:+: PURPOSE :+:
"Where you are right now is where God has postioned you to be."
What a powerful statement! How very comforting to know!
But then, why? Why did he have to position us? Here's 4 points:
1)
To Test faithfulness - He wants us to put in our best in whatever situation we are at! we're all given different amounts of talents. Some may appear to be "better" than the others but only God would know who has achieved their MAXIMUM potential. That just really spoke to me. Sometimes I look around to others and compare myself with them - in a way, I'm "burying my talents" like that dude in the bible who was given 1 talent. I should not! I should use all that God has given to me! ALL! Press on! Achieve the max I can be on the journey!!
2)
Develop talents - Sam 16-17 David was the little insignificant boy of Jesse of Bethlehem. The one who minded the sheep. yet Samuel 16:7
"Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart". The Lord CHOSE DAVID out of all the other brothers despite the fact he was the youngest. Yet, little did David know that he was POSIIONED to be tending the sheep for a greater purpose in the future! He was able to kill lions and bears whilst keeping his father's sheep. He learnt to rely on God to escape from the paw of the lion and bear. Hence he was able to confront the Philistine and killed him. So yeh I'm positioned to develop my talents! Who knows when they will come into play!
3)
To Stretch & find our character - In trials, weakness emerges from the surface! 2 Cor 1:8-10 God will deliver us. In struggles, we find that our character gets moulded. Our suffering serves a purpose! Hallelujah. James 1:2-4
2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.4)
To Rest - that didn't really speak to me. haha... i don't think i'm called to rest yet. but sure, some people are called to recharge. Jesus took a rest! God rested whilst he was creating the Earth!
5)
To bring others to jesus - Whoah! So important - that! Really challenges me to be in tune with the Spirit. Who knows when the opportunity arises? I really believe that I'm positioned to bring people to Christ. My friendship group is so carefully "designed" by God. Just so funny how the asian circle is connected. Sometimes we don't know why we're doing what we're doing. According to
Roman 8:28: 28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. So yeh, u never know! Opportunity could be just round the corner.
Backyard Make-Over!
Just came back from the backyard make-over! It was a lot of fun. Strugggled 20 mins to get up this morning. (8:15) and then somehow made it to Boronia by 9am. Got recruited to pull weeds. Not super hard, just a bit tiring. then i helped to push the wheelbarrow and tip the trash into this great big landfill. Someone commented that it was like an ant carrying something bigger than itself. Did that for a couple of rounds and then Justin took over. 
Then helped to pull more weeds. then helped Josh and Steph with the tomato trees. Hope the sticks hold up! Was lots of fun overall! had sausages and cake for lunch~
So why was I doing this? Just a community work run by the young adults from church. Just a simple way to show our love to people. ^_^ Be a blessing to others! The elderly couple that lives there is genuine needy. The husband just recently had a stroke. The wife has visual impairment. It was her birthday today too! hence, the cake!! ^_^
Be The Church
At encounter today, we learnt about being
The Church!
Our pastor challenged us to look back at the early churches described in Acts 2
44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.How aweseome! That makes me feel a bit uneasy. Looking at the way I act in church - can't help but feel a bit ... guilty?!?! Never did I sell my possessions and goods to give to the needy. Can't say that I have everything in common with the rest of the cell. Fair enough, I guess "things have changed". But still, I must constantly remind myself to
Be The Church that God wants us to be.
Being a Christian can be a very "counter cultural" thing. The way we do things might not be "right" in the eyes of the world. Sometimes we get caught up in the norms that we forget about what it really means to Be The Church. Here are three trends in the society that can be a barrier to us:
1) ISOLATION:
We have all those fantastic technology, like Blog, Msn, Icq, Email... but somehow people seem to be more lonely. We don't even talk to our neighbours! How ironic. (Tiff, get off msn..) Even at church, you can be in a crowd but you feel so lonely. But look at the early churches!! All the believers were together! that just reminds me to watch out for those who are lonely at church/cell...
2) Individualism:
The society encourages people to care only for themselves. "the most important person in the world is yourself" It shouldn't be that way. Often, we're encouraged to be tolerant of others - even if it means tolerating sins and untruthfulness. SHOULD NOT! If something is wrong, we can't just let it be! wat's most important is the big fella above! What does HE think?
