cut is the branch that might have grown full straight
I was crossing the overhead to get home yesterday and was admiring the two rows of vibrant pink bougainvillea flanking the bridge. Then, I caught sight of one particular bush- it was dying. In a row of beautiful, thriving bougainvillea, I wondered why it was dying.
As I took a closer look, I realised that weeds have sprung up, creeping all over it, covering its stem and were slowly choking the poor plant to death.
It's amazing how weeds grow so easily, and flourish so quickly, just from a seed or scattering of spores, taking root wherever the conditions permit it. It's a hardy plant, difficult to kill. You can only get rid of it if you pull ALL of it out along with its roots.
And then God spoke to me. It's the same way with sin. If we do not regularly inspect our lives for sin, it will insidiously start to decay us from the inside, catching us unaware. And our struggle with sin isn't a one-off thing. It's constant process of weeding out the roots of sin in our lives. If we are complacent or fail to be ruthless with it, it'll creep its way back in again.
James 1:15:"Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death."
God told me that if I desire to be fruitful in Him, I've got to be TOUGHwith sin and weed it out of my life daily. Will you do the same?
Remember, no sin is ever too small to be harmless!
1 Corinthians 10:13:"No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."
Okay, since i can't be the first to post about games day, i hope im the last.(it's just to cover up for being laggy) Haha
So, last sunday was games day and i really had a lot of fun playing and gg mad. Im really touched by God's grace and im just so glad to see so many FTVs coming for it and enjoying themselves. You know we always think tt god's presence can only be felt in a nice, air conditioned chapel or comfy room, but under the hot nasty sun and around sweaty ppl at the field on that day, i could feel god's presence so much more. I am so sure god was there with us, with the FTVs. In fact after the whole event, a few of us had the privilege of playing basketball with the neighbourhood kids and really, this PL neighbourhood is so full of opportunities! You know the real fishermen needs patience and lots of patience to wait for their fishes, but yesterday i was just thinking to myself, i felt like a pro fisherwoman, i didnt have to wait cos these ppl jus come and u know it has to be God. :) Folks, god is always ready for us, but hey, are you ready for God?
Now, im peeling, and i feel like a fish.My skin's coming off in scales. The skin on my face looks confused, as if it cant decide whether to be fair or dark.Help.
Heys everyone! It's the... Pink Butterfly again!!! This time... it's a CANDY... I guess.. it's only cause I'm sweet too....=D
Hahaha... ah yes... back to my reflections...i found it rather interesting that when God wants to speak... He's really able to speak alot... so here's to share with you one of the things that God spoke to me about...
Remember The story of the Lost son??? (Luke 15:11-32) The one where the younger son left home with his inheritance, squandered away all the money, then came crawling back only to find the father picking him up in his arms and throwing a huge bash for him... WHAO! We love that story! It never fails to remind us that God still loves us no matter how undeserving we are. Thank God, for His Mercy and Grace abounds. However... Imagine... What if you were the other son? The one who worked so hard in the fields, never rebelled, never strayed away and technically the best son a father could ask for. How would you feel when you stand there watching your father celebrate for a son that in your eyes, never even deserved the title of a son before? Ever felt something similar? I've spoken to christians who have felt like that. For example, they have toiled so hard in God 's ministries, strived to give every second of their time, every ounce of blood sweat and tears to God. And then watch as new comers or black sliden christians enter, they get all the attention. Every little step they take in their walk is applauded, while the so called "more deserving ones" are left behind and ignored. There are times when i've asked some to pray for those other Christians in school who have hurt them before, but they recoil because they feel as if these "bad christians" dont deserve the love of God. Better still, be selective about reaching out because some are sooo 'dirty' they dont deserve a place in the kingdom of God.
Has there ever been a time when you found yourself reacting the same way? Well, lets not forget what the Father said to the other Son,
Luke 15:31,32
'My son,' the father said, '
you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.
But we had to celebrate and be glad,
because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again;
he was lost and is found.'
Remember, God is always with us and will never forsake us. He never loves us any less just because a New Christian is in the house. And we in turn, should celebrate with God! Cause when we know the Father's heart, we will rejoice with Him for the ones He loves so dearly.
