New Songs

Recently I just felt new songs coming out from my spirit. Didn't really write them down. But it just feels beautiful. New songs, New Anointing.

Something that poh said last week shook me.
Every Revival Carries a New Sound.

City Harvest Church carries a different sound.
Bedok North carried a different sound.
What's your new sound?

Asia and Life Conference?

I was walking to the bus stop near my house when I saw this Banner outside Trinity Church near my place.
Uncanny familiarity? Almost everything is the same. The fonts of both Asia and Life. Guess we are making an impact. The only common letter is 'I'. Both ASIA and Life's 'I' is the same. Most prob, Trinity's church's Life is Bolded.

I Just want you.

I am feeling so frustrated and discouraged for the last few months, I felt that I was on the brink of giving up, throwing in the towel. This must be it, the pit, the valley that King David felt he was in. I think that I am of the verge and slipping in and out of depression. But I wanna thank God for ppl like Poh and Gabriel in my life. It was really no fun during this period of my life. Every single day felt like agony.

Pastor's right, God does not disappoint us, but people disappoints.

Like what Huijun and Amelia said, they both think that I'm a perfectionist. But thats nothing to be proud of man... Everytime I mess up, I feel so bad, so guilty and so very inperfect, even though its a small mistake and it just builts up and spirals into a bigger and bigger mistake. I just can't get over it. In a way, I disappoint myself all the time.

But I really wanna thank God for the Teo brothers.

I saw Gabriel on the 10th of May, Mother's day. Because he went to Amelia's cousin's birthday.
Man, just seeing Gabriel makes me feel so so so very loved and cared for. He's really a spiritual dad to me. When I saw Gabriel, I felt like running to him, hugging him and crying in his arms. Being with Gabriel makes me feel safe and that I can conquer the world. Not that I am basing my faith on him but its just different being in another zone. Its like being seperated from your dad. Man, I could even hear his voice, accent and tone in my head now. Haha! A simple "Guang Xiang, Jia You ar." from Gabriel is like a highlight of the day. Super encouraged!

And as for Poh, Meeting him 3 times this week just doesn't get any better! How to not get inspired, encouraged and convicted by him? Things that he shared on a personal basis and as a class really shook me. Every aspect of my life just seemed to be linked with him. My vision in life, my goal, my future business and ministry. Things that he shared about how does a cell group grow mightily? Being a blessing to the cell group. How to change the lives of your cell group members for the better, how to engage God in worship. And of course, guitar skills and theory. I am so inspired by him!

I Just Want You
Planet Shakers

More than a nice melody,
More than the sweetest of words
This is the love i have found,
And with this love i am found.

I just want you Jesus
I just want you my Lord,
I just want you Jesus,
I just want you.

Never could I comprehend,
The love you so freely give,
Never could i be worthy
But your love covers all of my sin.

There is no greater love than yours,
Nothing else could ever compare,
And even if i search all the world
I will never find a love like yours.

Spiritual Jargons

In the last 4 years in church. I have made my fair share of mistakes and victories with friends that joined us for service. And I have always found this to be the number 1 turn off to the friends. I have committed it too in the past and learned my lesson hard.

NEVER USE SPIRITUAL 'JARGON' ON THE FRIENDS WHEN WE COMMUNICATE WITH THEM

The friends will never understand what we are saying and not relate to them. Some examples would be:
"Hey John, have you responded to the Altar Call before?"
"Wow.. Thank God that there is so many Salvation cases today."
"Oh, we say grace so that God will Sanctify the food."
"Oh.. we fall under the anointing of God."
Reconciliation, holiness, offering..

The Bible says those who win souls is wise. We gotta be wise and relevant in communicating spirituality to the new friends because they will not have an idea of what are we talking about.

Scientists make simple things complicated.
Communicators make complicated things simple.

Keep it simple guys

These are the nations that the Lord left in the land to test those Israelites who had not experienced the wars of Canaan.

