God spoke

Psalm 46

God the Refuge of His People and Conqueror of the Nations

God is our refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble.
² Therefore we will not fear,
Even though the earth be removed,
And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;

³ Though its waters roar and be troubled,
Though the mountains shake with its swelling.

⁴ There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God,
The holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High.

⁵ God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved;
God shall help her, just at the break of dawn.

⁶ The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved;
He uttered His voice, the earth melted.

⁷ The Lord of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our refuge.

⁸ Come, behold the works of the Lord,
Who has made desolations in the earth.

⁹ He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two;
He burns the chariot in the fire.

¹⁰ Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!

¹¹ The Lord of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our refuge

Life as a soldier

Finally POP-ed after 9 weeks in BMT and got posted to SCS instead of OCS.
Life as a soldier these 9 weeks had not been easy. Was not only challenged physically but mentally and emotionally as well and the thoughts of giving up often came to my mind, gotta push through it time and time again. Nonetheless, happy POP to myself! Time to move on to Phase 2 of my army life in SCS. 2012 will probably the most challenging year yet...

NS

Its exactly 7 days from my NS enlistment. Having a bit of mixed feelings, not going to be an easy journey but believing God it will all go according to His plan.

Whole new phase of life...

Confused

So much to say, too little words...

SOT 2011

It has been an unforgettable 6 months in SOT 2011. Many things happened in the past 6 months that has been life changing for me.

1) Reading 66 books of the Bible
2) 10 Sermon outlines
3) 10 Book reviews
4) 2 Mission trips
5) 13 Exam papers
6) Water Baptism
7) SOT Band
8) Emerge Live Jam
9) Playing for Graduation Service
10) Preaching
11) Knowing many great friends and people of God

God has been real good to me and I'm thankful for Him for these past 6 months. The real test starts now after SOT, for greater things have yet to come, greater things are still to be done.

It’s Lonely at the Top (or is it?)

Taken from http://faithparley.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/its-lonely-at-the-top-or-is-it/


It’s lonely at the top. That’s what they say anyway.

While that’s a reality for the majority of leaders (especially in the church), I’m not so sure it’s supposed to be that way. The greatest joy I have as a leader is the fact that I get to serve with guys that I just love to be around. They’re some of my best friends. It’s not forced. It’s not always “professional”. And it’s not draining. Unfortunately, I’m in the silent minority. So what do you do if you find yourself leading in isolation?

Michael Hyatt, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Thomas Nelson Publishers, wrote some pretty insightful stuff about this on his BLOG, “Intentional Leadership“. His suggested starting point: Be the friend you wish you had. That makes complete sense to me. Leaders often forget what it’s like to be normal. Many times creating a “world” around them that serves them and exists for their own agenda. They are around people who “perform” for them so much, they forget how to be a friend themselves.

Here’s what he wrote:

Recently, I read that 70% of pastors don’t have any close personal friends. I have quoted this figure publicly and several pastors have confided to me that it is true for them. They admitted that they don’t have any close personal friends. This made me very sad. I think it is also true of CEOs and other leaders as well.

Why is this true?

I know that for years, I didn’t think I needed any close friends. I assumed that my colleagues at work and the people I went to church with were enough. I finally woke up the fact that I didn’t really have any close personal friends. All of them were either dependent on me in some way or simply acquaintances.

Since that time, I have been much, much more intentional about friendships. In fact, this is one of the “accounts” in my Life Plan. I have several great friends, most of whom live in my neighborhood. We get together on a regular basis and support and encourage one another.

When I mentioned this in a talk I gave recently at Catalyst West, one brave soul asked, “But what if you don’t have any friends? Where do you start?”

My answer? Be to others the friend you wish you had. It’s that simple.

For example, here are the characteristics I look for in a close friend. I want someone who …

Shows up for me when I am in a crisis.
Listens empathetically without judging.
Is willing to pitch in when I am too embarrassed to ask.
Affirms me when I doubt myself.
Reminds me of who I am, when I forget.
Celebrates my wins and mourns my losses.
Remembers the things that are important to me.
Trusts me with their secrets.

Do you wish you had that kind of friend? Well, God says that you reap what you sow (e.g., see Galatians 6:7).

If you want this kind of friend in your life, then go BE this kind of friend to others. You might be surprised to see what happens.

Reflections: I'm able to relate so much to this post. Many of times I wonder where are my close friends or do I even have any to begin with. In the past, I felt that I had geniune friendships/relationships with people, however, as I begin to go higher, relationships tend to drift into "religious relationships"(relationships that fulfils religious duities).

After reading this post, it made me see relationships at a different level. Learn to Be to others the friend you wish you had!

