All Eyes On You

Have you ever wondered why people can go to church week in and week out, some even serve in the ministry and yet still are unfruitful and defeated? Some do spend time with God yet along the way they somehow get stagnant. In my search of this answer, going through times like what I've just described myself, a verse in the Bible concluded it.

Revelation 4:8 says this......... and truly its really a revelation.... haha

The four living creatures, each having six wings, full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying:

"Holy, holy, holy,

Lord God Almighty,

Who was and is and is to come!"

Wow! What kind of creature is that?!? Ridiculous!! Eyes all around AND within? Can you imagine that? Eyes on it's wings, eyes on it's legs, on it's hands, IN it's bones...... My goodness! Why so many eyes??

And as I asked the question earlier in the post, God's answer comes with just one word, perspective.

These four living creatures could keep on saying "Holy holy holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!", night and day, all their lives, because they saw different aspects of God every moment with their many eyes. Perspective. The only reasonable action for us to do now is to be on the constant search of who God is, not to know more about God, but knowing more about God so that we can worship Him in a new aspect and experience that very new expect of Him. We will never run dry or feel "out of steam" as we serve God. It all comes back to worship, which is total obedience and submission to His will.

So since we need to know more about God and who He is, let me just help you with some words that I've come to realise its true meaning. In the bible......

Strength - Perpetual success and impenetrable to temptation

Holy - Different

Word of God - Jesus

Minister/Ministry = Servant/Serving = Shut up and just do it!

Rejoice - Jump up, spin around in the influence of a violent emotion

Hallelujah - (halle) To boast, to shine, to put on a show, to rave (lu) for (Jah - short for Jehovah) God

I hope this helps you a little in your perspective of who God is now. So now when you say or sing, 'You are my strength, Your strength is made perfect in weakness, holy are You God, I'll spend time with Jesus, You rejoice over me or hallelujah', doesn't it give you a totally different picture of the promises of God for us or the greatness of God or how much He longs to spend time with us?

When we worship God in the very essence of what a word means, we not only bring glory to Him, but we also grow in faith + the devil is trembling because we know our identity in Christ. He must be shaking now.... hahaha....

Enough said, let us have all "eyes" on God in these last days of human history. May His "force" be with you.

'WORDS OF FAITH'

The Lord your God in your midst, the Mighty One will save, He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing. (Zephaniah 3:17 NKJV)

p.s. - I'm sure you're really amazed now at what this verse actually means but check out the Amplified Bible version of this verse, its gonna be an additional "eye" for you.

And find out what pleases the Lord. (Ephesians 5:10 NIV)

p.s. - I'd like to just highlight this verse, but whenever a verse in the Bible starts with an 'and', please go and read the verses before it.

The Enemies Camp

Greetings everyone, its been awhile since I last posted something, but I'll be posting at least once a month and I hope to do more. 

These 1/4 of the year has been an unsafe time for our community as we hear and read about many bad happenings in our community like robbery and theft and even murder. This post I'm sending out is so that we the children of God will stop the devil in his pursuit to destroy our community. Some of these victims are people I know personally and please, people of God, we cannot let this unruly events continue anymore. Let us pray for our community, not only cover them with prayers but as well let us be in the attacking position towards the enemies camp. Let us also pray for our MP YB Wee Choo Keong for wisdom and favour as he tackle this issue. I believe that we are the ones who can make a change in this world, TODAY!

Here's a testimony I'd like to share with you, to encourage you to pray for our community and hunger and thirst after the higher things in life. I hope you are blessed : )

Just a year ago, we decided to launch our church's youth outreach toward the secondary schools in our community. We've seen our youth group grow from 0 to around 20+ that we're actively in contact with. Here's a cool mathematical fact........ We're not only seeing things double, triple, quadruple but we're seeing things grow from nothing into something. Just yesterday, some of us celebrated one of these youths birthday and we and he had real good time. Just seeing him so happy as we wished him 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY!' and buying him a cake, made all the sacrifices of money and time and personal leisure totally and absolutely worthwhile. 

Many surprising things have been happening to 'the little darling' recently too. Well as you know part 4 of 'the little darling' was the last part but if you're still interested to follow more on the life of 'the little darling', let me know and I'll starting writing again....... soon.

