PH1 Moments

The great thing about God and life group is that despite having a shocking week, I just enjoyed being in the presence of God and fellowshipping with PH1.

Just checked Mae’s ‘It’s a sad day video’ - it’s brilliant stuff. Daniel Tang’s reputation as a brilliant actor just went up a notch, which I will constantly remind him at UQ Link. He’s doing the Tang name proud

After watching the PH1 jam session, I can seriously say we have an overload of talent on our hands . Check out the video - the jamming was hot. It’ll be awesome to see a couple years down the track to have this team leading praise and worship for Service :D.

So the Powerhouse 1 injokes so far:

- Doing the ‘Don’

- ‘It’s a sad day’

Life group - THE place to be on a Sunday afternoon.

#34 Reason to be nice to me…

Found this on a Facebook Group. I so should put this on a shirt and sell it to all the UQ Law Students. Or if that venture fails, to future shepherding sessions….

Where the love (and laughs along the way) lasts forever

So I throw my life upon all You are,
‘Cause I know You gave it all for me,
And when all else fades,
My soul will dance with You,
Where the love lasts forever.

Life group at Powerhouse 1 was awesome today - really felt God move in our group. Where else would you have wilful property damage (those poor innocent chopsticks), discovering what superpowers everyone truly wants, eating home made scones, watching Olympic Volleyball and so much more. Mr Leon Toh also demonstrated why he should get another call up for praise and worship leading at Ablaze Service hint hint

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

I shared this passage and I felt that God was really tugging at my heart about which do I love more “Him or my ministry?” It’s so easy to be lost in doing so many things to make ourselves look so spiritual and so religious to the outside world. Shepherding, leading praise, serving at Service - don’t get me wrong, these things are awesome, but in our Christian life, it’s not really the main point.

In the past, I’ve prayed for God to give me strength to serve him in ministry. “Help me be more eloquent”, “help me be more adequate”, “help me be more talented”, all that jazz. But this passage reminds me that I need strength to love God as he loves me. Because that’s the thing about Christ’s life - we can never fathom, we can never understand. However what is known is that coming from that is changed people. People willing to serve, people willing to live a life of extremes, so live in advance what they can only understand in reverse. To serve with excellence, even when no one is watching.

We serve in Ablaze not because several passages in Corinthians, Galatians and Ephesians tell us to do so, but because out of the overflow of our love for God, it translate to something real and tangible in our daily life and is reflected in life, love, ministry and all that is between.

God, when all else is said and done, let my life be spent in the love that lasts forever.

You Reign

What could stand before You
As You chose to embrace
A cross so undeserved You took for me
The weight of sin upon You
When You offered Your life
As You walked the streets of men
With fading strength

How could we live but not see
Your sacrifice
Your glory

You reign, You reign
Over everything Lord, You reign
With power, and justice divine
Over everything Lord, You reign

What was Your last thought
As You drew Your last breath
Where the victory was Yours for us to see
And all will know the truth
As we live by Your grace
Every praise to You alone

See now the King of Glory
Love of God become my calling
Father I surrender all I am to You forever

Food for Thought

Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays.

Soren Kierkegaard

Gummi Bears: Behind the Packaging…

Every time I look at this picture, I can hear my Criminal Law Lecturer going “can anyone tell me what the physical elements for this offence is?”

Poor Gummi Bear.

Funny Exchange & Fasting

I remember this little excerpt when the Ablaze leaders and champs had just finished a leadership session with the Hope Singapore leaders. Rapheal was showing LIz and I a cool collage of a photo of several Hope Singapore people which look not dissimilar to this:

It led to this exchange:

Raphael: He is being hungry, she is cool, he’s being Buddha –

Pastor Shirley (passing by):  Buddha?

Raphael: I think he was being this, I don’t know what she was doing…being seductive I guess and he was –

Pastor Shirley: SEDUCTIVE?! That’s my sheep! What have you been teaching her - extra shepherding.

As you can tell, my recall is not 100% perfect but it still gives me a good laugh every now and then.

*

With 40 day fast underway, I can honestly say that it’s seriously costing me lol. It’s a clear reminder why I don’t enjoy doing it. It doesn’t help that it’s been freezing in Brisbane (my house has absolutely no insulation whatsoever) and that I’ve been battling an annoying cough for about a week now.  However, this always keeps me humble:

Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

Deuteronomy 8:2-3

This passage really convicted me hey. Previously I think I was feeling irritable and annoyed that I had to fast. For forty days. However this passage (and the text note on my NIV Study Bible) reminded me that hey, food is good, but it can only sustain life, it can’t create it. And if I’m seriously about life with God, I need to realise that it’s the Word of God that life can occur, both individually and corporately. Because at the end of the day, food is only temporarily - my heart should be concerned with things that are of greater value.

