Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Before, During and After...

First of all, sorry to all those who expected from my blog. I've been really really busy preparing, excecuting and regenerating for the One Life Event and thus, I really didn't have time to do anything else at all.. As of now, I'm officially free from responsibility of the One Life Event and now I'll do my best to recollect what went on on Sat 28th Feb, Sun 1st Mar and Mon 2nd Mar.

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28th February 2009, Saturday.
First off, in the morning I had to rush off for Pathology class. And as could be read previously, my Friday session ended pretty late and since I still had to finish off some stuff for the event and prepare some work for my Patho class, I slept at 7am. And My class was at 9.30am. I needed to leave at 8.30am to be able to reach there on time. So I smsed my groupmate WanSim asking her to wake me up at 8.00am since I was so sure I wouldn't hear my alarm at all. I was woken at 8.30am by WanSim's call. Her panicky voice told me she just only woke up as well. Goodness, where was time to get ready and freshen up? The funny thing was, as I took her call, I saw my roommate James lumber to the toilet. I put down the phone, grabbed my clothes and watched James rush out of the toilet and Yow (my blockmate) sprint in. I got dressed, checked my bag and put on my socks as Marcus (my other blockmate) shoot out the front door. I filled my pockets with essentials, grabbed my scarf and gloves and left with James. Yow was still in the toilet. I met WanSim and Vashni at the lift and we rushed out of the hostel together.
*note* My entire room (with the exception of Andrew who had biochemisty and left at 7.30am) had pathology class together at 9.30am. (",)

All of us actually slept past our alarms.. *grins* But due to past experience, I knew that I wouldn't be able to last through class due to lack of sleep. *frowns* Well, the cold blasted me awake, adrenaline rushed as I hurried to prepare my mcqs and thank God, we entered 5 seconds before the teacher. God is good.. I had a pretty good lesson, fun and fatigued but not blur. After class, we rushed to Namiotkina to attend the MF combined meeting due at 2.30-4.30pm. By Rev. Kevin Loo.

First of all, Herman shared about LOVE.

"Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops;"
Proverbs 3:9

So, with the blessings that God hath given to thee, if thou loved the LORD, thou art to Honor Him back with what He hath given. We are all stewards of the earth, and we own nothing in this world. Thus, we are only giving back to Him a small portion of what He has loaned to us, losing nothing, and gaining His respect and trust for greater things.
And offering was collected.

Our ministry and our walk with God is a marathon,
Not a sprint.
To enjoy our walk with God,
We have to make sure that every step we take is fun.
If we're miserable,
We'll make those around us miserable as well!!

And Rev. Kevin Loo took the stage.
He reminded us that everything in life needs a vision.
Those without vision will perish.
And tithing is about putting God first in our life.
Tithing isn't about the money,
Not the 10% at all.
It's about showing we're responsible enough with what God has given,
Ensuring the trust that we're able to be responsible with more.

And he continued from last night about the pie chart representing our money.
Where does pledging come from in that chart?
Do we set aside more % of our money?
No.
We ask God what He wants from us.
If God says,
"Give up your rainy day savings"
That's what we take out and pledge to whatever is needed.
And we trust that He will not let us have any rainy days for the duration of the pledged project.
If God says,
"Give me your retirement/wedding/education savings"
That's what we pledge trusting that God will provide for it.
And so, we should teach the people to love God,
And let them give on their own accord.

The greatest fear in life is not (that you cannot give),
The greatest fear in life is (not having seed to sow)..
Heck,
If we're neck high in debt,
How can we still afford to pledge?
What do we have left to give to God's ministry?
Thus,
Wisdom increases increase.
If the devil can control our money,
He'll limit our influence in the community.

Also,
Integrity keeps increase.
People with integrity walk straight,
Those without will slip and fall.

"The way of the LORD is a refuge for the righteous, but it is the ruin of those who do evil."
Proverbs 10:29


And so we see that it is the way that destroys the wicked,
Not the money itself.
Money is the root of all evil,
True,
But without money we cannot do anything.
So money isn't wrong,
But the way destroys those who misuse it.

The world wants to see leaders with integrity.
We follow Him,
He who is opening the way for us,
And thus we should be safe.
We are not expected to know everything.
We are not bible encyclopedias.
Thus,
The LORD has said that we will know enough for that week,
We only need to know how to help and be someone whom others can look up to.
Don't crap about the bible.
If you don't know,
Say you don't know,
Then go and find out and learn.

Elisha served Elijah willingly and honestly without fail,
Thus,
He received a double portion of the blessing Elijah had.
But Gerhazi on the other hand wasn't willing to serve.
He lied and thus was struck with leprosy,
And never received blessing at all.
Honesty is still the best policy.

True riches in life is not your money,
But the lives of the people God can entrust to you.
Amen.

Then the Rev shoot into the message prepared for today.

"Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you."
Isaiah 60:1


He who made all the wonders of the world chose to live in us.
And we now clearly have the unfair advantage which is the Holy Spirit.
Change of increase begins when we have a renewed thinking.

"For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness knowledge; and to knowledge self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love."
2 Peter 1:5-7


Virtue (arete-greek) actually means excellence.
Excellence of efficiency is a necessary Christian virtue.
The bible hates laziness more than drunkeness,
For laziness will become a habit in our lives.
Habit is more powerful than vision.
Habit can destroy vision.

Excellence:
To be superior in quality,
Greater in quality,
To transcend our job description,
And to excel every truth.

1, Excellence is the result of high intuitions.
Hard work produces results.
Don't compromise.
Anything worth doing is worth doing well.
Pay attention to details.
Details determine destiny.
Measure twice,
Cut once.

2, Excellence is to obtain greater in quality.
We must try to be as productive as we can for the Lord.
The Church of the Living God has to be as big as possible.
And that puts a huge demand on our time, heart and money.
But hard work pays.
So does self management.
Studies have shown that:
Sleep less,
Live longer.
More than 8 hours or less than 4 hours of sleep portrays a higher death rate,
Than those who only sleep 6-7 hours a day.
Great things will definitely cost you.
And sleep especially is one of them.

3, Excellence is to transcend our job transcription.

4, Excellence is to outdo ourselves each time.

The new spirit of increase inside of you in every aspect of life.
(Rev. rushed due to lack of time..)

And we had nasi lemak for tea. Then, as instructed by Event director, Marcus, I rushed off to M2 to meet up with the media team and the MC to discuss and run through the entire program and make sure everything was alright. It took me a heck of a long time to get there and I was already exhausted.. I reached with Saac who was assisting me as program manager and we entered the hostel with the help of Jivan the MC. I bought Lipton Red Tea because my throat was starting to kill me. Marcus arrived later and we sat down to finalize the program. Everything was discussed and we were in the room from 6pm to 10pm. Goodness.

Then after the meeting, it was late, I really wanted to get home. I still had some things to get done before I could go to bed and I really needed to sleep. But Marcus wanted to accompany Annastasia back to Yougo because he didn't like her travelling back alone so late at night. But him doing so would mean he had to travel back to pushkin alone, and it wasn't safe for one guy either.. In the end, I sent Saac to the M2 bus station, made sure she got on the bus directly back to pushkin, then accompanied Marcus to Yougo then back to pushkin. Reached home by midnight and talked to Saac and Gan once more about what they were to do. Saac was to help with organizing the performers and Gan was to be my run around messenger.

I only managed to get to bed by 3.30am, needing to wake up at 7.30am to prepare for church..

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1st March 2009, Sunday.

I woke up late. Again.. At least WanSim came to call me as she was leaving. So I rushed, made sure I had everything I needed for church and the event later as well as Jing's parcel, and got dressed. Long sleeved shirt, tie, slacks, blazer and boots. Winter coat over that. And rushed out to church, alone..

I made it just on time and got seated as praise and worship began. It was awesome. I could feel God's presence in the theater. I somehow just knew that God was in charge and I didn't need to worry. The only thing that distracted me for awhile was the fleeting thought of C and of how much I missed her beside me. I asked God to move me on, and pushed that thought away and started to praise God.

And the message on Sunday. I really thank God I didn't miss it. Marcus originally wanted me and the media team to get to the Hotel in the morning to prepare for the event. But I really didn't want to miss church. Thank God he provided. I was allowed to come to church and all of us PICs would rush to the Hotel immediately after church.

The message,
The Journey Of An Anointed Life.
1 Kings 17 - 2 Kings 13.

What God wants is both willingness and obedience,
Not willing but disobedient,
Nor obedient but unwilling.
And the Lord used Elijah because he was obedient in the face of unpopularity.

Disobedience can cost us our calling.

We see that in Elijah's lifetime,
He performed 7 major miracles of individual and national effect.
  1. Proclamation of a 3 1/2 year drought - 17:1-7
  2. The widow's oil and flour that did not run dry - 17:8-16
  3. The resurrection of the widow's son - 17:17-24
  4. The victory at Mount Carmel - 18:20-46
  5. Fire that killed 50 men and their captain - 1:10
  6. Fire that killed 50 men and their captain - 1:12
  7. Parting of the Jordan river - 2:8
And Elisha became Elijah's servant.
All Elijah did was lay his cloak on Elisha,
And Elisha served him until his ascension.

