Its been awhile since i wrote to you blog, there are alot of changes that has happen since. Writing everything that has changed in one go will not justify you but a brief overview is, graduated, working, have mortgage, got a puppy, taking a break from some important things in life, and having greater responsibility at home to take care of family and house. The weight is heavy at times but I just go on each day knowing that it can only be better. There is a plan and purpose beyond the cobwebs and mazes. Even if the world fails me, the economics come crumbling down, humanity tears in half, God doesnt fail, because He loves me.
Today is just like another day, although its my birthday, without a mention to my dad, he would have forgotten but thats alright, there are many things on his mind with whats happening to Pacific Brands. The well wishes become less each passing year. This year decided to just go out for drive but was interrupted this morning by putting up a lamp post outside my place. Hopefully this will shine light through the darkness and provide guidance and hope. Afterwards, my father invited his friend and her kids and it happens one of the kids cousin is a friend of mine back in high school. Its strange, some things dont change but alot has change. Time, place and attitudes change. Looking back through the years, I had so many turning points in my life that is countless, turning points referring to where i would end up and what i would be doing at this moment in time if i didnt make the decisions i did during that time. I do thank God for all those decisions i made as it turned out to be rightfully planned by Him.
I feel there are so much things to come, the song God of this city by Chris Tomlin is inspiring. I know there are many more adventures, many greater things to do and achieve. Building the city for God, greater things to be done in this city and nation. This is a new chapter in my life, and i hope i can succeed and continue to do the right decisions once again for God. To achieve and make a change in society and how its been running. I need that light to shine my path once again, because i know there is still greater things to be done....
1.3.09
24.8.08
"Giving God the Honour and Glory that He deserves!"
My Early walk with God
->I struggled to commit to Christ: Giving God honor by obeying him, taking all opportunity to be closer to Him, putting Him in the second chair; Sometimes taking decisions into my own hands and grieving His heart at the same time.
->I struggled to commit to Church: Sometimes being late for meetings and missing events that I was not excited about because it was uncomfortable. With people, I did not make effort to know and build deeper relationships
->I struggled to commit to School: I didnt attend the classes, nor do some of the homework at times
->I struggled to commit to deep meaningful relationships: the pain and hurts that I experience through the unhealthy relationships with different people. Some of you's have heard of my stories about finding true friendships out there
The Past 2years
->Although there has been many struggles for those who know my experiences, personal battles, being misunderstood by many, struggle with studies, one time wanting to drop a degree and waiting on victories that didnt come soon enough. I began to commit to God more and trust in His goodness
->I began to serve Him with all my heart, sometimes I'd be down in darebin 5-6days a week, attending Kairos course after the church conference was a challenge because you would have been tired after 4 days of intensive sleepless nights of camp. The course condense in 4days compared to 2weeks.
->God is still good, he used myself (lorena+jeanneth) to connect to korean girl to HOPE Brisbane and in turn she bought many visitors; She stills attends lifegroup up there, met alot of new friends including visiting local Viet Christian guy who came from melbourne. It was tiring but God was at work
->All through this, God has been blessing me with success in studies, having great project partners one of them Christian, a strong student group team at latrobe, many salvations and personal growth
->No doubt at times, I ask God where is it all leading, all that I do, sometimes seemed not enough to see those victories. After my last exam and graduation, I applied to several jobs, there were number of rejections, number of those required relocation but alot of times my experience left me behind others cause I did not do summer internship rather helped out in church. I was tempted to apply to other states because there were more job prospect and seemed easier. Even a recent opportunity with Cadbury Schwepps, I thought I had good interview, but it turned out its not what they were looking for although i match all their criteria.
My learning
->I still Thank God for all the support, encouragement, prayers that people have given to God on my behalf. God is still good as always, He is faithful in all the pieces of jigsaw that He gives me; Although at times, confusing and frustrating not to see the bigger picture, I have and continue to learn to trust in God, put Him first, because He is faithful God
Deut 7:9 "Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His convenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments"
->Loving and walking with God is beautiful, everything even though it may seem insignificant is perfect in His plans. I encourage everyone to put trust, faith and honor towards our God, our Lord Jesus.
