Seasons of Pruning and Learning

For the past few months, few issues are constantly on my mind, need to be resolved, need to be dealt with, so that I can move on. I recognise that I need a Mind Spa very much like how I would go to a Facial Beauty Spa or a Body Spa to give my body a chill and relax.

These are some the issues that I need deeper understanding and application in my personal life to ensure sanity and peace in my life. These issues bug you constantly, almost like an old wound, it affects the feelings and mood, it comes and goes.

1. Forgiveness and Reconciliation - how to go about it to restore a relationship. Do they go hand in hand? Are they both sides of a coin?
2. Setting boundary to establish healthy relationships - to love sometimes we need to set boundary
3. Crucial Conversations - how to engage with others on topic and issues that are high stakes, varying opinions and emotions running high. 
4. Vulnerability - the first impression I had from God earlier last year and I only listened to a few videos on this. I like to know what vulnerability looks like and what do I have to do in order to 

I invested in many books and also going through You Tube Videos to help me learn these lessons in a rapid manner. I hope I am a fast learner and be able to overcome my mental blocks and have my mind spa at the soonest possible time. May God help me.

Grace-remembered season

Topic Grace-remembered season

Text :Ephesians 2:8-10

For it is by Grace you have been saved through faith in christ and this is not from yourselves,it is the gift of God not by works ,so that no one can boast.

So Grace is the gift of God

Sunday sermon 3/12/17 by Rev.Renny Khoo

1)Santa said-You have to earn it.

  JESUS said-You need only to receive .John 1:12

The heartbeat of all human nature always have the tendency to attempt to earn acceptance by doing charities and hope to be rewarded.However we can never achieve God’s standards in order to earn His rewards no matter how much good works we do.

A gift is not a reward and we only need to receive it to own it.We do not need to earn a gift.

We can reject a gift but we cant earn it.Once we accept the gift it is ours.

So Grace is the gift of God.

2)Santa said -only if you behave,you will then get my love.

  Christ said-while you misbehave,I was already loving you.

  It is christ who first love us not for what we have done or how much we have loved him.1John 4:10

  Even while we were yet sinners christ died for us.Romans 5:8

3)Santa keeps a record of our deeds

  Christ declared-It is finnished

  Colossians 2:13-14 when we were dead in your sins….

                 God made you alive with christ and forgave all your sins.

                 He even canceled the written code …that stood against us..took it away..nailed it on the cross.

Christ deleted all our records and forgave us of all our past sins by erasing all our records that stood against us! We were all born sinners and we inherited this sin.This is evidence even in children who need not be taught how to manipulate others for selfish gain.

Grace is given even though we do not deserve it .we just need to receive his forgiveness out of His mercy.

God first loved us (while we were still sinners).

Jesus came to die for us ( so that we could live)

So now we live in service to God ( with gratitude in our hearts).

We do not serve to earn his love.

We serve Him out of gratitude with thanksgiving for His amazing Grace that saved us.

Questions

1)Grace is the gift of God.We can either receive or reject the gift.

  Share your thoughts on the above statement.

2)What are some things you are especially thankful for throughout this year?

3)How do you intend to practice grace-giving moments in celebrating this year’s christmas season?

Psalm 22 Prayer for Wallace

When I read Psalm 22, I remember my dear son, Wallace, especially for verses 9-11, not so much of the rest. Because he is such a sensitive child towards things of God. Because he understands things in a different manner. He feels God is far despite God has been good for him before. He feels his imperfection drives God far away. He knows that he is the one who has fallen away and he knows coming back, making a U turn towards God is hard. He wants to try to come around his way. He wants to be a self-made man. 

I pray that one day he will be able to declare Verse 8 and 22-31, that God is indeed surpass his expectations on goodness showed in favour by God to him. No matter how far he is from God, may he knows that he just needs to turn around and finds that God has been faithfully earnestly. May he knows that as a human, it is impossible to turna around and turn to God and be good. There is no goodness other than God. All human goodness pales compared to God's compassion and goodness. There is healing in God's kingdom, prosperity and peace. All that man wants to pursue, it is in God. From God, all things came into beings; from Him all good things abound; from Him, all evil flees. This is the God we serve, mighty and compassionate is He. 

Psalm 22  

1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?

2 O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and am not silent.

3 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the praise of Israel.

4 In you our fathers put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them.

5 They cried to you and were saved; in you they trusted and were not disappointed.

6 But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people.

7 All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads:

8 "He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him."

9 Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you even at my mother's breast.

10 From birth I was cast upon you; from my mother's womb you have been my God.

11 Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no-one to help.

12 Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.

13 Roaring lions tearing their prey open their mouths wide against me.

14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me.

15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.

16 Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet.

17 I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me.

18 They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.

19 But you, O LORD, be not far off; O my Strength, come quickly to help me.

20 Deliver my life from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dogs.

21 Rescue me from the mouth of the lions; save me from the horns of the wild oxen.

22 I will declare your name to my brothers; in the congregation I will praise you.

23 You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, honour him! Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!

24 For he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.

25 From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly; before those who fear you will I fulfil my vows.

26 The poor will eat and be satisfied; they who seek the LORD will praise him- may your hearts live for ever!

27 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him,

28 for dominion belongs to the LORD and he rules over the nations.

29 All the rich of the earth will feast and worship; all who go down to the dust will kneel before him- those who cannot keep themselves alive.

30 Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord.

31 They will proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn- for he has done it.

Transitional Time Calls for Consecration

Transitional Time Calls for Consecration

Joshua 5:1-12

1 Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the LORD had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until we had crossed over, their hearts sank and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites.

First thing first, consecration precedes conquest.

Consecration - the dedication of a person / object for a specific purpose or use. 

In life, we have many transitions in our life. All translations are important. 

1) Circumcision - A moment of trust - God's Trustworthiness 

Gen 17:11-12

Joshua 5:9

9 Then the LORD said to Joshua, "Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you." So the place has been called Gilgal to this day.

God asked Joshua to circumcise in the most inappropriate place, inappropriate time and inappropriate group. 

Numbers 14:4-11 

 4 And they said to each other, "We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt."

11 The LORD said to Moses, "How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them? 12 I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they."

God has delivered them from Egypt but Egypt was still inside their hearts. 

Deuteronomy 30:6 

God will Circumcise your heart so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, in order that you may live. 

2) Passover - A Moment of Thanksgiving

Joshua 5:10
10 On the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, while camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, the Israelites celebrated the Passover. 

Exodus 12:26-27

The Lord has passover-ed their homes in Egypt. 

Recall of the great works done by God for your past so that we can be of gratitude. 

Thankfulness Comes from an experience of God. 

3) Manna - A moment of truth

11 The day after the Passover, that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land: unleavened bread and roasted grain. 12 The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate of the produce of Canaan.