Friday, October 22, 2004

The Costliest Thing

This poem is found in Joshua Harris' book, "I Kissed Dating Goodbye".
This is such a well written poem. It makes me, as a man, have to reevaluate myself.

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Do you know that you have asked for the costliest thing
Ever made by the Hand above?
A woman's heart, and a woman's life -
And a woman's wonderful love

Do you know you have asked for the priceless thing
As a child might ask for a toy?
Demanding what others have died to win,
With the reckless dash of a boy.

You have written my lesson of duty out,
Manlike, you have questioned me.
Now stand at the bars of my woman's soul
Until I shall question thee.

You require your mutton shall always be hot.
Your socks and your shirt be whole;
I require your heart be true as God's stars
And as pure as His heaven your soul.

You require a cook for your mutton and beef,
I require a far greater thing;
A seamstress you're wanting for socks and shirts -
I look for a man and a king

A king for the beautiful realm called Home,
And a man that His Maker, God,
Shall look upon as He did on the first
And say: " It is very good."

I am fair and young, but the rose may fade
From this soft young cheek one day;
Will you love me then 'mid the falling leaves,
As you did 'mong the blossoms of May?
Is your heart an ocean so strong and true,
I may launch my all on its tide?

A loving woman finds heaven or hell
On the day she is made a bride.
I require all things that are grand and true,
All things that a man should be;

If you give this all,
I would stake my life
To be all you demand of me

If you cannot be this,
a laundress and cook
You can hire and little to pay;
But a woman's heart and a woman's life
Are not to be won that way.

Thursday, October 7, 2004

Romans 7:15

What a struggle to know what it is I should be doing but find that I am not doing it. It is a very frustrating place to be!

I have heard it said that, "The enemy of a great life is a good life". Today, I was reading the book "Drawing Near" by John Bevere and he gave the example of a person who has just eaten a rather mediocre meal and then is offerred a free 10* first-class banquet. This man will not enjoy the banquet as he is already satisfied from his mediocre meal.
I am satisfied with my average life and so am not striving for the excellent life that God has predestined for me. The Lord did not name me Joseph (after Joseph, son of Israel, of Genesis) that I will live a mediocre life. He has intended that I rise up and shine His glory far and wide. But to achieve such, there needs to be a partnership from me and I have a portion to play. I have been very lethargic and uninspired to move pay the necessary price to move ahead in His planned path to greatness.

Lord, I want to rise up. Help me to be unsatisfied with the life that I now have so that I will have an impetus to strive and struggle for the excellent life that You have called me to!

Thursday, June 3, 2004

Is She Worth It?

An interesting write-up that I agree with
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She sat quietly for a moment before looking him in the eye and asking "Do you really want to know?" Reluctantly, he said "Yes." She began to expound...

"As a woman in this day and age, I am in a position to ask a man what he can do for me that I can't do for myself. I pay my own bills. I take care of my household without the help of any man...or woman for that matter. I am in the position to ask, "What can you bring to the table?"

The man looked at her. Clearly he thought that she was referring to money. She quickly corrected his thought and state, "I am not referring to money. "I need something more. I need a man who is striving for perfection in every aspect of life. "

He sat back in his chair, folded his arms, and asked her to explain. She said
"I am looking for someone who is striving for perfection mentally because I need conversation and mental stimulation. I don't need a simple-minded man.
I am looking for someone who is striving for perfection spiritually because I don't need to be unequally yoked.. believers mixed with unbelievers is a recipe for disaster.
I need a man who is striving for perfection financially because I don't need a financial burden.
I am looking for someone who is sensitive enough to understand what I go through as a woman, but strong enough to keep me grounded.
I am looking for someone who I can respect. In order to be submissive, I must respect him. I cannot be submissive to a man who isn't taking care of his business. I have no problem being submissive...he just has to be worthy.

God made woman to be a help mate for man. I can't help a man if he can't help himself. "When she finished her spill, she looked at him. He sat there with a puzzled look on his face. He said, "You are asking a lot."

She replied, "I'm worth a lot."

Sunday, April 25, 2004

Wedding MC

Tonight I had the absolute privelege of being the MC for a good friend's wedding reception. Not having done any MCing before, I was rather stressed out. Especially coz I wasn't really prepared. I didn't have my script written out, nor any toast, no jokes, nothing. All I had was the program and a set of wedding /marriage quotes that I had downloaded. I totally felt that I didn't have enough material to last the whole 45 mins. The groom gave me some good advice. "It takes only 2 seconds, after that it will be plain sailing."

The program was supposed to start at 1915. Dinner to commence at 2000. Taking into account IST (Indian Standard Time), we started on time at 1945ish. Since we were already late, I didn't have time to do any talking. Each time all I did was give a quote, share a piece of information about the bride and groom and the invite the next speaker.

After the B&G finished their speech, I held them back for a sabo session. Basically we asked them a set of questions and wanted to know if their answers matched. If they didn't, he had to lose something he was wearing. It was so terrible that he only got 4 out of 14 questions wrong!