For the anointing of God to continue in your life,
You must first learn what it means to be faithful.
So we see what happened to Elisha after Elijah left.
  1. Dividing the water of Jordan - 2:21
  2. The 42 youths and the bear - 2:23-25
  3. Water to the thirsty army - 3:17
  4. The widow's oil that did not run dry - 4:1-7
  5. Resurrection of the widow's son - 4:8-37
  6. Purifying the pot of stew - 4:38-41
  7. Feeding the 100 men - 4:42-44
  8. Healing of Namaan's leprosy - 5:1-19
  9. Floating of the axe head - 6:1-7
  10. Adverting of disaster at the hands of the Syrians 6:8
  11. The horses and chariots of fire 6:17
  12. The Shunamite woman's land restored 8:1-6
  13. Overthrowing of evil kings
  14. And the dead man who came alive over his bones 13:20-21
And thus,
We see that Elisha not only performed the miracles Elijah did,
But he performed more,
Exactly double.
And we can see that he received a double portion of the blessing of Elijah.

"And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming."
1 John 2:28

Servanthood, obedience, faithfulness, and abiding in Christ are the keys to a sustained anointed journey of life.

Then we see that Gerhazi,
Elisha's student,
Was never able to continue that journey of anointing.
Because:
  1. He was not so willing to serve his master but himself - 5:20
  2. He was not obedient and he lied - 5:22
  3. He was not faithful in little things
  4. He was not faithful enough to stay the course.
Finally,
Greed can possess we to move ahead of ourselves to receive something meant for us but at the wrong time.

This made me think,
And made me regret,
That perhaps by insisting my way and moving so fast,
I might probably have destroyed what God had meant for 'us',
And I probably have lost that chance forever.
Sigh.

After church, we rushed to the Holiday Inn Hotel and began to do our respective jobs. Marcus was rather scarce. He was all over the place all the time. So I waited for the media team to set up then ran through the program with them. MC came and we discussed some changes and backup plans. Performers came one by one and gave me and Saac lots of headaches. The MF band took up a rather large amount of time which made the performers unable to practise. Gave me headache too. And SFC suddenly came up and insisted that their performance be included too. Another headache as our schedule was already packed and over the time. How was I supposed to add them? And finally, Marcus got directions from Dalvin to put the SFC performance at the closing ceremony..

And then, the event began. Of that, I'll put it in another post later on as there are many many many!! things to tell.

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2nd March 2009, Monday

We reached home way past midnight exhausted but exhilarated. I for one was surprised that I was still standing and hadn't collapse yet. Thank God for his sustaining power. I have biochemistry 4 mini-colloqs for later and I didn't have time at all to study due to the event. So after I bathed, rested awhile, I sat down to do as much biochem as I could. And nothing could enter my head.. At 3am, I decided to just nap awhile and wake up at 6am to study till 7.30am and leave for class.

JY shocked me awake at 7.30am.. That meant, yet again, I had no time to get ready and would be late for class, not to mention, no time for revision either. See how exhausted I was? Anyway, I met HanYin at the lifts and we went to class together. The dear girl, bless her soul, gave me a once over of the biochem lessons during the trip to class even though she needed to study for her own mini-colloq which was different from mine. And praise God, she passes her exams without even needing to sit for them. As for me, I really praise God that the teacher only tested me on one mini-colloq (which I managed to pass) and gave me another 2 weeks to finish the rest of the mini-colloqs.

And to celebrate the event, my groupmates and I decided to treat ourselves to something nice. So we went to Pizza World to eat some really really good pizzas at half price.. =] Then on our way back, just before entering the hostel, someone started to throw snow, and pushing began, and suddenly, snow went flying everywhere. Even I got thrown into a snow drift. So since we were already doing that, we decided to place our bags and books in our rooms and dressed to play snow. WanSim tried to 'put us aeroplane" again but we dragged her out and threw her in the snow. We had snow fights, buried each other in snow, tossed snow balls, made snow angels and many more, till we all had snow in our gloves, boots and hair. I even had snow down my scarf, and none of us could feel our hands, nor feet, nor cheeks, nor ears.. It was fun, and probably the best winter ever for me. (",)

We went back indoors after an hour and as I was undressing to go to bed, Marcus received a phone all from Tjen Jhung (hospitality team for Rev. Kevin Loo) and was asked to get his ass out to Red Square to meet up with the Rev. He asked me to go along and since he was so pityful, I decided to suffer and be blessed along with him. We rushed to Red Square, only to have the Rev leave for home after 30mins for dinner. We were supposed to have dinner with him, but his host requested she prepare dinner as her family wanted to spend the last night with him. And so we went by ourselves and the whole hospitality team to Manesh for our own dinner. And there we shared testimonies, experiences and blessings that we had gone through before, during and after the One Life Event. And we discussed plans for following up on those who got saved, which included having a free makan between the MF hotspot members and their follow up friends.

I got home really late again, about 9pm, had prayer meeting, had MF leaders meeting, then I collapse into bed.

PS. I only woke up at noon today.. =p

So there you have it, my busy 3 days. That was why I couldn't blog, nor update. During this time, I could really see and experience God's blessing and miracles. So many things that we deemed impossible actually became possible after we placed them in God's Hands. He has really increased my faith in Him and I now know that changing my life and moving ahead is possible. He has my life in His Hands and I trust that I will be blessed for that is His promise.

God bless all. (",)

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