Perhaps sometimes I do over-react emotionally.
Mum calmed me with just a few words today.
"My little girl is grown up now, she has to make her own decisions even though Mummy don't agree, and she has to face the consequences. It's all part of growing up right? In our family, we are so used to agreeing on many things, and that is very good, but we can't agree on everything... There is disagreement, but there is still love."
Thank you Mummy. Thank You God. :)
God, You're still the One I run to, the One that I belong to. :)
Friday, November 24, 2006
Is precious in His eyes~
Give them all, give them all
Give them all to Jesus
-One last big essay (and the attendant tedious transcribing)
-Exams which are very near (and not yet studied for)
-Parental care manifested in the form of mild spoken dispproval
I am pressed, but not crushed. Persecuted, not abandoned. God holds me in His loving hands, and he is always there for me. What more can I ask for? In the midst of my trials I still call myself blessed.
One day, I will look back at this period of time and thank God for it. I will have forgotten the pain (like most human minds do) because it is so transitory. I will remember the joy. Because it is mine to remember, because "the joy of the Lord is my strength". And I will remember it from everlasting to everlasting, when I finally behold the beloved face of my Lord. Oh, what a day to look forward to! *bliss*
And there shall be no more tears. :)
Give them all to Jesus
-One last big essay (and the attendant tedious transcribing)
-Exams which are very near (and not yet studied for)
-Parental care manifested in the form of mild spoken dispproval
I am pressed, but not crushed. Persecuted, not abandoned. God holds me in His loving hands, and he is always there for me. What more can I ask for? In the midst of my trials I still call myself blessed.
One day, I will look back at this period of time and thank God for it. I will have forgotten the pain (like most human minds do) because it is so transitory. I will remember the joy. Because it is mine to remember, because "the joy of the Lord is my strength". And I will remember it from everlasting to everlasting, when I finally behold the beloved face of my Lord. Oh, what a day to look forward to! *bliss*
And there shall be no more tears. :)
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Every Tear You Cry Is Precious In His Eyes
I know I should be transcribing now. But Daddy just tossed me the book I asked him to buy off Doulos, Elizabeth Elliot's "Passion and Purity", and I curiously decided to flip through and see what it was all about...
And I haven't been able to stop crying since. Oh it's not like a soap opera or anything like that, and I haven't even read it seriously like every word and dwelled on it, but just flipping through like I did, God jumped out of the book every few pages and touched my heart so deeply, oh so deeply, I felt He was just speaking to my very heart again and again and again. I can see there is much to think and pray about there, many answers to questions I have been asking so far... and I can't wait for exams to be over so I can really concentrate on reading it and absorbing God's replies. :) It was just being answered so very directly through the words in the book that made me cry out of gladness, out of reassurance that God really is guiding us, directly and intimately.
Thank You for these tears, Lord. Thank You for this book. Thank You for the many people whom You have "conspired" with to bring me to this book, chief among them being Ade and Daddy (thank you to you two too. :P).
Thank You for Your love, without which how could humans ever feel alive? :)
Thank You God... for showing that You care. :')
(Going to transcribe now. What interesting ways God uses to wake one's mind up :P)
And I haven't been able to stop crying since. Oh it's not like a soap opera or anything like that, and I haven't even read it seriously like every word and dwelled on it, but just flipping through like I did, God jumped out of the book every few pages and touched my heart so deeply, oh so deeply, I felt He was just speaking to my very heart again and again and again. I can see there is much to think and pray about there, many answers to questions I have been asking so far... and I can't wait for exams to be over so I can really concentrate on reading it and absorbing God's replies. :) It was just being answered so very directly through the words in the book that made me cry out of gladness, out of reassurance that God really is guiding us, directly and intimately.
Thank You for these tears, Lord. Thank You for this book. Thank You for the many people whom You have "conspired" with to bring me to this book, chief among them being Ade and Daddy (thank you to you two too. :P).
