Alright... Its almost the end of January, and time passes pretty fast. Tests and other stuffs are around the corner... Guitar, Rock, Piano and YE have pretty much been occupying my time. I'm a very busy guy this time of year. And its only gonna get busier. Well, lets get started shall we?
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Soccer!
Singapore vs Malaysia! Definitely the highlight of the week. Most of the YE worship people were at church attending the worship seminar, and after that, we all decided to go for supper at Tanglin Halt. There happened to be a coffeeshop there showing the game, and by the time we finished supper, they were having penalties.
Singapore 1 Malaysia 1
The kicks flew into the goal fast and furious, it seemed that it was going to be a deadlock... Until the final penalty. Lionel Lewis saved the low and slow spot kick, and Singapore was into the finals against Thailand. Most of us going... "Woooooo Singapore!" And lots of old uncles at the coffeeshop started cheering.
Penalties
Singapore 5 Malaysia 4
On to England...
FA Cup
Luton 0 Blackburn 4
Barnet 0 Plymouth 2
Birmingham 2 Reading 3
Blackpool 1 Norwich 1
Bristol 2 Middlesbrough 2
Crystal Palace 0 Preston 2
Derby 1 Bristol Rovers 0
Fulham 3 Stoke 0
Ipswitch 1 Swansea 0
Tottenham 3 Southend 1
West Ham 0 Watford 1
Man U 2 Portsmouth 1
Wolverhampton 0 West Brom 3
Chelsea 3 Nottingham 0
Man City 3 Southampton 1
Arsenal 1 Bolton 1
Number of premiership sides eliminated: 9 out of 20 (Wigan, Sheffield, Charlton, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Everton, West Ham, Portsmouth, Newcastle)
Number of premiership sides moving on: 8 out of 20 (Chelsea, Watford, Man U, Blackburn, Reading, Fulham, Man City, Tottenham)
Number of premiership sides in replays: 3 out of 20 (Arsenal, Bolton, Middlesbrough)
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Reflections
Well, I promised to post my reflections about certain stuff here, and here goes... It might be a bit scary, and perhaps sad for some of you guys... But I hope it does touch something inside. Please do not be discouraged by this, but learn through my experiences, and apply them to your life if possible.
My troubles kinda started when Aunty K first shared about the changes that were being made in church. It so happened that our old pastor was leaving, and there was a distinct possibility that both services, chinese and english would merge, and so would our youth groups. Aunty K was torn... She had gone to God for guidance, come up with the entire year's plans for YE, but everything seemed like it was going to crumble...
She asked herself, was I serving the right God? Did Satan decieve me? Was I being used to bring the downfall of YE? And consulting with the youth pastor on the synthesis (chinese cong) side, she realised that she had the same plans as him, and God had spoken to both of them!
My problem... Its really very complex. Certain things I did, when I thought that God was telling me to do them, suddenly seemed very wrong and unfeeling in retrospect. One of them was the RJGE derogatory remarks issue regarding he/she/it, if you guys can remember. Another was the Eden-Sol relationship issue. I was told by God that staying back and letting things continue would work out. In both situations, I thought I'd been told by God to do certain things, but now it seems so wrong...
I asked myself... Was I serving the right God? Did Satan decieve me? Did he use me to harm others? Was I bringing others one step closer to sin? Was I even glorifying God? The answer I got was depressing. If what I'd actually done was from God, would it have resulted in certain bad outcomes? For example, people getting little tears in their hearts that may not be repaired?
It haunted me during camp. Getting tortured during night games suddenly seemed like something I could do in penance for my sins. I went through with it, not only because of bravery, but I wanted to punish myself. I was shivering like crazy, yet I still went on. That night, back at the bunks, I looked back to the message aunty K had delivered that day, but nothing seemed to help.
Camp soon ended. Yes, I did have fun. But the burden was still in my heart. It wasn't until a few weeks ago when I took out the camp booklet and looked through it again. Something caught my eye. One simple sentence that I'd copied and overlooked. I thought I'd knew what it meant, but in truth I'd only just discovered.
We cannot bear bad fruit, because Jesus is the source of all we do. We either bear good fruit, or no fruit at all.
The bible basis for this verse is John 15. Please do check it out.
I suddenly realised that the outcome of anything I did didn't matter at all. All that mattered was that there was something larger that was happening that I could never understand, and whatever I did bore the good fruit of God, no matter whether it seemed good or bad at face value. Every single thing I did could be used by God to eventually glorify his name, though I didn't know how.
The day after was aunty K's sharing on Love. And it was really a blessing. I remembered that the things I did earlier showed my love for the people around me. Through rebuke, and through encouragement. Perhaps God was using me for these two purposes, to spread the love through these two ways, and to learn how to trust that all I do in his name; all those things he tells me will work out in the end, eventually.
And that links me to the next topic we talked about, which was Joy. That day in YE I found my Joy! After the trials I had gone through and the 'pruning', I came out a better person and understood more things about God and myself that I never knew. So this is my story of Joy!
