Good tidings of great joy to ALL

Luke 2:10
"And the angel said unto them, Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all the people"

Christmas day has passed, whew! For all the handmade food, gifts of big and small value which I received, I'm thankful for them. (Even for those which don't meet my needs, no worries because you'll never always get the perfect gift!) Simply because every gift which was given was an evidence that someone thought of me during this hectic season. A time where we rush about to buy gifts for our friends. Moreover some of you students only have a pitiful amount of money which I can imagine if you had to spend $5 and more and multiplied by the number of friends, would amount to a tidy sum of money. For these individual, I sincerely thank you.

I am also deeply grateful for those rare handwritten notes from individuals that have been written from their heart because they strike the cord of my heart and means more than any physical gift given to me.

On this day after Christmas, I'm at work feeling totally exhausted and looking really terrible. I am really looking forward to some time to rest and recharge. Gift giving is extremely emotional draining when we attempt to not only think of what is usable or appropriate, but importantly what to write on the card.

With age comes mellowing of character and a deeper introspective thoughts of what Christmas really means to me and how I like to celebrate it next year. As I review it all today, somehow, this year, there was so many gifts to give and to 'swap' gifts that I'm wondering if we have lost the cosyness of sharing our love in a deep and meaningful way and replaced it with getting gifts because the occasion dictates it.

Don't get me wrong, I love getting gifts! I'm grateful to be in a ministry where I have so many to give gifts to and receive from. I'm deeply convinced that on this designated day called Christmas is when we rejoice over the birth of Jesus because it signalled that Salvation for man is here through the infinite love and grace of God. However, I wondered to myself if the massive gift giving exchange exercise which transpired yesterday made many others felt left out. In the hustle and bustle of lugging gifts, I observed that there were many "left out" individuals who were barely receiving anything. Especially when we measure Christmas as how loved we are by the number of gifts we get, it can be very miserable for some, especially youths.

As I carry home my 2 bags of presents, and such thoughts were racing through my mind, I really wished that I should have spent a bit more time and money to get gifts for more out-of-clique individuals. I know that my close friends would not have minded if I got them cheaper gifts if they knew that my money was to get better gifts for the out-of-clique individuals. In fact, I also wished that I could have asked my rangers to not give me a gift, but instead transfer my gift for a designated individual which I would appoint to them. Afterall, when Jesus came to the world, He brought about good tidings of great joy to ALL.

Today, I feel that we haven't really done enough to echo this gospel truth of the birth of Christ. Our gift giving exercise yesterday seemed to have evolved into an overly inclusive friendship-gift-giving exercise that excludes and isolates others. Yes, the gifts which we gave is to express our love to our friends, but conversely it also covey the message that if you don't receive much or any gifts, you aren't very loved and appreciated. If this is how some felt, truely Christmas would be a lonely and miserable day.

In my life, I've been blessed when I received gifts from people I never expected because it meant that I am someone and this person knows of my existance. Likewise, I too truely believe that as we grow deeper in Christ, we need to bring joy of our Christmas celebrations to those not in our inner circle, where a thoughful surprise gift from us could mean so much to them.

For all that we sing and proclaim in our carolling: "Joy to the world, the Lord is come!". I aspire to make some changes in the way the love of Christmas is to be shared. Similiarly, I pray you will celebrate the love of Christmas differently and reach out to many others, come next year.

blessings,
M.

"As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. Rooted and builded up in him, and established in your faith, even as ye were taught, abounding in thanksgiving." (Colossians 2: 6)

2007 ends - the close of one chapter of life

Ecclesiastes 11:1
Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.

This has been an encouraging promise to many involved in the ministry of God's Word especially if those involved in the work of an Apostle or a Missionary. This is also the verse that has blessed me as I end the current season of my life and move on into 2008.

It's been a good seven years that I've served handling youths in Faith Rangers and I've seen lives come and grow, as well as lives come and go. I would have never started the journey and left the comfort zone of teaching Pioneer kids if the Lord has not placed in me the challenge to take on and help to keep Teens to make them into Godly men.

The road has been bumpy but somehow not of turmoil. I've learnt much, fumbled much, lost much, gained much and changed much. In this time, I learnt to see the potential of a teen for the desitiny which he is capable of achieving and not just what he thinks he can achieve or what I could physically see. I've also learnt to give and be generous with my money, time and love. I also thank God for enlarging the giftings and tents of my life when he challenged me to embrace the need for looking after the teenage girls who had no commander to look after. As the first batch of Ranger girls graduated, I gratefully thanked God for empowering me to lead a mixed gender Expedition Rangers programme, inspite of the fact that I was alone and I knew that a man is limited in the ways to bring up and impact a girls life.

Along the way, I was blessed with the company of matured National RR staff who gave me timely encouragement and shared their wisdom and lives with me. I'm most grateful for the prophetic blessing of God in my life as He revealed to me the potential of the lives I handled and gave me different purposes to fulfil. For all that I planned, He made it come to pass and opened the ways for me to serve the plans which he planted in my heart. I would have never imagined that as the years went by, fellow peers would also arise to co-serve beside me and share my burdens.

