Challenge ahead!

As the a new year begins and school starts once again, more work is given to me. Especially research... Reading assignments after reading assignments.

Oh God! Help me to keep my focus on you. I really need you!

I sense a great challenge to remain close with You! But God, i want to be close to You forever! Let me be focused and put You first forever! Dear God, please be with me! I love you Lord! I LOVE YOU!

The Worst Thing in Life is to be WITHOUT You (God)!

If i die, i know i will be with God!
If i have friendship problems, i know God will be there to comfort and help me.
If i am sick/injured, i have faith that God will heal me or has a plan for me.

When i do not know what to do, i know God will lead me.
When i know i have many flaws, i know God will teach and guide me slowly.
When i feel like giving up in life, i know God will catch me and put me on my feet again.

The worst thing that could happen in my life is not, being sick/injured/handicapped, being lonely/isolated or even losing everything in this world.

THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN IN MY LIFE IS TO BE WITHOUT GOD!

God! I need you every second of my life! Do not leave me for one second! God is all that you need! What are you holding on in life that belongs to this world? God bless!

Being connected to God =)

The best feeling i could ever get is the feeling of being connected with God.

The feeling of warmth,
the feeling of love,
the feeling of being protected,
the feeling of being treasured,
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..
...
....

I yearn to be with God! When i am with Him, everything seems to fade away. There is only Him and me. Oh God! I love you so much! Please do not forsake me! I miss you!

Nothing works without God!

Imagine you went to a toy shop and bought a remote control car. You bought it and rushed home to try it out. You went home to paint it, customize it and decorate it. When you want to start playing, you realised there were no batteries! And without the batteries, the car cannot move!


In the same way, we can plan a lot of stuff. We can even do great things! However, without God, nothing will work! Without God everything WILL FAIL! So make sure God is in your life before you start doing anything! God bless!

Which have you been focusing on?

Matthew 6:33 (New International Version)
v33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

I was thinking about this verse when something came into my head. God said seek Him first and everything we NEED will be given.

However, do we seek Him to get what we need? NO! That is NOT the point of this verse! It is saying, seek the Lord first because God should be first in our life and we should seek Him because we love Him! Whatever we get is just bonus. As long as we have God, we got everything!

Seek God because you love Him! Not because you want something! Check your motive today! Make sure it is right! God bless!

Interesting...

Try thinking of a monster now. If possible, try drawing it out.




You will then realise that whatever your monster looks like, you can describe it. Such like, it has a circle face, carrot nose, curly hands and etc. It is because whatever we can think of, it was already created by God long ago. You will then realise that we CANNOT create anything. We can only get inspiration from our surroundings and put them together.

This also shows how creative our God is. God created us from nothing. God was there even before the beginning of time. This means whatever we have, our universe, galaxy or even earth was created by Him. God did not need inspiration, He just created us. God is indeed very creative! Our God is really a Great God! God bless!

Sustaining me through today

Last night, after school, i directly went to meet the REAL people for their prayer retreat with Bryson! Super happy! The prayer retreat was actually something i really looked forward this week. And now... its over =(

We really just chilled and had fun for awhile before prayer began. It started at 3.30am and it ended at 6.30am. We had prayer walk then. =) However, i had to leave early as i had to go to East Coast Park for college CIP. I slept at 3am and woke up at 3.30am... Super tired at college CIP! However, as i was doing CIP, i had the energy and strength to do it! Only when everything finished, i started to feel tired and sleepy.

Thank God for sustaining me through this day! Really Thank God! And i just came back from Easter Musical Rehearsals/Meeting. Tired... However, God has really been sustaining me so far. I even have the energy to blog! Woots! Love God forever!

God bless!

In whom do we trust?

Qn: If your eyesight is getting worse and you would like to find a solution to cure it, who do you look to?

Ans: The eye specialist. If a nurse came to tell you what was the problem, you would doubt her and question her prescribtion. If a doctor came and tell you what happen, you would believe what the doctor say. However, you may still have a little doubt. But, if a specialist came and tell you what is the problem, i am sure most of you will believe him/her 100%.


Qn: If your dog is sick, who do you look for?

Ans: The vet. If your friend came and tell you what happened, you will most likely not believe 100%. However, if you allow a vet to look at it, you would most likely believe 100% what the vet is saying.



There is a reason why i am giving you the example. In life, we look at the biggest 'rank' or 'status' and we trust that person in that rank the most.

In the same way, who do we trust more regarding God's word. Your friends? Pastors? Or God? How come we believe what our friends and pastors say about God so easily. Yet we find it so hard to believe the things written in the bible. Ironic! We should believe in God more! Not our friends or pastors! We should have a discerning Spirit and experience God ourselves!

