Mid-Year Mayhem

Tomorrow's my Mid-Year Exam for Chinese Papers 1 and 2. There's practically nothing much to study about, except that the very best I can do is to read up and memorise as much useful vocabulary as possible on my part, and regurgitate them up at the right places when I sit for the paper tomorrow.

The Lord shall settle my heart with his love and grace when I get to the examination hall. Amen!

Trying out my uncle's laptop

Nice laptop Uncle Yiye has. Though it's hard to type because the keyboard needs getting used to, it won't stop me from telling you guys how great our God is to me today.

Last Friday, Uncles Steven and Kelvin, and I went for cell group. I brought my guitar along, only not to have a chance to play it during the worship session, because they had already prepared the hymns, none of which I could play due to the lack of chord annotations, much to my dismay.

"Oh, God, surely you wouldn't make me bring my guitar for nothing...?" I thought. Thank God, I brought my school's hymnbook to the cell, and when I showed Uncle Daniel the book, we decided to sing some from them. Soon Uncles Steven and Kelvin joined along even though it was really late, around 10 plus in the night, and it just so happened that the following day I was to sit for the Chinese Mid-Year Oral Examinations.

It was really good. We managed to sing a few songs, and I reckon God gave us the time to worship him with the guitar, because the rest of our brethren that were around also heard it, and were complimenting my playing and the beauty of the hymns. We sang Did You Talk to God Above, By the Power of Your Love, and Shepherd of My Soul. Hallelujah, those songs were indeed beautiful.

Today's church service was a joke. So much for giving testimonies in church, and we were discussing so much about what testimony to share up on the stage when we were in the car, and we ended up not being able to share anything as of yet.

Brother Chris and Sister Osheana came as well for the second time, which was a good tell-tale sign that they weren't very happy with how City Harvest Church, the church we initially came from, conducted their Sunday services. To add on to the joy of another two people in the big family of My Saviour's Church, the sermon on God's love from Psalm 103 was very thought-provoking. It was indeed an enjoyable service, and the more I spend time in it in home cell meetings and church services, the more I enjoy myself and it was always in church activities and from praising the Lord, in both my private time and in cell group worships that my soul does find rest in Him.

One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.

-Psalm 27:4

Gallstone Aftermath - no more gall!

Went to visit her yesterday after the operation. I didn't reach in time to hear the doctor's report, but it was, well, very successful. Praise God! When we reached there, she was still under the side effects of anastaesia - feeling drowsy. To say that she is indeed a blessed woman is very fitting for her - many people, including my uncles, aunt and mom, went to visit her. It was like yet another family gathering, only that it was because of the gallstone problem.

It took the doctor four holes into the torso, to put the instruments and endoscope for operating on her, to get the stones and the gallbladder out. We couldn't see the gallbladder - it'd be too disgusting to look at, anyway - but at least we got to see the stones. Six gallstones, what do you think of 'em?

Okay, so here are the gallstones. Notice the greenish-yellow tint at the base of the vial? That's what your bile looks like. It emulsifies the fats in your body, making the fat droplets break down into smaller fat droplets. Kinda like stirring your oily soup until the droplets at the surface break up into small ones, so that more enzymes can act on the fat droplets with more surface area.

The bile is still in the body, don't worry. Just that it's much less concentrated as it has no place other than the gallbladder to store and concentrate it in, so that means that she's gonna start taking a less-fat diet now, or risk complications later on, I reckon.

Oh by the way, Uncle Kelvin went to stay vigil for the night, so he didn't come back with us.

A truly Spirit-filled Sunday

Yesterday, we went back to church. Have missed one cell group gathering and a full sermon the previous week, so we're literally yearning and starving for God's word being shared yesterday by Pastor Bennett. After the service, the concern for Grandma's condition, given her gallstones problem, was lingering on our minds again and again. I told Uncle Kelvin: "Why don't we get Pastor to help pray for her recovery?" We moved on from there.

He went ahead of me, asking Pastor to pray for her recovery. "Is she a believer?" he asked.

We shook our heads.

"Well then, it's my first time doing this, but I'm going to pray for you to have authority to lay hands on her and pray for her recovery," he said, which gave us peace of mind. "Something will happen to you guys." Then he went ahead to pray for the anointing.

"You guys've gotta be bold. Go up to her and lay hands on her, and pray when you go back," he added on, after the prayer. Uncle Kelvin, later during the journey back, told us he was confused over why he said we've gotta be bold to pray for her. "Can't we just pray in the room and lay hands on the wall? It'd be like God's power going to her room(our room is just beside hers)." he spoke.

