The Whole Armor of God

Ephesians 6: v
10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age,^[c] against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.
17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;
18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—
19 and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel,
20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

Was talking to Chai Huat just now... Something occured to me as I shared with him how vulnerable it is after constant attacks by the devil, upside down and from left to right. Because as we exist as a body, it is prone to attacks or damages from external factors.

So how do we protect ourselves? By donning the full armour of God, that covers you from top to your soles, you'll be able to sustain the damages done to you. Guess God reminded me of this just as I was on the topic with him.

Thank you God. It's just what I need. =)

A Positive View

IT'S ALL GOOD!

No matter what happens it's all good!

Think of the worst thing in your life right now and declare, 'IT'S ALL GOOD.'

In fact it's all very good.

From the foundation of the world God called it all very good.

He was talking of all He had created, past, present and future.

Pst Phil Pringle - The Leadership Files

A conversation with someone really set me thinking, if I'm doing the right thing and it really showed the many weaknesses I have and how potentially fatal they are to my life, especially spiritually.

I really sense God being around as my mirror, showing the fullness of His grace through that mirror as He exposes my weaknesses, that He may come in for His strength is made perfect in my weakness.

Anyway yest was a good fellowship with Wanxiu, Baoling and Jen.. But I was insensitive at some point in time as stated so from here, a very big SORRY!!!

Just came back from fellowship with Chris and Lifang.. Had claypot rice at AMK central but it didn't taste as nice as before though stillcan make it. But the lime juice still taste as good! (for your info I had frequent that shop since pri school...)


Head's still a bother with the injury on top but really thanks for all the prayers from the friends.. =)

Servanthood VS Leadership

Leading is what I do. Servant is who I am.

There is a difference between a SERVANT who is CALLED TO LEAD and a LEADER who SERVES.

Who do you CHOOSE to be? A servant who leads VS a leader who serves.

If a LEADER is your identity, you choose WHO to serve.

If a SERVANT is your identity, you can SERVE ANYONE.

Be a SERVANT who is given an opportunity to lead, having a great attitude to serve.

Lead by example, with a great attitude just like Jesus.

'Any man can withstand adversity...The true test of character is to give a man power' -Abraham Lincoln

Saw this from Wanyun's blog and it really occurred to me how Jesus is so relevant in all parts of science and wonders. =)

Who is Jesus?
HE IS JESUS

WHO IS HE?

IN CHEMISTRY, HE TURNED WATER TO WINE.

IN BIOLOGY, HE WAS BORN WITHOUT THE NORMAL CONCEPTION;

IN PHYSICS, HE DISPROVED THE LAW OF GRAVITY WHEN HE ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN;

IN ECONOMICS, HE DISPROVED THE LAW OF DIMINISHING RETURN BY FEEDING 5000 MEN WITH TWO FISHES & 5 LOAVES OF BREAD;

IN MEDICINE, HE CURED THE SICK AND THE BLIND WITHOUT ADMINISTERING A SINGLE DOSE OF DRUGS,

IN HISTORY, HE IS THE BEGINNING AND THE END;

IN GOVERNMENT, HE SAID THAT HE SHALL BE CALLED WONDERFUL COUNSELOR, PRINCE OF PEACE;

IN RELIGION, HE SAID NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER EXCEPT THROUGH HIM;

SO. WHO IS HE?

HE IS JESUS!

yea!!! Just came back fm CG BBQ.. Too bad I had to leave early because got to send Mark and Timothy home. Hah...

Today's service is definitely power packed. Pst Phil Pringle's in town!! Will and have loved his presence in our church a lot!! I feel that this season is really a season of promotion and rising up to the next level with the help of HS, to receive the anointing as we emerge victorious over the trials placed in our lives. And it's in line of what Pst Kong preached about the church moving on to the next level too. Season of promotion and growth!!

Did C1 for svc and Stage 1 for PM. Wow I tell you today's duty is so far the best although it really stretched my capacity a whole lot! 3rd time doing C1 with Shirley and it was definitely much better as compared to the first time and my zone had no loopholes in the end and I sense a greater purpose for me in this ministry in this season.
Alot of things I'm still learning, as I interact with the ushers fm different levels and I enjoy that kind of interaction and raising up new leaders in the midst of those ready to respond to God's calling. Haha.
I sense something is coming but I need affirmation on that. Things are revealing by itself but somehow I just need that extra affirmation to confirm it. Anyway back to duty, got 0 loopholes in the end but really thank God that I was able to spot the 'hidden' loopholes in the zone and filled them up quick enough, even when the word's about to start. How close can things such everytime? Just love serving God, ushering His presence in!

