WAIT

Shio Shio Gai Loti Entry #11

I have been meditating on the word "WAIT" for quite some time and realli hope to get some revelation and write about it.

To my surprise, there were quite a few sermons related to "WAIT" being preached over the past few weeks by Pastor Kong during service, Lily during cellgroup and Santhi during zone meeting.

I almost wanted to abandon the idea of writing this message since many were preached recently. However I decided to go ahead and do a round up for a "WAIT" sermon.

During Pastor Kong's sermon on the "6 Stages of Faith Building", he shared that WAITING teaches us to trust God, to trust in His Faith and to trust in His time. Waiting on God is not something passive.

Pastor shared that to WAIT is to:
1) Withstand
2) Anticipate
3) Intercede
4) Trust

Lily shared during cellgroup on the Testing of Faith. She mentioned that our walk with God is a walk of Faith. There will be times where we will face a time lapse, the Waiting Time, especially towards the things we are pursuing and longed for. And it is during this waiting time that it reflects the true nature of our character.

How we go through the waiting period makes a lot of difference. At the zone meeting, Santhi shared with us on "HOW" are we going to go through our days.

To go through our waiting time, we need:
1) Holy Spirit
2) Optimism
3) Word of God

As for me, God gave us visions and dreams in life and we all want to achieve and fulfill them. We know that when God gave us the vision, He also gives us the provision to achieve them. However some things don't happen immediately. God purposely catered a Waiting time in order for us to learn, to be molded, trained and equipped before we can take on certain responsibilities or tasks. But the truth of the matter is, many of us don't like to wait and want things to happen based on our own timing.

The process of waiting is tough and enduring. Sometimes, when you wait too long, there bound to be distractions along the way that will pull your focus off the visions and dreams that God gave. We will tend to feel discouraged, hopeless, directionless during the process of waiting.

But we must always remember that God is faithful and He who promised is faithful to fulfill.

(Hab 2:3)
"For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry".

Tarry = "To wait or stay temporarily"

- In (Hab 2:3), it says that for the vision is yet for an appointed time, we must recognise that it is God's timing and not our timing. Eventually it will come to past as what God promised.

- Though it tarries, wait for it. God said that although our vision will tarry, we are to wait for it.

- It will surely come and it will not tarry. The visions and dreams that God promised to us will surely come and when it happens, it will not stay temporarily, there will be an eternity to that.

Essentially God wants us to learn to trust him during the period of waiting. Therefore we must learn the art of WAITING and withstand all distractions, negative temptations, intimidating thoughts. We must learn to hold our ground, refuse to give in to the enemy's ploy and pray through.

WAIT = Withstanding All I Tarry

WAIT = Withstanding All I Trust

WAIT = Withdraw All Intimidating Thoughts

WAIT = Withhold And Intercede Through

PicTureS - Santhi Zone

Jams Cellgroup Appreciation 2010 @ Melvin's house

Celebrating Meilin's bdae @ City Square

Jams Ministry Appreciation 2010

Zone "Lo-Hei" 2010 Huat Ar

Orchard Outing

FORTRESS

Shio Shio Gai Loti Entry #10

(Eph 6:13) "Therefore take up the whole amour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand"

We are all called to be conquerors of Christ and to endure like a mighty solider. Our responsibility as a soldier of God is to be disciplined and wear the armour that He has given us:

• Helmet of Salvation
• Breastplate of Righteousness
• Waist belt of Truth
• Shield of Faith
• Sword of the Spirit
• Boots of the Gospel of Peace

We are to march into the battlefield daily with our armour and withstand all the challenges, criticism, persecutions that comes along the way. Different people face different battlefields everyday. Some of the battlefields are in the areas of our family, workplace, health, relationship or some other freak incidences.

Nothing in this world comes easy. There are times where things don't go accordingly to what we plan and bad things does happen to good people.

God knows what we are going through and one thing we can be assured of is He is in Control. God said in (Eph 6:31) that having done all, to stand. This means that after we had done what we could in obedience to God's will and instruction, we are to remain steady and stand firm in our faith.

Having said that, God never leave us alone to suffer and face the problem alone. There is always a way out in Christ.
(Ps 31:2-3) "Bow down Your ear to me, Deliver me speedily; Be my rock of refuge, A fortress of defense to save me. For You are my rock and my fortress; Therefore, for Your name's sake, Lead me and guide me."Fortress = A large fort or a fortified building.

A fortress is a building which is built to provide certain form of defense and protection. In the olden days, a fortress was mainly constructed to defend against the attacks of the enemy.

