Unirregular

There’s a blog bug goin’ around in GFRESH and it doesn’t seem to have bitten me yet.

I’ve been struggling like crazy to formulate a post in which I share all the lessons I’ve learnt from and since SOS camp. But with all the distractions, I haven’t been able to collect my thoughts properly into a clear and articulate post that doesn’t go off into different tangents at every paragraph.

People have been asking me when I’m going to post a new one, so I feel somewhat pressured to write a post that has a huge bang; one that leaves everyone in absolute awe of my wisdom. But I realised that it would be ridiculous and that’d be impossible.

So instead of trying to write something, I’m just going to post the transcript of part of a preaching by Joseph Prince from Hillsong Conference in 2007. My sister was actually watching the DVD of said preaching one afternoon, and I was sitting in the lounge room as well, eating, and I heard this part and it left me in awe. So here, I share it to you, because it is an amazing teaching:

[Referring to John 13:23-24] The Bible says that John was leaning on Jesus’ breast that night. It’s an expression of depending on the Lord’s love for him, not on his love for the Lord. He wasn’t leaning on his own bosom. He was depending on the Lord’s love for him.

Peter, on the other hand — he defies the believers and the law who boast of their love for the Lord. When the Lord says, “One of you shall betray me,” Peter said, “Lord, if all these should betray You, I’d never, ever betray You. And where You go, I’ll follow, I’ll follow. [Sings] You’ll always be my first love, my first love…” Before the night was over, he denied ever, ever knowing his Master. Whereas when you find the disciple who boasts of the Lord’s love for him, John — at the foot of the cross.”

The first result of knowing that you are loved by God; of practising the sense of being loved by God; to be effectively under grace is to always feed on his love for you, because it’s a fixed and constant that God loves you.

You know, when you’re fresh out of this conference, you go back and you’re on a high. Chances are sometimes, you look at your love and you say, “I’m not doing too bad. Man, I’m on fire. I’m passionate!”; and you become introspective. You become self-occupied instead of Christ-occupied; instead of His love-occupied, amen. Instead of practising like what Paul does — “The Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me” — he made it personal — and you put your eyes on your love for the Lord.

How many of you know that sometimes after service, we go back. On Monday our love is like this [palm above head] on the track, and then on Tuesday it does like this [hand moves downward as he steps sideways]. Wednesday it goes on like this [hand moves downward again as he steps sideways]. Maybe Thursday it does like this [hand moves upward as he steps sideways]. Our love for Him fluctuates and wavers. His love for You is a fixed and a constant [palm is held above his head as he walks back across the stage], hallelujah. We are not to fix our eyes on that which is wavering. We are to fix our eyes on that which is fixed and unchanging — His love for us. And when you do that, you become stable, amen.

You know, when I was in the navy in Singapore, every teenage person, when it comes to the age of 17, have to serve in the national service. I was drafted to the navy, and my first day on the fighter boat was an awesome experience of throwing up all over the place. And all my friends were throwing up. And the officer was behind me. He was finding the whole thing amusing. It was choppy waters, and he says, “Guys, guys, come on. Look far to the horizon. Where you see the horizon, at that which is fixed. Keep your eyes on that which is fixed.” And when we did that, we were stabilised.

Keep your eyes on His love for you, amen. Even when you don’t feel it.

I hope you enjoyed that and got something out of it.

*NOTE* Mr Donald Mills of crabbyoldfart.wordpress.com used to post 3 times a week, but found he wouldn’t have been able to keep up with this schedule if he were to live a normal life. He says that it’s important to be regular and that he’ll post once a week whether he has something to say or not. I told myself I’d do this — post once a week — but it’s hard when I don’t know what to talk about. It’s especially hard when every time I try to write something, I keep erasing (or backspacing) everything and starting from scratch over and over and over again. But I’ll try to post more often, I really will.

*Another note* I put this at the end of my previous post and I never got any ‘proper’ replies in regards to it:

*A not-so-important note but I want you to read it anyway (it is kind of important actually)* My sister reckons I should have a go at video blogging. So I’m thinking for my first one I’ll answer a bunch of questions that my readers want the answers to, and I’ll put it up by the end of the month. Leave a comment here, tweet it at me or email me. Or contact me however you want. I’ll answer the most frequently asked. Or maybe the funniest. I don’t know. Ask away and we’ll see what you guys come up with.

