Sand in my pockets (Bible Study: Eph 4v17-5v4)

After the caving stint at Gua Tempurung, I did not realise it but quite a lot of sand ended up in my shorts’ pockets. In fact, after a thorough wash, the sand was still there!

I did not realise it until I wore the shorts again and put me mobile phone in me pockets. Each time I took out my phone, I find particles of sand stuck in between the plastic casing and the phone. Each time I had to clean it up before using it.

But u know wat? No matter how much I cleaned it, when I put the phone back into me pockets, it would come out covered wif sand again. I had no choice but to take off me shorts and empty out the pockets of the sand first!

Last Sunday, we studied the remaining verses of chapter 4 of Ephesians right up till verse 4 of chapter 5. The study was entitled “Purity”.

You see, unlike salvation – where it is the work of God – purity involves our decisions and our actions. There seem to be a 3-step approach (following Michael’s illustration from the camp):-

• Put off the old self;

• Be renewed in our mind;

• Put on the new self.
  

It is essential to put off the old self – just like it was important for me to get rid of the sand in me pockets first before putting me phone in the pockets. If I did not do that, the sand will tarnish the phone.

After putting off the old self, we must know the mind of God. No easy way here. Constant study and meditation of God’s word is simple a must. That’s the only way we can renew our minds and know wat to put on as our new self.

Once we know, then we must put on our new self.

By using the illustration of putting on and putting off, Paul seems to imply that this requires a positive action on our part.

The rest of the passage talks of specifics – wat kinds of things to put off and wat kind to put on.

We are saved and we are a new creation. Let us strive to put aside our old self – and live for Him.

Unity (Bible Study - Eph 4v1-16)

It was quite a long break we took from the study of Ephesians. Anyways, we resumed the study at chapter 4 yesterday.

For a quick recap of wat took place in chapters 1-3, see me earlier post here.

After dealing wif all the theological stuffs in chapters 1-3, Paul now turns more to the practical matters.

However, the appointed Bible Study leader yesterday decided not to proceed wif the study as planned. You see, we were going to study the passage Ephesians 4v1-16 and the topic of this passage was “Unity”.

The funny thing was that earlier in the morning, during the breaking of bread service, our elder, Mr. Lee spoke on the topic “Unity” and the passage he spoke on was taken from Ephesians 4v1-16!!!!

And since none of our group members had any problems wif wat was spoken by Mr. Lee, then it was agreed that we do not need to do the study after all!

Basically, wat Mr. Lee said was as follows:-

• Unity is achieved when everyone plays the role assigned to us individually for the purpose of building up the Church.

• God has given each of us spiritual gifts for the purpose of building up the Church.

• As such, it is important for each of us to identify our gifts so that we can use our gifts to play our role in building up the Church and thus attaining unity as envisioned in Ephesians 4v1-17
  

So, we spent the time instead on sharing and affirming wat we think our gifts and/or natural talents are and how we can use them for the purpose of building up the Church (universal Church, not just The Life Chapel).

The purpose of the sharing was not to “blow our own trumpet” but more so that we can help each other to recognise our gifts/talents and help each other to develop those gifts/talents. After all, as Mr. Lee said, spiritual gifts are usually not determined by the process of self-discovery. The church (us!) have to affirm it too.

I wanted to list down the things that were shared but as I’m doing this, I’m having second thoughts. After all, the sharing was done on the understanding that wat was shared will be kept within the group (some were uneasy talking about themselves and their abilities), not to be posted on some blog for the whole world to read!

Suffice to say, we have a nice balance of gifts/talents in our group – ranging from leadership, to encouragers, to servants, to possibly evangelists, carers, artistic abilities and administrators.

Praise God for these gifts and talents. Let us continue to pray for each other and help each other to develop our gifts/skills for the glory of his name and to achieve unity!

A gift for you!

Group outing to Gua Tempurung (30th April '05)

Ok. I think I procrastinated long enuf. The longer I put this off, the less detailed the account will be!

Yes, we went to Gua Tempurung last Saturday. It was indeed a great time. Praise God!

