GOD's Gifts

Heyz To everyone!!! Long time since I last blogged.. but now I have to write this entry because it has been in my mind ever since ZJ retreat..

well.. let me ask you something.. what are gifts to you? Is it a new handphone, a new game console or a new car etc.? Must gifts always be our expensive material things? Must it come with alot of $$$?

well.. let me give you two scenarios.. let's say someone give you a brand new ferrari car which costs a bomb and another one, just simply a birthday card filled with lots of love.. a bit of twist to add now.. imagine the person, after giving you the ferrari, goes around bragging, "HEY.. SEE THAT FERRARI!!! MAKE NO MISTAKE.. I GAVE HIM ONE!!!" Now, think about it, is there really sincerity in that realli expensive gift? Is the ferrari really considered a gift? Or is it simply a TOOL which helps him to proclaim his own fame and riches? Now think about the card.. make no mistake.. the card is purely filled with love!! But as humans as we are, we tend to overlook the card as we have other gifts which we consider are 'better'.. but then think again.. compare the ferrari and the card again.. what can buy ferrari? Well, it is money and money and more money.. but then what can buy love?? Money?! NEVER!! Love is priceless!! No doubt!!

so now.. sometimes we say and ask ourselves," GOD, where is my gift?" We often pray for what we want with much desire, and sometimes when we feel that the prayer is not answered as we don't get the result we wanted, we tend to question HIM again and again, asking him," Where is my gift?" But then, again and again, his love is like the card in the scenario, we tend to overlook HIS gift to us as we always look out for the result. but then in actual fact, HE is always and i mean it, always, granting us something which is PRICELESS! That wonderful and magnificient gift is LOVE! The gift is there, but do we choose to accept and unwrap it to feel HIS wonderful gift for us? Sometimes, we take HIS gifts for granted. We tend to continuously demand and demand for more gifts. But when we get it, did we really take time off to really thank HIM?

So my brothers and sisters, don't doubt God's gifts for us. He is always giving us gifts each new day. Even things like living another day on earth is a gift from HIM. So, let us keep our hearts open everyday and be mindful and thankful for all HIS gifts as HIS gifts are no ordinary ones but rather, it is a gift which is ordinary made extraordinary by HIM. Have faith and believe, for it is then you will see HIS marvellous gifts and works in you and also, how remarkable and loving HE really is!!

that ends my sharing, til next time, cyas! =)

-Jerry Alexander-

Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not
so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born
to eternal life.
Amen.



***



This was my favourite prayer as a girl. I don't know why, the words just spoke to me so profoundly and left such a deep impression on me ever since. And everytime we sang it in church (I used to go to SFX for Sunday Mass and I think that was where I sang this a lot), I got very happy. It was also one of the first hymns I learnt to play on the piano.

Today I found this prayer from my girlhood again in the prayer booklet someone left on the computer desk. And today I'm smiling as I sing the hymn to myself.

I want to be an instrument of God's peace again, to be a lot less selfish and self-centred. Oh, that He increases and I decrease in me!



*kelly.

hello my darlings!

it's a lovely Friday morning! i opened my eyes this morning to a slender beam of sunlight poking its way through the slit of my drawn curtains. and after staring up at the ceiling and blinking a few times, i realised that my eyes didn't hurt anymore. and when i saw myself in the mirror while brushing my teeth, i thanked God for making my eyes clear again, because when i'd gone to bed last night they were extremely swollen and red.

i've been feeling mighty uneasy of late. because it seems like a lot of what i want to do with my life in the near future is what i want to do and not what God wants me to do.
like even though i'm convinced i want to stay in hall in uni - that decision hasn't been sitting well with me at all. partially because my reasons for wanting to seem to be so wrong.
i WANT to stay because i want to get away from home and all associated with life now. but i know that that's just a false semblence of running away to what may seem like greener pastures at first sight.
i WANT to run away because it's tiring having to keep up a facade with everyone and i just want to drop all pretences for a while.
i WANT to drop my act because i don't feel good lying about things anymore. i'm starting to appear like 2 different people and it's scaring the crap out of me because i'm starting to think i'm potentially turning mildly schizophrenic. a bit like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, except that i'm not so extreme.
i don't want to keep worrying people who care about me and therefore i need to jolt myself out of this state. the last time i managed to forget, i did by running far far away.
but what does God want of me? seriously, i know very well all my wants and desires.. but i also WANT to know.. what does He want?

i was reading the Bible this morning and i chanced upon this which struck me so deeply.


Everything that happens in this world happens at the time God chooses.

