something about sunday sermons...

hi all, as the weekend is coming and most of you need to go to church, please take a good look at the picture below and know very clearly where you stand. Ciao !!

i know it's not christmas....but...

like i said, we are nowhere near christmas for me to show you this little write up but i just feel like putting it in. however, we are near Easter...and this has got something to do with Jesus...so enjoy:

Jesus vs Santa Claus

Santa lives at the North Pole. JESUS is everywhere.
Santa rides in a sleigh. JESUS rides on the wind and walks on the water.
Santa comes but once a year. JESUS is an ever present help.
Santa fills your stockings with goodies. JESUS supplies all your needs.
Santa comes down your chimney uninvited. JESUS stands at your door and knocks.. and then enters your heart.
You have to stand in line to see Santa. JESUS is as close as the mention of His name.
Santa lets you sit on his lap. JESUS lets you rest in His arms.
Santa doesn't know your name, all he can say is "Hi little boy or girl, What's your name?" JESUS knew our name before we did.Not only does He know our name, He knows our address too.He knows our history and future and He even knows how many hairs are on our heads.
Santa has a belly like a bowl full of jelly. JESUS has a heart full of love.
All Santa can offer is HO HO HO. JESUS offers health, help and hope.
Santa says "You better not cry". JESUS says "Cast all your cares on me for I care for you. Santa's little helpers make toys. JESUS makes new life, mends wounded hearts, repairs broken homes and builds mansions.
Santa may make you chuckle. JESUS gives you joy that is your strength.
While Santa puts gifts under your tree, JESUS became our gift and died on the tree.

hoped you all enjoyed today's post...God Bless and have a great weekend !!!

love is an art

love is an art, trust me. it is not something you can master overnight, it requires skill, technique, time, sacrifice, wisdom, energy and so many more other elements. when you have love, you will be emotionally, physically and mentally tested. becoz basically for every good thing that you feel, you will also suffer from a backlash of the opposite feeling. here is a case example of a boyfriend & girlfriend: they are both in love and they care a lot for each other, becoz of this, in the event that either one goes home late and fails to report to each other, the care will become worry, the worry become anxiety, which leads to panic and emotional unstability which finally leads to anger.

becoz you love, you want the best for the other, but it doesn't always happen in a luvy dovy way, that's why i am saying that love is no easy thing to achieve. and what i just mentioned earlier was just an example of a dating couple. there is also scenarios that involves husband & wife, close friends, church friends, school friends, colleagues, people you dunno know, God, pets, items, etc etc.

in the bible, it is mentioned that the greatest commandment is to love God with all our hearts and mind and strength and also to love everyone else as we love ourselves. wat ? love everyone else (the bible says neighbourlah, but everyone else is wat it means) you mean i got to love that beggar on the street ? wat about that idiot that i hate so much ? that lousy teacher ? the guy that robbed me ? etc etc. well, basically that is wat the bible literally means...so YES is the answer to all the questions above. it is not a matter of whether you can do it or not, it is how you can go about it happily. but one thing you must learn, you must first love God, learn what is love, then you must also know how to love yourself, otherwise how are you going to know what is love ?

love is not just about "oh, i miss you darling" or "oh i love you so much, i can't live without you" it is more than that, it is the geniune care from deep within that we have. just like how God loved us so much HE had to send HIS ONLY SON to die for us...now...THAT'S LOVE !!! when we have the love of God in our lives, it should be reflected in how we do things and how we live. if it isn't, then we got to pray and work harder towards achieving it. becoz you can have all the faith and power of the HS, so on and so forth, you may be the best preacher or leader in town, if there is no love, it is all useless. in the NT, it is clearly written that between HOPE, FAITH & LOVE, LOVE is actually the greatest. Jesus dying for our sins is a sign of greatness in love. it is the greatest commandment, it is the hardest thing that we can do in our christian lives. we can pray, we can praise, we can worship, we can lead, we can teach, all these we can acquire with minimum fuss. but to love, it is a much more complicated issue, from relationships alone...you can already see the complexity of love. wat more love towards the whole earth ? even i can't seem to love that beggar on the street, to feel sympathy...maybe...to feel sad..maybe...to extend a helping hand...er..maaaaaybe, to love and care...not yet God, why not another day...(you know lah, i so clean, the beggar so dirty, what if he got disease, what if he rob me, etc etc) see....i am sure many of you feel the same way, nothing to be shy about....coz i feel the same as well...that's why we are not perfect...but the important thing is we must have intentions (conviction)to improve.