I'm blessed when I look back at the labour of my effort and I testify that it's really not of my own strength nor effort. All the results achieved and glory is really of God and not of mine to boast of. I'm very blessed by God's grace to have been the chosen vessel because I had the choice to not do it when He first asked.

But deep in my heart, as I approached the closing of this season of my life, I became rather disappointed with what I critically saw as I felt that the work on every Ranger whom I've taught and am teaching is not there yet. Somehow it seems that some retardation has taken place and the work as 2007 comes to an end seems to be somewhat off-track. What I see today, sadly, is not the complete vision which has been placed in my heart in 2004.

Placed in my heart is a vision of past and present rangers standing tall, each as giant tree with full green foilage.(That's also explains this blog's body text background which I chose) I envision a forest of them standing powerfully and impressively before man, constantly impacting people and bringing glory to the kingdom of God. They will lead uncompromising lives of excellence, understand the heart-beat of God to reach the unsaved and take upon themselves an eager servant heart to serve, evangelise and reach out to each other with initiative and without complaints.

As the days became weeks and a series of events occurred before me, with much personal struggle and deliberation, I had resigned myself to accept the lack of fruition of this vision and decided to shelf this personal vision aside. I was resigned to move on in disappointment as I saw the doors which the Lord had opened for me in the coming year. However, through the grace of God, one day the Lord ministered to me the verse of Ecclesiastes 11:1. As I read the verse, it brough to me a renewed sense of hope that someday I will come back to find the bread which I've casted. It wasn't a lost cause as I had imagined. Importantly, as the days came by, I'm once again reminded that it is only what HE does through us that will count for eternity and is for His glory, not what we do for Him.

I grateful for His timely personal encouragment on my life and the comfort of hope which He provided to mend my personal disappointments. Truely I serve a God of Hope who provides me with the hope to move on. I know and choose to confess that nothing done for God is ever in vain and the promises of the Lord are true and amen. Someday, I will come back to find the bread which I've casted and give God the glory for the work done. In the meantime, I constantly encourage myself as I step out of my comfort zone and proceed into the 'unknown' challenges of 2008.

Today, I'm truly grateful to be chosen to be a part of God's timing and plans these past years and I sincerely bless every life that has passed through me. May they grow up to achieve the awesome Godly-purposed destiny which the Lord had willed for them the day they were born. Blessed be the name of the Lord!

with love and blessings
M.

"I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."(Ephesians 4:1-3)

Live Worthy of Your Calling

Ephesians 4:1
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

I just returned from my second trip to Muar and it has been a blessing to have the chance to meet up with those whom we knew last year again. Like all other mission trips, it was fraught with many changes which required us to adjust flexibily. Fortunately, as relatively seasoned mission trippers, the commanders were able to scale down and improvise because this year, the workshop participants were really young and innocent.

Personally, I'm disappointed that out of so many ER's, only 3 eager hearts made themselves available to the tasks of going to this mission trip. It's such a stark contrast to the eager bethelites who were beaming to leave for their mission trip to thailand. Nonetheless, I'm also truely blessed that these 3 chosed to sacrifice time to go because it spoke volumes of their heart to obey God's commission in their capacity.

Having assigned the 2 guys to preach a sermon and having seen their efforts in preparation, it was a shame to have to tell each of them that they needed to cut their message into a simple devotional closing because for each day, time did not permit them to share what they had prepared with their heart and soul. But, I am reminded of the fact that God looks at the heart and not at the physical. So even though each only presented a skimmed version without the bells and whistles prepared, truely their work done was worthy of praise as it was prepared out of the righteous essence to bless the Muarians.

When Samuel adjusted his sharing to the key verse of John 20:21 and shared that Jesus had told every believer that "I am sending you". I saw the living truth of his sharing as he stood on the pulpit as a living example of a Christian who was responding to the call to go out to disciple all nations.

("So Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you."John 20:21)

The ER's who went out to Muar are not the most talented or multi-gifted compared to many others. It was evident as they each struggled through their respective tasks. From worship leading for Valencia, to english-mandarin translation for GuiHong and sermon sharing for Samuel, none of them had it easy.

As Paul states clearly, it's not about how many gifts or abilities, it's about living a life which is worthy of your calling. We are called to live worthy lives! Should that not make us want to constantly go forth to do any of God's work and expand the few and limited talents we all possess, rather than do things with ease and living in contentment.

I pray that this minor set-back of having so few mission trip participants would be a one time glitch which would be erased in the coming years when many would arise and create opportunities for themselves to go forth rather than await for opportunities to be created for them to go and serve.

Personally, I've learnt much during this mission trip and my eyes are once again renewed with the truth of how blessed and overly saturated we are and how the fields abroad are lacking of any form of willing harvesters. I'm grateful that I was given the chance to meet up with the older youths such as Joash and Shirley and have had the chance to pray over them. I am reminded of the truth that such youths/young adults represent a new generation that God can use mightily.

I may never get a chance to meet the many people whom I've met in our various mission trips again. So today, I deeply pray over them and the youths of my church that each will end well in their life's journey as they live a passionate life for God that is worthy of the calling of God.

Blessings,
M.

"But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it." (Ephesians 4:7)