Thank You for Your love, without which how could humans ever feel alive? :)
Thank You God... for showing that You care. :')
(Going to transcribe now. What interesting ways God uses to wake one's mind up :P)
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Lunch Post :P
Okay I can't let the QT postings pile up too long, else I'll get a list as long as the uncapitalised one below :P
Sunday's QT:
Okay I shan't cheat by pretending I read the Bible passage, because I didn't :S Well it WAS a Sunday, after all, which generally means a surfeit of Bible passages/verses. Hee. (Will put up sermon insights... sometime. :P) But here's a verse from the passage that DID catch me now I read it.
Philippians 2:14 Do all things without murmuring and disputing,
(And I was like "Oops! Sorry God for all my complaining about schoolwork :S")
The sharing story was about how some church member praised the church caretaker for his faithful job of keeping the church sparkling clean, and the caretaker replied: "I love my work. And when I go to heaven, I hope to have a job just like this." The church member was stunned at his reaction (and so was I! :S) and went on to ponder: "It was a tedious job that didn't pay a lot. Yet he was cleaning with the joy of the Lord in his heart, saying he hoped to have 'a job just like this' in heaven. ...Could I take a menial job and find joy in serving?"
And that question has struck me too. Could I?
That reminds me of my mum and how she faithfully does all the housework, ALL, without complaining. And of how I really should be starting to help her out much more than washing dishes twice a week. :S
Monday's QT:
Psalm 109:26-27 Help me, O Lord my God! Oh, save me according to Your mercy, that they may know that this is Your hand-- that You, Lord, have done it! (I assume "done it" here means "saved me" :P)
Psalm 109:29 Let my accusers be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own disgrace as with a mantle. (I bring this up because it reminds me of the point in the sermon about "putting on" various virtues like pieces of clothing -- this seems to be the same though pointing in the other direction :P)
Psalm 109:30 I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth; yes, I will praise Him among the multitude. (This is an answer to anybody who ever asks me whether I feel I am shoving my faith in the face of people too much by talking about Christian/church stuff, or blogging about God all the time. If my God is so great, can He be hidden in the private recesses of one's life? Should He not be proclaimed all the time, in every way? I will not insist that you believe in Him right now, but neither will I accept it if you tell me to stop talking about Him. I can't. "Can't stop talking 'bout everything He's done / He's the best thing happened since the world begun" :D)
Today's QT!
I am continually amused by how God uses my Bible's lack of the book of Luke to point me to interesting things nonetheless. Everything I've had to refer to Luke for has been a story, and seeing as I'm using the New Living Translation for these Luke excursions it seems particularly apt :P
Luke 9:10-17
It's the story of Jesus feeding the... well it doesn't say here how many. But a huge multitude of people fed with just 5 loaves and 2 fish, and with 12 baskets left over too. This really reminded me of something I read on Ade's blog just a day or so ago:
(Again, from Elizabeth Elliot's "Passion and Purity" :P)
One morning I was reading the story of Jesus' feeding of the five thousand. The disciples could find only five loaves of bread and two fishes. "Let me have them," said Jesus. He asked for all. He took them, said the blessing, and broke them before He gave them out. I remembered what a chapel speaker, Ruth Stull from Peru, had said: "If my life is broken when given to Jesus, it is because pieces will feed a multitude, while a loaf will satisfy only a little lad."
Been thinking about that part I bolded, and wondering if God was trying to speak to me through it. I did blog about something like that before, about sharing love with people who need it and don't get it (like the socially ostracised) rather than reserving it for that One Special Person because so many more people are blessed that way. But as I thought and prayed and tried to imagine it in my mind's eye, I remembered that it's not a win-lose situation. It's not that the little lad whose lunch was taken to feed the crowd had to forego his lunch in order that the crowd be fed. Jesus asked for food, the lad offered his lunch, Jesus asked the Father's blessing and broke it in pieces and gave it out, and the lad was one of the 5000 who was fed to the full. In other words, as I see it, it's not that you have to deny yourself of something forever in order that others be filled, but that you give it over to God to handle, and He multiplies it by His grace such that not only others are filled, but you are too. His grace is sufficient... for everybody, including yourself.
