Friday, February 27, 2009 | 0 comments  
Romans 14:23b - for whatever is not from faith is sin.

ouch. had to read that a few times, and felt conviction right there..
Posted by L
Thursday, February 26, 2009 | 0 comments  
was reading Ezra today, and when i got up to chapter 2, it when on and on about the different amount of children or offsprings there were left that were returning back home from captivity. So it pretty much was just a whole long list of people's names and how many children they had(ranging in the thousands). As i was going down the list, i was thinking to myself and just asking God what was there to actually learn from this list?Then God reminded me of something, He said that this book wasn't just a story book about others, but rather a book directed at us. He told me to put my name in the verses instead of reading the names of others.. An example would be: the children of Parosh(change to lawrence), two thousand one hundred and seventy-two. And then it sorta made sense! In this lifetime, how many children(disciples) am i gonna make or have? Reminded me of our g12 vision, where 1 becomes 12, which becomes 144, and then 1728! When we go up into heaven, God is gonna make us accountable and ask us how many disciples we have made in His name. So we have to be good stewards of our talents and make the most of what little time we have left.
Posted by L
Wednesday, February 25, 2009 | 0 comments  
Psalm 8

1 O LORD, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth,
Who have set Your glory above the heavens!

2 Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants
You have ordained strength,
Because of Your enemies,
That You may silence the enemy and the avenger.

3 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
4 What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?
5 For You have made him a little lower than the angels,
And You have crowned him with glory and honor.

6 You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,
7 All sheep and oxen—
Even the beasts of the field,
8 The birds of the air,
And the fish of the sea
That pass through the paths of the seas.

9 O LORD, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth!


Our God is an awesome God
Who reigns from heaven above
With wisdom, power and might
Our God is an awesome God!
Posted by L
Saturday, February 21, 2009 | 0 comments  
the fellowship that is found through being part of the family in Christ is such a great blessing and has been thoroughly fun! It's great to know that we go through this life not alone, but with friends and family to pull us through, and not forgetting the One who lives inside of us that connects us all together!

1 Samuel 7:3
3 Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “If you return to the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths from among you, and prepare your hearts for the LORD, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.”

A very simple that just spoke to me again.. the message of repentance, by turning back towards the Lord through the actions of putting away the foreign gods(everything in our life that is placed above God), preparing our hearts for the Lord and no one else, and serving Him only! Very important that no compromise is made, and that the Lord is made number one again in our lives, and in our hearts(with no if's, buts, or strings attached). Only then will He deliver us from our enemies, which was what happened in the passage.
A very common problem that i found in my own life was that at the end of each day, i would look back into what i did the whole day, what i did right, and what i did wrong. When i know that i had sinned, i would pray and ask God for forgiveness because i know that sin should not be in my life. But after a while, praying for repentance(not neccesarily the same sin) becomes more like a habit, or a routine..which just totally defeats its purpose!
What i learnt was that true repentance had to do with the heart. In the verse above, the word 'heart' is mentioned twice. Once is to return to the Lord with ALL our heart(easier said than done, but possible), second is to prepare our hearts for Him. I always go sloppy on the second part..after returning to Him, i tend to prepare my heart to not do it the next day, or maybe even the day after. But after a while the sin always somehow sorta comes back! I believe to really repent, we have to prepare our hearts so much so that we drill it in so much that our heart becomes so concious of what we are doing, and we will always try to avoid that sin. e.g we know that stealing is bad, because we have been taught from young and it has been said so many times that it is gone into our hearts. But for other sins, things we tend to overlook, or see as not as important, which is still sin.. we tend to go slacker on them. To really break that cycle or bad habit, we have to prepare our hearts by drilling it in from head knowledge to heart knowledge till the point where we treat it as fire. Where once we touch it, we know that we will get burnt! Realise that one tiny sin, can drag us all the way down.. We have to take it very seriously!
Posted by L
Wednesday, February 18, 2009 | 0 comments  
Learnt something pretty cool today..was listening to a sermon by T.D Jakes and he mentioned something about how the Bible descirbes young people as arrows in a quiver of a mighty man! I sorta remember reading that in the Bible somewhere, but didn't really quite got what that meant. Anyway he talked abit more on it, and he said there are three stages to it: reserve, retracted, and release. When the arrows are in the quiver, that is the reserve stage, when it is getting ready to be shot, that is the retracted stage, and finally when the arrow is shot, that is the release stage. And we are the arrows that God is gonna shoot into our destiny or calling that He has for our lives! Interesting thing is that in order to fully fulfill our destiny, we will have to go through al three stages, including the retracted stage. That is times in our lives where we feel that instead of moving forwards towards our destiny we feel that we are moving backwards or further away from it. But the interesting fact is that if an arrow isn't fully retracted, when released, it wouldn't fly far at all! To acheive or obtain our maximum potential, and to fulfill our total destiny, we would have to be retracted to our limits. The greater the retraction, greater the release! The retraction stage may not be easy, but it will definitely build us up and make us stronger in our faith. We just have to wait for God to release us in His on time.

