Prayers!!!

Actually right, i got so many thousand things to write on my blog!! just that i always don't have much time...cause my CA is coming up like next week...so i will be like a mugger this week..
Anws, i just couldn't contain all the info that i wanna say on my blog any longer..so i decided to release some of them today!!

Today, i wanna talk about last fri!! we had our prayer group cell thingy in school and amos lead worship and taught a lesson on prayer!!! i just wanna share with you all what i learnt from him! cause i think it is really good^^

He asked us this question..."What is prayer to you? what is the purpose?" there are like thousands of answers! like to bond with God, to spend time with him, for healing, a form of worship, it is important..etc...
There are so many things that can be done in prayer...but what are things we shouldn't do regarding prayer? there are like only a few...one of them that he shared was that prayer is unlimited and shouldn't be confined...
If you still don't get what i mean, here is an example...(this is not to condemn like the catholics or anything..)
In luke chapter 11, "He said to them, 'when you pray, say: 'Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day your daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation." Because i am from like a catholic school, so everytime i hear this prayer in the morn, especially like in my sec school..
It is just like an everyday ritual...like it is so confined to this...but when Jesus taught the disciples how to pray, it is just an example..
For example, for the first line, it is praising God and asking for his will in our lives to start off a prayer...and the second one, asking God to forgive us of our sins when we love others and forgive them first...something like that la..
So it is not just confined within that prayer which will make prayer very limited!

Anws, he talked about "God is not a gene in the bottle" He is not someone who like when you need help then you go rub the bottle and find him and ask him for things and He will grant you kind...
He is a God that emphasize alot on your everyday relationship with Him...
What i heard from Leng shan is that at the end times, at the rapture, those which are able to go heaven will hear a ringing or trumpet sound first before they are being brought up to heaven...
So it is like if you didn't hear the trumpet or ringing sound, you won't be taken away but left behind...
Even though you may serve alot in the church ministry, being friends to church and manage to save many and stuff, all these things will not bring you to heaven..the one most important ingredient is your relationship with God!
So it is very important to place your emphasize on praying, reading His word and really spend time bonding with Him! cause you will never know when will He return...
Scary right?

Anws, as i was saying, "Prayer should no longer be a difficult duty, but a grateful delight!"
What this means is that prayer should not be a tiring thing and you really hate doing it and you do it because of your duty as a christian...
God always gives us choices so that He can recieve true love from us unlike robots..so it is the same when you do your qt or spend time with God for the sake of doing it...
Pastor Ronald previously gave a sermon example...he said, "There is a husband and wife...then the wife want her husband to give her a goodnight kiss for example...then she tells her husband...then her husband took out a pen and a note book...he wrote "goodnight kiss tonight at 12 pm. Then the wife wanted a hug...then the husband take out his notebook again and he wrote, "give hug after goodnight kiss." then whenever he finish doing what his wife wants him to do as a husband duty, he will tick done at the side.." will the wife ever experience true love? or it is merely just a duty of her husband to do all those things?
This story is just like our relationship with God...
Think about it^^

Oh! let me continue..
The one thing that drives prayer is FAITH.
It is FAITH that reaches your hand out to God!
Prayer is like putting a card into an ATM machine...
you can put in the card and press the no.s, you need the faith to believe that the money will come out..
If you wait a while and nothing comes out and you walk away, the money is not recieved by you...we must always be patient and wait for the money and stretch out your hand to reach out to God's just like reaching out to take the money...cause it is God timing you are looking at...and when we pray, God is working! so don't stop praying k!

Prayer is also very powderful!!
things like revival, miracles, healings are happening!
You may not see how powerful your prayers are right now...but as you pray, God's angels are sending and chasing the demons away in the spiritual realm!!

Also, prayer transcends time!!
An example is in a christian orphanage, there is this one time whereby they are in need for a bottle and they are quite poor...they need the bottle to contain milk...
Then there is this girl that said, "why not we pray and ask God for a bottle?"
The teacher, being an adult and don't have very strong faith, she just agreed but was quite doubtful...
The the girl kneel down, closed her eyes and hands and said, "Dear lord Jesus, i pray for a bottle. Amen"
Then, you know usually they will have this box of toys donated by organisations for the kids being sent,...and in the midst they found a glass bottle...(which is kinda weird cause usually they do not place the bottle in the box because it is to the orphanage and there are children there..so it is kinda dangerous.)
So cool right?
So, before that like weeks ago, this bottle was already placed inside! because God knows! and He can transcend time!!!