God is our fortress of defense in real time. Whenever we are in need or experience stressful situation, we as a child of God have every right to call upon His name to obtain help, rescue and deliverance from the enemy. There are no doubts that we would get injured spiritually, emotionally or even physically when engaged in a battle. The consequences would lead us to be lost, helpless, demoralized and tired. Thus, when we are down and injured, we would feel defeated and have the tendency to focus on the negatives.

When we are in a stressful and negative environment, it would affect the way we think and damage our emotion, spirit man and physical body. Anxietieis, wories and fear would soon kick in. Remember that whatever you focus will increase and expand.

Last Saturday after service2, some of my cellgroup members and I wanted to go Bedok Central for our curry feast. But things didn't go according to plan. We met with an accident on our way there. My cellgroup member was driving and at one of the traffic junction in Tanah Merah, there was a motorcyclist who came out of nowwhere from the left to cut us and make a right turn. We were driving straight though. The lane is a double direction lane where vehicles could either go straight or turn right. The motorcyclists, an old malay couple was knocked down eventually.

Long story short, the driver behind us volunteered to be the witness as he saw the entire incident from behind. Thank God for protection as there was no serious injury and damage caused. My driver friend was shocked and felt guilty even though it was not her fault.

God is reminding and telling us that He is our fortress of defense to give us shelter, to rescue us, to comfort us, to assure us, to give us peace and to provide direction in our life. We must remember that we can always call upon the name of God to seek refuge and protection. God can turn our situation around and He has the power to switch our environment from a negative one to a positive one.

It is important for us to think right and have a positive mindset.

FORTRESS = Focus On Right Thinking Resolves Every Stressful Situation

When we are in God's fortress, it is a good time for us to recuperate and focus on the right thinking to be positive. When we focus on thinking right, we would have the solutions to our problems faster and resolve the stressful situation that is affecting us.

Once again (Eph 6:13).......having done all, to stand.

Keep on keeping on, focus on right thinking and to remain firm in faith.

Grow & Growth

Shio Shio Gai Loti Entry #9

To GROW is to develop.

God has given each and every one of us a journey known as life and it is through this journey that we GROW as an individual to be the person He wants us to be. God is more concern about our character than our comfort. He has promised us His presence during the journey but has never said that itwould be a bed of roses, one that is smooth sailing.

We ought to understand that there bound to be obstacles, challenges and walls that we would bump into at certain juncture in life. Many people are affected in their growing process because of overwhelming worries, the cares of the world. Others are affected because of certain weaknesses in their life. Some are distracted because of fatigue and weariness.

Everyday as we live and journeyed through life, we should be growing in our spirit, soul and body. During the growing process, it is important that we grow and develop in the best environment.

As we GROW, we need to know that:

1) God Reigns Over Worries
2) God Reigns Over Weaknesses
3) God Reigns Over Weariness

Let's GROW to know that God reigns over our worries to give us peace and rest. He reigns over our weaknesses to make us the light of the world, the head and not the tail. He reigns over our weariness to give us power and an overcoming spirit.

(Joshua 6:2)
v2: And the LORD said to Joshua: "See! I have given Jericho into your hand, its king and the mighty men of valor."

v5: "It shall come to pass, when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a great shout, then the wall of the city will fall down flat."

v20: "So the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets. And it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat"

There are many walls that we will face in life:
a) Walls of Disappointment
b) Walls of Frustration
c) Walls of Failure & Shame
d) Walls of Unbelief
e) Walls of Insecurity
f) Walls of Doubts

But God said in His word in Joshua that He has given Jericho into our hands! Jericho refers to the obstacles, challenges and frustrations that are hindering and affecting our growth. God has given us the solutions to the walls that are stopping us. For us, we must keep on believing and having faith in Christ. As we grow and conquer the walls in our life, we will ultimately see the GROWTH that we longed for.

To experience your GROWTH, you need to learn from Joshua:

GROWTH = GET RID OF WALLS THAT HINDERS

Climb up, Bash through and Jump Over all the walls! You can do it =)

Easter 2010

Easter was over!
Praise God, N8 has a total of 24 students and 5 caregivers who attended the service and carnival. The carnival at level 4 was entirely filled with the joy of God whereas B4 was saturated with the presence of God. I enjoyed myself during the service and thought that it was one of the best big day we ever had. God is indeed bringing JAMs church up to another level, from glory to glory.

Its has been 2 big days that I was doing busing alone with no helper. It was not easy especially when I was involved in the segments...kinda sad though but thank God that we managed to pull it through.

My journey hasnt been easy...challenges and frustrations at work, home, ministry, relationship, etc never seems to end. Well despite all these, throughout the years, God has always reminded me me that that I am more than a conqueror and I believe in that. At times I feel like giving up but nonetheless I still persevere on.

Jiayou zhi! Never Give Up