Didnt you know? Christianity isnt a religion. Its a relationship.

Before I got to Poly, I always used to think that Christianity was a many complicated and restrictive thing.

In Civics and Moral Classes..since pri school even, we were taught that that there were a few big religions in Spore. Christianity, Islam, Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism...

Amazingly enough...when they talked about Christianity.... I didnt have a personal connection to Christianity..except that I knew what they were talking about. Jesus, Cross, Resurrection, Washing away of sins etc

Note: I was a christian then. Since young, I followed my grandma to church..went through some sunday school etc

But I never had the motivation to continue with sunday school...

Then as i got older...God started to mean something to me after I looked back on all the instances that he was in my life.
1) I was facing the wrong way when my mum was giving birth to me. We had to do a cesarean to get me out safely
2) I almost drowned in the adult pool
3) I feel and hit my chin...the skin around my chin opened up...Had to go to hospital to get it stitched
4) I could have gotten abducted when I tried to walk home from sch w my friends...in Pre-sch
5) I had liquid in my lungs and had to stay in the hospital for 1 week...had to pump my phlegm out
6) I almost fell off the side of Bukit Timah Hill during Sec Sch trekking..it was raining
7) Scored highest for Eng exam when my composition inspired by King David..pulled me up
8) Failed my A's, ended up in Poly
9) Got into many many opportunities to host, sing, act, dance
10) Went through a bad relationship...came out eventually being stronger for God
11) Got to be in the SP Musical, performed in Mediacorp, Esplanade
12) Got to work w students in DSD
You must be wondering which part of each incident was God involved... I believe..every part. Worse could have happened but it didnt. Many of these things led to the next. Without the 1st, the latter wouldnt have happened and more blessings wudnt have happened and I wouldnt be where i am now.

But back to the topic.
The Bible says that Jesus told the people to pray in this manner "Our Father In Heaven..."
The word "Father" in itself is a very personal word. For you to address someone as Father means he is someone who has given birth/created you,
Then answer me this..did not God do this to Adam?
We too are created by God because He knew us before we were formed in our mother's womb. He knew us and our temperaments. His word is His Bible and His Bible is full or words of wisdom, counsel, encouragement.
For us who read the bible and take into consideration His word, is as if we are listening to our Father's counsel. Even everything Jesus personally said in the Bible is God's word because Jesus says that everything he does is from the Father. Like how Moses who was not eloquent before he was appointed by God to lead the Jews out of Egypt...he got every word that he spoke to Pharoah..from God. God-inspired.

God is personal to us because He is our Father. Aside from the Bible, like how Moses & Jesus received personal words from God the Father...likewise we have this privilage. Our Father never changes.

Yes some may argue that our relationship with our own earthly fathers are not always strong too so maybe our relationship with our Father doesnt have to be close
But as is said...earthly fathers.
Our Father in heaven isnt earthly and is not succeptible to world issues. He loves us in pure love, unconditional, gentle at times, firm when needed. Encouraging at times...but with counsel and rebuking at times when needed. Our fathers who are prone to this..dont always know the best way to handle us or at times..are unable to do so for many reasons.
And btw..which other Father lets His eldest son die for his other children?

I guess the biggest difference between seeing christianity as a relationship as opposed to a religion...is that...the starting point is different.
In a Father child relationship...there is not choice...your Father comes before you and loves you before you come out. No father in the right mind hates his child before they are born. Most of them, smile in amazement when they feel for their child's kicking in the Mother's belly..some tear when they see their child's heartbeat during the doctor's checkup. When  the child is born, hardly conscious of whats around them, the father 's first look at his child causes his own heartbeat to speed up. He holds his child nervously for fear of hurting the little life. All before the child proves its worth of being a good son/daughter.
Seeing it from this way...putting God into the place of an earthly father...how can you not love your Heavenly Father? The one who waited for you to be born since the beginning of time?

In a religion, there is choice. Yes some people are born a christian..born a muslim child..but they're personal belief in God is dependent on themselves. Your faith isnt determined by whether you are born a particular religion..or the length of time you are labelled a christian/catholic etc..its by what's in your heart.
You can choose your religion..you can choose to believe wholeheartedly in it..to follow its rules/rituals..or you can choose to be a free thinker. Free to think.

Calling Christianity a religion belittles the immense love God has for us! Belittles His forthcomingness to bring us nearer to Him. Belittles His grace..and focuses on us having to go to Him.

When people mention certain religions...they automatically think of the religious buildings and how people go there to pray to their God.
Actually..they belittle how God is always around us and aside from the church, we can also speak to Him, be in His prescence anywhere, anytime.

Some people are labelled as religious when they adhere and commit to the rituals etc..As a relationship, the doing isnt the main point...is how deep our love for God is...not always displayed using rituals

Yes Christianity is a relationship with God...because without 1st feeling His love, we would never be convinced to be a true Christian.without 1st feeling His love, we wouldnt have the lasting drive to keep going to Him, to keep believing Him, to keep fighting for Him.