So... lets just welcome ALL into the kingdom of heaven. The more... the Merrier. Lots of Love, Michelle
I’ll have to admit that God has been good to IGNYTE! :)
We prayed for a good weather, and then He gave us a HUGE sun, so that the committee needn’t worry about wet weather programmes!Hehe! Of course, my face was burnt too. I hate to peel! Unlike P Dar, I couldn’t get aloe vera gel in time, so I had to make do with my usual Garnier face moisturizer. >.<
I believe we all had fun on Sunday. Be it being involved in the sports, or taking part in the ‘Record-Breaking’ segments. In my case, it was the chance to host the event. It was the first time that I hosted an IGNYTE event, so I was a bundle of nerves before the actual event began. But thank God that everyone enjoyed themselves and actively participated in the segments in the programme, and in turn, made me feel comfortable during my hosting stint. You guys are great! *^^*
Want to share about something that happened during CNY. I don’t really visit my relatives, except only during the CNY period. And I’ve always deemed it hard to talk to my baby cousins, as we lived in a different era.I tried to reach out to them during my days in the youth ministry, when they were in primary school. I brought them to DL, but unfortunately, they stopped attending DL after some time, and I thought that I couldn’t really reach out to them since. So I was surprised to see my baby cousins being all grown-up, in secondary school and all when I visited them. The elder one is Sec 3 this yr, and she either spends her time sleeping, or MSN-ing, or talking on the phone. The younger one is Pri 6, and loves Maple-ing. He frequents the neighborhood gaming centre after school in the afternoons and comes back only in the evenings.
It suddenly dawned upon me that the elder one is the same age as my folks in IGNYTE! And I thought to myself, if I can easily chat up a Sec 3 Ignytian,why can’t I try to reach out to her again? So I chatted her up, did some catching up and added each other on Friendster. I got her number and constantly smsed her and leave her Friendster testimonials cos apparently she prefers to communicate thru Friendster testis.
One day, as watSUP?! was nearing, I decided to sms her and leave her more testis to invite her for watSUP?!. To my surprise, she readily agreed to come, but eventually she didn’t make it cos she couldn’t wake up in time. From then on, I invited her for Timeless, an Easter production that I was involved in. She agreed to come and promised to make it for my performance! It was so different from the time I tried to persuade her to go DL. And I want to thank God for breaking my stubborn mindset that I couldn’t reach out to my cousins cos they were ‘too young’.
I learnt a ‘heart’ lesson.It’s the heart and the sense of urgency for my unsaved loved ones, which will motivate me to make the first step to reach out to them. And most importantly, being genuinely interested in their lives, and not only interested in making converts, is the key to allow me to be more involved and engaged in building a relationship that lasts.
Yeah....I'm officially HOT. RED HOT. Here's a pic of how cooked my hand is:
Just applied aloe vera gel. Suppose to hydrate burned skin. My dear wife put it in the fridge- so it was as though my hand went from hell to heaven - when the cool gel touched the hot dry patch skin...it was like.....oooooooooooooooo.... aaahhhhhhhhh....... wwoooooooo...hoooooooo! Ok..ok... I have so many funny tan lines now - I'll look like an alien the next time I go swimming. Yeah - my head looks decapitated - and my feet looks snow white in comparison with the rest of my leg. Anyone else has the same thing!?
But it was awesome - watSUP?! - Total attendance: 318, Total FTVs that signed up: 80! I believed it was a highly successful bridging event - and we certainly made our presence felt in the neighbourhood! And even the Macdonald's girl that brought us the orange juice was SALTed - and has said she will come back and join us - Yeah! ;-)
Come on IGNYTE - let's not stop here... just like the tan on our bodies - once exposed to THE LIGHT - let it continue to BURN - continue to shine for Jesus!
Hello everybody, let me introduce to you girl girl (the white thing), my bolster for almost 21 years :) i love her!
girl girl only showers once a year during CNY... hahhaha... at this point, all of you will be almost 50% disgusted and i guess most of your first reactions will be 'eeeeee... so smelly~ chou chou~'
BUT! to me, girl girl is very nice smell! because she is filled with my hugs, kisses, and erm erm s....ali...va.. wahhaaha... although she is 'old' and 'i refuse to say she is dirty', but she belongs to me, and i as the master of her still finds her as lovable as ever..
girl girl smells like me, the master of her.. muahahha
In the same way, no matter how much wrong things we did, or if some of us feel we are not smelling very nice (not literally of course -.-"), our Master, Jesus Christ, i believe will still love us, and find us smelling good because He breathe the breath of life into us, and we belong to Him!!
Smell like Jesus, & Be a fragrance for Him this day!
Maybe I'm reading too much into things. I couldn't stop laughin' when I saw this van drive pass me. Almost got into an accident. It reads "WHITE ANT DESTROYING COMPANY". It wouldn't have been so bad if it was hyphenated "White-Ant-Destroying Company". But immediately after I read that - I began to picture GIANT ANTS chewing away this poor company.....LOL. But White Ants are no joke. Many landed property owners will tell you that it is probably one of the most-feared enemies - if not detected early - they could really chew your whole house hollow. Something so small, yet so feared by man. Such is the power of unity, and a focused army.
Rise up IGNYTE! Like what Pastor Jay shared - you ARE destined for GREATNESS - Rise up and DESTROY the enemy's COMPANY!
