I'm sorry if this post may sound abit strong, but my heart is deeply stirred and challenged.

Here goes...

My God is mighty to save and I have witnessed that first hand in the land of Philippines.
In the last five weeks, over 43 000 people have heard the good news and more than half have made professions. I do hope I can share more about what God has shown and taught me there in future posts. But my question is, "Do we today, know this same God personally? The God who performed miracles? The God who answered prayers so marvellously?"

Why? Why can't we see the same things which happen in the Philippines happen here too in Singapore as well? The problem surely does not lie with God; the ball is in our court.

What is holding God back from opening His floodgates of revival and blessing here in our homeland?

I believe the answer lies in faith.

"For without faith, it is impossible to please Him"

It is in simply taking small steps of faith that we will come to know our God in a more personal and experiencial manner.

You want to see miracles?

You want to know God for who He truly is?

then, what are you waiting for?

take a step out of the boat!

Hey Christians (myself included),

are we simply contented to warm our seats every Sunday?

are we satisified because we belong to a church that has mission work in 5 different countries?

What are we doing about our country? our homeland? Singapore?

But so we say, "oh, their hearts are so hardened. They don't need God."

Wait a minute, Jesus died for them on the cross too.

God loves them so much and He wants to save them.

But He needs us to cooperate with Him and to be His mouthpiece.

Enough is enough.

Wake up! Wake up mel.

By faith, take a step out of the boat, keeping your eyes on Jesus.

Enough of waiting for others to start an outreach here, an outreach there.

You see the need, what are you going to do about it? What am i going to do about it?

Talk is cheap. Let's take action now, by the grace of God.

I want to take this step, now what?

Pray and seek the Lord's mind.

Ask Him, Lord, how would you like me to reach out to my family, to my unsaved friends around me?

"But we have the mind of Christ." (1 Cor 2:16)

Don't pray till the rapture, after praying, take action!

The Lord has given us many avenues to reach our generation. Let's be creative, dream big!

-SportLight

-Music

-Student Hostels

-An open door already in YMCA

-1 room flats in Jalan Kukoh (Rem, the poor are rich in faith!)

-Going to playground to share with helpers and mums the gospel.

The Bible says: "Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." Matt 7:7

How will we know if the door is open if we do not knock?

Let's start knocking. ;)

It always starts with one - one who decides to go all the way with God.

Lord, help.

Greetings from the Philippines! (:

It's so good to be able to use the com again eh?
this is my first time ever since i arrived in Philippines.

God has been so so good.
Today and tmr is our day of rest, Wed we start again.
We're in the island of Cebu now.
Preached the gospel to 24 000 students so far and 17 000 made decisions to trust the Lord. Praise God!

The Lord too has been teaching me many lessons on ministry, calling, spiritual gifts, spiritual battle, evangelism and discipleship. I hope to be able to share em here when i get back.

We arrive back home on 17 Aug.

Thanks for all you who have been praying. (:
We really need ur prayers.
Pls keep Yu Fei in prayer too, as he's down with fever.

Stay strong in the Lord and God bless! :D

Are You Easily Edified?

June 30th, 2009

I don’t know about you, but I sometimes find myself suffering from a sense of over-familiarity with God and the gospel. Reading my Bible doesn’t excite me. Listening to sermons becomes routine. Even worship feels common and mundane. At times like these I crave something new and compelling to jolt me out of my spiritual rut. I figure that if I only had a better devotional book, a more powerful preacher, or a worship band with slightly more musical gifting, then my heart would become responsive again. Sin makes us stupid like that.

Of course, I’m not denying that there are better devotional book or more powerful preachers. We should read great books, not mediocre books. We should look for churches where God’s Word and the gospel are faithfully preached. But I often find myself dissatisfied with truths — however poorly presented — that should thrill me.

“A mature Christian is easily edified.”

