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Wednesday, October 26, 2005

A Bar of Steel

"I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument" (Isa. 41:15).

A bar of steel worth five dollars, when wrought into horseshoes, is worth ten dollars. If made into needles, it is worth three hundred and fifty dollars; if into penknife blades, it is worth thirty-two thousand dollars; if into springs for watches it is worth two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. What a drilling the poor bar must undergo to be worth this! But the more it is manipulated, the more it is hammered and passed through the fire, and beaten and pounded and polished, the greater the value.

May this parable help us to be silent, still, and longsuffering. Those who suffer most are capable of yielding most; and it is through pain that God is getting the most out of us, for His glory and the blessing of others. --Selected

"Oh, give Thy servant patience to be still,
And bear Thy will;
Courage to venture wholly on the arm
That will not harm;
The wisdom that will never let me stray
Out of my way;
The love that, now afflicting, knoweth best
When I should rest."


Life is very mysterious. Indeed it would be inexplicable unless we believed that God was preparing us for scenes and ministries that lie beyond the veil of sense in the eternal world, where highly-tempered spirits will be required for special service.

"The turning-lathe that has the sharpest knives produces the finest work."


Content from DesertStreams.org

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Trusting God

Trusting God is something which goes beyond our feelings. It takes faith to believe that God will do something even if it seems so impossible provided the situation we are into, the feelings we felt, the resources present and others.

Last Sunday morning, I have experienced this in our church. The day before that, Saturday, I went to our church to practice for Praise and Worship the next day. I was the one asked by our pastor to lead. Well, I got there quite late, 30 minutes to be exact and found out, I was the first one to arrive. To make the practice easier when other band mates arrive, I prepared the song line-up for myself, and for my band mates. I even rehearsed the sequence of my songs and was quite ready. Thirty minutes passed and the drummer arrived. We still have to wait for other band mates. It was 9:00 and no one came so I decided to go home and told our drummer to tell our other band mates to come early tomorrow.

Well Sunday morning came, and I was early but no one came. Hours passed and still no one came. I felt pressure forming inside and I was so angry with my bandmates calling them irresponsible. My pastor talked to me about it and he said I could sing few familiar songs so that people can sing without accompaniment. He doesn't understand. I have prepared well, the songs to be sung, they are chosen cause they have soemthing in common. I had adlibs and bible verse quotations and changing the whole thing would mean disaster. I'm not that good in instant performances! I can't think clearly with all these things bugging me so I went inside our church parsonage and prayed. I said,
"Lord God, I don't want something disastrous to happen. If I will change anything, it will be ruined. You know you have called me into this ministry and it's my duty to bless people by singing to You. Lord, make us victorious. We don't want Satan laughing at us."


And by the mention of that phrase, I felt the temper rising from my head and I started practicing my adlibs. My band mates arrived just in time for our Praise and Worship and I can't afford to look at them or even speak to them. If I had, I might've yelled at them. But I felt God is really in control so I went to the stage and do my thing.

What I expected to be a disaster is the best Praise and Worship experience I have in our church. Everything fits perfectly into place: the timing, the right entrance for adlibs. It felt well and people were singing loudly and I felt God's annointing during the experience.

I thanked God and this experience will be one of the most profound things God has done in my life. If you let go and let God take care of everything, all will be perfect. God Bless.

Monday, October 17, 2005




My New Shoes



Fila....!

Thanks Dad!

Wednesday, October 12, 2005




The Way to Alone



Reminder: If this article doesn’t make sense to you, just keep on reading and somewhere, someday it’ll make you understand.

I don’t know how to start. I have been thinking lately and realized that these past months in my life seemed rather pointless. I wake up thinking doing the same things which I think were worthwhile. I immersed myself in many things, being a busybody, filling every minute, every second of my life with activities. What are the purposes of those activities? Aren’t they suppose to give you purpose and meaning of your existence? I think and pray to God to use me for His work for His greater glory. And I do those things, helping the music team or helping the youth hoping to find a sense of myself to be of worth but I don’t find it in them. The simple things that gave me great fulfillment and great joy do not make any significance to me anymore. I look for more exciting and great things but I know they won’t satisfy me either. I dream for fame, money, a good job but what for? Sometimes I envy other people of having living in the spot light and having lots of people around them. They seem fulfilled and happy with all the money they have. Are they? In reality I do not want that life either. What do I really want? Or What else I must do?

