Covered

But— When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. Because of his grace he declared us righteous and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life. (‭Titus‬ ‭3‬:‭4-7‬ NLT)

Risen King!

Acts 3:15

"You killed the author of life, but God raised Him from the dead."

Whom Words Cannot Express

There are words for Him that I don’t have them

You see my brain have not yet reached a point

Where it can form a thought that can adequately describe the greatness of my God

And my lungs have not yet developed the ability to release a breath or have enough opportunity to breathe out the greatness of His love

And my voice

You see my voice is so inhibited, restrained by human limits that it’s hard to even sing the praise of

You see if there are words for Him then I don’t have them

My God

His grace is remarkable, mercies are innumerable, strength is impenetrable

He is honourable, accountable, favourable

He is unsearchable yet knowable

Indefinable yet approachable

Indescribable yet personal

He is beyond comprehension, further than imagination

Constant through generations, King of every nation

But if there are words for Him, then I don’t have them

You see my words are few, and to try and capture the one true God using my vocabulary will never do

But I use words as an expression. An expression of worship to a Saviour

A Saviour who is both worthy and deserving of my praise so I use words

My heart extols the Lord, blesses His name forever

He has won my heart, captured my mind and has bound them altogether

He has defeated me in my rebellion, conquered me in my sin

He has welcomed me into His presence, completely invited me in

He has made Himself the object of my sight, flooding me with mercies in the morning, drowning me with grace in the night

But if there are words for Him, then I don’t have them

But what I do have is good news!

For my God knew that man-made words will never do

For words are just tools that we use to point to the Truth

So He sent His son Jesus Christ as The Word, living proof

He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation

For by Him all things were created, giving nothingness formation

And by His words He sustains in the power of His name

For He is before all thing and over all things He reigns 

Holy is His name, so praise Him for His life

The way He persevered His strife

The humble Son of God becoming the perfect sacrifice

Praise Him for His death

That He willingly stood in our place, that He lovingly endured the grave, that He battled the enemy and on the third day rose in victory!

He is everything that was promised

Praise Him as a risen King, lift your voice and sing

For one day He will return for us

And we will finally be united with our savior for eternity, eternity!

So it’s not just words that I proclaim

For my words point to The Word and The Word has a name

Hope has a name

Joy has a name

Peace has a name

Love has a name

And that name is Jesus Christ

Praise His name forever!

Passion & Purity - Elizabeth Elliot, 1984

To be able to finish a book on my own account, any kind of books, I'd say could be some sort of a marker of major milestones in my life. And I'm proud to say, I made it through.

Not that the book was a chore or anything close to that, just my lack of discipline to follow through. In fact, Passion and Purity is such a good read, I have been revisiting my tags and favourite quotes from the book over and over again. Love it!

Though mainly a book on relationships, it is the principles of surrendering and obedience that stood out for me over and over again in this title. The reality that we all struggle (passion) but have the capacity for purity through surrender and obedience. Decided to relive the book again before returning it to its rightful owner (long overdue, must've been about a year ago since I borrowed it). These quotes inspired and taught me so much:

'The fair new petals must fall, and for no visible reason. No one seems enriched by the stripping. And the first step into the realm of giving is a like surrender - not manward but Godward: an utter yielding of our best. So long as our idea of surrender is limited to the renouncing of unlawful things, we have never grasped its true meaning: that is not worthy of the name for "no polluted thing" can be offered'

'If my life is broken when given to Jesus, it is because pieces will feed a multitude, while a loaf will satisfy only a little lad'

'Discipleship usually brings us into the necessity of choice between duty and desire. They are not always mutually exclusive however.'

'Waiting on God requires the willingness to bear uncertainty, to carry within oneself the unanswered question, lifting the heart to God about it whenever it intrudes upon one's thoughts'

'Waiting means: 
Steadfastness, that is holding on
patience, that is holding back
expectancy, that is holding the face up
obedience, that is holding one's self in readiness to go or do
listening, that is holding quiet and still so as to hear'

'The effect of my troubles depends not on the nature of the troubles themselves but on how I receive them. I can receive them with both hands in faith and acceptance, or I can rebel and reject.'

'Wouldn't a mere simple request from God to trust Him be sufficient? Is it absolutely necessary for Him to yank out of sight whatever we most prize, to drag us into spiritual traumas of the severest sort, to strip us naked in the winds of His purifying Spirit in order that we should learn to trust?'