When I arrived at our church car park on Saturday (all bleary-eyed from a mere 2 hours of sleep), I was surprised to find out that I was the last to arrive! More surprisingly was that Yu Jin was earlier than me!!! ;-P

The second surprise was that it turned out to be a No Fear group outing!!! Yeah, even tho it was a yaf activity, all who turned up were members from our group. There were 2 exceptions - one was Connie. She's Theresa's fren so she is considered as our group member too. The other was Sheau Shin - whom we welcomed into our group wif open arms!!!

The Fear-less members who went were our fear-less leader, Kenny, Fany, Theresa, Yu Jin, Kok Choong and me.

The journey there was pretty uneventful. I was in Yu Jin's car along wif Sheau Shin & Kok Choong. We made it to Bidor listening to musicals, had breakfast there (excellent chee cheong fun) and then we headed off to GT!

We were late as the guide had left wif another group but we were allowed to go in and catch up wif them.

Suffice to say, we had a great time. Sumhow, being in the cave has weird effects on individuals. Kenny was suddenly so talkative (hey, but isn't he always so???), Fany found me amusing and laughed every time seh saw me, Yu Jin had steam emanating from his body while Kok Choong was having fun time wif his torch, making Bat-signs, having light saber duels and showing off his wonderfully BIG torch. There were suspicions he was trying to compensate for .... nvm.

Various pics of the inside of Gua Tempurung!

We oso managed to make frens wif members of the other group. It was overall quite fun. Lame jokes were made all the way, I tried to spontaneously break out into song once in a while but din get much enthusiastic response (where is Weng Soon when you need him). We all tried our best not to "PK" and not to be "PM" (go figure - only of you know Cantonese dialect of the chinese language)!!!

It was oso a good experience as we had to rely on each other and helped one another thru some tricky parts. Of course we made our Fear-less leader take the lead. Kok Choong and I took turns being the last guy - always remembering that the person at the end always ends up being eaten/killed/decapitated by the alien/cave creature/ghost!!! But no fear!!!

Yu Jin had the florousent lamp (ciplak one - it's free) and helped to light the way. Kok Choong wif his BIG powerful torch helped provide the lighting for everyone. me? I had the Adidas kampung wif excellent grip - so there was once when I had to be the ledge for everyone on a slippery slope. Yeah, people were clambering all over me.

The girls clung on to each other and helped each other keep their balance.

It was pretty encouraging - even members from the other team helped us too (must have been cuz they were thankful for Kok Choong's BIG torch). We were giving each other encouragement and spurring each other on - especially on some scary moments for the younger girls.

Oh, there was a 3rd group too - almost forgot bout them. They were photographers - one of them was the son of the owner and they were there to take some pics to be used on the website- of course we gladly obliged to have our pics taken - for a fee of course! 10 sen for each click on the web page!!!

So dun be surprised if you "Google" the words Gua Tempurung and find pics of us (and Kok Choong's BIG torchlight) on it!

The fear-less members who did it!


The super multi-studded "addidas kampung"! I fully endorse this product!!!

We started off after 11 am and finally made it out close to 4 pm, tired, but feeling good! A quick lunch at Kampar and then we were back at Bidor. That was where Kok Choong fell in love!

Kok Choong's new love! Oops - it is a "he"!!!

Meal and bath time simultaneously!

Time for mummy to clean herself

Picture of contentment! :-)

We rested while Kok Choong played with the cute lil' kitten.

Oh yeah, our adventure did not end there. For dinner, our fearless leader took us 10 km out of Bidor to this little comminity called the Coldwater town ... or sumthing like that. We had excellent steamboat there! Slurp!

When we got back to Bidor, we waited for the others to come and still manage to go to the "Mutabak Coners" to watch Steven Gerrard score his wonder goal against Middlesborough.

Not surprisingly, we were all wasted and had a good nite's rest.

At nite - totally wasted!!!

We truly thank God for the brilliant time we had. We truly grew closer to each other and got to know each other better. Even Sheau Shin joked of shifting to our group! Well, you are welcome to!!!

