your spiritual giftings and talents are on par with your wanting to know Christ more.

Matthew 7

do not judge, or you too will be judged.
we arent perfect! the blood of Christ has made us righteous, but we still can sin, and we have sinned. it's always in us to want to tell others off, but we must do so in love, or we will become hypocrites! why hypocrite? because very often the mistakes we spot in others are because we have them ourselves. its magnified so much because we know whats in us and we tend to 'look out for it', whether subconsciously to make our own faults seem normal.
judge yourself first, and you will find that you are guilty of the same thing, maybe not exactly the same situation, but just change the objects, change the setting and voila, there you are in exactly the same sin. God will be the judge, so let's leave Him to that. but that doesnt mean neglect the sinner, please help him to stop sinning! especially since now you've found common ground and can relate to him :P

Matthew 6

wow, the next few weeks are going to be stressful for me, exams are round the bend.
the crux of matthew 6 is doing things not for the praise of men, but for God's reward. our motives for doing the things that we do 'for God's glory' must be pure intentioned; and we must especially look out and avoid falling prey to these things. satan will always edge us into getting approval from men, even if we start out without selfish motives. especially since it's one of the most visible forms of things 'working out'.

for me, especially when i lead worship (and during the preparation), i often think of the end result where people come up to me and tell me what a great worship session it was and how i managed to lead the people so well. its good to know that you're annointed by God, but being praised by people was never meant to be your motivating factor.

keeping that in mind, its inevitable that people will praise you, its a good thing to be praised and appreciated! dont reject love yeah, but all praise and glory must be ascribed to God. notice how when Jesus healed people, how they walked away praising God! Matthew 5:16 "... let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." Jesus did a great job with that.

its all about keeping a really great balance between doing things in the secret, for God's glory and shining for all the world to see, for God's glory.

what's your thrust? not just in God's work, but in school, at work and at home.

Matthew 5

when Jesus was being tempted, satan even used scripture against Him to try and convince Jesus to sin! the bible does speak the truth, and we should follow it but we must be careful not to take verses out of context. when confronted with a verse that seems to be taken out of point or context, be sure to verify by reading the context of the verse. Jesus knew the bible, and saw the higher meaning; that is not to test God.

God is faithful to His word!

GOOD GOD, REALLY! I LOVE GOD!
campus ITP was really a test of my faith, and it definately proves that God is faithful to His word, even when circumstances are against you!

story from the beginning:
we took a long time deliberating about whether we should take up ITP(industrial attachment) in our campus, participating in a pro-engineer 3d model design competition. i was initially not so keen, but later became very leaned toward doing it. i wanted to do it, but i had to seek God first (always seek God first, if you realise this is what made it happen). so i told my classmates that i'll pray about it and let them know on friday.
i asked for 2 signs, one was our lecturer mr david phua would be strongly against doing outside ITP, and encourage us to do the pro-e ITP. i got that sign, he checked out the available spaces in the aero industry and there were only 19 spaces available (which meant that we would be doing other kinds of ITP, eg business)
i asked for another sign because i felt that it was in mr david phua's character to be like that, so the other sign i asked for was my dad to say the words "go for it", and when i talked to him about the pro-e ITP, he said it! and i laughed out loud and explained everything to him.
so i praised God and was very happy that God approved it. on top of that while i was in prayer, God also showed me that ricky's ITP application for the youth flying club would also be rejected (but i didnt/havent told him), but i did tell boon tah about both issues [in order that he might learn that Jesus is the real religion].

so the next day (friday), we sent in our applications to our lecturer for the pro-e module. the deadline was long over but he thought he could squeeze us in, so he sent it to the organiser, Peter Lo. we were rejected and got quite upset about it, especially me because i forced boontah into it by writing his name there (he took too long to decide and i was so affirmed about it). boontah was especially upset because he had set his mind to wanting it.
we decided that we would see Peter Lo on monday, to see if we can worm our way into it.

