Do not think that God sits on high in eternal slumber, taking no account of you. Engraved on the Father's hand your name remains, and on His heart. He thought of you before the worlds were made. Before the channels of the sea were scooped or the mountains lifted their heads in the clouds, He thought of you.

He thinks about you still.

~ C.H. Spurgeon

Decisions

2007-10-07T20:36:00.000+08:00

It has come to a point for me now to make a number of important decisions.

Decisions which will affect many things..decisions which are crucial and needful during this time.

I hope the Lord will help me refrain from magnifying the nitty-gritties but to always keep the big picture in focus.

I can never make a good and informed decision apart from You, Lord. Any choice made out of Your sovereign Will will set me on the wrong path. I know this for a fact but yet my flesh yells for me to take the easy way out all the time. I had resolved to do this and that but I want to know, Lord..I need to know whether this is the path You want me to take.

So lead me on, dear Lord. And never let me go.

In Step With You

2007-10-03T17:59:00.000+08:00

Help me walk with You each day, dearest Lord..one step at a time.. :)

Prayer

2007-09-27T17:15:00.000+08:00

With God’s saints in all ages: nights of prayer with God have been followed by days of power with men.

~ The Kneeling Christian

Rejoice evermore.
Pray without ceasing.
In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

~ 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

You Know Better Than I

2007-09-26T12:29:00.000+08:00

I thought I did what's right
I thought I had the answers
I thought I chose the surest road
But that road brought me here

So I put up a fight
And told You how to help me
Now just when I have given up
The truth is coming clear

You know better than I
You know the way
I've let go the need to know why
For You know better than I

If this has been a test
I cannot see the reason
But maybe knowing I don't know
Is part of getting through

I try to do what's best
And faith has made it easy
To see the best thing I can do
Is put my trust in You

For You know better than I
You know the way
I've let go the need to know why
For You know better than I

I saw one cloud and thought it was the sky
I saw a bird and thought that I could follow
But it was You who taught that bird to fly
If I let You reach me, will You teach me?

For You know better than I
You know the way
I've let go the need to know why
I'll take what answers You supply
For You know better than I

~ J. Williams

Faith

2007-09-24T15:58:00.000+08:00

Faith is no irresponsible shot in the dark.
It is a responsible trust in God, who knows the desires of your heart, the dreams you are given, and the goals you have set.
He will guide your paths right.

~ Robert Schuller

God is my strength and power: and he maketh my way perfect.

~ 2 Samuel 22:33

Abide With Me

2007-09-18T15:29:00.000+08:00

Henry F. Lyte was sickly and unwell much of the time. Despite this weakness he was the pastor of a seashore church in England. Though some wondered at it, he lived and worked among rough sailors and uncultured village folk. But he loved them and the work among them, and they loved him.

His health eventually became so poor that his doctor advised him to go to the sunny warmth of southern Europe. Thus, he prepared to sail.

On his last Sunday among the poor people so dear to him, he had no strength to stand up and preach. But with the Lord's help, he was able to force himself to do so and thus, he ministered to the tearful people one last time. We can imagine the sorrow of these folks as they said "goodbye" to the faithful man who had humbled himself, and perhaps sacrificed his health, to do a small work among the people.

As the sun set that evening, he wrote by its light the words to this hymn. It is the cry of a loving and grieving heart that has no earthly help nor hope left.

Henry Lyte died within a year from when he left them, but God honoured him in allowing his poem to become a well-loved hymn.

Abide with me: fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide:
When other helpers fail, and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me!

Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day;
Earth's joys grow dim, its glories pass away:
Change and decay in all around I see:
O Thou who changest not, abide with me!

I need Thy presence every passing hour:
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter's power?
Who like Thyself my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, O abide with me!

Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom, and point me to the skies:
Heaven's morning breaks and earth's vain shadows flee:
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me!

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

~ Philippians 1:21

2007-09-17T23:52:00.000+08:00

..The LORD watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another..

~ Genesis 31:49b

On my way

2007-09-16T20:34:00.000+08:00

The Author and Finisher of our faith has lovingly written my life story with His heart.
I can trust Him with my life.
I can trust His heart for He knows best.

The beginning of a new chapter
The start of a journey of faith.
Lord, I can never thank you enough
For all that You have done for me.
Because of You,
I am on my way.

Who like Thyself my guide and stay can be?
In life, in death, O Lord,
Abide with me..

I Will See You

2007-09-15T23:47:00.000+08:00

Lord,
in my darkest moments
I wish
to see You
to experience You
to know You.
Continue to reveal
what You have
in store for me
I will hold on
and have the faith
that You will
show me so clearly
Your ways
Your plans,
Your purposes.
I trust
Your heart
and
I still
believe.

Lord,
in my darkest moments,
I will
see You.

2007-09-14T17:33:00.000+08:00

We may run, walk, stumble, drive, or fly, but let us never lose sight of the reason for the journey, or miss a chance to see a rainbow on the way.

~ Gloria Gaither

2007-09-12T14:41:00.000+08:00

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God's handwriting -- a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, and thank God for it.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Please teach me to be thankful in every trying situation and grateful in every tough circumstance.

Lord, I need you so much.

Thank you for being right here with me.

2007-09-05T17:40:00.000+08:00

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved.

~ Helen Keller

2007-08-24T16:58:00.000+08:00

The springs of love are in God, not in us. It is absurd to look for the love of God in our hearts naturally; it is only there when it has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

~ Oswald Chambers

Suffering

2007-08-21T14:06:00.000+08:00

Out of suffering comes holiness -- in these forms: comfort, consolation, the fellowship of Christ's suffering, salvation, strength, fortitude, endurance.

This is what is meant by redemptive suffering. The greater the measure allotted to us, the greater is our material for sacrifice. As we make it a joyful offering to God, our potential is enhanced for becoming "instruments of His peace" -- being "broken bread and poured-out wine", overflowing with consolation for the lonely and the suffering of the world.

~ Elisabeth Elliot

hope, choices, tragedy, grace, forgiveness..Love Above All

2007-08-16T18:33:00.000+08:00

Seto, Favian, Nelly, Alina, Lishan, Terence, Eugene and myself attended 'Love Above All' (http://www.love-above-all.org/), a musical presentation by Mount Carmel Bible-Presbyterian Church last month. It was a really impressive musical based on the lives of Jim and Elisabeth Elliot and their ministry to the Auca Indians in Ecuador together with their 4 friends (Pete Fleming, Ed McCully, Nate Saint & Roger Youderian) and their wives.

Jim and his friends had made a decision to answer God's call to full-time missionary work. They plunged themselves into the great unknown with the simple faith that God will guide them each step of the way and provide for their every need.

The missionaries made preparations to make contact with the most fearsome and dangerous tribe in the Amazon which was entirely cut off from civilization - the violent Huaorani Indian tribe which were known as the Aucas. During the encounter, they were brutally speared to death by the people that they had sought to reach with the gospel. Elisabeth Elliot and the other missionary widows, not to be distracted by the public outpouring of sympathy or their personal loss, boldly ventured to the Ecuadorian jungles with their young children to face their husbands' murderers with the power of God’s love which eventually turned violence, fear and tragedy into triumphant hope. Their selfless act of love, forgiveness and reconciliation eventually changed the lives of the entire tribe when each of the Auca Indians finally came to the saving knowledge of God's grace and mercy many years later.

Such grace..such love. Such an astounding act of forgiveness could have only been made possible because of God's amazing love for the lost, which is truly love above all.

In October 28, 1949, Jim Eliot wrote a quote in his journal expressing his belief that living in the light and love of eternity for the glory of God was far more important than his earthly life:

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

It is only when one desires to surrender his or her will so that it is aligned to God's that one's life will count for eternity. Riches, earthly glory and achievements we cannot keep - an eternal and satisfying relationship with God and treasures stockpiled in heaven, we can never lose.

No greater love could claim our lives..

To give our all - would we gladly choose?

He Is No Fool

He is no fool, who gives what he cannot keep
To gain what he cannot lose.
He is no fool, he is no fool,
Who gives what he can never keep.
He is no fool, he is no fool,
Who gains what he can never lose.

What if I gain the world and all that it’s worth,
And lose my soul in exchange?
I’d be a fool to lose it all,
For what will soon pass away.
I have one life, one life to live,
So help me, Lord, to wisely choose.

He was no fool, who gave His life on the cross,
Who died the world to redeem.
He paid my debt and set me free,
And now I am no more my own.
No greater love could claim my life,
To give my all I gladly choose.

For what shall it profit a man,
If he shall gain the whole world
And lose his own soul?
Though the cross seemed foolishness,
And its way the path of shame,

I’ll take my place with Christ
And proudly bear His name!
He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep
To gain what he cannot lose.
No greater love could claim my life,
To give my all I gladly choose.
No greater love could claim my life,
To give my all I gladly choose.

Love Above All..♥

Destination Cambodia

2007-08-06T17:32:00.000+08:00

Thank God for opening the door for Pastor Vic, Deacon Colin, Bro Ivan, Eugene and myself to go on a short 4-day trip to Koh Kong. It was an amazing eye-opener of a trip and an experience of great joy coming face to face with the Lord's mighty working in the lives of the missionaries and the people at the ministries there. Everything went smoothly by God's grace during our journey - we boarded our Jetstar flight to Bangkok early Friday morning and arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport safely within two and a half hours. After passing through customs smoothly, all of us got onto a van which took us through to the next leg of the journey.

