Everything I am for your Kingdom’s Cause.

Humbly I submit to you. When we give our broken lives, broken hearts to Jesus. When we give every broken part of our lives to Him, He changes them into perfume. When we give all we have to Him, everything that we deem expensive – be it our possessions or our lives. He’ll restore it.

washing Jesus’ feet. – April 8, 2009

The heart is broken, He’s made it clean.

Now everything I am is for your kingdom’s cause.

Bitterness festers when the Word becomes stagnant in your life. But throw in the Cross, bitter waters turn sweet.

Bitter hearts are healed and restored.

@live[dot]com

I like the new Window’s Live email address…

Technical geek-tails aside.. (yes yes, I hear an outcry from the lovers of unlimited storage and POP access, p.s I’m a gmailer myself.)

But I really like the domain name.. LIVE.com

LIVE – not live as in real-time..

but Live – Life in motion!

I live for the Son of God… I live to eat… I live because I love.

Live.

The browser and search engine wars may rage on for all i care. But my compliments to the people back at Microsoft who suggested the renaming…

Windows Live. Welllll that to me is a  positive confession.. And we all can learn a thing or two from Windows Live.

How about Immanuel-Live!

Job-Live!

Rover-Live!

I do remember Jesus championing ‘Live’… Well sort of, I mean He did make a dead man walk again by shouting: “LAZARUS! COME FORTH!”

Paraphrasing it? LAZARUS LIVE!

Ok, I take my words back. This live business is simply just “positive confession”.

It’s AUTHORITY. You command LIFE to dead bodies.. Just like Jesus.. Dare try?

How about speaking to your exams results that are dying… Or speaking life into your sickness?

Dare believe that you’ll find healing and see good results?

You’ll never know till you try..

Btw, in case you didn’t notice @live.com reads ALIVE.com… cool stuff eh?

twenty-second June.

Dear Jesus,

Work’s been pressing. And yes I think i may be a little too slack.

Even if I’m doing more than the others.. (or I think I am)

Fine, I should do more, yada yada yada… But it’s stretching.. My boss expectation can be quite pressing… Not His fault.

But still… Where’s the sweet spot Lord?

Empower me Lord, Get rid complacency.

It’s not about impressing him now.. it’s assuring him.

And help me show grace to the other two.

It’s quite tiring working today.

Candy Bomber.

And confections of every sort rained from the sky…

Onkel Wackelflügel or Uncle Wiggly Wings has visited again.

The sweets rained on children who didn’t beg for them… my, they certainly did not deserve the sweets either.

Not pity, nor merit – but simply by the largeness of Colonel Gail Halvorsen’s heart..

The children sure appreciated and even loved this young hero. The one who wiggles his wings promise sweet delights.

Ain’t it like Jesus. We were once strangers to Him. What did we do that would sanction His blessings?

We didn’t deserve any. We were once enemies to God.

But Jesus came anyway to offer the sweetest thing that ever existed – Himself.

Don’t get me wrong, Salvation is a gift that Jesus came to give. But salvation didn’t come in a form of doctrine or teachings or even nice sayings.

Salvation came in a form of a man and His name is Yeshua – God is my Salvation.

Mind you, Jesus didn’t come down from heaven because he pitied us. That would be the highest insult to a loving Saviour.

Pity moves the heart of a compassionate person for a helpless soul. But it was love that brought Jesus down, even if the one’s He loved would nailed Him on a cross.

Would you take pity on someone who would murder you one day?

Yet we who deserved nothing, received everything.

How do we know it’s Him?

No wiggly wings this time. But see an old rugged cross on a hill far away and a empty tomb which He used to stay.

That’s a sign that He has brought us salvation.

Living Life Backwards.

I can relate to Benjamin Button.

(Yes, I took quite abit of time to watch it… Take God for rest days, Had some time to watch some movies.. )

But yes about Benjamin Button. Ain’t it like us Christians, growing younger everyday – not a hard concept to grasp since we’re so well taught. (:

We talk about the Renewal of youth and how Eagles literally renew their youth. It’s a lovely thought.

I like ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ because it challenges viewers to think and reflect – about life, the movie, love and generally life in essence.

Renewal of youth was literally portrayed in the movie. Like the clock that ticked backwards. We see the tragedy, and the romance in Benjamin’s life.

People desire eternal life because they fear death. For eons men has searched for the ‘Fountain of youthfulness’, the ‘Elixir of Life’ and the ‘Fruit of Longevity’, all to escape a fate called death.

Why do we fear death… we fear death because death seems like an end. A thief that robs us of everything we love.

But we need not fear death. Nor do we need to fear losing anything we love..

At the cross death has been nailed down forever. Death has been defeated forever by Jesus Christ.

Aging’s not the issue, it’s who you’re aging with – and that’s with Jesus. The one who’ll walk this journey with you forever. (:

Sing you back.

“I sing you to me, just like we first met. I sing you back to me, I knew you’ll find me”

True enough, you sang me back. Back to hearing you again Jesus.

“Somewhere, over the rainbow, skies are blue.
And the dreams that you dare to dream, really do come true.

Someday I’ll wish upon a star and wake up where the clouds are far Behind me.
Where troubles melt like lemon drops, Away above the chimney tops.

That’s where you’ll find me.“

Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence.