there are also cases of people that have cheated or harmed us before...how are we ever gonna deal with all this people ?...and we got to do it in LOVE ? oh, God, you really got to come and help me man. one of those things that the bible and the world today seems to agree on is that LOVE is great. even the world can't deny this fact, a mother that loves her child can be almost 3 times as strong as she physically is if the child ever comes under threat. becoz of love....millions of reactions happen in our human body and guess what ? God created all these. isn't HE great ? without love, everything is empty and meaningless.

it is not easy to love, it is also not easy to be loved. but this is an art that we must all learn as soldiers of God, coz it will help carry us through the ups and downs of our lives. so how do we do it ? like i said, it is an art...there is no manual to teaching love, there are no steps to follow...the easiest is to allow God to first come into our lives, understand HIS love, learn to love HIM, learn to love ourselves the Godly way...and then begin to reach out to the rest of the world. all these we can only do by the grace of God, thru the spirit we learn and thru life we learn. May we all end up to be the best lovers that God wants us to be. good day !!!

God is the BEST Mathematician

it dawned on me today to talk about maths...not the type you learn in school...but the type you learn from Heaven. it is the only maths i can talk about coz i suck at human maths...sometimes i wonder how i actually managed to pass all my maths subjects during my schooling years, probably God was there to answer for me...hehehe. i never understood why did we humans have to complicate the subject of maths when God made it so simple. i mean, tell me what is the point of calculating the weight and mass of a sphere or a water pipe when all you do after school is just kick a ball and drink from the pipe. it doesn't make you a better person and you forget all the formulas 5 years after you graduate anyways.

you know...some time ago i dropped by the home of one of my pre-teens from church. i saw him doing his homework and i offered my help. to my astonishment it was maths !!! u know lah ...i have always hated maths...so there i was trying to solve one of his homework questions and it took me 20 mins, not 2mins but 20mins for 1 question. it was a question of calculating water level in a pipe...what the heck...why are we putting our kids thru this type of education...how many adults on earth right now actually bothers to calculate water level in their water pipes. all we know is got water or no water, water dirty or water clean. no wonder so many christians nowadays struggle with Godly maths, that's becoz they've already filled up their brains with maths that is created by human logic.

now, what do i mean by Godly maths? let me tell you, maths from heaven has no human logic, it only has Godly logic. if only all of us can understand it, then a lot of things would look much simpler and easier. i think in heavenly maths, there is only <+, -, /, x>, which literally mean plus, minus, divide and multiply. let me give you an example, what ever minus you have, God will make it plus for you meaning : when you sacrifice and lose something for God, HE will add on blessings to you. another example, divide yourselves into groups and go reach out to the lost faithfully, God will then multiply you fruits accordingly. see, i told you, it is simple...why must we come out with so many different formulas to calculate so many different things that does not relate to us in life later on.

let's procceed and talk about GIVING (Tithes+offering), something that a lot of people struggle with...look at the chart below before we go on and see if you find it logical

CHART A
income - tithe - offering - remainder - total giving
10,000 - 1,000 - 0 - 9,000 - 10%
20,000 - 2,000 - 2,000 - 16,000 - 20%
30,000 - 3,000 - 6,000 - 21,000 - 30%
40,000 - 4,000 - 12,000 - 24,000 - 40%
50,000 - 5,000 - 20,000 - 25,000 - 50%
60,000 - 6,000 - 30,000 - 24,000 - 60%
70,000 - 7,000 - 42,000 - 21,000 - 70%
80,000 - 8,000 - 56,000 - 16,000 - 80%
90,000 - 9,000 - 72,000 - 9,000 - 90%