Koh Kong is an island located southwest of Cambodia, near the border of Thailand. As shown in the map on the left (courtesy of Canby Publications), the distance between Bangkok to Ban Hat Lek (which is at the border of Thailand and Cambodia) is a total of 460km. That was the overall distance we travelled in approximately 6 hours by van from Suvarnabhumi Airport. Before we made our way to the Thai-Cambodia border via Trat from Bangkok, we made a short stopover at a Thai hawker place to have lunch. The variety of dishes at this mixed rice stall is absolutely fantastic - this hawker place is recommended by Pastor Vic and Deacon Colin, who often makan here en route to Koh Kong.

This is a provision shop selling Thai delicacies and snacks located just next to the hawker place. Its layout reminds me of those good ol' mamak provision shops we often see back in the olden days.

Dn Colin ordering food for us from the mixed rice stall

Packs of nuts, green mangoes and corn cobs for sale..cheap cheap! ;)

The delicious and succulent ter kar we had for lunch..yummadum

This is a stretch of provision shops located close to the border at Klong Yai. It is about 100km to the border crossing and the road winds along the narrow strip of land between the hills that form the border with Cambodia, and the sea. After passing a few kilometres through the village of Klong Yai, our van finally made it to the Thai border immigration post at Ban Hat Lek.

We made it!

Ivan and Eugene at the Thai-Cambodia border

After we made our way through the Ban Hat Lek border immigration check point, we met up with Pastor Noe, Roti (our most capable and skilful Cambodian driver) and Daniel and James, two 12-year-old Cambodian boys who stay with Marissa at the Koh Kong church building. It was a real blessing to meet them all and see them so joyful in the Lord. Daniel and James spoke to us in impeccable English and greeted us with brilliant smiles..The Lord used them to bless our hearts through their warm and hospitable welcome. We loaded our luggage onto Roti's minivan and made our way towards Koh Kong, crossing over the new bridge linking Thailand to southern Cambodia.

Upon reaching the church building, we were warmly welcomed by Marissa, Sister Grace Pulmones and little Darah. We also met the rest of the children who have been faithfully attending the children's Sunday School every week. After fellowshipping with them over a refreshing drink of coconut juice, we joined some of the children at the yard for a singspiration session.

Bro Ivan taught the children some action songs and they absolutely loved it! Sitting next to him is a gifted 12-year-old guitarist, Lendy, who picks up tunes in a jiffy and serves as a musician at the Sunday worship service.

Marissa, our dear sister and missionary servant of the Lord, with Pastor Noe's daughter, Darah, at the sing-along session.

Dn Colin is seated next to Daniel and Simon, a solid worship service pianist in the making.

The boys from left to right: Lendy, Daniel, Simon, Samuel and James. Thank God for their salvation and their spiritual growth in Christ. =)

Singing praises to the Lord together

The girls - each of them so sweet and surrendered to the Lord..praise God!

Bro Ivan, Pastor Vic, Pastor Noe, Deacon Colin and Eugene

These children are very fast learners..they learnt 2 English songs in 20 minutes!

It was a real blessing enjoying their lively and melodious singing and witnessing the love of the Lord that is shed abroad in their hearts.

After our mini worship song session, we took a short break before dinner and Ivan, having brought a soccer ball along with him on this trip, decided to organise a soccer match with the boys in the evening.

On the way to the school field, we saw someone coming our way..Lo and behold..it's Dn Colin having a go at Samuel's bicycle on the streets of Koh Kong..:D

Eugene and Samuel

Splitting into the two teams...Oh-yah-bay-yah-SOM!

Still at it..we're almost there - and finally it's Team Ivan with Samuel and Daniel v.s Team Eugene with Lendy and James..
Finding a nice spot to kick ball

Go show 'em uncles what you're made of, boys!

The friendly neighbourhood cows making their rounds and watching the teams as they fought it out on the field..

Go Samuel!

That's our Daniel..GOAL!!!

These boys may be young but they play the game like professional soccer players..simply amazing! Pastor Noe shared with Ivan and Eugene that he has plans of holding a soccer evangelism campaign in Koh Kong, a sports outreach where the gospel will be preached to participating teams. We might send over a Singapore team or two for the outreach – but our teams had better be prepared to be defeated by these skilful, soccer-loving juniors!

Koh Kong soccer champs unite! Great game guys..:D

After the match, all of us went out for dinner together with Pastor Noe, Sis Grace, Darah and Marissa. It was a brilliant time of catching up with them and knowing more about the ministries located at other parts of Cambodia. The Lord has been working in marvellous ways in this vast mission field. We retired early that night as we had to be up at 5am the next day to set off on our journey down south from Koh Kong to Prey Nob which is located near Sihanoukville.

It was an early and misty morning at our first river crossing. Peaceful and tranquil with not a soul in sight.

God's Cambodia - a beautiful and breathtaking place,

a small piece of heaven on earth

A cloud-covered sunrise in the horizon heralds the start of a brand new day

Our journey by van to Prey Nob took about 5 hours from Koh Kong. We travelled sometimes on paved roads which soon enough became dirt tracks especially when Roti decides to take a short cut. During the journey, we crossed 4 rivers by boarding barges which would load as many vehicles as they could fit on the deck in order to take people across the river. Road conditions towards the riverbanks can deteriorate dramatically during the wet season, lengthening travel time. Thank God for a smooth journey without any delays despite a challenging time making it across the 3rd river crossing due to a mudslide situation at one of the banks. I got into a sticky situation when my right foot plunged right into a deep and wet mud patch when I was alighting from the barge..thank God for Eugene who rescued me from my sorry plight..hoho :pConstruction of flyover bridges which will replace the 4 barge-facilitated river crossings is nearing completion - the pilings in the river are done and the piers have been erected with the siderails. In about a month's time, travelling across the rivers will be an absolute breeze for all vehicles.

The awesome view from one of the barges

Heading towards the opposite bank

The view from the bank upon alighting safely from the barge

A roadside stall at the river bank

After 4 hours by van, we reached Prey Nob and had the opportunity of viewing a future church campsite which is currently under construction. It is here that an 11 hectare piece of land owned by Pastor Noe's church is currently under construction to become a leadership-training campsite. Pastor Noe's vision is that this campsite will be used to hold leadership or evangelistic camps to train up future leaders in the church. It is his desire that God will mould and shape young lives for His glory here. Pastor Noe shared with us that the YEP team will most probably be working on a student dorm building project here this December.

A road connecting the place to the main road will be constructed to make it more accessible to others travelling towards the campsite

A building at the campsite

Pastor Noe showing us the vegetable patch behind the building

From left to right: A Prey Nob church sister, Pastor Vic chatting with Pastor Noe, Roti (our skilful van driver) and Sari

A view of Prey Nob's landscape

Bible studies and church services are held here every week at Prey Nob. Sari takes care of the ministry and serves here regularly.

A gaggle of geese at the pond

A little girl from the village washing her clothes by the river

The paved road of gravel and dust that our van travelled on
How now brown cow? We saw a few herds of cattle making their way towards their destination on the road. They caused quite a few jams along the way because they failed to mooove along and follow their herdboy.

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. ~ Psalm 19:1

*simply awesome*

Vivid green paddy fields..a visible reminder that the harvest of souls here is plenteous, wipe and ready for the picking

A barge on its way to pick us up

Bro Ivan, Pastor Vic, Eugene, Shem (Pastor Noe's youngest son) and me

Vehicles backing into the deck of the barge

We made it through the river crossing!

Our van driving out of the barge and onto dry land
Lunch at Pastor Noe's place at Sihanoukville, lovingly prepared by Reshmey (a sister-in-Christ from Pastor Noe's church). We were very glad to be able to catch up with Sari, a dear brother who gave his testimony at GLCC when he visited Singapore this year as well as other church members from Pastor Noe’s church at Sihanoukville. All of them are now faithfully serving at the various church ministries and we pray that there will be more God-fearing servants like them reaching the vast harvest of souls in Cambodia for Christ.

Destination Cambodia cont'd

2007-08-06T14:42:00.000+08:00

Our brothers-in Christ: Samuel, Daniel and James

Makantime with the children
More hope chernarng nah! (Khmer: The food is very delicious!)
Serving the Lord with soap and suds
The kitchen looking spick and span on Sunday morning
The church services that we attended on Sunday were the highlight of our trip. Many children would gather at the Koh Kong church porch early in the morning to attend the children’s worship service and Sunday school led by our young brothers-in-Christ - Daniel, Simon, Samuel, Lendy and James. These 12-year-old boys are the fruit of the ministry, each of them now serving zealously in the children’s ministry, leading church worship services, assisting Pastor Noe and Marissa, and teaching others at the Sunday School class.

Our Cambodian sisters presenting a song item to the children

James leading us in the children's worship session

It was really amazing for us to experience the powerful working of the Spirit in these young lives who are surrendered to Him

Bro Ivan teaching the kids the song: 'Jesus is the Way the Truth and the Life'

Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth..

and the Life..His Banner over me is Love!Jesus is the Shepherd and we are His sheep..

His Banner over me is Love..=)

James with his Sunday School kids

For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. ~ Galatians 3:26
Sister Grace and lil' Darah

Mother and Daughter

Marissa and Ivan

Samuel teaching his Sunday School class

Daniel and his assistant teacher Kok Sla with some of the children

Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. ~ 1 Timothy 4:12

Darah in her sundress..such a darlin'!

