As Chinese New Year is just around the corner, I've decided to do some spring cleaning to my blog too! ;p

As Chinese New Year is just around the corner, I've decided to do some spring cleaning to my blog too! ;p

Yeah.. It's a good time to do so.. :)

So for those of you who read my blog regularly for the past few months & years, will definitely find some past blog posts being edited or even missing..

Well, the reason for me to do all these "spring cleaning" is because I feel the best time to do so is now..

It is always good for people to move on in life & without any past traces of painful memories..

Many of us, human beings, all have a secret wish in our heart..

And that is, we all wish to have all traces of past painful memories wiped cleanly & completely off from our memories..

We only want to keep the good memories & not bad ones..

Things that or people who have hurt us extremely deeply in our lives, we wish to have all of them forgotten & wiped cleanly & completely off from our memories' database..

What better time is it for me to do so than now.. As Chinese New Year draws near..

Let me start "wiping" them off my blog.. So I will not have traces of any of them here..

Looking forward to the Chinese New Year.. :)

To all my dearest blog readers.. :)

To all my dearest blog readers..

To all of you and those of you who have been faithfully reading my blog regularly..

Some of you have been ardent fans & readers for years!!! :)

Thank you so much for all your support.. :)

Really appreciate you guys alot for all your support & encouragement.. :)

You guys have been awesome!!! :)

You guys have been so encouraging.. :)

I'm so blessed by some of you who even made the effort to email or msn me or sms me everytime you guys find out from my blog that I was feeling down..

You guys really make great supporters & I feel really honoured.. Really.. :)

Here's taking the opportunity to sincerely thank all of you once again for being my great supporters and blog fans/readers throughout all these years.. :)

Thank you for "walking" thru' this journey of my life with me.. :)

Here's wishing all of you a VERY HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR IN ADVANCE! :)

Cheers to a wonderful 2008 ahead! :)

Dr A.R. Bernard's teaching on Sunday was awesome! :)

Here's the outline for what he taught on Sunday..

- Without Him we can do nothing.

He is our shepherd. He leads, we follow. Not we lead, He follows.

Genesis 4

Men has the capacity to do things

God gave men the capacity to do anything.

- Adam - the partaker of God's divine nature

Adam fell into sin & his capacity became the fallen, corrupted, peverted form..

Adam, although fallen, is still not totally lost.

He still had redemptive value!

God wastes nothing!

When God looks at a sinner, although in their fallen nature, they still have redemptive value.

God doesn't strip a sinner of their personality, their gifts etc.. but bring them back to their original purpose.

Adam had 2 sons - Cain & Abel

Abel represented the good, Cain represented the evil. There's a conflict btwn good & evil..

Cain still has the capacity to do the things he has been brought up to do.

But he is gonna do it his way.

He established his 1st city & he

1) institutionalized - raised livestock Genesis 4:20

2) started early development - live in tents Genesis 4:21

3) started the Arts & Entertainment - play the harp & flute Genesis 4:22

4) forged tools made of bronze & iron

Social Institution of : fallen condition

- family

- church

- education

- politics

- economics

- Arts & Entertainment

The whole idea is KRISTOS KAI KOSMOS - to redeem the value in every institution

- redeem the culture

We are sent into the world to do all the above.

Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world.

I am here, not what am I here for but for who am I here for..

Culture, no matter how, is fallen..

It is still redeemable..

A junkyard exists because there is still value in junk..

Not because of what it is, but the value of what it can become..

Something or someone whom we were.. were junk..

But God is the junk collector..

We were junk.. We were destroyed but He saw the value left in us..

He took us from the junkyard & redeemed us & made us new & put us back to our original beautiful selves..

He redeemed us back into our full value..

From junk to treasure..

In His eyes, we are now treasures.. & He displays us for the world to see..

:)

A four part series sermon to start the New Year with.. Here's the outline of part 3.. 3) Faith..

A four part series sermon to start the New Year with.. Here's the outline of part 3.. 3) Faith..

Hebrews 11:1 - Faith

Faith is the attitude of confidence that God is with us.

We feel secure in who we are. We walk in confidence in every area of our lives.

Matt 4:1-3,5-6,8-9

When you doubt; have lack of faith, you displease God.

We don't have to explain ourselves in everything..

We live our lives to please God, not humans, not reporters, tabloids, internet etc..

The more you give in to worry, stress etc.. The more it'll affect you..

Matt 11

"Offended" meaning "scandalizo" - "to trip up, stumbled, entice to sin"

We got to do what God has sent me to do.

That is confidence!

The key to confidence is revelation!

We are not afraid to displease people but are afraid to displease God.