Lastly, i wanna tell you all that every single one of your prayers are very important!! and they are like treasures to God! so pray more!!
And Praying can be done anywhere, at any place at any time!! so convenient!
Just rmb that when you persist in your prayers and have faith that God will work, God will reveal His works to you! because even an unrighteous and sinful man, if you keep on asking and asking and persisting, he will give you what you want..
What more God right?
Jia you!

God loves you!!

My 18th birthday!

I just want to say a big thank you to like every single person who wished me happy birthday and gave me presents!! i really really appreciate them!! i can tell that you all placed alot of effort and heart into it!
i shall list a few to show my sincerity^^

I would like to thank LIM LENG SHAN!!(my bf!)--she provided me with so much so much love and surprises!! like she gave me a total of 3 surprises leh! can you believe it?! i never had like so many surprises before!! (for more details, you can ask me when you see me^^). And, she only slept for 3 hours doing my present...and she spent alot of money too! She planned out everything like 1 week ago!!

I would also like to thank Elo!! although she didn't really get to celebrate it with me...but the presents that leng shan gave it to me is like partially from her!

I would also like to thank Grace and minyang! who gave me a bear, a card and a fruit cake!! asking me to "bear fruit!" hahhaa^^

I would like to thank those who spent the sun to celebrate with me!!
Ppl like Phui See, Elliot (who like smashed a mango cake right at my face!), alder, joseph (who provided me with encouragement and presents!!), joshua lui (who spent hours doing my present too! like slept for 4 hours and almost suffered from food poisoning!!), zhong han my ah gong (he gave me presents too!), kenneth (shared the present with ah gong!), and my SA clique!(they all bought me a cake!--Xin Ying, Kai Yuan(tried to smash the cake on my face), wen rong (got me a cream puff! very nice), jonathan.
Also, the twisters!! the first cake that i recieve!! and they gave me one more extra one somemore!

There are also so many so many others who gave me sweet smses and msn messages to wish me HAPPY bday!!

Oh! on my bday!! i would like to thank MY CLIQUE!!
Thank you so so much!! you all really made my day an enjoyable one, brightening up with fun laughter and joy!!
They gave me ALOT of presents and put in so so much effort into it!! and a CAKE! white chocolate with martini I love you guys!!
Serena, Jas, kai ling, celine and louann!!
I feel so so happy that day! hahaha^^ i am like on cloud 9!!
My class also sang bday song for me!!
michelle from the prayer group gave me a present too!!

Even though it ended off at a low note cause i went home after school..no one was free to celebrate with me..haha^^ i was very emo! then joseph kindly offered to come and find me...but i was glad at the end that no one was free cause i celebrated it with my family! get to spend some time with them..it wasn't as bad as i expected^^Oh! my sis and mum is like really nice too!! they gave me presents and they forgot to take out the price tags! hahaha=)

Through all these love that others have showered upon me, i feel so so blessed to have friends like you all around me!! i really want to thank God for what i have now^^
At the same time, as i looked to the past, i feel that i am actually a very self-centered person...sadly..cause i always want my bday to be like the best and it is like the most important! whereas the bdays of the others are not as important...thats why it made me feel so guilty when ppl spend so much time and effort just for me...but i didn't really do that for them..
I am going to change this year! i will really try to make my friends' bdays as important as mine!

And, God will help me achieve it! yay!
Cause He is also someone who celebrates every single person's bday with true love and joy!!
Everyone's bday is super duper important to Him!
there is a song.."change my heart Oh God...make it ever true....change my heart oh God....may i be like you!"

Ultimately, i want to thank God for the showering of love through friends and family and his word! cause it is because of Him that i am what i am now...it is because of Him, that i got friends like you all!! And i am really really grateful!! truely!

oh! i wanna share with you like the verse that God provided me with on my bday when i was doing my quiet time...cause my ultimate wish is to see the people i love to get saved and to not lose the friends that i have now^^ And as i flipped through the Bible to a random page, this verse caught my eye...in ezekiel chap 34 verse, "I will search for my lost ones who strayed away, and i will bring them safely home again." i think it is really very amazing how God speaks to me!! yay! He rocks!

Thats all i wanna say!! Thank you so so much!!

God Bless you!

What is in the centre?

Heys!! sorry that i didn't write anything for a long time..cause things are getting real busy...
Anws, today i want to talk about what gladys taught us on fri's cell!!