James leads us in the Sunday worship,

Lendy and Simon play the guitar and piano respectively

Only Jesus can satisfy..amen! :D

These boys are faithful and fearless for the cause of Christ

To see them serve God with great passion is an amazing blessing

Song item: I will sing of my Redeemer..:)

I will praise my dear Redeemer,

His triumphant power I’ll tell,

How the victory He giveth

Over sin, and death, and hell.

Sing, oh sing, of my Redeemer,

With His blood, He purchased me.

On the cross, He sealed my pardon,

Paid the debt, and made me free..

All of us worshipping God together

Pastor Noe greeting the newcomers to Koh Kong

Amazing power of Christ manifested in this man of faith..Pastor Noe sharing with us from God's Word in Khmer and English

Daniel helping Pastor Noe out with the illustration of repenting and turning away from sin

Together as a family-in-Christ

The boys presented a song about surrendering to God's Will in Khmer..

Do you hear our dear Father's still small voice?

He is calling you to follow Him today..

Will you go in His name?

In the afternoon after the morning service, we packed into the van and made our way to another island, Baklong, where we attended the weekly afternoon church service for the local people by the sea. Kok Sla, Simon, Samuel and James seated at the back of the van.

The children of Baklong ready to worship the Lord

Daniel leads all of us in the worship session

Seeking His face together..praising His name!

Nothing beats worshipping our Lord in the midst of His beautiful and breathtaking creation together with our Baklong family-in-Christ

Prayer is power..pray without ceasing

Samuel presents a song item to us: In His Time

Pastor Victor, Darah and the friendly neighbourhood tabby cat

Here kitty, kitty..Darah and Mommy with the very sleepy cat taking his afternoon nap

This is just a foretaste of the beauty that God promises in the new heaven and new earth..pictures of peace and tranquility in God's beautiful land of Cambodia

It was wonderful beyond description being with the people of God there and experiencing His presence in our midst. After the service, we had a delicious fellowship lunch of pepper crab and a variety of local dishes prepared by the brothers and sisters there. In the late afternoon back at church, we played games with the youth and later headed out for a seafood dinner with the missionaries and the boys. We were all having such a blessed time fellowshipping with God’s people that it was with a tinge of sadness in our hearts when we left for Singapore the next day. All of us departed Koh Kong with the faith believing that God’s light will continue to pierce through the spiritual darkness in this huge and needy mission field. It is with gladness that we can testify that He is truly working in a mighty way in this land.

It has been a great blessing and challenge to our faith to witness the deep and mighty working of God in our ministry in Cambodia. With seeds of God's love and truth planted in the hearts of these young children, we pray that they will grow mightily in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and be shining lights for Him in their country and beyond.

God's dream for the people of Cambodia can and will be a reality. Whether it is through praying against the divisive schemes of the evil one, supporting the ministries there financially, labouring on to lift up the gospel and power of salvation in the midst of the people - we are all in this together for the glory of God. There are many ways we can be a part of God's plan for Cambodia. Together we can serve the Lord by giving the people of Cambodia a better forever. Only the truth of God has the absolute power to set the people of Cambodia free from the strong bondage of sin and their country’s past.

Only with God, all this can and will be possible.

The desire of our missionaries for each child in the ministry is that they will experience God’s love, receive Him as Lord and Saviour and live new and victorious lives in the power of the Holy Spirit. Please pray especially for the 12-year-old boys that they will develop godly character and integrity, grow in spiritual maturity and be mighty witnesses for Christ. Bro Ivan hopes that God will open the door for our older children in GLCC to come and see the Koh Kong children’s ministry work that they may be challenged by the dynamic way He is working in the hearts of the young ones there.

Special thanks from our dear Sis Marissa to those who have been covering her in prayer and giving sacrificially to His work. Thank God for providing Marissa with the piano keyboard, laptop, children’s ministry supplies and clothes for the children. All that she needed, God’s Hand hath provided..great is His faithfulness.

A revival in the hearts of the people of Cambodia is in God’s Will. Let us continue to pray for Pastor Noe and his family, and our sister Marissa as they labour faithfully to reach the next generation of Cambodians for Christ.

Who is so great a God as our God?

Thou art the God that doest wonders..

For with God all things are possible.

(Psalm 77:13-14a, Mark 10:27b)

Dearest Lord, we know that You love the people of Cambodia so much and that You want them to have a joy and peace that will last an eternity. Please use our church here, all of the talents, experiences, and resources that You have blessed us with, so that the people may experience the salvation, healing and spiritual transformation that only comes from being in relationship with You. May You powerfully set every Cambodian free from the bondage of fear and sin, that they may experience a beautiful life of faith, victory, grace and peace from trusting in You as their Sovereign Lord and Saviour. Continue to protect and bless each and every faithful missionary labouring for you in the country and grant them the spiritual breakthroughs they need. Please help me remember all of the things that You have revealed to me and continue to make my heart broken and compassionate for Your beloved people there. Teach me daily not to be satisfied and complacent with the comfortable life I have here. Lord, please help me remember always. May Your wondrous plan of redemption for Cambodia move in a mighty way through Your Spirit in Your time.

In Jesus' name, amen.

He Maketh No Mistake

2007-07-19T10:49:00.000+08:00

My Father’s way may twist and turn,

My heart may throb and ache,

But in my soul I’m glad I know

He maketh no mistake.

My cherished plans may go astray,

My hopes may fade away,

But still I’ll trust my Lord to lead

For He doth know the way.

Tho’ night be dark and it may seem

That day will never break;

I’ll put my faith, my all in Him,

He maketh no mistake.

There’s so much now I cannot see

My eyesight’s far too dim;

But come what may, I’ll simply trust

And leave it all to Him.

For by and by the mist will lift

And plain it all He’ll make,

Through all the way, tho’ dark to me,

He made not one mistake.

~ A. M. Overton

God Leads Us Along

2007-07-19T00:55:00.000+08:00

In shady, green pastures, so rich and so sweet,
God leads His dear children along;
Where the water's cool flow bathes the weary one's feet,
God leads His dear children along.

Sometimes on the mount where the sun shines so bright,
God leads His dear children along;
Sometimes in the valley, in darkest of night,
God leads His dear children along.

Though sorrows befall us and Satan oppose,
God leads His dear children along;
Through grace we can conquer, defeat all our foes,
God leads His dear children along.

Away from the mire, and away from the clay,
God leads His dear children along;
Away up in glory, eternity's day,
God leads His dear children along.

Chorus:
Some through the waters, some through the flood,
Some through the fire, but all through the blood;
Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song,
In the night season and all the day long.

The author and composer of “God Leads Us Along” was an obscure preacher and carpenter who spent a lifetime humbly serving God in small rural areas. Often the salary was meager and life was difficult for his family. Through it all, however, George A. Young and his wife never wavered in their loyalty to God and His service.

The story is told that after much struggle and effort, the George Young family was finally able to move into their own small home, which they had built themselves. Their joy seemed complete. But then, while Young was away holding meetings in another area, hoodlums who disliked the preacher’s gospel message set fire to the house, leaving nothing but a heap of ashes. It is thought that out of that tragic experience, George Young completed this hymn, which reaffirms so well the words of Job 35:10: “God my Maker, who gives songs in the night.”

~ from Amazing Grace by K. W. Osbeck

A Lifestyle of Brokenness

2007-07-17T11:52:00.000+08:00

Brokenness is not a feeling. It is not an emotion. It is a choice that I make. It is an act of my will. And brokenness is not primarily a one-time experience or a crisis experience in my life, though there may be those.

Brokenness is rather a continuous on-going lifestyle. It's a lifestyle of agreeing with God about the true condition of my heart and my life as He alone can see it. It's a life style of unconditional, absolute surrender of my will to God. Even as the horse that has been broken. It's surrendered and sensitive to the direction and the wishes of its rider. It's a life style of saying, "Yes, Lord, not my will, but yours be done."

Brokenness is the shattering of my self-will so that the life, the spirit, the fragrance, the life of Jesus may be released through me. Brokenness is the lifestyle of responding in humility and obedience to the conviction of God's Spirit and the conviction of His Word. And as His conviction is continuous, so my brokenness must be continual.

Brokenness is a lifestyle that takes me in two directions. It's a lifestyle vertically of living, so to speak, with the roof off in my relationship toward God, as I walk in the light in transparent honesty and humility before Him. But it's a lifestyle that requires also that I live with the walls down, in my relationships toward others.

~ Nancy Leigh DeMoss

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

~ Psalm 51:17

I Never Knew

2007-07-12T11:29:00.000+08:00

Vision

2007-07-03T11:31:00.000+08:00

Every age needs men and women who will redeem the time by living with a vision of the things that are to be.

~ A. E. Stevenson

Seasons

2007-06-28T12:15:00.000+08:00

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?
I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.
He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.
And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.
I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.

~ Ecclesiastes 3:1-14

Enemies of Grace

2007-06-26T12:28:00.000+08:00

...from without: legalism, expectations, traditionalism, manipulation, demands, negativism, control, comparison, perfectionism, competition, criticism, pettiness and a host of others; and from within: pride, fear, resentment, bitterness, an unforgiving spirit, insecurity, fleshly effort, guilt, shame, gossip, hypocrisy, and so many more ... grace killers, all!

~ Charles Swindoll

Moments

2007-06-15T17:05:00.000+08:00

Days pass and the years vanish and we walk sightless among miracles.

Lord, fill our eyes with seeing and our minds with knowing.