Let me know what you fellas think.
 
- Keep moving forward.
 

Beached whale

If you know me, then you’d know that whales are my favourite animal.

I have posters of them on my bedroom walls. One of my dreams is to see Blue whales in the Antarctic (Killer whales, not so much. They eat penguins). I went whale watching for my birthday. I have a “Save the whales, eat the Japanese” T-shirt. I’m against whale deaths or anything that prevents them from doing what whales do.

Apparently though, people think that getting beached is a ‘whale thing’.

It’s not.

Even so, when I came across this video on YouTube, I was quite amused:

What I find hilarious, though, isn’t the concept of the (I-don’t-know-what-species) whale getting stranded on a beach, but the exaggerated Kiwi accents. Ah nu. Ah nu! I’m beached bru. I’m beached is! Do you heppin to have a bucket or a huse, bru? I need to git wit, esep. Oh man, I can’t get enough of that dialogue.

Anyway, on my 20th birthday last month, a group of my closest friends-that-I-pretty-much-grew-up-with-and-I-would-not-be-here-without-them bought this gigantor canvas and “signed” it as my birthday card.

My birthday canvas

See that picture/painting at the bottom? Here’s a close-up:

Sorry it's a little blurry. My hand was slightly unsteady and I didn't use flash.

Aaron and Loi drew/painted that. I’m proud of them ’cause it looks awesome (I still gotta glue the seagull’s beak ’cause they didn’t glue it properly).

So then later, Aaron told me that there were more episodes created about the beached, Kiwi whale. Here’s the trailer for the series:

And here are my favourite episodes:

You’re shrunking!
Chull out, bru. I’m just a kud.
I’m a kud whale. I haven’t gone bug yit.
I only swum un fufteen minute untervals. I don’t want my skun to go wrunkly.
I fund uf I flup my fluppers, I cen wuggle back in.

 

Hey luttle stungray, I know why you’re sed.
You dudn’t know your mum and you dudn’t know your ded.

 
Anyway, I just wanted to share my amusement with my readers.

*NOTE* This is not the blog post I promised on Twitter. This is just a filler blog to entertain you guys and to remind you that I am still alive and that I will still blog. The blog post that I promised will be up by Sunday night (Sydney time) like I promised.

*A not-so-important note but I want you to read it anyway (it is kind of important actually)* My sister reckons I should have a go at video blogging. So I’m thinking for my first one I’ll answer a bunch of questions that my readers want the answers to, and I’ll put it up by the end of the month. Leave a comment here, tweet it at me or email me. Or contact me however you want. I’ll answer the most frequently asked. Or maybe the funniest. I don’t know. Ask away and we’ll see what you guys come up with.

- Keep moving forward.
 

Raised hands, not weapons, win the battles.

This was my photo for Friday, September 11 (what a date), 2009, which was day 3 of my Project:

Exodus 17:8-16

What was so significant about that day that I would post a photo of my Bible and notebook for the Project? An encounter with God happened.

I’m 3 weeks into my fast and I’ve found that while the first 2 weeks were pretty easy, the third (this past week) wasn’t. And I’ve also learned, through accountability with other girls at GFRESH, that it’s when you’re doing your best that the Enemy will work harder to attack you and bring you down.

By the end of the week, I felt so unworthy to face God, that I was actually relieved that I wasn’t scheduled to be up for worship at GFRESH. I didn’t want to be up on the stage playing piano for a King that I wasn’t worthy to face. I felt dirty and useless — but a King’s court is spotlessly clean, and He only has courtiers that are there to serve and submit to Him.

During worship, God pressed the above passage — Exodus 17:8-16 — onto my heart:

     ⁸ The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. ⁹ Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.”
     ¹⁰ So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. ¹¹ As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. ¹² When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up — one on one side, one on the other — so that his hands remained steady till sunset. ¹³ So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.
     ¹⁴ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.”
     ¹⁵ Moses built an altar and called it The LORD is my Banner. ¹⁶ He said, “For hands were lifted up to the throne of the LORD. The LORD will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation.”