During my briefing today, was telling the ushers how it's important to be a 'people's usher' than an 'usher's usher', which you serve the people as an usher having their interests in mind and not serving because you are an usher. How true...
Another point shared was when QZ asked me this, 'Do you this Pastoral Ministry is a great ministry?' My initial answer was a yes but I thought that regardless of whatever ministries, it's meant to serve God and the people. So all ministries are great, in their own way. Difference is only how unique each ministry is.

Yea, I pray I'lll remember it for as long as I can.

In any case, it was super funny today coz according to Lay Choo, I'm the only one fm Grp 3 allocated for PM and as Stage 1 during morning brief and I really flipped after hearing it, and after svc duty, they keep bugging me to go buy lunch etc la but thank God got Juan to ask Mark to help me by! =)
'Prophesied' today that Juan's my SL coz this week she had been my 'SL' since she had been calling me regarding forecast and section matters de lor. Haha so funny!!!!

Yea.. What a great Sunday right, to be with God and for God! =)

Hey.. It's a lovely Saturday morning when it's rise and shine and no rain! (rain's only welcomed at night when ya wanna sleep. haha)

Missed CGM last nite, mainly because of the injury I got from work.. 4 cm long cut on the head that ends up with 3 stitches and a possible sprain on the neck. Blood was flowing non-stop until face was very pale (gross I know..) Created quite a chaos at work and I think accidents in SAF is no joking matter.. Oh well..


Yup, though I do admit I need rest and I want rest, somehow a bit too much to get rest from work. -.-

Anyway wanna thank my close frenz, hwee tze and CG for their prayers!! I believe healing is in Your name! =)

Building Spiritual Atmosphere.

Was attending B.Darren's combined CG on Sat and thank God for him that we gained new foresight in building a spiritual atmosphere. =)

He started by sharing that whatever happens in the natural corresponds to what's in the spirit too. And it's the spirit man that interacts with the spiritual in heaven which affects the natural. In order to be dominant over the natural, we must be spiritually strong. Yea.
God looks into the arena of holiness and in His eyes too, we are already not sinners! So because of these 2 qualities, we are able to face God and listen to God to know His purpose for us. (Deut 23:14, Isa 6:1-8)

And holiness does not mean that we are sinless, perfection and be total avoidance of the world. Yea. We still do face temptations in our lives and it's up to how we face these temptations.

B.Darren was raising a very interesting example on how one person one day, was feeling down because of work and ended up dun feel like gg for overnight PM scheduled that nite but still went instead (because he's scared of being lectured by CGL, haha). So when he was inside, he saw how everyone was lifting up their hands worshipping and praising God with all they had and he joined in too. After which he felt all spiritually recharged in the presence of God and came one call from his friends to join them at Zouk.
Initially he had rejected the invitation but thinking that Easter is coming and to reach out, he went down instead. So the usual, he went in and met up with his friends ad was having fun and suddenly, he was being offered a drink. Being spiritually mindful especially after the PM, he rejected but because of the temptations of his friends, he thought it's ok to drink one cup and there he went, one cup down his throat.
And there he was, being slightly drunk and started to do what he didn't meant to do and the story continued.
Well, B.Darren through that story pointed out many Christians are spiritually recharged after woshipping and praising God over weekend service but when it comes to the Monday to Friday routine, they get spiritually drained out and not many have a strong foundation to be spiritually strong.

Anyway another area he shared about was that if we find ourselves being ill-disciplined in one area and not willing to change, it'll slowly translate to other weaknesses that we have.

One revelation that I'd got to know that the link that affects the natural and the spirit is FAITH!

But one take-away from the meeting is this;
Hearing something + Action that follows = Learning
Hearing something + No action that follows = Learning too!
coz no action is still a form of an action.

Example: When you don't communicate with someone doesn't there ain't any communication at all but, no communication is still a form of comunication coz it indicates something from that action. Yea.

