Baring my heart.

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.
 

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:

 
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.