So when we got the chance to sit down, I pulled out my notebook and borrowed a pen from Christine to jot down what God taught me from the story:

Moses, after leaving the Pharaoh’s palace, became a shepherd, so from the time God called him to take His people out of Egypt, Moses always carried around a staff. This was a long pole with the top curved around. In Biblical times, these were used by the shepherd to pull in wandering sheep. Because it was tall and stood upright, — not crooked — the shepherd would also use it as a walking aid, much like an elderly man might use a cane.

In verse 9, Moses tells Joshua that he will “stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.” The Word is our staff. Whatever it says stands; it is set in an upright position, and it remains valid or unaltered (not crooked). God’s Word never changes. It was true when He created the world, and it’ll remain true when the world ends. Our Staff must be brought with us wherever we go. It helps us to remain standing. It helps us in our walk with God, because it is God talking to us. And much like Moses used his staff to pull in wandering sheep, so must we — as bearers of the name of Christ, and as children of the High King — use our Staffs to pull in the lost.

Often, we associate “worship” with lifting up our hands. Worship isn’t just simply lifting your hands, but for the sake of this post, lifting our hands will simply symbolise worshipping God.

When everything in our life is going great, we go to church and we worship passionately. We’re at the front of the church with our arms up as high as they can go, because we’re so thankful that everything in our life is superb. But once something goes wrong, suddenly we don’t “feel like” worshipping. We don’t want to “worship” through our trials and struggles ’cause they bring us down.

But did you notice that when the Israelites and Amalekites were in battle, Moses kept his hands raised as a symbol of his worship for God. When they were raised, the Israelites were winning. But, when he lowered them, because he was tired or “didn’t feel like it,” it was the Amalekites who were winning.

When we worship God through the the good times, that’s great. But when we worship Him through our bad times, God is still the One who is in control, and He will take care of things for you. He already won the battle by dying on the Cross; all that’s left for us to do is give Him the glory.

Personally, I sometimes find it difficult to just leave everything up to God, and I’m sure that there are plenty who agree. So sometimes, we go to people for help — godly people who will encourage us, support us, and most importantly, pray for us. When we grow weary and we need a break, sit down on a Rock — rely on Jesus — and ask people to pray for you. Even though you don’t feel like worshipping God through your struggles, there are people who care about you that will intercede for you on your behalf, so that you will win your battle.

What I’ve learnt from all of this is that even though I didn’t do spiritually well this past week, I shouldn’t have turned myself away from God. Sure, I’ve sinned, but God has already forgiven me and all I have to do is accept His forgiveness and move on with my life. He doesn’t want me to dwell on my mistakes, but learn from them so that I won’t make those mistakes again.

I’ve learnt that even if life gets hard and I feel like the Enemy is doing all he can to distract me from God (and I know he tried — Jane knows what I’m talking about!), I just have to ignore those attacks and not let them stop me from running my race. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 9:24 to, “Run in such a way as to get the prize.” I want to graduate, and I don’t want to miss my target by even point-five of a mark. Paul also said in Philippians 3:14 that he will “press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” I won’t let anything get in my way; I’m going to get over it and keep running!

I’ve also learnt from the passage in Exodus how important it is to have people around you for support. God has placed those people in your life for a reason — they’re not just there so you can have someone to sit next to during a church service. They’re there for you to lean on, and you’re also probably there for them to lean on during their weak times.

The chapter I’m currently reading in Not Even A Hint by Joshua Harris is also about the importance of accountability (that didn’t happen by chance — God planned that I would be reading that chapter right now). Joshua titled the chapter “Lone Rangers Are Dead Rangers” and I absolutely love what he wrote:

No matter how strong you might feel right now or how much victory over [sin] you’re presently experiencing, you won’t make it very long on your own. In the battle against [sin], lone rangers are dead rangers. They might look impressive riding off into the sunset by themselves, but when an ambush comes, they’re without help (see Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, 12).

I hope this was helpful for someone. And if you pray (to God), please pray for me. I feel like I need all the support I can get.

- Keep moving forward.

- -

“I hope that ya’ll listening well, there’s only two places to dwell
Heaven or hell
And if you representing the first, I pray you’re representing it well”
Heaven Or Hell by Lecrae