All these happenings, extremely bad and extremely good must surely be pointing towards the second coming of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Therefore let us live our lives seeking first His Kingdom and His righteousness.

'WORDS OF FAITH'

Let us hear the conclusion of the matter:

Fear God and keep His commandments,

For this is man's all.

For God will bring every work into judgment,

Including every secret thing,

Whether good or evil.

(Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 NKJV)

Reflector

planetshakers CD 'Reflector'

Just to share about why this blog is titled 'Reflector' and why my email adds always have the words reflecting. Well it was 7 years ago, back in December 2002 that the whole course of my life would turn as I encountered Jesus and well, personally, the greatest love this world has ever seen. It was this song 'Reflector' by Planetshakers that the perspective of 'LIFE' in my mind changed. Since that day forward, I've been on constant surrender to Him to get to a place of worshipping Him alone. If I could do it all again, I wouldn't change a thing. Here's a story of Peter yet again, someone that probably was like me, changed from the inside out.

In Acts 5:15 we read about Peter's shadow healing the sick. Ever wondered about Peter's shadow? Special you would say huh? Well, I think it was pretty special. Check out this definition, Peter's shadow meant that his inner world was leaking out. Hahaha. Cool heh?

In our lives we reflect many things, but what? who? Brothers and sisters, we've gotta get "in touch" with Jesus. Why is worship all about? Well in one sentence I think worship is about the heart, not a song, but a song of the expression of the heart. The only response when we experience God is to repent of our ways and surrender. That's true worship, total obedience and submission to God.

'WORDS OF FAITH'

For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one. much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:17 NKJV)

A Place For You

Here's a parable/story I heard from my friend Jimmy which he heard from a preacher. I find it to be very interesting and a little humorous too. Well to me it was. Here's how the parable goes......

There was a guitarist that served God in the music ministry/worship ministry. He played his instrument as a service unto God every week, whether it'd be in prayer meetings, small group gatherings or Sunday praise & worship. He lived all his life that way until he died and went to Heaven. When he got to Heaven, an angel checked him into his mansion. And looking from afar, he was so excited and could barely hold in his joy because of the reward that awaited him. Reaching his mansion, the door opened and as he looked into his huge great mansion, to his shock, lay in it a guitar. He started to question and ask..... "Is that all? Haven't I faithfully served You my whole life? Shouldn't I be greatly rewarded or at least more than this? 

What a wonderful parable, don't you think so?

We often serve God out of convenience or in things we know we can do. No faith needed whatsoever. What about those times where someone needed the preaching of the gospel (well everyone needs the gospel), or a prayer of blessing, or God told us "Don't do this today, I want you to do that instead?"

Notice that when Jesus said "I go to prepare a place for you", it was a promise, and great is His faithfulness, we technically can do absolutely nothing with our Christian lives and still get a mansion. But what's in it? All depends on how we burn the 1 candle we have, our lives. Do we want to go to Heaven and in our mansion only have a TV with a stack of DVDs (only Korean dramas, not even Hong Kong dramas... haha), or find a metallic briefcase with a pair of camera lenses in it, or an album with pictures of earthly memories, or a piece of guitar?

I hope this blog entry has touched and changed your heart and mind. If you feel that this post condemns you, let me tell you, it wasn't intended to. It was intended to steer and redirect you into the center of God's will. I for one wouldn't wanna go to Heaven seeing my friends having no eternal rewards. So let us, in all our pursuits in life, never forget the purpose of our very lives.

'WORDS OF DESTINY'
Evan Baxter: What are we gonna do?!
People: Change the world!!

Depicted from the movie 'Evan Almighty'

'WORDS OF FAITH'

And they overcame him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimonies, and they did not love their lives to the death. (Revelation 12:11 NKJV)

'WORDS OF DANIEL'

If you've got no great stories to tell, you've been living a lame life.

The Little Darling - Part 4, Heroes

NBC series 'Heroes' logo

The past few weeks has been a mix emotion time for me. Having a ridiculously blessed year in 2008, I know this year will be far greater but what? how? Stepping into this year, the feeling in me is as if I were stepping into the unknown. With prophecies in 2007 directing me for 2008, this year, no prophecies have been given to me last year on the directions I should take this year. All I can do is pray and seek for more of His presence and power to manifest through my life and just hope that I don't screw it up.