"Nonsense. He said we've gotta be bold, I reckon that means that we gotta go straight up to her, tell her, and then when she knows, we pray for her."

And here we go. I reached home first, after swimming and dinner outdoors. It was easy to get the message across - I don't know why, but I reckon it's the grace of God - and to tell her we're going to pray for her when he comes back home. "Oh," she replied, still in doubt. However, she, being a easy-going woman, let us go ahead.

He came back, and we laid our hands on her, while I prayed in Chinese, for her benefit of understanding what is being prayed for her. It was short, but sweet. Hey, wherever in the Bible did it say that long prayers are necessary? It was probably so unexpectedly short that she asked later, "Huh, already finished ah?" when we got back on our feet and continued on our stuff.

This morning, there came the effect of prayer, I reckon. "Eh, you know ah," Grandma told me. "Last night, you prayed for me, hor. End up I sleep through the whole night, no pain leh(she had to take painkillers to sleep peacefully, but she didn't need to last night)."

"Neh, tell you already. Jesus Christ is true and alive." I grinned at her. "Otherwise why would I even bother to believe in Him and go to church in the first place?"

I suppose it is always through our weaknesses and infirmities that God's grace always abounds in our lives, and His grace and mercy for us endures forever, indeed. However, she's still in doubt of Jesus, though I'll never get to know anytime soon yet. Hopefully through this encounter with God's healing and blessing, she'll get to know and accept Christ, and receive his salvation offered to all mankind.

O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

To him who alone doeth great wonders: for his mercy endureth for ever.
-Psalm 136:1, 4

Hallelujah, indeed He is Jehovah Rapha - The LORD our Healer!

My grandma has gallstones

Just came back from home. Only just found out about my grandma having gallstones and needing operation, an hour ago. Funny, she was always complaining about her rheumatism, but now gallstones? She's always as fit as a fiddle, even fitter than my own mom. How is it that she, a person of great stamina, can have gallstones in her gallbladder?

"Eh tell you ah, I have gallstones," the first thing she laughingly told me was that, when I asked her about her chronic pain at the torso, which was going on for about a week already since. "Few days later, going for operation to remove the gallbladder."

"Are you serious." She spoke so jokingly that I cannot really believe what she said earlier.
"Gallstones, lor. Went for checkup today with her," my uncle cut in. No wonder the first thing he hollered across the living room to the outside door when I came back was why I sent a message to him via phone.

...Okay. Less ability to digest fats because of less bile and nowhere to contain the bile produced, once the gallbladder is removed surgically. Doctor said that it wasn't serious - it's something like having your appendix removed when you have appendicitis. Oops, so that means that the next time my grandma eats a lot of fatty foods, she starts to pass out oil in her stools...?

God's eternal grace is always plenteous - Hallelujah!

A few days ago, I woke up late and so had to rush for the bus 17 service to get to school. I prayed as I walked along the overhead bridge to the bus stop: "Lord, thank you for everything. Bestow me your grace today, in Jesus' name I pray. Amen." Seconds later, the bus came...

...but I didn't manage to board it. It speeded off before I could get to the bus stop, even though it was just at the exit of the bridge! "Lord, what are you doing..." I thought He wasn't really listening to my prayer earlier. "I asked for your grace and you gave me thiiiss?" Much on the contrary, He showed that He actually did, and was still gracious enough to grant me another bus which arrived a minute later than the first one that I missed, despite my audacious statement against Him.

Thinking back, yeah. I shouldn't have doubted the Lord when the first bus went off. Nevertheless, He still gave me the bus to travel to school in time. This part of a psalm came to mind:

The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.

-Psalm 103:8-13

Our Lord is a sovereign king of all eternity, and His mercy on our transgressions is all possible because of His grace on us. Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins because of God's mercy on us that we, being made in His image, should not perish but have eternal life in Jesus Christ.

Do you have a god that answers prayers? Probably yes, but not everytime. Jesus answers our prayers everytime, and is faithful to the last bit of detail of our prayers, if only we would tell Him of our needs everyday and be willing to commune with Him and bask in His presence. Is your god overbearing like Zeus, frying people he doesn't like with thunderbolts as and when he likes? Our God doesn't. If He were, we would all be dead by now, because:

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
-Romans 6:23

We are saved by His grace through faith in Jesus Christ's finished work on the cross to redeem us of our sins so that we may have eternal life in Heaven after our physical bodies die, and after our hearts stop beating. To get eternal life, you cannot earn it.