God Bless

Blessed my socks off!

Admittedly I was in a bawt of depression in the past few days..and there was growing contempt for certain people. Very inrightous of me and I felt Satan pointing his little finger at me, calling me names by my ear...

Anyway yesterday, I was to go for the Music Ministry Meeting in the evening...before going, I spoke to God in my heart of how much I needed to clear my negative mood...

And during the meeting, He did just that.

1 of the senior lead worshippers led the entire youth, adult and chinese choir in worshipping and it was powerful. Just without singing...we were soaked in God's love...Just basking in it..I could have been very content..standing in the congregation,,smiling to God.

Pastor spoke about the gift of the Holy Spirit and how speaking in tongues isnt just jibberish (as I had thought years years ago) but God's most impt gift to us. It was his 1st gift to us when the Holy Spirit swept over the  apostles and those who were int he upper room...worshipping and waiting for Him.
And the 1st gift was the most impt.

How impt?
Well..when God gave Moses the 10 Commandments...2k were punished for worshipping Baal..The commandements was the 1st Pentecost. the time God gave the Holy Spirit..it was also Pentecost..only this time...2K people were saved. Nothing is a coincidence and so it is relevent tht such a parallel is considered.
The 1st was law while the latter is grace. Truth and grace came by Jesus Christ and we as christians are no longer ruled by Law but by Grace. :)
That hit me on how impt speaking in tongues is.

Note: its not a MUST DO thing....Speaking in tongues isnt a rule. its a gift right. So gift is different from rules..you can choose to use it or not..BUT if someone gives you a precious gift..wouldnt you want to use it? As opposed to just putting it in the corner?

And as Paul in the bible says...we who are mere humans and having our won flaws, dnt know how to pary the right things from God. If so, then the best person to help us ask is the Holy Spirit in us right. And if the Holy Spirit in us asks on our behalf, the best way is to speak in a language that best communicates wht we truly need. Tongues. So yes we wont know what we're uttering but in faith..we believe that the Holy Spirit knows what we need the most and is conveying that same msg to God.
And who knows! a mere few seconds of speaking in tongues could be a request for many things at once..as opposed to our limited english words..
And we all have soo many people we want to pray for...even for people far from us whom we care for. They mght be going through a situation that we are not informed of at that moment...and as humans..we cant save/help something if we dont know about it right. Only God sees it.
With tongues...the Holy Spirit will help us pray for those we care for..those whom we know /dont know that needs our prayer. How complete a prayer!!! :D

And Eph 5: 15 says that we be not fools and act wisely to redeem time...because days are evil (labourous/stessful)
How do we redeem time? by keeping God's laws in our mouth.
Which could be puzzling because Ephesians is a new testemant time..God who said that we are no longer ruled by law could not be indicating that we go back to the rules again...and looking at the parallel that what replaces the law..is the tongues that we speak from our mouths..it would beheath us to think that God's law  mentioned here is now the same tongues he gave us during the Pentecost.

And that would imply that by speaking in tongues..we would be able to redeem time.

Dnt be mistaken..its not a physical going back in time..we dnt time travel..but nothing would stop God from doing that for us. After all, our entire mankind "timeframe" is infront of him. The entire stretch! He seens everything in 1 glance! He sees your lifestory in 1 page!
And He can help you change/redeem time. No butterfly effect involved because He is greater than time and Satan..
It doesnt mean that you would end up with your ex bf/gf again..or your grandma wouldnt die etc...but it means that the repercussions of the incident would be different. Your wounds would heal...your relationship between those you used to hate would be less negative adn who knows...that relatonship would turn for the better...your family relationship will turn from bitter to sweet.
Wow! I believe that God will do that for my family! I saw an image of my family being covered by a big tent...God's protection over us! His healing our hearts and health and bond. Amen!
I pray hte same for my clubs and all those Im connected to. A HUGE cover!!! :D

And the biggest point in all this..for this revelation to work for us...is to know how much God loves us. :)

If we as humans can give our children good things...what more our heavenly father in heaven? He wont spoil us of course....but he will provide for us if we ask in faith.
Eg: We who know that our father has no money..wouldnt be heartless enough to ask him to buy an iphone for us..but if we asked him to bring us to the park...he would do it wholeheartedly.
If we know God and His will, we will know whats right or wrong to ask for.

ANd whats his will?
He has riches galore and would willingly provide us with riches and good health unless it was harmful for us. What would God not want us to be? Simple! A people who did not glorify him..a people who didnt love Him..who abused the gifts He gives us. Who worship the gifts He gives us instead of Him!
And so if we can keep our hearts steady...to not see money/work/health selfishly and abuse them..Wouldnt God provide?
It sounds vague but its not that hard to understand. Think from a human perspective.our human definition of love is a shadow of His magnitude of love!
And if you think about it..Jesus who claimed htat He did everything His Father asked Him to do...didnt reject anyone from receiving health! Eveyrone who came to Him and believed in His healing..got healed! Jesus didnt push anyone away and say: God says you cant be healed until you learnt your lesson or until you came back to God.

