A new look

I always want to cut my hair short.

So today I went to cut my hair. Trying to save money, I went to this very cheap chinese hair-dresser in the valley who couldn't even speak english properly. For men it's $9 while for woman it's $13.

So when it comes to my turn, I went inside and sat on the chair. She asked me how I want my hair to be cut, I said short and messy or spikey. She said, "OK. Which number?" Then I said 6 for the top and 4 for the side and back.

So she picked up the clip (which to me looked like number 4) and starting cutting the top part of my hair. To make sure that I really saw what I was seeing I opened my eyes so widely and lean forward towards the mirror. Yep, I saw what I saw. But there's nothing I can do.

So when you see me next time, please don't run away. I know I'll look like a terrorist or some guy who just came out of jail, but please stop and say hi to me.

On a brighter side of life, I found that touched my heart.

Free Upgrade

I don't know if it's just me or everyone gets it, Singapore Airlines emailed me yesterday saying that I will get a free upgrade on whichever flight I take with them between 1 April to 30 June. I was like, "WOW.... awesome."

But then again, I don't have any plan to go anywhere. hmm....
Come to think of it, I thought of my own life. I actually received the best free upgrade I could ever get in my life, and it is the 'salvation'.

Before I committed my life to Jesus, I was heading towards the eternal fire. In general, upgrade means the replacement of a product with a better quality product. With regards to eternal fire, anything but eternal fire is considered excellent, ahahha..... So it's not just an upgrade, it's something I can't gain myself.

But I want to you look at it from the perspective buying an economy seat, and instead of sitting at the economy seat (that tight small seat with almost no room for your arms and to stretch your leg and the very limited angle for you to recline your seat), you'll be seating at the business class (that much bigger seat where you can rest your arms without having to fight for space with the person next to you or in front of you to stretch your legs plus that special attention from the air-steward/ess who calls you by name with title Mr, Ms or Mrs). Then transfer it into the salvation, instead of going to hell (that eternal life fire), you go to heaven (that eternal life with God). And all I have to do is just to repent from my sins and accept Jesus to be my Lord and Savior. Cost: FREE.

And more than that, more than just going to heaven the moment I die, while I'm still alive, God promises that He will never leave me nor forsake me, that He has a plan for me, that He will carry me through the hurdles and pains in life, that His joy will be my strength and that He will help me, encourage and comfort me. So it's like a double free upgrade, if I can put it that way.

Man... what a bargain.

Revelation Song (Gateway Worship)

Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, who is and who is to come

Useful Links - Adults ONLY

ahahha.... I hope you won't think that I'm gonna post a link to some website with obscene materials inside it.

One of my new yr's resolution is to study the WOG. When the opportunity to join bible college was open, I quickly made some plan with regards to my schedule for this yr. But before I could registered myself, I lost my job. To cut the long story short, I decided to use whatever resources I have to study WOG. I read bible/books, borrow CD/DVD/books from friends, re-read the materials I have from CDS, seminars/conferences/conventions, as well as watching freely available online sermons.

So in the next few days/weeks, I will try to share with you what I've found or learned. NOW, regarding online materials, I would like to ask you to be careful and discern to the HS. We must always go back to the bible. This is why I wrote that the useful links will be for adults only as a degree of maturity (as well as knowledge) is required.

Alright, below is a link to Ps Mark Driscoll sermon from Mars Hill Church.
http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/

To access to all his sermons, look into the right handside of your screen, he uploads his sermons there. Currently I'm watching the 'Religion Saves' series.

Note:
If you're unsure or have questions about some of the teaching/things that he talks about, I strongly encourage you to talk about it with your shepherd/leader/pastor.

If you ask me about books, currently I'm reading:
1. Bible (Nehemiah, 1 Timothy and Ephesians)
2. Too busy not to pray (by Bill Hybels)
3. Successful Home Cell Groups (by David Yonggi Cho)
4. Overview of Christian Doctrines A (by Wilson Lim)
5. Plus some other materials. Don't wanna shock you with the list.

Anyway, I'm almost finish with Successful Home Cell Groups (I read this book becoz I wanna learn from him how he grew his church from 2400 to over 700000 members), and 1/4 way with Too busy not to pray (reason is because our group is gonna discuss this book in May). I need to read Overview of Christian Doctrines A because I take the CDS this term (just started). And the bible reading, that's for my QT and LG purposes. Other materials which I haven't listed are materials for shepherding as well as the DVD and MP3 of sermons I bought and borrowed.

