Barcelona won 2 - 0

Yep, barca won 2-0 against MU, ahahha....

It was such an nice match to game as Barca gave their best. MU played well, but not as well as they should've been. They could play better than that.

Just for the sake of watching the game at 4.45am this morning, I purposely went to bed at 11pm, and set my alarm at 4.30am so I wouldn't miss anything. I woke up at 4.25am. After washing my face and brushing my teeth, I went to my friend's house (next door) to watch the game. The rest was history.

After watching the game I came back home and had my breakfast and went online. Then while online, I felt the tug of the Holy Spirit asking me if I could have the same passion and attitude towards meeting God in the morning.

ah.... I am truly 1 weak human being. I asked God to forgive me for neglecting Him all this while. When I have my QT in the morning, I wouldn't put so much effort like watching the game this morning. Guilty? a little bit, but more of a conviction to grow in my passion for His Word and encountering Him on a daily basis. Help me Lord.

If you're a fan of MU, well... they've done well, but Barca's done it better, ehhee... Peace. :)

Why is it so hard?

hmm..........
sometimes I find it really challenging and hard to trust God. Honestly.

My Weekend

Man... I just had one of the most, uh... I don't know how to say it as I don't want to understate or even overstate it, but yeah, I just had one of the most awesome weekend I ever have so far in my life.

Nothing out of the ordinary.
Friday night as usual it was time with my LG (life-group or bible study group) people. Then I stayed up late surfing the net trying to find some funny video clips from youtube and found some nice one. And then I woke up at about 11ish am. By the time I got up from the bed, it was 12pm already. So I quickly changed and went to see my friend for lunch.

I fetched him from his place and we went to this korean restaurant near sunnybank hills and had korean bbq. It was about 1.30pm. When we finished lunch, it's about 3pm I was so full I had to wait few minutes to let my tummy digest a bit of the food. Went back to his place to help him with some of his work and off we went to southbank cinemas to watch 'Night At The Museum 2'. The movie was at 5pm.

Movied finished at 7.pm, we went to Runcorn to have dinner at this nice taiwanese restaurant called Green Tea House. Time was 7.30pm. I actually was not really hungry but I ordered anyway. I couldn't finished my food. Over there I also ordered this nice drink called Romance, so sweet. When we finished our dinner, I was again so full that I felt so uneasy when I moved or walked, you know what I mean. I almost had that feeling of throwing up, but thank God I didn't reach that stage.

Went back home to Andy's place and watched another movie (DVD) called Eagle Eye. Nice movie. Then I came back home and hit the bed just after 12am. And Sunday, woke up at 8.30am, did a bit of QT and had brunch at 10am with the core-team in my group at my place. Then went to CDS and taught in EE2 class, followed by church service and then dinner with my LG people. After than went to Andy's place to watch Body of Lies. And now I'm home.

Ah... that's my weekend.
But it's actually nothing if I hadn't spent those hours with my good and close friends. I love food, but it didn't really give me a full satisfaction. Spending my time with them completes the picture. I thank God for blessing me with such beautiful friends. ah.... I am truly blessed. Thank you Lord.

Here's one of the youtube clips I enjoyed watching last Sat early morning.

Knowledge

Knowledge, it can either help rise you or bring you down.
I found that if you can't take one little information well, you won't be able to take one huge huge knowledge. And the scary part is, if it's regarding biblical knowledge.

And I'm seeing it with my own eyes, where people accumulated such biblical knowledge but ended up outside His court.

1 thing that I know is that the Holy Spirit will not bring disunity upon His church. I can only ask for His wisdom and covering upon me as I am learning more and more about Him and His words.

Choosing the right battle

When I was doing my QT (quiet-time) yday, God reminded me again to choose the right battle to fight.

In life, I'll be presented with so many battles before our eyes.
Guess what? Not all the battles presented in front of me are for me to fight. The reason being is that some battles are just plain a waste of time and energy, while the others are not meant for me to fight. Hence, I need to choose the right battle for myself.

The best example I can use for this is the incident when David fought Goliath in 1 Sam 17:26-51. Please read it. You'd notice that before he could fight Goliath, he had to face 3 times negative circumstance, 1 from his older brother, another one from the king Saul himself and the last one from the battle dress he was supposed to wear.

Upon seeing David at the battle lines, Eliab (David's older brother) burned with anger and accused him for being ignorant, by coming to the battle lines to watch the battle. Instead of arguing with him, David chose to ignore the negative comment. And when Saul told him that he was only a boy, he replied Saul with the success he had in the past and what God can do through him right now. Then as Saul dressed him with his own tunic, David felt the tunic restricted his body movement. The tunic certainly could give David a booze of confidence, but noticed how after walking around with it, without second thought, he just took them of. The reason being is that he knew better than anyone else that his confidence comes only from the Lord.

Come to think of it, if David was bitter towards Eliab, argued with him and went back home to tend the flock, David would've missed the opportunity to fight the battle meant for him. If he got bitter towards Saul's comment, he would've missed the opportunity as well. And if he went ahead with that most-likely heavy and restricted tunic, he might have missed the opportunity to win the battle.

