There's a peace I've come to know
Though my heart and flesh may fail
There's an anchor for my soul
I can say "It is well"
Jesus has overcome
And the grave is overwhelmed
The victory is won
He is risen from the dead
And I will rise when He calls my name
No more sorrow, no more pain
I will rise on eagles' wings
Before my God fall on my knees
And rise
I will rise
There's a day that's drawing near
When this darkness breaks to light
And the shadows disappear
And my faith shall be my eyes
Jesus has overcome
And the grave is overwhelmed
The victory is won
He is risen from the dead
And I will rise when He calls my name
No more sorrow, no more pain
I will rise on eagles' wings
Before my God fall on my knees
And rise
I will rise
And I hear the voice of many angels sing,
"Worthy is the Lamb"
And I hear the cry of every longing heart,
"Worthy is the Lamb"
Friday, February 27, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Everything Beautiful in His Time
"He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end" (Ecclesiastes 3:11).
This past Tuesday my alarm went off at 4:30 a.m. I had allowed myself only the briefest margin to get my things together that I would need for the day and get out the door arriving at the 5:00 a.m. early morning prayer. I didn’t want to keep any of the men who had come to prayer in waiting. I forgot to plug my cell phone in over night, so I was low on charge, but I thought, I’ll just grab my cell phone charger and plug it in after I arrive at church.
In the vestibule of our home is a truly prized possession. It is an old oak table that has been in our family for years. It is hand-carved, without a nail in it. It is beautiful, with spiraled meticulously carved legs. The sentimental value is even more than it’s worth as an antique. It is the table that my father served The Lord’s Supper on in my youth. My first communion was celebrated at this table.
So, with that picture in mind, see me in my hurried state of affair. I am now ready to exit our house. I grab the charger and charge for the door, when suddenly I am stopped in my tracks. I felt a tug coming from behind. I looked behind to discover my phone cord had wrapped itself around one of the table legs on the antique oak table. With my hands full and not wanting to put everything down and take the time to carefully pull the cord away, wrap it up, and proceed out the door…I gently yanked the cord. Nothing happened. A little exasperated, I yanked harder. Now I could tell the cord was stuck somewhere. Oh, brother, now I was going to have to put everything down, get on my knees, find out the trouble, pick everything up…why this could cost me every bit of twenty seconds!
Descending to my knees, I discovered to my chagrin that the small end of my phone cord had lodged deep into the spiraled leg of the great oak table. I was in a hurry! I pulled, but to no avail. I could not get my finger into the spiral to push. Hopefully, what I say now will not mortify my wife or mother as they read these words; I (gulp) grabbed the nearest thing to my hand, a butter knife. My goal was to push the small plastic covered connection point out the other side into freedom. I did nothing of the sort. I managed to lodge more of the piece deeper into the oak spiral. I realized to use the butter knife any further was a risk of scratching a precious piece of furniture. I put the butter knife away, pulled a little more, and lodged it deeper yet.
What was I to do? I’m late now for prayer and the cord to give me a charge for the day is stuck. If I leave now, I’ll have to make an extra trip to retrieve my cord, which means more time wasted. I can stay here, miss prayer with the men and attend to this problem. As I sat there for just a moment longer, surmising my situation, I decided to leave for prayer. While en route to the prayer meeting and while praying, these thoughts came to mind about the rather comical comedy of errors I was accruing.
I. Haste makes waste.
That phrase has deservedly passed from being a cliché to being a maxim. As a rule, this is true! If I had taken the time to simply wind up my cord, I would not have lodged it in the table. If I had not proceeded to yank the cord, it would have not lodged deeper. If had not tried to make a tool out of the butter knife, it would not have worsened. Every short cut I took was robbing me of more time.
This maxim applies to the more important things of life. I find that if I allow myself more time (which I am bad about not doing) and take the extra time to do things right, in the end, accomplishment is sweeter. Also, in the long run, more time is saved.