Spiritual Diary of DC class (21 Jan 2011)

Joshua:
Hi Amber,
From yesterday's discipleship class, it was really a "wake up call" for me. Reflecting on myself, on my leadership the way I lead my Christian walk. I realised that many of times I failed being a good shephard not knowing my sheeps well and not loving them as much as a good shepherd should and I repented from that. As what you've told me about love will compell me to do things to love people, sometimes I find it hard to love people, I just don't know why but I pray with my heart that God will change me to really love people genuinely its still an area that I really need a breakthrough in. This has also lead me to think about being a cell group leader whether am I fit enough to be leading and loving a group of people because I'm afraid that if I take up a group I'll be a hireling rather than a good shepherd and their lives are in my hands, however, I will not give upon my dreams and keep on working hard and loving God and people. :D

Best Regards,
Joshua

Amber's Response:
Dear Josh...

Love compels.. I really hope that this is a year where you can really have breakthru in this area. You need to WANT to care for your sheep and have revelation on what you are doing. But you must also know that love is a fruit of holy spirit and fruit meaning it takes time to develop. You need to surrender more of your life to Holy Spirit and the fruit will develop over time. Obedience is a good way to surrender and develop fruits.

Also you must learn to be pastoral to your pple. Care for them and treat them like your own. Everytime I will always ask myself this question. For eg. What would Jesus do if he knows that Joshua is having FYP? The what whould Jesus do question works for me. So maybe you can make it a habit in your life too...

Jia you in God!
Amber

Follow Me

It kept repeating in my mind these 2 words, "Follow Me" for the past few weeks and it reminded me of the story in Matthew 4:18-22 whereby Jesus approached Simon Peter and Andrew and He asked them to follow Him. Both of the brothers immediately left their nets and followed Jesus (Matthew 4:20).

Jesus didn't persuade them to follow him. He just simply asked them to follow him and they left everything behind and followed Jesus. Following Jesus is a choice and a decision you've to make and there are bound to have Crisis in this walk and whenever there is a crisis do not neglect Christ for He was the one who approved it to happen on us to reveal our true self.

Today while praying I have decided to follow Jesus wholeheartedly. There are also a few things on my mind now.

1) Republic Polytechnic Campus Ministry: Build a core foundation, Revival in RP. 2) W320: Unity in the cell group, Cg members to be more spiritual & mature, better relationship with Cg members. 3) Personal Life: Consistent prayer life and bible reading. I really pray for God's will to be in these areas of my life and I hope I'll be able to achieve it. Amen.

Inspirational talk by Steve Jobs

Discipleship class Assignment

After reading the chapter, I realised that Faith & Evangelism works hand in hand. Our Christian walk is all about faith and it is impossible to follow Jesus without having faith. Therefore, in Mark 16:16 it states that He who believes will be saved and evangelism plays a big role in it. Previously, I thought evangelism was just about reaching out to others to meet their needs and heal their hurts and getting them to know Christ through us, however, after reading this chapter I realise that evangelism is not only about that but it is to cultivate faith in the hearts of people but in order for that to happen we ourselves have to have real faith. Faith acts like a disease; contagious. It is first caught by you and then taught to others, this is when true evangelism takes place.

I remembered once, my school facilitator gave us this Reflection Journal question which I found interesting, he asked: “What is the difference between a concept and an implementation”, so while reading the chapter about Faith and Believe it came into my mind that Faith is a concept while Believe is an implementation. In the bible it states that Faith without works is dead. Therefore, if you have faith but have not believe (requires work), the faith is dead and while we believe we are also witnessing.

Jesus is not someone we heard about or know about but He is someone that we are knowing and experiencing in our lives daily, for He is with us always (Matt 28:20). Christianity is not a religion but it’s a relationship as Jesus is life and the characteristics of life is reproduction and adaptation and the bible is the Living Word of God, the Church don’t preserve the Bible, but it is the bible that preserves the Church. Living things doesn’t need to be preserved; only the dead things are preserved.

We as Christians our role is to preach the gospel of Christ. The gospel is the good news, therefore, if we keep news to ourselves it is not news at all; the gospel must be preached! Preaching must be a believing act which is fully dependent of God as the truth of Christ is like a seed, without faith it is seed that has never been fertilized and the gospel is unable to blossom unless it’s preached with faith. There are also 2 different kinds of faith that I learnt, active and passive faith and evangelism requires active believing. It is testifying, witnessing, seeing, knowing and doing.

As we know that God is faithful. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. He is always what He says he is. I’ve got this revelation that God never changes, however, change is the only constant in life so why we do we still say that God never changes and He is the same yesterday, today and forever? Well, I believe that when they say God never changes, it meant the heart, nature and the character of God never changes. He is consistent with what He does and He does what He says He will.

We may look at the Bible in many ways, but it is God’s revelation of who He is, what He is, and what we can expect of Him. The better we understand the Bible, the better we understand God. I also read that when God wants to do a certain thing, He will inspire prayer which is also in line with our City Harvest DNA which is prayer. Without prayer is like not drinking spiritually, as Christians we have to pray. People need the gospel and this need creates a need in the heart of God to send us the gospel. God knows our needs and He wants to meet them.

In conclusion, we are either relevant or irrelevant to God’s work and in order for us to be relevant we need to relate to what the Holy Spirit is doing and follow Jesus where He goes you will go as well.