Salty

"Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one." - Colossians 4:6

As Christians we are called to be a good example to the world. We are the salt of the earth, we all know what salt does. It enhances flavour and it is also a preservative. When we speak, our speech should show the love of Christ. This may include, encouragement, praises, consoling, etc.

We also need to be ready to give an answer to whatever is asked of us. I may not know everything, but God does, and God gives me the wisdom to give an answer. I guess personally, I need to continue learning to be an effective communicator. To be able to express my ideas and thoughts more clearly through speech.

When we speak it is important that we say the right things, or alot of problems can occur. These days there are so many ways to communicate, and yet people still have trouble communicating. Maybe it is because of all the technology that people get lazy, and everything is also fast paced.

Celebrate Life

Each day should be a celebration of Easter and Christmas, because when Jesus died He did not die just to be remembered on that one day of the year and likewise when Jesus was born. Our lives are only worth living because of our redeemer Jesus Christ. So don't forget to remember Him today and what He has done for you.

If you haven't received Jesus, I can definitely say that it is the most important decision I have made in my life, of which I will never regret.

Stop and Look Around

Life can get pretty hectic at times, but we were not meant to live a dull or boring life. We were created to live a full and rich life. Sometimes we get so caught up with work or uni that we forget to take some time to look around and enjoy what God has given in your life.

"Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy." - 1 Timothy 6:17

Living life to the full does not mean you spend your time working so you can get money. Depending on earthly riches will not do you any good. They are uncertain, earthly riches could easily be taken away from you, we've seen companies become rich and also become bankrupt. When we have Jesus, we have the ultimate riches in heaven, that is something NOBODY can take away from you. Live life to its fullest by seeking true riches, enjoy life!

"The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." - John 10:10

How to Pray

The question of 'how do we pray?' is asked numerous times among Christians. Praying is normally depicted (in movies and other media) as some sort of ritual. However when we pray to God, it can be as simple as having a normal conversation with Him. Of course there are times, where we need to also revere God as our heavenly father.

Ultimately God wants to hear your heart, He wants to know your feelings and your thoughts, He wants to have a relationship with you. Praying is a form of communication with God. When we pray we don't need to be so ritualistic as to what we say, there are no rules to what you have to say. The only rule is that prayer must come from your heart.

You don't need to be good with words, when we pray as a group, we don't need to use big words so that others will think we are so spiritual. God doesn't want to hear anything else apart from your heart. If you don't know what to say, the bible says the Holy Spirit will intercede for you. The Holy Spirit is there to help you.

"Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." - Romans 8:26

Options

Yesterday I finally got a haircut after over 2 months of not getting a haircut. The first option I had was to choose between the different hairdressers around the area. After I had chosen to go to the one in Burwood. I had to decide what kind of haircut I wanted. Ever since I was little I've never actually gotten a proper styled cut, usually my haircut would just be blend in on the sides and back and then spiked a little at the top. Basically I just get my hair cut pretty short.

This time because the lady couldn't really understand what I was saying, she had me choose from a book, what style I wanted. So I choose one and that was that. In the end, my hair turned out quite alright, but it's not as short as it usually is. So it's probably gonna grow out pretty quickly.

I've learnt that throughout life, you can make your own plans, but ultimately whatever God has planned WILL come to pass.

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps." - Proverbs 16:9

The Future in His Hands

Throughout our lives we face many decisions and choices. Some are big some are small, whatever you choose we need to realise that God has a bigger plan for your life. Not only does He have a plan for you but He has the best plan for your life.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." - Jeremiah 29:11

God's direction is there for the taking, but again although God is willing to give it to us, we need to ask for it and receive it. The most important decision I made in my life is to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and personal saviour. For without Him, I would not be where I am today. He transformed my thinking and outlook on life. Without God, I would have just been stumbling along in this game of life. With God, I now have direction and wisdom that He has given me.

I encourage all of you to think about this one choice you have, that God has given you:
"Where will you spend eternity?"

Youthful wisdom

When talking about wisdom, we tend to think about old people, they are old and wise. However young people can be wise too. Mind you I'm only 22 and God has shown me so much of His wisdom. How do we obtain wisdom from God? That's the easy part, we ask for it. God has already promised that He will give it to us. All we need to do is ask for it.

