16 March, Fri 8pm - 18 March, Sun 11am*
http://www.famine.org.nz/cqinchrist
*one hour missing? daylight saving ends this sun =P
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Freedom in Christ
"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." -Galatians 5:1
"...you who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace." (v.4)
"The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." (v.6)
"You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbour as yourself." " (v.13-14)
How easy it is indeed to enslave oneself to the many distractions in the nitty gritty of everyday life! Even as I've always tried to steer away from legalism, from fulfilling obligations... I have unwittingly, unknowingly, been enslaved by the yoke of guilt and self-condemnation. True, I always remind myself that I don't have to do whatever I have to do just because I have to but I choose to do it for God anyway. I always tell myself that God loves me whether or not I get something done. but as i keep pushing myself onward, it's easy to lose my steps and just tumble out of track again. and that's when one hits the wall.
Freedom in Christ.
yes, I am free indeed.
In the midst of all that's happening, I know I need to make more time for God. To just dwell and linger in His Presence and let Him fill me and refresh me. Yet I am probably not at my wisest in deciding what to keep, what's to go. I thought I'm already keeping it at a bare minimum. Yet, even as I am praying about this, God kept reminding me to love others and He kept bringing to mind, more faces, more people to call, more people to connect...
It's frustrating.
"what about me?" I asked God.
But i know deep down inside,
it's not about me...
May I continue to serve God with "work produced by faith, with labor prompted by love and to endure with hope in our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thessalonians 1:3).
"...you who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace." (v.4)
"The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." (v.6)
"You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbour as yourself." " (v.13-14)
How easy it is indeed to enslave oneself to the many distractions in the nitty gritty of everyday life! Even as I've always tried to steer away from legalism, from fulfilling obligations... I have unwittingly, unknowingly, been enslaved by the yoke of guilt and self-condemnation. True, I always remind myself that I don't have to do whatever I have to do just because I have to but I choose to do it for God anyway. I always tell myself that God loves me whether or not I get something done. but as i keep pushing myself onward, it's easy to lose my steps and just tumble out of track again. and that's when one hits the wall.
Freedom in Christ.
yes, I am free indeed.
In the midst of all that's happening, I know I need to make more time for God. To just dwell and linger in His Presence and let Him fill me and refresh me. Yet I am probably not at my wisest in deciding what to keep, what's to go. I thought I'm already keeping it at a bare minimum. Yet, even as I am praying about this, God kept reminding me to love others and He kept bringing to mind, more faces, more people to call, more people to connect...
It's frustrating.
"what about me?" I asked God.
But i know deep down inside,
it's not about me...
May I continue to serve God with "work produced by faith, with labor prompted by love and to endure with hope in our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thessalonians 1:3).
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
an informal formal meeting
i thought i would be quite dead by then. esp after a looooong day + not putting enough hours to sleep. but i think the oral presentation has set me on an adrenaline high.
dinner was good. not that we had 5-star main course+dessert and a glass of wine sorta dinner, but it's the company eh... and just talking about random stuff. and rather than this being another "item" to strike off on my "to-do" list, it's a celebration, a chill out session for me after a full-on day. kinda like a semi-break in between (yea, i am supposed to continue doing work). it was cool to finish the main business on a record of 32 minutes (!!!). the light atmosphere was thoroughly enjoyable. i think i'm easily amused tonight.
in the midst of all that, i had a short glimpse of us being a step closer to what i had pictured in the beginning. not that i know clearly when "the beginning" was. i've always struggled with what a "real vision" is and i doubted i ever had any. but someone said to me not too long ago, a vision is just looking ahead and seeing what's happening there. oh yes, i have that sorta vision. just that it never seem like a vision. it's not big enough. it's not ambitious enough. it's too simple? it felt more like a simplistic little dream of mine rather than what others would really label as a vision. but then again, i'm no visionary so perhaps what i see, though small, though simple, is just what God has given me and tonight, thank You Lord, I saw us taking a step towards that. my heart is just filled with gratitude for an awesome God who's placed all these special people into my life.
when i got home, i had another good hysterical laugh with my flatmate. oh, what about? we were laughing about something silly i've done. we all need a good dose of laughter every now and then. it's kinda therapeutic.