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
-Ephesians 2:8

There is one thing that we gotta know about grace: it is undeserved favour from God, and unconditional, because Jesus loves us and wants to have mercy on us so that we may have eternal life with Him in Heaven, where he wants us to be. If we try to work for that eternal life, not only is it impossible, but it would also defeat the purpose of His showing of grace to us.

In fact, we can never, and should not, work for gifts - otherwise it is no longer a gift, but a reward to be deserved for all that effort. If that is so, why is it by grace then?

It is undeserved. You don't deserve it. We are unqualified for eternal life. But thank God, he is gracious enough to give it to us. Why so gracious to us when we are sinners almost beyond redemption? You know the famous verse, John 3:16?

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

It is out of his love for us. That's why.

In fact, for us Christians, we should ask for more of His grace, to keep us going everyday. Because of His grace all things are made possible, so let us all bask in His presence and ask for his precious grace, which is sufficient for every single need we have today.

Mas Selamat bin Kastari - How much is his capture worth?

Nothing to do with Christian values and doctrines for this post, in case you're wondering.

I was on the bus today when I was reading off the Mas Selamat bin Kastari poster "Call 999 immediately when you see him."

"Okay," I thought. "He's this terrorist, nothing special, what." But, wow, he's that good at hiding in the concrete jungle of Singapore, and it's been almost 2 months since anyone ever did anything about it, other than the police searching high and low for the jungle monkey who tried to set up a bomb on the airplane.

Say, if the Lord be willing, when someone within My Saviour's Church catches sight of Mas Selamat bin Kastari, probably the police would give some monetary reward, which can be used to fund the building of the new church building at Queensway. Not a bad idea, right? Magnifying the house of God with the sight and clue about Mas Selamat. That is, if none of us truly want the money for ourselves...

But even then, who'd be so daring, as a Singaporean citizen, to comb the entire concrete jungle? Hello, even if we could comb the whole of Singapore(and that includes every single void deck and mama-shops, and every single dusty corner of the house), there's a good chance Mas Selamat could've escaped to other countries. Even with the Interpol in place, combing the entire Earth is no small feat.

Something to think about - Is it possible for Mas Selamat to hide in the North and South Poles? Guess not.

Salvation is for all!

Salvation is by God's grace on us through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord, on His finished work on the cross to overcome sin once and for all, dismantling everything that Satan had ever built. Sure, we Christians no longer do sinful stuff, or rather, do less sinful stuff...

"...but are you sure about him(points at a hardcore ex-convict)? Are you sure he is going to be saved?" a man asked. "He's a hardcore gambler, does extortion from everywhere, a drug-pusher, fearless gangster, a..." The list goes on and on.

The above example shows how we, as humans, still will inadvertently look at people with tinted glasses. But what does our Lord say about people like these?

...They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
-Luke 5:31-32

Indeed! And we have a very good example in the Bible of a great sinner who repented and went back to Jesus - Saul of Tarsus. Saul was a zealous Jewish man who went around persecuting the early church, and observed most of the Jewish laws, and surpassed his forefathers in his zeal. 10 Commandments, the Jewish Torah, you name it, he keeps it. However, Saul was like a tyrant to the early church - he brought many early Christians to prison because of their belief, all the time thinking that he did some service to God. Also, he consented to the stoning of Stephen, who was preaching the Word of God.

Would a person like this, though obeying the Law of Moses but still doing such atrocities, be ever saved and forgiven? The early Christians never offended Saul, but he persecuted the early church because of their belief. Kinda like Hitler, eh? Bearing in mind that the early church was quite small at that point of time, Saul's actions would jolly well have destroyed early Christianity altogether.

He was however saved when he realised by doing so, he was actually persecuting Jesus, the Lord. When he was struck blind, and brought to Ananias, he was baptised, regained sight and straightaway went preaching about Jesus. His conversion from Judaism to Christianity was astonishing, for he was saved by his faith in Jesus. However, if God did not bestow his grace upon Saul(now called Paul), he would not have done the many wonders that he did, such as preaching the word of God throughout Western Europe and the Middle East, the regions around the Great Sea, and producing the 13 Pauline Epistles that we now read, such as I and II Corinthians, Romans, Galatians, etc.

Now, if God is gracious enough to even let Paul be saved and do such things and be such a wonderful apostle of Christ, in spite of his sins and persecution of His people, who is to say that people who are ex-convicts, hardcore gangsters and the outcasts of society cannot receive the love of Jesus?