If an airplane mechanic gets in too much of a hurry, he may miss the subtle crack across the wing, which could bring the plane down. If a surgeon gets too hurried, he may stitch up a scalpel or sponge inside a patient, creating a new problem. Imagine what would happen if a seismologist hurriedly scans across the monitor and misses the earthquake in the ocean that could cause a tsunami.
Jesus said, "...Are there not twelve hours in the day?...." (John 11:9). The Bible also says, "For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth" (Psalm 103:14, 15). God knows who we are and how much time we have. He has designed us with the amount of time to get everything done (here’s the key) “in His time”. God’s time is so much better than our time.
II. Prayer and stillness unties knots!
When I settled down in prayer, after a good laugh on myself with my comrade in prayer, the simplest solution on how to remove the phone cord came to me. You may think I am kidding, but I believe the Lord will talk to you about little things as well as big things.
I cannot resist the opportunity to tell on Richard Sanchez at this point. After prayer, I announced a “eureka”. I explained that I thought the Lord had revealed to me how to remove the cord. Richard gave me another explanation on how to do it. My gut feeling was to go with my new plan. But I thought, who am I? Richard knows more than I about this stuff. I nearly tore the cord up doing it Richard’s way. When I stopped and tried the method that came to me in prayer, it popped right out without any further harm to the cord, and to my wife’s relief, none to the table!
I had a little fun with Richard over this matter. The next time we talked, I expressed thanks for helping me with advice that nearly destroyed my phone cord. Although we had a good laugh, there is a serious reminder for all of us. Prayer is so much more than a session with God. It is during the stillness that answers often come and hard knots are untied. "Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?" (Isaiah 58:6). In the extreme prayer of fasting, God promises to lose our bands, lifting of heavy burdens, and every yoke broken. "Be still, and know that I am God...." (Psalm 46:10).
III. Put first things first.
You know what was more important than getting my problem solved immediately? Prayer and obligation to friendships. Praying was more important than improvising with a new technique that may free up a silly wire covered by plastic. Prayer is time with God! Everything I was doing could easily wait until I had prayed. Also, there was someone waiting to pray with me. Friendships and commitments to those friends are more important than getting things done in my time. "Thine own friend, and thy father's friend, forsake not...." (Proverbs 27:10). Let us not sacrifice friendships, brothers and sisters animated with the very life of God over inanimate objects that in comparison mean nothing. Jesus said, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33).
Putting first things first is moving into the beauty of God’s time!
This past Tuesday my alarm went off at 4:30 a.m. I had allowed myself only the briefest margin to get my things together that I would need for the day and get out the door arriving at the 5:00 a.m. early morning prayer. I didn’t want to keep any of the men who had come to prayer in waiting. I forgot to plug my cell phone in over night, so I was low on charge, but I thought, I’ll just grab my cell phone charger and plug it in after I arrive at church.
In the vestibule of our home is a truly prized possession. It is an old oak table that has been in our family for years. It is hand-carved, without a nail in it. It is beautiful, with spiraled meticulously carved legs. The sentimental value is even more than it’s worth as an antique. It is the table that my father served The Lord’s Supper on in my youth. My first communion was celebrated at this table.
So, with that picture in mind, see me in my hurried state of affair. I am now ready to exit our house. I grab the charger and charge for the door, when suddenly I am stopped in my tracks. I felt a tug coming from behind. I looked behind to discover my phone cord had wrapped itself around one of the table legs on the antique oak table. With my hands full and not wanting to put everything down and take the time to carefully pull the cord away, wrap it up, and proceed out the door…I gently yanked the cord. Nothing happened. A little exasperated, I yanked harder. Now I could tell the cord was stuck somewhere. Oh, brother, now I was going to have to put everything down, get on my knees, find out the trouble, pick everything up…why this could cost me every bit of twenty seconds!
Descending to my knees, I discovered to my chagrin that the small end of my phone cord had lodged deep into the spiraled leg of the great oak table. I was in a hurry! I pulled, but to no avail. I could not get my finger into the spiral to push. Hopefully, what I say now will not mortify my wife or mother as they read these words; I (gulp) grabbed the nearest thing to my hand, a butter knife. My goal was to push the small plastic covered connection point out the other side into freedom. I did nothing of the sort. I managed to lodge more of the piece deeper into the oak spiral. I realized to use the butter knife any further was a risk of scratching a precious piece of furniture. I put the butter knife away, pulled a little more, and lodged it deeper yet.