And I think... if I (in the guise of lunch :P) hadn't been given to a little lad, I might have only been serving my own family of fishermen, perhaps an entire village of friends and acquaintances, and some strangers passing through. The wise Mother up there (God is both our Mother and our Father, if Henri Nouwen is to be believed :D) gave me to a little lad, and if he had kept me to himself, I might only have fed a few more of his buddies, maybe another family and village if he was generous (my metaphor's getting fuzzy here). But this little lad placed me in God's hands, and now Jesus can use me to feed a multitude of family, friends, strangers beyond count, and people who may not yet even be in the world... none of which could have happened if I had remained lunch at home, and not been given to the little lad.
Does that sound crazy? :D I admit I might have overstretched the metaphor. But it was a sudden inspiration upon reading the story. :P
Oh another thing that struck me about the passage was that Jesus asked God's blessing on the food. Was thinking about how my family says Grace before meals and the focus seems to be slightly different... We often thank God for the food. Dad will say "please help it to bless our bodies" and we do follow him sometimes, but it doesn't crop up as often as "thank You for the food on the table and mummy for cooking it". I wonder if it's time to pay a bit more attention to the blessing part, particularly as my parents begin to age gracefully? :P
The QT sharing did touch me too though, it was about a bunch of teens who used the church lawn for hanging out and were unpopular among church members because of their habit of leaving litter on the lawn. One day a church member spoke to them kindly instead of scolding and invited them to join the church youth for pizza and games. The church youth followed up the invitation and some of them did join in eventually. the sharing ended with "Inviting those outside the church to come in -- isn't that what being the Lord's people is all about?" And I quite agree! :) Now if only I could muster up the courage to put that into practice... (Thinking of a certain S. Not the little girl I talked about before. Wondering and praying. Draw her to You, dear Lord.)
Other sentences from the sharing that drive home the point :P
"Lord, help us to welcome those who are not wanted, those who are displaced, those who don't quite fit in. May we reach out to offer friendship and spiritual nourishment and draw people into Your house. Amen."
"Most people need an invitation to get them to come to church."
A song I've always quite liked (reminded of it also through Ade's blog :P)
As bread that is broken, use our lives
As wine that is poured out, a willing sacrifice
Empower us Father, to share the love of Christ
As bread that is broken, Lord, use our lives
Sunday's QT:
Okay I shan't cheat by pretending I read the Bible passage, because I didn't :S Well it WAS a Sunday, after all, which generally means a surfeit of Bible passages/verses. Hee. (Will put up sermon insights... sometime. :P) But here's a verse from the passage that DID catch me now I read it.
Philippians 2:14 Do all things without murmuring and disputing,
(And I was like "Oops! Sorry God for all my complaining about schoolwork :S")
The sharing story was about how some church member praised the church caretaker for his faithful job of keeping the church sparkling clean, and the caretaker replied: "I love my work. And when I go to heaven, I hope to have a job just like this." The church member was stunned at his reaction (and so was I! :S) and went on to ponder: "It was a tedious job that didn't pay a lot. Yet he was cleaning with the joy of the Lord in his heart, saying he hoped to have 'a job just like this' in heaven. ...Could I take a menial job and find joy in serving?"
And that question has struck me too. Could I?
That reminds me of my mum and how she faithfully does all the housework, ALL, without complaining. And of how I really should be starting to help her out much more than washing dishes twice a week. :S
Monday's QT:
Psalm 109:26-27 Help me, O Lord my God! Oh, save me according to Your mercy, that they may know that this is Your hand-- that You, Lord, have done it! (I assume "done it" here means "saved me" :P)
Psalm 109:29 Let my accusers be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own disgrace as with a mantle. (I bring this up because it reminds me of the point in the sermon about "putting on" various virtues like pieces of clothing -- this seems to be the same though pointing in the other direction :P)
Psalm 109:30 I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth; yes, I will praise Him among the multitude. (This is an answer to anybody who ever asks me whether I feel I am shoving my faith in the face of people too much by talking about Christian/church stuff, or blogging about God all the time. If my God is so great, can He be hidden in the private recesses of one's life? Should He not be proclaimed all the time, in every way? I will not insist that you believe in Him right now, but neither will I accept it if you tell me to stop talking about Him. I can't. "Can't stop talking 'bout everything He's done / He's the best thing happened since the world begun" :D)
Today's QT!