As you might have already known, 'the little darling' is very dear to my heart. But concern soon turned to worries and it started to eat up my faith. Knowing that her life wasn't going all that well, I searched for an answer and solution to change her and her situation. Failing and failing in helping her and teaching her good values, I kept on rising up again to handle the situation. Seeing the devil heading towards victory, I thought I could fight the devil and overpower him.

I then had dream, a dream that reminded me of a similar dream I had a year back when the youth ministry just started. The dream goes like this........

In the dream, I was walking in my secondary school. I then saw a mysterious looking old lady with a hunched back and a walking stick in her hand staring weirdly at me. I then walked up the stairs heading to my classroom when I saw a friend that was close to me during my secondary schooling years being attacked by a werewolf sort of creature. I then took out something like a sword-like weapon to fight it. In the midst of fighting it the werewolf's attention turned towards me and it overpowered me to the ground and stabbed me in the guts. I started to bleed and was dying when I then woke up from the dream. But before waking up from the dream, a thought flashed across my mind that the mysterious old lady was the actually the werewolf.

I then remembered the meaning of this dream when I first got it from God. I already had the meaning of this dream interpreted and when I had it this time, the message sank in deeper. I then spent some time in the presence of the Lord, and the Holy Spirit spoke to me that 'If you don't let go bigger doors, greater doors and opportunity will not come your way'. I then prayed a hard prayer, which is to let go 'the little darling' into the hands of God.

Communication hasn't been good with her lately, but I know for sure that God can do great and might things and that He has her precious life in His hands.

In our lives we reach a point of time in our lives where we realize that life is not just living for ones self but for others, surviving in this world for the sake of someone else. We dig deep into the very core of our being, hoping that someway or somehow we might find the answers to the problems of the people around us. We try our best to be heroes and saviours to them but all we find in ourselves often is not big enough to give. As we continue this endless search of finding the hero inside of us or wait for the time to come where it will surface, we often forget that the hero in us is Him and not us.

In Zachariah 4:6 it says

'Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the Lord Almighty.

Truly, no matter what we do or say, we can never transform a life. We may be able to inspire but that's as far as it will ever go. This verse tells us also between the lines, that we need to use our power and might but it is not because of what we do or how much we do that lives are changed, but it is by the the Spirit of the Lord.

I hope this final part to 'The Little Darling' has taught you a great deal on surrendered and selfless love. Remember, that as we use our power and might, every ounce of our lives to touch others, it is not because of that that people turn to Jesus, but it is by God's might hand that DNAs are altered. Nevertheless, let us go and do what we must do in our lifetime on earth, honouring God, seizing every opportunity that is laid before us and also those that are not laid before us, being channels for the Holy Spirit to touch others.

'WORDS OF FAITH'

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down every arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. (2 Corinthians 10:4-6 NKJV)

The Little Darling - Part 3, Merry Christmas!!

It's getting late here, and I just got back home from visiting her not too long ago. My whole day of Christmas was full of drama and adventure. It was seriously, action packed! It all started yesterday, Christmas Eve, where we had our Christmas Celebration at Kuala Lumpur International Hotel and here is how it all went down......

Christmas Eve - Christmas Celebration 2008 night (Different yet the Same)

Making my way to the hotel at around 4.30 pm, I was so excited for the night ahead though my day was really energy draining after having taught 2 tuition classes running simultaneously (can you imagine that??). Knowing that nearly all the youths from 'The Metamorphosis Project' were gonna come that night, it added even more expectancy of what a great night it was gonna be.

Being the welcoming speaker (MC) for the first time, I was a "little" (Malaysian expression of 'VERY VERY VERY!') nervous. I told God that I really needed His peace to fill me (and also telling myself "It's just like Praise Celebration, it's just like Praise Celebration."). To cut the long story short, everything went smoothly and truly God answered my prayers and gave me peace as I spoke and sang. I won't be sharing on the details of what happened that night but all I can say is that.............. it was mind blowingly SUPERB!

