Friday, August 24, 2007

the message of a child.....

A beautiful story.. enjoy... taken from some book or devotional material (forget which one hehe)

We were the only family with children in the restaurant. I sat Josh in a highchair. Suddently Josh squealed and said, "Hi there". He pounded his hands on the high-chair tray and wriggled and giggled with merriment. I looked around and saw the source of his merriment. It was a man with a tattered rag of a coat, dirty, greasy and worn. His pants were baggy with a zipper at half-mast and his toes poked out of would-be shoes. His shrit was dirty and his hair uncombed and unwashed. His whiskers were too short to be called a beard and his nose was so varicosed it looked like a road map. We were too far from him to smell him, but I was sure he smelled. His hands waved and flapped on loose wrists.

"Hi there, baby. I see ya, buster," the man said to Josh. My husband and I exchanged looks that said, "What do we do?" Everyone in the restaurant noticed and looked at us and then at the man. The old geezer was creating a nuisance with my beautiful baby. Our meal came, and the man began shouting across the room, "Do ya know patty-cake? Do ya know peekaboo? Hey, look, he knows peekaboo."

Nobody thought the old man was cute. He wa obviously drunk, My husband and I were embarrased. We ate in silence, all except for Josh, who was running through his repertoire for the admiring skidrow bum who in turn recipracated with his cute comments.

We finally got through the meal and headed for the door. My husband went to pay tge check and told me to meet him in the parking lot. The old man sat poised between me and the door. "Lord, just let me out of here before he speaks to me or Josh," I prayed. As I drew closer to the man, I turned my back trying to side-step him and avoid any air he might be breathing. As I did, Josh leaned over my arm, reaching with both arms and in a baby's pick-me-up position. Before I could stop him, Josh had prapelled himself from my arms to the man's.

Suddently a very smelly old man and a very young baby consummated their love relationship. Josh, in an act of total trust, love and submission laid his tiny head upon the man's ragged shoulder. The man's eyes closed, and I saw tears hover beneath his lashes. His aged hands, full of grime, pain and hard labour, gently, so gently cradled my baby's bottom and stroked his back. No two beings have ever loved so deeply for so short a time. I stood awestruck. The old man rocked and cradled Josh in his arms for a moment, and then his eyes opened and set squarely on mine. He said in a firm commanding voice, "You take care of this baby." Somehow I managed to say "I will," from a throat that contained a stone. He pried Josh from his chest unwillingly, lovingly, as though he were in pain. I received my baby, and the man said, "God bless you, ma'am, you've just given me my Christmas gift." I said nothing more than a muttered thanks.

With Josh in my arms, I ran for the car. My husband was wondering why I was crying and holding Josh so tightly, and I was saying, "My God, my God forgive me." I had just witnessed Christ's love shown through the innocence of a tiny child who saw no sin, who made no judgement... a child who saw a soul, and a mother who saw a suit of clothes. I was a Christian who was blind, holding a child who was not. I felt it was God asking, " Are you willing to share your son for a moment?" when He shared His for eternity. The ragged old man, unwittingly, had reminded me that to enter the kingdom of God, we must become as little children...

"Let the little children come to me, and do not forbid them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." Mark 10:14-15...

Holiday or Work??

Well.. SO far the holiday hasnt been much of a holiday at all.. have been up and running.. so many events happening.. I'm just glad it's all over.. phew! wait.. college's starting again.. oh man!

Let's see, first there was the church camp, 4 days 3 nights, was involved in the worship team, drums and bass.. for those who have been to my church before you would know that the worship session normally goes for two hours :0! (imagine carrying a bass guitar for two hours!!)
Also there was childrens intercession and I was helping my parents handle some sessions, lead worship, play guitar.. these kids are awesome! really smart and sharp @ catching the fire and praying for people! power-packed indeed!