I am continually amused by how God uses my Bible's lack of the book of Luke to point me to interesting things nonetheless. Everything I've had to refer to Luke for has been a story, and seeing as I'm using the New Living Translation for these Luke excursions it seems particularly apt :P
Luke 9:10-17
It's the story of Jesus feeding the... well it doesn't say here how many. But a huge multitude of people fed with just 5 loaves and 2 fish, and with 12 baskets left over too. This really reminded me of something I read on Ade's blog just a day or so ago:
(Again, from Elizabeth Elliot's "Passion and Purity" :P)
One morning I was reading the story of Jesus' feeding of the five thousand. The disciples could find only five loaves of bread and two fishes. "Let me have them," said Jesus. He asked for all. He took them, said the blessing, and broke them before He gave them out. I remembered what a chapel speaker, Ruth Stull from Peru, had said: "If my life is broken when given to Jesus, it is because pieces will feed a multitude, while a loaf will satisfy only a little lad."
Been thinking about that part I bolded, and wondering if God was trying to speak to me through it. I did blog about something like that before, about sharing love with people who need it and don't get it (like the socially ostracised) rather than reserving it for that One Special Person because so many more people are blessed that way. But as I thought and prayed and tried to imagine it in my mind's eye, I remembered that it's not a win-lose situation. It's not that the little lad whose lunch was taken to feed the crowd had to forego his lunch in order that the crowd be fed. Jesus asked for food, the lad offered his lunch, Jesus asked the Father's blessing and broke it in pieces and gave it out, and the lad was one of the 5000 who was fed to the full. In other words, as I see it, it's not that you have to deny yourself of something forever in order that others be filled, but that you give it over to God to handle, and He multiplies it by His grace such that not only others are filled, but you are too. His grace is sufficient... for everybody, including yourself.
And I think... if I (in the guise of lunch :P) hadn't been given to a little lad, I might have only been serving my own family of fishermen, perhaps an entire village of friends and acquaintances, and some strangers passing through. The wise Mother up there (God is both our Mother and our Father, if Henri Nouwen is to be believed :D) gave me to a little lad, and if he had kept me to himself, I might only have fed a few more of his buddies, maybe another family and village if he was generous (my metaphor's getting fuzzy here). But this little lad placed me in God's hands, and now Jesus can use me to feed a multitude of family, friends, strangers beyond count, and people who may not yet even be in the world... none of which could have happened if I had remained lunch at home, and not been given to the little lad.
Does that sound crazy? :D I admit I might have overstretched the metaphor. But it was a sudden inspiration upon reading the story. :P
Oh another thing that struck me about the passage was that Jesus asked God's blessing on the food. Was thinking about how my family says Grace before meals and the focus seems to be slightly different... We often thank God for the food. Dad will say "please help it to bless our bodies" and we do follow him sometimes, but it doesn't crop up as often as "thank You for the food on the table and mummy for cooking it". I wonder if it's time to pay a bit more attention to the blessing part, particularly as my parents begin to age gracefully? :P
The QT sharing did touch me too though, it was about a bunch of teens who used the church lawn for hanging out and were unpopular among church members because of their habit of leaving litter on the lawn. One day a church member spoke to them kindly instead of scolding and invited them to join the church youth for pizza and games. The church youth followed up the invitation and some of them did join in eventually. the sharing ended with "Inviting those outside the church to come in -- isn't that what being the Lord's people is all about?" And I quite agree! :) Now if only I could muster up the courage to put that into practice... (Thinking of a certain S. Not the little girl I talked about before. Wondering and praying. Draw her to You, dear Lord.)
Other sentences from the sharing that drive home the point :P
"Lord, help us to welcome those who are not wanted, those who are displaced, those who don't quite fit in. May we reach out to offer friendship and spiritual nourishment and draw people into Your house. Amen."
"Most people need an invitation to get them to come to church."