Let there be moments when Your presence, like lightning, illumines the darkness in which we walk.

Help us to see, wherever we gaze, that the bush burns unconsumed.

And we, clay touched by God, will reach out for holiness and exclaim in wonder,

"How filled with awe is this place and we did not know it."

~ Gates of Prayer

Cheesecake

2007-06-15T15:06:00.000+08:00

It floats effortlessly towards the table
A small slice of serenity atop a simple china plate.
The eyes of the waitress are elsewhere
Utterly unaware.
The fork slices through
Softness envelopes and disguises the sharp metal prongs.
Suddenly..
Resistance,
A short, yet satisfying crunch.
Sharpening the senses.
Anticipation almost at an end.
First taste
An explosion of textures
Aiming to savour every ounce of essence.
All too soon a solitary crumb
A distant reminder
Of innocent ecstasy.

~ S. Holmes

He's our Fav..=)

2007-06-14T15:17:00.000+08:00

Blessed birthday to a dear Bro who's 18 with 11 years experience..;)

Your talent is God's gift to you; what you do with it is your gift to God. ~ Leo Buscaglia

Enjoy who you are and who the Lord God made you to be..

Enjoy Him and the journey of faith that lies ahead of you..

He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:6b)

We thank God for ya, Bro! :D

Redeeming The Time

2007-06-13T12:12:00.000+08:00

..Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.

~ Ephesians 5:14-17

Backward Christian Soldiers

2007-06-11T10:21:00.000+08:00

Which song are we marching to as Christian soldiers of the Lord? We need to decide whether it is the old hymn - Onward Christian Soldiers, or the more modern version - Backward Christian Soldiers..

Backward Christian soldiers, fleeing from the fight,
With the cross of Jesus, nearly out of sight.
Christ our rightful master, stands against the foe
Onward into battle, we seem afraid to go.

Chorus:
Backward Christian soldiers, fleeing from the fight,
With the cross of Jesus, nearly out of sight.

Like a mighty tortoise, moves the church of God.
Brothers we are treading, where we've often trod.
We are much divided, many bodies we,
Having different doctrines, but not much charity.

Crowns and thrones may perish, kingdoms rise and wane,
But the cross of Jesus, hidden does remain.
Gates of hell should never against the church prevail,
We have Christ's own promise, but we think it might fail.

Sit here then ye people, join our sleeping throng.
Blend with ours, your voices in a feeble song.
Blessings, ease and comfort, ask from Christ the King,
But with our modern thinking, we won't do a thing.

- George Verwer

Father, please help us to endure hardship as good soldiers of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Please help us to remember that no soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of this earthly life. Help us to please You and praise You daily with all that You have blessed us with and with all that You have made us to be for Your glory.
In Jesus' name, amen.

The Word is our weapon,
Jesus is our Shield
To witness is our mission,
To hardship we WILL NOT yield.

The Master Hath Come

2007-06-06T14:20:00.000+08:00

The Master hath come, and He calls us to follow
The track of the footprints He leaves on our way;
Far over the mountain and through the deep hollow,
The path leads us on to the mansions of day:
The Master hath called us, the children who fear Him,
Who march ’neath Christ’s banner, His own little band;
We love Him and seek Him, we long to be near Him,
And rest in the light of His beautiful land.

The Master hath called us; the road may be dreary
And dangers and sorrows are strewn on the track;
But God’s Holy Spirit shall comfort the weary;
We follow the Savior and cannot turn back;
The Master hath called us, though doubt and temptation
May compass our journey, we cheerfully sing:
“Press onward, look upward,” through much tribulation;
The children of Zion must follow the King.

The Master hath called us, in life’s early morning,
With spirits as fresh as the dew on the sod:
We turn from the world, with its smiles and its scorning,
To cast in our lot with the people of God:
The Master hath called us, His sons and His daughters,
We plead for His blessing and trust in His love;
And through the green pastures, beside the still waters,
He’ll lead us at last to His kingdom above.

~ Sarah Doudney

2007-06-03T17:35:00.000+08:00

Do we not see God at work in our circumstances? Dark times are allowed and come to us through the sovereignty of God. Are we prepared to let God do what He wants with us? Are we prepared to be separated from the outward, evident blessings of God? Until Jesus Christ is truly our Lord, we each have goals of our own which we serve. Our faith is real, but it is not yet permanent. And God is never in a hurry. If we are willing to wait, we will see God pointing out that we have been interested only in His blessings, instead of God Himself.

~ Oswald Chambers

An Honour To Be Used In His Service

2007-06-01T12:10:00.000+08:00

I thought I looked and saw the Master standing, and at His feet lay an earthen vessel. It was not broken, not unfitted for service, yet there it lay, powerless and useless, until He took it up. He held it awhile, and I saw that He was filling it, and soon I beheld Him walking in His garden, where He had "gone down to gather lilies." The earthen vessel was yet again in His hand, and with it He watered his beautiful plants and caused their fragrances to be shed forth more abundantly.

Then I said to myself, "Sorrowing Christian, hush! Hush! Peace, be still! You are this earthen vessel, powerless, it is true, yet not broken, still fit for the Master's use. Sometimes you may be laid aside altogether from active service, and the question may arise, what is the Master doing with me now? Then may a voice speak to your inmost heart, 'He is filling the vessel, yes, only filling it to be ready for use.' Don't ask how He will use you. Be silent. Is it not all too great an honour for you to be used by Him at all? Be content, whether thou art employed in watering the lilies or in washing the feet of the saints. It doesn't really matter. Surely it is enough for an earthen vessel to be in the Master's hands and employed in the Master's service."

~ C.H. Spurgeon, The Quotable Spurgeon

Praying for a Dear Sis

2007-05-26T17:30:00.000+08:00

Hi all,

This is a prayer & thanksgiving blog done up by Hui Zhi (thanks loads for the labour of love, sis!) which will cover Hwai May's recovery and progress..do stay tuned for more prayer updates and keep on keeping on in prayer for her..:)

Check it out and pray on at: http://fellowship-in-prayers.blogspot.com/

Thanks guys ;)

God Always Answers Prayer

2007-05-23T17:57:00.000+08:00

When the idea is not right, God says, "No"
No - When the idea is not the best
No - When the idea is absolutely wrong
No - When though it may help you, it could create problems for someone else

When the time is not right, God says, "Slow"
What a catastrophe it would be if God answered every prayer at the snap of your fingers.
Do you know what would happen?
God would become your servant, not your Master.
Suddenly God would be working for you instead of you working for God.
Remember: God's delay is not God's denials -
God's timing is perfect.
Patience is what we need in prayer.

When you are not right, God says, "Grow"
The selfish person must grow in unselfishness
The cautious person must grow in courage
The timid person must grow in confidence
The dominating person must grow in sensitivity
The critical person must grow in tolerance
The negative person must grow in positive attitudes
The pleasure-seeking person must grow in compassion for suffering people

When everything is all right, God says, "Go"
Then miracles happen
A hopeless alcoholic is set free
A drug addict finds release
A doubter becomes a child in his belief
Diseased tissue responds to treatment, and healing begins
The door to your dream suddenly swings open.
And there stands God saying, "Go!"

~ from Pastor Jason's sermon on prayer

God is waiting to be put to the test by His people in prayer. He delights in being put to the test on His promises. It is His highest pleasure to answer prayer, to prove the reliability of His promises.

~ E.M. Bounds

Dear all, please continue to keep Joanne & Hwai May in your prayers that both of them may have a full & swift recovery - that they may be up & about + out of hospital real soon. Thank God that He is in absolute control..hang in there and hang on to God, gals..we're behind ya in prayer! =)

My Trust is in You

2007-05-21T15:41:00.000+08:00

The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe.

~ Proverbs 29:25

Man of Faith, Man of Prayer

2007-05-17T15:01:00.000+08:00

George Mueller has proved to the world the truth of Philippians 4:19 and he will always be remembered as the man who got things from God. His testimony is an inspiration to Christians everywhere. Three weeks after his marriage, he and his wife decided to depend on God alone to supply their needs -- never again to approach people about them. Now he felt led to relinquish his small salary as a preacher completely. Wishing that all support be spontaneous, he put a box in the chapel for his needs; determining never to run into debt, and to get his needs supplied only by requests to God Himself. This was October, 1830. When he died, in March 1998, 68 years later, he had obtained from God more than any one else who ever lived -- seven and a half million dollars.

Mueller was the son of Herr and Frau Mueller. His father was a Prussian tax-collector. The family moved to Heimershleben, four miles away, in 1810. Soon two other sons were born. Strangely gullible, the father would entrust his small sons with considerable amounts of cash to teach them to acquire the habit of possessing money without spending it. This back-fired, for George, in particular, devised numerous methods of using the money for himself without being detected. Before he was ten years old, he repeatedly stole from the government funds in his father's keeping.

Herr Mueller wanted his son to be a clergyman and make a good living, in order to be able to support him when he became old. Schooling was obtained for George at Cathedral Classical School at Halberstadt, with very little supervision given him from about age 10 to 16. His mother died when he was 14. George was playing cards, not even aware of her illness that night. He spent the next day at a tavern with some friends.