I will list down the books I've read/am reading, and other links in the coming days/weeks. Anyway, enjoy listening to Ps Mark Driscoll for now.

Shalom,

A better understanding

I've been reading, thinking, listening, pondering, watching and talking to different people in the past uh.... I don't know, I think since the beginning of this year. And the amount of stuff I'm putting into my brain is just overwhelming. And it's still not enough.

Every night I go to bed very late, and it's only because body (especially my eyes) can't really take it to stay up so late.

However, I can't complain at all.
I've been learning quite a lot, especially about God, the bible and christianity. I have a better understanding now. 1 thing that I don't want is that, all these knowledge that I have acquired, will go wasted. I want to really absorb everything and help me to grow in my faith, in my relationship with God. And if it's possible, to help others to grow in their relationship with God as well.

ah... here's a song by Kari Jobe. I bumped into some of her songs on youtube a couple of days ago. She has such a nice voice and can see the gifting from God in her.

My hiding place

I like this song, found it accidently while searching for a song the worship team's gonna sing this Sunday at church, cause I don't have the CD at home.

Till this day, I'm still nervous whenever I lead pnw in LG (let alone singing in church). It's not the leading pnw or chairing that makes me nervous, it's the standing in front of people that brakes me apart. It's such a nerve-breaking thing that I had to seek God for courage and strength, over and over again. The nervousness often (if not always) developed (if I can put it this way) into fear, so overwhelming that it could almost paralyse me.

Anyway, I'm getting better at overcoming my fear. I'm still nervous whenever I have to stand in front of people (though not as bad as before), but 1 thing I learned from the past is that all I have to do is to give my best, and God who is faithful, will do the rest.

This song reminds of the times when I was so nervous (full of fear) and had to go away from the crowds (trying to find a secluded place to pray), to seek God for comfort, strength and courage.

The Warranty

I questioned and struggled with this long time ago, and once in a while I still asked myself about my relationship with God.

There is no guarantee for salvation

I know that I have to provide a lot of verses/passages from the bible, but for the moment, think about that statement. There is a truth in that statement. So here's the question.

1. Is there anyway we can lose our salvation?
2. If the answer is yes, how or when can we lose our salvation?

Why am I writing this? Well, just found out a friend of mine believes that there's no way we can lose our salvation. Once we accepted Jesus, the salvation is ours.

If you wanna know more, please read the 4 books of the Gospel, Hebrew and Revelation. Enjoy your reading.
:)

Leaders are replaceable

It took me quite a while to fully understand it.

Most leaders know that they have a very important role in the church (or even in the secular world), so they can't just do whatever they want or say whatever they think suitable for them to say. Pride can be one aspect, but there are many other aspects that can make leaders think that they're so important and the people need them so much.

Yes it's true that they hold a very important role, the higher the position the more important they become, but at the same time, they are also replaceable. The examples are just everywhere in the bible, both in OT and NT. When I was thinking about it, man.... forget about being removed from any leadership position, I'm fine with it, the scary part is when I go to heaven and God found me to be not a good and faithful servant. ah.... LORD, help me to walk in your way and obey you always.

One verse that came to my mind is from Romans 12:3. Basically Paul encouraged the believers in Rome to live their life as a living sacrifice, and in verse 3 of chapter 12 he wrote:

"³For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you."

What can I say

The song goes like this;
"So what can I say, so what could I do..."

It's the pre-chorus for the song called 'The Stand'.

So why did I say 'what can I say?'
Well, I went to accompany my housemate for grocery shopping at Toowong shopping centre. When we got back home, while reverse-parking my car, I noticed that the bumper on the driver side (at the back) was out, or rather came out of its place. So I was like, "HAH?"

I then checked the bumper and noticed that somebody had just bumped my car and conveniently walked away irresponsibly without giving any notice. Though there's no dent at all, it was pretty hard to fix it, and no, I could not fix it. I have to take my car to the honda mechanic to have it fixed. ahaha...

I want to be angry, but I can't, who should I be angry at?
So I asked in my heart, "God, what do you want me to learn now?" Then all of a sudden I just sang, "So what can I say, so what could I do?" ahahhaha...