At the end of the day, everybody was like "Fantastic job, man!", "Well done!"

Self revelation point - I always want to talk too much!

PS - the groom was wrong! It took 5 seconds !

Wednesday, April 14, 2004

Blackout

How exciting! Last night, while watching "Meet My Folks", we had a brown out! The lights went off and the fan powered down. After about 3 seconds, it all came back.

Not 5 minutes later, we had a full blown blackout. It was really interesting to see the neighbours all start coming out of their houses in their sleep attire to find that it was not only their own place.

I msged a few people and found out that even Yew Tee had a blackout. So FUN!!!

I took a cold shower and then went to the shop downstairs to get some candles. I realised that we had taken the availability of power for granted that we didn't have any candles or torchlights around. The shopkeeper had already moved his candle supply to the front of the shop.

I came back, lit a candle, took up my guitar and played softly. So romantic! So alone. )c:

The power came back within 30 mins and we all went back to our usual lives and I got to catch Boston Public!

Saturday, April 10, 2004

CITYkids @ Sentosa

Today, all the teachers and children that could remember and recite the whole Tabernacle lesson, we went to Sentosa. What a fantastic day it was.

We all met at my container as the South Transept Hall was being used for the Good Friday service overflow. As the children came, some of the children and a couple of the teachers took their test.

Joel and Peirce tested Lydia while Jonathan was tested by Joel (I think). They both passed but it must have been really stressful to be tested by the kids. As for the kids, Faith Chew and Jie Xun were tested and both passed. So our final tally of "Tabernacle Qualified" people was 10 adults and 19 children. I think that this is amazing! Included to this group were the accompanying adults and the parents. It was a large group of about 37 people.

The plan was to get to Sentosa and get onto the monorail ASAP so that we could make the 11 am dolphin show. Unfortunately, we were late and missed it. So we bought our tickets anyway and decided to be back for the 3:30 show.

We all moved to the beach train stop and waited for almost 30 mins before the train came. Thankfully the train was empty and all of us were able to troop into it. The time spent waiting was a good time of just playing and getting to know the children individually.

The beach train was a long ride all the way to the other end of the beach. We were all happily waving at all the passers-by and then commenting on their lack of response. The big boys started this C-O-C-O-N-U-T song. It was all rather funny.

At the other end, we met the guy bringing the food and we all sat down in a copse of trees and ate. We used the solid cement dustbins as a platform to place the drinks, and the food was placed on the floor a-la buffet. Quite an experience. The after lunch desert was a short trip to the beach.

Next stop was the Underwater world. I must say that I was again awed by the diversity of God's creation. The sheer size of the fish was amazing.

We all trooped out of Underwater world, boarded the red line bus and dashed to the dolphin lagoon. We barely made the show. The show wasn't half bad! It was new to me to see pink dolphins. I always thought it was a drink!

After the show, we were all treated to an ice cream each. We all ate our ice creams as we walked along the beach toward the Palawan Beach monorail. There was a monkey show there but we JUST missed it. Seeing the size of our group and the number of children with us, one of the trainers very kindly did a few tricks just for us. He even gave us some time to take photos with the monkey. Her name was Sakura.

The group then split up and made our own ways to the Ferry terminal. Many others and I decided to walk. I picked up Joey and carried her on my shoulders and we walked. We had a chance to talk a bit and that was really fun. Our group was the first at the ferry terminal.

While waiting for the rest we were all chatting and making noise. Suddenly, Joey rapped out the words to "The Lord’s my shepherd". She is really good and she is only in P1 too. What potential. I can't wait for her to start serving in the worship ministry.

When all the others arrived, we had dinner at burger king. Getting the orders and delivering was a challenge. 14 Mushrooms, 3 chicken sandwiches, 6 fish sandwiches and 2 whoppers, 6 fries and 5 rings!

After dinner, we all took a walk to the sky tower. I got Joey on my shoulders again but this time was hard as it was uphill. The view from the sky tower was amazing! We could see into Singapore and all the way out to the horizon on the other side. Fantastic. A little later and we may have caught the sunset. That would have been great.

After the breathtaking view, we all trooped back down to the musical fountain and were treated to a beautiful display of lights, lasers and water. There was even fireballs being spit out of the water. Two kids and myself were sitting on the front row and we could REALLY feel the heat from the fire.

We slowly made our way through the oozing crowd and arrived at our final meeting point of the day, The Visitors’ Arrival Centre. We closed in prayer, assigned the people to the cars and we made our way home. Me, being the van driver, got the largest group. I drove all the way to Pasir Ris and then ended up at Bedok, where some of my cell members were.

A really exciting and tiring day, but being me, tired was no barrier.

Wednesday, April 7, 2004

Where Are We Going?

What would be the greatest disservice that man can do for his prospective mate?

Some may say being unfaithful or yet, being untruthful. I think the greatest disservice that a man can do for his mate (for that matter, himself) is to not know himself.

Who does God say I am? Who do I say I am? What is God's vision for me? What are my ambitions? Without having first sought the answers for these fundamental questions how can I be all that I am to be ?