A song I've always quite liked (reminded of it also through Ade's blog :P)
As bread that is broken, use our lives
As wine that is poured out, a willing sacrifice
Empower us Father, to share the love of Christ
As bread that is broken, Lord, use our lives
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Sing, Sing A Song
Or two :) I was supposed to post a story but I'll do it tomorrow, I think. Supposed to be working on my assignment now but feel type-y. :P As this will be a songpost first and foremost, other non-song insights may be subsumed... or maybe I shall just type them later when I feel like it. :P ("It's My Blog")
Yesterday I was thinking about some Mandarin Christian songs for a friend's mum. This morning my dad was whistling one of them. I *break out into huge grin* :D
shen ming you xian
shi guang ye hui zhou
ru guo ni bu zhen xi
ji hui nan liu
li wu sui ran hao
ru guo ni bu yao
ni ze me neng gou de dao
ze me neng de dao
(Pardon my horrible hanyu pinyin. It sounds a lot better than it looks here, honestly. :P)
Last night I posted about "My peace I give unto you". This afternoon at Contemporary Worship we sang it. 0_o Isn't God cool :D
Also during Contemporary Worship, we sang Make Me A Channel Of Your Peace. I was sortof adding that into my prayer yesterday, so it was a nice surprise :)
Make me a channel of Your peace
Where there is hatred, let me bring Your love
Where there is injury, Your pardon, Lord
And where there's doubt, true faith in You.
Make me a channel of Your peace
Where there's despair in life let me bring hope
Where there is darkness, only light
And where there's sadness, ever joy.
O Master, grant that I may never seek
So much to be consoled as to console
To be understood as to understand
To be loved as to love with all my soul.
Make me a channel of Your peace
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned
In giving of ourselves that we receive
And in dying that we're born to eternal life.
And we also sang Still. It's a beautiful song at any time (it's one of my favourite "cry to the Lord" songs :P) but I was looking at the lyrics and re-appreciating them in the context of my flood of stress and emotions this past week, and how God has shown time and time again (at least 5 times this week, I am certain :P) that He has control over everything, EVERYTHING, even things I think are nearly impossible. And this one line struck me: "I will be still / Know You are God". I think partly this struck me because I was telling a dear friend yesterday that I think when I get to God's throne I will just have started to comprehend God's awesome goodness and glory, and this comprehension will probably take forever to fully finish dawning so I might just be standing there gazing at God in awe forever. :P Well, nobody can predict what we'll really do when we get there. But to me these two lines of lyrics just express the spirit of that image so well. Also, they're good reminders that I haven't exactly been very still the past week. A bit hard to do so in the harried pace of life, at least here in Singapore! But well, as said in the sermon today, "Hurry is the key enemy of tenderness" and I think so too. :)
Anyway since I'm talking so much about yesterday I might as well blog about it too. :P Ever since yesterday's worship practice I've been loving Shepherd Of My Soul.
Shepherd of my soul
I give You full control
Wherever You may lead
I will follow
I have made the choice
To listen for Your voice
Wherever You may lead
I will go
Be it in a quiet pasture
Or by a gentle stream
The Shepherd of my soul
Is by my side
Though I face a mighty mountain
Or a valley dark and deep
The Shepherd of my soul
Will be my guide
For Offertory, we sang one of my favourite ever songs (Adrian knows this one :P), This World Is Not My Home. I used to like it coz of its expressed desire for Heaven and it's the kind of song that catches the kid in me, but when I actually went to go find and memorise the other verses I realised just how very meaningful it is.
This world is not my home
I'm just a-passin' through
My treasures are laid up
Somewhere beyond the blue
The angels beckon me
From Heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home
In this world anymore
Chorus:
O Lord, You know
I have no friend like You
If Heaven's not my home
Then Lord what would I do
The Saviour beckons me
From Heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home
In this world anymore
They're all expecting me
And that's one thing I know
My Saviour pardoned me
And now I onward go
I know He'll take me through
Though I am weak and poor
And I can't feel at home
In this world anymore
There's a third verse but nevermind. :P Also maybe one of the reasons I was reminded of S yesterday was that I taught her to sing Did You Ever Talk To God Above so that she wouldn't be lonely because she would have God as her Friend... And I saw how much she clung and clung to that song on the last day.