It’s also quite humbling - all the time I spend complaining about my lack of food while ignoring the fact that millions, if not billions of people out there are living on less than $2 US Dollars/a day.

It sort of made me realise how much I resemble the Israelites in my life. Seriously, they just witness Moses parting the Red Sea, sweeping away Pharoah’s army, see God provide them manna, water, quail etc, etc and what did they do all this time? They complained and grumbled. They lost sight of the reason why they were venturing in the desert and just reminisced about the supposed good old days because to them, slavery was better than wandering aimlessly the desert. It revealed the shape of their heart: that their loyalty and devotion to God was dependent on their circumstances, rather than a faith that the seeming elusive dream of the Promise Land and God’s presence over them would sustain them through it all.

Although I didn’t worship a Golden Calf, I still complained, still grumbed that I’m missing a meal while all my other friends could eat as they wished. However that’s the fact of fasting, when something costs you, how do you react? Do you complain to God for your suffering, or for thanking him for his forgiveness and grace? What is the condition of your heart?

I’m blessed, and I need to give glory to the one who made this possible in my life, even if it means that it means fasting for 40 days (goes off and cries).

God, open my eyes to the things unseen, in this world and the next.

Originality

Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.

C.S Lewis

Ablaze Camp Reflections

Ablaze Camp 2008: Desperation was quite different for me this year than previous camps. There wasn’t a ‘God-was-so-real-that-I-cried….a lot’ moment. Yet at the same time, there was a lot of stuff at the camp that convicted me, spurred me on and gave me a lot of food for thought.

‘The key to God’s presence is to seek his FACE, not his HANDS’

When Torchie said this, this seriously convicted my heart. I just remembered all the times when I had those prayers where I just asked, asked and asked for this to happen and that to occur. The whole sermon reminded me that this life is about knowing God, not finding solutions.

‘We are more ready than we think we are…’

This prophecy messed with my mind in a good way. For Powerhouse, when I look at the people we have, I believe that we have a team that once unleashed will have such an impact that our universities will not know what hit them. And I believe that this was such a timely word for all members of Powerhouse.

For my life personally, it sought was a reminder that the term ‘ready’ is not the same as the world sees it. I feel woefully inadequate, but through my weakness, God’s strength is made perfect in my weakness. Because at the end of the day, I’m not ready because I have the skills but because I know that God has called me for something bigger and for something greater.

The Hope Singapore Leaders

I’m just blown away by these guys - the camaraderie between all the leaders, their commitment to God, and dedication to serve blew me away in the several days that I hung out at HQ with them. Just hearing them describe their youth (TWO services, 400 in each! adfasjfdljld;s) and just the hunger for God that their services has reminds me that Ablaze can grow even bigger.

“One year, our camp attendance was a bit disappointing. We only had 550 people sign up.”

My initial reaction was adl;kfjl;wsdjl;athehwrasljdfasdlk;fjlsdkjf

I so want to go to Singapore and check out their service one day.

Ablaze Camp 2008 reminded of me of what marked a turning point in my life at last year’s camp. Seeing hundreds of youths just packed in a building, worshipping God, just hungering for His Word and just seeing altar call just flooded with people wanting more of Christ in their life. Because in life, our desperation should take us to one place, and one place only: to HIM.

We are ready

Two days after Ablaze Camp and I still can’t get over Pastor Shirley’s prophecy for Powerhouse:

You are more ready than you think you are. You are more ready than you think you are. Don’t gauge your readiness according to how the world sees abilities and capabilities and experience. But God shall top up what you lack; God shall supply what you still lack and now is not the time to wait and see. Now is the time to just rise up, rise up, rise up, rise up. You are more ready than you think you are. Come on this is the time to rise up. Past is the time to think about it, to pray about it, because God has spoken so clearly into your life and you know it. You know that God is calling you for something bigger, for something greater and you are more ready than you think you are. Now is the time is to step out by faith and let God finish the rest and let God do the rest. Just give your life to God and let God top up what you lack, because God is a God of providence and God shall equip you, God shall anoint you, God shall empower you to do what he has called you to do.

God, prepare Powerhouse for a time such as this and let us stand in the gap for our generation.