3)Consumerism
The society is full on promoting consumerism. What happened to the other end of the spectrum - Contribute? We should not hold onto possessions too strongly. Share it! Stop being the spectator but be a participant! be a contributor!! I'm not at church only to consume but to CONTRIBUTE, to SERVE GOD! Aiya... too often, i have the wrong mentality. >_<
I love this bit: John 13:34-35! If we love one another, people will flock to the church. Love is the best witness!
34"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
Susan Ke's 21st...
More birthday... This one is at a club. Area 61 st. kilda. Great venue. great music. too lazy to write a blog. just let the pictures speak for themselves
Chocolate Fountain - how cool! production cost ~ $400...
Speeches...
Alice's 21st...
Happy Happy Happy Birthday~
What a good night of catching up! Bump into various people as well eg Vicki (from uni maths), Mandy, Dennis.
Oh Bye Mandy. she should be on her way to HK now~
Discipline
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Desipline
Incredible Cousins
Yeh, my cousin Serena looks like Edna - 99.0%. haha...
Judy and Natalie.
Natalie = violet...
30m Worm swimming in your body~
HOW DISTURBING was the lecture!!!!!!!!
Yip, we learnt all about parasitology. All that I need to know about parasites. The lecturer showed us movies of living parasites. Some - I admit - are quite cute. They're transparent, like insects, crawling among the trees - where they should be. On the other hand, to see them jumping from one person's head to the next is uncool. @_@
And to imagine long worms crawling in your body 24/7... makes me sick....
My question was: how do we get them out? He simply said: with the medication, somehow, it's found in your stool. *fascinating*
Some ingenius person asked:
if you put a piece of meat in front of the anus, would the worm crawl out? @_@ .... WAT??? @#$#@$#$#$)#()^$%$@@#!!! The lecturer said No - in case you're wondering. So don't try that.
It sends shivers down my spine thinking about how the worm would come out of the anus - extending as long as 30m... #_#
DESPITE how shockingly disgusting the lecture was, I managed to doze off. How did that happen?
*TIREDNESS*
Weekend is meant for refreshment. @_@ Yet at the time I'm writing this, I feel so drained out. What happened to my weekend? Wasn't the best weekend I've had. You know, one of those guilty weekends where you didn't study hard or play hard. Can you imagine going over one lecture in 4 hours? With lots of procrastination within that span of time... MSN should be made illegal or something. + emailing + blogging... In fact, internet should be banned.
...................
Nah, it's just me. Lack of self-control. Lack of planning.
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So tired. not physically but mentally. Almost dreading the next coming weekend... Another guilty weekend, I think. Coz it's a long weekend. There's the cell social, Alice's 21st, Andrew's house 'party'... ARGH...
....................
May I draw strength from God~ afterall, it's in my weakness that His power is made perfect. If the things I do are for His glory, i don't see why He wouldn't strengthen me? Does He not always supply what I need?
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Oh wanna mention one thing. There was a black-out during worship at church. Kinda weird. We kept singing anyhow. with just the voices from the "audience", flute, drums... My thought was: God was probably letting us realise a fraction of what the developing world would experience normally without all the modern technology. Very well suited to the message today. WORLD IMPACT - Crossing the Border. I hope one day I'll cross the border. Missionary~ must do it some day~
~~~~~~~~
I'm so annoyed... at some thing. So annoyed... argh...... not on a good mood today. not at all...
1st Time...
Yeh we all have our first times.
Yesterday, Amy took me to The Loft on Lonsdale. I wasn't actually INVITED to go coz it was a distant friend's (24th) birthday. (According to him, I *was* invited. Except he used my ozemail email address - i guess...) Anyway, it's like a lounge/pub place. Such an innocent medical student, aren't I?
