True Worship

I heard a pastor preach these words - "If you want success, wealth, influence and power, come worship the Lord!"

I was aghast. Worship the Lord, the Almighty God, because we want something? Worship Him for selfish reasons?!

How so very wrong the pastor was! Worshipping and praising the Lord aren't acts done because we want something from Him.

We should worship Him because of Who He is:

Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise;
His greatness no one can fathom. - Psalm 145:3

We should worship Him simply because He is our great God:

Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; for he is our God
and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care. - Psalm 95:6-7

But most of all, we should worship Him because He deserves it!

Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name.
Bring an offering and come before him;
worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness. - 1 Chronicles 16:29

I couldn't help but think what kind of message that pastor was sending out to the congregation. How very mercenary of us Christians, to worship God only to gain something! Praising Him for selfish ends.

And what, indeed, would those newcomers and unbelievers in the congregation think? In the end, we would be no different from the other religions - worshipping to gain something.

What impact would those words uttered by the pastor have on young Christians? That pastor would be sowing bad seeds, which, if not rooted out, would cause an unhealthy, stunted growth in the wrong direction.

Christians, pray for the Church and its leaders worldwide! The end is near, and the love of many have grown cold. Pray for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit. But above all, pray that each Christian will seek the Lord wholeheartedly and know the truth!!!

Thrashed!!!

The Chelsea-ManUtd match tonight was absolutely pathetic.

ManUtd had the so-called determination to halt the Chelsea victory, but that determination didn't materialize anywhere in 90+ minutes. They played horrifically.

They played like schoolboys, or worse. Their passing was amateurish at best. Apathetic, lethargic, SLOW. They were darned slow.

Giggs was totally useless, screwing up any and every chance he had.

They were a bunch of pathetic players. Paid millions to play football? What a waste of money!!!

But perhaps I'm being a tad unfair. They are, after all, not the root of the problem.

It's time Ferguson left. If Glazer has any sense, he'll send that useless, rotten lump of Scottish potato packing.

Ferguson plays favorites, and seems to have let his reign at Old Trafford get to his head. He makes senseless buys, and every good player he manages to buy seems to lose their brilliance once they wear the ManUtd jersey. Thank God ManUtd left Ronaldinho alone, even though he was waiting for an offer.

Well, wake up, old man. You've managed to single-handedly sink ManUtd by your sheer stupidity. Hope you're proud of that.

As much as I hate Mourinho's arrogance, I have to admit he's shown good sense. And Wenger, well, he's always been good. But Ferguson's past his sell-by date.

*sigh*

And to think I'm on ManUtd's side.

At the end, I was even cheering for another goal by the Blues. If they're to lose, they might as well lose spectacularly (so hopefully Glazer will come to his senses and get rid of Ferguson!).

They deserved that humiliating loss.

Free!!!

I am free! I'm so happy!!!

:)

My God is indeed an awesome God!!! The mountain which I was so afraid to face turned out to be a molehill. No, scratch that. It's smaller than a molehill!!!

Praise the Lord!!! :)

Friends?

Sometimes there are friends you treasure very much. They've been with you through thick and thin, and you both enjoy and value the friendship. These are the Best Friends.

Then there are the friends you haven't known for long, but immediately like them and would love to get to know them better. These are the Potential Best Friends, all it takes is time.

Then there are those whom you thought was your best friend, but it turned out that the person doesn't like you. Those are just called A Waste Of Time (in polite terms. There are other choice, censored words I could think of). Among these are the backstabbers and traitors, and those who use you just because you have something you can offer them. These are the worst kind of people there are, because they are nice to your face and frighteningly correct to you.

But underneath, you can sense a certain disdain and perhaps even a strong dislike of you. It crops up at unexpected times, a slip, perhaps, of the so-called friend's tongue.

Achingly disgusting hypocrites. They act differently towards you when they're alone with you and when there are people around you both. They act differently when they need your help.

And sometimes they can be so nauseatingly sweet to you - or say nauseatingly sweet things about you - in front of the people who love you, so fake that it is by a huge amount of will power that you do not puke.

But the only thing I can do is to pray about it, and try to love that person anyway. God will judge.

Being a Christian ain't easy.

Jesus Wept

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled...Jesus wept. - John 11:33&35

Jesus wept.

I am struck afresh by this revelation. Our Perfect Savior shed not only His precious blood for us, he also cried for us.

He shared the pain felt by the relatives and friends of Lazarus. He was deeply moved by their grief.