looks logical right ? coz this is using human logics, but guess what ? how many of us can actually achieve total giving of 90%? i would say very minimum. you see, the problem with us humans is that we can't see beyond what God has for us, breaking the 10% barrier is already a struggle to many, what more 90%. at the end of the day, we can't even overcome maths that we humans have created through our own logic. i mean, having 9,000 to spend is actually a very comfortable figure for the general public, the only thing we have to overcome is temptation of what money can do for us. when people have money, they spend happily for themselves but not for God, they plan the future of their children (when God has already planned for them b4 they were even born, go read Jeremiah), they save it up for emergency (when you can just pray for God's intervention), they save it till i dunno when (it's not like you can take the money to heaven)

guess who benefits when we can break our mental level and achieve 90% of giving. the poor, the lost, the mission fields, church growth, outreach events, bible giving, etc etc. (exactly what God has called us to do) it's not like God dun have money and need to ask from us, HE is just basically using us as a vessel to give, that's all.
now look at this new chart and see what you think ?

CHART B
income - tithe - offering - remainder - total giving
10,000 - 1,000 - 0 - 9,000 - 10%
20,000 - 2,000 - 2,000 - 16,000 - 20%
30,000 - 3,000 - 6,000 - 21,000 - 30%
40,000 - 4,000 - 12,000 - 24,000 - 40%
50,000 - 5,000 - 20,000 - 25,000 - 50%
100k - 10k - 50k - 40k - 60%
200k - 20k - 120k - 60k - 70%
400k - 40k - 280k - 80k - 80%
800k - 80k - 640k - 80k - 90%

like the figures ? see, i told you God has better maths than ours, but to achieve CHART B, we must first achieve CHART A, i am personally working on CHART A, but i look towards CHART B very soon, i hope that all of you can join me in this quest. by doing so, the church never needs to raise any funds anymore, coz all needs are always met, and that's becoz all of us achieved CHART B scenario. i am not saying this is how God works, the figures may vary and change depending on how God wants it to be, ultimately it is up to God, and i am just sharing with you my point of view.

anyways, i guess that's it for today, we have seen how our human logic maths has loss outright to the maths of God. and that is why i am saying that God is the best mathematician, good day all of you !!!

we are made in the image of God

hi all, looks like i am keeping up so far with this blogging thing...we shall see how long i will last...hehehe. anyways...talking about image...my title for today as u can see is nothing new but it just hit my mind yesterday to tok about it today.

u see, last week i met some frens of my wife and they all seem to be so slim and fit, then i look at myself and realise that i am kinda way off my ideal weight (15kgs off what i wanna be like) so i found out thru conversing with them that they seem to be using a detoxifying product that seems to work 99% of the time (to detoxify and lose weight) and my heart was itching to try this stuff out. while pondering on this product, i can't help but tok to God about this, and immediately i am reminded that we are made in HIS image (this is what everyone says), so supposedly i am actually perfect in HIS eyes and i shouldnt be complaining, it means that i shouldn't be like people of the world and be involved with such invain stuff (worrying about my weight and not the things of God). but somehow, i just wanted to dig deeper into this topic coz i feel like it is not just the English being used...there should be a deeper meaning (we are made in God's image) than what the words say.

and guess what, i kinda of found out that it really means more than the words said. u see....thru all these years since christianity was founded, it has not been mentioned how God looks like (we only roughly know how Jesus looks like from arts of the past. : i personally wonder how accurate it is since it is like 2000 yrs ago), the Bible talks a lot about God's emotions, actions, presence, holiness, etc etc but does not mention his appearance. even though he appeared to a couple of characters in the Bible, but it mentions that it is either in thick clouds or awesome glory that u can't see anything. so the question is, how does God look like ? is he handsome ? (of course HE is...just look at me and you'll know, HE made me man)...i guess we will find out when we go back home (HEAVEN)

so wat does made in HIS image really means, just look at the life of Jesus and you would roughly know...Jesus was humble, tender, loving, caring, merciful, powerful, faithful, u name it He's got it. all these actually refers to something inside, not outside...NT has no mention on how handsome or ugly He is, but all the qualities mentioned comes from within. ah ha...now u get the picture, right ? so when God made us in HIS image..it was more than looks, it is something from deep inside that HE worked with, HE wasn't too concerned with looks and HE actually let nature do its job on our facial and body appearance..afterall HE made nature and HE is just putting it to work. (u know lah...all those scientific stuff about genes, heredity, chromosomes etc etc)