Our victories are His, and His ours. On a side note, remember that local viet guy i mention about, I met him once and continue to contact him as he had a job opening down in melbourne. I contacted the company and thought initially no chance for me cause of my results, and also just before going on the midyear CCM camp and driving some folks to the campsite, I had interview 1hr before. After that, I didnt hear from them for a month as they were waiting for my transcript and graduation. Last week on monday I got a call, to ask when I can start work and if I can sign the agreement and bring it in. I will be heading into the office tomorrow at 8am! Praise God for His plan and providence, it is amazing how He works in brisbane and brings it down here to melbourne. He is faithful in all His promises. Amen!!
->I struggled to commit to Christ: Giving God honor by obeying him, taking all opportunity to be closer to Him, putting Him in the second chair; Sometimes taking decisions into my own hands and grieving His heart at the same time.
->I struggled to commit to Church: Sometimes being late for meetings and missing events that I was not excited about because it was uncomfortable. With people, I did not make effort to know and build deeper relationships
->I struggled to commit to School: I didnt attend the classes, nor do some of the homework at times
->I struggled to commit to deep meaningful relationships: the pain and hurts that I experience through the unhealthy relationships with different people. Some of you's have heard of my stories about finding true friendships out there
The Past 2years
->Although there has been many struggles for those who know my experiences, personal battles, being misunderstood by many, struggle with studies, one time wanting to drop a degree and waiting on victories that didnt come soon enough. I began to commit to God more and trust in His goodness
->I began to serve Him with all my heart, sometimes I'd be down in darebin 5-6days a week, attending Kairos course after the church conference was a challenge because you would have been tired after 4 days of intensive sleepless nights of camp. The course condense in 4days compared to 2weeks.
->God is still good, he used myself (lorena+jeanneth) to connect to korean girl to HOPE Brisbane and in turn she bought many visitors; She stills attends lifegroup up there, met alot of new friends including visiting local Viet Christian guy who came from melbourne. It was tiring but God was at work
->All through this, God has been blessing me with success in studies, having great project partners one of them Christian, a strong student group team at latrobe, many salvations and personal growth
->No doubt at times, I ask God where is it all leading, all that I do, sometimes seemed not enough to see those victories. After my last exam and graduation, I applied to several jobs, there were number of rejections, number of those required relocation but alot of times my experience left me behind others cause I did not do summer internship rather helped out in church. I was tempted to apply to other states because there were more job prospect and seemed easier. Even a recent opportunity with Cadbury Schwepps, I thought I had good interview, but it turned out its not what they were looking for although i match all their criteria.
My learning
->I still Thank God for all the support, encouragement, prayers that people have given to God on my behalf. God is still good as always, He is faithful in all the pieces of jigsaw that He gives me; Although at times, confusing and frustrating not to see the bigger picture, I have and continue to learn to trust in God, put Him first, because He is faithful God
Deut 7:9 "Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His convenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments"
->Loving and walking with God is beautiful, everything even though it may seem insignificant is perfect in His plans. I encourage everyone to put trust, faith and honor towards our God, our Lord Jesus.
Our victories are His, and His ours. On a side note, remember that local viet guy i mention about, I met him once and continue to contact him as he had a job opening down in melbourne. I contacted the company and thought initially no chance for me cause of my results, and also just before going on the midyear CCM camp and driving some folks to the campsite, I had interview 1hr before. After that, I didnt hear from them for a month as they were waiting for my transcript and graduation. Last week on monday I got a call, to ask when I can start work and if I can sign the agreement and bring it in. I will be heading into the office tomorrow at 8am! Praise God for His plan and providence, it is amazing how He works in brisbane and brings it down here to melbourne. He is faithful in all His promises. Amen!!
16.7.08
Faith Alone
Why cant good works save us?
1. Good works cant cancel your sin, but sin ruins your good works. Suppose you invite me over for breakfast and offer to fix a three-egg omelet. As you begin to cook, I smell a putrid odor coming from kitchen. Whats the awful smell? Its just a rotten egg. But you added a few good eggs to cancel out the rottenness. Do you think i will would eat the breakfast? Not for a million dollar. Because goodness doesnt cancel rotteness, but rottenness ruins goodness. The same is true in spiritual realm. You can't be good enough to cancel out the putrid effect of your sin.
