Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Walk together

Sometimes you can't make it on your own...

Friday, August 12, 2005

Hold my hands

I was in Genting Highlands for the past four days to participate in the Youth Pastors’ School organized by Youth Alive Malaysia. Awana Resort has really great food, and so I’m not too convinced that me skipping lunch hid the effects of my indulgence… So if you’re organizing a camp and you want the campers to wake up early, make sure you serve great breakfast =.]

Met the great people who are running with the God-given dream of touching Malaysian youth with the love of Jesus. I felt relaxed because it was my first decent holiday since I started work 5 months ago and the air was really fresh. I felt light because I was away from all duties and responsibilities of being me. As we gather, I felt significant yet ordinary, because we are all young people facing the same challenges as the youth we try to help everyday. I guess what makes us different is that someone saw the potential in us and was unwilling to give up on us. And it’s in our hearts to the same for someone else. I felt belonged.

In my conversations with this Dream-Giver of mine and interactions with other dream-runners, I was once again reminded of the significance of fulfilling my God-given dream. The reminder sends shivers, and I’m still feeling it. I knew the importance, but what I lacked was the fear of God. And still now the reminder is sinking in… What a tremendous responsibility to carry the souls of many in our hands!! What a task and honour to bring live-changing, captive-freeing truth to the masses!!

I don’t know how to emphasize what I’m feeling inside of me. All I can say is that we are given the power to impact and alter the destiny of many souls, with the deciding factor being the way we live our lives….

So hold my hands, Lord. Walk with me in this journey of fulfilling my God-given dream and answering the call. I can’t do it alone, so open my eyes to see the people You have ordained to run alongside me. I can’t do it without You, so cast me not away from Your presence. I can’t do it without the fear of God, so send shivers and awaken my soul.

Thursday, August 04, 2005

The Door

At the foot of the Tree, there's a door.
The door to life, and life abundant.
And it's calling you and I to enter in.
Would you answer the call?

Can a nation be changed?

"When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land".

"But if you turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will uproot Israel from my land, which I have given them, and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. I will make it a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. And though this temple is now so imposing, all who pass by will be appalled and say, 'Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?' People will answer, 'Because they have forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—that is why he brought all this disaster on them.' "

The passage above, taken from 2 Chronicles 7, speaks something every loud, every clear to me...

The fate of the nation is in the hands of the saints.

Yes, that's right. The way that we live has an immediate effect on what happens to our nation. I see the evil of this world and how governments go about controlling and solving the problems caused... You know them, so I don't need to mention them. And we also know that the root problem really is the human heart. No government, no law, no amount of counselling can change the evil in our hearts. So what can we do about it?

Well, it's simple really. Humble yourself, pray, seek God, turn from our wicked ways. Then the Faithful One will forgive our sins and heal our nation. Not the sins of the criminals, your non-Christian parents... no. We need to humble ourselves and turn from our wicked ways. That means we stop pointing fingers and blaming others, because the way I live has an immediate effect on the crime rate of this country, the sorrow and emptiness my friends have deep within them, the divorce rate... Yes!! I need God to change my heart, not someone else's!! Do you see it?! When I turn from evil, He turns and listen to our cries to HEALING FOR THIS NATION.

Want to change a nation? Change your heart.