Tear Down The Walls

Scream it to the crowd

Look beyond, there's so much more than this

star,
YQ
Guitarist for God
Loves Jesus
Listener
PSYCHOlogist in the making
Gonna be an O level freak soon...

buddies,
Farida
Linqi
Kathleen
Kehui
Siewhoon
Zenda
Corny
Tianyi

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Wednesday, June 11, 2008
The Cost of Living in this World (The Spiritual Side)

Before I start off, let me thank MISS GOH SHIHUI for telling me the EL homework!!! (Applause... try to imagine it... I'm still trying) She is wunnerful, kind, pretty, nice, sociable, not-emo, lovely and very patient with me... yay! (P.S my fingers are crossed... Haha just joking shihui... don't emo...=D) Ok... moving on...


As I believe that you all have read my former post, this world is like deterioating! High oil prices, high cost of living... even the kindergarten students have to suffer... The stuff that they learn now is what I had learnt in P2! Shocking! Oh yah, a bit of digression... I just realised that one of my CG member's neighbour IS MY FORMER SCHOOLMATE!! That is so cool! To my opinion, she's like Krystal


Anyway... here is what the Bible (aka the powerful word of God) says about these times.

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Matthew 24:3-8 (NIV)


As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. "Tell us," they said, "when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?"


(4) Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. (5) For many will come in my name, claiming,'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. (6) You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. (7) Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. (8) All these are the beginning of birth pains.

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I highlighted verse 7 because it has quite a significance to this topic of discussion (to me). Look around the world. US is still warring against Iran. And the recent Sichuan earthquake! During the last message @ my church camp, Pastor Kai (not to be confused with the musical one) mentioned about the earthquake. He said something like this (if my memory did not fail me),


"Look at the recent earthquake, and cyclone Nargis. In the Bible (above text), Jesus mentioned about earthquakes. And that they are one of the signs that shows that Jesus is coming again soon. Earthquakes happen for such a long period of time is to get us to remember that Jesus is coming again! But now there are more earthquakes happening around the world!"


I forgot the rest.


So, you might ask, what would happen during the end time? I'm not too sure about that, since I do not have the deep maturity to understand the book of Revelation yet... SO NO CAN DO! But we are very close to the end of the world. The condition of the world is just getting worse. Wars, oil prices etc.


Christians have been tasked by Jesus to preach the Good News to the ends of the earth. The Good News is:

- Jesus died for our sins, past, present and future!

- Jesus rose again from the dead 3 days later. Spirit, body, EVERYTHING

- Through Jesus, we can meet God and have a relationship with God

Pastor Kai also mentioned about the point above, and it got me thinking, "Have I actually started evangalising in my place of work? (in this case, school)" Pastor Kai said that we were all full time workers of the church, cleverly planted by God into all the different areas of life, like school, office etc.


Come to think about it, I did not even try to spread the Gospel in class. Ok, I tried to start a prayer group, but it failed miserably... as I did not put my all into it...

I would like to share this parable before I end off.

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Matthew 25:14-30 (NIV)


(14) Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. (15) To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his own ability. Then he went on his journey. (16) The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. (17) So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. (18) But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.


(19) "After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. (20) The man who had received five talents brought the other five. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.'


(21) "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!' (22) "The man with the two talents also came. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.'


(23) "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!' (24) "Then the man who had received one talent came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. (25) So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.'


(26) "His master replied, 'You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? (27)Well then, you should have out my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.


(28)" 'Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has ten talents. (29) For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. (30) And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

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P.S I don't really understand the back part, from verse 26 onwards...

This parable is called "The Parable of the Talents". It is talking about how a master gave money to the servants. 2 of the 3 servants invested their money, while the third kept the money and did not invest it.


I highlighted this entire parable after the Church Camp, where Pastor Kai mentioned about this parable. God is the master, and we are all his servants. God gave us a talent, like for example, kindness, smooth talker, musical talent, sporty talents etc. and we gotta use it... Do not keep it away and not use it at all... Well if you don't know your talent, I don't know what is mine too... so keep discovering.


When Jesus returns, he would ask for an account of our lives, how we lived it. This statement is very powerful to me. Will I tell God, "Yeah, I lived my life not studying well, playing lame pranks on people, not working hard..."? Or will I tell God, "I have lived my life the way you wanted me to."? I guess what we tell God later is what we choose to do in life.


Life is full of choices. But some of the choices are a one-way ticket.


"God, I pray that you would show me what you want for me in my life. In Jesus name I cast all bad addictions out of my life. And in Christ Jesus, I am healed and forgiven. God, grant me a heart for my classmates and that God, you would guide me in the next semester. In Jesus name, I go against my laziness! Place people in my heart, God, that I might try to share the gospel with. In Jesus name, amen."

"Everythin' comes alive in my life as we lift you up"
"Free-dom is here"