“My spirit man is not only malnourished, it reflects nothing of the power and glory of my God.”
I have been reflecting about my spiritual life, especially after reading the testimony of this man Ps Peter Tan. (www.eaglevision.com.my/txttestimony.htm)
I know many a times at church, we spoke about Spiritual Awakening, Renewal, On Fire, Moving in the Spirit
I have extracted the portion that caught me especially, that caused me to really reflect the stage of my spiritual life.
It was this man’s fervency and seriousness in (the things of) God that move me.
I know I need to rebuild my spiritual life.
TESTIMONY OF MY LIFE AND MINISTRY by Ps Peter Tan
While I was there I continue on seeking the Lord. It was during that first year when I came out that the Lord showed me a vision of my spirit man. He showed how my spirit man was just malnourished. I want you to know that intellectually I had good bible knowledge. My grades in seminary were always 90 marks and above. So the vision of my malnourished spirit man had nothing to do with bible knowledge. But bible knowledge and spiritual growth are two different things. God showed me that my spiritual life was dry, empty and malnourished. I found in that first year when I came out the Lord dealt with my spiritual life.
That was when the Lord told me to take one year where I read nothing but the Word of God. I took every promise from Genesis to Revelation personalize them and for about eight hours a day meditated and meditated and prayed in tongues and meditated and prayed in tongues and meditated. For one year I read nothing but the Word of God. I read no newspaper; I read no books not even Christian books. And I meditated on the Lord. About six months into that meditation the Lord began to teach about His gifts. How His word of knowledge operates. I began to feel what I call now the tangible anointing that I never felt before. I began to understand that was the gift of the Spirit working.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Don't Waste Your Life (John Piper)
What is the point of life - To be happy? Or to glorify God?
Unspoken for many years, there was in me the feeling that these two were at odds. Either you glorify God or you pursue happiness. And that is why I was confused and frustrated for so long.
Enjoying and displaying are both crucial.
Delighting in God is the way we glorify Him. Seeking happiness in God and glorifying God are the same.
Jonathan Edwards says God’s purpose for our lives was that we have a passion for God’s glory and that I have a passion for my joy in that glory, and these two are one passion.
Now we see that in creating us for His glory, he is creating us for our highest glory. He is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.
With these discoveries, I now felt free to embrace God’s purpose for my life revealed in the Bible. I didn’t have to be afraid that I must choose between pursuing His glory and pursuing my joy. I was free to experience the single passion for God’s supremacy in all things for the joy of all people. I was rescued from a wasted life. Now life could have ultimate meaning – the same meaning God’s life has: enjoying and displaying His greatness.
God created us to live with a single passion to joyfully display his supreme excellence in all spheres of life. The wasted life is the life without this passion.
Science & Miracle - Two sides of the same coin
Two sides of the same coin - if two things are two sides of the same coin, they are very closely related although they seem different.
Last Sunday Sermon shares from Mark 6 and Jesus spoke to the disciples “Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid.” The Scripture also explains despite witnessing the miracles, the disciples have not understood as their hearts were hardened, callous, dull, their minds were closed, lost the power of understanding.
This is the 4th sermon that spoke about Fear.
We fear when things gets out of order - an order that our mind can conceive, understand or plan.
But God who brought order into chaos (thereby our observance of Science), has the same power to bring chaos into the “order” of thing (thereby our observance of Miracle).
Science and Miracle are actually two sides of the same coin. It is just a bit difficult to work it in the "reverse" order.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Lift Your Vision High
Lift Your Vision High We're In A Way We've Never Been Before
Lift Your Vision Higher And You Shall See The Glory Of The Lord
For Without A Progressive Vision We Will Dwell Carelessly
Without A Progressive Vision We Will Dwell Carelessly
Lift Your Vision Higher And You Will See The Glory Of The Lord.
Lift Your Vision Higher And You Shall See The Glory Of The Lord
For Without A Progressive Vision We Will Dwell Carelessly
Without A Progressive Vision We Will Dwell Carelessly
Lift Your Vision Higher And You Will See The Glory Of The Lord.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
As Bird Sings
Just as bird sings, tree shades, flower blooms with no apparent effort
when we allow our life purpose to expresss through us, we experience joy and energy.
http://www.linkhotel.com.sg/en/index.php
when we allow our life purpose to expresss through us, we experience joy and energy.
http://www.linkhotel.com.sg/en/index.php
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Sermon Series on Book of JOB
When I went back and think about the sermon – the replies God had for Job and Job’s acceptance of it. I wonder if I can accept such a reply. As I was reading the passage again, wondering what to make of God’s reply to Job and Job’s response, 42:5-6 caught me.
Job 42
4 "You said, 'Listen now, and I will speak;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.'
5 My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.
6 Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes."
What caused Job to say what he said in v. 5-6?
Is it the reply of God, the revelation of God, the restoration of God or the reverence (awe) of God that brought about Job’s response?
What are their difference?
We noticed Job’s response was after the reply and revelation but before the restoration.
Which is the one NECESSARY condition from God to us, and
what is the one NECESSARY condition from us to God?
If there is no reply, revelation or restoration, would Job has responded this way?
