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)
20 December 2007
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)
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)
