"Beloved, it is not the trials that make us strong, but our responses in those trials. The devil wants us to respond by asking, “Where is God?” But God wants us to respond with faith in His love for us. We are more than conquerors not because of our love for Him, but through Him who loves us. (Romans 8:37)"
S: Psalm 134. "Praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who minister by night in the house of the Lord. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the Lord. May the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth, bless you from Zion."
O: On days like today when I feel relatively directionless, emotionless, thoughtless and I keep reaching out, grasping for, looking towards something - and on days like today not knowing what that something is; at times like these it all boils down to this: Praise the Lord. Praise Him, you servants of the Lord. Lift up your hands, and praise His holy name. Praise the Lord.
A & P: Father I thank You that on days like these, it all comes down to this: Praise the Lord. Why are you downcast, o my soul? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my saviour and my God. Why so scattered and tired, my thoughts? Praise the Lord, you servant of the Lord. Lift up your hands and praise His holy name. Praise the Lord. Father I thank You for Your sharp and powerful word. I thank You for the power of praise. And how sometimes things may seem muddled and complicated but You teach us how simple it really is. In Jesus' Name I pray, Amen.
S: Proverbs 8:10-34 Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold..listen to me..blessed are those who keep my ways..blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway for whoever finds me finds life.
O: He calls us to a blessed life, one who: - chooses His instruction instead of materialistic stuff - chooses knowledge instead of materialistic stuff - keeps His ways - listens to Him - watches & waits daily at His doors
A: Listen to His instruction. Watch daily. Know Him. Wait on Him
P: As i read your living Word, i listen to your instruction for my life (though sometimes difficult to live out but help me God!!). I watch daily for doorways that you open/shut for me. Teach me through these windows of opportunities in life's everyday journey. I wait on you to want to know you today. Amen.
Proverbs 5:21 For a man's ways are in full view of the LORD, and he examines all his paths. Proverbs 6: 20 My son, keep your father's commands and do not forsake your mother's teaching. 21 Bind them upon your heart forever; fasten them around your neck. 22 When you walk, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you. 23 For these commands are a lamp, this teaching is a light, and the corrections of discipline are the way to life,
O: in this chapter, it might be talking about adultery but it feels like its speaking into the lives of all of us.It is a reminder for us, that we must think and picture our thoughts and decisions wide like God examines all his paths. It also talks about teachings that are being taught by our parents and our father in heavens commands. It makes me think about the next generation. What kind of environment or how do we want to raise our children. It feels so important to raise up children in a way which focuses on our Heavenly Father's Teaching.
Application and Prayer: Dear father in heaven, thank you for providing opportunities, options and YOUR WORD. it feels like a reminder everytime I read your word to what i am doing daily with the children. your constant reminder to raise them up in your way, i pray that you will continue to guide me as i dwell in your presence. May you lead me daily to speak truth, hope, faith and love into the next generation. In jesus name, amen.
S: Proverbs 5:1-6: Then you'll acquire a taste for good sense; what i tell you will keep you out of trouble..the lips of a seductive woman are oh-so-great, her soft words are oh-so-sweet but it won't be long before she's gravel in your mouth..a pain in your guy, a wound in your heart..she hasn't a clue about real life about who she isor where she's going..why did i reject a disciplined life?
O: Solomon uses the seductive woman as a metaphorical picture of one who lures men to temporal pleasures in life to fulfill the moment as they satisfy the 'now'. The reward of her soft seductive words fulfill the desires of the 'now'. He then writes a word of warning 'you don't want to end your life full of regrets,do you? & reject a disciplined lifestyle?
A: I see my generation so sucked up into the perversion of lying lips of temporal satisfactions to feed the 'now' desires of the flesh, their spirits starved of the eternal satisifactions of His Living Word, His-story and promises over our lives engraved on our hearts. Save us Lord from ourselves.