Two weeks ago I stumbled across that statement by Dr. Harold Best — and it hit too close to home. Easily edified? That doesn’t sound like the Brett Harris I know. To borrow from friend and blogger, Justin Taylor, too often an accurate assessment of my life would reveal that I am easily annoyed, easily irritated, easily impatient, easily hurt, easily angered, easily distracted, easily arrogant, etc. Justin concludes:

Wouldn’t it be great if those who knew us best could honestly say, “It is so easy to edify him. It doesn’t take much. It doesn’t need to be the best sermon ever preached or the most excellent song ever composed or the most powerful book ever written or the most theologically eloquent statement ever uttered. Just the simplest truth was enough to refresh his heart in Christ.”

Not a bad way to pray — for ourselves and for others.

Over the past few months God has been working in my heart to restore a sense of awe and amazement — to ignite the idle sticks of my heart into a roaring blaze — but I am still God’s work in progress. Pray for me, as I pray for all of you, that we would grow together into men and women after God’s own heart.

“In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word. I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart!” — Psalm 119:14-16, 32

Heavenly Father, enlarge our hearts we pray!

-The above post is by Brett Harris, taken from the blog - http://www.therebelution.com/blog/

I came across this website - www.therebelution.com when i was reading the book "Do Hard Things". I have been blessed many times by the posts in the blog and i pray it will be a blessing to you to. I do desire to share more things about this "Do Hard Things" book that I have read and will be reading again, but maybe another time soon.

This post is just so close to my heart, cos recently, my heart just seems so cold to the things of God. Lord, please revive my heart.

Another interesting website to check out, esp for all teen girls - http://www.therebelution.com/modestysurvey/browse

This website has helped me alot esp with regards to modesty cos modesty is a topic that is not commonly addressed. Many times, its quite awkard to go up to a guy to talk to him about modesty. What he thinks is modest or not and what kind of dressing or posture or attitude or whatever may be a stumbling block to him. I know guys are visual persons and lust is a very real thing they struggle with.

As Christian girls, we should be careful not to cause our brothers in Christ to stumble or sin unnecessarily especially if it has to do with our dressing. Of course, modesty has more to do than the dressing. It's also about the heart. Well, i think that's enough about modesty for now, hmm...i think that's quite an interesting topic and maybe we can do more discussion about that topic in the future. ;)

btw, what's found on the modesty survey website are just views and commements combined from guys all over the world. take it for how much you deem it worth. Let us pray and ask the Lord to teach us and lead us in this area of modesty and staying pure for Christ. :)

Praise You in this storm (:

I was sure by now
That You would have reached down
And wiped our tears away
Stepped in and saved the day
But once again, I say "Amen", and it's still raining

As the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain
"I'm with you"
And as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise the God who gives
And takes away

Chorus:
I'll praise You in this storm
And I will lift my hands
For You are who You are
No matter where I am
Every tear I've cried
You hold in Your hand
You never left my side
And though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm

I remember when
I stumbled in the wind
You heard my cry
You raised me up again
My strength is almost gone
How can I carry on
If I can't find You

I lift my eyes unto the hills
Where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord
The maker of heaven and earth

would it be okay to tell you that i'm not alright? that i'm actucally not doing too well now?
sure it would be. but sometimes in Christianity today, its hard to just be yourself.
its hard to show that u're actually not doing so well, when everyone around you seems to be fine perpetually. well, God help us. God help us to be who we really are. Thank God for good times, thank God for bad ones too.

in this valley,
i know God wants to strengthen my spiritual muscles.
i do not know how long this will take,
but i trust He knows best
and i am willing to stay in this valley till He is done with me

my heart is so hard
my heart is so proud
Lord, please please take my heart and break it.
make it soft, mouldable by You.
clothe me with humility.
i humble myself before You,
You are God.

we need more Christians that will stop being happy plastic people,
with shiny plastic steeples and walls around our weakness
and smiles to hide our pain.
Starting with - me. Get real, mel.

