Tuesday, 29 December 2009
Always on My Mind
No man is an island, and nobody is called to live life without people around. Being a non-dating, single young adult working in another city and staying alone in a rented room nearby the workplace, there is often the challenge of "loneliness". I sincerely like the way I am now, being single is the greatest thing that's happening now... As I go through restoration and healing of my life, my faith, my very inner being. If I'm to be presented to my future husband one day, I hope to be the best for him, able to support and encourage him by being who I truly am. Even if singlehood is the call God has for me, I shall accept it willingly, though I'd love to have my own family when the time is right.
As I had dinner in Recipe House just now, I read a chapter from a book I recently purchased in Doulos. It answers exactly to how I was feeling at that moment. This is excerpted from "I'm Not Wonder Woman But God Made Me Wonderful!" by Sheila Walsh:
A Closet Prayer:
Father God,
Thank You that You are always thinking about me. Thank You that Your thoughts toward me are always good and loving and merciful. Help me to line my thoughts up with Your Word.
As I had dinner in Recipe House just now, I read a chapter from a book I recently purchased in Doulos. It answers exactly to how I was feeling at that moment. This is excerpted from "I'm Not Wonder Woman But God Made Me Wonderful!" by Sheila Walsh:
It's quite something when you sit with that truth for a while. The God of the universe, who holds everything together, who is sovereign over every ruler on the earth is thinking about you. Our president has the people of the United States of America on his mind on a daily basis. Occasionally, some are granted the priviledge of a personal meeting and a few exchanged words; then, it is time to move on. It is unlikely that as the president goes to sleep each night he is thinking of everyone he met that day, never mind the millions that he has never met.
But God our Father is thinking about us every day. When God thinks about us, His thoughts are 100 percent accurate. He doesn't think we are smarter than we are or less able than we are. He doesn't think we are as godly as the image we try to present at times when we are feeling spiritual or dismiss us as hopeless wretches when that is how we feel. God knows all that is true and loves us totally. So we don't struggle with what God thinks; we struggle with what we think.
God's Word never changes. He always sees us as beautiful and amazing; it is we who change as the world around us changes. Our challenge is to keep the image of the woman God sees more prominent than the image of the woman we see with our human eyes. The new hat that God offers for our wardrobe represents putting on His truth every time we look in our human mirror.
If Eve had never sinned, do you think that every woman born would have been beautiful by our standards? We can never know that. All I can be sure of it that no matter how we looked on the outside, we would have seen each other with our hearts, and a heart in perfect fellowship with God is beautiful. If we are to live as wonderful woman in this world, our call is to change how we think about our lives.
Perhaps the greatest challenge of all is to guard our hearts, for it is out of the heart that all the issues of life flow. We are most in danger when our hearts are not fully engaged in relationship with God. When we are not passionate in our life with Him, we look for something else to give ourselves to.
A Closet Prayer:
Father God,
Thank You that You are always thinking about me. Thank You that Your thoughts toward me are always good and loving and merciful. Help me to line my thoughts up with Your Word.
In Jesus' name,
Amen.
Amen.
Saturday, 26 December 2009
What a Wonderful Christmas!
Photo log is the easiest when it comes to explanation of what happened. I had a great Christmas celebration, though not with 101 friends in a huge Christmas party. But with true friends for sure!
After Christmas mass, taken with Chris and Golo - the Altos.
With Evelina, my student. Her sister, Adelina, is in the choir...
With the brothers, Lionel and Charles. I hope I got his name correct..
My anak Vania... So cute right, she?
Another shot with her. I only get to see her twice a year, during Christmas and Easter, when she comes with her uncle. But I enjoyed every single minute spent with her, though it is short. Hehe! Wish I could spend more time with her, but well... I'm not close to her real family... Wait till she grows up to be a lovely young lady... Oh my... then I will be a real Aunty Cindy eh~ Haha!
Cheryl Chan and Cindy Chan. Hehe.. I think we can pass off as sisters, don't you think so?
