That's flattering =)

Giggle wrote today ...

How do you feel when someone tells you, "You don't look your age! You look so much younger!!" =)

Haha, lately I've heard many people telling me this and it's really flattering =) I have a classmate who's the same age as me and he just marvel at the fact that we were the same age! *wink* And one of my former CG girl commented, "You're looking younger and younger!" Thanks =) Haha, gone were the days when people call you "auntie" =P All these statements are so flattering to a lady and it just makes her day *SMILE*

Well, maybe it's my long hair which makes a difference? I'm not sure, but my good friend kept encouraging me to just let it grow - that was more than a year ago, and I still remember how I resisted the idea, especially when I'm not someone who can stand heat when the weather's real hot. Well, I guess I got through the stage where the hair just curls inward and outward and whatever ward - that frustrating stage that all woman with long hair can identify - and now I have long hair! =)

Heehee, at least now people call you "xiao jie", someone even call me "girl" =) ok, I'm flattered =P

Students are always curious to know how old I am, and I will always say, "I'm 18" =) Somehow I just managed to kid them =P A woman's age is a secret, I'll leave you to guess how old I am =)

Well, whatever our age is, the Bible says that our life is 70 or perhaps 80 years, and it's important to make the most out of everyday and to live it to the fullest! "The length of our days is seventy years - or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away." Psalm 90:10

How are you living your days? Ask God for wisdom that each day will be well-spent and not one which we will regret. Carpe diem (Latin phrase meaning "Seize the day!")

Are we taking things for granted?

Giggle wrote today ...

Sigh* still not well after more than 1 week ... I have never been so physically down before - even mum's beginning to be worried ... =(

Went to a second doc yesterday (who gave me MC for yesterday and today) and got more medicines =( well, this time round the medication seems a bit more "effective" - at least my cough is much better, though still coughing ... but at least I'm not kept awake most part of the night just coughing and coughing - her medications really knock me out =)

I think sometimes in life, these are things we took for granted, isn't it? Good health, our family, opportunities to work and study, friends, etc.

I attended a night class on Wed - one which covers some major religion in our society, and it was something that interests me very much, especially when majority of my family members are not believers yet. I want to know more so that I can understand their beliefs better and also to know how to effectively witness to them.

In the introductory session, my lecturer showed us streets along some parts of our country which contain places of worship for some of the major religion here - can be easily up to 6 different places of worship of different religion just along a short distance apart from each other. He said something which I thought was so relevant and something which we had always taken for granted ... He said that in our country, we took it for granted that we can build a church and a temple next door to it, or a mosque and an Indian temple, etc - it doesn't happen in other countries at all! And here we are, taking religious freedom for granted.

See how many outbursts had happened in other countries because of a careless/thoughtless word spoken against another religion, and here we are, in a multi-racial, multi-religion country, and taking all these things for granted.

I guess most of us also take the chance of going to church for granted, so much so that if we can wake up on time, we will be in church. If not, then "let me sleep some more ..." sounds familiar ? How many of us make it a priority to be ready (I mean, spiritually) for church on Sunday morning? How many of us make it a point to get to church early (not just on time) so that we can prepare ourselves to meet with God? How many of us go to church to really listen, instead of being critical about the preacher or worship leader? How many of us go to church to really meet with God, and not just meeting with friends? Sadly, I think we treat God as someone we are overly familiar with, so much so that we don't accord Him with the respect and awe He deserves.

Let's remember also not to take our friends of other religion who have also all these while been so tolerant with us for granted. Let's take time to listen to them and understand their beliefs, before we plunge in to force the Gospel down their throat.

Are we losing our Christian witness? Are we taking things for granted? Must we learn through hard lessons before we knew the pain of losing something? Hopefully not.

Are we losing our Christian witness?

Giggle wrote today ...

Haha, I was literally feeding on sweets (sweets to relief cough, to be precise) the last few days - blame it on the irritating dry throat, and my muscle ache is slowly going away, though still aching now and then. And my inspiration is back!! =) Well, maybe my "retardedness" is also partly due to the semestral break at theological college - nothing to spur and stir up my thoughts =P pardon the whining ... anyway ...

During class and during chapel, I felt that God was asking the question, "are we losing our ground as Christian witnesses for Him?" Why do I feel this prompting from God?

This morning in class, my classmates did a presentation on Luke 7 regarding the woman who anointed Jesus at Simon, the Pharisee's house. The issue at hand was the hair of women in the Greco-Roman world - whether bounded or unbounded hair, and if either of it carries any implication, and what kind of hairstyle does the woman in Luke 7 has to be "noted" as the sinner of the town. I won't go into details on the presentation but I thought my lecturer sums up really beautifully the entire focus of Luke 7 ... it's not so much whether the woman has bounded or unbounded hair, but if persons of "questionable" characters were to appear in our church one day, are we able to handle the way Jesus did - with compassion and forgiveness, as opposed to Simon the Pharisee's opinionated judgment.

