Monday, November 26, 2007

Faith & Grace

1 Peter 1:6-7
"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine, and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed."

How genuine is your faith, is it one that will stand firm through the fires, and not even be shaken? When you look at a house that gets burnt down, it doesn't stay up much longer, even the high heats can cause the building to collaspe. What is so strong that even the fire can't burn down? Even gold will perish in fire..........wow, but God's word teaches us that your faith in God can be stronger than the fire, that it can grow to that place that it will not be burn down by anything.

It goes to show that there is so much that our faith needs growing. It needs to be tested, it needs to be put through trials and fires. It needs to be tested to the extent that even when all around you falls, your faith in God will still draw you back to Him. Is that your faith today? That is the question that I asked myself this couple of days. I have been tempted to give up in certain things that I have been doing, and many a times, it is situational/circumstantial experience that cause me to just feel like giving it all in. But every time when I get there, I am reminded with the fact that God is with me, how can I not trust God?

Last night's sermon about appropriating God's grace in our lives, brings to mind again and again how great God is to me, and how much He loves me. And how much grace He lavishes on me. I'm so glad that there is such a thing as GRACE. Though you don't deserve it, but God still wants to give it to you. I feel so priviledge that God has chosen to give to those who believe in Him, His grace. His grace is more than sufficient, and when you can experience the grace of God in your life, that may spur you on to continue to stick it through with God, and grow in your faith, because of who you know God to be. I pray that you will grow in the genuiness of your faith in God as you continue to understand God's grace in your life too.

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

The Last One Year

It has been one year, since this blog site has started. As I look back at all the different entries, I realise that God has done a lot in this last one year. Though time has flown so quickly, yet the times past has brought a lot of rough edges to smooth ones, because of the work of God. Looking at it, God has been growing in me the different fruits of the spirit, in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. How amazing that through it all, God never steer away from what He has promise us, but rather, it is our discipline to stick to God.

One of the huge area that God is really growing me in is LOVE. Loving God, deeper, and deeper each day. Every time the going gets tough, I realise that one basic principle that God reminds me of is to understand His LOVE. How great His Love is, that it embraces and emcompasses all things. 1 Cor 13 tells us all about His Love, but the question is are you able to live out what 1 Cor 13 says. It is almost impossible, but yet I find that it can be done if we choose to grow deeper in love with God, and love Him and know Him for who He is in our lives. The struggles of ministries, life, career, and everything brings me to a deeper place with God. The dryness that I went through in the times of those struggles, has brought me to a greater thirst for God. I did wonder how some people have shared that God brings us through a dryness for a purpose. That season is not just for us to feel defeated and question and doubt God, but that season is a time of testing, where God wants you to rely on Him in a deeper level. I have come to a point where I felt totally dried up like a desert, but I could never understand what has kept me going, only in the depth of my heart, I knew that God is with me, and that He is the only one that I can rely and come back to. That was like such a source of strength for me, and when I look at it, even in the downcast of my soul, I realise that God has used me still, to bless many others who do not yet know Him, and even more so, brought people back to God.

This season hasn't been the easiet of all, but yet, I do feel refreshed.......refresh to start a new season with God, and refresh to know that He has something new in plan for me, one where I can learn to grow and rely on God more. Many things when I look at it, I wondered where on earth or how i am ever going to be able to do it, but God has done it for me. And when I look at the year ahead, in 2008, there seems a lot more mountains to climb, but that feels good that there is more that we can conquer then. More new grounds and territories that we can claim for Jesus.

I pray that you too, before the year end, if you are reading this, to start looking ahead, and planning how you can equip yourself to conquer those mountains ahead. Mountains are not challenges that are hard or impossible, unless you make them to be one. Mountains are just new grounds to cover, and you need to get high to get over it. So rise up to cover those new grounds.