Ahah! Kor kor Adrian and me... The bass/baritone in Choir.
Joanna siao mei mei and me! Hehe!
With Mrs. Wong, Ian, and future fadoo Joshua (lama lagi but it is a hope). Hehe!!
Von Teo and me after mass...
Conz and me after mass! Love her yellow dress!
Bishop asked us to reflect on the birth of baby Jesus as the beginning of our salvation. This is the real gift of Christmas. May Christmas begins not only in the crib but deep inside our hearts.
My another anak - Ian Sebastian, and his two front teeth.
While opening present... Ian and mommy - Josephine.
Nice potrait of the year!
With my twin, Irene, in friend's house.
It was a deep reflection time during this Christmas. To have come to where I am now, there were struggles and difficult decisions to be made. I survived, thanks to the Lord who is always there to comfort me. These struggles still exist in my life and there will be more and more difficult decisions to be made as I journey along into year 2010. It will be challenging year ahead, but I know it is also a good year for transformation and changes. And I do hope that showers of blessings will be upon me, if God wills it. Bishop urged us during Christmas eve mass to ask God to cleanse our hearts to be the temple of the Holy Spirit. Then again, on Christmas day, he encouraged us who have received the Light, who is Jesus, to be the light to the world who is dead and in darkness. This is an urgent task, but also a role of all Christians.
I pray that you who are reading here will be the light to the world and radiate the love of God in all that you do. I also pray the person whom I'm waiting to come back is safe and sound while doing whatever the person has to do at the moment.
May God be the centre of your life, now and forever. Amen!
I pray that you who are reading here will be the light to the world and radiate the love of God in all that you do. I also pray the person whom I'm waiting to come back is safe and sound while doing whatever the person has to do at the moment.
May God be the centre of your life, now and forever. Amen!
Thursday, 24 December 2009
Wednesday, 23 December 2009
Called to Worship by Vernon M. Whaley
Called to Worship: The Biblical Foundations of Our Response to God's Call, written by Dr. Vernon M. Whaley, is a must-read for all those who are new to worship, as well as a refresher for those who have been worshiping God since they come to know Him as their personal Saviour. In this whole book, the author brings us to a tour of how people from Old Testaments all the way down to New Testament worshipped God. The very essence of thus book is probably this: "God yearns to establish relationship with us, His created ones".
I was in a season where worship became difficult and complacent when I finally received this book. Reading this book challenged and transformed my worship and prayer life, encouraging me to seek God deeper than ever.
I really liked how Dr. Whaley explained about the worship styles of different era, individuals and situations, according to the chronological order of the bible. One can follow easily, even if we're unfamiliar with the bible. It also encourages us to read our bible as we read on. Besides that, there is always a summary known as "Principles of Worship from this Chapter" at the end of the chapter which helps us to refresh our memory after reading the chapter.
One important point that he had conveyed was it is okay to be imperfect, and still worshipping the God who is perfect in every way. He pointed out the imperfections of the biblical characters mentioned in the book and how God still longed for their worship and blessed them abundantly when they returned to God. Even in modern days, we can still return to the God who yearns to establish relationship with us ever more by first being obedient to Him and start worshipping Him once again.
This is a book suitable to be used for personal devotion, small group material as well as teaching material for the topics of biblical worship.
I was in a season where worship became difficult and complacent when I finally received this book. Reading this book challenged and transformed my worship and prayer life, encouraging me to seek God deeper than ever.
I really liked how Dr. Whaley explained about the worship styles of different era, individuals and situations, according to the chronological order of the bible. One can follow easily, even if we're unfamiliar with the bible. It also encourages us to read our bible as we read on. Besides that, there is always a summary known as "Principles of Worship from this Chapter" at the end of the chapter which helps us to refresh our memory after reading the chapter.
One important point that he had conveyed was it is okay to be imperfect, and still worshipping the God who is perfect in every way. He pointed out the imperfections of the biblical characters mentioned in the book and how God still longed for their worship and blessed them abundantly when they returned to God. Even in modern days, we can still return to the God who yearns to establish relationship with us ever more by first being obedient to Him and start worshipping Him once again.