'Our vision is so limited we can hardly imagine a love that does not show itself in protection from suffering. The love of God is of a different nature altogether. It does not hate tragedy. It never denies reality. It stands in the teeth of suffering. The love of God did not protect His own Son. That was the proof of His love - that He gave that Son, that He let Him go to Calvary's cross, though "legions of angels" might have rescued Him. He will not necessarily protect us - not from anything it takes to make us like His son. A lot of hammering and chiseling and purifying by fire will have to go into the process'

'If you goal is purity of heart, be prepared to be thought very odd'

'We belonged first to Christ, wanting Him to claim our hearts' affections before all others'

He Speaks Love Without Saying the Words

It's Father's Day - the day that means so much to me because of the person this special day celebrates! The man, the hero, the dad. Here goes a little post to brag about a dad who loves me so, in his own special way. 

I can't say that he is a perfect dad (not that I can define an ideal dad), but after 22 years of being the daddy's girl, I know for certain that he has given his best go at trying to be all that he believes a dad should be. That, makes him a great dad and I wouldn't trade him for anything/anyone else! 

To begin with, he only had one go at learning how to be dad. There was no one before to practice, there has never been anyone after for him to perfect the daddy's role. And from an early stage, he had to be superman to fill two shoes. I'm sure it was a task no one taught him how to go about fulfilling, but all that matters was that he worked his best and I'm a witness to that. 

I was glancing through some antique photos the other day of dad in his younger days - without the beer-belly and white hair, clad in his pair of bell-bottom jeans and hippie-styled hair (super handsome young man). He didn't look anything like a father material, more of a man who just wants to live the "life" and go wild. And people said he wasn't anything like who he is today. I'm dead proud of how far he has come, that I believe he has given so much of himself to love and keep his daughter. 

Dad has his own unique ways of expressing his love, without saying the words. I always described him as a china-ching-chung dad who doesn't know how to express himself, or say things like "I love you" bluntly. He quietly gives of himself to put food on the table to make sure we live comfortably. He doesn't allow me to lift a finger when it comes to doing the tough chores. I'm blessed! Dad isn't exactly the role model kind of dad, in fact there are many things that I'll say, don't learn from him. But I appreciate that he has given his best shot, and that he loves me in his own ways that I've some to appreciate and understand being his daughter for the past 22 years. 

When I'm the first one he calls on every special occasion like my birthday, new year, christmas. When he sends simple cute text like "I love you" while learning how to SMS, when he puts the food that I crave on the table, when he gets up to swap rooms with me cause there's a cockroach in my bedroom, when he worries and stays up whenever I come home late - I know this daddy loves me beyond reason. 

It's father's day everyday when you have a dad like that. Now that things are slightly different, I learn to also tell him I love him, without saying the words. Oh, we share a special love language! 

I Have A Dream

Tonight, I'm dreaming. 

I think this is really the first time I've got a dream birthed in this heart of mine that makes me giggle to myself. Even the need to think twice, rephrase, think thrice before penning it down because it sounds so silly even to myself. The voice within keeps saying it can't be done. It's one of those dreams that I daren't exclaim, just quietly dream and think, and think and dream. But it's way too cool just the mere thought of it to simply brush it aside and ignore it. 

Wouldn't it be nice, wouldn't it be nice. 

To bring gifts and talents together and offer it up as an offering and shout to the world that everything we have we give for the glory of Him who first gave us our very breath? An altar upon that stage that would leave them thinking, there's got to be more. More than religion, more than rituals - but every breath and every move was given so the creator could be glorified.

There we go again: I'm smiling to myself, dreaming. 

No More Than You Can Bear

God will not give me more than I can bear; this I believe this with all my heart. And this promise is what I'm standing upon to pull through a really tough year. It has been a prolonged period of trials and testings, and it doesn't seem to be ending anytime soon. 

In all honesty, humanly speaking, it's been very tough. Strings of situations coming on like waves, before you could breathe you come under another. I think I have never had it any tougher than this - from home, to school to ministry. It would be so easy to just hide under this mass of junk and wallow in all my tiredness and emotions and let it eat me up on the inside.