Isaiah 40:31
31 But those who wait on the LORD
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.
Posted by L
Tuesday, February 17, 2009 | 0 comments  
Daniel 7
Vision of the Four Beasts
1 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head while on his bed. Then he wrote down the dream, telling the main facts.
2 Daniel spoke, saying, “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the Great Sea. 3 And four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other. 4 The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings. I watched till its wings were plucked off; and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man, and a man’s heart was given to it.
5 “And suddenly another beast, a second, like a bear. It was raised up on one side, and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. And they said thus to it: ‘Arise, devour much flesh!’
6 “After this I looked, and there was another, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird. The beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it.
7 “After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. 8 I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words.
Vision of the Ancient of Days
9 “ I watched till thrones were put in place,
And the Ancient of Days was seated;
His garment was white as snow,
And the hair of His head was like pure wool.
His throne was a fiery flame,
Its wheels a burning fire;
10 A fiery stream issued
And came forth from before Him.
A thousand thousands ministered to Him;
Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him.
The court was seated,
And the books were opened.

11 “I watched then because of the sound of the pompous words which the horn was speaking; I watched till the beast was slain, and its body destroyed and given to the burning flame. 12 As for the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.
13 “ I was watching in the night visions,
And behold, One like the Son of Man,
Coming with the clouds of heaven!
He came to the Ancient of Days,
And they brought Him near before Him.
14 Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom,
That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
Which shall not pass away,
And His kingdom the one
Which shall not be destroyed.
Daniel’s Visions Interpreted
15 “I, Daniel, was grieved in my spirit within my body, and the visions of my head troubled me. 16 I came near to one of those who stood by, and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me and made known to me the interpretation of these things: 17 ‘Those great beasts, which are four, are four kings which arise out of the earth. 18 But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.’
19 “Then I wished to know the truth about the fourth beast, which was different from all the others, exceedingly dreadful, with its teeth of iron and its nails of bronze, which devoured, broke in pieces, and trampled the residue with its feet; 20 and the ten horns that were on its head, and the other horn which came up, before which three fell, namely, that horn which had eyes and a mouth which spoke pompous words, whose appearance was greater than his fellows.
21 “I was watching; and the same horn was making war against the saints, and prevailing against them, 22 until the Ancient of Days came, and a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom.
23 “Thus he said:

‘ The fourth beast shall be
A fourth kingdom on earth,
Which shall be different from all other kingdoms,
And shall devour the whole earth,
Trample it and break it in pieces.
24 The ten horns are ten kings
Who shall arise from this kingdom.
And another shall rise after them;
He shall be different from the first ones,
And shall subdue three kings.
25 He shall speak pompous words against the Most High,
Shall persecute the saints of the Most High,
And shall intend to change times and law.
Then the saints shall be given into his hand
For a time and times and half a time.
26 ‘ But the court shall be seated,
And they shall take away his dominion,
To consume and destroy it forever.
27 Then the kingdom and dominion,
And the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven,
Shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High.
His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
And all dominions shall serve and obey Him.’

