The Blessing of not blessing

Hosea 4:7

7 The more they increased,
the more they sinned against me;
I will change their glory into shame.

Sometimes we forget the blesser when we are surrounded by all his blessings, we forsake the giver for his gifts. We mistake the presents as the lover’s love. We sacrifice the splendor of his glory for temporal glitz.

It may be a gracious act of God when we are lacking, it keeps us holding on to him, seeking him for every need. Yes he wants to bless us! But not at the cost of us turning away and sinning more when we increase.

It is my prayer that instead of sinning more when I increase, I would recognize that it is the Lord’s providence that increases me.

Uncommon IELTS Tips

I recently sat for my IELTS test at RELC in Singapore. I think it went ok, hopefully I get the points I want.

Here are a few tips I thought would have been useful if I had been informed before the test. Go to the end for what I think is the most important tip for anyone taking IELTS.

1) Dress appropriately, I don’t know where you will be sitting for your test but it might be too warm or too cold. For me it bordered on being cold as they had the air conditioning on and it started to pour halfway through the test. I wish I had a cardigan or a jacket with me.

2) The best time to go to the toilet.

Go to the toilet right before the test starts, don’t go too early cos you might have to go soon. Toilet breaks are not allowed during the listening component of the IELTS, at the last five minutes of each component, and in between components. Meaning you can only go during the reading or writing component of the test.

If you need to go, go during the reading component. You are allocated 1 hour for that component and it’s pretty easy to finish quickly and go to the loo then. Make sure you check your answers!

Another reason why you should go during this component is because during the next part of the test, the writing component, you will be very hard pressed for time to complete the 2 writing tasks.

3) Arrive on time
Don’t be late as you’ll be rushing and panicking, get there early to relax and be in the right state of mind before the test.

4) General Writing Task 1: Don’t fuss the details
If you are going to take the general IELTS test like I did, you will be required to write a letter. You are required to write 150 words for this component and 250 words for the second one, it is said on many other sites that you’ll be penalised for not meeting the minimum word count.

Tip on how to count: http://www.ielts-useful-tips.com/word-count.html

Basically all you need to do is count the number of words you approximately write in each line and then multiply it by the number of lines you write!

The questions are very general, for my recent test, it was something along the lines of, “The bus company has recently made some changes, write to them to complain about how the change has affected you and how you would like them to improve the situation”.

As you can see, there is plenty of room to be creative with the details. I almost got carried away with choosing the bus service numbers and where I was living and where I was working and so on.

Don’t fuss the fictional details! Write whatever comes to your mind first as long as it makes sense, is consistent from the start to the end eg. Do not write about bus service 7 and then change it to bus service 17 later in your letter. Of course, make sure you don’t use rude words or try to be funny.

Remember you are recommended to use only 20 mins for the first task. You will definitely be in want of more time for your second task because it carries a heavier weight in terms of points.

Also, I found that writing with a pencil was better even though I am used to writing with the pen because the key advantage of writing with the pencil is that you get to erase your mistakes!

5) Speaking component
Again, arrive on time. Relax. Speak slowly and clearly, I’m Singaporean and we Singaporeans have a tendency to speak in Singlish full with ‘lahs’ and ‘lors’. Do not use colloquial terms unique to your country or region, your examiner might not know what it means, even if he or she knew what you meant, the odds are you will be penalised for using slang words.

Practise your pronunciation of words or letters that you find difficult or the words which your teacher always corrects you for. I’ve met some filipino customers who say ‘B’ for ‘(V)Bictory’ when they are spelling their names. Others examples are Koreans getting confused with the ‘P’ and ‘F’ sounds because there is no ‘F’ sound in the Korean language. In their case words like ‘Perfect’ cause a little bit of pain.

Listen carefully! Make sure you understand the question before you answer, I think its better to ask the examiner to repeat the question once rather than starting to speak irrelevantly, losing precious marks for not understanding and being irrelevant.

The most important tip, in my opinion is to pay attention to what is being asked or required of you.

Practically speaking. It means that you have to pay careful attention to the recording as thats played only once. For the reading component, read and read the question again. Don’t skip forward when reading the instructions. You might answer the question wrongly.

Same for the writing component. I’ve also mentioned the same points for the speaking component.

I hoped that helped! Leave a comment if you have any questions! I’ll try to answer them if I can! All the best for our test!

Checklist: Am I Glorifying God? Part I

I am currently reading “Breaking Free”, by Beth Moore and I found a useful checklist which I would like to share with you. I’ve also put my answers down because it made me feel hypocritical that I should share it without first applying it to myself!

At first I was gonna do the whole checklist in one post but meditating on God’s word has been so fruitful that its best that I do this as a series of posts.

In today’s post, the first consideration is:

• Is my most important consideration in every undertaking whether or not God could be glorified? ( 1 Cor. 10:31 ).

My answer: No. I was considering this point while driving to work. Whether I should cultivate this habit of doing all things for God’s glory by committing the big events like church camp, Christmas service and mission trips to God’s glory or if I should start with the little things like driving, and as the verse suggests eating and drinking for God’s glory.