Oh! wait, i wanna share with you all a thought that i had when i was doing my qt in the morning..
It was the thought on whether i will still stand firm and believe in Jesus Christ despite our friends and family around us being non-christians?
What if you are the only christian in the world?
What if there are no church friends nor church to back you up or to cheer you on?
Are you still going to believe that Jesus Christ exist?
Do you go to church because you want to meet up with friends?
Do you go to church because it is a duty that like you are a christian and you have to go?
Do you go to church or even becoming a christian because of peer pressure?
These are the things that we have to keep on reminding ourselves about..
It is not about the friends, duty or any other things that you go to church for...
The one and only thing i know is that you go to church for God...
You may think that it is something easy to achieve..
But many of the times our motivation to go to church is not God but other things...

Gladys shared something on fri..
She say that every sun we go church and sing worship songs and stuff...
Are we worshipping worship? Or are we worshipping God?
You may think that you are worshipping God but actually you are not...
very confusing right? hahaa
So, you must constantly remind yourself and ask God to reveal it to you..
Oh! and you shouldn't ask God to let you feel him..
Cause we cannot depend on our feelings, like how we feel to determine that God is there and God is real..
Our faith is planted and placed on the truth of God's word...not based on feelings..
There was once Grace told the cell that even though we may not feel God during worship, we still worship. Because He is worthy of it and He is still there...

Oh! back to the point!
The cell lesson was on placing God in the centre of your lives..
There was one point that i learnt was the colossians chap 23 to 24 "Work willingly in whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and the Master you are serving is Christ."
this verse struck me alot..
why?
Because i started to think about so many christians, including me, serving in ministry, a leader in church..
Alot of times i start to wonder...am i doing this because i have to? am i doing these because of the pastors or my cell members or to account to the people in church or am i seriously doing these for God?
Am i placing God in the centre of everything that i do...whether it is in studies, ministry or family?
We can do lots and lots of things in church, school or in the family...but who are we ultimately serving? God? or human beings?
Alex shared something..he said that his friend told him..." as long as you put God first and in the centre of your life, the other things around you will fall into place."
How about you?
What is in the centre in your life? it is up to you to decide...
Think about it...

God bless you!!

Be the light!

Today, i just want to tell you all about what i heard from the sermon like in youth service at g2!!!
So cool right? First time i went for both youth and young adult service on sat at g2!! i feel really replenished with God's word to last me for this week! God is great! and he helped me to realise somethings!!
Anws, the youth had a speaker from the chinese ministry....but He is like bilingual....so, there nobody had any difficulty in understanding him^^

He gave us this analogy...
He told us to imagine 3 pots of boiling water...
He placed a carrot in the first pot,
an egg in the second pot and
coffee beans in the third pot.
The hard carrot will become soft after boiling,
The egg will harden and
The coffee beans will dissolve and change the colour of the surrounding water...

What does all these mean?
It means that all three things go through the same obstacles and circumstances of the boiling water...just like how we go through problems and situations in life...
It is our choice as to what we want to be..
We can be like the hard carrot, after we go through it, we become soft and weak..
Or like the egg, after we go through it, be tougher and harder...
Or we can choose to be like the coffee beans, after going through it, we will use it to impact others, to affect the people around us and help them to grow...eg. your own personal testimony...

We only got one chance in the primary school education,
one chance in the secondary school,
one chance in jc.
How are we going to use this chance for God?

During the YA service, one of the things that the pastor said that impacted me was that,
There was this boy, he handed up an assignment...
The teacher looked at it and marked...
Content-good
language-good
flow-good
structure-good
overall-good
grade-F
The reason for his grade to be an F is : You handed up the wrong assignment.
It is the same as us christians...
We always do alot of things for God, trying real hard to serve him in many ways in church, in school..etc..
But, are all the things that we want to do part of God's purpose for us?
Everyone has a purpose on this earth...and the purpose can only be known and understand from our creator...
Only the creator of us knows what we are made for..
So, are we on the right assignment?
Are we doing what is God's will for us?
We can be happier and get all the things that we want and enjoy just like all the good things said from the analogy, however, we may be in the wrong assignment...and doing that will not bring us success (may not be material but spiritual needs), doing that will not help us to find the true purpose of our life.

The sermon for today's youth service talks about being a light and salt of the earth!
The end times are nearing...are we ready?
We must be reading everytime for God's coming...
The pastor said that the reason why God hasn't come down until now is because He is a fair and just God! He wants everyone to get an opportunity to hear the gospel like all over the world!
He wants to give everyone a chance to come back to His kingdom!
The Bible says that once everyone gets to hear the gospel, He will then come down...
Are we feeling the urgency yet?
Friends, family members and so many so many people who matters so much to you who are still unsaved or haven't even hear God's word....share, interceed, before it is too late in God's time...