He sets the time for birth and the time for death,
the time for planting and the time for pulling up,
the time for killing and the time for healing,
the time for tearing down and the time for building.
He sets the time for sorrow and the time for joy,
the time for mourning and the time for dancing,
the time for making love and the time for not making love,
the time for kissing and the time for not kissing.
He sets the time for finding and the time for losing,
the time for saving and the time for throwing away,
the time for tearing and the time for mending,
the time for silence and the time for talk.
H esets the time for love and the time for hate,
the time for war and the time for peace.

What do we gain from all our work? I know the heavy burdens that God has laid on us. He has set the right time for everything. He has given us a desire to know the future, but never gives us the satisfaction of fully understanding what he does... Whatever happens or can happen has already happened before. God makes the same thing happen again and again.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-15


Amen to that, man!

my unease is starting to turn into resent and it's very dangerous i realise. how can i be resentful that God has called me to do His work? i should be so so glad that He has chosen me. but nonetheless, resent is starting to brew inside of me and i'm glad i recognise it in me so i can do something - anything - about it. like turning to God in prayer frequently out of sheer discipline now, for example. i can no longer feel His presence, but i know of its truth because of past tangible experiences of it, and i hope that will be enough to sustain me through this time.


*kelly.

HAVE YOU THANK GOD FOR THE FOOD ON THE TABLE?

OR INSTEAD COMPLAINED ABOUT ITS TASTE?
HAVE YOU THANK GOD FOR THE COUNTLESS BLESSINGS HE GAVE YOU?
OR INSTEAD COMPLAINED ABOUT HAVING TOO LITLLE?

HAVE WE TAKE TIME TO APPRECIATE THE THINGS AROUND US?

( special thanks to per-anders pettersson for the photo)

God Among Us

Hello Universe! (:
Its time to catch up on the weeks of blogging that I missed. Well basically, last friday the most annoying thing happened to me - I fell into a hole and sprained my ankle. I hated it right from the start firstly becaused I had to limp to school as I fell before school even started! Secondly, I cannot run and jump around anymore!

But now as I live through this horrible thing for 6 days, I look back at all the little things that happened around me, the big and small stuff, frankly I tell you, God was truly present among the classmates back in school, the good friends at church, Zj , even strangers! I mean people always tell you that " God is among us, at home, at school or even at work!" but you know human nature always gets in the way and in the beginning you will doubt it. But when you truly experience it, it is then that you will say, yes its true! And so I'm saying it is really true!

Its true because I experience God's love through the many people around me. The concerned expressions on the faces of the teachers, the classmates or schoolmates who help me queue up to get food, the good friends at church who have to walk slowly with me from church to ah seah (: ! There are so many that I can mentioned but I remember 2 particular incident and these 2 struck me the most.

On monday, I remembered having to go home by taking the bus. Taking the bus is not a bad thing, but the bad thing is that you have to try to beat the crowd to get in the bus. I remembered standing with my schoolmate at the bus stop, and already the bus stop was packed with IJ girls. When 136 came, everyone rushed to stand in the front, flagging for the bus to stop infront of them, so they wouldn't have to squeeze later. I was in the front, and I remember flagging too, and as the bus approached I think the bus uncle saw my bandaged ankle, and he drove the bus really slowly till it came to a stop , right in front of me! (: And as I got up the bus, he asked me how was my leg and the way he had a tone of concern and it got me thinking, a stranger, a concerned voice, it was as though he knew me really well. But I never really thought that as God working through him till I spoke to one of my good friend, who said that it could be God's little work. (:

The second incident happened yesterday, I was walking to church and as I walked I complained to God about my day, having to meet with people who kept pushing me in the bus as though my ankle had no bandage. So as I walked to church I said to God, " there's no kind soul in this world eh God?" and as I walked down the over head bridge, this lady ( a stranger ), came up to me speaking chinese, asking me what happen to my ankle, whether I went to see a doc and she told me to take good care of myself and not to walk too much. And immediately I thought back about my little conversation with God about no kind soul in this world. And as I reflect back, that lady approaching me was God's little answer to me, that actually there are kind souls in this world.

Through all these I saw God's marvelous ways of working through the people around me,my family, friends, schoolmates and even strangers!
THANK YOU LORD!

HOW AMAZING THAT NO MAN CAN COMPREHEND

Till the next post, God Bless.
- julie

It's been 2 days since I got back from the ZJ retreat.
You know, I think I was expecting to resolve a lot of my own issues during the retreat, anticipating the silence and all the quiet time we were promised. And after 3 days of retreating from the world, I didn't walk out of the doors any more settled than when I'd walked in - and I immediately thought the retreat hadn't worked for me.
But on hindsight, how shallow I was! How selfish I was too!
From the start, I'd gone to the retreat with the mindset of settling MY issues, of solving MY problems.
Where was God in all the things I'd wanted to get out of the retreat?
Nowhere.

