Wednesday, August 10, 2005
SMSS devotions...
dear smss girls: thanks for all the encouraging words (via sms, email, msn, mouth and tags) regarding devotions shared so far.
really meant a lot to me.. i think it's such a blessing to be filled with God's word at the beginning of each day :)
Praise God that He's speaking to you all.. i mean it's always such an awesome experience to see Him at work and to hear his voice.. I'm awed!
hee i do put myself in your shoes and try to understand what you go through each morning during devotions, like what you think, how you feel etc... in fact, I'm not shocked if some of you are like sleeping -- zzz.. ha
so what i did was to really pray hard, asking God what He wanna tell you all .. my deep prayer and desire that you'll all grow and not just hear but also to like really listen and use it in your life :)
remember that all of you are really dear to my heart.. you all are even dearer to God's!
Charlie and Chocolate Factory
ha, this was one of my favourite books when I was young.. so cool.. imagine if what Roald Dahl wrote all came true!
caught it last monday with Eunice, Grace and Churnchip :) hee.. was really fun.. the theatre was packed with ppl :) aiyoh.. was so chaotic at the theatre - nearly developed a phobia of crowds!
favourite part - when willy wonka looked at his white hair while having his helmet-looking haircut and said "i need an heir!" ha
National Day - cum - spring cleaning day
cleared up almost everything in my room.. from 2:30pm all the way till 9pm.. haa.. was just so motivated to do so. eunice and i were packing as we watched NDP in the room.. one of the first few songs was "let's make a difference" (i think) eunice suddenly said "i minus you, you minus me, we can make a difference!" diow! but it was really hilarious :)
Be magnified O Lord
You are highly exalted
and there is nothing You can't do
O Lord my eyes are on You
Be magnified O Lord be magnified :)
{6:36 PM}
Friday, August 05, 2005
WOAH
recurring theme in my life - God's faithfulness :)
will blog more when there's more time
devotion to be shared later :)
Good Morning :) it's very good to see all of you here.
I've been requested to speak loudly because someone told me over msn last night that she can't hear the message most of the time because she is standing all the way behind.
So I am going to try to speak loudly and clearly. People in front, please bear with me.
As a start, I'll like to share with all of you a dream which i had many years ago, i think maybe about 8 years ago.
This is a true dream.
I dreamt that it was a Sunday morning and I was in church. I was sitting with a group of friends in the front row listening to a preacher share. Most of us were in secondary school then.
In this dream, what happened was that one of my friends fell asleep. I do not know why she slept.
Maybe she slept late the night before or that she had problems paying attention. But well, she fell asleep and you know what?
The preacher took the microphone with him. (by the way, I don't know who the pastor was, I can't even remember his face, he's not any of the preacherss i know in real life).
He continued preaching and walked towards to the row which I sitting, and very suddenly, he turned to my friend and yelled “Wake Up!” :)
I hope most of you who were sleep walking will have woken up by now.
It is a true story so what happens is that I try very hard not to fall asleep when anyone's talking. The dream might just come true.
The reason why I want to make sure that no one is asleep is because I have something serious and important which I'll like to share with all of you this morning.
The issue which I'm about to bring up, has been on my mind for the past 3-4 months. I stayed up till about 3 this morning praying and preparing today's devotion so I hope you'll spend the next few minutes listening to it.
Just within these 2 weeks, I've been in contact with about 5 different teenagers and 1 young adult who slit their wrists. As we talk, we looked into the different issues which bothered them and made them feel helpless and hopeless.
They showed me the scars and as we talked, we cried and hugged, i listened to their pains and hurts and we also explored the various ways of getting out of their pain, turning to God for help.
What I'm going to share next, is very personal to a someone but I've asked that person for permission to share. That person has very graciously agreed to let me do so.
To protect the person's identity, let's call that person Adrienne.
Adrienne's friends highlighted to me the scars on her wrists. And I very casually asked her about it. She was a little embarrassed at first and tried to avoid the subject but eventually, she opened up and shared about the things which were bothering her. We spoke and prayed.
About 3 days later, we had a band practice Adrienne brought her guitar which cost about 250 dollars. She paid with her own money which she saved. I must tell you this, this guitar is really very beautiful. It has a very fine finishings, the sound is good, it's spotless and it's very new. Brand new and very beautiful.
During the practice, Adrienne had to leave the room for a while and what happened was that some members in her band, accidentally scratched and dented her guitar.
When Adrienne returned, her band members immediately told her about the scratches and dent. And when she knew about it, she stood there and cried and cried.
That guitar was very precious to her, it was paid by Adrienne at an expensive price, it was her treasure! And to see the scratches and dent really pained her heart.
I was there, witnessing everything and I tried to console her.
Just then I felt God prompting me to just tell her the following words. I feel that the words were quite harsh and hard to swallow but I went ahead to talk to her.
God told her that just as she had felt the heartache of seeing her prized guitar being scratched, He is feeling even more heartache and pain when He sees Adrienne, His prized daughter whom He paid a very high price for, having “scratches”, having all the cuts on her wrists, and what was worse, cuts which were self-induced.
He paid with the blood of the His Son so that Adrienne can live.
When Adrienne heard that, she cried more. But this time, not for her guitar but because she realized that the extent of the pain brought to God when she slit her hands, the extent of God's love for her.
Girls, do you know that even great people of the Bible, when faced with big problems, had told God that they wanted to die?
Moses had to lead 6 hundred thousand men (this figure did not include the children and women) in the desert and into the Promised Land . The Israelites were complaining and he felt the huge stress of leadership and so, told God to take his life away.
God heard Moses and provided a way out. He instructed Moses to find other 70 men to help him in his work.
Elijah had wanted to die when he was running away from this evil woman, Jezebel who was after his life. He told God that he had enough of all the threats and had asked God to just let him die.
God heard Elijah and provided room service. He sent an angel to just feed Elijah with food and water and let him sleep. After he woke up, the angel once again gave more food and water.
I recently came across a blog which has the heading - “I bleed and I know that I'm alive.” I tagged in the person's blog and said that normally people know that they are alive because they breathe, not because they bleed. This interesting blog may read “I bleed and I know that I'm alive” but i want to let you know that Jesus bled on the cross for us and so we know that we are alive in Him :)
For those who are slitting yourselves, I'll like to encourage you to talk to someone whom you can trust. It is not that your problems will magically go away but that at least you would know that someone cares for you. Talking to people helps you to release the pain and will also help you to explore the various solutions in the problems faced. Sometimes when we are trapped in the problem, it is difficult for us to see solution, having someone to talk to, will help you to see other solution or options.
Please don't talk to people who will like OH, so poor thing, sayang, next time cut deeper.
Please talk to someone whom you know you can trust and will give good and sound advice. Slitting your wrists or any other parts will not solve the problem.
Girls, please remember and know that you're not alone. You're never alone. In St. Margaret's, you have a caring group of teachers who cares for you, Ms Yap, Mrs Tan and Mrs Khoo who will spend time to hear you out.
Please feel free to talk to me if you're comfortable, drop me a note with your name and contact no. at my table if I'm away having classes. I'll surely call you back
More importantly, we have the most powerful and yet, also most caring source of strength, no one can meet up to Him. He's your heavenly Father who looks after you.
Let's pray :)
Lord, help us to know that there is no problem too big which you cannot handle. I want to lift up those girls who are struggling with this issue which we just spoke about, help them to see that they are precious in your sight, that it really does pains you when you see the scratches on your treasured daughters.
Please be with us throughout this day. Help us to put a smile on our faces :)
In Jesus' most blessed name we pray, Amen.
{3:32 AM}