posted by ~*~VaNeSsA~*~ -- 5:26 p.m. (0) comments
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Excerpt taken from Our Daily Bread Devotional...
passage: Daniel 3:8-18
Through the centuries, some of God's servants have faced the possibility of an agonizing death unless they renounced their faith. They knew that God could deliver them, but they also knew that in keeping with His own purposes He might not answer their pleas for supernatural help.
In the book of Daniel, three young Hebrew captives faced a life-and-death choice: Worship the king's gold image or be thrown into the fiery furnace. Their response was unhesitating: "Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace." They added, "But if not, . . . we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up" (Daniel 3:17-18).
But if not! Those words challenge our allegiance. Suppose we face crippling disease. Suppose we are facing shameful disgrace. Suppose we are facing painful loss. We plead for God's intervention, yet in every threatening circumstance our plea should carry the proviso, "But if not!"
Is our attitude that of Jesus in Gethsemane? "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will" (Matthew 26:39).
Are we willing to endure whatever will glorify God and work out His holy purposes? —Vernon Grounds
They climbed the steep ascent of heaven
Through peril, toil, and pain:
O God, to us may grace be given
To follow in their train. —Heber
----
hmmm... i wonder if i do that in my prayers... "but if not"... am i willing to endure whatever will glorify God and work out His holy purposes? it's a hard concept to grasp and even harder to live out... do we as normal people constantly have God at the center of our hearts? Are we developing the mindset that everything that relates to us -- every action, every thought, every feeling, every decision, every pain, every heartache, every relationship, every conversation -- everything -- should bring glory to God? i know this is definitely a challenge for me... are we praying unceasingly with passion, fervor, and faith in our God? How much are we willing to sacrifice to work out God's holy purposes? How well are we even working towards finding out what God wants of us daily? it's simple actually... God wants you. all of you.
posted by ~*~VaNeSsA~*~ -- 9:31 a.m. (0) comments
Monday, October 10, 2005
oh baby!! this is gonna be one longggggggggggg blog!!!! hehe :D
(taken from Sunday Service @ RHCCC, Pastor Sam Chan speaking)
God's Vision for the rest of your life -- Seeing with eyes of faith
context: Numbers 13:25 - 14:3
** Our Big Dream : God's People doing God's Purpose on God's Planet -- The Kingdom of God.
** Our Big Thanksgiving: The Eyes of Faith
- "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." [Heb. 11:1]
- "I pray also that the eys of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints." [Eph. 1:18]
wow.... as i just think upon that... it completely blows my mind.... that i might know part of the riches of God's inheritance...i can barely wrap my small feeble mind around it...
A. Seeing with Eyes of Fear
1. We overestimate our difficulties. [Num 13: 31-32]
I can't even count the many times that i've thought this... in the relationships God has blessed me with, in the ministries around me.... and most often in my own stubborn heart....
2. We underestimate what God can do.
dang... it's true... i think that sometimes i get so attatched to the pain in this world that i do indeed end up underestimating what God can do... God never said that pain wouldn't hurt...but He does claim to be our Almighty God... i guess i keep having this distorted view because i'm seeing everything from my own eyes of fear....
* My problem is the way I see my problem.
3 Tragic Results: [Numbers 14:1-3]
DISCOURAGEMENT -- DISCONTENT -- DESPAIR
i dont' even have to elaborate about this.... it's so true....
B. Seeing with Eyes of Faith
1. We become confident and thankful.
not confidence in ourselves, but in God. I can see when peopel around me are confident of our God and it's so uplifting...
2. We will receive God's power.
"You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you, O Judah and Jersusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the LORD will be with you." -- 2 Chr. 20: 17
Ask God for the eyes of faith... He always makes it available for us...
people with eyes of faith --> "Who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good." -- Titus 2:14
----
gosh.... i'm thinking now... and does every aspect of my life reflect that I belong to God and that I am always eager to do what is good? i cannot truthfully say that I am always eager to do what is good... and many a time i have the stupid eyes of fear blurring my vision... God, i surrender my life to you...
----
on another note.... AHHHHH girls are so cool!!!! LOL didn't realize how much i miss hanging around with girls... awww.... that sounds so sad... but it's true =P i'm thankful for all my girls... you mean a lot to me... thanks for taking the time to point out things in my life that just need attention...