28 “This is the end of the account. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts greatly troubled me, and my countenance changed; but I kept the matter in my heart.”


v21 - 'and the same horn was making war against the saints, and prevailing against them'
What does that mean??
Posted by L
Sunday, February 15, 2009 | 0 comments  
Long day at church today, but another awesome one! Had fun leading the kids in worship though they weren't the most cooperative bunch, but still i thank God for them, then we had a sunday school teachers meeting where we discussed abit about having a children's church at the easter camp! Another great idea and im definitely looking forward to that..God is increasing the number of kids we have our church, and also the teachers! So thank God for all these willing hearts.
Bilingual service worship was just awesome again, the team felt really united during worship and i think we really did minister to the congregation. i think there were 3 salvations at the end of the sermon!! Praise God for that too! The level of worship has definitely increased, and as the year progresses we are gonna keep on increasing!


from the depths of my heart
to the heights of Your love
we'll believe in Your name
and the hope that it brings

We will run in this race
standing firm on this faith
For all You are to me is
love, peace and grace
Posted by L
Wednesday, February 11, 2009 | 0 comments  
I pray for victory behind us, victory beside us to the left and to the right, and for victory in front of us. Going deep into prayer.. for myself, and for the church..


Why the doubt L.....where has all the faith gone to..cmon me..gotta remember my identity and who I really am!! mustn't be phased by such little things.
Posted by L
| 0 comments  
went through Matthew today, and highlighted out all the healings and casting out of demons that Jesus did.. gonna do that for all the gospels then study them and see the before/after, and cause/effect of the healings! Time to break down and study the life of Jesus, and how He operated and did His things. Hopefully by doing this i can learn more about being more like Him!
Posted by L
Tuesday, February 10, 2009 | 0 comments  
It's time to get personal with the Bible! time to make it part of ME.
Posted by L
Monday, February 9, 2009 | 0 comments  
finally got to see and hear Ps Charles from one of Anne's old tapes! He really another amazing guy, really spirit filled and just so godly. Learned so much from him, and just listening to him preach really gave me a sense of confidence and faith that nothing is impossible. He made everything just seem so easy. Very very Bible based, and knows his stuff really well.. also had many good practical points which he shared, and made the preaching of the good news seem so easy!! Listening to him preach really made me feel as though my spirit being was made 'sharper' and more focused, and really just going back to the basics and remembering our job here on earth. To be like Jesus, love the people and spread the good news. All these teachings are really doing me good, i can already feel it inside of me! Hope to keep it up!!
Posted by L
Saturday, February 7, 2009 | 0 comments  
Listened to another awesome sermon by Ps Chris Hill last night! I really thank God for such wise people who just know God so well and have such a deep understanding of the Bible and deep relationship with God. Just through 5 verses about Hannah praying to God in the temple in 1 Samuel 1, such a powerful teaching was taught and brought across. On my own, i could have read the same thing hundreds of times and most probably not even get a revelation close to what they have gotten. Just listening to him preach gave me such a weird feeling in my stomach that it felt like it was gonna explode! It was like eating so much till your so full!!

Main lessons leant, was that there will always be provokers(Penninah) in our life, but we should be thankful to God for such people, because people like them will only spur us on even more and help us to press even harder into the presence of God. Another reason is that the seed/promise is always connected to the provoker!! Hannah wasnted a baby really badly, and the seed was in her husband Elkanah, who was also connected to her provoker Penninah! The very thing Hannah wanted was connected to her provoker! Is the same thing happening with us?? Lastly when Hannah first started seeking God, she had 'Divine Frustration'. Which was that she had a purpose in her life, she knew she had a call over her life and that God had great plans for her. But she was not seeing them!
Divine Frustration: knowing and thanking God for all the promises over our life, but not knowing when it's gonna come and not seeing any improvements.(can be really really frustrating!!)
Have we ever had a 'Hannah' moment?