He did this to teach warfare to generations of Israelites who had no experience in battle.
These are the nations: the Philistines (those living under the five Philistine rulers), all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in the mountains of Lebanon from Mount Baal-hermon to Lebo-hamath.

These people were left to test the Israelites—to see whether they would obey the commands the Lord had given to their ancestors through Moses.

-Judges 3:1-4

I was reading judges on the way home yesterday and these words caught my attention.
The Bible says God wants to teach the children of Israel how to do warfare. Yet in verse 4, it says that it is to TEST them if they will obey the commands of God.

No link right?

But yet, many battles that we will fight, the winning strategy is with God. If we would just obey. When God tested the Israel and teach them how to do warfare, He didn't put one puny nation against Israel. He placed 5 nations against one. Its really either listen and obey, or face extermination.

God does this all the time to Israel. During biblical times as well as modern days, but God saved the day all the time!

=)

Pastor Phil

Honored
Pastor Phil only follows 45 people and I am one of them. Woo~
I love Pastor Phil!
My 2nd fave preacher of all-time. (After Pastor Kong)

Breakthrough

Amen and Amen.
Past few weeks had been quite tough. Learning to balance new commitments, yet trying my best not to neglect the more impt things in life.
Felt a new flow in my walk with God, a mini-breakthrough with more to come. And its really simple.

In the lift, I just called out to God, Simply put, I kept saying "Jesus.."
I called out in a way that I HAVE NEVER called out His name before.
and the presence of God was so strong that I teared in the lift. Man.. Actually the lift is one of my many secret places. I love the lift.

The simplicity of the name Jesus is so beautiful that I don't know how to describe it.
Can you imagine..
This is the name that is able to save..
This is the name that is able to heal the sick..
This is the name that is able to prosper someone.
This is the name that met needs.
This is the name that loves.

Can you imagine..

This is the name of God..

So many times we really took the name for granted.

Have we forgotten the simplicity of John 1:12

"yet to all who received him, to those who believed in His name,
he gave the right to become children of God."

And then I just sang in the Spirit.
Poh taught us this,

Why do we sing in the Spirit and its so beautiful?
Its because we have reached a point that no words can describe how awesome, how beautiful God is and how much we love Him.

Wow..
I love the name of Jesus

Sin?

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

-Ps 139:23-24

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

- John 8:7-8

Guitar Lessons Starting

Starting From Today!!!
I will be teaching Praise and Worship guitar playing.
Guitar lessons will be held at my house every Thursdays, 7pm.
those who are interested. Do contact me.

I am not the best player around but I just wanna serve you

Special Moments

What are your special moments with God?

Like what Waiyin and Poh had mentioned before during Cell Group Meeting and the worship clinic, what are our special moments with God? I searched Biblegateway.com and found this verse.

So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, "Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, 'What do these stones mean?' tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever."

-Joshua 4:4-7

Wow... This generation of Israelites are the so-called "faithful" generation that entered into the promised land under the leadership of Joshua. They placed some stones as a reminder of this incident on the priest's robes and they were faithful. This incident was somewhat similar to a greater miracle that happened 1 generation earlier: The Splitting of the Red Sea.

But that generation did rebelled against God so many times in the Wilderness. The pigeon meat and the golden calf. They experienced a greater miracle as compared to the next generation but they were not faithful to God. Because they did not set up a memorial of the goodness of God who brought them out Egypt, of God who made bitter water sweet.

As I pondered upon it, truly the miracles and times when God touched us really has to be remembered. When I felt discouraged, I always 'go back' to that special moment; that landmark time. And these are my special and landmark (not exhaustable) moments:

1. When I first received Jesus into my life.
I can remember it so vividly. The speaker of that service was Pst Carl-Gustav from Sweden and he was so funny yet able to teach. I can still remember the sermon even till this day. Its about being 'More than a Conqueror" I remembered where I was sitting and who was I sitting with. I remember responding to the altar call at the end and tears were all over my face.