Anyway, a part of the place was fenced off for us only. So it was kinda safe. Plus, it wasn't that smokey. Thank Goodness. We could get free drinks at the bar area - which is shared by everyone else. Had a coconut + pineapple cocktail. Who knows what the name was. I'm not a coconut person but yeh it tastes OKAY. -__- Then I was FORCED to have a Cowboy - which is what they called a "shot". A small glass of alcohol with milky bailey on top. The rule was to drink it all in one go. So i did. Not bad. Better than the cocktail. Think my face turned red after a while - like every one else. It was moderately dark there anyway.
It was nice to catch up with a few badminton teammates. and to meet some of the new teammates. Quite an interesting experience. A bit bored at times. Amy used this Guilt-driving persuasive technique to make me dance at the dancefloor. -__- She spent about 20 minutes persuading me to dance: "if you don't go, I'm not going". She was nice though coz she didn't want me to be left all alone. But then I'm stubborn. took me a while for the guilt to override my stubbornness. Anyway just a 10 mins dance.
Left at 10pm. Nice enough, this guy took Amy and I home. It was a very interesting experience to walk in the city at night. People singing on the street. People wandering. Felt kinda porsche looking at the Shops on Collins street etc... City is like a different world at night.
Now, and guess what? A pub can be a place for evangelism too. This friend of mine asked me about church and stuff. Probably due to the alcohol (blame it on alcohol), I could hardly answer her. Our conversation got distracted very soon by some 3rd person asking her to dance etc.
Anyway, just let the spirit live with us wherever we go. Who knows when the opportunity arises? little things add up...
TWWT
Tiffinity's Weekend Weather Theory:The fineness of the weather is proportional to the amount of work I have to complete.... I wish this weekend was as nice as the last one which I spent on revising for a test...
Maybe I could turn this theory around by doing more work this weekend. So that when the busy weekend comes, (and the weather is perfect) I could actually go out and play?
Sounds good.
WEeK 8 lEctUres - HeRe I cOmE~~
supernatural things happen naturally...
I was once again reminded of the importace of connecting people with God. Cells, PDL, church can sometimes be very exclusive events where we concentrate so much on discipleship that we forget the other side of the coin - outreach. Was it not a command from God to tell people about the good news? So HOW should we go about "connecting people with God"? First of all, I must learn to make it my priority in every aspect of my life. It should always be on the back of my mind. If you're in tune with God while you talk to you friend, or when you have dinner with your family, or when you talk to the shop assistant -- God will somehow SHOW UP. It sounds bizarre but if I connect with God - He always works with me. He will provide opportunities for me to reach out. Sometimes, a simple 'hang out' event could be a perfect chance of evangelism. Or a simple train ride with a friend. You really don't know WHEN the opportunity comes. Are you doubting?Today I bumped into a long-time-no-see friend. I have always felt that God has put her in my life for a reason. Really feel that it's all planned. Have been praying for her (well, not much >< but occasionally) to receive Christ. Having taken the advice from someone a few days ago, I did not try too hard to evangelise, I didn't ask her about where she stands in Christianity, I did not force her into coming to church. All I did was to show genuine care for her. To show her what's been happening in my life. Just being the normal Tiffinity was enough. but on the back of my mind, I was in tune with God!! When it's the right season, I believe there'll be an opportunity.
:+: Patience :+: For God knows the timing. So yeh I need not push but at the same time, I can't forget my mission on earth. All about BALANCE (most questions can be answered by the word "balance"). Supernatural things will come naturally when it's the right time. Wait and see. but when the fruit is ripe, grab it, eat it!!!!
~ Perseverence ~
妳是那種即使放在雪地上 也會開出美麗花朵的種子(stolen from Yi-Ning's blog!)
:+: Patience :+: Surrenderness :+: Seasons :+:
:+:
Learning so much these days. I can understand why it is through difficult circumstances that we learn to grow, we see more of His face. Perseverence brings hope. I know i can never fully understand that correlation but I'm learning it bit by bit.
Some encouraging friend of mine shared with me these verses. How very applicable to what I'm facing. Sometimes the more you try to do something in your own strength, the more you realise you suck. (alright, sucketh). It's God who does all the work.