one thing i've been challenged today, though the "struggle" was only 5 minutes, was to give up something i've come to treasure and to learn to share the good things in life. Ah well~! all good things come from God anyway and i guess when i learn to be a little less self-centered, a little part of me gives way to Christ. Gradually God will chisel away bits and pieces of me that aren't contributing to the image of me in Christ that He had meant to be.
sigh. if only i could go to sleep early and be given nutrition wisdom plus Japanese speaking skills. part of me wants to prepare for tmr. the other part of me is suggesting that i've come to my threshold for this week (though it's only mid-week).
hmmmm. i can't wait for Friday.
dinner was good. not that we had 5-star main course+dessert and a glass of wine sorta dinner, but it's the company eh... and just talking about random stuff. and rather than this being another "item" to strike off on my "to-do" list, it's a celebration, a chill out session for me after a full-on day. kinda like a semi-break in between (yea, i am supposed to continue doing work). it was cool to finish the main business on a record of 32 minutes (!!!). the light atmosphere was thoroughly enjoyable. i think i'm easily amused tonight.
in the midst of all that, i had a short glimpse of us being a step closer to what i had pictured in the beginning. not that i know clearly when "the beginning" was. i've always struggled with what a "real vision" is and i doubted i ever had any. but someone said to me not too long ago, a vision is just looking ahead and seeing what's happening there. oh yes, i have that sorta vision. just that it never seem like a vision. it's not big enough. it's not ambitious enough. it's too simple? it felt more like a simplistic little dream of mine rather than what others would really label as a vision. but then again, i'm no visionary so perhaps what i see, though small, though simple, is just what God has given me and tonight, thank You Lord, I saw us taking a step towards that. my heart is just filled with gratitude for an awesome God who's placed all these special people into my life.
when i got home, i had another good hysterical laugh with my flatmate. oh, what about? we were laughing about something silly i've done. we all need a good dose of laughter every now and then. it's kinda therapeutic.
one thing i've been challenged today, though the "struggle" was only 5 minutes, was to give up something i've come to treasure and to learn to share the good things in life. Ah well~! all good things come from God anyway and i guess when i learn to be a little less self-centered, a little part of me gives way to Christ. Gradually God will chisel away bits and pieces of me that aren't contributing to the image of me in Christ that He had meant to be.
Psalm 127
1 Unless the LORD builds the house,
They labor in vain who build it;
Unless the LORD guards the city,
The watchman keeps awake in vain.
2 It is vain for you to rise up early,
To retire late,
To eat the bread of painful labors,
For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.
1 Unless the LORD builds the house,
They labor in vain who build it;
Unless the LORD guards the city,
The watchman keeps awake in vain.
2 It is vain for you to rise up early,
To retire late,
To eat the bread of painful labors,
For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.
sigh. if only i could go to sleep early and be given nutrition wisdom plus Japanese speaking skills. part of me wants to prepare for tmr. the other part of me is suggesting that i've come to my threshold for this week (though it's only mid-week).
hmmmm. i can't wait for Friday.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Scripture as Text: Learning What God Reveals
"Christian reading is participatory reading, receiving the words in such a way that they become interior to our lives, the rhythms and images becoming practices of prayer, acts of obedience, ways of love.
...We read in order to get in on the revelation of God, who is so emphatically personal; we read the Bible the way it comes to us, not in the way we come to it; we submit ourselves to the various and complementary operations of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit; we receive these words so that we can be formed now and for eternity to the glory of God."
-Eugene H. Peterson
...We read in order to get in on the revelation of God, who is so emphatically personal; we read the Bible the way it comes to us, not in the way we come to it; we submit ourselves to the various and complementary operations of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit; we receive these words so that we can be formed now and for eternity to the glory of God."
-Eugene H. Peterson
Sunday, March 11, 2007
impersonal
I have this bad nagging feeling that I'm getting more and more impersonal of late.
Accumulated emails to reply, pending ppl to catch up with, birthday cards and wedding anni card in the queue (should i still send belated ones?).
