Wow..

Well i suppose i will talk a bit here.. i find this video quite touching.. and i agree with what Mrs. Lee said..

"It's these small things that you remember, little "imperfections" that make them perfect, for you"

I suppose nowadays people talk about the 'perfect partner for you' this and that and people ended up having a very high expectation in a relationship, or, what they think should be 'perfect' as defined by the general public.

At first it may be all happy-happy but later on in the relationship, or marriage in this case, when little "imperfections" starts to appear, the relationship goes strained because one party couldn't bear with it etc. and thus, so many, in this case in marriages, so many divorces happened.

In a Christian point of view, don't get me wrong as i'm not saying we should settle for second best rather than the person God has planned for each of us to be with since even before we were born; or that we should have low standards and compromise our Biblical values for someone. It's just that we should seek God's Will, in relationships and not to simply take or think of boy-girl-relationships lightly as how the world would like us to be. There's shouldn't be so many trials-and-errors, if not none at all, in finding that person that's for us as long as we seek Him first.

For me, i think that when our relationships with God come first and are in the right track, other stuffs like relationships will then come into place, as in, we don't have to worry about it. We don't have to be "desperate" to go find one because we just have to trust in Him when the time comes for us to ask God whether that person is who He wants us to be with; the green light for us to pursue the relationship, etc. Plus, now we're all still young! (haha)

And when we found that person and get married, later on in the marriage if such "imperfections" start to come up, seek God and also remember about this video and be encouraged that things will work out. Don't resort to divorce. As long as if it's who God has wanted us to be with, there shouldn't be a mistake marrying them.

Well i just feel like sharing this and just type out what came into mind. Feel free to share your thoughts brothers and sisters because i may get it wrong or need to be corrected. It's through discussions that we can all improve ma!

haha

-ronan
p.s. because this is an on-the-spot-thing, i didn't have time to find references and stuffs.. and i gotta go rush my assignments now! haha

MUST WATCH!!!

Well i stumbled upon this person, Nick Vujicic a few weeks ago and i stumbled upon it again tonight, realising that i should have shared about it!

Maybe you have heard of this guy, maybe not, but he's born in Melbourne (here!), and without limbs. He's now a preacher and a motivational speaker around the world.

More info here in Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Vujicic

And the main thing of this post is VIDEOS!

This here is a shorter video, and showing him speaking to students in school:


And if you do feel motivated, this next longer video is an interview at church, like sharing, and you can get deeper insight on what the guy believes, which i hope really speaks to you:


Hope you all spend some time watching the videos.. it's worth it!

Watch....

Regarding to GAY Rights..

Hey.. Sorry i only checked the blog now and haven't finished up the updates but well, apparently there's a confusion about how people nowadays have been fighting for gay rights and even abortion rights, saying being human, we have the rights to do whatever we want. So i decided to talk about that and gave the Bible a look through (thankfully for the help of the 'Index to Subjects' at the back of my Study Bible) so here we go:

First, is the famous story of Abram and Lot. They separated and Lot pitched his tent near Sodom. Which the next verse is from Genesis 13:13:

Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning against the LORD

Well perhaps that wasn't clear enough what the men were wicked for but just before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, God sent two angels to Sodom and both stayed with Lot and in Genesis 19:4-5:

4Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom -- both young and old -- surrounded the house. 5They called to Lot, "where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them."

Ewww.. i guess that should be clear enough how the lifestyle of the men there was. And thus the word, 'Sodomy', anyone?

Then, in Leviticus 18:22 under 'Unlawful Sexual Relations', the Lord said to Moses:

" 'Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.

That should be homosexuality right? And God said it's detestable. Similar situation to what was done by the men of Sodom can be found in Judges 19:24 which will be better if you all read the whole chapter so i'm not gonna write it down here.

In the New Testament, Paul wrote in Romans 1:26-27:

26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

God allowed sin to run its course as an act of judgment. So apparently homosexuality has been around for a long time. Even though since then God has commanded through Moses that homosexuality is detestable, people still do it. And nowadays, those people are fighting back for what they called, is their rights as well as abortion. Those two are not natural!

So if you are still with me till the end of this post, i'll end with a reminder from Romans 12:2:

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's Will is -- His good, pleasing and perfect Will.

