Joseph and the the amazing technicolour coat

The story of Joseph in Genesis is one of my favourite Old testament biblical narratives!! It is so emotional and it tells of God's amazing grace to Joseph, Joseph's trust in God throughout and how he displayed such grace to his family in the end after what his brothers put him through.

Gen 50:20-21 "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today, So do not fear, I will provide for you and your little ones." Thus he comforted them, and spoke kindly to them.

Anyway, i didn't realise that this story was quite famous in the world, and that musical productions have been made about Joseph! Not until my workmate told me about her favourite musical...and she was so kind and thoughtful. She brought me a DVD (different cast) on the musical to watch, which she had watched with her grand-daughter.

Anyway, I was watching it...but i was really disappointed by the storyline of the musical. It all centred around how we can be like Joseph - a dreamer....and in the end, achieving our dreams. He was so arrogant throughout, had no heartfelt empathy for his brothers and father, ....and most importantly, the musical was devoid of God. Joseph had no acknowledgement or dependence on God. Joseph interpreted dreams while in prison of 2 people and also of Pharaoh all on his own accord...like he had some kind of dream interpretation gift.

Andrew Llyodd Webber has produced a musical on Joseph as well (which is the same storyline):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_and_the_Amazing_Technicolor_Dreamcoat
http://www.josephthemusical.com/

anyway, it still is a wonderful narrative as told in Genesis 37-50 in the Bible.

MTS

It's almost the end of April now, 3 months since I started this ministry training apprenticeship (MTS) at FOCUS church UNSW. If you didn't know, I resigned from my full-time job in December to start MTS part-time. Recently, I got called back to my old employer to help out temporarily. It was really not weird being back - I walked thru the doors, sat down at my desk, and it was the same familiar view. It was nice :) But now I have had to leave because another job opportunity came up.

Thank God for everything that has happened. Good and bad.

I have intended to write a newsletter of my MTS days but just haven't gotten round to doing it. Hopefully declaring it right here will motivate me to do so. But my main motivation would be to share more personally & reflect more concretely on how God has taught me from MTS so far, so that I can encourage you also in your walk of faith with Christ. If you would like to hear from me and support me by praying for me, shoot me an email so I can send the newsletter to you too (especially if you're not in FOCUS!)

Today i received a letter in the post (with a local stamp), with my name and address handwritten in blue ink. I opened it and....voila, my driver's licence!!! I didn't even realise i had lost it even though I realised that out of the 6 main pockets in my purse, there was only 5 filled.

The kind person who had returned it to me just wrapped it in white A4 paper, left it unsigned, put it in an envelope and mailed it to me.

I am so clumsy, i think it could have been when i took my driver's licence out and placed it in my pocket coz i didn't wanna carry my wallet.

An act of kindness for a clumsy me. I thank God for who this person is. Uplifted my heavy spirit.

Bye 2009!

the year is ending...and i see i've really neglected this blog....

anyway, been attending my home church since returning to KL. This American pastor, Mike Constantine (who is a former Jehovah's Witness) was speaking on Christmas day. He made this interesting remark:

Anne Rice left vampires for Jesus.

Are we leaving Jesus for vampires???

He said this after giving us some background about Anne Rice, famous author, formerly known as Queen of Goth.

new puppy

I was just reading an article about Michael Jackson's heartfelt conversations with his rabbi friend. It's sad whenever I read how much he went through as a child and realise how judgemental I can be of so many people. It's amazing how when I actually listen to them share their inner feelings and thoughts, it makes me realise how human they are and somehow why they behave like that. It somehow puts away judgemental and any other unloving thoughts. God cares about them, and at least most people would have parents who love them so much, just the way they are. It hit me most a few months back as I was talking to someone's mum, and as she told me the "agony" she went through , i thought of how i was at that time and how I did not have the depth of love she had for her son and how I did not see the risk he was in and the depth of his courage the way she saw it. If our parents are so able to love us despite our flaws, God is even more so able to see past our ugly self and understand us, and yet love us so much and that love does not equate to ignoring our ugliness.

The saddest thing was watching the video of MJ's daughter crying and saying how her daddy was the best. No matter his potential wrongdoings that some people may profess to be true of him, his life just shouts out to me not to judge and condemn or make jokes, but to speak of him in the best way of love. And not just him, but whoever else.

Easy to say again..but difficult to do, especially when I meet people who are just beyond me..

Anyway, my dad bought a new female puppy. My brother says " she's smooth as a baby's bottom, long tail, grey in colour.." Both my brother and sister are asking for names...any thoughts? They are thinking "Beanie". She looks quite cute =)

love

Been thinking about love, God's love ~1 John 3-4

And recently, this passage comes to mind a lot:

Love is patient and kind;
Love does not envy or boast;
it is not arrogant or rude.
It does not insist on its own way;
it is not irritable or resentful;
it does not rejoice at wrongdoing,
but rejoices with the truth.
Love bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things,
endures all things.

Love never ends.

~1 Corinthians 13:4-8a (ESV)

Values

Back to Christian Values - the word "values" is kinda playing on my mind but i haven't thought really that much about it. All I've thought about is that I don't think what I told my auntie were the core Christian values. I'm doing this Christian ethics course now, and we've been looking at the differences between duty (things we do) ethics and virtue (the way we are) ethics. And I would say to love God with all your heart, soul & mind and to love others is more an action thing rather than values (similar to virtues? or character) we should have.

Anyway, just reading this Purpose-Driven Life devotional entry by Rick Warren (24/8/09 - "God says you are valuable")

The question he posed was - What determines value in life? (Value here not exactly similar to the value I was talking about above. However, it's interesting how words u take for granted - which I often do & can't see beyond unlike some ppl who can- suddenly seem more meaningful. How the simple meaning of a word is expanded to use in different areas but somehow its meaning has its core origin still retained)

Anyway, what determines value in life? He says 2 things:

1) Depends on how much someone is willing to pay for it - if he's willing to pay $50,000 for that piece of art crap, then it must be very high value to him

2) Depends on who owned it in the past - if that piece of smelly stinking sock belongs to Michael Jordan, then yes, some crazy person is definitely going to be willing to pay a lot for it.

Rick Warren's point being if you're a Christian, do u see how valuable you are?

God was willing to pay the highest price for you (who would give up his own son for anyone?)

and who owns u? God does because he bought you.

Thus, you are acceptable and just worth so much value in God's eyes.

Anyway, in what way does this definition of value relate to what are core Christian values?

another time....going to have a shower now.

if anyone (whoever reads this) feels like thinking and contributing, please feel free to do so :)