Then there was the national childrens in prayer conference 2007 for two days, in which my parents were the speakers for the workshops, and me and my sisters are involved too, leading worship, doing skits, action songs, speaking, story telling? aiks! There were about 800 kids there and we were leading the 4-6 year olds (the hardest bunch!!) which totalled to about 150+ kids running around *faints! Thank God it went smoothly and the kids were touched (I hope ;)

Then there was the media production team from South Africa, from a organisation called media village, associated with YWAM (go YWAM!!) who was in Malaysia to film children in prayer around Malaysia, ended up following them down to Johor, Labis to film an orphanage kids (pretty cool stuff they have 24/7 prayers!, and the kids can speak like 4/5 languages!, imagine chinese kids praying in tamil! awesome!)
SO anyway I ended up being the BOOM SWINGER! (a.k.a mike holder boy), basically holding up the really cool rifle mikes on a stick to catch sounds (you know, movie making stuff) and it was tiring i tell u!
We also filmed in a group called the Wall Joint in KLCC, where a bunch youths did the 30 second kneel down @ the park (pretty cool stuff!)

Besides these events, the preperation, travelling esspecially to Johor, PD, Nilai, PJ.. I didnt even get to celebrate my birthday (sorry to those people to tried to call but couldnt get through!!)
(sorry chris!!) haha I just found out that a really cool friend studying in Australia spent like 5 AUD trying to reach my voice mail! sowwie!

AND when finally it all ended, and I came back to PJ, guess what? My sister calls me;
Sarah: Hey bro, get changed, there's an emergancy, somebody's manifesting and is demon possesed, we gotta go and pray for them.
Japh: Me? you want me to go? (jumps flat on my bed)
Sarah: Yes you! You have the power in you, quick get up!
here we go again....

Praise God for my mum (power house/radar/demon buster), and of course the holy spirit for the victory! everything went smoothly although I admit I was shivering @ first! It was like, eye opening (whoa!) and seriously shows that the spiritual world is seriously real and we have to constantly be on guard and connected to the power source (holy spirit!)

Well.. It's almost back to college for now.. Holidays has been well spent, another semester awaits.. It's crazy to know that in about two weeks time I'll be heading for New York, the UN headquarters and ground zero to pray with some people for a week! Super excited! except for the long flight.. blek!

And btw, next week on the 31st is gonna be the ex-djcf'ers reunion @ japh's house! 12 noon guys! hope to see u guys there! ciouz!

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Memories....

Birthdays always bring memories..

for mine.. let's say so far each year has been different.. at exactly this time last year.. I was in an aeroplane, flying from Australia to Singapore back to KL on Singapore airlines.. back from YWAM and a journey of a lifetime at missions in India and Bible school in Brisbane..

The year before.. was @ SMKDJ, after stepping down as V.prez of djcf, after a whole year of fun and experiance being in dj school and cf, friends and all for all these years..

This year, is different.. there's no celebration yet.. nope nothing so far.. I'm back in PJ helping my mum and dad prepare for church camp and some children in prayer conference which my parents are handling.. there's nothing much to celebrate too, awaiting results for my semester in college, the only gift i got so far is from my younger sister debbie (Love you heaps!).. my future is still quite unclear at the moment.. time is passing so fast.. i've got some calls from some friends.. maybe 3?

it's 2.15am...

It's funny how some people don't treasure the little things in life.. forwarded emails saying that 'oh i'll be there for you', 'some people will walk in and out of your life but i will always be there', kinda thing? the next thing you know, they're gone off somewhere and lost contact...

I appologize if I've failed to be a friend to all of you guys.. many times I forget birthdays esspecially (oops!) I do try and I will try harder from now on to really appreaciate all of you out there!

hmm.. reflect reflect..

Watch for my next post which should be out soon.. the long awaited missions stories from me will be out real soon! (so sorry for delaying a year!) I've finally learned to post pictures lol! how do i post clips btw? hehe!

to be continued, Japh's YWAM journey..................

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Survival...

The other day I visited Monash CF with McD and May, had a pretty good time there.. I really really admire their CF president, the one and only Khoo Hsien Liang!! a.k.a djcf legacy! (Long Live DJCF!!) cuz of his passion and heart in serving God. While waiting for the speaker to arrive liang gave a couple minutes speech on the importance of prayer and how the CF functions and succeed only through prayer..

He told about sunway monash CF testimony of having committee meetings simultaniously with a bunch of people praying alongside while the meetings was happening, and having full-on prayers before any meetings started.. What really encouraged me was even when I came into CF that day there was a bunch of people at the back upholding and praying for the meeting ahead (cool stuff!!)