----
next random topic : lol... Sunday School!!!
oooooo...it was SOOO good!!!! oh yeah!! awww...i really miss goin to sunday skool... yesterday's Sunday skool talked about Spiritual Gifts... and just sitting in that one class was so amazing... i really got to learn more about myself as well as others in the body of Christ.. it's true.. in order to work well with each other, we should know each other well and be able to acknowledge each other's gift(s)... haha... and the pastor was saying that knowing your spouse's gift will really help your relationship... hehe..but i haven't gotten to that stage yet... lol.... it's cool though.... not only did the pastor talk about what type of characteristics a person would have with each specific motivational gift, but he also talked about the gift's misunderstandings, dangers, and abuses.... as i reflected more about it... I realized that I really gotta pray hard that i will not abuse what God has given me....
----
home was sooooooooooo awesome!!!!! and already just 3 short hours of beign in waterloo has gotten me homesick... it reminds me of last term all over again.... cuz each time i went back to loo after a weekend inRhill, i always got a bit homesick.... oh well... it's okay =P i'm so thankful for my family... they really do support me.... and i found that this time back, i really do feel so much encouraged, from my parents and from my sister... it's cool to know that your parents are praying for you... and even though i may not share much about my life here in waterloo, i am encouraged by their continual support and love... hehe... and for them telling me how I've grown over the years... eeesh.. they're such good people... :D yeah... i have seen them change too.. especially since i entered university... God is so good... hehe...i took another card picture with Andrea this weekend *yay* and i discovered that we now have 2 fobs in the family... AIYA!!! my poor little sister listens to twins and edisen chen... while she does not even understand a word of cantonese... =P makes me laugh...she reminds me of myself...
----
how's that for a long blog??? =P
posted by ~*~VaNeSsA~*~ -- 7:11 p.m. (1) comments
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
God is sovereign.... hate the sin, love the sinner.... pray Pray PRAY!
deep within the shock of such unexpected news... times two... that is what i feel currently... wow..these thoughts are so incoherent...
i'm fine... my heart just feels very heavy....
posted by ~*~VaNeSsA~*~ -- 12:36 a.m. (0) comments
Monday, October 03, 2005
i think it's a record ---> 2 hr 30 min sleep time on friday, 4 hrs sleep time on saturday, and then a whopping 11 hrs of sleep on sunday for a grand total of 17 hrs and 30 mins of sleep over 3 days :D
i guess i'll start off with friday...
- Friday ---> went SWIMMING for the first time in 5 years..that was definitely really cool! i never realized how much I actually liked swimming. It was great though --> swimmng with Blanche and Betty... we did so many laps and by the end, we were all tired... :) what a good work out... After swimming, I returned home and started to study for my midterm that is today (monday)... i studied until it was time to go to ccf... I am always amazed and in awe of God's power... as my msn name suggests, it's been a full 8 months of earnest prayer and now, in the 9th month, God's answers to prayer are pouring out... it's awesome... words cannot describe what i feel now... prayer is so powerful... let me rephrase that, prayer to My Heavenly Father is so powerful... one thing I learned over the past fall retreat was to dream big... if you ask, God will give us bigger visions and dreams, far greater than the human mind can conceive... and when God answers, I know that it is not out of my own doing, but rather it is fully from the Lord.
- Saturday ---> woke up at 6:00 am after sleeping at 3:30 am... :) hehe..got fruit at St. Jacob's early in the morning!! lol... then off to retreat... i think in trying to summarize what happened over the retreat would take away from how God's presence was there.... there are things that are so hard to describe in words after it occurs, especially in the form of a blog... and in trying, it would not justify what actually happened... I will say that the Holy Spirit was dwelling within the the whole group of 30 some odd ccfers and ex-ccfers. I will also say this.... I am waiting in eager expectation at what the Lord is going to do in people's individual hearts, in CCF, on our campus....
- Sunday ---> there was some time alloted on sunday afternoon (30 mins) to personal conviction time... for the first 15 minutes, i just sat outside with me and God and looked over my prayer journal which i had started since August 2, 2004. Through those journal entries, I could reflect upon my spiritual journey since first year... in my prayer journal, I periodically check off prayer requests that have been answered... I took my pen and started to check any answers to pryaer from the beginning that i had not previously marked off... From August 2, 2004 to July 2005, I realized that i had only left about 5% of the prayers not checked off... whoa.... there are pages and pages of prayer requests in there... and i remember each time i write in the journal, each prayer request at the time seems so heavy... (can't really think of the right word here =P).. heavy in the sense that each situation seemed so desperate for God to overtake them... i sit and look back on it now... and DANG... i know that these things can only be accomplished supernaturally by God... that is SOOO cool... after going through my prayer journal, I continued to spend some good quality time with God... *yay* hehe :D i've been missing a bit of that recently... and it is sooo good to just BE with God... newayz... it's awesome when God affirms what He tells us earlier... in my case, He re-affirmed the vision He set for me specifically this term... It's a good feeling... --> knowing that you are exactly where God wants you to be.