I find myself standing in a busy street called “The Way to the World” with eyes dank and hollow. People pass me like blur and they’re off somewhere: to London to be nurses, to HongKong to be a hotshot IT analyst, to the US for greener fields, to fame, to power. They have no time to think or just smile at people along their way. The “Way to the World” branches into many streets. Some go uphill, some go downhill, some are just plain straight. No one knows where they’re going and no one knows if they would really reach what they think they are destined of.

You’d think I’m insane or depressed or just a dude who doesn’t know what to do. A clueless freak, a busybody who is busy for nothing, maybe that’s who I am. Is it really who I am? Maybe I’m something else, a wisp, a spirit trapped in a man’s body, a deviation of nature, a tiny, insignificant speck inside the eternal and infinite universe (McDonald’s commercial). Or looking in reality: a 24-year old man whose mucus clogs his nose every morning, who likes to listen to Hillsongs every morning, who works out every TTHS, who surfs the internet everyday, who rents lots of CDs to please his eyes and mind, who leads the music worship every Sunday. Do those things define who I am? Are these things the only things to do? “There must be more to life”, as Stacie Oricco sang in her previous album. In a greater sense of reality, what must be done? What must I do?

In this road called Life, a man traveling suddenly stopped and found himself lost. With nothing to hold on to, even the solid space of his reality feels like air. He faces a winding path ahead. And the path is winding and twisting. As the surrounding space or seems like it gradients from light to darkness, the man in his heart feels alone and it feels empty, not happy nor sad, just empty in the presence of the void. How ironic, how could a void have a presence since it was void? Nevertheless, the man alone faces an emptiness called Alone. What is there in that emptiness? Would it be a place of deep despair or insanity? Would you hear the still small voice of God in quietness? Or would it be just a place of emptiness, just nothing. No one knows until you let go and walk into it. Would that man dare to walk into that path? He could go back to his old path till he meets this path again someday. There is no escaping. He has to go to that path. Who knows what he will find in there? He expects to find God. Is God there even in the dreariest, emptiest spot? The man would only know when he gets there. How about you? Would you travel this road and dare to take the chance? It will leave you TRANSFORMED forever if you would. God Bless

Tuesday, October 11, 2005




You Are Holy



You are holy, holy ...

Lord there is none like You

You are holy, holy...

Glory to You alone

I'll sing Your praises forever

Deeper in love with You

Here in Your courts

Where I'm close to Your throne

I've found where I belong

Monday, October 10, 2005




Memories and Greetings



I don't know myself lately. I've been living everyday with a single purpose to be a blessing to everyone else but I haven't done justice to myself either. I've been feeling bad... all this lose fat craze isn't working cause I've been loading myself with too much carb and fat. Though from time to time I say to myself to be really serious in losing weight but you know, I get so weak seeing the food inside the house or feeling so left behind if I eat less during our weekly eat-all-you-can. Anyway, last Wednesday I went to my hair doctor to consult for my thinning hair. Well, I guess I'm genetically pre-programmed to lose hair when time comes like what happened to my two uncles. (Sigh!) I was prescribed to apply Minoxidil to the thinning spot. Anyway, but I guess having a "Mr Clean" cut would be a very nice option when the time comes I'll lose my crown. There are more things to life than being fat and being bald, right? I'll get through this "Valley of Baca"...


Catty Boy's litter
Miming, miming...


Anyway, there are two creatures who made it big in this world recently. Bryan, my brother's friend, actually, a family friend, just passed the LET Board Exams! Hurray for him. Secondly for our cat, who gave birth to three cute litters yesterday. Seeing those kittens breathe life for the first time gave me new hope to live my own life as never experienced before.