Lutheran church confirmation classes started at this time, and it was a custom for candidates on the eve of confirmation to make a formal confession of their sins to the clergyman in the vestry. Mueller used the opportunity to cheat clergyman of 11/12ths of the fee his father had given him for the cleric. Confirmed the Sunday after Easter, 1820, he was now a religious lost person. When George was 15, his father was transferred to Schoenebeck, Prussia. The son was left at home to supervise some repairs and to study for the ministry. George was up to his old tricks. He collected money which the villagers owed his father for taxes, then took a trip which he later called "...days of sin." He would stay in expensive hotels, sneaking out after a week without paying a bill. However, after a couple weeks of this, he was caught and put in jail for 24 days. The elder Mueller bailed his son out, and soon George entered school at Nordhausen, Prussia, where he stayed for two and one-half years. He studied from 4 a.m. until 10 p.m. The teacher said he had great promise, but drinking and debauchery continued to cancel these acclaims. This time (1820-1825) was also spent in contriving to provide himself with money for his bad habits.

In 1825, when 19 years old, he left school and entered Halle University as a student of Divinity. The University had 1,260 students, including some 900 divinity students preparing themselves for the Lutheran Church ministries. Here he decided he must reform if a parish was to ever choose him as pastor. He renewed an acquaintance in a tavern with a fellow student named Beta, who was a backslidden Christian. They were former school-fellows. In August, 1825, Mueller, Beta, and two other students, pawned some of their belongings to get enough money for a few days of travel. Switzerland was decided upon, and George forged the necessary letters from their parents with which to get passports. Mueller, like Judas, decided to carry the purse. His friends unwittingly paid part of his expenses as a result and 43 idle days of travel followed.

Back at the University, Beta was stricken with remorse and made full confession to his father. Beta began to attend a Saturday night Christian meeting in a home. Mueller, hearing about this, became sincerely interested, and pressed his friend into taking him to the meeting. Beta did, reluctantly, not believing George would like it -- reading the Bible, praying, singing hymns, and listening to a sermon. As he sat in the Wagner residence, George saw something he had never seen before -- people on their knees praying. He felt awkward for being there and even apologized for his presence. The host pleasantly invited him to come as often as he pleased. As he walked home, he declared, "All we have seen on our journey to Switzerland, and all our former pleasures, are as nothing in comparison with this evening!" That Saturday night in mid-November, 1825, turned him around as Christ became his Savior. At age 20 the unstable pagan found the power to overcome his moral weaknesses and a new life began.

In January, 1826, as he began reading missionary literature, he felt inclined in this direction more and more. He wrote his father and brother to this end. However, the reply from father was a furious objection to these plans. As a result, George decided he would have to support himself at the University, rather than take funds from his father. Back at Halle he obtained a well-paying job of teaching German to American college professors and translating lectures for them. He preached his first sermon on August 27, 1826, at a village six miles from Halle. During this time he lived for two months in the Orphan House built by August Hermann Francke, Professor of Divinity at Halle. Here the seed of an idea was sown that was to come to fruition later in Bristol. In 1828, he completed his University courses.

Mueller now had a desire to become a missionary to the Jews, so he applied to a society in London which majored in this work, which led to an invitation to come for a six-month probationary period in London. He left home on February 10, 1829 and arrived in London on March 19. His English became fluent, although he never lost his German accent. The regulations and routine at seminary tempted him to give up his ideas. His study of Hebrew was unremitting, and soon resulted in delicate health. Advised by doctors and friends, he went to the country for a change of air and schedule which was to change his life as well. He traveled to Teignmouth in Devonshire and became acquainted with Henry Craik, who would become his loyal associate in the ensuing years. Here he attended the reopening of a small meeting-house called Bethesda Chapel, where he was touched deeply by one of the speakers. By the time he returned to London, he was a different man, having learned the value of meditation upon the Scriptures, beginning in August, 1829.

Now he began to gather some of his fellow-students from 6 to 8 a.m. each morning for prayer and Bible reading. Evenings he would pray with anyone he could find, often until after mid-night. During these days he felt he did not want to be limited to ministry amongst the Jews alone, so he resigned from the London Society. Back in the Devonshire area he began to preach in chapels in Exmouth, Teignmouth and Shaldon. He was then called upon to pastor at the Ebenezer Chapel in Teignmouth, a congregation of 18 people where he began in 1830. During this year he became convinced of the necessity of believer's baptism, and was rebaptized. In January of 1830 he undertook a monthly preaching engagement just outside Exeter, lodging there with a Mrs. Hake, an invalid. Mary Groves, age 29, was keeping house for her. Mueller, with a mature outlook on life, was greatly attracted to Mary, though he was only 24 years of age. On October 7, 1830 they were joined in marriage at St. David's Church in Exeter.

Three weeks after their marriage, they decided to depend upon God alone to provide their needs as already indicated. They carried it to the extent that they would not give definite answers to inquiries as to whether or not they were in need of money at any particular moment. At the time of need, there would always seem to be funds available from some source, both in regards to their private income, and to the funds for his vast projects soon to be discussed. No matter how pressing was the need, George simply renewed his prayers, and either money or food always came in time to save the situation. On February 19, 1832, he records an instance of healing by faith. Suffering from a gastric ulcer, he believed God could heal him and four days later he was as well as ever. In the spring of 1832, he felt he must leave Teignmouth. Craik, his friend, had gone on to Bristol for a visit, and Mueller felt led to go there also. On April 22, he preached his first sermon in Bristol. A friend offered to rent Bethesda Chapel there for a year if the two men would stay and develop a work. Agreeing not to be bound by any stipulation, Craik and Mueller accepted the call. On May 25, 1832, the Muellers settled permanently in Bristol which became his home until he died. A long association with the chapel on Great George Street also began. In July of that year, Bristol was visited with a plague of cholera which took many lives, but none of those among whom he and Craik ministered. On September 17, 1832, his first child, Lydia, was born.

It was on February 25, 1834, that George Mueller founded a new Missionary Institution which he called "The Scriptural Knowledge Institution for Home and Abroad." It had four objectives:

1. To assist Sunday Schools, Day Schools and Adult Schools, and where possible to start new ones.

2. To sell Bibles and Testaments to the poor at low prices, and if necessary, to give them free of cost.

3. To aid missionary effort. (This was to provide financial aid to free-lance missionaries.)

4. To circulate tracts in English and in various foreign languages.

The Orphan House became a fifth objective, and the most well known enterprise, yet it is right to point out that Mueller was greatly used in developing the other objectives as well.

On March 19, 1834, a son, Elijah, was born but he died the next year, June 25, 1835, from pneumonia, leaving the Muellers with only one child -- Lydia. The summer of 1835 found Mueller himself in very poor health, slowing down his pace and giving him time to write "The Narrative of the Lord's Dealing with George Mueller."

For some time he had been thinking about starting an orphanage in Bristol. On December 9, 1835 he presented his burden at a public meeting. No collection was taken, but someone handed him ten shillings and a Christian woman offered herself for the work. After five days of prayer $300 came in and it seemed they might now have enough money to rent a house, equip and furnish it. The other request was for Christian people to work with the children. His basic aim was to have a work -- something to point to as visible proof that God hears and answers prayer. His heart went out to the many ragged children running wild in the streets, but that was a secondary reason for starting the orphanage.

He rented Number 6 Wilson Street, where he himself had been living, and on April 11, 1836, the doors of the orphanage opened with 26 children. These were girls between seven and twelve years old.

The second House was opened on November 28, 1836, to care for children from babyhood to seven years of age. In September, 1837, a third house was opened for boys over seven years of age.

Illness plagued Mueller from time to time, and in late 1837 he was very weak. This time his head provided the discomfort. He went to Germany in the spring of 1838 as well as in February, 1840, when he saw his father for a last time. Presumably he still had not accepted Christ as George noted, "How it would have cheered the separation on both sides were my dear father a believer." He died shortly thereafter. The years 1828 to 1843 were surely years of trials for Craik and Mueller as they prayed in everything. All were properly clad and everyone sat down to regular meals in the Houses. Mueller never incurred a debt, and God supernaturally provided for everyone. A well known story indicates the kind of life that was lived.

One morning the plates and cups and bowls on the table were empty. There was no food in the larder, and no money to buy food. The children were standing waiting for their morning meal, when Mueller said, "Children, you know we must be in time for school." Lifting his hand he said, "Dear Father, we thank Thee for what Thou art going to give us to eat." There was a knock on the door. The baker stood there, and said, "Mr. Mueller, I couldn't sleep last night. Somehow I felt you didn't have bread for breakfast and the Lord wanted me to send you some. So I got up at 2 a.m. and baked some fresh bread, and have brought it." Mueller thanked the man. No sooner had this transpired when there was a second knock at the door. It was the milkman. He announced that his milk cart had broken down right in front of the Orphanage, and he would like to give the children his cans of fresh milk so he could empty his wagon and repair it. No wonder, years later, when Mueller was to travel the world as an evangelist, he would be heralded as "the man who gets things from God!"

By March, 1843, he felt the need for a second home for girls. On July, 1844, the fourth house on Wilson Street was opened -- the total of his homeless waifs now being 130. A letter received on October 30, 1845, changed his entire ministry...he was now age 40. Basically, it was a letter from a local resident complaining that the noise of the children was a nuisance. They were vastly over-crowded and there was not enough space for land cultivation, washing clothes, etc. He gave the letter much thought, listing the pros and cons. If he were to leave, he would have to build a structure to hold at least 300 orphans at a cost of $60,000. On his 36th day of prayer over the dilemma, the first $6,000 came in for a building program. By June, 1848, he received all of the $60,000 which he needed. He had begun to build the previous year on July 5, 1847, at a placed called Ashley Downs as the bulk of the money had been sent in. Building Number 1 was opened in June, 1849, and housed 300 children with staff sufficient to teach and care for them. It was a seven-acre site and finally cost about $90,000 as legal expenses, furnishings, and land purchase brought the price up higher than anticipated. The old houses on Wilson Street emptied and everyone was now under one roof.