2. Good works can't save you because God doesnt grade on a curve. He demands perfection. It takes one sin to send you to hell. Let's suppose you somehow commit 3 sins a day for entire life, thats impossible because before getting out of bed in morning you'd probably committed much already. That would be more than 1000 sins a year and you leave up to 70yrs. Say if those sins were speeding tickets, you'd end up in jail for long they would throw away the key. Do you think God is any different?
3. Good works can't save you because you can never good enough, long enough. Just when u get a good streak going, you sin and have to start all over again.
4. you can never be you've done enough. Religious people have no assurance of their salvation. They believe being good will get them to heaven. But as we've already seen, we can never do enough to pay for our own sins.
5. Good works can't save you because if they could, you wouldn't need Jesus. Its either all by Jesus or all by your own efforts, there is nothing in between.
This means there is nothing you can do to add to the work of Christ. It stands compelte on its own. You either accept it or reject it.
Where do you stand with God today? Have you been justified by faith alone?
1. Good works cant cancel your sin, but sin ruins your good works. Suppose you invite me over for breakfast and offer to fix a three-egg omelet. As you begin to cook, I smell a putrid odor coming from kitchen. Whats the awful smell? Its just a rotten egg. But you added a few good eggs to cancel out the rottenness. Do you think i will would eat the breakfast? Not for a million dollar. Because goodness doesnt cancel rotteness, but rottenness ruins goodness. The same is true in spiritual realm. You can't be good enough to cancel out the putrid effect of your sin.
2. Good works can't save you because God doesnt grade on a curve. He demands perfection. It takes one sin to send you to hell. Let's suppose you somehow commit 3 sins a day for entire life, thats impossible because before getting out of bed in morning you'd probably committed much already. That would be more than 1000 sins a year and you leave up to 70yrs. Say if those sins were speeding tickets, you'd end up in jail for long they would throw away the key. Do you think God is any different?
3. Good works can't save you because you can never good enough, long enough. Just when u get a good streak going, you sin and have to start all over again.
4. you can never be you've done enough. Religious people have no assurance of their salvation. They believe being good will get them to heaven. But as we've already seen, we can never do enough to pay for our own sins.
5. Good works can't save you because if they could, you wouldn't need Jesus. Its either all by Jesus or all by your own efforts, there is nothing in between.
This means there is nothing you can do to add to the work of Christ. It stands compelte on its own. You either accept it or reject it.
Where do you stand with God today? Have you been justified by faith alone?
The way of excellence faith - Ray Pritchard
7.6.08
Pots n Pans
The story goes like this, one day a young girl went to her mother while cooking and ask her, "why do you chop off the legs and parts of the chicken and throw it away?" Her mother thought to herself, hm... I'm not sure, this is the way I was taught by my mother. So on the next visit to grandma, her mother went and ask her mother, " Why is it that we dont use certain parts of the chicken ...?" The grandmother took a pause and thought, "I'm not sure, I was taught by my mother to do it this way" and she went to see her mother, which was great grandma and ask her, "mother why do we cook it this certain way, is it because it taste better?"
Her mother gave the reply, "In the old days, we had smaller pots and pans, so the chicken couldn't fit on the pan, so we had to chop those parts off"
We go through life doing the things we do without knowing the reason and purpose at times. It's maybe because we are so used to it, its convenient, or we have been taught a certain way through our families, traditions and teachings. Sometimes these small things can really become an obstacle to knowing God deeply and experiencing his full grace and mercy. We need to find these old nails and pull them out and replace them with new ones, Jesus nails. It's a process and we need the Holy Spirit to renew us each day in our thinking, our character and our actions to be more like Christ. To die to self but live in Christ is the ultimate goal. It will be painful, long suffering but the promises and blessings are there if we are faithful to follow.
"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but
according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of
regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;"
Titus 3:5, KJV
Psalms 119:9, KJV
John 15:3, KJV
2 Corinthians 5:17, KJV
Romans 12:2, KJV
1 Corinthians 2:16, KJV
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