If there is reply and revelation but no restoration, what would his response be?
As a friend has asked, what is the book of Job about.
To me Job is a book of Suffering, of Sovereignty, of Surrender and of reStoration.
“Jesus came not to explain suffering or to take it away, but to fill it with His Presence”
(Joyce Hugget, Under the Caring Eye of God)
Job 42
4 "You said, 'Listen now, and I will speak;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.'
5 My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.
6 Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes."
What caused Job to say what he said in v. 5-6?
Is it the reply of God, the revelation of God, the restoration of God or the reverence (awe) of God that brought about Job’s response?
What are their difference?
We noticed Job’s response was after the reply and revelation but before the restoration.
Which is the one NECESSARY condition from God to us, and
what is the one NECESSARY condition from us to God?
If there is no reply, revelation or restoration, would Job has responded this way?
If there is reply and revelation but no restoration, what would his response be?
As a friend has asked, what is the book of Job about.
To me Job is a book of Suffering, of Sovereignty, of Surrender and of reStoration.
“Jesus came not to explain suffering or to take it away, but to fill it with His Presence”
(Joyce Hugget, Under the Caring Eye of God)
Monday, June 1, 2009
Compassion - the Art of Visiting
When the sermon was preached from book of JOB two weeks back, I gave more careful thoughts to it and I felt it was a very cruel book, because I imagined it happened to me.
In this imagination, I try to fathom how would and could Job actually ‘feel’. Frankly, with my best imagination of all the human experience and the full repertoire of emotions, I still find it hard to think how Job is able to say how he feels.
When anyone comes to visit me, I don’t want him to come with his own agenda… I often get the feeling that before people enter my room, they try to decide what to say. I don’t want to hear their concerns. I want them to empty their heads of their own ideas. When you visit a sick, fill your head with thoughts about that person, your care for him… If you just go in and listen, they will do all the “saying” because they really want to talk about themselves. They need to get in touch with their feelings and they need to tell it to another human.
(The Art of Visiting - Under the Caring Eye of God, Joyce Hugget)
We may not have a friend who suffered like Job to visit. But we do have a unique ministry at the Saturday Service.
My first visitor encouraged me in this way. This visitor, the priest I mentioned in an earlier chapter, so radiated calm and peace and the presence of Christ that, when I reflected on the visit after he had gone I concluded that, instead of rushing from the Underground station into my room, as I would have been tempted to do, he must have prepared himself prayerfully for this visit. I learned that later that he had, indeed, slipped into the chapel for a few minutes of quiet before visiting a patient on the Fourth place and then me.
In the solitude of the chapel, had my friend prepared himself in a similar way? Was this the reason why everything he said and did seemed to be shot through with the strengthening love of Christ? Is there a lesson for me to learn?
In the hectic lifestyle we adopt, we have so little time and energy left. We are mostly numb and drained. Thus we need dramatic incidents, overwhelming experiences, peak emotions and powerful moments for us to be tugged (the Charity shows, the people begging at the MRTs). We have become desensitized to be able to feel. Are we still able to carve out a margin for compassion?
The word compassion is derived from the Latin words pati and cum, which together mean “to suffer with”. Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion and anguish… Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.
If my Lord is a compassionate God, do I know He is suffering with me right now?
In this imagination, I try to fathom how would and could Job actually ‘feel’. Frankly, with my best imagination of all the human experience and the full repertoire of emotions, I still find it hard to think how Job is able to say how he feels.
When anyone comes to visit me, I don’t want him to come with his own agenda… I often get the feeling that before people enter my room, they try to decide what to say. I don’t want to hear their concerns. I want them to empty their heads of their own ideas. When you visit a sick, fill your head with thoughts about that person, your care for him… If you just go in and listen, they will do all the “saying” because they really want to talk about themselves. They need to get in touch with their feelings and they need to tell it to another human.
(The Art of Visiting - Under the Caring Eye of God, Joyce Hugget)
We may not have a friend who suffered like Job to visit. But we do have a unique ministry at the Saturday Service.
My first visitor encouraged me in this way. This visitor, the priest I mentioned in an earlier chapter, so radiated calm and peace and the presence of Christ that, when I reflected on the visit after he had gone I concluded that, instead of rushing from the Underground station into my room, as I would have been tempted to do, he must have prepared himself prayerfully for this visit. I learned that later that he had, indeed, slipped into the chapel for a few minutes of quiet before visiting a patient on the Fourth place and then me.
In the solitude of the chapel, had my friend prepared himself in a similar way? Was this the reason why everything he said and did seemed to be shot through with the strengthening love of Christ? Is there a lesson for me to learn?
In the hectic lifestyle we adopt, we have so little time and energy left. We are mostly numb and drained. Thus we need dramatic incidents, overwhelming experiences, peak emotions and powerful moments for us to be tugged (the Charity shows, the people begging at the MRTs). We have become desensitized to be able to feel. Are we still able to carve out a margin for compassion?
The word compassion is derived from the Latin words pati and cum, which together mean “to suffer with”. Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion and anguish… Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.
If my Lord is a compassionate God, do I know He is suffering with me right now?
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