Malaysian Youth Prayer Gathering - the third!

calling all
YOUTHS
of
MALAYSIA :)

come and join us at the third MYPG in Alor Setar, Kedah!

it's going to be a time of praying and interceding for our land.
a time where we come together as one body of Christ and seek God.
it'll be a time of praise, a time of worship, and a time of prayer.

if we don't pray for this land - Malaysia,
who will?

it's going to be exciting!
people from PJ and KL area who are interested to go and want to find out more,
can go here:
http://klpjlypg.blogspot.com/



hope to see you there!! :)

the parable of the talents

Matthew 25:14-30
14“Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them.

15To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey.

16The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more.
17So also, the one with the two talents gained two more.
18But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.
19“After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them.
20The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.’
21“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!’
22“The man with the two talents also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.’
23“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!’

24“Then the man who had received the one talent came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed.
25So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’
26“His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed?
27Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
28”‘Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents.
29For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.
30And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’


i just just finished exams :) and i'm very happy.
but besides all that, there still lots to do, there's still this and that to get done, and sometimes it all get's just so - overwhelming.
and there are times when i would just wish my life was free of responsibilities and all that stuff, but that's very selfish and irresponsible of me.

the parable of talents recently spoke to me, in the midst of all my frustration and wanting to let go of everything. i was at the point of asking why i had to do this, and why i had to do that, why was i given such responsibilities to bear...it was a lot of questions!

as i read this parable. the answer came to my questions of why.

we are all given different kinds and amounts of "talents". some have more, some less, some have certain gifts and some don't, everyone has a different calling and a role to play.

that's why, it's not for me to demand of God that i had been given more of this or less of that. it's ultimately up to God what He wants to give.

and then, it's up to us what we want to do with the talents given to us.
will we go at once and put our money to work?
or dig a hole in the ground and hide my Master's money?

putting out talents to work, means being obedient to the purposes and things God calls us to. sometimes along the way, we may get worried, and tired of working, we may lose our vision of being at work at it in the first place, and we may reach moments where we just want to give up.

it's a whole lot easier to just dig a whole and hide the talent given to us. it won't multiple but it'll be safe. we won't have to worry about it and we can go on doing our own things without much thought of the talent (except that we'll have to remember where it's buried). we could go shopping, makan, anything we want. sounds good, no?

but what happens when the Master comes back?
to the one who has put his talents to work and have gained even more, the master says,

‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!’

and to the one who hid the talent, he replies in verse 26-30,

'You wicked, lazy servant!... And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

so, what's worth it in the end?
working our talents though it may be really tough at time, but reaping the fruits at the end of the day and sharing in our Master's happiness?
or having a jolly good holiday yet ending up thrown out?

and at that point, lots of things were put in perspective for me. what kind of servant am i?
i hope that at the end of the day, i will hear something like this ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!’ from my Master.

i want to be sold out for Christ.

Lord, i know that i've been pretty 'complainy' about certain things lately and i know i've been getting frustrated with lots of stuff and that all that breaks your heart. but i sometimes really feel so so so helpless and i don't know what i should do. Lord, i need you to help me. and i want to serve you with all i am, i want to put to work the talents you have given to me. i want to be obedient to your calling. Lord, whenever i lose sight of the vision and purpose of my calling, i pray that you would remind me of it.

totally killed it

haha, i totally killed my "at least one post per month" trend. totally.

but anyway, just so you know, i am still alive.

since we missed out on two plus months, i'm going to give a very brief statement of what happened.

march - CF CAMP 2009!! :)

april - went by in a dash. oh yea, EASTER :)

may - EXAMS! :(
but they're ending reaaaal soon :)
PRAISE GOD!

it's been a journey. with some bumps, hills, tunnels and occasional smooth roads. but it's mostly an excitement and something new at every corner! :D

Ahh, what would i do without you, dear Lord.
you make everything glorious!
thanks for being there and always, always bringing us through.

at the cross i bow my knee

Philippians 2:1-11 (Imitating Christ's Humility)

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also the interests of others.

Your attitude should be he same as that of Christ Jesus:

Who, being in the very nature of God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

the week before was - fuhh, really busy!! netball and cf camp stuffs. i thank God that my life's pace has slowed down a lot this week before i get a heart attack!

but in that fast paced week, i learned a lot. i learned what it is to trust God to know what's best for my life, and i learnt to be obedient to Him, even if it means giving up what i want and what i think is best for my life. and i learnt how hard it really is.

i understand a little bit clearer now what it is to let go of things in obedience to Christ, to humble myself and allow Him to do what He wants in my life. to be an imitator of Christ's humility, and to bow my knee before the cross and say, "Lord, have your way in me."

i've always thought that i knew what it means to give up all for God's call, but when it came to giving up one really simple thing in my life, i struggled to do so. even to the point of reasoning it out in human terms to myself, when i knew that i couldn't do that to God's calling. but God told me to trust and to obey. to humble myself before Him and lay it all down at His feet.

so, i did.

and i thank God for teaching me to obey and to listen. and i thank Him for His grace that despite me trying to reason things out and trying to get my own way, He didn't give up on me and stop speaking, but He kept directing and speaking to me about what i was supposed to do.

Lord, thank you for all you've done. :)
Lord, thank you for laying down your life for me.
Continue to mould my life to be what you want it to be.
help me to come everyday before your cross
and lay my life before you and after that take up my cross and follow you.