Gotta break through that invisible ceiling in our faith to reach to greater heights!
Posted by L
Friday, February 6, 2009 | 0 comments  
Jonah 2:8,9

8 “ Those who regard worthless idols
Forsake their own Mercy.
9 But I will sacrifice to You
With the voice of thanksgiving;
I will pay what I have vowed.
Salvation is of the LORD.”
Posted by L
Wednesday, February 4, 2009 | 0 comments  
prayer meeting tonight for me personally i think was pretty good. i haven't been spending enough time with Him lately and have been feeling really distant/far.. never really had time to go in deep. But prayer meeting tonight gave me the opportunity, and i realized what i was missing.. so no more! Gonna start pressing in deeper, His presence is just too good to miss out on.. it felt weird not being in the place where i used to be, and it was rather uncomfortable and made me restless at the same time. i want to return to going to sleep and still feeling His presence around me.

Was reading Hosea today, and i didn't really understand most of it.. mainly the language that was used i guess. Just want to point out a few things that spoke to me..
Hosea 2:8-9
8 For she did not know
That I gave her grain, new wine, and oil,
And multiplied her silver and gold—
Which they prepared for Baal.
9 “ Therefore I will return and take away
My grain in its time
And My new wine in its season,
And will take back My wool and My linen,
Given to cover her nakedness.
May we not forget about what God has given us, and recognize that everything good that we have comes from God! We also have to make sure that what we have been given to us be used for it's right purpose. If not He will take it away.
13 I will punish her
For the days of the Baals to which she burned incense.
She decked herself with her earrings and jewelry,
And went after her lovers;
But Me she forgot,” says the LORD.
Second point, we mustn't get too caught up with things of this world(for me is the holidays and fun/games). And start going after the things that we desire by spending time pursuing it, and in the process forgetting about God.
14 “ Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
Will bring her into the wilderness,
And speak comfort to her.
But it's good to know that God is faithful till the end! even when we ahve gone astray, God's love will still be there. He will bring us into the wilderness(not an easy place), and there speak comfort to us! Why? I'm guessing when we're in the wilderness is when we're more desperate for God? and there we will listen to Him.
Posted by L
Tuesday, February 3, 2009 | 0 comments  
i had this dream a few nights ago and i've been reminded of it a few times during the past few days.. so i thought that i should just write it down just in case.
The dream i had was me at church listening to some perrson preach(can't remember who), and the message he preached on was a very simple yet Bible based message on Jesus who came to earth for us. The preacher preached on Jesus's life here on earth, like the miracles He did, the people He influenced and the many number of lives He had changed for the better.. the preacher also talked about Jesus being a friend, a leader, and a helper to all who needed help, and then went on preaching about just how 'real' Jesus was(all the different Bible accounts).
I remember myself sitting in the congregation and listening to the sermon, one that i would have known and heard about many times, but when i heard it again that time i remember that there was a stirring within me. There was something different about what was being preached this time, and i was just so captivated by the message that i was just lost inside it(pretty confusing feeling). The next thing i knew, the message was over and we were doing a closing prayer. Then the preacher did an alter call for what seemed to be for new believers because it was a simple message of the gospel and the life of Jesus. He said something along the lines of "all those who want to know this real Jesus raise your hand..."
Instinctively/Immediately without knowing it my own hand went up. I thought to myself that i already am a believer and have received Christ, why am i still raising up my hands? It all came down to one point, i myself didn't know of the real Jesus that was preached in that sermon.. It's such a weird feeling, to know someone, yet at the same time don't really know them.. That was the feeling that i was getting throughout the whole sermon. It all sounded so familiar, the life of Jesus, but yet at the same time so unfamiliar. I need to know the Real Him.

Was reminded again last night, about one of the sessions at hillsong. Where one of the points was that it's not about the donkey, but about Jesus. It's not about what we do for Him, or how much we do for Him(e.g serving at church), but it's about our relationship with Him that matters. Mustn't lose focus!

Finally got my diary for 2009.. gonna start being more organized and prepared. No more laziness and procrastination!
Posted by L