My lecturer mentioned that instead of making churches a place of welcome for those who need the Lord, we are building nice churches which deter people from entering, because they feel the church building is too nice, the language we speak is too perfect for them, our dressing are too upperty as compared to theirs - and they can't match up with us. She asked, "Are our churches losing ground? Are we losing our Christian witness? Are we bringing ourselves down to their level to reach out to them, or are we expecting them to rise up to our level so that we can communicate with them ... sometimes our church buildings are obstacles to the Gospel."

Sadly, I also feel that we are losing our Christian witness - we seemed to be focusing on issues that are not of primary concern and as she spoke, I just felt that "Hey, perhaps one of the reason for this is because we are too fearful of men's opinion, instead of the Lord's." Look back at Luke 7 - has it ever occured to you that when Simon thought secretly to himself about how Jesus should have responded that his thought was not prompted by his concern about Jesus' reaction, but perhaps "HOW DID THIS WOMAN GET INTO MY HOUSE? HOW ARE OTHERS GOING TO SEE ME? I AM A PHARISEE, THE RIGHTEOUS ONE, HOW CAN SHE BE FOUND HERE?" - that was a different angle I felt God was teaching me about this passage ... - the fear of men ... longing for the praises of men ...

Then at chapel, one of the faculty was preaching on Mark 9:30-37, and he highlighted that while the disciples should be concerned about fulfilling Jesus' command to minister, they are distracted by issues such as "who's the number 1 when Jesus becomes King?" - they were slow to understand the mission of Jesus ... they were afraid to ask ... and worse still, they were REALLY slow to understand Jesus' teachings - teachings about His impending suffering, teachings about being humble to serve and not clamor for positions of status, teachings about welcoming children, etc (see Jesus' teaching from Mark 8-9, and their repeated mistakes of what they should have learnt from Mark 10:13-16, 35-38)

Somehow it confirms what the Lord was telling me about this Christian witness thing - that in a way we are just so pre-occupied with looking out for praises of men that we lost our focus, we lost our touch in the ministry, we lost our base of communication and ability to communicate with people we need to minister to for Him.

The aspostle Paul in 1 Cor 19:19-23 challenges his readers to bring themselves to the level of the persons they are ministering to so that the Gospel may be shared. I guess his intention is not that we BECOME like those we mingle with, but we bring ourselves to understand them, to show compassion to them, to love them (but not their act) for who God has made them to be, and reach out to them. God approves of the sinner, though He disapproves of the act. You and I are good examples of His grace, isn't it? Are we then so selfish to hoard it for ourselves - we and we only?

Indeed, are we LOSING our Christian witness? Are our churches losing ground? Are we overly protected in our sheltered environment that we know not how to deal with people who are really in need of the Lord's grace? Are we too concern with getting men's praises, than getting the approval nod from the Lord?

You think about it ... and feel free to exchange comments and pointers with me ...

Just rattling ...

Giggle wrote today ...

Sigh* this muscle ache and cough is taking much longer than usual to recover =( making me a bit "retarded" in my thoughts and writing ... can't even write for the last few days coz I'm just so "conquered" by the discomfort, irritation and pain ... lacking in inspiration also =(

Anyway, I was supposed to post the picture of the butter garlic lobsters (my friend finally found the pix!!) we had at Phuket - somehow I just couldn't get the pix into the "Retreat" post, so I'll post it here - wonderful memories of good times together. Are you tempted at all? =p

The other pix that brings back memories is this "Drunken people crossing" sign which we spotted along the streets of Patong - all of us were laughing at the sign, and wondering "Is it drunken people crossing ... OR CRAWLING?" =)

Other than these pix that brought back memories of good times, I was also reminded of my experience in Hillsong Conference 2003, Australia, when I attended a church service at the East end yesterday - except that yesterday's experience was a much, much smaller scale, compared with the conference at Sydney SuperDome. However, it does make me wonder, "How does churches like such manage to attract so many people - the hall is BIG, and the ushers had to keep bringing in chairs because all the seats were filled up." Why is it people flock to churches like these, but yet for a lot of other churches, they come late, and with very sloppy attitude. What or where went wrong?

The other "highlight" of the week was chapel in school - having missed it for the last 2 months or so, I suddenly cherished and embraced it so much - looking forward to spending the time in God's presence with the girls. A colleague commented, "It's usually like this, we don't learn to appreciate what we have until these things are taken away from us ..." - how true! And of course, I got to catch up with a good friend over lunch after he spoke at chapel. Thanks for lunch and for hearing all my grouses! =)

"Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down,
his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!" Eccl 4:9-10

Thank God for giving us friends that we can share moments in our lives with :-)