" He is no fool if he gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose. "
- Jim Elliot

already?

it's february already. one month has passed since the year started.

bye, january 2009 that won't come again :( it has been a lovely journey.

i learnt so so much. starting the year with You, Lord was amazing; knowing that You were taking me on a journey, an adventure.

thank You for giving me a glimpse of the great things you are about to do in my country - malaysia during the Mini Malaysian Youth Prayer Gathering (MYPG) in Kuantan, BersatUnite and even the Local Youth Prayer Gathering (LYPG) you have started in my city, KL/PJ.

thank You for the promises and encouragements given. thank You, Lord, for forgiveness. i am so excited to see the things you have in your heart for malaysia. Lord, open my eyes to see and my ears to hear.

well, the first day of school was quite a dread. i just sat on my bed in the morning, dreading to go to school, even to the point of crying :( i just wasn't "ready" and holidays were so much more funner and meaningful. well, i just wasn't prepared to go back and i just assumed school would be filled with work, work, work.

but God encouraged me, telling me that i cannot look at school through my own eyes anymore, because my view of school was all tainted. like a glass that is dirty and stained and every time i looked at school through the glass i dreaded and i didn't like it. i have to look at school through the eyes of God, through the eyes of my Father. and when i looked through His eyes, school was a harvest field, a place where people were broken and lost and they needed the love of God and i had a purpose in school.

and that made all the difference, that made my days in school a whole lot better and purposeful, knowing that i do not go in alone, knowing that God is with me and there is a purpose for me to be there. i've learned to look at form 6 through the eyes of my Father. i still struggle, it's tiring at times, it's worrying and frustrating too sometimes, but i know i am not abandoned.

later on in the week, God showed me a way i could be salt and light in my school. He told me it would start among my classmates. He said to me "waiyan, there's 14 people in your class, 13 excluding you. and how many days do you spend in school, far more than 13. why don't you love each one of them throughout this year, love them with my love. not just those you are already close with, those that you get along so well with, but those who you barely talk to. love them. because I love them." and i told God, " Lord, i can't just randomly hug someone in class everyday and say 'Jesus loves you and so do i'. Lord, i need you to provide avenues, open doors, let there be opportunities for me to love them." and He assured me that He would.

and that day, He did open a door for me to love someone. He allowed me to talk to one of the girls in my class who i never really talked to, He provided a situation for me to do so. i didn't have some super holy conversation about God or anything of that sort with her, but it was a start just being able to sit with her and talk. and i thank God for it.

and that hasn't been the only one. it doesn't happen everyday, though i wish it would. and i haven't shown the love of Christ to everyone of them yet, but i know God will make a way in His time. and i have no idea what to expect. but i pray that i will be obedient, that i will listen and not just do things on my own wisdom and ambitions. i know that i cannot love them wholly with my own human love and that is why i need to love them with the love of Christ.

*erm, if any of my classmates somehow find their way to this post, i hope you will not think that i'm a weird love-addict or some hippie with the message "spread the love" or something like that. i just want to tell you that Jesus loves YOU and so do i! have a nice day and see you in school :D

and then there's the amazing work God is doing in our school cf. i believe God has so much install for us and i thank Him so much for all He has done. we're coming back to Him, we're coming back to be His people in this school He has placed us in; not by chance but for a purpose.

the change didn't just happen overnight, but it happened and i praise God! i know that most of you who might read this may be clueless about this, but it's just something that i have to, have to thank God for! but i admit, i do struggle even in serving and sometimes i am discouraged, but i know God is faithful. He is faithful, forever and ever and ever.

God showed me the power of prayer in my own life. He showed me that nothing, absolutely nothing is impossible for Him!

For nothing is impossible with God.
Luke 1:37

and that is so true :) nothing, not even the works of the enemy can stop the will of God. so, do not be dismayed or give up when things don't go the way you expect them to go, instead keep praying because in His time, God will bring you through!

even at this point, i am so in awe at how God has worked in my life even in the short time of one month. and He has done and taught me so many things, i cannot type it all out. for one it is just too many, and for another i am getting sleepy. so two last things which are also the two most recent.

i met up with some of my christian friends from NS after a crazy long period of EIGHT months! thanks to melissa who got the bunch of us together. gosh, i really love and miss them all. they were such a wonderful bunch of people who encouraged and loved me and i loved them too when we were all far far away from home. i'm really glad to see that they are still walking with God and i pray that they will grow even more, becoming more intimate with Christ everyday.

we have to have more meet ups lah. and that meet up was kinda rushed for me too, cause that very same day i was going to go for the youth-ties retreat.

just today, i got back from our church's youth-ties (youth + twenties) leaders' retreat. 11 of us went up to bukit tinggi from 30th January-1st February. and it was such a wonderful place, we were surrounded by God's creation, green and tall trees as we looked out from the balcony, blue skies with birds flying, mist that covered the hills in the morning, and at night, the stars that twinkled in the sky (not as fuiyoh as the night sky in NS but still quite fuiyoh when compared to PJ). and God is a great great great God to have created all that and more! wow!

God was with us leading us. He showed us so much. He gave us a whole new plan to go by, totally different from what we were so used to. it was a reformation. He spoke to us individually, personally, as a youth group, as leaders, as christians, as the body of Christ, as malaysians. He just revealed so much to us. and i pray we will please Him and be obedient to Him. i really do not want to let Him down. and like i said so many times, it's exciting!

the time spent there was lovely. we were healed, we were reconciled, we were directed, we had fun :) and i thank God for the people God has placed in my life, especially those who have impacted my walk with God. i love love them so much :)

Lord, You are great. and i love You.
Lord, i pray and commit the rest of 2009 into Your hands and trust You to know what's best for me. i'm excited to go on this adventure with You. February is going to be meaningful, because You are with me! and i pray, help me to be obedient and listening to You because i know how i can get so caught up in stuff. and that i too will please You with my life.

toodles! and have a nice day :)