Bla... Was so blessed by the meeting and it's really the transformation of the mind then! yea..

Obadiah - The Leader Obadiah was a godly man and trusted by the prophet Elijah. He was also trusted by the most ungodly king in Israel's history, Ahab, and his wife Jezebel. He was entrusted with looking after all of the King's 'house'. He managed the money and other private affairs of the King and Queen. Obadiah walked the fine line of engagement in an extremely corrupt world yet maintained a godly, upright life of worship to God. This demands extreme wisdom. This wisdom positioned him to deliver 100 priests doomed to Jezebel's sword. Godly leaders with credibility in this world position themselves to bring deliverance to this generation. Pst Phil Pringle - The Leadership Files

Wah, been a few days since I last updated my blog. Busy days this month because of duties in camp and trying to juggle with time to spend with family, cell group and ministry. This month is really a testing phase for me and so many challenges oncoming and ahead of me.

I want to be strong in Christ, to do my best for Him. Even in the face of downfall, I still want to be at my best and be weakened with my moods. Been quite a bad testimony in camp and I didn't even realise it myself. All the carelessness at work and not being excellent in them. U can consider that I deserve it but the consequence is really quite bad. Almost 'kana' mark le. Haiz.
Need the strength of God to make things right and to make sure I won't fall short of the glory of God in my camp! Amen to that!!

Balance of time, commitment and not losing the important values of my life and compromising them because of the values of the world.

That's what I'm going to achieve in this season. And aiming for the next level.

I learnt finally, that promotion comes from God. It's ok to desire for promotions coz that's your desire, but wanting it for your own and not for God will cause all to be delayed. You may be meeting the requirements for the promotion but your Promoter ain't gonna do so because you are not focusing on the Promoter but the promotion. I'll always have people reminding me about that but it just stays in my head. I have to learn to integrate that into my heart.

I know God has a purpose for me. I'd failed once. Though recent but it seemed so long ago. The end result was that I had to take a longer route to reach the same destination. God is good coz' I'm still able to arrive at the same destination, fulfilling His purpose. It hurts because along the way, I had disappointed many people (my peers, leaders and people close to me) and it brought down the standards of my life, finding myself degrading by the day. Yet at the same time I was still very prideful and thinking my chance would come. Yes, my chance will come, but not when I change myself from within with God, not without God.

Somehow I thank God that whenever I blog, I release what's within and not hide it, hence learning to share and relate. I actually become very frank with myself and with God. (i know He's reading as i type, haha)

There are so many things that I need to do, but

one thing to really focus on: God.

Fear God

Mrs. Ima Terror chased her husband through the crowds at the zoo, waving her umbrella and unleashing insults like invisible missiles. Her perspiring and winded husband, seeing that the lock on the lion's cage had not quite closed, yanked it open, jumped into the cage, slammed the door, pushed the astonished lion hard against the bars, and peered over its shoulder. His frustrated wife shook her umbrella, stuttered in anger, and finally managed to explode, "Ralph, come out of there, you coward!"

Ralph, in this fictitious story, is like the people of Israel that we read about in the book of Numbers. They were confused about whom they should really fear. They saw themselves as grasshoppers when compared to the giants in the land where God wanted them to go (13:32-33).

If we are so afraid of people that we stop following the Lord, we're not trusting Him. It shows that we have doubted His plan, His power, and His promises. We have failed to recognize that He, above all others, is the One to be feared—which means that He is to be reverenced, trusted, loved, and obeyed.

Our love for God should always move our hearts to do what's good and right. Love also fears His judgments true and stands in awe of His great might.

Fear God, and you'll have nothing else to fear.

Ministry

yosh!

Just came back fm sailing.. Quite a zuobo one but the returns are great really. Could sense the presence and the purpose of God in the NS field. Gonna exploit more of that. Haha.

A revelation just hit me, about knowing the purpose of God in your life and why have you been called to serve. Was reading Sing Yee's blog and it hit the topic of servanthood, what's the purpose of serving in a ministry? Because of the needs to be met through the ministry to bless others. Quite simple but we tend to forget this as we achieve the small little achievements in the ministry.