What David did is that, he ignored Eliab's comment, he told Saul his success in the past and what God can do through him in present situation, and he chose to let go the tunic and draw his confidence and strength from God alone. The rest is history.

Everyday I have a lot of battles presented to me, but not all of them are meant for me to fight. I thank God for this reminder, cause I don't have the time and energy to fight all the battles. Hence it's important to know which battle to fight, because winning the right battle can give me greater impact on my spiritual growth (especially in my relationship with Him).

Movie talk - Secret

Just watched one of Jay Chou's old film titled 'Secret' with my LG people. He's playing as Jay.

Man... such a classic, it's a romance movie btw. They used a lot of lame pick-up lines, but I still enjoyed it, and so did everyone who watched it just then.

The beginning of the movie wasn't so great as there's no really clear direction as to what is happening during the first 5 or 10mins, especially when he listened to the piece Rain was playing. But it got better as the story developed.

1 thing that I hate from Jay which happened to be so true considering I'm also a guy is that guy tend to be easily attracted to the beauty of a girl. After 5 months with no news from Rain, Jay developed attraction towards the other girl (sky), but I guess I need to give credit to sky who persistently persevere to build their friendship over those 5 months period when Rain didn't even show up.

Just like any other people, I like to watch a happy ending story, ahhaha... so I was quite happy to see Jay and Rain got together at the end (assumption needed to be made for this). I learned quite a lot from this movie, not so much of learning new things, but more of another reminder about few things:
1. Comunication is a key in any kind/form of relationship, and that communication must be clear, where both (or more) parties fully understand each other.
2. Perseverence does pay. From biblical perspective, everything that we do in God will never be in vain (if you're non-christian, please ask your christian friend what this means).
3. Music is beautiful. 2 instruments that I really wanted to play long time ago, piano and violin. Ah.. I love listening to piano, especially songs composed by chopin, beethoven and mozard,or even tchaikovsky and haydn. Too bad I can't play both instruments. And it's a shame that I can't even play guitar well, ahhahaa...

Anyway, if you haven't watched that movie, I recommend you to watch it. It's nice and very entertaining.

We need to stop praying/reading the bible

YES.
Though this is absolutely not biblically correct or even politically correct, but most if not all need to stop praying or reading the bible. Regardless of whether they're new converts, ordinary members, intercessors, leaders with high position in church or even pastors.

We need to start doing the work, walk the talk and not just talk the talk.
Here's a question, when was the last time you spoke about Jesus and the message of salvation (the Gospel that is), that anyone can go to heaven regardless of their mistakes or sins in the past, even a murderer or rapist can go to heaven, and the only thing that have to do is to repent and receive Jesus to be their Lord and Savior.

Or, here's another question, when was the last time you blessed your enemy and glorify God in doing so? Or here's another question, when was the last time you helped a complete stranger without having prejudice or expecting something in return at all (and you praised God for the opportunity given)? And here's another question, take a look at the list of your non-christian friends, is the list getting shorter and shorter to the point where you have no more friends who are non-christian?

See, a lot of time christians prayed for miracles, to see God moves, without having to do the work. A lot of times christians prayed in their own room early morning or late at night for God to make their neighbour come and talk to them, well hello......... go and approach them and say hi to them, and build relationship with them.

Don't get me wrong, I'm guilty as charged as well. But time and time again God reminded me to do the work, for action speaks louder than mere words. Faith without deed is dead. If we're growing in our relationship with God, we should see the fruit, so much and so tangibly that we might have to ask God to stop it cause we can't contain it any longer.

So yeah, we do need to pray as prayer moves a mountain, and we do need to read the bible to equip ourselves, but we shouldn't stop there, we need to do the work as well. Lazy believer is no believer at all.

Guess what I just did?

Yes, guess what?
I just prayed over my friend who can't jog or run properly because one of her legs is shorter than the other and she also has problem in her lower abdomen area (might be the bladder) as it gives her so much pain and she needed to go to toilet so often, including in the middle of the night when she's asleep.

And I felt the urge to pray for her.
So I asked her if I can pray for her. Her reply was, "Is it possible for my bones (referring to the shorter leg) to grow? I don't really care about my legs, I want a healthy body especially from this pain in my tummy."

Then I told her that it's possible, and I will also pray for the pain in her tummy. So she allowed me to pray for her. Btw, she's not a christian. So I wrote down my prayer so she could see what's in my heart. In case you haven't noticed, I was doing this over MSN.

I saw her on MSN after months of losing contact. I don't normally go to MSN, but tonight I received her email asking if I've found a job yet (she knows I lost my job back in Jan). So I thought I might log-in to MSN, and there we chatted for a good 1hr. And out of the many topics, we stumbled upon jogging and she started sharing how she can't go for jog.

Ah... I want to see all my friends be saved, if possible, in my life time. I hope and pray that God will heal her completely and grow her leg so both of them will be of equal length. Guess what? It was my first time to pray for her, and let her see my prayer as well. I've shared the Gospel long time ago to her though, but she rejected my offer to accept Him, just like many of my friends. But 1 day, I look forward to that day, when she and my many other friends, receive Christ to be their Lord and Saviour. I hope when that day comes, I'm still alive, because I don't want them just to be saved, I also want to see them experiencing the abundant life in Christ before they die.