What was I to do? I’m late now for prayer and the cord to give me a charge for the day is stuck. If I leave now, I’ll have to make an extra trip to retrieve my cord, which means more time wasted. I can stay here, miss prayer with the men and attend to this problem. As I sat there for just a moment longer, surmising my situation, I decided to leave for prayer. While en route to the prayer meeting and while praying, these thoughts came to mind about the rather comical comedy of errors I was accruing.
I. Haste makes waste.
That phrase has deservedly passed from being a cliché to being a maxim. As a rule, this is true! If I had taken the time to simply wind up my cord, I would not have lodged it in the table. If I had not proceeded to yank the cord, it would have not lodged deeper. If had not tried to make a tool out of the butter knife, it would not have worsened. Every short cut I took was robbing me of more time.
This maxim applies to the more important things of life. I find that if I allow myself more time (which I am bad about not doing) and take the extra time to do things right, in the end, accomplishment is sweeter. Also, in the long run, more time is saved.
If an airplane mechanic gets in too much of a hurry, he may miss the subtle crack across the wing, which could bring the plane down. If a surgeon gets too hurried, he may stitch up a scalpel or sponge inside a patient, creating a new problem. Imagine what would happen if a seismologist hurriedly scans across the monitor and misses the earthquake in the ocean that could cause a tsunami.
Jesus said, "...Are there not twelve hours in the day?...." (John 11:9). The Bible also says, "For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth" (Psalm 103:14, 15). God knows who we are and how much time we have. He has designed us with the amount of time to get everything done (here’s the key) “in His time”. God’s time is so much better than our time.
II. Prayer and stillness unties knots!
When I settled down in prayer, after a good laugh on myself with my comrade in prayer, the simplest solution on how to remove the phone cord came to me. You may think I am kidding, but I believe the Lord will talk to you about little things as well as big things.
I cannot resist the opportunity to tell on Richard Sanchez at this point. After prayer, I announced a “eureka”. I explained that I thought the Lord had revealed to me how to remove the cord. Richard gave me another explanation on how to do it. My gut feeling was to go with my new plan. But I thought, who am I? Richard knows more than I about this stuff. I nearly tore the cord up doing it Richard’s way. When I stopped and tried the method that came to me in prayer, it popped right out without any further harm to the cord, and to my wife’s relief, none to the table!
I had a little fun with Richard over this matter. The next time we talked, I expressed thanks for helping me with advice that nearly destroyed my phone cord. Although we had a good laugh, there is a serious reminder for all of us. Prayer is so much more than a session with God. It is during the stillness that answers often come and hard knots are untied. "Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?" (Isaiah 58:6). In the extreme prayer of fasting, God promises to lose our bands, lifting of heavy burdens, and every yoke broken. "Be still, and know that I am God...." (Psalm 46:10).
III. Put first things first.
You know what was more important than getting my problem solved immediately? Prayer and obligation to friendships. Praying was more important than improvising with a new technique that may free up a silly wire covered by plastic. Prayer is time with God! Everything I was doing could easily wait until I had prayed. Also, there was someone waiting to pray with me. Friendships and commitments to those friends are more important than getting things done in my time. "Thine own friend, and thy father's friend, forsake not...." (Proverbs 27:10). Let us not sacrifice friendships, brothers and sisters animated with the very life of God over inanimate objects that in comparison mean nothing. Jesus said, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33).
Putting first things first is moving into the beauty of God’s time!
