Dusty roads filled with throngs of sandals. People from the surrounding regions have come to see this Great Healer. Everyone has seen their own fair share of mysticism and doubt its authenticity but this was different. He was driving out demons and making the lame walk. The people needed a break from the harshness of life, and this seemed like the next big thing. The Great Healer was performing miracles. Just an ordinary citizen, with ordinary robes, with an ordinary appearance-commanding such attention.

Crowds grew by the hour, as word spread through the busy lanes . They all wanted a piece of the miracle to touch their worthless lives. It seemed only fair that something good would come out of this for each of them. The Great Healer was not even charging them for anything.

By now, the lakeside was overflowing with curious onlookers, living proofs of the Great Healer's miracles eager for another one, doubtful religious teachers and the followers of the Great Healer. Then the Great Healer retreated to a boat and was pushed offshore.

The Great Healer began speaking. The crowds listened on, to what seemed like simple parables yet it left many puzzled and they could not understand what he meant. This was no signs and wonders nor miracles. One after the other, people started turning away disappointed. With each person leaving, the Great Healer's eyes looked on with a glance of sadness. A sadness that could only be explained by how much He loved them to stay. Even some of the ones that were healed moved on. Then His gentle loving eyes turned to mine to see whether I would be next.

These passages in the Bible about the parable of the Sower always get to me. Jesus was so popular and yet He does not beg for the people to stay. He is the Almighty and not until we realize how inadequate we are and needful of Him to save us, we will never realize what it really means to follow Him.
Matt 13, Mark 4, Luke 8

have you ever notice young children? at times, they learn through the process of imitation - following the actions of an adult/parent. spoons go to the mouth, then we open the mouth, chew chew chew.

whoever came out with the idea of statuses must have been a brilliant mind. im talking about the statements we put up with our names on sites like facebook, myspace or msn messenger. how cool is that to tell the whole world what we're up to. http://ernieis.wordpress.com/ check ernie out, perhaps you can even use some of his ones. 

i decided to put this talk into words :) just so we wont forget

try watching mtv for a bit (not that im encouraging you to watch it, because most of it is trash). notice that the scenes from every music video does not last for 5 seconds before the frame changes. or if you have seen the Bourne films - notice how frantic the pace of the camera pans around.

our lives are evolving to one that is such of a fast pace - it becomes a distraction. a noise. according to good ol' wikipedia, noise is unwanted sound, and can block, distort, or change the meaning of a message in both human and electronic communication.

many things come in between us and our walk with God. sometimes, we are so distracted, we do not hear God in the midst of all the noise. in our contemporary society, noise is emerging as one of Satan's most effective weapons. noise does not have to just include non-christian distractions, there are many christianized noises in our lives - like a loud christian rock band blaring through our mp3 players - anything that blocks us from a proper communication with God.

this is not to say we should abandon the loud rock songs~ i love rock :) but at times, we need to just be alone with God. have a meaningful conversation with Him, listen, speak, without any distortions. the writer of Psalm 46:10 writes of God "Be still, and know that I am God". Elijah the prophet was in desperation to hear God's voice, but he didnt find God in the violent windstorm, powerful earthquake or even the fire. God was found in a still small voice. the gentle whisper (1 Kings 19:12)

we'll never escape the noise, and neither all noise is bad. i wished more youths are loud, loud for the right reasons at the right times - when we have to lift a song of praise to our Lord :)
but i do believe that we also have to create our silent moments, when we come before our Saviour with nothing but ourselves. then it's easier to listen to what He wants to tell us. turn off the music when you read His Word, close the door when you're praying, set aside more time (no other plans) just to be in devotion with Him.

if we have become distracted, let us come back to the heart of worship.

it is crucial that we realize what we're getting into, when we receive Jesus Christ into our lives.
for most of us who made that decision, it's really just surrendering your life into His hands, placing your faith and trust that He will always be with you.

we cannot escape suffering, it will come even if you are not a Christian. what differs us, is that we know Jesus will be there, and that He'll make all things good at the end. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28)
what it means is the end of the story is always good!

a Christian life does not promise a life free of suffering. why even Jesus Christ Himself suffered and died on the cross, and He's the reason why we are Christians.
let's put it this way, C.S Lewis suggests that God in His omniscience (means He knows everything) "saw that from a world of free creatures (that's you and me), even though they fell (sinned), he could work out ... a deeper happiness and a fuller splendor than any world of automata (basically what our world can offer) would admit.
Our present world is full of sickness, suffering, and sin. Christianity never claims our present world is the best of all possible worlds, BUT it is the best way to the best possible world! Heaven!

for those who are possibly going through rough tough times, or even for those who have sufferings yet to come, Jesus Christ should be your anchor during those days. He only can offer peace and joy. Peace is about remaining calm in the midst of storms. Joy is smiling bracing the winds.

