On Hearing God Pt2

Ha! It just seems that blogging is not for me. My last entry was more than 3 months ago!
SOooooo many things have happened and I can't even think how i'm going to keep a record of it.
Just for records (in choronological order):
1. Eelee came back to Spore for Church camp, did homestay together with Jiexian at our place for a week. Learned about team dynamics, DISC personality test, Spiritual giftings test, conflict management and a little preview of some of our livin habits.
2. Completed Hope Sem "NT Survey" course.
3. Started going to our little South American CG lead by our gracious duo, Cindy & Sharon.
4. Started Hope Sem "The Christian Faith"
5. lost Semi-final match of HPL to FC2024. 1-0, how disheartening!
6. Started Fountain Gate Ministries "Inner-Healing Prep" course.
7. Had a good farewell-cum-birthday dinner for TeckKeong, SiewYee and Chris n I. (see pics)

Gosh, time really flies when the train is on full speed. and today, both chris n I will have to share our testimony on the calling of God in our lives during Missions Night!
The next time I post another blog, i could possibly be doing it in Chile!!
sigh............ no more chicken rice and char kuey teow for a yr liao!

on hearing God (Part 1)

Seriously, have you ever thought about how you can hear God speak? Well, I've always learned that God chooses to speak to us through His scripture, our mentors, our friends, our pastors delivering the spoken faith on the pulpit every Sunday etc. But what about directly?
It's the 28th (I know i'm posting this late) and another Thursday evening late at work. My mobile's alarm rang to remind me of the "Discovering Chile" talk our Church will be conducting by our Hope Santiago team. It's already 7pm and I'm still in the office,' Man, i'm so tired, maybe i should just head home and take a rest!' The whole week had simply been balancing the 'renovation vs work' scale! What colors, which laminate, how to best place the sofa, kitchen, bedroom, air-con, and the whole lot!! It was wearing me down but somehow, somewhere inside of me wanted to go to this presentation so I went.

As i stepped into the small Europe room in Nexus, i saw barely a handful of about 10 of us and everybody seem prepared to come and expect something. As for me, I was simply there just to find out more, no commitments huh! But something struck me, and it struck me at my most unprepared state of mind.

God spoke.

Nowadays, i tend to not use those 2 words together so lightly. If i were a pastor, or Church elder, Yes, but I'm not so....... On a personal note, I've always though that God would come to me with waves of thunder & lightning with all His glorious fury speaking in a deep bassy James Earl Jones voice.

Well, in my case, He didn't. What He did was quite characteristic of Him, He 'squeezed' my heart (the most sensitive part of me). Now, imagine with me in a room with 10 complete strangers singing a medley of songs in a completely different language "Spanish", would you have had a faster heart-beat. 'Yes', i would, i thought. But in fact, the heartbeat grew faster. I could literally feel it pounding "thump... thump" beat for beat, regular but heavy and yet......... reassuring, secured and warm (not those cold cardiac arrest feeling).
After singing and worshiping God in Spanish, we sat down and Pui See started sharing all things Chile. As I wasn't seriously paying attention, i asked God,

'Are You sure?'

'I mean ARE You really SURE this is the place You want me to go??' I reasoned

'It's so far away from home!' I thought.

As you would have guessed, my heart kept pounding away like an earth-moving pillar driver pounding the foundations into the ground.

Then, before you know it, the session ended and Christine have reach the little Europe room we were in and started chatting to Pui See and David. We talked about their plans, the working prospects there and other unimportant things.

After that night, the following two week will never be the same!

what to do? what to do?

i think everyone will come to a point in their lives when we'll be wondering; 'Are we really doing what we really want?'
I know that question can pop up at different stages in a person's career and life but i'm pretty sure, it'll come.
And that's what I'm pondering deeply about.
What do you think? Do you think it's just ignorant for people who forgo their responsibilities to persue a dream of their own or it's every man & woman's right to do what they really want to do!
If it works out, PERFECT! but if it doesn't, well, then..... you can always go back to your boring job??

Corporations around the world are placing billions of dollars into areas of training, HR, recreation, fostering strong family ties, etc, all in the name of "satisfying" the job satisfactions of their employees and most importantly retaining them. BUT the ironic side of this picture is that they'll want you to work exceptionally HARD!!! simply because you FEEL satisfied?~?!!
I mean..... come on........ if i'm really satisfied with my work, do i need my boss to remind me or "make me believe" that I really 'love' to work for the company??!!

So...... like the 90's song ringing on the billboard charts, the lyrics faithfully read, ' So i wanna know........ should i stay or should I go............................'

Takes 2 hands to clap

Tonight, i prayed with my beautiful wife about the will of God in our lives.
And i have to say that it was definitely one of our longer prayer times together. We were simply just longing desperately to dwell in His awesome presence for some time now.
What started the chain of "seeking God's will" episode these few days in our lives was really drawn from a hunger deep within our hearts to know His marvelous plans for us. Since we got married, we've been pretty much sitting on the idea of doing missionary work and being out there in "the fields". We, somehow, lost that urge and desire and we've realized how attached we've become with our work and the routines of life's worries like the new apartment, planning for kids & etc. And to put it quite crudely, my procrastination was pissing me off!

So TOP resolution (i would probably regard it more as a commandment....) this year would be................................. to prepare ourselves in EVERY possible area to work towards going out there! there you have it.... let's see when it'll come to past.

Something i read from the book by R. Arthur Mathews really inspired me. He wrote " that God's commands are issued from a basis of complete knowledge and perfect power, not form a calculated gamble on the chances of success. Because god's commands are never speculative or experimental, He is not required to formulate contingency plans to cover failure"

new beats

Our Heart,
To Science, it's just a lump of pulsating muscle about the size of your fist. But what is it really to you? Conscientiously or not, it is what and who you are. It is what fuels your emotions, drives your instincts and, determines your actions. It is really the source of all of man's creation whether to benefit or destroy the human race! It is powerful beyond our wildest imagination (the brain draws blood from the heart btw) and yet fragile as a flower petal.
Today, i just took a day off from work to try to do some of the things i've missed out doing ie; banking business, household chores, administrative work...... u know the lot.
But the surprise came after sending Christine to work. I came home, intending to take a morning shower and go to bed to catch up on my sleep before I start the day's itinerary. And so after the shower, though i'd put in Corrinne May's CD to listen while i check the mail and wait for my hair to dry up a bit before i hit the bed.
Then it came over, I went into Corrinne 's official website and read her blog and felt something which was missing or stored in a dark storage area in my heart. .........- The Will To Feel.
I was caught up in all the "huffing-&-puffing& i'll blow your house down" mode that i forgotten to smile, laugh, see, hear, to express my emotions, to appreciate and finally to love.
Her songs made me realize that it's not that difficult at all, really! Moreover with someone who has already gone before me to show me that it's possible!