:+:
1 Cor 3:77So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.So why not surrender it all. Do what we can and let the Creator of Men do the job!! + God said he has won the battle anyway. We're on the winner side of the battle. ~ V I C T O R Y ~
1 Cor 4:55Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.
This is all about timing. Shall we not judge? Shall we stop judging people? Lord will come. He will be just. Just rest on that promise. ^_^ That is what so good about my God. I can always find peace in Him. He provides all that I need~
:+:
God answers prayer in funny ways, doesn't He? ^_^ As I was praying after my msn conversation, I took a shower and came back and received a freshly delivered email from my friend from church. He just spoke straight into my heart - without knowing what my need was. Just a somewhat -random- email yet so applicable. He said, very often we try too hard to stand in our belief that we forget to represent God in our lives. We can give out arguments after arguments to support what we stand but what's better than just LIVING IT OUT? If God is with us (which He promised), people will see it. Let them encounter God themselves.
~ "So Lord, i will surrounder it all to You for You know the timing, You're a just judge, You live in me, You make things grow. May I be your salt, your vessel. Let me just live it for you!" ~
:+:
@_@ Friend's Dream
My friend dreamt about me getting married with a caucasian guy in his 30's. Apparently a very successful guy with some medical background. *SHOCK* *WADA* *LOL* This has to be one of the most hilarious thing I've heard recently... Must post it up!
Purpose of Church
Can't wait to get to church tomorrow. I have this tendency to go there to hope to get something in return. it's like a way of recharge, refreshment, restoration. Now, wait a minute, I think all these are only secondary. I go to church because I love God. I want to praise him in prayer and worship. I want to declare Him to be the God Almighty. I need to get my perspective right. I don't deserve anything. (Grace is something I don't deserve.) Yet because I seek Him, He blesses me also. Let me go to church to serve and to please God. Even if the sermon might not be absolutely relevant to me, it doesn't matter. b/c I go to church to praise God not to "de-stress" as such. (though God is good. He'll probably refresh me anyhow! ^_^)
Don't seek Him only when you're troubled.
Seek Him in all circumstances.
ADDICTION
internet has become a severe addiction. i bet you. if you take away internet from me, i'll get withdrawel symptoms. eg typing on my lap, clicking with my right index finger... Alright gotta study for my quiz on Monday. Back to "self-tolerance"... can't tolerate my addiciton anymore......must be destroyed, inactivated...... @_@
A Prayer
I was reminded of the importance of evangelism by a friend. Sometimes I tend to focus a lot on discipleship, encouraging my sisters and brothers in Christ. Like in Cell, Med small group, the purpose is mainly to strengthen them, leading them closer to God. However, that misses the other side of a Christian life. I shouldn't be so selfish and keep it all to myself. It's a free gift from God. I should take it, live it and SPREAD it. Now, how?
1) by prayer.
Afterall, we're nothing without God. God is always on my side. Why not ask Him for help?
So the next morning (Friday), I somehow got to work early 6:45am (-__- sleepy). I sat in the car and decided to pray for the people I work with. Eg Marion, Wilma, Michelle and Simone. I was asking God for opportunities for evangelism. It was such a simple prayer yet God answered me straight away - which was obvious to me after 20 mins.
Surprisingly, there were only two clients to look after. One was having breakfast in bed. (Marion decided to spoil him.) The other Italian man was still sleeping. So I sat down with Marion in front of the TV. She asked me about Pope John and she was interested in what I think of him. So I mentioned that I'm not a catholic but a Christian. She said she is Christian too. In fact, she was brought up in a very strict, strong Christian family. However, she didn't have a good experience with the churches in those days. Her mother fell in love with a non-Christian and fell pregnant before marriage. Rather than receiving love and concerns, her mother was condemned by her own father. Anyway, so the story went on.
Though marion is a Christian, I have a feeling that she doesn't have a good understanding of God's words. She respects religions like Buddhism and jehovah's witness. She seems to think that it wasn't a sin that her mother fell pregnant before marriage. Anyway, I told her where my stance is about sex before marriage. And I told her that I go to citylife church and that I've gained and grown a lot ever since. She seemed impressed that young people like me still believe in the bible so strongly.
I just thank God for placing me around people that are open to Him. Even though the clients are all old and demented. I ask that they can still see Christ and accept Him. It's never too late for them to enter His kingdom.