Jesus said "These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation (suffering), but take courage; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

we've discussed about the flower 'Forget-me-not', and just like the flower's name, let's not forget Jesus has already conquered the grave/death, what more our present sufferings? He is God. Sustainer. Redeemer.
so now we can look forward to the brighter days with Him.

i'm looking for the brighter days, when all my hurts seem to fade away,
i'm looking for the brighter days, to come my way.
Brighter Days, (by Leeland)

excerpt from 'Living Under God'
(by Toby Mac & Michael Tait)

As strange as it may sound, God is looking for revolutionaries who are not rebellious - He is looking for people who are willing to set our upside down world back upside right.

Rebelliousness is often based in selfishness and anarchy - it certainly attracts those who are against the present norm without really being for anything better. Such 'revolutionaries' often have no vision for anything after the rebellion is over because they were only in it to destroy the status quo, not to build a better future - or to simply be in charge and noticed, not to truly lead for the benefit of others.

God's revolutionaries, however, don't look for opportunities to dominate others, but chances to serve. They are revolutionary because they stand for something better. Are you such a revolutionary, or are you looking for attention by being against whatever is going on now?

**We'll discuss about this more in WinGS as we go along :)

as we welcome Narnia back into our conversations, let's take time to draw on some points which C.S Lewis intended to transpire through these story books.

many of you know that i'm on my internships at the moment, and the workplace is quite a distance away so i take the trains. trains have this habit on me, that they will always lead me home! unless you take a wrong train ;) how perfect the story of Prince Caspian that the four Pervensie children are brought back to Narnia, their 'home' through a train station (i don't think there's a physical train that leads to Narnia).

well, we find out that Narnia isn't all it was when they were there. centuries has past, kings rise and fall. and suddenly the people and creatures of Narnia has lost faith in the Deep Magic of Narnia and more importantly, Aslan the Lion whom has not appeared all this while. no one believes in the existence of the Lion anymore.
we can really relate this situation to ours at hand. you do not have to look far at a society which has ignored or doubted the powerful existence of our Lion, the Lion of Judah-Jesus Christ. i see the books like 'The God Delusion' or 'God Is Not So Great' taking place in the eyes of society. these are supposedly solid works of literature, but we all know that they are harmless attempts at feeding their own doubts. to doubt the existence of God, would really mean that God existed in the first place.

sometimes, even we ourselves who believe in Jesus Christ, at times doubt Him with or without intention. do we really believe what we believe, then that faith needs to carry action. in the story of Prince Caspian, Lucy had to act on her belief that Aslan was around, even though nobody believed her, yet her faith was unwavering and she still tried to convince everyone, succeeding with Edmund (my favourite character after Aslan ;) ).

“Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed” Jesus (John 20:29)

sorry for the long delay on a new post, but there were many circumstances that arose. rest assured, its not that i haven't had anything to say (i have aplenty ;) ) but time just did not permit me to translate it into words.

we just had valentine's day not too long ago and the world celebrated its knowledge on love. i can imagine your reactions by this moment of time oh not another lecture on love. OHOH he didnt mean love love, he meant God's love - ah, but i already know that too.

this post for me is to merely just give you another point of how deep the Father's love for us and how vast beyond all measure.

taking a point of a sermon i heard awhile back, Hosea was a prophet and one day God told him to marry an adulteress, or basically that lady wasn't a faithful lady if you know what i mean. yet Mr. Hosea still married her-Gomer was her name-and he stuck with her even though he knew her unfaithfulness (cue Rihanna's song, NOT the ella ella one, the other one). we can tell from the Scriptures that the first few children conceived was not even Hosea's (Hosea 1:2-11).
Put yourself in Hosea's sandals for a moment, man its tough to love someone like that. yet only marry (lasting commitment) that someone.

i took another piece of puzzle that had me thinking the past week. do you know of anyone else who practically did something like that? i mean like REALLY LOVE someone so unfaithful and really stick out through it all. i can only think of the perfect example of Christ when He declared His love for us by equating it to the bliss of marriage. Jesus is the bridegroom and we the church is His bride in the wedding of the Lamb! (Rev. 19:7).

some guys are moaning now oh we have to wear a dress, a white one. but hey truly understand the passage. the King of kings wants a deep and loving relationship with you and me. now we won't understand how deep our Father's love if we do not realize how fallen we are. we are like Gomer. we have our fair share of unfaithfulness, probably not to the degree of Gomer, but there is no measure to sin. its either you sinned or you didnt. and we all have (Romans 3:23).

Hosea's story doesn't end yet, as God relates to us how much He does love us by asking Hosea, to still love his wife. (Hosea 3:1) to forgive and overlook all the wrongs that Gomer has done. and Hosea did, and so did Gomer and another child was born. this time the baby was Hosea's

so just think it this way. would you be able to love your special someone with the kind of love Hosea showed? im sure Hosea had his fair share of doubts, but i know God can. and He already did : ) thats awesome, Gomers (we) and now we all can wear a beautiful white gown to meet Him.

i would like to thank those who joined us for the orphanage visit the past week, i am inspired by how WinGS can share God's abundant love with children who really need it. and also for getting down and dirty to clean our community even though it may be someone else's property. we appreciate ivan and wilson for organizing both days :)