Here's the song;

The Role of Women in the Kingdom of God

I was born and grew up in a traditional christian family, where I was told that man is supposed to be the head of the family, be the protector to the woman and family and be the breadwinner, while woman ideally is supposed to stay at home and raise the kids, obey the husband, cook, clean and bla bla bla... And at church, I could only recall 1 lady who preached from the pulpit of my church back in indonesia. Though it's changing slowly, women didn't hold important position in church. The scripture also said few things about women.

But I remember once I was thinking about the role of women in life, including the Kingdom of God. It can't be right that women can't or shouldn't do anything, and men are above women. I'm not rich at all, in fact I don't have lots of money, so if I'm married and I'm the only one who's working, how can I ever buy a house and pay off the mortgage? More than that, raising kids is the responsibility of both parents, not just the wife/mother. Even at church level, if every humanbeings were to reach their greatest potential, there must be a place for women.

Those were my thoughts.
Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against women holding a high and very crucial position anywhere, but it was my thoughts long time ago, OK.

So over time I forgotten altogether about it, though gradually I saw the changes, even my own mind can't deny the importance of women in and outside church.

But yesterday night, I read this book authored by Ps. Yonggi Cho about growing a home cell group. There's a section there where he wrote how important it is the role of women in church and society. To help me understand his point of view, he provided all the relevant passsages from the bible and explain it quite plainly.

Then all those thoughts from the past came back, and it clicked. But more than that, my mind and heart are more open than ever (if I can put it that way) about women from biblical perspective.

I was like, " W O W "
Man... the awesomeness of God's Word is just so..... hmm.... awesome, ahahaha....

But yeah. I fully recommend this book to you. The title is 'Successful Home Cell Groups', by Dr. David Yonggi Cho. It's a brief story of how God lead him to grow The Full Gospel Church from 2400 members to over 700,000 members using home cell groups.

Settling for the best

Was listening to Ps Jurgen Matthesius when he preached a sermon titled 'becoming you' at PlanetShakers conference last yr in Sydney.

He actually didn't preached about settling for the best, but I felt God is saying that so many christians right now living in mediocrity, being complacent. They have achieved a lot to this day, and many of those were good things, and they have a lot of good things as well. But all these good things that they have hinder them from moving on to better things, or rather to the best things God has in store for them.

There's a lot of reason for that, some of them are afraid of the uncertainty the future has, some of them feel that they can't do it or they don't have the resources to do it, some of them are too busy and others are just plain lazy.

So many times I fall into those categories. But it's interesting to see, looking back, that when I settled only for the good and not the best, I felt that I could've done better or got better than what I had/achieved. There's a bit of regret or even guilt.

Now I'm trying to discern so I will only settle for the best, and not just the good or the better part of things in life. Yes it's not easy to discern, but as I continue to seek Him for guidance and learn to put my trust in Him, I'll get better at it, i.e. discerning to His guidance. And when I walk with His guidance, I know that I'm settling for the best.

Life is like a marathon race

ahahha.... yep, I'm sure you can agree with that statement.

But so many people (this includes me as well) don't know and often forgot that life is actually like running a marathon race. Interestingly, there's 2 school of thoughts which somewhat are quite different to one another in its approach to living this life to the fullest but they pretty much have common purpose, to help people live life better.

1. Life is like running a marathon race where there are sets of sprints that one must take/do.

2. Life is like running a marathon race where the tracks are full of turns, up hills and down hills.

The way I see it, it's a combination of both. There are time when we need to sprint, especially when it's down hill, and there are time when we just have to cruise along so-to-speak. While doing so, we need to always be alert and stay focus.

If you're asking what scripture you can relate to it, well, there's so many of them. I list some of them below.

Bible verses:
a. Acts 20:24
b. 1 Corinthians 9:24
c. Jeremiah 29:11
d. 1 Corinthians 16:13
e. 2 Timothy 4:7
Additional readings: Proverbs 3 and Matthew 6

Christmas card

Guess what?
While unpacking some of the bags (yep, I'm still unpacking), I found some christmas cards which I was supposed to give to people, ahahha....

When I saw them, I was like, "hmm... should I throw them away?" But then I thought, maybe I'll just give them this sunday. aahhaa.... So yeah, I'll give them to few of my friends at church.

Hey Jos, if you read this, I'll pass your christmas card to Ivy, so she can pass it onto you at uni. Sorry for the super duper lateness. :)