"If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him." - James 1:5

The nest step is to receive it. This is not as easy as it sounds. For example if God tells you that you should listen and learn to others, especially if they are elders and leaders then we need to obey that. If we don't we fail to receive the wisdom that comes from it.

"A wise man will hear and increase learning, And a man of understanding will attain wise counsel," - Proverbs 1:5

There are many other verses in the bible which talks about godly wisdom, and it's never too late or too early to learn from them.

When you fall

Don't you know
That He loves you too much to
Ever let you go
And the storm is there to
Only help you grow
He loves you so
When you fall

- Kirk Franklin

Everyone faces problems, even I have problems I face everyday. What you do with your problem determines the outcome. If our attitude is to just ignore the problem then nothing will come out of it, but if we actively seek to resolve the problem, you can learn so much from it. Problems are there to help us, as a Christian we are expected to face problems and persecutions.

"Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution." - 2 Timothy 3:12

I had a hard time with my family all my life, I was restricted to what I could do. They'd even stop me from going to Youth or even Church sometimes. I still hung on, even though it was hard for me. My social life was not even worth mentioning, all I did revolved around my uni life.

2 years ago, the time finally came that I am now free to do things my way. My family have begun to respect the decisions that I make and they no longer see me as a little kid anymore. I guess this is common to many Asian families, but through the hardship, God allowed me to learn patience. These days it's very hard for me to get angry at anyone because of my patience, of course I am still not perfect.

Let God refine us through the trials. Like the song says, "the storm is only there to help you grow". If there was no storms, life would be so boring. True faith is more precious that gold, let God mould you and refine you so that your imperfections may be made perfect in His image.

"that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ," - 1 Peter 1:7

Nothing but the truth

I love to learn languages, in the past I've been learning Japanese and a little bit of Cantonese from my friends. God created different languages, in a way the languages act as a barrier between different people. However there is one language that is universal. That is the love of Christ.

The people out there need to hear the truth and nothing but the truth because,

"And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." - John 8:32

God bless

Intelligent Bible

What is your view on:
- Abortion?
- Homosexuality?
- etc.

We all have our own views on certain things, but the most important question is, what foundation are your views built upon? What makes us think the way we think? Do we base it on what other people say? Personally my views are based upon the word of God - the Bible. Only the Bible contains truth.

You might think, well there are many other "truths" out there too. No, that's not true. Everything in this world changes, even science cannot be a truth because they keep changing things. One minute a scientist discovers something and the next another discovers that he/she was wrong. Theories change all the time, but the word of God will always remain.

"Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. " - John 14:6

"Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away." - Matthew 24:35

One Master, One Way

"You can't worship two gods at once. Loving one god, you'll end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. You can't worship God and Money both." - Matthew 6:24 (MSG)

We can only worship one master, because there is only one way. In today's world we face many conflict and decisions we have to make. The decisions that we make depend on where our focus is set. If our focus is set on Christ then we will surely put Him above everything else, otherwise we may start to worship idols of this world.

When talking about worshipping idols, it's not just having statues that you bow down and pray to, but anything that is placed before then one true God is an idol. Things like money, your car or even family can be your idols.

"Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth." - Colossians 3:2

There's no doubt about it, being Christian is not easy, the bible even says that we WILL face trials. No matter what you are going through, set your focus on God and all the problems will just fade in the background. Like in the movies when they use "depth of field", the character that they are focused on stands out from the rest.

As we focus on God, He will stand out in our life and what happens around us will not matter. Know that God is in control, He knows what's best for you.

"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."- Romans 8:28

What it means to lose...

There is a difference between losing a game and being beaten in a game. To lose basically means that the team did not perform to their best ability. On paper the stats could be all for that team, but if they did not execute the game then they have lost. Teams lose because of what they have done, not what the other team did. To be beaten is when you've the team has played their best and there was nothing more they could do to win.

Life is like a HUGE game for all of us, we can either win or lose in life. If you know Jesus, then you should know that we already have the victory, as long as we stick to the game plan and do our best, we cannot be beaten.