It was a long night after because I had to send back some youths to their respective homes and then travel back again to the hotel to pick up the instruments and then back to good old World Harvest Church. I then went supper with some of my comrades in Christ. It was around 2.15 am as I journeyed to pick up Angie and Mei Mei to help me wrap the Christmas presents I bought for the youths (they actually wrapped everything, I just watched...haha...thanks alot girls!). We had to rush to wrap them that night itself because we would be seeing them the next day at tuition, and it would be nice to give them the presents on Christmas Day itself.

It was 4.00 am when I left my home to send Angie and Mei Mei back. It was around 4.30 am> when I finally was able to sleep.

It's Christmas!

The next day, some of us from WHC went to our beloved 2nd home, TVS at Bandar Sunway, for a Christmas Celebration. When I was there, during one of the scenes in the sketch that was being performed, I learned one of my greatest lessons and I guess you can say it was an unexpected present from God. It was at the scene where Jesus, our Lord and Saviour was born. A thought just flashed cross my mind that goes something like this.... "Maybe Jesus was so excited to come to earth, but "see see" He was persecuted, misunderstood though He was always right, went through pains and sorrows, and died for our meaningless lives to give us an abundant life and a whole lot of meaning in it".

The whole program ended around 1.00 pm, and all that was in my mind was, "How are we going to get back on time for tuition by 3.00 pm". I decided to skip a "makan" session with my friends at Sunway Pyramid and head straight back to Wangsa Maju to pick up the youths for tuition. I was so excited cause I was going to give all the youths a present. On the way back, we were caught in a terrible jam and I did the most dangerous driving of probably my entire life (been driving 2 years plus only actually...haha). I got an sms from 'The little darling' telling me that she doesn't want to come for tuition, and the reason she gave was, "so and so is not coming today, so I also don't want to come, bye". Many of the other youths also gave really silly reasons and I was a "little" upset (Malaysian expression of 'I was really pissed off'). Caught in the traffic jam, I was sms-ing her back and forth with a "little bit" (you should know what little means by now) of scolding. We decided to cancel the tuition because many weren't coming and we actually would not make it back in time due to the heavy traffic. (When you read this, take into account the previous day of preparing the presents and the anticipation seeing their happy faces when they received their presents then having to sacrifice my "lepak" time with my buddies, rushing through a heavy traffic and then being buzzed at the last minute and told that they were not coming, you would know that I was really really really upset this time).

Having cancelled tuition, me, Vigh and Jimmy went to AU2 Jusco instead and had some time of hanging out together and shopping (all things work together for good to those who love Him yeah? hahaha). I was still upset about what had happened earlier on but as I was waiting for the others to get their stuff, a blouse at the children section caught my attention. I said to myself, "Hey, that would look cute on her". I took it off the rack and bought it.

Me and Jimmy picked up Deon (one of our youths) and made our way to her house, it was around 8.30 pm. We both got a wonderful surprise when Deon gave us a present each. At that moment I didn't really care what was in it, but just receiving something from someone you have poured your love and life on, that was a feeling that is hard to find. When we reached her place, she was kindda scared and wasn't looking at me when she saw me having her head down the whole time. I guess it was because I scolded her. In the elevator, before we reached her house, I told her that I wasn't angry at her anymore and passed her the plastic bag containing the blouse I bought her.

We went into her humble home and spent some time there. Being at their house, I could imagine how hard her growing up was in such an environment. As Jimmy talked with her dad and I talked with her mum, we began to encourage her parents and shared some testimonies to them. As I saw her mum being encouraged by the testimonies, I took the opportunity to pray for her, for peace and hope to fill her heart and her family. There, I was reminded from the Holy Spirit that being angry and losing hope is easy, but loving is something that is going to take every last bit of who we are. I then promised myself to see this family through with prayers, love and care. This was truly a Christmas I will never forget.

I hope this part of 'The little Darling' encourages you to love and keep on loving. Brothers and sisters in Christ, the future of our community lies in our hands. Let us therefore live a life of blessing and distributing hope and joy to this world that needs it. That when we would look back at our journey of life, we can say that we, against all odds, lived a life that was radical, driven by selfless love. The blood of Jesus is the only thing that can break the curses of sin and sets one free.