Hope you guys learn and be blessed by this.
***
***
Soccer!
Singapore vs Malaysia! Definitely the highlight of the week. Most of the YE worship people were at church attending the worship seminar, and after that, we all decided to go for supper at Tanglin Halt. There happened to be a coffeeshop there showing the game, and by the time we finished supper, they were having penalties.
Singapore 1 Malaysia 1
The kicks flew into the goal fast and furious, it seemed that it was going to be a deadlock... Until the final penalty. Lionel Lewis saved the low and slow spot kick, and Singapore was into the finals against Thailand. Most of us going... "Woooooo Singapore!" And lots of old uncles at the coffeeshop started cheering.
Penalties
Singapore 5 Malaysia 4
On to England...
FA Cup
Luton 0 Blackburn 4
Barnet 0 Plymouth 2
Birmingham 2 Reading 3
Blackpool 1 Norwich 1
Bristol 2 Middlesbrough 2
Crystal Palace 0 Preston 2
Derby 1 Bristol Rovers 0
Fulham 3 Stoke 0
Ipswitch 1 Swansea 0
Tottenham 3 Southend 1
West Ham 0 Watford 1
Man U 2 Portsmouth 1
Wolverhampton 0 West Brom 3
Chelsea 3 Nottingham 0
Man City 3 Southampton 1
Arsenal 1 Bolton 1
Number of premiership sides eliminated: 9 out of 20 (Wigan, Sheffield, Charlton, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Everton, West Ham, Portsmouth, Newcastle)
Number of premiership sides moving on: 8 out of 20 (Chelsea, Watford, Man U, Blackburn, Reading, Fulham, Man City, Tottenham)
Number of premiership sides in replays: 3 out of 20 (Arsenal, Bolton, Middlesbrough)
***
Reflections
Well, I promised to post my reflections about certain stuff here, and here goes... It might be a bit scary, and perhaps sad for some of you guys... But I hope it does touch something inside. Please do not be discouraged by this, but learn through my experiences, and apply them to your life if possible.
My troubles kinda started when Aunty K first shared about the changes that were being made in church. It so happened that our old pastor was leaving, and there was a distinct possibility that both services, chinese and english would merge, and so would our youth groups. Aunty K was torn... She had gone to God for guidance, come up with the entire year's plans for YE, but everything seemed like it was going to crumble...
She asked herself, was I serving the right God? Did Satan decieve me? Was I being used to bring the downfall of YE? And consulting with the youth pastor on the synthesis (chinese cong) side, she realised that she had the same plans as him, and God had spoken to both of them!
My problem... Its really very complex. Certain things I did, when I thought that God was telling me to do them, suddenly seemed very wrong and unfeeling in retrospect. One of them was the RJGE derogatory remarks issue regarding he/she/it, if you guys can remember. Another was the Eden-Sol relationship issue. I was told by God that staying back and letting things continue would work out. In both situations, I thought I'd been told by God to do certain things, but now it seems so wrong...
I asked myself... Was I serving the right God? Did Satan decieve me? Did he use me to harm others? Was I bringing others one step closer to sin? Was I even glorifying God? The answer I got was depressing. If what I'd actually done was from God, would it have resulted in certain bad outcomes? For example, people getting little tears in their hearts that may not be repaired?
It haunted me during camp. Getting tortured during night games suddenly seemed like something I could do in penance for my sins. I went through with it, not only because of bravery, but I wanted to punish myself. I was shivering like crazy, yet I still went on. That night, back at the bunks, I looked back to the message aunty K had delivered that day, but nothing seemed to help.
Camp soon ended. Yes, I did have fun. But the burden was still in my heart. It wasn't until a few weeks ago when I took out the camp booklet and looked through it again. Something caught my eye. One simple sentence that I'd copied and overlooked. I thought I'd knew what it meant, but in truth I'd only just discovered.
We cannot bear bad fruit, because Jesus is the source of all we do. We either bear good fruit, or no fruit at all.
The bible basis for this verse is John 15. Please do check it out.
I suddenly realised that the outcome of anything I did didn't matter at all. All that mattered was that there was something larger that was happening that I could never understand, and whatever I did bore the good fruit of God, no matter whether it seemed good or bad at face value. Every single thing I did could be used by God to eventually glorify his name, though I didn't know how.
The day after was aunty K's sharing on Love. And it was really a blessing. I remembered that the things I did earlier showed my love for the people around me. Through rebuke, and through encouragement. Perhaps God was using me for these two purposes, to spread the love through these two ways, and to learn how to trust that all I do in his name; all those things he tells me will work out in the end, eventually.
And that links me to the next topic we talked about, which was Joy. That day in YE I found my Joy! After the trials I had gone through and the 'pruning', I came out a better person and understood more things about God and myself that I never knew. So this is my story of Joy!
Hope you guys learn and be blessed by this.
***
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