Clearly we should start giving God the glory with the small, simple and routine activities of our life and when it’s time to do the big things we would, I think, by habit, (super)naturally give glory to God.

Why supernaturally? Because in our fleshly state we will not naturally want to or feel any inclination to glorify God.

How foolish I was to think that by only doing the church-y things for God was enough! Although it is very important to do ministry, especially ministry, for God’s glory.

Now I get a better idea of why Paul exhorted us to eat and drink to God’s glory! By making a habit of doing the small things, indeed all things for God’s glory will we then become a humble people ready to be used by God for great and mighty things!

The next on the list is:

• Do I desire God’s glory or my own? ( John 8:50 , 54 ).

I will talk about my own struggle and hopefully gain some insight and share some insight in my next post! Stay tuned!

The Last Words

The most important session during any church camp or retreat is usually the last night, where the saints press into God’s presence in prayer and worship.

And that was certainly true for me, when we spent over 2 hours praying fervently last night. I tell you, it’s awesome.

But today as we had one last session, before we broke camp and return to the world Pastor Kang preached from Job 1:1.

It reads:

There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.

We were to read the verse aloud once, and on the second go we were supposed to swap Job with our names and Uz with Perth.

It all seemed to click right in when he asked us to do that, like, you know when you read the Bible or when you listen to a good sermon and something clicks in your heart?

He was mentioning military training and comparing it to church camp. During the first 6 weeks in the Korean basic military training, many thoughts go through the soldier’s mind. Like, how he should live his life right and how he should appreciate his parents and so on.

Same as that soldier when we depart camp we want to conquer the world but just like the soldier who slacks off after a few months living after training we slack off into a spiritual lull.

Anyway, it was a good exhortation for us to keep the fire burning until the next camp, that even as we return back to our lives we were encouraged not to forget the Grace we had received from the Lord, to overcome the devil and the world with prayer and God’s word.

This camp was a different one to the ones I have attended and I will try to share the things I have learned and the paradigm shifts which I have kept in my heart.

Like my renewed view on faith and our confession and about what it means to seek God’s kingdom and righteousness.

To Bunbury We Go

First drafted 08.10.2008
Finished 13.11.2008

Day -1
10:30pm – Bought 4 cans of Redbull in anticipation of the long day ahead of me.
11:30pm – Slept.

Day 0
3:30am – Woke up.
3:40am – Set out to pick up the 3 girls from their homes, Wembley, Maylands and then Claremont. Consumed the 1st can of Redbull
4:40am – Begin the drive down the Kwinana Freeway toward Bunbury
5:30am – Consumed the 2nd can of Redbull
6:45am – Arrived at Finesse Foods factory
7:15am – Spoke to receptionist and filled out some forms…

It’s been over a month and the draft is still sitting here. The girls got the job after much persistence on that same day. I got a call from the HR person in the late afternoon telling the girls to turn up for work the next day. They checked into the YHA Dolphin Retreat in Bunbury and complained that it was well, not a conducive living environment. (I tried sleeping there one night and I had to take breaks in between sleeping)

And so they began the hunt for a better and cheaper place to live in. We saw an advertisement for rooms put out by a Korean guy also working in Bunbury. Honestly though, I was not comfortable with the girls, especially my girlfriend, putting up with a single guy.

But God is faithful, always. They found a place with one of their friends and the main tenants were a young married Korean couple. To make things even better, they devout Christians! And to add icing on top of this cake, they now stay 15 minutes walk away from the workplace whereas the backpackers hostel was a taxi ride or 45 minute walk away!

I believe this is a testimony of God’s grace and faithfulness in the life of believers. I will continue to trust Him for more good things to come!

Beautiful Sarah

source: wikimedia.org

Beautiful Sarah
You may be my wife
But please tell Pharaoh you are my sister

Beautiful Sarah
I hate to lose you
But I fear for my life

Beautiful Sarah

I thought to myself on Sunday, “Sarah (Sarai) must have been a really beautiful woman!”

Pastor Cara was preaching and had made a timeline and it showed her age at different stages of her journey through the world with Abram.

The timeline shows her leaving Abram’s family at 65 and shortly into the couple’s journey we are told of a famine in the land.

Abram and Sarai take off and head into Egypt.

Genesis 12:11-13:
11 As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are. 12 When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.”

We see in verse 14 and 15 that the Egyptians found Sarai very beautiful and the Pharaoh takes her into his household.

I thought, “65, beautiful, wa, she must be really beautiful!”

Or maybe there were different standards for beauty as you can see in the picture of the engraving at the top of the post.

Or maybe the desert was a very lonely place, see cartoon:

source: thebackpew.com

Wake Up Little Sleeper

source: amazon.com

How appropriate, 5 months without a post and then this title!

I thought I’d share this alarm clock tone for those technically advanced like me, with phones that can play mp3s! I got mine this year! You got yours when? 5 years ago? Cool, join the technically advance club!