Let us not conform to the ever-changing pattern of this world. Though now "rights" have been brought up, God IS Love and His Word still remains: Homosexuality has been, is now, and will still be, a sin. Man with man and woman with woman, though only the men were mentioned in the Bible, it's applicable to women just like how other verses of the Bible apply to women though only men were mentioned. i hope that clears up the confusion.

And as Tammi has put out, we shouldn't treat people who practise homosexuality differently, but instead, we should try to reach out to them. We have to help our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to be sure on this matter and help guide those who have strayed back to the right path when we are given the opportunity to do so. And even when we can't do much, let us pray for those who need to be prayed for.

May God bless all of us!

Hmmm..try read this post..

(Ron here, 2nd edit made on 10sep08, with bits of my thoughts in blue)

Hey there..those of you who have been there during sunday youth class last sunday, remember that at the end, Eva mentioned something about the testimonies of the revelation of heaven and hell by 7 columbian youths? For those of you who are reading this and didn't see Ivan's post about the thing in one of the previous posts, in short, as quoted in the website,

'Together as a group, these 7 Columbian youths were taken by Jesus Christ and shown Heaven and Hell. Hear their account of the Glories of Heaven and misery of Hell. '.

You can check the website out here from which i've gotten the quote above.

For your information if you haven't checked out the site, the testimonies by the 7 Columbian youths were actually given 13 years ago.

What Aunty Tuan Ghee replied to Eva was if Jesus really had gone down to hell, He would have transformed it into Heaven. Eva, Ivan and i continued talking about the matter after the class so i felt maybe i should share something about it here.

Well, i haven't yet gotten the time to go read the testimonies of the revelation in the website but i managed to spend some time looking through the Bible regarding the matter.

The whole chapter of Matthew 24 is 'Signs of the End of the Age'. It's quite long, including about the signs of Christ's 2nd Coming but you should read it up to better equip yourself. In the chapter,

4 Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you.
5 For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many.
23 At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or, 'There He is!' do not believe it.
24 For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect- if that were possible.

So could it be that Satan's just appearing as Christ and brought them to, maybe for real, hell? But since that can even perform great signs and miracles could the heaven the 7 Columbian youths saw was just made up by Satan?

From the beginning of the 1st testimony i just read (i didn't get to finish reading) when typing this, the person who testified said they 'had just begun to know about God and His Word'. So could that have been why at the end of Matthew 24:24, Jesus said "..to deceive even the elect- if that is possible."? Note the 'if that is possible', the notes in my Study Bible said 'the context indicates it is possible.'.

The whole chapter of Mark 13 is also similar with what Jesus said regarding the signs of the end of the age so you can read that too.

In 2 Corinthians 11, Paul the Apostle wrote about other false apostles that had invaded the Corinthian church and 'presented a Jesus cast in mold of Judaistic teaching' (quoted from the notes of my Study Bible) and preached a different gospel. In verses 13-15, he wrote:

'13For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ.
14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.
15 It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.'

I only then recalled reading these verses before back in church on sunday after the youth class, and thought of the possibility of Satan masquerading as Christ to the 7 Columbian youths.

In conclusion, i only wanted to share about the verses i've found, written above. i suppose i'll talk more about it after i've finished reading the testimonies..after my a-levels, unfortunately. But whoever reading this and has read the testimonies (or if hasn't) and wanna say anything, i mean anything, just leave your comment to this post. Thanks.

If We Are The Body - Casting Crowns

Tanya's Thoughts For Tonight

Romans 12: 4-8
4Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
6We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his^[b]faith.
7If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach;
8if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.


Found this song not long ago and the lyrics really struck me.. please read on..
go to this link and play the music while reading the lyrics...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAWeHo8E70E

If We Are The Body - Casting Crowns

It's crowded in worship today
As she slips in
Trying to fade into the faces
The girls' teasing laughter is carrying farther than they know
Farther than they know

CHORUS
But if we are the Body
Why aren't His arms reaching
Why aren't His hands healing
Why aren't His words teaching
And if we are the Body
Why aren't His feet going
Why is His love not showing them there is a way
There is a way

A traveler is far away from home
He sheds his coat
And quietly sinks into the back row
The weight of their judgmental glances tells him that his chances
Are better out on the road

CHORUS
But if we are the Body
Why aren't His arms reaching
Why aren't His hands healing
Why aren't His words teaching
And if we are the Body
Why aren't His feet going
Why is His love not showing them there is a way

Bridge
Jesus paid much too high a price
For us to pick and choose who should come
And we are the Body of Christ

Chorus (2x)
If we are the body
Why aren't His arms reaching
Why aren't His hands healing
Why aren't His words teaching
And if we are the body
Why aren't His feet going
Why is His love not showing them there is a way

Jesus is the way

.....