By doing so, it would deter more people from following Him again. He healed them (those who thought he could heal) and those who were healed..believed in Him and followed Him, praised His name and in turn believed God. They received the blessings and then repented..then fully believed.
Im sure there were some who only went to find Him coz they thought He could heal....thats all..some might not have believed He was the Messiah but only went over for His healing powers! Or some had doubts before asking as well but gave it a try.Some didnt even ask for healing and they got it!
So unfair if you think about it! But our God is generous and loves us all. Remember the lame man at the pool of Bethesda? The blind man at the pool of Shiloam? They didnt ask for healing! In fact, the lame guy trusted in his own works or others works..waiting for people to put him into the pool to get healing. WHEN JESUS WAS THERE!!! Why not get people to bring him to JEsus instead or waiting at a pool?!?!?!

I had the intention of blogging other revelations I received through the day but couldnt remember them..sigh.

Yesterday...I sorta missed the wed bible study :D It gave me a peace to strengthen me for hte next half of the week. Oh Well!

Today was a good day. :)

Thanks Daddy God! Thanks Abba!!!

God Bless

Joshua Harris - Saying Goodbye to Dating

I admit that I was looking forward to reading this book.

Took awhile to get to it because  had another book I wanted to finish..Darlene Zchech's Extravagant Worship. Also a very good read.

i guess its only fair that I introduce both books.

Being in the church choir, it can be abit hard to keep my mind on praising God and being in his rest..when you;re trying hard to remember the lyrics to the songs..and admittedly the human part of me thinks about the privilage of performing onstage too...which shudnt be the case...
I read that book and I learnt more than just keeping my mind together as a choir member..but what it means to be an extravagant worshipper...to give him praise in everything we do especially his worship ministry.
Because worship ministry people are always in the limelight..its important to keep our integrity as worship "leaders" because we minister to the masses too.
As christians...we are inevitable "on a smaller scale" worship leaders. When we face our daily tasks..a cheerful, peaceful christians gives God a better image than a depressed christian...
Darlene also pointed out many of her personal experieinces that register close to my heart too and the book really spoke to me...motivating me to change for the better.

Joshua Harris's book
I always thought I was the only one who had to go through numerous self persuading sessions to psycho myself not like this or that guy.
I may not have seemed like I was wavering but for certain people, my will was bending...
And it was these moments that made me wonder what God's take was on dating/relationships etc.
To be honest..I recently had so much difficulty getting over someone whose mannerisms made it even harder for me to do it.
This book gave me so much encouragement and clarity about what God wants for us..about how we should handle our relationships with other youth.
I got a renewed strength on how to prevent myself from getting into situations where things or people would cause my heart to sway...
Dont be mistaken..this book doesnt encourage christians to stay single..it does however mention that singlehood is a time for christian youth to prepare themselves for a longterm relationship.
Obviously...to go overseas for further studies or do missionary work..it isnt good to have a gf or bf waiting for you or have to suffer teh heartbreak if the relationship turns sour as you are overseas.
So God has his plan for all of us. He knows when is hte best time for us to be ready for a relationship.

I was very blessed by this book. And while I may face certain people now and still get the tightening of the heartstrings...or butterfly in the tummy...I know that I can depend on God to tell me when the time is right..and what to do to prevent myself from getting further into the mess if I already know that things wouldnt work out.

Aside from all this..life is good. I won't say any worse than that because I want to claim my blessings.
The power of the tongue is truly powerful. It can work for us or against us.

My mum went to church yesterday. :) She heard Pastor's preaching on sin having no dominion on us..and us living by grace instead of law. She also heard Pastor preach on Martha and Mary and how Martha worries about many things while Mary takes th chance to sit by Jesus feet to hear the word.
I know that spoke to me and I really hope she got the message too.
After so many years of living under the Ho family...she has so many worries that were earlier inflicted on her..but as the years go by..she is now the one who inflicts these worries on herself.
I hope that with God's word and her reading of teh bible...she will realize just how good God's love is. :)

Ive come to realize that theres soo many thigns i wanna do but all needs time and money. Im truly ashamed by the ears Ive wasted....doing things I shundt spend time on..and not doing things that I wish I had learnt by now...But I will put my faith on God for the restoration of years..the blessings to absorb skills faster.
I refuse to give up on my dreams..including songwriting...doing sound etc

K shall stop here. :) I admit i havnt been reading my bible....Just cleaned my table so I hope to use it again soon. :P Back to Jesus's feet... :) Afer a long day...

God BLess