But somehow, something in me doesn't allow me to do so. In all the small situations that God has carried me through, He has been shaping and strengthening the core of my being. I know I'm stronger than I used to be, stronger than I ever thought I could be. 

I'm no iron woman, neither is my heart made of stone. I hurt and cry, but pick myself up knowing God will not give me more than I can bear. As much as the thought of these situations can be overwhelming, when I'm put through it His strength overtakes and carries me through. 

Just when it seems like a situation will swallow you up like a tidal wave, He comes and hide you under His wings. It's such a beautiful picture isn't it? Yet a lot of times, we run away when we see the incoming waves and go under even before we really encounter it. We allow the mere thought of it to inject fear into our hearts that paralyze us; we wallow in all that emotions that doesn't move you ahead. 

We need to learn to trust in the promises of God and just who He has proven Himself to be - faithful, loving, Abba Father. That should give the courage and strength to come head-on with not just a wave, even a tsunami - what's that to our big God? 

When you walk through deep waters you will not drown, that's what He promised. You will be surfing above those waves, having a whale of a time! He will never give you more than you can bear, even if it looks like more than what you can bear. 

Trust. 

His Miracle, Your Faith

Happy new year folks! This is it, it's 2012! Which also means school is starting in less than a week. Oh bummer!

Well, I am supposed to tuck myself in to bed by now. Attempting to adjust back the body clock in preparation for school, but (there's always a "but"!) I've also been wanting to post something since a couple of days now. It is plain to see what took preeminence.

So what was it that I wanted to share so badly that I'm "sacrificing" my sleep for? Read a very familiar story in the Book of Mark the other day and got an important reminder from "upstairs". Which, I thought would be good to share it with you too! This is probably a story that you'll go "orh, that one ah", simply because it has been quoted so many times in our pastors' preaching. Nonetheless, it teaches us such an important principle and today, let this serve as a reminder to us! Hopefully it'll change the way we pray, that way we see situations and people around us.

Jesus was teaching in the synagogues and the place where He was at was so packed out that there were even people standing outside the building. Then came four guys, who looked at their paralyzed friend and decided that today shall be his day of miracle. Seeing that there was no way they could get their friend through the crowd and to Jesus, they carried him up to the roof, tore a hole in that roof just so they could lower their friend to Jesus. The best part of the story is this, that Jesus seeing their faith (the four dudes) said to the paralyzed man (who was probably in shock and embarrassment because of what his friends put him through) "your sins are forgiven" and healed him!

The paralyzed guy was the one in need, but he couldn't do anything to get himself to Jesus. He may not even have wanted to get to Jesus in the first place, but poor chap would not had been able to put up much of a struggle against his four friends anyway. But he had friends who cared enough about his condition and who had faith to believe for his miracle. They didn't just have faith, they had a breakthrough faith. Can you imagine what would have happened, if their friends saw the massive crowd between them and Jesus and decided, 'sorry dude, too crowded man. I guess it's just not your day'. That chap would probably have died a paralytic.

These four friends were so desperate for the miracle of their paralyzed friend that NOTHING could stop them from bringing their friend to Jesus, even if it meant extra work, even if it meant going out of the way. They had resolved in their hearts they were going to go all the way to Jesus.

This generation is full of paralytics. People whom we know needs to get to Jesus so they could receive their miracle. Whether they want to or not, that's not the issue. Because you and I know, Jesus is their solution. Problem is, there is a lack of people who have that breakthrough faith the four friends had. A faith that would go all the way, past every kind of obstacles and in-between, till you actually get your friend to Jesus! A lot of us stop when we see the crowd, when it requires too much of us, when it gets too difficult. We need to ask God today, for a tenacity not just when it comes to our own needs, but even when we begin to see the needs of others, that we'll go all the way for them, just to see them receive their miracles because of our faith, our prayer, our perseverance.

I have friends whom I know need Jesus today, whom I need to begin standing in the gap for, for their salvation and their coming back to Jesus. My prayer tonight is that I'll have that same breakthrough faith for them to go all the way in my prayers and intercessions, in my love and concern for them. That I'll not stop until I bring them to Jesus. At the end of the day, I can't bring about their miracle, only Jesus can. But I'll do all I can, and pray that they receive their miracle because I never would give up!

Who are you standing in the gap for today? Are you willing to pay the price, to go all the way, so that your loved ones can get to Jesus & receive their miracle because of your faith.