They even meet 3 times a week for prayer, if i'm not mistaken one of their prayer meetings is in the morning from 8am (Whoa!!) and they even have a PI - prayer and intercession core group which meets to pray weekly.

the results? well there was this time when monash was having a ball/prom thingy and the organisers were planning of including condoms into the goodie bags for everybody (What the?), and the CF stood against this.. At first the CF got many firings from many people even from the organisers and even from other christians! (tsk tsk!), many opossed the CF stand and even christians were asking the CF to back out of this.. what did the cf do? they started praying!!

After some weeks of intense prayer like a few times a week, liang got an email, the head of the catholic society has heard of the CF stand and wants to join with the CF in pertitioning against the condom issue (Whoa!!), after that, the head of the Buddhist society joined, followed
by the Islamic society.. At the end, the organisers decided not to have the condoms placed in the goodie bags (how cool is that?!)

Liang then started to get on a more serious note..
"If you guys stop praying, the CF would crumble..."
"This is my last semester as CF president, and it would break my heart if you guys stop praying.."
"The moment you guys think you know it all, have enough resources and ideas to run CF and forget about prayer, you guys are heading for a fall.."

Whoa..

I began to think about my own CF in inti nilai.. Seriously guys we need to get back to prayer and into a deeper more intimate relationship with God! the moment we think we can handle it alone, have more and more activities and forget about God, we're done for! Activities and programs, parties, BBQs, camps, hanging out, fellowshipping, mamaking, and all are great! but what matters at the end is how close you are with the father! without Him, everything fails!

One person told me this and I totally agree:
"take away all the activities, take away CF programs, take away fellowship meetings, but never ever take away prayer from the CF"
"Prayer is the backbone of CF, it holds everything together"

I'm writing this particularly to a person who once questioned me why have prayer meetings when prayer can be done in the solitude of your own room. Do you even pray in your own room? Do you even pray for others as you live through life? Do you know the power of corporate prayer and praying in one voice? Do you see changes in your live that you can testify?

I'm sorry if this post would affect any particular group of people, but I just want to challenge you guys, If you can spend hours and hours having 'fellowship meetings and other activities', why can't you spend just an hour or so in prayer meetings?

ok ok I shall stop preaching for now.. ;)

God bless!

What we do in life echoes in eternity, Live a life that reflects God's glory!

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

age of stealth....

recently i've been checking out command and conquer 3, tiberium wars.. looking at all the technology and weapons, I'm actually convinced that one day another world war is going to happen (ok maybe not with aliens and monsters) but among nations and people groups.. Techonogical advancements have increased greatly to the extend that modern stealth fighters can drop bombs at enemy territory and fly away undetected (like what's the deal with that??), now there's even continent to continent missales, satelite and radar guided missales, nuclear technologies, smart bombs which can think for themselves, and future stealth scientist are actually looking into making stealth fighters actually look invisible to the human eye with some chemical polymer technology thingy.. looking back at the C&C 3 game, it'll be no suprise that we'll someday see robots fighting robots, even the F22 raptors in C&C generals are actually REAL LIFE stealth fighters produced right now in the US and even Japan is trying to purchase them.

Biblicaly (ok i'm not trying to be spiritual here) the bible does talk of an end time warfare, where nations will team up against Israel and God's people. Remember the vision where John talks about weird looking monsters with fire shooting out of their mouths? beasts with many wings, mighty tail, a few heads and such? I personally believe that some of those 'beast' are actually modern day fighters that John had no clue about, I mean, imagine living in bible times, and having a vision of a helicopter shooting rockets... like what the?

People, we ARE living in end times.. time is running fast, wars are happening, super powers are forming, the chip (micro-chip that can be inserted in people) is already in production, nuclear techonoligies are advancing, precious minerals and resources are getting more scarce, human greed is increasing, the world is getting more populated, disasters occur daily.. something is happening to earth people!!

yet.. what are we as Christians doing? "oh i plan to go to college, get a degree, find a job, get a stable income, get a house and car, get married, have kids, live life to the max, and rest in peace..."
sounds selfish? people are dying every day with a Christless eternity, ultimate doom..