monday, went to see peter lo, he downright rejected us; it wasnt even a 'i'll see what i can do', it was a 'i already sent the email and its too much bother for me to send another'. upset, we went back to class and i was crappified because i had prayed about it, and was really really affirmed about it. in my heart i went "well God, i wanted this ITP, i prayed about it, i heard from You and i even told my friends about it; now that You've allowed it to be rejected, You're more on the losing end because i only told boontah all that i did as a witness for You. and if You wouldnt approve it then its not a very good witness"

depressed but i really wanted to stand on God's promise, so i typed an email to the director of my school- my last resort. sent it and saw david phua on the way to lunch, told him what had happened and he changed his stance already, that the pro-e competition was useless and its very unlikely that the email would work because the head of this project is peter lo and even as a superior, the director cant do much. and i was very let down by that.

immense spiritual attack i tell you. later desmond called and told me the director had approved it. like.. WOOHOO!! the director approved it! and im really hyper now hahah. MY FRIENDS, the lesson is, if God says something, He will do it! and if God says He will do it, don't take anything other than what He said! go out ALL the way to the ends of the earth (non-literally, to the maximum you can do) do accomplish what He has promised.

God is faithful! and boon tah if you're reading this, you have witnessed first-hand the work of God :)

matthew 1,2,3

my youth is doing a study of matthew for the next 28 days, and i thought i would write some stuff along the way, for my DP members as well as other ymers (and for wandering visitors) we're reading one chapter a day, so i will try to be as on-schedule as possible :) [today's the 3rd chapter already haha blogger was down]

Matthew 1
now the genealogy in matthew follows Josephs's line, while the one in luke follows Mary's. it's interesting if you take time to study the genealogy of Jesus, because there are many people in there who are famous, for good and for bad things. in Joseph's genealogy, it's interesting to note that Jehoiakim was actually cursed, that none of his descendents would sit on the throne of David (Jeremiah 36:29-31). well that would invalidate Jesus being the King- if Joseph was the father. but Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit thus, Jesus is still King.

imagine yourself in Joseph's shoes, he faced alot of tough circumstances and still did the right thing. imagine: the person i'm pledged to be married to is pregnant, and I didnt do it so that means she cheated on me. and she's telling me that she's carrying God's child and that she's still a virgin! that would be quite hard to believe, but even to someone who seems to be a lying adulter, Joseph was still so gracious! he could have gotten her stoned for that! but an angel of God appeared to Him and showed him the way he was to take. we all need to learn graciousness, especially to the undeserving and those who hate us.


Matthew 2
let's learn from the Magi. they searched for God, and brought gifts and offerings to Him; nowadays we expect God to find us, to come and meet us and give US stuff! we are the ones that are to bring to God, not the other way around. it is true that God will bless us, but to receive in return should not be our motive in giving.

and having being warned, the Magi returned by another route. and they were obedient to it, likewise we should be too. sometimes choosing to follow God would mean we have to take a totally different path from what we expect and we should be willing and obedient to that calling. because God knows what's best for us!

Matthew 3
preparing the way for others, verse 3. even though Christ came already, this verse is still applicable to us; we can prepare the way for our friends to receive Christ.

we can do that by telling them about the gospel: how they need Christ because we are all sinners, and only Christ can cleanse us of our sins because He lived a sinless life and sacrificed Himself and took our sins with Him.
we can prepare the way for our friends by living in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ: that is, to live in love; to be at our best conduct all the time, to put the interests of others before us, and to always do things for the glory of God and not ourselves.
we can prepare the way for those around us by telling them how being a Christian changes everything: that there's meaning in living as a christian, because we are God's Children and have a purpose in life on earth, to live for God. (sounds boring but it really isnt!)

we can make straight paths for Him by helping our friends understand Christianity better, by correcting misconceptions that our friends may have- such as all religions can co-exist.
we can make straight paths for God by living right and not being a stumbling block to them. a christian who smokes, a christian who is addicted to drugs, pornography or women is a stumbling block because the bible teaches against these things.

prepare the way for your friends :)