P: Out of the depths i cry to you Lord. Hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. You Lord keep no record of wrong. Lord help our generation now. Save us from ourselves. Wake us up! Tug us in our spirit that our conscience may be alert to what you're heart is crying out for, for us to be grab hold of life's abundance. knowing You intimately. We don't want to be a generation that rejects life. We want to live life! We want to bring life! Phillipians 3:9. But whatever was to my profit i now consider loss for the sake of Christ, What is more, i consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ for who sake i have lost of all things (but gained life!) Your Word will be an acquired taste but help my tastebuds be able to have distate for things in life that are lips of the seductive woman.
hello my gorgeous wonderful beautiful housechurch!!
greetings from tropical malaysia, land of humid air, rich green vegetation, home to my family. i bring you tidings of joy, (hahaha phebe is loopy) for last night i landed safely in KL international airport, bear-hugged my mummy and daddy, came home to my vertically blessed brothers, kissed my dog. this morning i had soft boiled eggs for breakfast, all sorts of things for lunch (rice, fish head curry, sweet potato leaves fried with chili padi and garlic, deepfried tofu), and i had dodol (durian cake-like thing) too!
'oh-oh ti-dings of com-fort and joy, comfort and joy...'
that being said, i miss melbourne already. it's weird getting used to another 'world'!
thank You God for families. for parents and siblings and other relatives. thank You also for precious friends . for people we can do this journey with so we don't have to do it alone.
Hi guys, this is for those of you who missed it on Friday at Crema and who were interested to see what went down :) For people who love the original, hope I did it justice, and didn't massacre it too much! Definitely continuing to improve and hone my craft, and I'd just like to say that with all the support and encouragement from you guys all this while, I've been immensely blessed.
I sprained my knee at church yesterday. How did I? While jumping and praising God the way I normally do!!! And I sprained it again with a loud crack when I walked down the steps at church. And I thought I dance and exercise regularly during the week. I know, how hilarious was that?? Utterly humbled and equally embarrassed. However, I can't stop laughing about my knee incident. Though, I was a little fearful that no one was going to be there to help me or no one I could rely on but God sent Jeremy and Karen to bring me home and lunch. Almost everyone's gone when I leaned against the table at church foyer feeling vulnerable not knowing who would help me and luckily Jeremy was still at church so in these words I called out "J, I need help. I need your help". Almost had tears in my eyes. Aaron and Pheebs so kindly took me to the doctor's afterwards (and also bought me groceries) and the doc says I'm homebound for 3 days!!! What? I can't go to work? I can't go to dance and gym classes? Quite disappointing because I need to put a stop to my daily and weekly routine. What am I to do sitting at home? I've done all my cleaning and there's nothing left to do..and I feel like an invalid hopping and hobbling about geting me by. Can't go out because there are no lifts so going out means taking 4 flights of stairs! There are steps in my apartment and getting up and down those six steps are quite uncomfortable.
As I sit in my bedroom this morning, I feel at a lost. I have all the time in the world but don't know how to press into God because I normally spend 30-45 mins with Him every morning so I usually make our time an intensive one - read the bible, pray, get changed go to work.
Then I realise that I have been a Martha. I enjoy being busy (but I'd like to think my life as FULL), doing things, meeting friends, running about with all the energy I have keeping me productive. Now I feel as though God is using this opportunity to make me STOP (literally stop, immobile), be a Mary and sit at His feet, enjoy Him, listening to His heartbeat, diving into His Word. Even this feels so strange to me...
Lord, forgive me for being distracted by other things. Lord I want to be placed right before You again, be distracted by You and be falling in love, captivated all over again by You Jesus. Teach me to be STILL, a quality which I lack..I love you, Lord.
a shout out to all who were there today to help out with the present-a-present drive! thank you for having the willing heart and discipline to rock up early in church to reach people and get them to sign up. for the first day, i think we've signed up 30 people or so :) we're targeting everyone, so the harvest is still out there guys!
this initaitive will be running over the next three weeks, and i'll redo the rosters for next week since some people will be away.
some upcoming plans for the initiative would be:
shoe boxes -- for people who don't have shoe boxes and do not have the time or drive to find one, we're going to sell them shoe boxes. that means that we'll be looking for members of our HC to donate any extra unwanted shoe boxes that they have. we'll probably sell it at 50 cents each :) so if you have any show boxes, please bring them either to HC on saturday, or even better, bring it to church on sunday.
gift-wrapping service and selling of present paper -- this is again for people who love convenience and have no time to wrap their presents or simply suck at wrapping presents. if they want to use their present paper, they can bring their own and we will provide the service for free. but if they don't have present paper, we will be selling it. so they can buy from us and we'll provide the service for free.