The man's role in the relationship is to captain the ship. To steer the ship and to set its course, the captain must first know where the ship is supposed to go. How do you plot a course to nowhere? An important consideration would be, "Who owns the ship?" Where the ship is to go is determined by the owner of the ship. If I own the ship, where do I want it to go? If I don't own the ship, where does the owner want this ship to go? As the captain, I should want to go where the ship's owner wants it to go. If I keep steering the ship in a different direction than that set by the owner, I won't be the captain of this ship for too long. In both the above situations, as captain, I still need to know where the ship is going. So who owns this ship?

As a Christian, God owns my ship. He bought it with His own blood. So, where does He want it to go? Am I now taking it there? There will come a time that the captain may take on crew, starting with the captain's mate. Hopefully, the mate already knows where she wants to go and then all she needs to do is to find out where the ship is going. If it is going her way, then she can sign on. But how will she know if the captain doesn't know himself? How does he tell her what he doesn't yet know?

Tuesday, March 9, 2004

Church Structure

On the way home from watching a really crappy show today, Brian and I struck up a rather heated conversation over church structure and organisation. Was there a need for a hierarchical structure in church? Is it even biblical to have such a structure?

In many churches around the world, the way church is being run is likened very much to a business. With the clergy being akin to CEOs. In some cases, it is even likened to an army, with ranks and officers etc.

Though both of these forms of structure have their advantages, the basis of the structure may be a little skewed.

Biblically, we know that God gives structure. The family is in itself a hierarchical structure, the nation of Israel was a kingdom with God (initially) as their King and later the whole line of kings beginning with Saul. The early church in Acts shows evidence of the church elders and the apostles as leaders of the church. So hierarchical structure is definitely from God and so I itself it is good. What then should be the basis of the structure?

Why should I defer to your judgment? Why should I listen to what you say? What right do I have to tell you what to do? The basis of all church structure should be accountability. Not rank. Not seniority.

In the family, the husband is the leader because he is accountable to God for his family. He leads his wife and she is accountable to him for her actions. The children are accountable to their parents and are so of a 'lower rank' to them. The kings of Israel were accountable to God for the nation and the apostles were leaders because they were accountable for the rest of the body of Christ.

Church structure should be borne out of accountability. At Praise Fellowship, my prayer triplet members are accountable to me as their prayer triplet leader. I am accountable to my cell leader and she is accountable to the zone supervisor, who is in turn accountable to Pastor. The leader is also accountable to the follower. Accountable to lead. I am willingly accountable to my cell leader because of the relationship that we have forged over the past years.

So, hierarchy, organisation and structure are needed in church for the smooth running of events. This should be based on a structure for accountability and accountability is grown from a relationship with others.

Saturday, March 6, 2004

Is it Normal?

This morning, I had breakfast with Breana. I had my much awaited Hotcakes meal for breakfast.

During the meal, the question, "Why is it the norm for newlyweds to move out of their parents houses and go live in their own houses?" came up. It is an interesting question and one worth some thought.

I had always based my view on Gen 2:24 - "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh".

I felt that this verse also suggested the need for a physical leaving of the parents.

The verse definitely implies a change of allegience from parent to spouse. It also points to new leadership and responsibility for the new family.

For the man, there is a need for him to stand up and take up the role of leading his family. there needs to be a breaking away from the old leadership of his own father and so become the leader of his own faimily unit. He needs to establish his own set of rules and regulations, which may be radically diferent from that of his own parents. He will need to step up to the responsibility.

For the woman, there is a change of accountability from that to her parents to her husband. She is, to a very large extent, no longer part of her old family but is wholly part of her new family. This is the reason that the bride is "given" to the groom.

Yet there is a need for obedience to the 5th commandment of honouring our parents. Therefore, if there may be circumstances that favour staying with one of the parents rather than moving out on their own, what to do?

Living in the same house with someone will take getting used to. Husband needs to adjust to wife, wife needs to adjust to husband. Add to the mix of having to adjust to the in-laws can make the whole experience that much more challenging. This is where both the spouse and the in-laws will need to come to an understanding and boundaries need to be drawn.

There is always the danger of the child-of-the-house being caught in the middle between the spouse and in-laws. This would be a very very stressful place to be.

If the tension between the parties involved get too high, in the interest of preserving the relationship, there may be a need for the younger famnily unit to strike out on its own. Constant friction can lead to "carpet burns".

I personally feel, that having the grandparents and the grnadchildren, 3 or 4 generations, all living together under the same roof is the ideal case. That is what I would like to see in my future family.

Monday, February 23, 2004

The 2 Commandments

What a revelation!!!

The 2 Commandments of Chirst (love God and love your neighbour as yourself) are foundational in a Christian life. I just realsied that I can make decisions rather easily if I were to ask the 2 questions:

  1. How does this affect my relationship with God?
  2. How does it affect my relationship with my neighbour?

Honest answers to these 2 questions can make life easier to handle. The catch for me is to apply it.