God bless!

Grace of God

Today, i really felt God's grace in my whole entire life.

I realised:
When i was proud, God still used me.
When i thought i could do without Him, He humbled me.
When i started drifting away from Him, He pulled me back.
When i am down, He comforts me.
When i am sick, He heals me.
When i am alone, He accompanies me.
When i seek Him, He is always there.
When i hurt Him, He forgives me.
When i need Him, He provides.
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......

I could go on and on. However, i shall not. I know i am just a mere human but i know God will use me when i surrender to Him. I know i do not deserve anything but by His grace, He gave me everything. How great is our God? That i cannot describe neither have i fully experienced His great love. Our God is a gracious God. And His grace never cease to flow. Thank you Lord! Hallelujah!

I still love God even if He does not give me all these because i know He loves me. That is shown through His act of sending His son Jesus Christ to die on the cross. Thank you Lord for your love once again! Hallelujah!

1 Chronicles 28:9 (New International Version)
v9 "And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever.

In this passage, i have highlighted and underlined what struck me the most. This part of this passage really struck me. Whenever we serve God, or do anything in the name of the Lord. We have to make sure the reason/motive of why we are doing it in the first place is because we love God.


What i learnt from this passage is basically 2 things.
1) Confess that the Lord is our God. And there is no other gods.
2) Whatever we do for God, we have to do it to the best of our ability. Let us do it with all we have! And of course, let us do it willingly. If we do not do it willingly, we cannot do it to our best right?

God bless!

Time is slipping away....

It is the start of my JC life already... And i just realised that time has been passing by very quickly. It has been slipping pass my hands. However, one thing i am glad about is that i have spent my holidays meaningful in REAL. Though time was spent meaningfully, it still goes on and it never stops.

What i am trying to say is, we should live our life to the fullest every second. We must know who we are living for and what are we living for. For me, i know i am living for God so that God can use me. Nothing else matters. How are we using our every second of life? Have we been glorifying God with our every move? I hope we have.

God bless!

Another Season of Life

Today is the end of my REAL life while it is the beginning of my JC life... I already feel the emotional withdrawal syndrome from leaving REAL.

However, i am super happy as another REAL friend, Bryson, has appealed successfully to my school! PRAISE GOD! And we only prayed for it to be successful yesterday night! All glory to God and God alone! I have already thought of things i want to do and so for. However, i know it is a time of prayer.

My season of learning has ended while the season of action has not come yet. So now would be the season of prayer for me during this period of my life. I pray that God will give me a vision and use my mightily for His glory alone. I pray that God will give me a direction and nothing will prevent me from fulfilling His will. I would appreciate if you could keep me in prayer and pray for me. Thanks!

God bless!

End of REAL programme 2010

Its the end of my 1 month programme and i am really glad i joined REAL. I believe that i will never regret joining REAL.

Though i have invested my time greatly on it, forgo many outings and had to re-arrange my priorities, i shall never regret this decision i made 1 month ago. In exchange, God has humbled me, opened my eyes to the things unseen, convicted me of my sins and revealed to me plentiful of things. I thank God for the humbling experience and for this moulding process.

I shall miss all of you (including Joey), and i really hope to see you guys (and girls) soon!

God bless!

Bintan (Tanjung Pinang) Trip!

15 youths and 2 adults went for this trip. Nicole, Zhiying, Gaomin, Lengshan, Tiffany, Yixian, David, Jia Liang, Nigel, Bryson, Rafael, Kah Sheng, Joshua, Ian and Me. 2 adults - Joey & Brother Ronnie.



Day 1

I took my dad car and went to pick Yixian and Zhiying up so that we could travel to Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal together. When we picked up Zhiying and about to leave, Joey suddenly smsed us and asked us to regroup back at G1. I was stunned! The first thing i thought was, was the trip cancelled? I was very afraid as i really wanted to go. When we reached G1, Joey explained the situation. So we were given 2 options. 1) Wait for 3pm ferry. 2) We travel to Batam and take a internal ferry to Bintan. In the end, we took the second choice as we would arrive Bintan 1 hour earlier. Thank God we could make it! Thank God!



At Bintan, we quickly took our lunch/dinner before we rushed to check in our hotel. We quickly splitted into 2 groups. 1 group went to do children ministry at a Christian school while another group stayed at the hotel to pray for us and prepared a dance for the evening services. For the children ministry, Kah Sheng, Leng Shan, Jialiang, Joshua, Nicole, Nigel, Zhiying and me went. In the beginning, there were some hiccups along the way as most of us are first timers and we didn't know what to expect. Thankfully, everything fell into place once again and the programme resumed normally. Thank God!