Did you ever talk to God above
Tell Him that you need a friend to love
Pray in Jesus' name believing that
God answers prayer
Have you told Him all your cares and woes
Every tiny little fear He knows
You can know He'll always hear
And He will answer prayer
You can whisper in a crowd to Him
You can cry when you're alone, to Him
You don't have to pray out loud to Him
He knows your thoughts
On a lofty mountain peak, He's there
In a meadow by a stream, He's there
Anywhere on earth You go
He's been there from the start
Find the answer in His word, it's true
You'll be strong because He walks with you
By His faithfulness He'll change you, too
God answers prayer.
I truly believe that my childhood and upbringing has had a great impact in founding my life on the Solid Rock of Christ Jesus :) I may seem childish at times but it is returning again and again to these simple songs -- simple in the sense that they are not complicated, easy to sing and to cling to, and simple in their expression of faith and great truth -- that I find my faith is made ever-stronger through trials. "With faith Like A Child", anyone? :P
To end this really long songpost (:P), I think I'll put up the lyrics of He Never Sleeps by Don Moen. I first heard this song at FOP this year (the more worshipful second half that I liked :P) and I bought the Hiding Place CD hoping it would have it, and also because I fell in love with the title song. I can't remember now whether the CD had this song, because I can't find the CD. *sad* And one day I want to go and get his Thank You Lord CD too. I am really inspired by Don Moen's example as a songwriter and worship leader, really. But anyways yeah I mention this song because I heard it on the way home in a friend's car today, and found that it speaks to me in the way that I was looking for when I said I wanted a song about how "God is faithful, even when I am faithless". :)
When you've prayed every prayer that you know how to pray
Just remember the Lord will hear and the answer is on it's way
Our God is able
He is mighty
He is faithful
And He never sleeps, He never slumbers
He never tires of hearing our prayer
When we are weak He becomes stronger
So rest in His love
And cast all of your cares
On Him
Do you feel that the Lord has forgotten your need
Just remember that God is always working in ways you cannot see
Another reason why I really like this song is that it has a really nice piano intro. :)
Yesterday I was thinking about some Mandarin Christian songs for a friend's mum. This morning my dad was whistling one of them. I *break out into huge grin* :D
shen ming you xian
shi guang ye hui zhou
ru guo ni bu zhen xi
ji hui nan liu
li wu sui ran hao
ru guo ni bu yao
ni ze me neng gou de dao
ze me neng de dao
(Pardon my horrible hanyu pinyin. It sounds a lot better than it looks here, honestly. :P)
Last night I posted about "My peace I give unto you". This afternoon at Contemporary Worship we sang it. 0_o Isn't God cool :D
Also during Contemporary Worship, we sang Make Me A Channel Of Your Peace. I was sortof adding that into my prayer yesterday, so it was a nice surprise :)
Make me a channel of Your peace
Where there is hatred, let me bring Your love
Where there is injury, Your pardon, Lord
And where there's doubt, true faith in You.
Make me a channel of Your peace
Where there's despair in life let me bring hope
Where there is darkness, only light
And where there's sadness, ever joy.
O Master, grant that I may never seek
So much to be consoled as to console
To be understood as to understand
To be loved as to love with all my soul.
Make me a channel of Your peace
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned
In giving of ourselves that we receive
And in dying that we're born to eternal life.
And we also sang Still. It's a beautiful song at any time (it's one of my favourite "cry to the Lord" songs :P) but I was looking at the lyrics and re-appreciating them in the context of my flood of stress and emotions this past week, and how God has shown time and time again (at least 5 times this week, I am certain :P) that He has control over everything, EVERYTHING, even things I think are nearly impossible. And this one line struck me: "I will be still / Know You are God". I think partly this struck me because I was telling a dear friend yesterday that I think when I get to God's throne I will just have started to comprehend God's awesome goodness and glory, and this comprehension will probably take forever to fully finish dawning so I might just be standing there gazing at God in awe forever. :P Well, nobody can predict what we'll really do when we get there. But to me these two lines of lyrics just express the spirit of that image so well. Also, they're good reminders that I haven't exactly been very still the past week. A bit hard to do so in the harried pace of life, at least here in Singapore! But well, as said in the sermon today, "Hurry is the key enemy of tenderness" and I think so too. :)
Anyway since I'm talking so much about yesterday I might as well blog about it too. :P Ever since yesterday's worship practice I've been loving Shepherd Of My Soul.