Was on this topic with Vic the other time on serving either 'too much' in cg or in ministry. But she brought me to this attention for the fact in whether it's in CG or in ministry, it's still serving God in different areas. Well that really widened up my scope on the way we can serve God but yet not being 'jin jin ji jiao' on how you serve God.

Since the day i started in ministry, (in short) the story of Mary and Martha (did i spell correctly) haha on serving Jesus in their house when He came by for a visit.. Mary was wholeheartedly serving Jesus, beside Him and fellowshipping with Him while Martha was beside doing the 'necessary' to make Jesus comfortable in their place.
See the difference in how Jesus was served?

So, are you the Mary or the Martha?

For me, I choose to be the Mary~ (shall evaluate more on this story in my next entry)

Fellowship

Key to maintaining a relationship with be the constant fellowship with each other. Because that's when you would press into the life of the other and vice versa, where you would know the other better. Bonds are then strengthened due to the in-depth knowledge of understanding each other.

Today I had the chance to be able to fellowship with Vic and Olivia today. I love to fellowship with her really coz she's always the one to disciple me and watching me grow, giving me the advices I need which I feel blessed about. Anyway the fellowship was a impromptu one but I'm glad I was there. =)

Well, on my way back home suddenly thought of calling up Lifang and Chris to fellowship again and manage to settle ourselves down at Subway. Things were really going crazy as we were laming around etc. It just went out of control until we were like so loud inside! Lol.
I muz say Chris is really good as the way she cares fpr people is really from the bottom of her heart and although she's young and all but her thinking and behaviour has exceeded of mine. Plus I'm truly blessed by her existance, wanting to be there for people she cares yea. And she's a sharp kid in terms of emotions to. Lol.

Anyway that's all for now.. tata!

Yest did my C1 duty for Expo. Man the duty was great and things went on smoothly although there will hiccups here and there. (if a duty is ever perfect, it's only because everyone worked together to work things out.)

Challenge in the morning was I had few ushers (4 as of 8:30am), zone wasn't set up till near 8:40am, got 3 trainee ushers + 1 trial usher attached to my zone.. And doors really opened late. Haha.. Another thing was trying to secure the seats fm members who were very stringent on their reservation of seats.
Some things I liked about duty was my briefing really improved!! *claps* Actually had the aim in the past to focus my briefing on the spiritual needs of the ushers rather than the technical coz it's really, reallly boring to teach ushers how to usher when they are ushers themselves!! And I'd managed to get the attention of the ushers as I gave the briefing which means I just hit another level of success as a leader. Hehe.. Shall maintain this standard of my brief and hitting beyond. Gonna make it a point to make things more fluent as I talked my connect grp and fellow cg members..

Muz really thank HS for making that possible and a good one!

Another pt is the ushers that worked amazingly hard and the ICs that i had were simply wonderful like Xiao En and Jess. Yea.. Blessings of God really came and it's really so wonderful, able to worship the Lord and ushering His presence in.

Actually I was pretty much blown away by how God had blessed and showed Himself to be so true during the duty itself because the difference is really there and it's just so amazing really. Truely He's the one that's ever faithful and stand true to His words, with his never-failing grace. =)

Guess I'm just going crazy thanking God! Haha..

1st offical blog

Finally started blogging after a long time.. Kind of influenced the friends that blogs a lot and it really got me back into the interest of blogging. Haha..

Stage of preparation. That's where I'm in now.
Feel that God's preparing me now. With all the trials and the challenges and it's really difficult at times but God's gonna pull me through. Not to forget I have a wonderful grp of ppl that's supporting me, especially my dear leader... =)

Weekend just passed as usual, so it's back to weekday schedule of having to go to work etc... Seems normal right? but that's when God shows Himself to be so true, being the extraordinary in the mundane life. That's what I like about God and that's how we learn to appreciate Him.

Above all these, it's important to have the respect and fear for God, to allow Him into our lives to change us from within, to be more and more like Him. God is ever faithful and true and His promises never fail to amaze and keep you motivated to do His will, fulfilling His purpose for you. God's really amazing.

But as they say, it takes 2 hands to clap. God is always there for you, but it's up to you to seek Him everyday, in your own quiet time and space where it's just you and Him alone. It's only then you are fueled up, geared up for your destiny and doing the many great things for God.

That's me, wanting to be so. Where it's the basics but yet it's the key to my future successes. =)