"But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." - 1 Corinthians 15:57

On the other hand if we don't do our best, we could possibly lose. Tell yourself each day that you have the victory in Jesus and do your best to execute the game plan. Only Jesus can give you the victory, no one else can. If you want to know more about this Jesus guy, visit Hope Mission Centre or Youthopea or leave a message.

Keeping Balanced

Looking at what I do in a typical week:
# Mon: Work (9-5pm), Prayer meeting (7.30-9.30pm)
# Tues: Work (9-5pm)
# Wed: Work (9-5pm), HomeCell (8-10pm)
# Thur: Work (9-5pm)
# Fri: Work (9-5pm)
# Sat: Hope Within Reach Centre duty (10-2pm)
# Sun: Church (10-12pm), Youth (4-6pm)

If I calculate how many hours I spend for each:
# Work: 40 hours
# Activities: 10 hours

The problem that I find is that, I begin to find less and less time to spend with my family. Ideally my family could come to the activities that I attend, but unfortunately they don't. I'm going to continue praying for that though. The point I want to make is that we need to live a balanced life.

God designed us to be balanced in body, mind and spirit. I need to make sure that I keep my life balanced in terms of where I spend my time. Not being able to spend time with family as much, affects my personal relationships.

Sometimes when we have too much to do, we need to be able to learn to delegate to someone. Moses was a workaholic until Jethro (his father-in-law) opened his eyes to what he was doing.

"Both you and these people who are with you will surely wear yourselves out. For this thing is too much for you; you are not able to perform it by yourself." - Exodus 18:18

When we keep our spiritual life balanced, everything else will fall into place. Only when we live our lives in Jesus can our lives be fruitful.

"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me." - John 15:4

On Guard

It's ok to speed as long as there are no speed cameras or police around. I'm sure many of us do this or have done it at least once in our life. We think that it's ok to do the wrong thing as long as nobody finds out. When it comes to obeying God, we need to be extra careful that we keep watch and stay faithful for we do not know when He will come back. Sure God will forgive you of your sins, but once Jesus comes back to this earth, the time of grace will be over.

We are living in a time where we are under the grace of God, which means God is able to forgive us. However it won't stay like this forever, one day Jesus will be back. Nobody knows when it will be, except for the Father in heaven.

"But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only." - Matthew 24:36

We need to be alert of the things that we do, be on guard of where we are going. Abide by the Holy Spirit, allow the spirit to lead you. When someone asks you to go to a questionable place, your warning lights should be flashing madly. Let the spirit convict you of the sins that you've committed so that you may not do them again.

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to come to the end of the road and hear the voice of the Lord saying to you:

"Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord." - Matthew 25:23

No Satisfaction

As people it's natural to want more things, more money, better cars, better computers, bigger houses. When I say it is natural it does not mean that it's ok, because we are supposed to be IN the world but not OF the world. That is, we are not to abide by our fleshly or worldly desires. We need to begin to realise why do we want more things or better things. What is our motive behind it? Is it greed? Is it love of money or possessions? And realise that when we do it out of our love for money and possessions, we begin to put God second in our lives.

Not only do we put God second in our lives, but because we are relying more on material things, our lives will never be complete. Only God can fill the need in our lives. There was a saying I got from an email: "The happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything they have."

An example would be getting a Ferrari - why get a really fast car when you're not going to end up using its full potential. Make the most of what you have, in the end we will have all our desires in heaven when it will last forever. What you have now is only temporary.

"in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." - 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Revenge with gentleness

Gentleness is what we do because of the grace of God. Gentleness is being able to control your actions so as not to harm others. In life often we are mistreated, but how do we react to them? Most people would try to take things into their own hands to make things better. We think that God is not going to do anything about it. We need to realise that God is a God that loves justice.

"For the LORD loves justice, And does not forsake His saints; They are preserved forever, But the descendants of the wicked shall be cut off." - Psalm 37:28

The world will tell us that revenge is sweet. However God's way is different, let God deal with the person or situation, He knows best. Don't fight fire with fire, instead put out those flames. God will fight for you.

