First Love…never let it go

Hubby told me that he just finished yet around round of reading the whole Bible. As for me, shame on me, I have not even finished my the New Testament which I started dunno when! His tips to finish the whole Bible in less than one year is to read consistently 5 chapters a day. I think I should give it a try again. I must! And I must persevere this time, no matter how boring certain chapters could be especially the books in Old Testament! I think I never get pass Numbers!

James 3:1-18
3:1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, because you know that we will be judged more strictly.
3:2 For we all stumble in many ways. If someone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect individual, able to control the entire body as well.
3:3 And if we put bits into the mouths of horses to get them to obey us, then we guide their entire bodies.
3:4 Look at ships too: Though they are so large and driven by harsh winds, they are steered by a tiny rudder wherever the pilot’s inclination directs.
3:5 So too the tongue is a small part of the body, yet it has great pretensions. Think how small a flame sets a huge forest ablaze.
3:6 And the tongue is a fire! The tongue represents the world of wrongdoing among the parts of our bodies. It pollutes the entire body and sets fire to the course of human existence – and is set on fire by hell.

3:7 For every kind of animal, bird, reptile, and sea creature is subdued and has been subdued by humankind.
3:8 But no human being can subdue the tongue; it is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
3:9 With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse people made in God’s image.
3:10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. These things should not be so, my brothers and sisters.
3:11 A spring does not pour out fresh water and bitter water from the same opening, does it?
3:12 Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers and sisters, or a vine produce figs? Neither can a salt water spring produce fresh water.

3:13 Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct he should show his works done in the gentleness that wisdom brings.
3:14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfishness in your hearts, do not boast and tell lies against the truth.
3:15 Such wisdom does not come from above but is earthly, natural, demonic.
3:16 For where there is jealousy and selfishness, there is disorder and every evil practice.
3:17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, accommodating, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and not hypocritical.
3:18 And the fruit that consists of righteousness is planted in peace among those who make peace.

Found a good article about this here.

A reminder to myself…
…Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. (James 1:19-20)

All of us always ask this question, “How Can I Receive God’s Blessings?”

I go to church every week, I pay tithe, I give to the needy, I behaved well etc but I have not receive God’s blessings. Where did I go wrong?

I have the answer to that question. Yes! I know How We Can Receive God’s Blessings.

Easy only…

No 1. Read Psalm 1
No 2. Memorize Psalm 1
No 3. Meditate Psalm 1
No 4. Apply Psalm 1

And whatever you do will prosper. Not I say one know. God said that.

Here is Psalm 1: 1-3

1 Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.

2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.

That was what hubby preached just now in church. =) Maybe one day I should get hubby to preach about addiction treatment through the Word of God.

I better go memorize my Psalm 1 now. =P

As I was having lunch with hubby after church just now, I remembered the above video clip.

Watch it.

This is super duper funny. After watching a few times, I can still LOL.

Some of you might say that this video clip is racist but I am looking it at a different perspective.

Even in his anger, he did not curse like what other typical Malaysian or Singaporean or even American would do there they are irritated to the extreme.

I really respect the Indian/Bangla shop owner. No matter how angry he is, he did not curse. We really must learn from him.

In Your Anger, Do not Sin. Ephesian 4:26

After a year of contemplating and trying to do things our way and not God’s way, we surrendered and obey. We are closed every Sunday to honor God’s Day.

For the month of January we see God’s blessing like never before. The highest sales so far was in the month of January. Finally hubby have some salary in January.

This month, we are being tested. Not only this is the shortest month of the year, this month is also CNY which we will be closed for at least 3 days. And so far the sales has been very low. If it continues like this, I wonder whether we will have enough to cover cost.

Anyway, we are trusting that God will bless. He did, many times in our life before. We just need to keep on obeying His commands and trust Him.

We started our family devotion on Sunday. Unfortunately I was not able to join because I was busy doing something else. I just can’t remember what I was busy with! Hmm…maybe I was attending to my son’s needs.

Anyway, soon we would have our very own first communion invitations card to give away. That is after my girls accept Jesus in her heart. They have started to understand more and more about God and Jesus. I am so happy when they started talking and asking about Jesus and wanting to know more about him.

Finally we decided to have our family devotion on Sunday night, after hubby’s soccer game that is from 8.30pm to 9.30pm. Good timing for my children because nowadays they always ask for bedtime stories before they settle down for the day.

