God Knows Your Fears
by Jon Walker

That night some shepherds were in the fields outside the village, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord's glory surrounded them. They were terribly frightened, but the angel reassured them. "Don't be afraid!" he said. "I bring you good news of great joy for everyone! (Luke 2:8-10 NLT)

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Have you ever noticed God is always telling us to not be afraid? For instance, in the Bible, whenever an angel showed up with a message from God, the first thing the angel said is: “Do not be afraid.”

There are all kinds of reasons we might be afraid to receive a message from God: We’re afraid of change, afraid of losing control, afraid of sacrifice, afraid of not being good enough, afraid to face the fact that we’re not good enough – and would prefer to live in our pretense.

And, I suppose, any us would be afraid if a member of the heavenly host suddenly showed up next to the receptionist at work, or in the middle of the laundry room at home. Ha!

Perhaps our fear comes from this sudden moment when we realize that what we say we believe is really true, with all the implications of what that means. Is a lukewarm faith sustainable in the face of an angel?

Our response to this is not only fear – we have a bad habit of telling ourselves: “Try harder!” It doesn’t help that, frankly, there is so much Christian literature that re-enforces this “Try harder! You should be doing better!” mentality.

Yet the Good News of Great Joy is that you don’t have to be good enough. You don’t have to be good enough because God is enough!

The Bible teaches us to fight fear with faith – faith that Jesus will cover all our sins and shortcomings.

What does this mean?

· Replace your fear with faith – Ask God to help you. Remember, “I believe, Lord; help my unbelief.” The apostle John tells us God’s perfect love drives out all fear.

· Chase God, not perfection – You will never reach perfection, but Jesus, through his death and resurrection, is your perfection. God doesn’t love you because you’re the best kid in the class, or because you try really hard. God loves you because he loves you. Slow down, shake off your anxiety, and meditate on that.

· Expect God to speak to you in the routines of life – The shepherds weren’t on some spiritual retreat seeking God. They were by their flocks, following their routine, maybe even a little bored – then suddenly …. Look for God this week as you go about your routine.

missions 2

on the third day, we headed over to this village called pekan jabi. we made use of this supposed senior citizens home, but which was actually just an empty building somewhat like a classroom. when we went over there, God moved again and this time he dealt with me again in the area of my condemnation. this time qinzheng asked me to renounce those feelings. felt some resistance, but when i finally renounced it i felt even more free and released. ken also told me about refusing to look at what lies behind and just looking forward and be free from the inadequacies.

after that, we had a sharing and the sisters shared on how God revealed to them in their morning devotion about the cross. really inspiring. made me think very hard on what true submission and servanthood to God is. how we tend to take the things of God for granted so easily and lose that reverence for God and just forget how great and impt He is. really like the 'Amen' thing. as Christians, when we say 'Amen', do we say it just cos it is the way we should end a prayer, or do we say it cos we want to ascertain what we have said in our prayer? is God still God after we've been through a tough day?

at night, had a sharing with the brothers. think after our sharing, when we were honest and open with each other, God gave us that unity to stand together as a body of brothers. learning to see how true fellowship should be like and how we can forget about the differences between each other as we stand united when we war against the enemy.

next morning, the brothers had quite a great devotion. think its inspired by the move of God in the sisters' devotion the day b4. not that we copy them (XP), but i think its just that our hunger for God was stimulated lah. guess from this i can learn that seeking God should be an everyday thing, and a touch from God is something that we can get if we are hungry enough for it.

at night had our first outreach, at pekan jabi. was quite discouraged by the turnout initially, cos all children. when worship started i felt quite sian, cos they were singing all the children church songs and such, but i think God just put it in my heart to worship Him no matter what. found that liberation and joy in just worshiping Him. learnt to give everything to him in such circumstances. in the end, however, God had His plan, as we managed to connect with some youths who came very late, and actually one of them i talked to prayed the sinners' prayer.

ok, shall go do some stuff b4 i complete the whole run. more coming up soon...

annie.cheerhuay.chowin.daniel.darren.donovan.joshua.justin.
ken.lamzy.meixian.ningjie.qiaofen.qiying.shuhui.siowfern.
ps linda.ps may.qinzheng.zhi'en

missions 1

decided that blogging about my trip to segamat would take far too much to do at one sitting, so i shall split this job up into a few parts and blog separately. have to finish this by next week else i wont know how to blog for youth camp also! haha...

well, for those who do not know yet, i went for a missions trip in segamat, somewhere in jb, on the 4th - 9th dec. and it was an amazing trip! really met with a lot of fresh things over there and filled with amazement at what God has done in and thru me.

left on a tuesday. nothing eventful happened on the train trip there other than a few photos taken and stuff. the place we went to was this town called jementah. we started to prayer walk the field, cos we were planning to have this sports carnival on that field itself, as one of the first activities organised to specially reach out to the youths over there by any of our missions teams. after that we prayer walked around the main residential area.

after prayer walking, we felt led to go to the basketball court and play with those guys over there. had fun playing with them and connecting with them. but i felt a bit rejected and left out during that period cos i'm not really good at basketball and wasnt able to connect with some of the people there. sort of compared myself to other more extroverted and forthcoming members of the team.