We oso thank God for safely helping thru - the safe journey on the roads and in the caves.

It would have been better of course of more went. But there'll be other opportunities.

p/s - we stayed on and spent the Sunday at BGC. Read about it here.

Group "unofficial" outing! 24th April 2005

Some of the members spontaneously decided to go without fear to a place where many wouldn't dare go - Subang Jaya! Yes, the far away place with crazy jams all over the badly planned township. But not only Subang Jaya, but "The Summit" at Subang Jaya!!! Yes, that sad place only good for its THX cinema!!! But not only "The Summit" Subang, but the Pool and Snooker centre at "The Summit"!!!!!

Gasp!!!

How dare they!

But went, we did. Yes, there was no fear! ;-)

Unfortunately, pool and snooker has got into bad books among a lot of people in this country. But it is still a sport. A clean sport (we dun have unruly fans storming into the pitch or throwing firecrackers on the players, not do we have players trying to dive to get some advantage!). Actually, quite a fun game too.

And fun we did have. Even for those who did not play but went for shopping (!) and actually bought some things!!! And others who just watched and gave "encouragement" (like "no way-lah you can get that in", "if you can pot this, i'll give you 10 bucks", "he won't get it, he's holding the cue all wrong" etc.).

Juni - showing her skills by playing wif her eyes closed!


Keep your eyes on the ball!


Deep in concentration (on the game of course, not on the Abrahamic covenant...)!

Unfortunately, Weng Soon used up most of the battery in me camera over the weekend and so i only managed to get 3 shots before the batteries were exhausted.

And i too was exhausted so I left early. When i got home, my "Household of Faith" t-shirt smelled of ciggarette smoke!!!

Dinner and Taboo (Outing on 8th April 2005)

Coffee, taboo and loads of fun!!!

But lemme start from the beginning - a very good place to start, no? We all met at Fany's place first before heading off to this chinese restaurant in State PJ. Incidentally, it is interesting to note now the significance of the restaurant - it's called "Sam You" and it's basically talking about "frens".

Dinner was good and sprinkled with loads of lame jokes (which I MUST put on record, none of them came from me!!!! Of course, I still get the blame since I'm *ahem* "yong sui"! Sigh...).

We initially decided to head off to 1-Utama to hang out. However, due to the bad traffic and the fact that we'd prolly reach there only close to 10, Michelle graciously opened her place for us to hang out!

So after buying more food at the grocery store at the ground floor, we made our way (noisily, I must say) up to her place! It was a really nice place - methinks her place is sponsored by Ikea!!! Our host made us feel at home and even made coffee for some of us coffee drinkers! Cheers, mate! :-)

After considering our options - which included wathcing "Robots" on DVD, getting Michelle to cook supper for us, playing risk, playing mahjong, playing chor tai di, just laze around and do nuthin, we decided to play Taboo!

It has been a long time and it was fun playing it again. Our leader led us without fear to play the "Green" words instead of the Purple ones - the green was way, way, way much more harder! but we din realised it until the end of the game!!!!


The guys - Su, Jeff, Kenny and the back of Kev's head!


The girls - Theresa, Fany, Juni and Michelle (behind Juni)... and Yu Jin!


2 guys checking on a girl!


Now the girls turn to check on the guy! (Yu Jin trying to play with his eyes closed...)

We had a lot of fun! Of course there were moments of brilliance (how did Su guessed "Rocky Mountains"???) and hilarious ones too (we learned that some people think that tadpoles are cute and that Moses was asked to sacrifice his son!!! Like huh?????). And nobody (to my dismay) knew who acted as Jack Ryan in "Clear and Present Danger"!!!

The guys checking out the kitchen after the game!


More food!!! Our hostess really outdid herself!


Even the deco seemed to have enjoyed themselves!


...and our special guest for the nite - Chip!

We finally ended at around midnite with a round of prayer to cap off an enjoyable nite. A pity that some of you couldn't make it (yeah, Heng Khuen, I know you had transportation problem...) but here's hoping for more fun, spontaneous activities in the future.