Jesus himself said, "the harvest is ripe, but the labourers are few".. It's time to break out of the norm.. it's time for freedom! play time is over, 70+ years of living is very very very short!
what we do in life echoes in eternity... live a life that reflects God's glory...

Your will, not mine.. be done

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Amazed ~ Desperation band

You dance over me
While I am unaware
You sing all around
but I never hear the sound

Lord I'm amazed by You
Lord I'm amazed by You
Lord I'm amazed by You
How you love me

How wide
How deep
How great is Your love for me

Sunday, August 12, 2007

make ur daddy proud....do the things He loves!

ONe of the things that struck me while I was doing some stuff today.. am I glorifying my heavenly Father by doing this? Is He proud of what I'm doing today? Is there a smile on His face today?

This hit me.. so many times we fail to shine, we fail to live out our lives for HIm.. We fail to make a difference.. Are we doing the things that He loves, or break His heart... Are we crucifying Him time and time again with our actions and words?...

think a moment....

When was the last time you spent quality time with God, poured forth your struggles to HIm, cried your heart out, worshiped till tears, prayed until something happened, heard God's voice, reached out to somebody in need, showed God's loved to the person you hate...

Let me take 5 minutes of your time to tell you a story my sister wrote some time ago:

He waited patiently at the restaurant, glanced at his watch and sighed... The waiter approached him and asked,
"Sir, would you like to take your order first? It has been half an hour since you've been here"
"No thank you", said the finely dressed man 'She'll come in a while, maybe she's delayed today"..
He looked out the window and sighed again.. The waiter shrugged his shoulder and went his way

The clocked chimed nine times, the waited once again approached the man and said,
"Sir, it's already 9'o clock and getting late, are you sure you don't want to order ahead?"
"Maybe just a coffee", replied Him "I'm pretty sure she is coming soon, I really believe in her, I just can't wait to spend time with her, listening to her day, gazing at her beauty and telling her how much I love her", the man said. The waited once again shrugged his shoulders and went to get the order of coffee, "What a irresponsible girl", the waiter thought, "She should be fortunate to be with a fine understanding and loving man like that", thought the waiter further.

By ten'o clock the waiter was frustrated, for the man was constantly looking out the window and sighing with a heavy look on His face yet with such hope that the girl he loved was coming.
"Sir, it's 10'o clock, and we will be closing soon, I feel thatwhoever the girl you're waiting for does not deserve such a fine man as you, for you have waited patiently for her for so long, what's so special about her that you would'nt even eat until she comes? I notice this is not the first time she's done this to you as I remember seeing you here for the past few nights and she always never appears"

A tear fell from the man's eyes.
"You don't understand", the man said. "I love her so much that I would give my all for her, yes she has not been coming for the past few nights but that will never stop the love I have for her",.. he wiped a tear from his eye. "Thanks for the coffee", the young man paid the bill and gave the waiter a tip and got up from his seat. With another sigh, the man walked off into the darkness.


*yawn* She flungs open her room door and dashes for her bed.
"What a great day I've had today", she mentioned, "Gosh I'm so tired and worn out after going out for a birthday party and an awesome movie", she yawns again.
The clock chimes at 11pm.
"Oh no!", thought the girl, "I promised God I would spend time with Him at 8pm!"
"Well, God knows I'm really really tired after a great time today, I'm sure He understands ;)"
and She drifted off to a nights rest.

Ultimate Life Goals!!

1. To learn Chinese
2. Pick up another language (spanish?)
3. Save more souls!
4. Learn another instument (violin? ooo;)
5. Long-term missions
6. Invent something
7. Learn proper cooking (french culinary arts?)
8. Mantain a healthy lifestyle, build muscles, clean room? hehehe
9. Travel around the World in a band writing songs and performing!
10. Get to heaven and accomplish God's will on earth...

FuTure in GoD's hand!!!

not sure who wrote this song but it's a beautiful song

My Jesus, I'm found in You
You're my Saviour
You chose me before the world
and You know my name

I will go with You
through the valley
I will soar above every mountain
I will trust Your word
deep within my heart
I will live for You

and I know my future's in Your hand
ALL of my hopes and dreams and plan
You gave me strength to live
and faith to succeed
I believe in You
because You believed in me.....