fund-raising/incentive - i'm hoping for initiative from whoever is willing to bake muffins, cupcakes, cookies or cakes to sell and also give out at the counter. let me know by thursday if you're going to bake anything to sell. we can reimburse the people who bake if the consensus is that they would like to be fully/partially reimbursed, or just make it a tithe for the month. the earnings that we make from selling these desserts/shoe boxes/present paper will be channeled into baking more, and giving away a free dessert (or two?) to those who bring back a present. so when someone gives you their present at the counter, they get to choose dessert(s) for free. i'm hoping that this would encourage people to respond quicker...hehehe when food is involved. why buy a muffin when you can get one for free the next week right. but then again, we don't want them to think that way ;) just know when to give the flip side of the coin i guess. we want people to buy the desserts so we can give back to them. any extra earnings, we can either put it into the HC fund, or just use it to buy more presents for the kids. key is not profit, but giving back. be it to society or for your active efforts in making this initiative a community thing.
right now i have a picture of all of us sitting around tables, on floors, cracking jokes, eating some junk food, ordering pizza in while we wrap present after present, present after present, till they're all done. and i'm strangely excited, i feel this rush because i know even though i'll be tired at the end of the pig out/gift-wrapping session, there will be some kind of inexplicable satisfaction from just sitting with you all, doing stuff while having random weird conversations.
before most of you leave for somewhere, some time, i'm looking forward to spending more time with you guys. will miss you all.
love you guys.
p.s.: pheeeeeeeeeeeeeeebsssss, i'll miss you a lot. muahhhs.
“ 12 They have harps and lyres at their banquets, tambourines and flutes and wine, but they have no regard for the deeds of the LORD, no respect for the work of his hands. 13 Therefore my people will go into exile for lack of understanding; their men of rank will die of hunger and their masses will be parched with thirst.
I feel so sad. I’m distressed. What has been the cause of the turning of His face from His chosen people? What has given God reason to forget, to look away. I’m afraid. But its obvious isn’t it? Where is the fear? where is the understanding that is founded upon Him? Where is the worship? Where is the reverence? The bigness of God in our lives? Or have we just managed to fit Him into our schedules, along with the bills we need to pay, the projects we need to finish, the shows we want to catch, the Chinese takeaway that we have for lunch. Has our idea of God been one where He has been relegated to another agenda we need to carry out? Another person we need to thank and talk to? Has His Word become mere convenient sentences strung together, somehow used where we see fit? I stagger.
It takes an audit. For me, a daily one, an hourly one. I stand at the threshold of an exciting career, much beckoning. I tempted to jump right into, put in my hard yards, pay my dues, climb. But seriously, what’s the use of harps and lyres, tambourine and flute and wine when I don’t have the presence of God, When His face is turned away? It scares me.
Father,
Psalms 51
Cast me not away from Thy presence O Lord, Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me, Restore unto me, the Joy of Thy Salvation And renew a right Spirit within me.
Father I humble myself, turning, I seek Your face. Cast me not away. Prepare a table before me in Your house. There I want to belong. In Your mercy, remind me, in Your faithfulness keep me in sight, in Your goodness, set a path, Your path before me. Eyes on You amidst the gold of the things around me, keep my eyes on You. Amen.
following on from lee's entry - = - = - = - = - Once he was approached by a leper, who knelt before him begging his help. "If only you will," said the man, "you can cleanse me." In warm indignation Jesus stretched out his hand, [and] touched him. Mark 1:40–41, NEB - = - = - = - = - I was in an emergency room late one night last week. Victims of Satan filled the halls. A child—puffy, swollen eyes. Beaten by her father. A woman—bruised cheeks, bloody nose. "My boyfriend got drunk and hit me," she said, weeping. An old man— unconscious and drunk on a stretcher. He drooled blood in his sleep. Jesus saw the victims of Satan, too. He saw a leper one day … fingers gnarled … skin ulcerated … face disfigured. And he got indignant … angry. Not a selfish, violent anger. A holy anger … a controlled frustration … a compassionate disgust. And it moved him. It moved him to action. I’m convinced that the same Satan stalks today, causing the hunger in Somalia … the confusion in the Mideast … the egotism on the movie screen … the apathy in Christ’s church. And Satan giggles among the dying. Dear Father, May we never grow so "holy," may we never be so "mature," may we never become so "religious" that we can see the footprints of Satan and stay calm.