Are you willing to find your purpose, step out of your comfort zone and be a light to shine for God, impacting the many lives around you just like the coffee bean?
It is your choice...

God loves you!!

choices

Actually i wasn't really planning to go online today..
But God placed a word in my heart and i want to share it with you!
I was travelling home on 970 bus today from like queenstown library! Was like studying and colouring while waiting for leng shan!! then we went for dinner, talk and talk and talk=)
Ya! as i was saying, i was on the 970 bus...then right, i was reading the bible...then i saw this guy, he had short hair and wore the ear phone like to the back of the head...it looked like short hair and had a long strand of hair at the back (the ear phone wire)...
The more i look, the more i feel that it looks more and more like as if he was a robot and the wire is a power supply to the back of the head! it really really looked like that!! cause the wire was like so tightly stuck to the back of the head!!

Then i thought about what if the whole world is made of robots?
What if i am a robot and all other human beings are robots, being controlled and created by God?
Wah...as i thought about it, i think it will be real cool! but i would rather not have it that way..
Cause right, if we are robots, we cannot think for ourselves, love others using our heart like very sincerely, to have emotions...etc..there are so many so many things we cannot do...what we will be able to do is just to do the things that we are "programmed" to do.
Don't you think that will be like super sad?!!

I started to think about the reason why God did not want to create us as robots and to fix it like only one way and one direction in doing things..
Also, about the reason why God wants us to choose and gave us choices!
There was a talk held in CJC on tues for the j2s...and the speaker asked us.."Do you know what is soo different between human beings and animals?"
The answer is "human beings are able to make choices while animals cannot" Animals do not have the brains that we have...they do things mostly without thinking...but we do..thats why, we have the ability to make choices and God made us different in that way!

It is only through choices whereby true love can be found...
If you choose to accept God just because you are programmed to, it is not true love anymore...don't you think so?
God is a loving God and He really really wants to fellowship with us and to have a relationship with us!! Thats why alot of the things that He wants us to do..eg. to pray, is to really spend time and to bond with Him!!
Just think about it, He is God! He can like do all things by himself...and we know that His will will confirm be done on earth...there is no need for us to help him...
So right, the reason why we need to pray is because, God is holding back some of His power and things to wait for us to pray and interceed!!
In simple words, He just wants us to talk to him and have a relationship with him every single day! (i learn all these from like prayer and power night (pnp) last fri...hahaha=)

Anws, my uncle, non-christian, (studys the bible for like 25 years and then gave up cause he found no point in going on..), believes in any God that provides peace and the things that anyone needs..., once ask me "since you say your God is such a loving and compassionate God, how can He condemn those who made a mistake by not choosing Him? How can He condemn those whoes family background disallow one to believe, eg. my grandma, being in a buddist family all her life! Under the influence of buddism for her entire life and recieved healings, happiness and peace from it....
At that point of time i cannot really answer...but, now i can, because i finally found the answer that i wanted from Grace!!
She say that it is true that our God is a loving and compassionate God...but, He is also a just God! He is like a judge, although He may love us alot and aches to see us burning in Hell, but He have to do the right thing..He cannot go against his nature of being Just...

I dunno why but God kept on reminding me of something that rachel said during street evangelism last sun..
She said, " If you see a car coming. And it is like going to hit your friend or anyone else, you can only warn them, shout and ask them to move away...but, the choice is on whether the person want to move annot.."
It really encourages me alot as to the fact that i can do my very best and put in all my effort and strength to share the gospel and try to save someone...but, it all boils down to the choice of the person...

Tmr the prayer group is going to do campass evangelism already!! for all those who read this pls pls pray for God to touch their hearts and to interceed for the lost souls in school k!
Love you guys!!

God loves you!!

Slowing down

Oh! when i went for the cny visitation thingy at my coach house right? i told you in the previous post that i was like really high!
After that, when i reach home, my highness subsided and i started to think about alot of stuff..like people and God...