Praise God for the time we had.

"Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

Hebrews 10v24-25

First things first... (Bible Study - Eph 3v14-21)

This week’s passage begins with the words “For this reason…” meaning that it is a continuation or a conclusion of what had been said earlier.

So perhaps it’d be good if we did a quick recap:-

Chapter 1:

• Paul tells the Ephesians of their great blessings they have in Christ
  

Chapter 2:

• Paul reminds the Ephesians that they were once dead in their sins but it was through grace and by faith that they are saved and are made alive in Christ.

• Paul also emphasises that Christ has broken down the wall between the Jews and non-Jews and as such, we all have equal standing before God through Christ.
  

Chapter 3:

• Paul tells the Ephesians that this is the mystery that has now been revealed – that the non-Jews should be fellow heirs with the Jews, of the same body – the Church!

• Paul also tells the Ephesians the purpose of the Church – that through the Church, God may make known his manifold wisdom to the spiritual world!!!
  

Let’s pause there for a moment – imagine, us, members of the Church, are actually being used as object lessons to teach the angels in heaven, to educate the demons in the spiritual realms!

So when Paul starts with the words “For this reason…”, he is referring to all that has been said – the blessings, the position and the purpose of the Church. What do you think Paul will say then? That the church should start to preach the gospel? The church should start training their members to fulfil the purpose? The leaders must then have training sessions, teaching the members to live properly? The church must emphasise on Bible study?

Verse 14 shows that instead of “springing-up” into action, Paul bows his knees and prays!

Think about it – in our local Church, when things need to be done, when improvements need to be made, what should be the first thing to be done? Form committees to discuss about it? Appoint individuals/groups to carry out the work? Whatever it is, it has to be the most important thing that needs to be done first. After all, if you start right, then it just won’t be right!

For Paul, the most important thing, the first response should be to fall on his knees and pray to God.

Unfortunately, most of the time, prayer is only used as “the last resort” – when we run out of ideas, when we tried but failed, when things don’t seem to go right.

Let’s follow Paul’s example – the first thing to do is to pray. And then God will indeed make a way!

Joining hands in prayer

We've got to pray, just to make it today!

p/s - What to pray for? We'll look at it another time.

Lower than pond scum (Bible Study - Eph 3v1-13)

Scene from “My Best friend’s Wedding” – Jools finally confesses to her best fren, Michael that she had been trying to break up his wedding:-

Julianne Potter: I'm pond scum. Well, lower actually. I'm like the fungus that feeds on pond scum.

Michael O'Neill: Lower. The pus that infects the mucus that cruds up the fungus that feeds on the pond scum.

I love that scene! I love that movie. In fact, there are so many scenes and quotes from that movie that I absolutely love. No wonder it ranks high in my all time fav movie list (must take time sumday to actually compile the list!).

It was actually during the preparation of last Sunday’s Bible Study that I was reminded of the abovementioned quote. Paul said sumthing rather similar (in my opinion) when he said that he was “…less than the least of all God’s people.” (v 8).

Imagine all of God’s people gathered together. Imagine me standing sumwhere at the back and you standing wherever you want to. Now, of all gathered, one is the least of them all. Picture him/her.

Well, Paul is less than whoever you had imagined!

No way! Not Paul.

But look at v 8 again. Paul’s words were rather specific – surely he wasn’t trying to be figurative. He meant it. He believed it.

And yet, to this less-than-the-least-of-all-God’s-people person, God did this to him:-

• God revealed to him the mystery which was hidden throughout all generations in the past; and
• God gave him the task of bringing the message of this mystery to the gentiles!

Do we ever feel inadequate? Have we felt inferior in light of so many other “wonderfully gifted” Christians? Has the thought that “surely God won’t use a person like me to do such a big thing” ever crossed our mind?

If your answer is yes to the above questions, I urge you to look at God’s grace which was given to the person who was less than the least of all God’s people – and believe that God can also work thru you!

I can all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Philippians 4v13