I heard this song, Sacred, by Caedmon’s Call (CC) and fell in love with the sweetness of it. A godly mother/wife. The part I am using for my ringtone is the bridge of Sacred, where Danielle Young sings to the tune of the hymn, Holy, Holy, Holy.

The lyrics go like this:

Wake up, little sleeper
The Lord, God Almighty
Made your Mama keeper
So rise and shine, rise and shine
Rise and shine cause

All those who are technologically advanced can add this to your technologically advanced mobile phone.

Click here for the ringtone.

Get the full song here.

-edit-

If you think that it’s too quiet for an alarm. It was so loud on my technologically advanced phone that it woke me up on the first beat! HA! Although, that may be because I’m a lite-sleeper.

I also want to take this chance to dedicate the song to my dearest auntie Ros in Sydney! Go godly mummy!

Famous Christians?

I have a tendency to be very excited to learn that a famous dead person was Christian. One of those people was Bob Marley, haha. Hey, Bob’s cool. I just heard lots of stories about him becoming a Christian before he died or something. I never did my research but simply re-told that story to other people.

One other such person whom atheists and theists are fighting to get on their “side” is Albert Einstein. However it is not important who stands for Christianity! The credibility of the God’s gospel does not depend on man’s fame. The truth stands on its own.

Albert Mohler in this post puts it like this:

The emergence of the letter from Albert Einstein to Eric Gutkind goes a long way toward setting the record straight. Evangelical Christians are prone to over-excitement when any famous person, living or dead, is claimed as a believer in God. This is not an attractive habit, and it often leads to intellectual embarrassment.

Imagine the 1st century church, there were no celebrities believing in Jesus except for a bunch of fishermen and common folk. Did that hinder them from believing in God? No. It should not hinder our belief in God even if no famous person believed in God!

Liang Goes to Korean Church Pt. 1

Today was my first time at a Korean church. I’ve been blessed each time I attend my dear Korean caregroup. Here is the man that brought me to the caregroup, his name is Ji-hoon.

After a few wrong turns and a huge U-turn in a empty parking lot, I finally found myself at the carpark of Perth Full Gospel Church. While walking into service I could hear the sweet sounds of praise led by my brother Ji-hoon, they were singing Friend of God by Israel Houghton.

I was there slightly early and caught my friends practising before the actual service. It was a unique and beautiful sight because amongst the Korean worshippers was an African lady and she had a beautiful alto voice! Only in God’s family do you see people of different nations, language and colour join in one song. The love for God and his people overcomes these barriers.

At one point during worship, I had felt a certainty that God was in our midst and was simply relishing in God’s presence and Ji-hoon confirmed it by saying some words along those lines! God is good!

We sang Be Still for the Presence of the Lord and time was given for us to wait on God and felt God speaking to me with Philippians 1:6. Just as worship was coming to a close, the congregation was given a chance to speak what God had placed on their hearts and I went ahead took the mic and read the verse! I thank God for speaking to me, I thank God that he speaks even today!

God Never Fails

I am so glad I went to my Full Gospel cell group today. I’ve been in a mess these few days, Satan was having a field day with my head and heart.

I went because of duty, you see I was slotted to lead worship, and the thought of coming up with excuses to not go for cell crossed my mind. I mean I was really not feeling well in my spirit, to the extent I can feel it in body? However, in the back of my head, I knew that God was going to do something good. God never fails.

So I went to cell, and people could sense that I wasn’t my usual self. Many showed concern and I just said I wasn’t okay but didn’t talk much about it. The fellowship with my Christian brothers and sisters lifted my spirits a little and I was talking a bit more but fellowship with the Lord is much better, it’s unexplainable.

When I led worship, I was in battle mode, I fell back to all the promises of God that I knew. Singing them boosted my faith even more. Though I felt lousy and depressed I knew what I was singing was true. The theme of tonight’s worship was Jesus Christ, and I’d taught the cell the actions to “My Redeemer Lives” and it was so good! They took it a step further and clapped each other hands during the song, it was just good to worship with fellow saints!

The truths of Christ, the cross really lifted my spirits and the Lord restored joy in my heart!

Min-kyeong taught today, she taught from 1 Chronicles 4, on the prayer of Jabez and it was good lesson! Knowing that Jabez’s name sounds like “pain” in Hebrew totally changes my perspective on the account. Imagine introducing yourself saying, “Hello, my name is Pain”, although some people are a real pain or some have names spelt “Payne”, or be both. Mwahaha. Yes, imagine.

Jabez ends his prayer really powerfully, he says, “and that you would keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain!” The Lord spoke to me when I read that.

You see, Jabez was named “Pain” and having such a name was not easy. Just because someone calls you a name, be it “Stupid, or whatever”, or you can be in a situation that is causing you much pain. It does not mean you have to accept it, you can pray to God for deliverance of such names and situations and the Lord may (will) do it for you!

“And God granted what he asked.” – 1 Chronicles 4:10

Be encouraged Christian! Glory to God!