I really like all these personal time spend between me and God...
Cause it is only during these times whereby you will start to appreciate the people around you and all the blessings that God provided you with...
I just feel really blessed to have friends around me, best friends, church friends, school friends..etc..
Also, having family members who love and care for me=)
Somemore it is like my mentor grace celebrated my best friend's and my birthday together like that morn...she and her bf gave me a teddy bear and also a fruit cake. She said that she want us to "bear fruit" I think it was really sweet of her and her bf=)

These quiet times are times whereby i will start to sms and thank the people that i love and really appreciate the things they do for me...they are times whereby i get to sit down and reflect upon certain things like my actions or the words that i say or just about my observations...
It is a time of interceeding for people that i love, a time for contentment (eg, the air that i breathe)...you will start to realise that there are so many so many things to be happy about! so many so many things to be really thankful when you start to appreciate the many blessings that God gives you^^

Actually, today's topic is not of like a lesson or anything, but just to encourage you to take time from your busy and hectic scedule to slow down and detach from the busy and past paced world for a moment..to really sit down and think about things...you will then realise and find out things that you have never thought about before...

God bless you!

Running

I am so so sorry that i didn't type any post for like a long time...
Guess i was just too lazy to come online..hahaha^^
Anws, i just came back from some CNY visitation from my judo coaches house! got alot of people there! and i was like super high and super loud!!

Anws, today, i would like to talk about running...
I have been putting the "i am running this race for God!" like on my nick in msn for quite sometime now...

For all those who know me, i am someone who really do not like exercising...
I will not exercise unless i am being forced to..
If you ask me to play sport games like badminton, floorball, handball, basketball..etc..i will still be willing to play..
But, one of the things that i dislike to do the most is running...
I just don't like running and i find running very pointless and not even fun at all! it is something real boring to me...
Running is also a sport that requires alot of mind power and stamina...which i, being a lazy person will not want to do...
Anws, my school had like mass PE for like more than a month and twice a week!!
I am then forced to run!

You know when i run right, i got to keep on telling myself..."Go nicole, run! you can do it! God will help you de!! God pls help me! This is for God! Don't give up! don't ever stop running! Breathe properly and slowly!Look at the scenery around...okok, don't rush...etc!!"
There are also voices telling me, "Ai ya...this is not even official, just stop la, it doesn't make a difference."
So it tires out my body, physically and mentally!
Because it is just mass PE and people can stop running because the timing is not recorded and stuff, some chose to walk...

I started to reflect upon this, and i realise that our walk with God is also like this...
The non-christians are ones that haven't started running,
The christians but backslided are those who give up while running halfway..
The christians are the ones that run all the way!!

It is not easy being a christian and following what God wants us to be, we may even come to the point whereby we dislike it and it is very tiring for us to continue this journey...
It is just like us having a choice as to whether we want to continue running, to give up halfway or to not even start running and give it a try...
It is like we know it is right for us to run. We know it is right for us to run all the way to the end because this is what is suppose to be done! But how many of us do the things the way that it is suppose to be done? How many of us choose the right way and make the right decision? But instead give up halfway or even to turn the other way, away from God?

God promised us the kingdom of heaven if we believe and confess to him...
God is our creator and it is only right for us to worship and obey him...
We focus alot on worldly and temporal stuff, stuff that we see now...
Alot of people do not even care about the future or anything got to do with the kingdom of heaven!
As for christians, if we focus not on God but on the situations that we face now or the weariness that we are feeling, we will soon loose the breathe and the mental power to continue this journey to the kingdom of God! Because every step that we take, brings us closer and closer to God and the kingdom of heaven!

The Holy Spirit is then like our mental power and fuel and drives us and help us to complete the journey..
The other voices that call us to give up and stop us from finishing the race is just like the the devil trying ways and tempations to stop us from reaching to the kingdom of heaven!
When we stop listening to the Holy Spirit and do what is right, we will give up and fall away, not completing the race..

It is impossible for anyone to reach the ending just like that without going through the process...
And, whatever problems, situations, persecutions..etc that we are facing, God is testing us and helping us to grow and be more deep rooted in him...to really force us to endure and persevere for him! So that when more obstacles come our way, we will be able to face them strongly!
Just like how we run and train to build up our bodies even though the process is terrible, the ending is sweet!

I think that if you are not facing any problems weariness or obstacles regarding christianity at any point in your life, but is like very comfortable in being a christian as you are in the world,amongst your non-christian friends, you should pray about it and ask God to help you grow more and more in him, rededicating your life to him once again!

Even though sometimes we may feel that it is impossible to reach the kingdom of heaven, it is impossible to complete the race, it is impossible for your body to take it...etc.
I just want to tell you that God is an awesome and real God that can make the impossible, Possible!

We can always look our for each other and provide support for each other as we grow more and more in christ!
Jia you!

God loves you!