Sorry for the looooong post guys.. I really hope you listened to the song, read the lyrics, thought about it, and maybe you feel the same way as I do. How many times have I ignored the little voice in my head saying 'Go and help him!" or 'Ask her to come to youth'... or have just totally disobeyed God.
We ARE the body of Christ. We have a duty and responsibility to be His hands and feet, and play our part in serving Him with our whole lives.

This song makes me guilty. And its hits me everytime. Telling me to wake up. Stop running away and just to fulfill my responsibility as a Christian to reach out to others...

Please join me in this! We all need to depend on each other (AND GOD) and support and encourage each other to show others ...
There IS a way!!!

26 July 2008, Sat: An earlier-started YF

Well, here's a recap of what happened last sat. Here again i would like to thank you all reading this for playing your parts in making our YF started much much earlier compared to the week before even though you thought you might have done nothing. Man..we started about half an hour earlier, you know? haha..

Well, since i don't have much time and to avoid writing a novel about that day, so here's what we did:

We started having dinner at Damai about 6.35pm if i didn't remember wrong and with the help of Ivan and Edgar in transportation (thank you so much). And the YF worship team for that night returned to church earlier to practise after dinner by Ivan's car. Then, the other car with youths drove by Edgar arrived church about 7.25pm (if i didn't remember wrongly) and then we all started YF about 7.40pm..great improvement, people!

So after YF, Uncle Keat Heng took over sharing session since Uncle Chin wasn't able to come and he showed us a testimonial video of a mid-east Christian who was once a Muslim. And, just in case someone else read this blog, yup we know we can't try convert our fellow Muslims in Malaysia, ok? Moving on, overall the testimony was really something beneficial for all of us. The sad thing was that because of the audio system in Annex Hall, the clip's mid-eastern music basically drowned out the testimony. Really kinda hard to focus on what the guy was talking about because the music was really really disturbing. Really..if only i've recorded it. Or maybe, i'll try taking the video from Uncle and post it up here, haha.

Anywayz..the main thing was about the discussion we had after watching the about-17mins clip (imagine having the music blasting at you through out that period of time) led by Uncle Keat Heng. There were two really important and fundamental principles touched on by the guy in his testimony. As Uncle put it, if you take that 2 important principles away from Christianity, Christianity itself would have been pointless and meaningless.

What are the 2 principles? to be short:
1. We have to put our faith in the Word of God.
2. Only the Truth of God's Word will set us free from the bondage of sin.

So without the 2 points, it's meaningless saying you're a Christian. And the 3 verses that were related and brought out by Uncle was from Hebrews 5:12-14:

12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's Word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!

13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.

14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. (NIV)

So, the point is, we should not stop at the infant stage, only drinking milk. We need to constantly study and live out God's Word. Then only we start to mature.

And another point brought up by Uncle was the danger of the Loop. A spiritual loop whereby say, this week you felt bad and have done wrong so you kept reading and studying God's Word and pray. Then the next week, feeling good, you push back the time with God and start feeling lazy, giving excuses to postpone your own Quiet Time with God, your own Bible Study, etc. The example given was just a brief one but i'm sure you all who are reading this know what i'm talking about. Everyone experiences this Loop thing, i myself included. And so we must fight. The devil is trying to pull us away and so let us pray for one another, unloop this Loop and straighten the paths of our lives, that we may move forward together to follow God in Christ's footsteps and to be mature, not being spiritual cisterns like what Uncle Chin has taught us previously.

Let us not reload ourselves to go on a spiritual loop but reload ourselves with the spiritual ammunition from God's Word to keep us going straight forward. For the Glory of our GOD!!

If you had listened to the background song for this blog,
ARE YOU READY, GRACE CHAPEL LUYANG ENGLISH ASSEMBLY YOUTHS??

Your answers are for you yourselves and for God.