Mueller was becoming a well known Christian leader. He answered some 3,000 letters a year without a secretary. Besides his orphanages, the four other objectives of his Scriptural Knowledge Institution claimed his attention and he continued his pastoral work at Bethesda Chapel also.

In 1850, he felt the need for a second orphanage. Donations began to come in miraculously again and finally, on November 12, 1857, a second building housing 400 children at a cost of $126,000 was built. Number 3 opened on March 12, 1862, housing 450 children, and costing over $138,000. It was housed on 11 1/2 acres. Number 4 was opened November 5, 1868, and Number 5 on January 6, 1870. These last two cost over $300,000 and housed 450 each.

From 1848 to 1874, money came in to improve and expand the work which went from 130 orphans to 2,050 during this time and up to 13 acres. Mueller describes these days, writing in 1874:

But God, our infinite rich Treasurer, remains with us. It is this which gives me peace. Moreover if it pleases Him, with a work requiring about $264,000 a year...would I gladly pass through all these trials of faith with regard to means, if He only might be glorified, and His Church and the world benefited...I have placed myself in the position of having no means at all left; and 2,100 persons, not only daily at the table, but with everything else to be provided for, and all the funds gone; 189 missionaries to be assisted, and nothing whatever left; about one hundred schools with 9,000 scholars in them, to be entirely supported, and no means for them in hand; about four million tracts and tens of thousands of copies of the Holy Scriptures yearly now to be sent out, and all the money expended...I commit the whole work to Him, and He will provide me with what I need, in future also, though I know not whence the means are to come.

His own personal income varied around $12,000 a year, of which he kept for himself $1,800 giving the rest away.

His fellow worker, Henry Craik, died on January 22, 1866, followed by the death of his wife on February 6, 1870. She was 72 and had suffered from rheumatic fever. James Wright married Mueller's daughter, Lydia in 1871 and also replaced Craik as his associate. Mueller himself remarried on November 30, 1871, to a Susannah Grace Sangar, whom he had known for 25 years as a consistent Christian. He was 66 and she in her late forties, a perfect companion for him in his ministries still ahead.

Mueller decided to fulfill the many requests for his appearance around the world. Turning the work over to Wright, from 1875 to 1892, Mueller made 16 preaching trips to various sectors of the world. For the sake of historians and others interested in statistical data, they were as follows:

March 26 - July 6, 1875: England (Brighton, London, Sunderland, Newcastle). Preached 70 times, such places as Spurgeon's Metropolitan Tabernacle, etc.

August 14, 1875 - July 5, 1876: England, Scotland and Ireland. His five week stay in Liverpool had Sunday Crowds of 5,000.

August 16, 1876 - June 25, 1877: Switzerland, Germany and Holland. Preached 302 times in 68 places in three languages.

August 18, 1877 - July 8, 1878: Canada and the United States. Preached 299 times, conference with President Rutherford Hayes.

September 5, 1878 - July 18, 1879: Switzerland, France, Spain, Italy. Fellowship with Spurgeon in France, saw schools he supported in Spain.

August 27, 1879 - June 17, 1880: United States and Canada. Spoke again 299 times - in 42 places.

September 15, 1880 - May 31, 1881: Canada and the United States. Accepted many invitations he had to turn down the previous tour.

August 23, 1881 - May 30, 1882: Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, Turkey, Greece. Many physical difficulties were encountered, traveling was primitive.

August 8, 1882 - June 1, 1883: Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, Russia, Poland. Suppressed in Russia, could only preach to 20 at one time.

September 26, 1883 - June 5, 1884: India. 78 years old, preached 206 times and traveled 21,000 miles.

August 18 - October 2, 1884: England and South Wales. Tour cut short because of illness of Mrs. Mueller.

May 16 - July 1, 1885: England Tour cut short because of illness of George Mueller.

September 1 - Oct. 3, 1885: England and Scotland, Primary ministry was in Liverpool, England, and Dundee, Scotland.

November 4, 1885 - June 13, 1887: Australia, China, Japan, Straits of Malacca. Ages 81 to 83 - traveled 37,280 miles around the world.

August 10, 1887 - March 11, 1890: Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, Ceylon, India. Intense heat of Calcutta almost killed him. Telegram that daughter Lydia had died January 10, 1890 in Bristol cut short the tour.

August 8, 1890 - May, 1892: Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy. At 86 preaching to large crowds.

George and his wife traveled 200,000 miles in 17 years of world-wide evangelism efforts, in 42 countries, preaching to 3 million people.

It was on January 13, 1894 that his second wife passed away after 23 years of marriage. He was now 89 years old, and was living out his days in Orphan House #3. He preached his last sermon on Isaiah's Vision, March 6, 1898 at Alma Road Chapel in Clifton. On March 10, 1898 the maid went to his room, and found him dead on the floor by the side of his bed. The funeral in Bristol on March 14th has never been surpassed there as tens of thousands lined the streets. The grief of the orphans was evident. He was buried by the side of his two wives.

Mueller was non-sectarian in his general outlook, and was one of the founders of the Brethren movement. His influence touched the lives of thousands -- perhaps most notable, that of J. Hudson Taylor. His most moving reunion with an orphan was on October 19, 1878 when a 71 year old widow met him...she had been his first orphan over 57 years previously. 10,023 other orphans were to follow her there and have Daddy Mueller rear them. Mueller read the Bible through over 200 times, half of these times on his knees. He said he knew of some 50,000 specific answers to prayer...requests to God alone!

Over 3,000 of his orphans were won to Christ through his ministry by the Holy Spirit.

~ Christian Hall of Fame Series by Ed Reese

2007-05-15T12:48:00.000+08:00

God is looking for a man, or woman, whose heart will always be set on Him, and who will trust Him for all He desires to do. God is eager to work more mightily now than He has ever done through any soul. The clock of the centuries points to the eleventh hour.

The world is waiting yet to see what God can do through a consecrated soul. Not the world alone, but God Himself is waiting for one who will be more fully devoted to Him than any who have ever lived; who will be willing to be nothing that Christ may be all; who will grasp God's own purposes; and taking His humility and His faith, His love and His power, will, without hindering, continue to let God do exploits.

There is no limit to what God can do with a man, providing he does not touch the glory.

~ Charles E. Cowman

A Mother's Love

2007-05-11T12:25:00.000+08:00

Before the child is born,
Anxious prayers ascend to heaven,
The young mother depends on God,
To nurture the life she's been given.

When the mother hears the first cry,
The tiny child claims her heart,
A bond that cannot be broken,
Deep passionate love from the start.

God is the Author of this love,
To each mother it is given,
To minister to a newborn child,
A new life bestowed from heaven.

When the child grows old,
The mother's love is still there,
For she has not left her duty,
She still wraps the child in prayer.

Remember your mother,
Honor her with your love,
For she is the gift that was given,
To you from God above.

~ Julie L. McCarty

The Holy Spirit - God's Power At Work

2007-05-10T16:25:00.000+08:00

We preach and pray, and you hear; but there is no motion Christ-ward until the Spirit of God blows upon them.

~ John Flavel

Do not pray for more of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity and is not in pieces. Every child of God has all of Him, but does He have all of us?

~ F. B. Meyer

Every time we say, 'I believe in the Holy Spirit,' we mean that we believe that there is a living God able and willing to enter human personality and change it.

~ J. B. Phillips

Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

~ John 14:17

But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me..

~ John 15:26

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

~ John 16:13

Amazing Grace

2007-05-08T12:25:00.000+08:00

John Newton was born in 1725, and died in 1807. It seems that the only godly influence in his life was his mother, who died when he was only seven years old. When she died, John was virtually an orphan. His father remarried, sent him to a strict military school where the severity of discipline almost broke his back - he left in rebellion at the age of ten. One year later, deciding that he would never enter formal education again, Newton became a seaman apprentice, hoping somehow to step into his father's trade and learn at least the ability to skillfully navigate a ship.

By and by, through a process of time, Newton slowly gave himself over to the devil, determining that he would sin to the fill without restraint, now that the righteous lamp of his life had gone out. Later drafted into England's Royal Navy, he was captured like a common criminal and beaten publicly several times at the mast, and dismissed from the service. After enduring the punishment, Newton again fled, entertaining thoughts of suicide and made his way to Africa, deciding that would be the place he could get farthest from anyone that knew him. Again he made a pact with the devil to live for him.

Somehow, through a process of the events, Newton got in touch with a Portuguese slave trader and lived in his home. He was married to a wife who was brimming with hostility and took a lot of it out on John. She beat him, making him eat like a dog on the floor of the home. If he refused to do that, he would be whipped with a lash.

From there, penniless and owning only the clothes on his back, Newton fled to the shoreline of Africa where he built a fire, hoping to attract a ship that was passing by. A skipper took him on thinking he had gold or slaves or ivory to sell and was surprised because the young man was a skilled navigator. It turned out to be a slave ship, and John lived on this ship for a long period of time. It was not uncommon for as many as six hundred blacks from Africa to reside in the hold of the ship down below to be taken to America.