Have you heard this piece from Ryuichi Sakamoto ?

It’s a beautiful composition that was featured in one of our local productions – ‘The Leap Years’ and it’s was also featured in a 1983 movie of the same title.

It starts off gently, in a placid rhythm of piano notes. Then it meanders  into a Orient fashion like how a ‘guzheng’ would sound like as a rendition on a piano.

The melody is sombre and sober, like a pot of tea brewing in a corner. It’s fragrance is light but it’s flavor strong.

Suddenly at the 3rd minute. A barrage of strings rush in, like an imperial march heralding the arrival of someone or something important. As the tune of the piano gets more intense, a picture of a dancer appears, and she starts to dance in the pouring rain. Sharp and strong movements correspond to the mood of the music and as the music fades out, the rain ceases.

And the music ends as if the woman is reunited with her lover.

Feliz Navidad, Mr Lawrence.

hugs.

I missed Pastor Mark’s message last sunday.

Thank God for a particular friend who posted a summary of what what preached on facebook.

something that stuck out was the part on hugs.

a tactile expression of love.

i surprised if we even ask ourselves about the need for physical intimacy.

Pastor Mark spoke about hugs and the lack of it in our asian society.(Boy, was this part the tear-jerker?)

Quite awhile ago, John Purcell wrote about him still holding his mother’s hand.. (oh and I miss all his stories about Frank and friends – it’s like Narnia to me sometimes)

Put hugs aside, do we even dare to hold our mother’s hand in public? (ok, men this question is for us)

Not long ago I tried giving my Dad a hug, one thing about hugging my dad is that getting to him is a adventure itself – you have to evade smoke and furniture and maneuver you way to the grand coach and fight attention with the television or newspaper.

In the end, I would liken the hug to grab a lamp post – no offence to my daddy. But He just stood still as I wrapped one arm around him.

And I pried my lips open to say: “Pa, I love you”

and it was a moment of awkwardness. And my Dad just replied this: “Pa, doesn’t need love, Pa is just doing His duty. I want the best for you that’s all”

So the Holy Spirit translator gave me this: “Son, Dad loves you”

Sure the original message seems hurtful. I don’t need love.. yada yada…

But i think in my Dad’s super limited love vocab… In His context His duty is his love gift to me…

A house, bread and clothes. Though I’m financial independant – I credit my Dad to my blessed life today (though we are quite a lower-middle income family, who cares..)

Today I’m giving my Dad cash every month… and He’s boosting to the relatives about it.. He never boosted about me winning gold for my school competitions or getting ‘A’s…(usually he’ll point out the ‘C’s and the ‘D’s)

But when I hit the nail on speaking His love language everything changes… My Dad’s not materialistic nor is he money face.. It’s just a son to dad thing… It’s a duty to ‘feed’ my dad when he’s old (and he is old – 65 this year, old enough to be a grand-daddy), to him duty is love.

And it’s times like this we should be the chance to show them your kind of love. I’ll hug my dad before i pass him a portion of my salary… For Mom i’ll buy her Ben & Jerry’s (Trust me THAT’S her love language… and she feels loved eating ice cream her son bought)

It’s like God to do such simple, un-religious, un-complex and personal acts of love eh?

Sometimes it’s just a rainbow in the sky.

Sometimes it’s a nice postcard from a friend

Sometimes it’s from the coffee aunty who gives you more teh tarik than the oppositive table…

God doesn’t necessary need to give us ’spiritual’ stuffs… what He gives other doesn’t mean he’ll give us.. God doesn’t mass order presents and ask angels to deliver them… Leave that to Saint Nick…

When it comes to love.. God becomes personal… Hugs to the cold and numb… Laughter to the depressed… Strength for the weak…

True, we still need physical intimacy… We still long for hugs from our parents…

But funny, our parents been giving their form of hugs a long time ago… whether it’s secretly paying for our camp fees… or allowing us to spend the month with some friends overseas even when they’ll miss us like crazy that they nag a month worth of nags before we leave..

And for us grown ups.. it may pushing us to get married even though they rather you stay at home with them forever.. it maybe the home cook dinners that we take for granted…

And to some… Our parents watch over us often conversing with our creator regarding us… That they are never to far from us because where Jesus is they are too… Jesus is in our hearts isn’t he?

We complain that our parents don’t speak our love language… Well…. Let’s turn on our Holy Spirit Universal translators and start seeing the little things our parents do to say ‘I love you’…

words_are#only temporal.

pretty words may fade away but His promise stays eternal.

what we swear upon and every word of promise from our lips may be broken, behind our facades of honour lies a great weakness – the inability to fulfill everything that we promise.

the child is disappointed again by the unfulfilled promise to visit disneyland.

the wife is heartbroken that he is found with another woman.

and i’m home late for dinner again.

from the big promises to the little ones. We keep some, break some.

but though words are only temporal, though we are only human.
though we err and we are weak.

the blood of the lamb of God will never fail.

every drop of the precious blood of Jesus will never lose it’s power.

though words are only temporal, His word is forever.

easy//peasy.

it’s easy to say GRACE GRACE!

it’s easy to say ‘yes’. It’s easy because daddyGod did the hard part.

it’s because of Jesus that is why it’s easy to DO what we SAY.

i believe it’s easy to do as it’s easy to say. I pray i continue to believe.