As perfect man and Son of God, He could have easily raised Lazarus from the dead without shedding a tear. Since He knew He had the power to raise the dead, He could have just said to the weeping crowd "Hey, don't cry, watch what I'm about to do!" and - ta-daa! - raised Lazarus, then stood back and smiled at the crowd's amazement.

Instead, our wonderful Savior wept.

This shows that He felt grief for His friends. And, as Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, we can rest assured that He identifies with the suffering we go through in our lives!!!

When we cry, Jesus cries with us. He understands us, every single hurt we experience. And that, much more than anything else, is a great comfort - that we have in Him a friend who understands what we're facing, who listens to our problems, who cries with us.

Our God is not some impersonal God who watches impassively over the world, seated arrogantly on a throne in Heaven far above our reach, higher than we could ever dream.

No. Our God is a personal, loving friend; a God who came to die for our sins so that we will never be alienated, never be alone.

Our God is a God who cries with us!

A Moment Of Weakness

My instincts are flashing red, sirens screaming a warning: Danger! Flee! At stake: my heart - in both senses of the word.

I thought I could withstand the onslaught. But can I, really? Not by my own strength, certainly not.

While I have conquered - and at a high price, this Pyrrhic victory - I fear that I may stumble again.

I guess that's what happens when you've met the ideal. It's hard for anyone else to reach - and surpass - that standard. Not anyone mortal anyway.

i am afraid

that one smile

one glance

one word from you

will undo all my

hard-won resolve;

that my name

on your lips

will cause

the Great Wall of Self-Control

to crumble

in dust and ashes.

i am afraid

of you.

The Christian Hypocrisy

We Christians - we pray for revival.

In church, we speak in tongues fervently, lift our hands as high as they can reach to the heavens, sing in the loudest voices. We sing about how much Jesus loves US; about how blessed WE are to be Christians; about how WE will win the victory. Never mind that the songs don't really focus much on God alone. It's all about us, isn't it? After all, Christ came to DIE for US!!! He exists to serve us, didn't He say so?

We smile and greet the person next to us - "Jesus loves you!" - when Pastor asks us to. Then, task done, our smiles switched off, we spend the next hour or so ignoring our neighbor. When the service is over, we walk away without bothering to say goodbye. We don't know their names, why should we talk? It's the welcoming committee's duty to find out, isn't it? Newcomers? Well, what about them? They get the welcome package and applause. Then they're free to approach us anytime they want, to ask for our names. Why don't we bother talking to them, or to follow up on them? I told you, it's the welcoming committee's jurisdiction! We're just the lay members, it's none of our business.

Pastor preaches about how God wants us to be successful. Being a Christian means to live a victorious life! Too bad he forgot to define the meaning of success, but never mind, we can figure it out ourselves. God wants us to be rich! Pastor's favorite line is 'God will bless those who give'. The more you give to the church, the more successful you will be! It's a smart, safe plan, covering all bets.

Our life outside of church is even more interesting!

We can be heard telling our own Christian clique how good it is to be Christians in loud, pompous tones, in the same conversation - sometimes even in the same breath! - as we gossip about others who are not in our clique. Then we move on to complain about other people who did something to us: "God will judge!" we say with a self-righteous sniff.

We think that Ms.So-and-So is not a true Christian because she missed a few Sunday services, never mind about the weeks when we ourselves did not attend. After all, we had perfectly valid reasons! The holiday tour could not be postponed now, could it? Besides, I couldn't wake up; the concert last night was one I absolutely had to go to! Surely God will understand that I worship Him better when I'm awake! God loves me, I'm sure He doesn't want me to suffer from sleep deprivation!

And then there are Christian homes which provide shelter for the homeless. Of course they will let the homeless in! They're Christians, aren't they? But you're allowed in only if you answer in the affirmative the standard question they ask during the admission interview: "Do you believe in Jesus?" Otherwise, who cares? The unbelievers are going to hell anyway, right? Why bother about them? Might as well let them get used to hell on Earth first, a sort of preparation.

Our pastors, they're truly amazing people! They're always busy doing the Lord's work! In fact, they're so busy serving Him that they don't notice the homeless people around them. They're in such a rush, driving about in their air-conditioned cars from their air-conditioned homes to their air-conditioned offices that the homeless man along the route goes unnoticed. Their time is consumed by funerals, there's none left to make a call to the social home to provide a temporary roof over a homeless, living man's head. The dead are more important - after all, the deceased's family members are Christians from their own church and the homeless man is not. It's not good to offend the family members - they tithe! The homeless man, well, he's jobless. And he's already staying out on the streets, so what's one more night, or even one more year out there, right? Same difference. Besides, who knows what he might have done to deserve this state of homelessness? Maybe it serves him right to be out in the streets!