3. The first time I teared in service.
I remember it was the 2nd time I came for service. I was supposed not to come because of filming project that week but it rained and being the director and producer, I cancelled it. And rushed all the way to service. Can't remember the speaker totally, but I just remember during worship, we were singing "All I need is You" and tears start to flow. Wow.. Great!!!

3. The very first time I heard God's voice speaking to me.
It was at Bugis!!! At Parco, the row of ATMs near the Mrt station. Man... Its kind of funny, XianBi was withdrawing money, and that time I had very very very low self-esteem. I saw a mirror and thought within me, "Man.. I am such an ugly guy." And then out-of-nowhere, I just sensed God speaking so clearly to me. "Son, no matter how the world sees you, you are always beautiful in My eyes." Man... I cried immediately in the presence of not just God but everyone in the mall. Even now as I am typing this, just felt the love of God and tearing now. I love You God!! =)

4. The VERY FIRST time I picked up a guitar
That was at XianBi's house. It was just random and almost everything was self-taught. Play the song Heart of Worship. I also found myself making such a prayer that very night. "God, I wanna learn the guitar, but If I am not able to bring down your presence, what is the purpose of even playing at all." I cried too..

5. 'Overnight prayer meetings' at Xianbi's old house
Man.. This is hilarious! A few times.. Both Xianbi and myself, or with Kenneth or myself (Its always in-twos) have a urge and desire to pray.. In the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!!! So we packed our school uniforms and took cab to the house and prayed through the night. Many goofy moments.. Like praising God with Cd? In the middle of the night, and its not just any other praise song but it was playing "Yours is the Kingdom" HAHAHA!!

6. The first time I played the guitar in cell group and the first time I saw someone cry.
Ya. Its was at Xiao Yong's place that time. And Yong Xiu can't preach at that time, so Victor was preaching. And we sang "I have come to bow down" Man.. can't forget that sight.

7. The first time I played for two cell group meetings in a day.
That day, God taught me a lesson. The same guitarist can be playing the same song. But the people's attitude towards worship is very important. I played the song, "You are the peace that guards my heart" in both cell groups. In one everyone's kneeling, crying out to God, the other just lepak all the way. I learned a valuble lesson.

8. The day I worshipped God on my Mp3 in the lift.
There was once I was listening the my Mp3 and sanctuary was playing. I lifted up my hands in the lift as usual when no one is in the lift. The presence of God was so strong, I literally ran home from the lift, and slammed the door and knelt down to worship. That was awesome!

9. The worship clinic with Poh.
Woah.. This is so so so very power-packed. Whatever I was feeling as a guitarist: unappreciated, asking questions if its worth it to serve God, Is it worth it to practice and practice and sow and sow and have blistered fingers. Poh answer all my doubts and for the FIRST time, I felt that somebody(human), understood me and what I was going through. I teared at the meeting when he was sharing and speaking. I not complaining but its just a fact la(sidetrack abit). Being a
spokesperson:

Being a guitarist is never easy.
Always having to be the first to reach cell group venue and one of the last to leave.
Always have to practice and practice before cell group day and the cell group meeting itself.
Always have to carry something so heavy to cell group.
Financially, gotta pay for the guitar, the printing of chords, replacement of strings, picks.
And, the guitarist is always the one being 'scolded' by the cell group leader after cell group meetings when something goes wrong during p&w. All the members are encouraged and edified, guitarist kena 'scolding' (Note: its 'quote-quote' scolding)
and its very easy for the guitarist to feel unloved by the cell group leaders and members.
To feel used by the cell group and please appreciate your guitarist.

Guitarists and musicians are very powerful people. During wartime in the Old Testament, God asked for a MUSICIAN(2 Kings 3:15). During deliverance, God asked for a MUSICIAN (1 sam 16-23). The biggest book in the Bible is written by MUSICIANS (Psalms).


Back to main topic. I really felt that more special moments should be present and we really must remember them. By this, we will not allow complacency to crept into our hearts and we will remain strong in God. =) Hallelujah!