This is a book suitable to be used for personal devotion, small group material as well as teaching material for the topics of biblical worship.
What is Your Top Ten List?
Dear Tech Support.
Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a slowdown in the performance of the flower and jewelry applications that had operated flawlessly under the Boyfriend 5.0 system.
In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.9, and installed undesirable programs such as NFL 7.4, NBA 3.2 and NHL 4.1.
Conversation 8.0 also no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simple crashes the system. I've tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail. What can I do?
Signed,
Desperate
===================================================================
Dear Desperate,
First, keep in mind that Boyfriend 5.0 was an entertainment package, while Husband 1.0 is an operating system. Try to enter the command C:\ITHOUGHTYOULOVEDME and install Tears 6.2. Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Guilt 3.3 and Flowers 7.5.
But remember, overuse can cause Husband 1.0 to default to such applications as Grumpy Silence 2.5, Reading Newspaper 7.0, or Watching Sitcoms 6.1. Please keep in mind that Watching Sitcoms 6.1 is an annoyingly disruptive program that will create SnoringLoudly.WAV files.
DO NOT install Mother-in-Law 1.0 or reinstall another Boyfriend program. These are not supported applications and will crash Husband 1.0. It could also potentially cause Husband 1.0 to default to the program Girlfriend 9.2, which runs in the background and has been known to introduce potentially serious viruses into the operating system.
In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and can't learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to enhance its system performance. I personally recommend Marriage for a Lifetime Seminar 3.0 and Marital Intensive 4.5 combined with such applications as that old standby... Lingerie 5.9 (which has been credited with improved performance of its hardware).
Good luck.
Tech Support
......................
Hope you enjoy the story and gain wisdom from it. Taken from the book "More than a Match" by Michael and Amy Smalley. Blessed weekend ahead!! ^^
Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a slowdown in the performance of the flower and jewelry applications that had operated flawlessly under the Boyfriend 5.0 system.
In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.9, and installed undesirable programs such as NFL 7.4, NBA 3.2 and NHL 4.1.
Conversation 8.0 also no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simple crashes the system. I've tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail. What can I do?
Signed,
Desperate
===================================================================
Dear Desperate,
First, keep in mind that Boyfriend 5.0 was an entertainment package, while Husband 1.0 is an operating system. Try to enter the command C:\ITHOUGHTYOULOVEDME and install Tears 6.2. Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Guilt 3.3 and Flowers 7.5.
But remember, overuse can cause Husband 1.0 to default to such applications as Grumpy Silence 2.5, Reading Newspaper 7.0, or Watching Sitcoms 6.1. Please keep in mind that Watching Sitcoms 6.1 is an annoyingly disruptive program that will create SnoringLoudly.WAV files.
DO NOT install Mother-in-Law 1.0 or reinstall another Boyfriend program. These are not supported applications and will crash Husband 1.0. It could also potentially cause Husband 1.0 to default to the program Girlfriend 9.2, which runs in the background and has been known to introduce potentially serious viruses into the operating system.
In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and can't learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to enhance its system performance. I personally recommend Marriage for a Lifetime Seminar 3.0 and Marital Intensive 4.5 combined with such applications as that old standby... Lingerie 5.9 (which has been credited with improved performance of its hardware).
Good luck.
Tech Support
......................
Hope you enjoy the story and gain wisdom from it. Taken from the book "More than a Match" by Michael and Amy Smalley. Blessed weekend ahead!! ^^
Tuesday, 22 December 2009
A Wedding Montage (Youtube)
My friend who is getting married posted this youtube video on her FB and I took this opportunity to share with you all here... I think it is a beautiful montage, and it is personally touching - I don't know the story behind all the tears the bride shed, but it must have been something beautiful for her. And I hope you guys also can share that trickle of joy too. I love sharing joys...
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