Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Everything in life has a purpose. :)

Here are some of the points i took from Sunday's sermon. I felt that Pastor really preached a VERY good sermon on "Everything in life has a purpose".

I've always been very impacted by his preaching every Sunday.. :)

Here are some of the points i've noted: ( hope it'll encourage some of you, brothers & sisters, out there )

- Everything in life has a purpose.
"All things work together for the good of those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." - Romans 8:28

- God has a purpose for our lives.

- Even when bad things happen in our lives, there is a purpose & we will come out of it stronger.

- We have a responsibility to know our purpose in life cos' we have a destiny!

- When you are only looking for the supernatural in the spectacular, you will miss God.

- It is often in the world, in the secular that we find God's purpose for our lives.

- Genesis 2:15
"The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. "

- Genesis 2:19
"Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name."

- Genesis 1 :26-28
"Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.' So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

- Adam found his purpose as he works.

Genesis 11:26 - "Now Terah lived seventy years, and begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran."

Genesis 17:1 - "When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, 'I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless.'"

- If we are willing to walk in our life's purpose, God can cause miracles to happen for us, like for Abraham.

- God's purpose for us is not to be found in the church alone, but out there in the world.

Genesis 41:37 - "So the advice was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of all his servants."

-Joseph finally found his calling & his purpose

Genesis 45:1 - "Then Joseph could not restrain himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, "Make everyone go out from me!" So no one stood with him while Joseph made himself known to his brothers."

- Genesis 45:4-8 -
"And Joseph said to his brothers, "Please come near to me." So they came near. Then he said: "I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt."

-Joseph finally found his calling & his purpose:

1) To save his family
2) To make his nation great
3) To save & preserve the Israelites

- Moses's purpose in his life was to lead 3 million Israelites out of Egypt. ( Even though he made a mistake by killing an Egyptian before )

- Esther 2:4 - "Then let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti." This thing pleased the king, and he did so."

- Esther 2:10 - "Esther had not revealed her people or family, for Mordecai had charged her not to reveal it."

- Esther's purpose was to deliver her people from destruction. ( She managed to do it all because of 1 thing. She was a pretty face! :) ) ( Gals, be encouraged! ) hehe.. :)

- Simon Peter's purpose was to start a revival.

Galatians 2:11-13
"Now when Peter F2 had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed; for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy."

- Even though Simon Peter made many mistakes in his life ( even when he was Jesus's disciple ), example, he was a racist! He couldn't accept anybody who was not a Jew, he didn't like Gentiles, etc.

- He went to Cornelius' ( a Gentile ) house & started a revival!

- We have to stop separating spiritual & secular.. ( some churches & Christians to this day still refuse to accept anything that has to do with "the world")

- We are called to be the salt & light of the world.. ( how can we be if we refuse to step out and cross over?)

- If we cut ourselves off/out from the world, we will never find our purpose & destiny in this world, for this world!

- KRISTOS KAI KOSMOS ( CHRIST IN CULTURE )

- We are suppose to bring Christ into culture..

- When we discover our purpose, we'll give our entire lives to fulfil our purpose! :)


Our trip to Pulau Ubin! :) ( 21st October 2006 )

Here are some of the photos we (me & some of my cell group members) took at Pulau Ubin.. :) We had a great time! :)

1st.. Here is a video of our cycling trip at Pulau Ubin..

me & Amanda at Changi Jetty..

Amanda putting on her cap..

no paparazzi please! ;p

Yes madam!

Pretty gals in a row.. :P

Changi Jetty..

a photo taken from the boat..

me.. "monkeying" around.. ;p


Michael & me.. :)

Welcome to Pulau Ubin!

It's cycling time.. cycle..cycle..cycle.. ;)

That's Daniel Ang.. :)

That's me, Yubing, Angeline & Zhifu(our dearest cell group leader)

We have been cycling, cycling, cycling for an hr already.. Where are we actually heading to? Curious?

Here it is! Kekek Quarry! One of the quarries in the island!

By the way, all the quarries have been fenced up, to prevent people from accessing to them, so that no one goes to swim in the quarries, lest they get drown in the extremely deep waters.. (too many cases of drowning there..)

We, of course, managed to sneak in thru' a hole in the fence.. :p

Give me your hand..

Come everybody! Let's take a photo together!

Aiyoh! You all looking towards the wrong camera! Look here.. look here..

Aah.. that's better.. :) 1 more.. 1 more..

Beautiful! :) You guys look too nice.. give me something different.. ;p

Yes! That's it! Hahaha!!! :D

The quarry's beautifully tranquil & serene..

After 1 over hr of cycling, let's stop by for some coconuts at the coffeeshop! Yeah! :)

Hey! Didn't i tell you no paparazzi?! ;p

Where's my coconut flesh?

Us.. Satisfied.. :)

Come! Let's go for some live seafood dinner by the sea at海味活海鲜(Season Live Seafood) restaurant! Yummy! ;p

The seafood dinner wasn't bad at all.. It was yummy.. too bad we were too hungry & too busy eating, didn't get to take any photos of it.. ;p

Who's that "auntie" trying to pose in the dark? hahaha.. ;D

Me & Michael.. i climbed onto a stone pole just to take this photo.. :)

Me.. on the boat.. on our way back to Singapore.. :)

What a great, fun trip.. :) Even though there are 20 of us in the cell group, only 8 of us went for the trip.. nxt outing the rest of you shld join us, ya? ;)