How did I get myself into this situation? Is there a way out? Could I not choose to make a deliberate choice to go against this seemingly natural inclination to be impersonal when one gets busy?
the debate of "busyness" has been in my mind quite a lot. It's not healthy. It's not balanced. It's not the way to live! Much as I would like to refuse to let busyness become a way of life, I find myself under the slavery of deadlines, of urgent things tt needs to get done which crowds up my schedule. I thought it would be much better in NZ with the laid back way of life but it seems like "I've done it again". so this kinda confirms tt it's not the pace of life (though it does affect in some way) but the problem lies in ME eh? so no matter where I go, unless I take control and be deliberately choosing wisely what I put on my plate, I'll always end up in this rush hour (more like rush semester)?
i wish i can go to africa. where i heard there's no sense of time at all. true, time is precious but who says productivity is a measure of how much u can do within a certain amount of time? perhaps i should shut myself up and out in the taize monastery in france for a month. i suspect i might go crazy in the first week but the deep sense of peace must be well worth it.
perhaps it's time to clear my plate and fill it with sushi, sashimi and tempura. but before that, I will need to enjoy the fish and chips and pizzas and salad on my plate first.
Accumulated emails to reply, pending ppl to catch up with, birthday cards and wedding anni card in the queue (should i still send belated ones?).
How did I get myself into this situation? Is there a way out? Could I not choose to make a deliberate choice to go against this seemingly natural inclination to be impersonal when one gets busy?
the debate of "busyness" has been in my mind quite a lot. It's not healthy. It's not balanced. It's not the way to live! Much as I would like to refuse to let busyness become a way of life, I find myself under the slavery of deadlines, of urgent things tt needs to get done which crowds up my schedule. I thought it would be much better in NZ with the laid back way of life but it seems like "I've done it again". so this kinda confirms tt it's not the pace of life (though it does affect in some way) but the problem lies in ME eh? so no matter where I go, unless I take control and be deliberately choosing wisely what I put on my plate, I'll always end up in this rush hour (more like rush semester)?
i wish i can go to africa. where i heard there's no sense of time at all. true, time is precious but who says productivity is a measure of how much u can do within a certain amount of time? perhaps i should shut myself up and out in the taize monastery in france for a month. i suspect i might go crazy in the first week but the deep sense of peace must be well worth it.
perhaps it's time to clear my plate and fill it with sushi, sashimi and tempura. but before that, I will need to enjoy the fish and chips and pizzas and salad on my plate first.
non-functional
much as I wanted so much to get back into gear today, it's as if there's a label "non-functional" tagged unto me.
the heat is unbearable. if only our bathroom is big enough, I might just shift a desk and a chair in there. why is it that the bathroom is the coolest place in the whole flat? it's the same in KL too...
i suspect there's more to it than the heat. but ah well, i'll allow myself to remain non-functional until after JCF. that's it I can make it there.
the heat is unbearable. if only our bathroom is big enough, I might just shift a desk and a chair in there. why is it that the bathroom is the coolest place in the whole flat? it's the same in KL too...
i suspect there's more to it than the heat. but ah well, i'll allow myself to remain non-functional until after JCF. that's it I can make it there.
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Eat This Book - Eugene H. Peterson
After one chapter, I'm convinced I've been binge-ing on books. kinda suspicious that the physical appetite and manifestation is a mere reflection of a hidden, deeper, spiritual one.
Week 1 of Uni
Gotta remind myself I'm not a first year anymore. Just getting assessment dates sorted out was mind-boggling. I thought it's gonna be easier this sem. How wrong can I get?
The selection of beans found in Starbucks Dunedin has been disappointing. A professional barista pointed me to Mazagran. The tantalising aroma as it teases the nostrils and brings life to other dying-from-notes cells in the body was indeed refreshing. Ah~ God has been good to me!
Committed to God. Committed to Sabbath. This is much harder than I thought. Discipline is no discipline when it gets easy eh?
sigh. it's only week one.
Week 1 of Uni
Gotta remind myself I'm not a first year anymore. Just getting assessment dates sorted out was mind-boggling. I thought it's gonna be easier this sem. How wrong can I get?
The selection of beans found in Starbucks Dunedin has been disappointing. A professional barista pointed me to Mazagran. The tantalising aroma as it teases the nostrils and brings life to other dying-from-notes cells in the body was indeed refreshing. Ah~ God has been good to me!
Committed to God. Committed to Sabbath. This is much harder than I thought. Discipline is no discipline when it gets easy eh?
sigh. it's only week one.
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