After the programme, we went back to the hotel to meet up with the remaining team. After which, we took a 15minutes before we gathered and left for the night service. We went to Ps. Janu's church. It was just a small two-storey shop house building. We went to the second floor and attended the youth service. Before the sermon, the other group danced for them. They danced really good. After which, the sermon began. Ian was the preacher that night. Good job Ian! You did well! =) Then followed by altar call then we left~ We went to a noodle shop and ate supper before we went to sleep =) No wait! We had de-brief before we went back to prepare for tomorrow. It was like 12midnight Bintan time went we finished? Lol? Then i went back to prepare and redo devotion as Joey somehow said the same passage during the de-brief. And you know what? I only chose that passage in the morning that day! Awesome right! Hahahaa! I quickly redo, submit to Joey and it got approved! Weeee~ Then i quickly went to bathe and went to Nicole's room to help out for the children programme. She was leading Sunday's children programme and she was super super super stressed. Thank God she decided to re plan again. It was a 2hour programme and whatever i saw that night could last the most 45minutes to 1 hour? Thank God! Thank God for Saturday's (today) hiccups! We started throwing in ideas and started to just get to work. Some people were just too tired but they came to give emotional and mental support. Heh! So we planned until 3am! Yup! 3am! We went to Joey for his approval and guess what? He approved! First check and cleared! So we quickly went back and prepared to sleep.



Day 2

Woke up at 6:45am, met at Joey's room at 7:15am and started devotion. My devotion was not fully prepared and there were many loopholes in it. However, the Holy Spirit started to lead the devotion and just filled the place. In the end, many people shared about experiences of surrendering their lives to God and their opinions on surrendering. And i strongly believed we all left we different things but all was about surrendering. Praise God!



My Learning points:

1. Not surrendering our life is considered a sin as we are being disobedient to God.


2. Surrendering involves surrendering your all. Not just one aspect of life.


3. It is easy to surrender the outcomes of things that we cannot control to God. While it is tough to surrender the outcomes of things to God that we can control.

After which, Gaomin led us into prayer session before we went to eat breakfast. After which, we quickly left the place to the church for the service. We were splitted into 2 groups again. 1 group went to the adult service while the other group was below doing the children's programme. For the children's programme - Nicole, Lengshan, Kah Sheng, Jialiang, Nigel, Joshua and me. Adult service - Bryson, Gaomin, Zhiying, Ian, Yixian, Tiffany, David and Rafael. Bryson was preaching at the adult service. At the children's programme, i self proclaimed myself as the camera man and took pictures of them. I also observed them at the corner. I must say, they really could run the programme by their own even though they were super afraid and super freaked out. They must be super happy! =P Thank God that all went well! After which, Joey checked my sermon while we waited for the vehicle before we left for lunch. I was requested to do changes to my sermon... After which, i quickly took some time before lunch to prepare my sermon.

After lunch, we went to a restaurant as the youth programme was held there. We started to set-up things in 5-10minutes and started the afternoon programme. I immediately dived into my sermon. MAJOR RECONSTRUCTION! I was supper panicky and desperate. I had 2-3hours to almost re-construct my entire sermon. In the end, i managed to pull through as i allowed the Holy Spirit to take control. Thank God! Really thank God! I really learned through this experience that i am nothing without God. NOTHING! No matter how good i can talk, i needed God to pull me through. Thank you God!

Next, we went back to the hotel and had a long de-brief. Had an argument that night due to some stuff. We took a 5 minutes break before we came back to talk again. Some of us really needed that break. In the end, those who were involved apologised to one another and peace resumed. Hallelujah! In the end... ended at 2am! Next, went to help Nigel with his devotion the next day. However, it didn't seem he needed help. So i left to play cards with Joshua, Nicole and Leng Shan. So we talked almost for 1 hour and Ian joined us in between. Had a great time of fellowship there! Thank you Lord! At 4am, someone could not take it and went to sleep. So i went to sleep too as i had nothing to do.

Day 3

Woke up at 7:15am today. We had a short devotion and breakfast before we splitted up into 2 groups. 1 group went to a secular school to give tuition while another group went to visit locals. Children tuition - Bryson, Gaomin, Zhiying, Joshua, Rafael, Ian, Nigel, Nicole, Lengshan and me. House visitation - Jia Liang, Yixian, Tiffany, Kah Sheng and David. For the children tuition, it went on smoothly and all went well. Me like! For lunch, we headed to a fast food restaurant to eat at the locals fast food restaurant. Haha! Yummy~ Next, we went back to the hotel and took a ferry back to Singapore. Amazing trip!