During these years on a number of occasions, Newton went through all sorts of narrow escapes from death. One time he opened some crates of rum and got everybody on the crew drunk. The skipper, incensed with his actions, beat him, threw him down below, where he existed on stale bread and sour vegetables for an unendurable amount of time. When the skipper brought him above for another beating, Newton fell overboard. Because he could not swim, the skipper harpooned him to get him back on the ship, and John lived for the rest of his life with a large scar in his side. On board, inflamed with fever, John was enraged with the humiliation. A storm broke out and he wound up again in the hold of the ship, down among the pumps. To keep the ship afloat, he worked as a servant of the slaves.

Bruised, confused, bleeding and diseased, he became the epitome of a degenerate man. It was then that John Newton remembered the words of his mother, and cried out to God, calling upon His grace and His mercy to deliver him, and upon His Son to save him. The only glimmer of light he could find was in a crack in the ship's floor above him - he looked up to it and screamed for help.

Soon afterwards, while reading a book he found on board, Thomas à Kempis' 'The Imitation of Christ', Newton's heart was softened and seeds of his conversion were sown. At first he tried to justify his work by improving conditions on his ship, and even holding worship services for his crew. When a ship nearly foundered in a storm, he surrendered his life to Christ. Later he was promoted to captain of a slave ship. Commanding a slave vessel seems like a strange place to find a new Christian. But at last the inhuman aspects of the business began to pall on him, and he left the sea for good. He eventually served as a clerk at the Port of Liverpool and became a strong crusader against slavery.

While working as a tide surveyor he studied for the ministry, and for the last 43 years of his life, he preached the gospel in Olney and London. Newton married a childhood sweetheart, entered the ministry and was ordained in 1764.

Everywhere he preached, rooms had to be added to the building to handle the crowds that came to hear the presentation of the Gospel and the story of God's grace. At age 39, he became Pastor in Olney where one of his "extremist" practices was the singing of hymns which expressed simple heartfelt faith rather than the staid singing of Psalms. Not finding enough hymns of this nature, Newton began writing his own. In 1780 he began a long pastoral ministry in London. When advised to retire, Newton replied, "What, shall the old African blasphemer stop while he can still speak?" His epitaph, which he wrote himself, reads:

John Newton, Clerk,Once an infidel and libertine,A servant of slaves in Africa,Was by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,Preserved, restored, pardoned,And appointed to preach the faithHe had long laboured to destroy.

At 82, Newton said, "My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things, that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Saviour." No wonder he understood so well grace--the completely undeserved mercy and favor of God.

But a far greater testimony outlives Newton in the most famous of the hundreds of hymns he wrote:

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind but now I see.

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed!

Through many dangers, toils, and snares,
I have already come;
'Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

When we've been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we'd first begun..

I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I wish to be. I am not even what I hope to be. But by the cross of Christ, I am not what I was.

~ John Newton

2007-05-07T17:58:00.000+08:00

I have a great need for Christ; I have a great Christ for my need.

~ C.S. Spurgeon

I Found Jesus There

2007-05-04T12:28:00.000+08:00

"Tomorrow morning," the surgeon began, "I'll open up your heart..."

"You'll find Jesus there," the boy interrupted.

The surgeon looked up, annoyed.

"I'll cut your heart open," he continued, "to see how much damage has been done..."

"But when you open up my heart, you'll find Jesus in there."

The surgeon looked to the parents, who sat quietly.

"When I see how much damage has been done, I'll sew your heart and chest back up and I'll plan what to do next."

"But you'll find Jesus in my heart. The Bible says He lives there. The hymns all say He lives there. You'll find Him in my heart."

The surgeon had had enough.

"I'll tell you what I'll find in your heart. I'll find damaged muscle, low blood supply, and weakened vessels. And I'll find out if I can make you well."

"You'll find Jesus there too. He lives there."

The surgeon left.

The surgeon sat in his office, recording his notes from the surgery, "...damaged aorta, damaged pulmonary vein, widespread muscle degeneration. No hope for transplant, no hope for cure. Therapy: painkillers and bedrest. Prognosis:.." here he paused, "death within one year."

He stopped the recorder, but there was more to be said.

"Why?" he asked aloud. "Why did You do this? You've put him here; You've put him in this pain; and You've cursed him to an early death. Why?"

The Lord answered and said, "The boy, My lamb, was not meant for your flock for long, for he is a part of My flock, and will forever be. Here, in My flock, he will feel no pain, and will be comforted as you cannot imagine. His parents will one day join him here, and they will know peace, and My flock will continue to grow."

The surgeon's tears were hot, but his anger was hotter.

"You created that boy, and You created that heart. He'll be dead in months. Why?"

The Lord answered, "The boy, My lamb, shall return to My flock, for he has done his duty: I did not put My lamb with your flock to lose him, but to retrieve another lost lamb."

The surgeon wept.

The surgeon sat beside the boy's bed; the boy's parents sat across from him.

The boy awoke and whispered, "Did you cut open my heart?"

"Yes," said the surgeon.

"What did you find?" asked the boy.

"I found Jesus there," said the surgeon.

~ Author Unknown

Obedience

2007-05-03T16:04:00.000+08:00

One word stands out from all others as the key to knowing God, to having His peace and assurance in your life -- it is obedience.

~ Eric Liddell

I Know Who Holds Tomorrow

2007-04-27T15:43:00.000+08:00

I don't know about tomorrow,
I just live from day to day.
I don't borrow from its sunshine,
For its skies may turn to grey.

I don't worry o'er the future,
For I know what Jesus said,
And today I'll walk beside Him,
For He knows what is ahead.

Refrain
Many things about tomorrow,
I don't seem to understand;
But I know Who holds tomorrow,
And I know Who holds my hand.

Ev'ry step is getting brighter,
As the golden stairs I climb;
Ev'ry burden's getting lighter;
Ev'ry cloud is silver lined.

There the sun is always shining,
There no tear will dim the eyes,
At the ending of the rainbow,
Where the mountains touch the sky.

Refrain
Many things about tomorrow,
I don't seem to understand;
But I know Who holds tomorrow,
And I know Who holds my hand.

I don't know about tomorrow,
It may bring me poverty;
But the One Who feeds the sparrow,
Is the One Who stands by me.

And the path that be my portion,
May be through the flame or flood,
But His presence goes before me,
And I'm covered with His blood.

Refrain
Many things about tomorrow,
I don't seem to understand;
But I know Who holds tomorrow,
And I know Who holds my hand..=)

~ Ira Stanphill

Love is a Costly Thing

2007-04-26T15:02:00.000+08:00

She was lying on the ground. In her arms she held a tiny baby girl. As I put a cooked sweet potato into her outstretched hand, I wondered if she would live until morning. Her strength was almost gone, but her tired eyes acknowledged my gift. The sweet potato could help so little--but it was all I had.

Taking a bite she chewed it carefully. Then, placing her mouth over her baby’s mouth, she forced the soft warm food into the tiny throat. Although the mother was starving, she used the entire potato to keep her baby alive.

Exhausted from her effort, she dropped her head on the ground and closed her eyes. In a few minutes the baby was asleep. I later learned that during the night the mother’s heart stopped, but her little girl lived.

Love is a costly thing.

God in His love for us (and for a lost world) "spared not His own Son" to tell the world of His love. Love is costly, but we must tell the world at any cost. Such love is costly.

It costs parents and sons and daughters. It costs the missionary life itself. In his love for Christ the missionary often must give up all to make the Savior known. If you will let your love for Christ cost you something, the great advance will be made together.

~ D. Hillis

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an offering far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all..

The steadfast love of our Lord never ceases..

2007-04-25T12:38:00.000+08:00

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases
His mercies never come to an end
They are new every morning, new every morning
Great is Thy faithfulness, O Lord,
Great is Thy faithfulness..=)

Today my heart sings of Your great goodness and faithfulness, dearest Lord.
Thank You for Your sacrificial love which never ceases.
There is nothing we can do to make You love us more, there is nothing we can do to make You love us less.
Thank you Lord..:)

The Power of God

2007-04-23T12:06:00.000+08:00

For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God.
For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God..

~ 2 Corinthians 13:4

Thirsty?

2007-04-19T17:08:00.000+08:00

Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

~ John 4: 13-14

2007-04-18T14:39:00.000+08:00

In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust..
Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort: thou hast given commandment to save me; for thou art my rock and my fortress.

~ Psalm 71: 1a, 3

2007-04-17T14:48:00.000+08:00

All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name.
For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone.
Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.
I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore.
For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.
..O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.

~ Psalm 86: 9-13, 15

Precious Lord, thank you for always helping me to claim Your promises as unchanging and powerful truths. They never fail to proclaim Your unfailing grace, love and mercy each time i reflect upon them. Continue to unite my heart to fear Your name alone..that was the Psalmist's heart's desire. Please move within my soul and make that my heart's desire too.

Thank you so much for everything..especially for pouring forth fresh purpose and planting a new vision within my heart.

Obeying Your still small voice -- that is all that really matters..

Thank you for teaching me what that really means, dear Lord.

I truly owe it all to You.

2007-04-16T16:18:00.000+08:00

The world's great heart is aching,
Aching fiercely in the night.
And God alone can hear it--
And God alone can give light.

The men to hear the message
And speak the living Word.
And you and I, my brother,
And the missions who have heard.

We grovel among trifles
And our spirits fret and toss.
While above us burns the vision
Of Christ upon the Cross.

And the blood of Christ streaming
From his pierced hands and side.
And the lips of Christ are saying
Tell the lost that I have died.

No power of man shall thwart us
No strongholds shall dismay.
When God commands obedience
And love has led the way.