Lord, help me to be real. I thank You for mountaintop experiences, for valley experiences. I lift mine eyes to You, for You are my help. i will praise You in this storm.

lessons from the tumbleweed

i'm studying biology today for my homeschooling and i gleamed a spiritual lesson as i went though my lesson.

i'm on the topic of "Flowers, Fruits and Seeds" and from Fruits and Seeds Disposal, i quote:

"When the seeds of the tumbleweed, a plant of the Western plains, are ready to be dispersed, the entire plant withers and appears to die. When the wind blows, the plant stem breaks and the plant rolls across the plains, scattering seeds as it goes."

Isn't it interesting how the tumbleweed disperses itself?

I picked up a few learning points from the paragraph above.

the entire plant withers and appears to die

How often we Christians "appear to die". Appear to die to our flesh and live in the Spirit. Sometimes we think we have died to self when we have not, sometimes i think i may have surrendered all when i'm still secretly holding on to some dear thing. then when do we truly die?

the plant stem breaks

when the breaking comes and we choose to be broken before our Lord. when the walls are down and the roof off. Nothing between my soul and the Saviour and nothing to hide or keep as a secret from people around. after brokeness then what?

scattering seeds as it goes
after the breaking there is life again.

it is brokeness before revival.

may we be found broken before the Lord, allowing the Lord to have His way in our lives everyday.

it's so good to blog again. (:

I've actucally got lots to say and share about my family holiday to the Philippines and the church camp in Melaka. i'll be doing that in my subsequent posts, so stay tuned!

For now, i've got a new addition to the blog, its the book of the week and book in the pipline colum at the left hand side below the tagboard. i've long had the desire to read books, and so to encourage myself to read, i've decided to read one book a week [of course, also looking at the number of pages ;) ] and i'll do a lil review everytime i finish the book to share abit about the gist of it and lessons learnt. ;)

so far in the "Your Passport to Heaven" book, i've cleared a misconception i've had since young and that is that we'll be in Heaven forever. when i say Heaven, i mean, i think of this cloudy place where everything is white, the streets - gold...

This is what Randy Alcorn said and i quote "What we usually think of when we hear the word Heaven is the present Heaven, or the intermediate Heaven. If we're Christians, that's where we go when we die. It's the place where we'll live until our bodily resurrection. Our Christian loved ones who've died are now in the present, intermediate Heaven. But that's not the place where we'll live forever. Our eternal home, where God will come down to dwell among His people, is called the New Earth (Revelation 21:1-3)."

To leave you with a quote which i found on PC's blog-a big mission : "How could I spend the best years of my life in living for the honours of this world, when thousands of souls are perishing every day?" CT Studd

“Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?” Psalm 85:6

"When the church is prosperous, she never has revival. It’s when she's poor. Prayer is the language of the poor. 'Bow down Thine ear and hear me for I am poor and needy.' The self satisfied don’t need to pray. The self sufficient don’t want to pray. The self righteous cannot pray. But, the man who realises He needs something outside of what is human at all, he wants to bathe his soul in prayer…The weakest, weakest meeting in almost any church without exception is the prayer meeting. And when we’re not strong in prayer, we’re saying to God, we can manage. Cos we should pray if we have an invasion, we should pray if we have a famine, we have a great utility God…You need to maintain your prayer life in order to pray. No, not so. Not so. You need to maintain your Christian Life in order to pray…The church has to rediscover two things:
1. The Majesty and the Holiness of God
2. The sinfulness of sin
Prayer is not the easiest thing in the world. Prayer is the hardest thing in the world. Prayer is the most demanding thing in the world! ‘All earthly things will fade away but prayer grasps eternity’ so said Mongummary…if you claim to be filled with the Holy Spirit, the things that grieve the Spirit will grieve you…We’re heading for judgment faster than you could ever think, unless there’s a divine intervention…We sure need a heaven born, earth shaking, hell terrifying revival. And it only comes through brokenness…” -- Leonard Ravenhill

*extract taken from his sermon “Weeping between the Porch and the Altar”

Oh, may God break us.
May we rediscover the Majesty and Holiness of God and the sinfulness of our sin.
Revive us again.