my next finding, in the NT when Jesus went back to Heaven, He left behind something very important to us, the Holy Spirit. and so the HS actually dwells in us and we are the temple of the HS, that's why we always have to confess our sins and make sure we are pure and holy coz the HS is pure and holy and IT dislikes dwelling in filthy temples (which is us lah). so wat does all this got to do with my detoxifing thing, well...i hope by now most of you would realise that it definitely has a link.

i remember since young days when we were brought up, we always dress nice and tidy when we were going some place and this included going to church. this is becoz we wanted to look PLEASING to God and it is actually an honour to walk into church coz church was God's dwelling place. now..if my body is full of toxic, unneccessary fat, unhealthy bacterias and so on, imagine you being the Holy Spirit, would you wanna live in me ? i think i would be the first to go. therefore, just like the trinity of God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit, it actually applies the same to us...our body works that way too.

our body trinity:

people will say body, mind and soul..but wat about the HS ?
so i would say image of God in us is also a trinity kind of thing...
1.God made us in HIS image giving us beautiful inner qualities like Jesus.
2.Our body needs to be pure and holy for the HS to dwell in which come power.
3.Jesus imparted wisdom and teaching to us making us more like HIM.

and now let me conclude, becoz we have 1, we would be convicted to serve our best to God and give HIM all we have (which includes dressing up nice for HIM to see, being PUNCTUAL, worshipping HIM, etc etc) becoz we have 2, we will keep our temple (body) pure and holy, (externally and internally) externally - making sure we are strong and healthy (overweight and toxic has to go) internally - making sure we live a life that is honouring to God and blameless as we can be (though we are never perfect : why do you think we need to confess sins all the time?), coz when the HS is happy in us, i can assure you there will be a lot of power and authority that comes with it. becoz we have 3, we now have wisdom and knowledge and can go to all corners of the earth boldly teaching, preaching and sharing to those who have not heard of Christ.

so after all these findings, i have decided to do all 3 to the best i can, dun wish me luck but pray that i will succeed, hopefully you find this helpful. i guess i got to go now for my badminton session (part of keep me fit, hehe) have a nice day and God Bless

boring monday...but turned out great...coz God's there !!!

well....like all monday's i am usually pretty free...so usually i'll go and do my personal chores for the week...u know lah...paying bills....taking clothes to laundry....cleaning my fish tank...etc etc. somehow today was a particularly boring start...in fact i feel directionless...maybe coz i had a rough week last week...not everything went so well...but guess what? God is still there !!!

so y did i say that God is still there? well....to start it off...i din have a particularly fruitful week last week....in fact, it was quite a bad week, one that i would wanna forget about. then came sunday and we had communion in church...wat a great way to start the new week...forget about the pass and let's move forward. woke up this morning, still found myself empty somehow. quiet time was scary coz it was a reading in Hosea, toking about repentance and and vengeance from God (i am so greatful i live in the NT times man). somehow or rather i could feel that God was still being very favourable to me in many ways (most of them small ways...but can add up big when u count it : i think that is how God usually works)

and then i find myself sitting in front of the laptop and God just gave me an inspiration suddenly. (y dun i start a blog and tok about christian life in the world of reality). initially i thought to myself "why me?" i am not one who likes to write, i dun like to read except if it is short, funny or exciting. i just like to tok till the cows come home. but then God was telling me...since u like to work with the young and the trend now is blogging....y dun u use this a a harvest field for the lost and also a place of encouragement for your fellow christians.

and as i start writing...ooopppss typing...i begin to feel at ease and now i see a new perspective again in outreach thru the internet. may i be a good vessel for the glory of HIM. so now u see...my day turned out to be good after all and i think this will be a great week. my spirit is lifted again thanx to a little inspiration from God. so God is always there afterall....whether you are high or low, lost or found, new or old....isn't that great....May God Bless you all and have a great week