Saying "NO"

All my life it has been hard for me to say "NO" to people. Paul while on missions to the Corinth faced some very tough decisions. The church had wanted him to stay, but he knew that if he stayed he would only be fulfilling a fleshly desire. We need to think about why we can't say "NO" to things. Is it because of pride? Is it because of a desire to be liked or loved? Or any other reason. Of course we shouldn't say "NO" all the time, there are times that we need to be saying "YES". Think about how you respond to things, are you responding in a way that pleases yourself or does it please God?

I've always liked to say "maybe this", "maybe that" or "I might". God is really teaching me to be decisive and answer with a "YES" or a "NO". As Yoda says: "Do or do not do. There is no try."

"But let your "Yes' be "Yes,' and your "No,' "No.' For whatever is more than these is from the evil one." - Matthew 5:37

The real stuff

Alot of people out there use "stuff" to fill their life. Their lives are so empty that they become obsessed with "stuff" - TV, movies, anime, drugs, sex, alcohol, etc. People just want to be able to fill that emptiness. No matter how much "stuff" you use to fill that void, nothing will be able to satisfy. Many famous people in the world fill their life with "stuff" to only end in committing suicide.

Jesus came to this world to be the "stuff" that we need. Jesus came to satisfy the need that's in our hearts. We were created with a void in our hearts and only Jesus can fill it. Jesus says:

"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." - John 14:6

We need to let Jesus fill that emptiness, that desire and need in your life today. He is all you need.

"And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst." - John 6:35

It's about time!

Well it's been a while but I'm back from my trip to Melbourne. The trip wasn't too bad, but I did miss church, youth, homecell and prayer very much. I didn't think the trip was very exciting at all, because it was mainly work, work and more work (and also eating big dinners).

As usual we had issues with our flights - normally it's just that we were early so we go to a cafe and in the end we get on board just in time - our names must have been called almost on every flight. We left Sydney at 6.30am on Qantas. I liked the Qantas plane as it is much more comfortable than Virgin Blue, plus you get food and drinks and other things as well. On Virgin Blue nothing is free.

When we arrived in Melbourne we waited almost 15 mins for my luggage to appear, in the end it turned out my luggage didn't make it on our flight, so we had to wait for my luggage to come in from the next flight.

On the way back we were rushing to get to the airport at 8pm to make the 8.30pm flight, but we got to the airport at 8.15 and so we couldn't check in and had to take the next flight out which was at 9pm.

I'm glad that God knows best and that His timing is always perfect, God is never late nor ever early. He knows the right time for everything. We as humans think we know best, but we don't. God created us and so He is the one that knows us best. How can the created know better than the creator. God created time, not us. God was never bound by time, there is no such thing as time in heaven. Time was created for us on earth.

"To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven: " - Ecclesiastes 3:1

Hearing from Hebrews

The start of my devotional study of Hebrews leads into the topic of hearing the voice of God. Not just to hear the voice but to be listening and taking it in. This means to actively react to what has been said.

What if we can't hear God very well? God has spoken to us through His Son and God is the Word. So if we continue to read the bible, we are hearing from God himself, because the Word is God. There is no excuse to say that God is not speaking to you, because He always speaks to you through His word. We just need to take time to read the Word and listen to His Word.

Sin is Sin

Have you ever had someone wrong you? Have you ever had someone say something bad about you? They could have hurt you, but can you forgive them? I know it's not easy. If you think about it, the hurt that you feel is exactly how God feels everytime you disobey Him. Yet God is gracious that He forgives you no matter how many times you have hurt Him in the past.

If God who is the almighty powerful God, who has control of everything, who doesn't even need us (it is we who need Him), yet chooses to forgive us. Who are we to refuse forgiveness of one another? When we start doing that, we are basically saying that we are better than God.

"Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, "Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more."" - John 8:9-11

Jesus came not to condemn the world but to convict the world of its sin so that the people may turn from their ways and turn to God. Jesus came so that people could be forgiven of their sins, no matter how big a sin, whether it is telling a lie or committing adultery, sin is still sin to God. Yet whatever it is that we have done God is faithful and just to forgive.

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." - 1 John 1:9

Let us forgive one another as Christ has forgiven you. Forgiveness not only benefits the offending party but also benefits you. As you forgive you let go of that bitterness, harbouring that bitterness will only cause yourself to be hurt even more. Eventually bitterness leads to death.

"Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you." - Ephesians 4:31-32