Apart from that my eldest is starting to understand more about God and who Jesus is and have lots of question about Jesus and God’s creation. High time for us to sit down and do bible study with her. Time for me to find my box cutters to open up my boxes of Christian books and I need to do more reading of the bible more often too if not, shy lar if I can’t answer her question! hehehehe.

Well, I did mentioned in my other blog that I don’t like making New Year Resolution. They stress me up when it does not materialized.

But when I was reading my ODB yesterday, I wanted to make one. Just a simple one.

1. To read at least the New Testament in one year. Never completed the whole bible before, always got stuck at Numbers!
2. To start a Family Devotion. Hmmm…have to nudge hubby on this.
3. To go for our 2nd Honeymoon. This year is our 7th year of marriage.

I think 3 is enough. No stress.

One of the worst thing that every human can feel is guilt. It is a form of mechanism that God has put into our spirit to tell us that we have done something wrong against God. Is this too difficult to understand? Let me put it in a simpler sentence. It is the not nice feeling that you will feel when you know that you have done something wrong and God wants to remind you to repent from that wrongdoing. Then the choice would be yours. You can ignore, put aside, cover it and pretend that it is not there but the guilt will always be there. Alternatively you can repent, ask for forgiveness and get rid of your guilt. The first option is easier to our human nature but the result is not so liberating. The second option is very hard to do but it gives total freedom. Unfortunately, many of us choose the first option.

Frances D.Munson has wrote a A book about God’s love titled “Fallen, but Not Forgotten”. It is a story that will definitely cause you to think about your own life. Like what I mentioned earlier, most of us feel that we are doing okay, not a bad person, did not do any major wrong/sin. In fact we covered many of our guilt feelings with layers upon layers of reasons that we cannot even feel those guilt feelings anymore. Frances’ story is truly amazing, a story of forgiveness and hope. It shows of God’s love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness that is available to all who ask and willing to accept. It is not cheap to receive forgiveness from God. In fact God requires a sacrifice for your sin. The good thing is that Jesus has paid it for you by being the sacrifice when he died on the Cross. This is truly God’s love and mercy at work. Would you please be like Frances, humble enough to accept God’s love, mercy and forgiveness.

It has been more than a year since I last see him standing behind the pulpit.

Well, he finally preached again last Sunday. His sermon is taken from the book of Kings, 1 Kings 19:9b-18 about prophet Elijah.

You can read about it here: Out from the cave.

I was very frank with hubby about his preaching. I almost fell asleep! The flow was not smooth and he repeats the word “Come out from the cave” too many times till I lost concentration.

It shows that he really rusted already. I am sure after a few more preaching and getting use to the congregation, he will preach better.

Looking forward to the next one. Dunno when.

The lady beside him is not me. She is the translator. Translating from English to Malay.

Have you watch the movie Evan Almighty? I would recommend you watch it. It is not only funny but makes me ponder on the things that I prayed for everyday.

God creates opportunity for every prayer that we make. Let’s say, you pray more extra income. God don’t drop money down from heaven. He creates opportunity for us to get extra income. As for me, the bayar post thingy.

One prayer that I am not so sure I want to pray for unless I am really serious about it; the prayer for patience. You pray for Patience, God will send situation and people to test our patience and creates the opportunity for us to learn to be more patience. I would prefer if God has some “magic patience dust” and sprinkle it down on me from heaven and wahlah! I became the most patience person on earth. However, that’s not the way God works.

Hmm…what if I pray for faithfulness, I wonder whether God will send handsome man to test me!

God taught us to forgive but sometimes when someone hurt you really bad and scolded you for the things that you don’t wrong, it is so hard to forgive the person. I still cannot get over the accident that happened on Monday.

Honestly I still have bitterness towards all the people that screamed and shouted at me. But God kept prompting me to forgive. I am trying God, I am trying. Maybe not hard enough.

Some people put their security in man like self, husband, wife, parents, grandparents, children etc.

Some people put their security in money. Vocation, Insurance, Credit Cards, Banks and Bayar Post.

But do you know that all the above God can snatch it away from you with just a blink of an eye?

The Lord Giveth, The Lord Taketh. (Job 1:21)

Place your security in God. He can’t be taken away. You will be taken care off. Read Matthew 6:25-34.

“Nothing in ALL creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him whom we must give account.” Hebrew 4:13

“He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.” Titus 3:5

hmmm…what more shall I say?