Conclusion a.k.a. Learning points:

1. I really learnt i cannot do anything without God. It was really a humbling experience for me.
2. God has no language boundaries and He can work through anyone. Including those of different languages, races, culture and so on. God's love is inclusive.
3. God works in mysterious ways.
4. God is faithful and He never fails.

3 Days Bintan Trip Pre-Post =P

Yo people! I just came back from a 3 Days Mission Trip to Bintan (a.k.a. Tanjung Pinang). I am like super super super tired, so i will not blog about the trip today. Hopefully it will be done by tomorrow night.

Though it was a short 3 days only, God is still faithful, God is still awesome and God is always personal. Many things happened during the trip. One word to describe the trip would be "revelations". I learnt through experiencing things during the trip that would shape my character and make me a new and improved Samuel that can be used for the glory of God.

Will share with you about the trip asap! =D

REAL Program Update 2

So far... it has been physically draining for me due to sleeping late and waking up early part. Other than that, the lessons and workshops was exciting. I don't really suffer from mental tiredness or anything actually. If i am given something to do, i can still go on for hours. So yup... more on physical tiredness.

Other than that, i have been discovering more about myself and how i work in different situations. I also feel it is time to be disciplined once again as i have been really slack lately... so yup! Back to seeking God once again!

God bless!

A Thank You Note!

Today, when i went to my blog (the one you are in now) to prepare to blog, i saw a comment by someone named stranger on my tag board. You can read it if you want to but it is up to you.

To tell you the truth, i was shocked when i first saw that comment. I really got stunned when i saw that comment because i did not know i was giving people the impression that i was doing it for myself.

However, i would actually like to thank him/her because i was reminded of the reason why i started blogging in the first place. I remembered the first time when i thought of blogging. I told myself i would not last a month or two and it will die down very soon as i am not someone who can sustain things for very long. In the beginning, i was also quite hesitant as i was also afraid of teaching the wrong things on my blog. In the end, i was inspired by God to touch lives and reach out to people through blogging. Anyone could have access to my blog and read from it. Therefore, it would be quite an effective tool. As you realise, my blogging has not been very consistent lately because of the busyness of my life. Having to commit to many different things. Blogging has became a chore and i really struggled to think of topics to blog.

Now, i am on fire once again as i recall and remember why i started blogging in the first place. Thanks for questioning me stranger! I appreciate it! I thank God once again for you! God bless!

Nothing Definite.

I was looking at the car park cement floor today when i realised different shades of grey. Thus, i concluded the following. A certain colour can have many different shades due to the intensity of light. In the dark, grey may be one colour. In light, it may turn another. It is hard to say which is the correct grey. Even professionals can not guarantee which is the 100% correct grey. Only the Creator (God) who defined grey can guarantee which is the correct grey.

In the same way, we humans are the same (cement floor). However, we have different shades during different situations in our lives. No one can say that he/she knows you 100% well or he/she knows you perfectly well. We humans may have a pattern of behaviour but we are definitely not 100% predictable. Thus, we do not judge each other on what we see or perceive. We DO NOT try to correct them using your own understanding without understanding why they did it in a certain manner in the first place. You first try to understand why they do certain things before you give your suggestions or opinion. You might even realise you are wrong in the first place. Therefore, try to understand the other person before judging or criticizing them. God bless!

Hope in the LORD!

Isaiah 40:30-31 (New International Version)
v30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
v31 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Ever felt like giving up on life? Ever felt that life is meaningless?

Ever felt like you had made the greatest mistake in your whole entire life? Ever felt that what you have done is too sinful?

This few verses tells us that WE WILL get tired. We WILL feel useless and we WILL feel like giving up. It also says that we WILL make mistakes in our life. Not only that! It has even gave us a cure to solve this problem! The answer is... HOPE IN THE LORD! When we trust God and ask God to give us strength through our lives, and we believe He will, we WILL be given strength. Strength to continue running this race without feeling tired. Strength to go through whatever nonsense the world throws at you. The strength to go through all the mistakes in life. So trust in God! Believe God can give you the strength you need!

Let us lean on God today for strength and direction. Only the Creator of the universe can provide you with what you need. God bless!

REAL Program Update

Remember the program i told you that i joined? Yup, here is the update.

This week, we did Contact Work (CW). It means we go to secondary school students to ask them to do a short survey for us. And get their contact number if possible. However, it is mainly for us to make more friends. After which, we will plan an activity for the students! Exciting? I guess? Excited? I sure am!

However, now we have to do plenty of administrative work such as collating the data... GOSH! Hmmmm, so far the program has been more physically draining while the mental drainage starts tomorrow. I have no idea if i should be happy or not... Oh well! I have God, there is nothing to fear!

Want more update? Tag on my board! Don't worry, you can use all sorts of funny name you want. HAHA! God bless!