We conveniently forget to attend prayer meetings. We work late, and after work we're just too tired to pray. We go straight back home to sleep. Praying to God only takes place on Sunday mornings during worship; that is, assuming our gossip buddies are seated somewhere far from us. Reading the Bible? Sure we read the Scriptures! Pastor always has a nice verse or two for us to read for the day. That's all we need! No time to finish one whole book, or even the whole Bible. It's so thick, it's impossible!

When a friend calls us up asking for help, we listen sympathetically, say a prayer over the phone, and then get back to our own lives. She doesn't need our help, God can help her. We're too busy with work that we can't go over to help her anyway!

We're so caught up with searching for God, looking to the heavens, that we forget to look around and see the need of those near to us. We love God - love is a feeling, not expressed by actions! - so much that we are too busy to love His people.

Then we sit and wonder why there is no revival.

Putting God In A Box

"I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?" - Jeremiah 32:27

It's inevitable. Whenever I profess my faith in God and His ability to help in any and every circumstance, the person I'm speaking to will smirk and give me an annoying, smug, I-know-what-it's-really-like-out-there look. This look implies that I'm naive for trusting in God, that I am to be pitied for my childish beliefs.

But in truth, they are the ones to be pitied!

The sad part is that some of those who disbelief call themselves Christians. I am in no position to judge, but it is utterly heartbreaking when God's own children put Him in a box, limiting His love and power. It's sad that they choose to belief in the devil's lies, and create indestructible obstacles in their own minds, obstacles so 'powerful' that they think God cannot work to help them overcome it.

And you know what? They're right, in a way. God cannot help them win the victory over their trials because they refuse to believe that God can do so! Their faith is dead.

But I choose not to be like them. I choose to trust in my God, in His love and promises.

I understand perfectly well that life's not a bed of roses. I'm not saying that just because I believe in God, my life will be smooth sailing all the way or that I won't ever face difficulties. God never promised me a life filled with sunshine and happiness always.

What I'm saying is this: that even though I go through trials, I can rest assured that God is always there with me to see me through. That no matter what evils I face, God is able to change it into good. That I will emerge from each adversity stronger, purified and refined as gold is purified and refined till my Maker is reflected in me.

If God brings me to it, I have the fullest confidence that He will also bring me through it.

Yes, I know life can suck. Horrible things might happen to me - or worse, to the people I love - but I will never curse God, nor will my faith in Him be shaken.

Nothing is impossible for God. He heals and He provides, but most importantly, God loves!

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. - Romans 8:28

If God Exists, Why Is There Evil?

But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living...

Most unbelievers love throwing this question at Christians whenever the topic of God's existence crops up - Why is there evil in this world if God indeed exists? Or some other variant, like Why does God allow evil?

It's a good question.

Well, I ask one question in return - Have they made God the Master of their lives? If they have not, then how can they expect God to be Master of the world?

God made Man to rule over the Earth. He left us a degree of freedom in doing this. God gave us free will.

How we choose to exercise this freedom determines the course this world will follow. If Hitler had truly known Jesus, and experienced fellowship with Jesus, do you think he would've done what he did?

If Jesus is not the Master of your own life, don't start blaming God for what happens in the world. By your very inactivity, you have played a hand in bringing it about too!

God works through us. If we sit by and do nothing, how do you expect God to move?

As Joshua asked the Israelites to choose whom they would serve so many millennia ago, so it is today. Whom do we serve?

Unfortunately, most men have chosen to make Self, or Money, or Power the masters of their life. They serve the 'gods' of this world, who are ultimately under the authority of Satan.

They exercise free will under these idols' directions. Is it any wonder, then, that this world is full of evil?

So why did God create evil anyway?

Easy. He didn't.

As darkness is an absence of light, so evil is the absence of God.

Whom do you choose to serve? Choose wisely, for this choice will determine how the world is run. It's a choice between good and evil. This choice, very literally, is between Life and Death.

...But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.~Joshua 24:15

Dry Spell

There is absolutely nothing worse than a dry spell, when ideas cannot be shaped by words, when thoughts are disconnected from pen.

When you stare at a blank screen, and it stares blankly back at you.

When a fresh sheet of pure clean paper ends up in doodles and scribbles, without forming any meaningful sentence or phrase.

When the fountain of dreams run dry.

When I get writers' block. Ugh.