A surprise visitation

Just had a surprise visitation by a friend of mine and his dad and his dad's friend.

After a brief introduction, his dad (who so happened to be a pastor and prophet) prayed for my housemate and me. I was kinda surprised as I did not expect anything at all. And while trying to listen and at the same time understand what he was prophesying over my housemate, he put his hand over my shoulder and started praying and prophesying.

He started from my past (which was pretty accurate), moving to my current/present situation and then my future. It was very fast and there's so much to take. After he finished praying and prophesying, he encouraged both of us to seek God over the prophesy for confirmation and to test the words as well, as time goes by.

The scary part is, a lot of the things that he said was true, as I can confirm it myself, especially the part about my past and present situation.

I praise God for this surprise, the chance to hear someone to speak the word from God. I hope HE will reveal more and confirm the things that's gonna happen to me in the very near future. In the mean time, I will continue to seek Him for comfort, strength, wisdom and everything that I need to live my life to the fullest.

Leadership and obedience

These 2 things are actually inseparable.

I think I've touched on this topic long time ago, but let me elaborate a little bit more right now. Before one can be a leader, one must be a follower. If one doesn't know how to follow, then one will find it very challenging to lead. Following and leading are 2 different things, but they are interconnected and can't be separated, because without follower, once can not be a leader, and without a leader, one can not be a follower.

Now you might ask where obedience is?
Well, it lies in the period when on learn how to follow (that period is all our life, because we will always have a leader above us, and maybe a follower under us). It takes a lot of humility, energy and effort to obey fully and wholeheartedly. Especially to men, to obey can actually very difficult or challenging.

This is the reason why God delights more in obedience than sacrifice. Starting from Adam right through to the story of all the apostles till John who wrote the final book of the bible (Revelation), obedience is one of the key attitude that God is trying to teach His people.

I learned that many mighty men and women in the bible became such great leaders because of their amazing servant-hood heart and obedience to God's Word. Noah obeyed God wholeheartedly when God asked him to build an ark for himself, his family and all chosen animals (Gen 7). Abraham obeyed God when He asked him to leave his house and family to a place God did not even revealed to him in the first place (Gen 12). Isaac obeyed God when He asked him to stay at the place where he was living (Gen 26). Jacob through his colourful life story did obey God when He asked him to settle in Bethel. Joseph's obedience must be drawn from a somewhat different perspective as he continued to walk righteously before God and men, and serve his father, his brothers and others faitfully despite the circumstances (Gen 37-41). In the book of Exodus, Moses and Aaron taught Israel how obeying God's Word can bring blessing to their life as God showed them His mighty power over all creation during their escape from Egypt. And I haven't even reached half of the bible here.

So you can see how important obedience is to God.
But guess what, this is one area in my life where I really need to grow more, otherwise I'll just get stuck at the level where I'm at now. Over time I learned that actually there's more to obedience that just actioning what my leader has asked me to do, there's unity to keep, there's the flow with the whole leadership team, there's a flow with the move of Holy Spirit as God moves through His leaders, and there's the learning of how to lead properly through the success and failure of the leaders.

If I can't obey my leader, how can I expect my follower to obey me. So if I am to lead by example, then I must learn to obey my leader before I expect my follower to obey me. Hence, if one wants to lead, one must first learn to follow (and obedience is key factor in a follower's life).

Past midnight rambling

I realised I haven't post anything for more than a wk.

So, hello....
Let me update u w/ my latest situation, I'm still jobless, ahahha... still trying to get a job. Don't know how long this will last, but I'm so not looking forward to be jobless for long. I'm gonna have to do something drastic soon, either sell my car or go back home to Jakarta. I'm considering to do both soon, but somehow I feel I can achieve more in here, not in jkt. God, please give me a job soon, please? Let it be your will that I shall get a job soon, I'm getting so very desperate.

Anyway, don't worry about me.
I thank God that I can still write something. That means I can use my fingers to type, I have internet at home, I have a laptop, I have electricity, I can see, I can think, I can feel and I am alive. And there's more, my parents are still alive, my siblings are alive and most of my friends are alive and hmm... what else can I thank God for?

Oh ya, my life-group is doing well. The guys are growing, the girls are also growing. I'm so blessed to be able to work with the other 2 female leaders in the group. Frankly speaking, the journey of my christian walk has not been easy at all, but looking back, I can surely tell you that I don't want to be where I was 5yrs ago. My life is definitely better today than last yr, 2yrs ago, 3 yrs ago and obvioulsy better than 5 or so years ago.

So many things I can thank God for at this moment.
Alright, why am I still awake at 2.35am? That's because I had a very very late dinner. I had dinner with JO, MK, CM and SW at Little HK at 11.55pm. Yep, midnight. When I got home, I felt so full and couldn't rest. Hence the reason why I'm still awake.

hmm... now I'm feeling sleepy. Okie dokie, good nite.
Btw, here's the song that's in my heart now. Though I can't really see the light at the end of the tunnel, I can still thank God that I am alive and He chose me to be His adopted child, that's enough for me.