Psalm 16, Heb 10, John 13

My position is my power is my purpose & destiny..

The whole message for my whole life is to Love God & Love people.

1. Love God - the great commandment

2. Love people - the great commission

3. Engaging Society - taking Christ into the culture - the cultural mandateJohn 13:4-5

It takes confidence & security for a person of status to be the servant to all.

Example: people who work for the government are called Civil Servants..

We gotta maintain our confidence..

That night during the Lord's Supper, everyone was arguing who is the greatest of them all..

So Jesus humbled himself to the lowest & served the disciples like a servant..

The way down is the way up!

There are many great men in the Bible who were servants & became great kings..

Example: Joseph had the ability to serve. He became a king..

Daniel was the king's servant who became a great man of God..

We must keep on serving God..

To keep it, we must have a secret place..

Psalm 91:1 - He who dwells in the secret place of the most high..

Psalm 23

Jesus is always praying.. :)

A four part series sermon to start the New Year with.. Here's the outline of part 2.. 2) Forgiveness..

A four part series sermon to start the New Year with.. Here's the outline of part 2.. 2) Forgiveness.. ( this is my favourite sermon, among the 3 parts so far.. )

Colossians 3:13 - Forgiveness

If we really want to love, we have to learn to forgive..

1. Real forgiveness is unconditional. It is our initiative to forgive.

2. Forgiveness does not minimize the seriousness of the offence. Prov 26:18-19

3. Forgiveness ISN'T resuming a relationship without change

1) There must be genuine repentance.

2) Restitution

3) Rebuilding trust

4. Forgiveness isn't forgetting what has happened.

The way to forget a painful relationship is to move on to a new one.

Concentrate your time on other relationships.

5. Forgiveness isn't my right when I wasn't the one hurt

- We will not do something if we do not see the value in what we do..

The value of forgiveness is that God has a greater future for us

Our past should not hold us captive.

We can't move on if we do not forgive.

* Life is 10% "what happened" & 90% how we react to it.

Values:

1. What's most important to you

2. What you stand for

3. What you are willing to pay the price for. Heb 12

4 If we judge what we value by our circumstances, we will devalue what is important to give value to what is momentary.

Heb 12:15

- Put God first

- Get your life in order with God 1st, then followed by family, then work, then ministry.

- Prioritise your life in 2008.

1. Give up your right to get even. Romans 12:19

* Man will never measure up to your expectations. Human beings are fallible, they will definitely disappoint you somehow or rather in life.

2. Set boundaries

3. Respond evil with good

4. Repeat these above steps as long as necessary

Forgiveness is not a one time event. Matt 18:21-22

- What's most important is at the end of the day, only relationships is what we have left when we leave this world.

Romans 8:28

A four part series sermon to start the New Year with.. Here's the outline of part 1.. 1) Focus..

Pastor decided to start the New Year with a four part series sermon..

This four part series sermon is to prepare us for the New Year ahead..

He started the sermon since the 1st Sunday of this month..

Yeah.. I'm kinda slow.. Now then upload the points of the sermon onto my blog.. :p

Here's part 1.. 1) Focus..

Luke 11:34

When there is focus, there is tremendous power.

Focused light has tremendous power. Eg. lasers

Charles Lazarus, the guy who started TOYS R' US, focused on selling nothing but toys..

He now has 587 stores in US & 600 stores worldwide.

Luke 9:51, 52, 53

Phil 3:13,14

1 Corinth. 9:26

We must focus on our goals!

Luke 14:28-31

Prov 16:9

We make plans for our lives, however, never forget, God is the Director of our lives & we are just the Scriptwriter! ;)

If we don't work on our dreams, dreams will just remain as dreams.. We are just daydreaming.. Hahaha!!! ;)

Our goal card:

- Be specific
- Measurable Goals
- Set an action plan
- Realistic goals
- Time Conscious
- Expectation Management - Be flexible
- Revelation - Whom am I here for?

The opposite of focus is : Distraction

John 3:22

John 4:1-3

1) Don't get distracted by interim successes!

2) Don't get distracted by competition!

Be yourself! Don't get jealous! As long as we are the head, we will never be the tail.. :)

Example: Netscape got jealous of Internet Explorer when Internet Explorer was 1st launched & got popular..

Netscape accused Internet Explorer of imitating them & they got so caught up with suing Internet Explorer & gradually Netscape lost sight of its focus, did badly & the company got bought over by AOL in years to come..

John 21:17, 20-21 - Peter got jealous of John whom Jesus love..

We should focus on Him & not the people around..

Focus brings joy & pain..

3) Don't get distracted by the pain of life.

Hebrews 12:1-2