Now 2 days after, I don't feel like a changed person or anything. Certainly not like Moses who went into the desert and had God speaking to him very obviously in the form of the burning bush. In fact, my immediate thought was that God hadn't spoken to me at all in the 2 and a half days spent in silence.
But maybe.. Maybe God just wanted to tell me to quit worrying and just leave everything to Him, as I had decided a few weekends ago. And I don't know if I have truly managed to cast all my burdens aside, but I can tell you with all honesty that right now at this very point in time, I am absolutely unperturbed by what was bothering me a few days ago. I know it's still there, the problem - since no resolution's been reached as of yet - but I'm not unduly upset or frustrated anymore. It's kinda like seeing a bee fly around your head, knowing that it's potentially dangerous and could sting you, but not feeling the tiniest bit afraid because I know I will not be stung cos the bee will leave me alone if I don't bother about it.

I don't think that's the perfect analogy to describe what I'm actually feeling, but it's the best I can think of now.

God works in mysterious ways. That has got to be one of the most overused phrases. But I really do believe He does. Say I pray very hard for something. I've realised that God usually doesn't fulfil my prayers in the way I would like Him to. In fact, God usually gives me what I ask for by doing what may SEEM to be the complete antithesis of what I'd prayed for - but is actually exactly what I want if I look carefully at it.

I may not have found God in the silence as I'd initially expected to.
But I've found God in this strange sense of peace and calm that I'm currently filled with.
I may not have found God in the beauty of nature as I'd initially thought I would. (Cos I've always loved nature, so I thought it would follow that I would find God in all He had created.) But I've found God in the mundaneness of my life - in all the things that may appear at first to be coincidences, like bringing certain people together for a particular reason or hearing especially significant things from certain people.

You know, I've been trying to smile a lot more these days because for one thing, smiling requires less energy than frowning does. God gave me a beautiful smile to express my joy and happiness. Smiling and laughing is really infectious. I've realised that sometimes, my friends actually laugh because I'm laughing so hard. And. You never know who might be falling in love with your smile at any one point in time. :)


*kelly.

Late For Breakfast

This is a very touching story that my mum sent to me.

It was a busy morning, approximately 8:30 am,
when an elderly gentleman in his 80's, arrived to
have stitches removed from his thumb. He stated that
he was in a hurry as he had an appointment at 9:00 am.
I took his vital signs and had him take a seat,
knowing it would be over an hour before someone
would to able to see him. I saw him looking at his
watch and decided, since I was not busy with another
with another patient, I would evaluate his wound.
I got the needed supplies to remove his
sutures and redress his wound. While taking care of his wound,
we began to engage in conversation I
asked him if he had a doctor's appointment this
morning, as he was in such hurry. The gentleman told
me no, that he needed to go to the nursing home to
eat breakfast with his wife. I then inquired as to
her health. He told me that she had been there for a while and that
she was a victim of Alzheimer Disease.
As we talked, and I finished dressing his wound,
I asked if she would be worried if he was a bit late.
He replied that she no longer knew who he was, that
she had not recognized him in five years now. I was
surprised, and asked him. "And you still go every morning,
even though she doesn't know who you are?"
He smiled as he patted my hand and said.
"She doesn't know me, but I still know who she is."
I had to hold back tears as he left,
I had goose bumps on my arm, and thought,
"That is the kind of love I want in my life."
True love is neither physical, nor romantic.
True love is an acceptance of all that is, has been, will be, and will not be.
With all the jokes and fun that are in e-mails, sometimes
there are some that come along that have an important message,
and this is one of those kinds. Just had to share it with you all.

"The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything that comes along their way." Peace is seeing a sunset and knowing who to thank. > > Please share this with someone you care about - > > I JUST DID.....

"I sent you to reap a harvest you have not laboured for. Others have laboured for it; and you have come into the rewards of their labour." ( The New Jerusalem> Bible-John 4: 38 )

Joel

Can you see God in this delicate iris bloom?

I can.

Only God could've made such a intricate creation. I can see God's work in the lovely purple blending into white. I can see God's work in the intricate veins of each petal, how he slowly, painstakingly separated the yellow from the purple from the white and even added the veins on the petals for texture!


If God could be bothered to form a flower so perfectly, to clothe the million different flowers in a million different hues and patterns - what more each of us? The book of Genesis says in the story of creation, that we humans are made exactly in God's likeness.

So the next time when you look down at your own hands, notice the 5 fingers and each individual delicate nail, note the swirly patterns on each fingertip (your fingerprints, which are unique to yourself by the way), wriggle your fingers around for a bit and thank God that He remembered to give you 5 fingers on each hand while He was busy designing you. :)


*kelly

There are the "skeptical believers" who demand signs from God before they believe.
There are "ordinary believers"who believe even if some of their prayers are not answered.
There are "strong believers" who entrust their whole lives to God regardless of their pains in life.
Which group do you belong?