Shepherd of my soul
I give You full control
Wherever You may lead
I will follow
I have made the choice
To listen for Your voice
Wherever You may lead
I will go
Be it in a quiet pasture
Or by a gentle stream
The Shepherd of my soul
Is by my side
Though I face a mighty mountain
Or a valley dark and deep
The Shepherd of my soul
Will be my guide
For Offertory, we sang one of my favourite ever songs (Adrian knows this one :P), This World Is Not My Home. I used to like it coz of its expressed desire for Heaven and it's the kind of song that catches the kid in me, but when I actually went to go find and memorise the other verses I realised just how very meaningful it is.
This world is not my home
I'm just a-passin' through
My treasures are laid up
Somewhere beyond the blue
The angels beckon me
From Heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home
In this world anymore
Chorus:
O Lord, You know
I have no friend like You
If Heaven's not my home
Then Lord what would I do
The Saviour beckons me
From Heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home
In this world anymore
They're all expecting me
And that's one thing I know
My Saviour pardoned me
And now I onward go
I know He'll take me through
Though I am weak and poor
And I can't feel at home
In this world anymore
There's a third verse but nevermind. :P Also maybe one of the reasons I was reminded of S yesterday was that I taught her to sing Did You Ever Talk To God Above so that she wouldn't be lonely because she would have God as her Friend... And I saw how much she clung and clung to that song on the last day.
Did you ever talk to God above
Tell Him that you need a friend to love
Pray in Jesus' name believing that
God answers prayer
Have you told Him all your cares and woes
Every tiny little fear He knows
You can know He'll always hear
And He will answer prayer
You can whisper in a crowd to Him
You can cry when you're alone, to Him
You don't have to pray out loud to Him
He knows your thoughts
On a lofty mountain peak, He's there
In a meadow by a stream, He's there
Anywhere on earth You go
He's been there from the start
Find the answer in His word, it's true
You'll be strong because He walks with you
By His faithfulness He'll change you, too
God answers prayer.
I truly believe that my childhood and upbringing has had a great impact in founding my life on the Solid Rock of Christ Jesus :) I may seem childish at times but it is returning again and again to these simple songs -- simple in the sense that they are not complicated, easy to sing and to cling to, and simple in their expression of faith and great truth -- that I find my faith is made ever-stronger through trials. "With faith Like A Child", anyone? :P
To end this really long songpost (:P), I think I'll put up the lyrics of He Never Sleeps by Don Moen. I first heard this song at FOP this year (the more worshipful second half that I liked :P) and I bought the Hiding Place CD hoping it would have it, and also because I fell in love with the title song. I can't remember now whether the CD had this song, because I can't find the CD. *sad* And one day I want to go and get his Thank You Lord CD too. I am really inspired by Don Moen's example as a songwriter and worship leader, really. But anyways yeah I mention this song because I heard it on the way home in a friend's car today, and found that it speaks to me in the way that I was looking for when I said I wanted a song about how "God is faithful, even when I am faithless". :)
When you've prayed every prayer that you know how to pray
Just remember the Lord will hear and the answer is on it's way
Our God is able
He is mighty
He is faithful
And He never sleeps, He never slumbers
He never tires of hearing our prayer
When we are weak He becomes stronger
So rest in His love
And cast all of your cares
On Him
Do you feel that the Lord has forgotten your need
Just remember that God is always working in ways you cannot see
Another reason why I really like this song is that it has a really nice piano intro. :)
How Will The Story End?
It's been awhile since I wrote that story :) And I thought I should update.
The thing is that there really isn't an end to the story... yet. The ending's different for everyone. And I really don't mean that in a postmodernist "it's all up to individual opinion" kinda thing, nor is it meant to be an artsy "it's in your hands, you finish the script however you want, art for the masses!" type of thing. It doesn't have an end because the story has not ended. It is still going on, and it will still be going on until something happens to the little girl that can be written into the story. But in the meantime it's still a long corridor she's walking down (I did mention it was a long corridor right?) and she still has to wait for her Father's answer and frankly, I don't think the answer is all that necessary right now.