the next day we had the sports carnival, which went on quite successfully. God dealt with me in the area of handling children. all along i always feel that i cannot handle children and never really wanted to be placed in a position to do so. but in the end i got placed with the children's games, instead of the youth sports which i initially expected to participate in. sort of a dying to my own flesh. had fun still, and even though now i cant claim that i am able to deal with kids well, i think i've learnt that God can use me where i am with or without any gifting as long as i am willing

at the start was also very impressed with God moving in the area of word of prophecies. a few words that were given came true, and its really amazing to see such things happen with my own eyes. yup. in the evening of the 2nd day we joined the msian church for prayer meeting, which was a great time. God dealt with me in the area of the spirit of condemnation. all along i always feel very inadequate compared to other people and keep on condemning myself for being unable to build relationships with other ppl, and having few frens, which is a burden i continually carry around with me. but God just lifted it from me during that time, and it feels so refreshing and free lah.

pastor linda also told me that she felt led by God and told me certain things about my family, which is exactly the same things that ps nerina told me a few weeks back. but after trying to deal with the issue and not really seeing any success for a few weeks, got quite discouraged, and i think God is just encouraging me to go on and just have the faith and love. Hallelujah.

really enjoyed the bonding that we all shared as a team, esp among the brothers. feel that this is a community that i can really belong to and really be able to share with, as we all learn to carry each other's burdens. understanding what it means to be brothers and my sisters in Christ, as one family.

more coming up....

annie.cheerhuay.chowin.daniel.darren.donovan.joshua.justin.
ken.lamzy.meixian.ningjie.qiaofen.qiying.shuhui.siowfern.
ps linda.ps may.qinzheng.zhi'en

restored

back again after some time. watch out for the post on the mission trip...

yeah, just a verse that i thought of today while stoning outside the photocopying shop waiting for stuff to be sent to me

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

- 2Cor 9:8

yup, there doesnt have to be any sort of special day for God to show His grace and love for me. cos He gives me the best everyday.

on another note, thanks to those who remembered. :)

this weekend has been quite powerful and refreshing. even though i hardly spent any time doing what i'm supposed to be doing, i dont really have regrets and i trust that God will also help me in that area so that even when i am growing spiritually, He will take care of all the rest. quite interesting to rmb that just last week i prayed to God and told Him that He can deal with me in any way He wants to this week, even though i'm busy with a lot of stuff. now its just about learning to let go, i guess.

started off with prayer mtg. went up for the altar call and just lay down all that was distracting me from God and which made it so hard for me to feel His presence. pastor talked about losing our first love, which i think really relates to me a lot. then EX on saturday. adrian led the worship, and i felt that this time of worship that we had was really very powerful. adrian told us to just focus and concentrate on God, its not about us, but its about Him. and somehow God just moved and let His love become so real to all of us, that when i was singing, i just felt that i was really able to tell God what this song says, not just simply singing and trying to be so emotional about it. altar call was about renewal of our love with God, and i just went up and responded. even though i didnt exactly feel a lot, but i know that God heard my cry and will do something in me.

today was the day that really shook me a lot. lots of things happened, which honestly speaking, was a painful experience, but as i prayed last week, i should not be so afraid of pain. the first thing was a struggle with someone, which i shall not talk abt, cos that will be gossiping. during service, pastor talked about worrying and how that is a sign that we are trying to run our own lives instead of letting God do it. felt that really applied to me. this period i've been worrying up down left right about all sorts of things, and when he was just sharing about how we can let God remove it from us i felt a form of release within me. went up for altar call and asked God to help me give the right to take control of my life back to Him. this time, i knew that God had done something within me and went i left the hall, i just felt so free from all my worries and troubles, something which i had been praying about this whole week.

after that from lunch all the way to the north mtg i was struggling with another area inside of me. i dont think others around me noticed it, but for me the pain of it really stung me. now that i think of it, this is really a way that i was worrying about and is quite a small thing, but i guess that just shows the state of my heart. it was so bad it affected me during the mtg, and i really cried during worship. those feelings of self pity, of fear of rejection, of lack of acceptance were too much for me to take. it seems like quite a trivial and silly thing if i share what that thing i was struggling about is, but i guess it really means a lot to me, much more than i would like to accept. enough of putting on a brave front and saying this does not matter. if it can make me feel so much pain, then i guess its not so small an issue after all.

and i guess today God also revealed to me that my service has been a lot about just seeking the acceptance of people. maybe that's the reason why my passion dies out so easily and i give up on others so easily when they give up also. mingzhu said that she felt that some ppl in the room were going round and round in circles with some problem, and God wants to give them a breakthrough in the area they are facing. i felt that i was one of them. the issue of acceptance is something i have been struggling with since the start of the year, and it really feels like i've been going round and round in circles.

no matter what happens tmr, i hope that i can learn to focus my eyes upon God and learn that it is not about me, but Him. even if those thoughts come back again and haunt me, i hope that i can stand firm in my faith. God, i do not know. You know. and i know that You know best.

everything about tomorrow
i dont seem to understand
but i know who holds tomorrow
and i know who holds my hand

well, its been a weekend with a very hard struggle, but i've finally broken the hold my studies have taken over me, in the last post that i was talking about and certainly all the pain has been worth it. as we read today, consider it pure joy when God is bringing us through trials and difficulties

Amen.