~ Anon.

For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.

~ Luke 19:10

Last Words

2007-04-09T14:31:00.000+08:00

Fearful Last Words:

Cardinal Borgia: “I have provided in the course of my life for everything except death, and now, alas, I am to die unprepared.”

Elizabeth the First: “All my possessions for one moment of time.”

Kurt Cobain (suicide note): “Frances and Courtney, I’ll be at your altar. Please keep going Courtney, for Frances. For her life will be so much happier without me. I love you. I love you.”

Ludwig van Beethoven: “Too bad, too bad! It’s too late!”

Thomas Hobbs: “I am about to take my last voyage, a great leap in the dark.”

Anne Boleyn: “O God, have pity on my soul. O God, have pity on my soul.”

Prince Henry of Wales: “Tie a rope round my body, pull me out of bed, and lay me in ashes, that I may die with repentant prayers to an offended God. O! I in vain wish for that time I lost with you and others in vain recreations.”

Socrates: “All of the wisdom of this world is but a tiny raft upon which we must set sail when we leave this earth. If only there was a firmer foundation upon which to sail, perhaps some divine word.”

Sigmund Freud: “The meager satisfaction that man can extract from reality leaves him starving.”

Tony Hancock (British comedian): “Nobody will ever know I existed. Nothing to leave behind me. Nothing to pass on. Nobody to mourn me. That’s the bitterest blow of all.”

Phillip III, King of France: “What an account I shall have to give to God! How I should like to live otherwise than I have lived.”

Luther Burbank: “I don’t feel good.”

Voltaire (skeptic): “I am abandoned by God and man! I will give you half of what I am worth if you will give me six months’ life. Then I shall go to hell; and you will go with me. O Christ! O Jesus Christ!” (The talented French writer once said of Jesus, “Curse the wretch!” He stated, “Every sensible man, every honorable man, must hold the Christian sect in horror ...Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd and bloody religion that has ever infected the world.”) He also boasted, “In twenty years Christianity will be no more. My single hand shall destroy the edifice it took twelve apostles to rear.” Some years later, Voltaire’s house was used by the Geneva Bible Society to print Bibles.

Philosophical Last Words:

Aldus Huxley (humanist): “It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one’s life and find at the end that one has no more to offer by way of advice than ‘Try and be a little kinder.’”

Karl Marx: “Go on, get out! Last words are for fools who haven’t said enough!”

Napoleon: “I marvel that where the ambitious dreams of myself and of Alexander and of Caesar should have vanished into thin air, a Judean peasant—Jesus—should be able to stretch his hands across the centuries, and control the destinies of men and nations.”

Leonardo da Vinci: “I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have.”

Tolstoy: “Even in the valley of the shadow of death, two and two do not make six.”

Benjamin Franklin: “A dying man can do nothing easy.”

Grotius: “I have lived my life in a laborious doing of nothing.”

Unexpected Demise:

H. G. Wells: “Go away: I’m alright.”

General John Sedgwick (during the heat of battle in 1864): “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this dist——!”

Bing Crosby: “That was a great game of golf.”

Mahatma Ghandi: “I am late by ten minutes. I hate being late. I like to be at the prayer punctually at the stroke of five.”

Diana (Spencer), Princess of Wales: “My God. What’s happened?” (per police files)

Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.: “Never felt better.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt: “I have a terrific headache.”

Sal Mineo: (stabbed through the heart): “Oh God! No! Help! Someone help!”

Jesse James: “It’s awfully hot today.”

Lee Harvey Oswald: “I will be glad to discuss this proposition with my attorney, and that after I talk with one, we could either discuss it with him or discuss it with my attorney, if the attorney thinks it is a wise thing to do, but at the present time I have nothing more to say to you.”

Unusual Last Words:

Vincent Van Gogh: “I shall never get rid of this depression.”

James Dean: “My fun days are over.”

Oscar Wilde: “My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go . . .”

W. C. Fields: “I’m looking for a loophole.”

Louis XVII: “I have something to tell you . . .”

Assurance of Salvation:

Jonathan Edwards: “Trust in God and you shall have nothing to fear.”

Patrick Henry: “Doctor, I wish you to observe how real and beneficial the religion of Christ is to a man about to die . . .” In his will he wrote: “This is all the inheritance I give to my dear family. The religion of Christ which will give them one which will make them rich indeed.”

John Owen: “I am going to Him whom my soul loveth, or rather who has loved me with an everlasting love, which is the sole ground of all my consolation.”

D. L. Moody: “I see earth receding; heaven is opening. God is calling me.”

Lew Wallace (author of Ben Hur): “Thy will be done.”

Alexander Hamilton: “I have a tender reliance on the mercy of the Almighty, through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am a sinner. I look to Him for mercy.”

William Shakespeare: “I commend my soul into the hands of God my Creator, hoping and assuredly believing, through the only merits of Jesus Christ my Savior, to be made partaker of life everlasting; and my body to the earth, whereof it was made.”

Martin Luther: “Into Thy hands I commend my spirit! Thou hast redeemed me, O God of truth.”

John Milton (British poet): “Death is the great key that opens the palace of Eternity.”

Sir Walter Raleigh (at his execution): “So the heart be right, it is no matter which way the head lieth.”

General William Booth (to his son): “And the homeless children, Bramwell, look after the homeless. Promise me . . .”

David Livingstone: “Build me a hut to die in. I am going home.”

Charles Dickens: “I commit my soul to the mercy of God, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and I exhort my dear children humbly to try and guide themselves by the teaching of the New Testament.”

Isaac Watts (hymn-writer): “It is a great mercy that I have no manner of fear or dread of death. I could, if God please, lay my head back and die without terror this afternoon.”

Andrew Jackson: “My dear children, do not grieve for me . . . I am my God’s. I belong to Him. I go but a short time before you, and ...I hope and trust to meet you all in heaven.”

Daniel Webster (just before his death): “The great mystery is Jesus Christ—the gospel. What would the condition of any of us be if we had not the hope of immortality? . . . Thank God, the gospel of Jesus Christ brought life and immortality to light.” His last words were: “I still live.”

~ The Evidence Bible

What will your last words be?

He is Risen

2007-04-05T14:12:00.000+08:00

"Come, see the place where the Lord lay," with joy and gladness. He does not lie there now. Weep, when ye see the tomb of Christ, but rejoice because it is empty. Thy sin slew him, but his divinity raised him up. Thy guilt hath murdered him, but his righteousness hath restored him. Oh! he hath burst the bonds of death, he hath ungirt the cerements of the tomb, and hath come out more than conqueror, crushing death beneath his feet. Rejoice, O Christian, for he is not there -- he is risen.

~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,
Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

~ 1 Peter 1:3-5

2007-04-03T14:27:00.000+08:00

I firmly believe that the moment our hearts are emptied of pride and selfishness and ambition and self-seeking and every thing that is contrary to God's law, the Holy Ghost will come and fill every corner of our hearts; but if we are full of pride and conceit and ambition and self-seeking and pleasure and the world, there is no room for the Spirit of God; and I believe many a man is praying to God to fill him when he is full already with something else.

The work of the Spirit is to impart life, to implant hope, to give liberty, to testify of Christ, to guide us into all truth, to teach us all things, to comfort the believer, and to convict the world of sin.

~ Dwight Lyman Moody

Spiritual Power

2007-04-02T17:04:00.000+08:00

If we had the Spirit sealing our ministry with power, it would signify very little about talent. Men might be poor and uneducated, their words might be broken and ungrammatical; but if the might of the Spirit attended them, the humblest evangelist would be more successful than the most learned of divines, or the most eloquent of preachers.

It is extraordinary power from God, not talent, that wins the day. It is extraordinary spiritual unction not extraordinary mental power, that we need. Mental power may fill a chapel but spiritual power fills the church with soul anguish. Mental power may gather a large congregation. but only spiritual power will save souls. What we need is spiritual power.

~ Charles H. Spurgeon

..Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.

~ Zechariah 4:6b

Beautiful Things Happen

2007-03-30T12:14:00.000+08:00

O God

Such beautiful things happen

When I meet You day by day

In quietness and confidence.

There is a deep inner wholeness

And the assurance of Your guidance.

I am not so easily disturbed

By changing circumstances.

I am less dependent on others

And more dependent on You.

My eyes may be full of tears

But my heart is full of joy.

In discovering Your hidden treasures

I learn how deeply I am treasured by You.

When day by day I am responsive

To Your whispered secrets

You do more for me in one day

Than I could do for myself in a lifetime.

~ Ruth Harms Calkin ~

For thou art my lamp, O LORD: and the LORD will lighten my darkness.

For by thee I have run through a troop: by my God have I leaped over a wall.

As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all them that trust in him.

For who is God, save the LORD? and who is a rock, save our God?

God is my strength and power: and he maketh my way perfect.

~ 2 Samuel 22:29-33 ~

2007-03-29T14:54:00.000+08:00

God is waiting to be put to the test by His people in prayer. He delights in being put to the test on His promises. It is His highest pleasure to answer prayer, to prove the reliability of His promises.

God shapes the world by prayer. The prayers of God's saints are the capitol stock of heaven by which God carries on His great work upon the earth.

The more praying there is in the world, the better the world will be; the mightier the forces against evil.

Around us is a world lost in sin, above us is a God willing and able to save; it is ours to build the bridge that links heaven and earth, and prayer is the mighty instrument that does the work.

~ E.M. Bounds