'WORDS OF DESTINY'

Looking back, fifty years from now, don’t you want to say you had the guts to get in the car?
Sam Witwicky, Transformers

'WORDS OF FAITH'
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a NIV)

The Little Darling - Part 2, Jesus is our Hope

me at shao pei's 13th birthday

Another great week to give thanks to God for. Here is how my week went......

I was praying the whole week for 'The Little Darling' to return to our youth gatherings, her well being and also for her salvation. She hasn't been coming for the past few months. We've been contacting her via msn and sms asking her to come for youth on Saturday the past week. And on Saturday morning itself......

Jimmy went to pick the youths from their respective places when I got a wonderful sms from Karen saying that the little darling would be coming for youth that day. I quickly called Jimmy and asked him whether he knew about it and he told me that he also got the sms from Karen (actually the sms Karen sent to me started with 'Hey Jim' hahahaha). It was just so good to see her again and I personally was overjoyed when I saw her [as always :)].
I shared a message on the story of Peter being called out of his fishery career into a career of changing this world. Let me just share a few thoughts and some brief things I shared......

In the life of Peter we see that he rejected Jesus before the climax of the cross. It is interesting to know that though Jesus knew Peter would deny Him, He still carried the cross and bore the shame of Peter 'til death. In the last chapter of the gospel of John, we read of Jesus asking Peter a question 3 times, "Do you love me?". In Greek, which the New Testament is written in, love is described in 3 ways, eros, phileo and agape. Phileo means love of friends and agape means unconditional love, love that might even be a 1 way love, a love that goes beyond reason, even maybe beyond the other person knowing that he/she is being loved. The word agape was created when Jesus, the Son of God came to earth to save us. The first 2 times Jesus asked Peter "Do you love me?", He was using the word agape, which would be written like so.... "Do you agape me?" And Peter answers Jesus with a lower form of love, phileo, knowing that he didn't love Jesus beyond condition. The third time Jesus asks Peter, Peter was grieved. But how come? Why was Peter grieved? Wasn't it the same question again? If you read the whole context knowing the word 'love' in Greek has different words to describe it, Peter was grieved because on the third time when Jesus asks Peter, Jesus used the word phileo and not agape. And Peter answers with this phrase, "Lord, you know all things, you know that I phileo you". Wonderful heh? Jesus went down to Peter's level of love.

Maybe as you read this, you might not be in a state of total appreciation or knowledge of God's love. But all God wants is all that we can give. If your understanding of love is as low as "I love hamburgers".... Go ahead, Jesus wants all that you can give him, and as we grow in spiritual maturity, we will understand and appreciate His love for us and even for others more and more.

As the little darling was sitting, listening to the message, I wanted to say I'm talking about me and you. You see, I know that I might never get back the love that I am giving her, or she might not even know what level of love I have for her [of coz I pray she will :)], but I will be like my Savior Jesus. When we get touch by God we become like him, godlike. For example, in the Bible it says that Jesus is the Light of the world, and a later verse Jesus tells His disciples, us, that we are the light and the salt to the world. You see, when we get touch by the Light of the world, we in turn become the light of the world, or when we experience the Savior, we then become someone else's savior, which is to save them from going to eternal suffering by being the one's to cause them to realize that they need Jesus. Making sense here? Well if it doesn't, this is a spiritual truth that needs spiritual understanding not natural reasoning.

We broke up into smaller groups and later that day I was told that she, the little darling, accepted Jesus Christ into her life. Prayer changes things baby!

So let us give Him our whole life, to use and to manifest through. Notice that agape love is never for one's self and it might even be repaid in sorrows and pains, but if we would all look toward Jesus, the alter and finisher of our faith, we will never forget that He agape-d you and me too.

I hope this blog entry has blessed you and showed you that our prayers and love can change situations, climate, a person, a community, a nation. God bless you, and may the Holy Spirit be with you.

P.S. - Why did I say our prayers can change climate? We had a kite flying outing today and we were praying for good weather so that we could fly kites...... Cut the long story short, it was a windy and cool day.

'WORDS OF FAITH'

Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. (John 15:13 NKJV)