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
patience...
do i really have what it takes to wait?
but as the LORD says, wait upon Me
and run with patience the race that is set before us
i don't really know what lies ahead
but He will answer in His time.
it will all work out for good to those that trust Him
to be in the centre of His will
3 major issues at hand
i surrender all LORD
i can't contain it inside anymore
Your will be done and Your plan be carried out
i would rather lose all that i desire than to be a step away from the centre of Your will
LORD, show me clear directions
that i do not lose focus of what You have called us to do
You know... i know You do, and more importantly, You understand
if only...if only
do i really have what it takes to wait?
but as the LORD says, wait upon Me
and run with patience the race that is set before us
i don't really know what lies ahead
but He will answer in His time.
it will all work out for good to those that trust Him
to be in the centre of His will
3 major issues at hand
i surrender all LORD
i can't contain it inside anymore
Your will be done and Your plan be carried out
i would rather lose all that i desire than to be a step away from the centre of Your will
LORD, show me clear directions
that i do not lose focus of what You have called us to do
You know... i know You do, and more importantly, You understand
if only...if only
Monday, February 23, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
I wish
funny how things have changed since then
someone just doesn't know it yet... and life goes on...
someone just doesn't know it yet... and life goes on...
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Is this how life in the working world feels like? Maybe now i do understand it better...
Work is enjoyable, but yet...
And i actually can't belive i would say this...I miss school!
Forgotten how it feels like to sit at the windy benches to mug or just to talk, laugh, eat and relax.
Oh...the naiveness of it all...
Work is enjoyable, but yet...
And i actually can't belive i would say this...I miss school!
Forgotten how it feels like to sit at the windy benches to mug or just to talk, laugh, eat and relax.
Oh...the naiveness of it all...
Friends
Audrey,
I doubt you will see this, but anyway, thanks for being a blessing to me in many ways. And all the best in Melbourne. Love ya and take care. Will miss ya!
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
2 Cor 12:7-10
And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
Monday, February 09, 2009
The Teaching of Adversity
In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world —John 16:33
The typical view of the Christian life is that it means being delivered from all adversity. But it actually means being delivered in adversity, which is something very different. "He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling . . ." ( Psalm 91:1,10 )— the place where you are at one with God.
If you are a child of God, you will certainly encounter adversities, but Jesus says you should not be surprised when they come. "In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." He is saying, "There is nothing for you to fear." The same people who refused to talk about their adversities before they were saved often complain and worry after being born again because they have the wrong idea of what it means to live the life of a saint.
God does not give us overcoming life— He gives us life as we overcome. The strain of life is what builds our strength. If there is no strain, there will be no strength. Are you asking God to give you life, liberty, and joy? He cannot, unless you are willing to accept the strain. And once you face the strain, you will immediately get the strength. Overcome your own timidity and take the first step. Then God will give you nourishment— "To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life . . ." (Revelation 2:7 ). If you completely give of yourself physically, you become exhausted. But when you give of yourself spiritually, you get more strength. God never gives us strength for tomorrow, or for the next hour, but only for the strain of the moment. Our temptation is to face adversities from the standpoint of our own common sense. But a saint can "be of good cheer" even when seemingly defeated by adversities, because victory is absurdly impossible to everyone, except God.
Oswald Chambers
Thank God for the friend who sent this to me.
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Psalm 36:9 For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.
With God, we may have life more abundant and free, for He sent His son that we may live. He is the source of hope. God's love shines forth so bright, that with Him, there is light at the end of every tunner, a ray of hope at the end of every trial.
God's purposes are often hidden from us. He owes us no explanation. We owe Him our complete love and trust.
Amen to that....
With God, we may have life more abundant and free, for He sent His son that we may live. He is the source of hope. God's love shines forth so bright, that with Him, there is light at the end of every tunner, a ray of hope at the end of every trial.
God's purposes are often hidden from us. He owes us no explanation. We owe Him our complete love and trust.
Amen to that....
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
"We must love the Giver and not the gifts; for to love the gifts and not the Giver is the essence of idolatry."
Is our faith a commercial one? This quote speaks volumes.
People think they know me...but they don't. And its kinda hard being myself sometimes...
I guess they see someone on the surface, but within me, i'm just different yeah?
Is our faith a commercial one? This quote speaks volumes.
People think they know me...but they don't. And its kinda hard being myself sometimes...
I guess they see someone on the surface, but within me, i'm just different yeah?
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