Heh that seems quite different from the tone of urgency in the story right? Well I think God has been speaking to me through various people these past few days... and I think I'm getting a sense of what it means to just trust and let go. To not think too much and trust in God that He will continue to guide us in everything we do. It's a new concept I'm trying to get my head around because for the first time I see that "maybe you don't Need To Know in order to live it out" but I know it's possible because I see that someone can have peace even under such circumstances. And oh, such peace!
My peace I give unto you
It's a peace that the world cannot give
It's a peace that the world cannot understand
Peace to know, peace to live
My peace I give unto you
I remember singing that to the kid I counselled back in last year's camp... I was trying to sing her to sleep. And she really did calm down and fall asleep! I've been reminded of her these past few days, I think I shall pray for her. I always remember that last night when she clung to me and I was told by the helper to leave her (they were practising the painful but necessary step of gradual distancing) and I just went to the counsellors' room and curled up and cried. I think I was the only one who cried and I think I shocked all of them. But I really did love her like the little sister I never had... And I should continue to pray for her more regularly as the sister-in-Christ that I shall probably never see again in my lifetime, until we meet before God's throne. Sweet little S... I hope you grow into a strong and lovely woman of God. :)
Oh yeah so anyway as I was saying... Maybe it's a story that doesn't need to be finished quite so soon. But that's only my feeling about it :) For many other little girls out there, their feelings and the Father's answer to them can be very very different. And the only way to know how the story ends... is to go back to the Author and Finisher of our faith (and our stories :P). :)
Another story waiting in the wings though :) To be written when I'm not so stressed about assignments >.< But I will not be over-stressed, because God is good, all the time. :)
I couldn't think of a song about God being faithful even while we are faithless... so maybe I will write one someday, God willing. :)
The thing is that there really isn't an end to the story... yet. The ending's different for everyone. And I really don't mean that in a postmodernist "it's all up to individual opinion" kinda thing, nor is it meant to be an artsy "it's in your hands, you finish the script however you want, art for the masses!" type of thing. It doesn't have an end because the story has not ended. It is still going on, and it will still be going on until something happens to the little girl that can be written into the story. But in the meantime it's still a long corridor she's walking down (I did mention it was a long corridor right?) and she still has to wait for her Father's answer and frankly, I don't think the answer is all that necessary right now.
Heh that seems quite different from the tone of urgency in the story right? Well I think God has been speaking to me through various people these past few days... and I think I'm getting a sense of what it means to just trust and let go. To not think too much and trust in God that He will continue to guide us in everything we do. It's a new concept I'm trying to get my head around because for the first time I see that "maybe you don't Need To Know in order to live it out" but I know it's possible because I see that someone can have peace even under such circumstances. And oh, such peace!
My peace I give unto you
It's a peace that the world cannot give
It's a peace that the world cannot understand
Peace to know, peace to live
My peace I give unto you
I remember singing that to the kid I counselled back in last year's camp... I was trying to sing her to sleep. And she really did calm down and fall asleep! I've been reminded of her these past few days, I think I shall pray for her. I always remember that last night when she clung to me and I was told by the helper to leave her (they were practising the painful but necessary step of gradual distancing) and I just went to the counsellors' room and curled up and cried. I think I was the only one who cried and I think I shocked all of them. But I really did love her like the little sister I never had... And I should continue to pray for her more regularly as the sister-in-Christ that I shall probably never see again in my lifetime, until we meet before God's throne. Sweet little S... I hope you grow into a strong and lovely woman of God. :)
Oh yeah so anyway as I was saying... Maybe it's a story that doesn't need to be finished quite so soon. But that's only my feeling about it :) For many other little girls out there, their feelings and the Father's answer to them can be very very different. And the only way to know how the story ends... is to go back to the Author and Finisher of our faith (and our stories :P). :)
Another story waiting in the wings though :) To be written when I'm not so stressed about assignments >.< But I will not be over-stressed, because God is good, all the time. :)
I couldn't think of a song about God being faithful even while we are faithless... so maybe I will write one someday, God willing. :)