My Personal God

I came across 4 very special verses in the Bible that expresses to me volumes of how personal God is to me. Generically it for everyone: me, my friends, strangers, and you! We are all the apple of His eye. So here goes:

Psalms 56:8 " You have taken account of my wanderings; Put my tears in Your bottle. Are they not in Your book? (NASB)

We wander so much. What does wander means? It could be a host of things like running away because of fear, shame, anguish, seeking the truth, seeking for answers. Our thoughts, our minds, our soul restless in wander. We are in pain, thus we cry for we are but - human.

How precious it is of God who takes account of our wanderings, not to use them agaisnt us but to show us that He knows our struggles, our hurts, our anguish that translates into tears sometimes seen by our closest friends but more often than not, unseen behind close doors and in security of the darkness at night.

He puts our tears in His bottle. How precious is that? Our anguish are for nothing, for it means something to Him. Added to that, He records them in His book. "Anna cried because she lost her job" "Justin cried for the friendships broken...." "James cried cos his favourite toy was stolen by bullies..." Simple, true and very revelant in daily events of life. He saves those tears, He writes the reasons in His book. Not to be legalistic but hey.... God shares in our joy too. Tears of joy are also included in this. He knows. He shares them all.

Isaiah 49: 16 "Look, I've written your names on the backs of my hands. The walls you're rebuilding are never out of my sight." (MSG)

The first thing that comes to my mind is: TATOO! Tatoo is an art of engraving something permanent. With over a billion of people that had lived, and are living and are yet to be borned and lived - God must have pretty BIG HANDS. It's mind blowing to have the our names engraved on His hands. We are remembered. We are loved.

That is what tatoos in modern day context is all about. When a name is tatooed, we want to remember that person because we love that person and because it is out of such intimate and closeness of that relationship that a person would consider a tattoo. Now I'm not talking about art tatoos. Those are different. It is just art. I'm talking about those you see on the arms of men with a woman's name. That kind only thing is - God's engraving is much more personal and much more painful - on His palms.

Tell me who would tatoo on the palms? It's painful for the skin is too thin. Personally, I believe God through Jesus did just that - when He died on the cross as His hands were crucified. I bet as He yelled in immensed pain, He would have looked at His hands and remember - "I've written your names on the palms of my hands" He remembers why He is doing this for us - because of love.

"The walls you're rebuilding are never out of my sight." Personally this speaks to me off broken lives, broken dreams, broken hopes, broken anything. Our attempts as we rebuild our lives again from devastating circumstances can be rather trying and at times so difficult. Once again, He knows our toil, He knows our difficulty for He watches over us.

Psalms 139: 17 - 18 "Your thoughts—how rare, how beautiful! God, I'll never comprehend them! I couldn't even begin to count them any more than I could count the sand of the sea." (MSG)

Humanely, I think it is possible to count our thoughts about our loved ones. Simply because our thoughts are limited. With God it is limitless UNLESS you can count the grains of the sand. It will be forever and precisely that is how Eternal God is. That is how ever present God is. His thoughts are with us. He is thinking of you at every hour, every minute, every second and even at this instance.

Here's something to think about:

Zephaniah 3: 17 "For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior.He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.” (NLT)

I mean what more can you ask from God?

• He is a sentimentalist - He keeps your tears.
• He is a historian - He records our effort, difficulties, our joys, our happiness
• He is a romantic lover of our souls - He engraves our names
• He is a dreamer - He thinks about you day and night 24/7
• He is a musician - He serenades us with songs.

This is how personal and real my God is. You are precious in His heart.

Make Me Over

I was just looking thru the lyrics of Natalie Grant's album AWAKEN...even though I've an AS assignment due in 5 hours time. And I do not wish to presume anything...but just let the words speak.

MAKE ME OVER

I've been silent instead of speaking up
Gave my advice instead of giving love
I have been unfair, faithless and unkind
I have shut my eyes just so I would stay blind
It's not what I meant to do
'Cause I wanna honor you

Make me over, make me new
Make me a mirror, a reflection of you
Take me all apart
Take me to your heart and pull me closer
Oh, Jesus, make me over

Take away the pride that whispers in the dark
Take the stone out of the middle of my heart
Hidden underneath my insecurities
Is the servant that you've destined me to be
But day after precious day
I Get In My Own Way....

I am only made of your imagining
I'm dust and clay on the wind
wash me in the river of your sacrifice
Till I'm Changed, Purified...

In each one of us, there is something that we need to life up to God...for Him to completely change us to what He has destined us to be...beyond our insecurities, pride and hurts. I'm just beginning to see how frail I am in God's eyes...seeing myself for who I am thru His eyes.

I'm not trying to make myself seem "holy" or anything. It is not my intention...and I know I'm still far from my destination. This is only one very very small step in that direction...and I know I'm gonna fall along the way but more importantly God already knows that...Doesn't matter how you start and what happens along the way but rather will you endure till the end? 5 years? 10 years? 30 years? May we run the race of endurance till the end; supporting one another when we fall, encouraging when we lag behind and running in unity.

Repentence of self-sufficiency

Dear Lord,
May I come before your throne EVERYDAY and humbly bow before the vastness of your majesty. Even being able to enter Your courts, Lord I pray that you strip away any tinge of self-sufficiency within me...may every moment remind me of my sufficiency in you Jesus alone...let like the tax collector and the prostitute. Who am I to say that I am better than them...for all have sinned and fallen short of yr glory...and my pride likewise is more offensive in your eyes than anything else.

O Jesus, may the cross remind me of the great price you paid in order that I may live and that it is my self-sufficiency that placed you on that cross the first place. Lord, break me beyond recognition so that it is no longer I that live but you Jesus in me...that I will not need to do anything out of my own effort but by your power...even in the normal, mundane, "non-spiritual" aspects of my daily life.

Help me be like the sinful tax collector that has to rely daily upon your grace than the self-sufficient pharisee that is satisfied with just relying on you only enough to become righteousness so that he can self-assure himself of his worth rather than relying on your worth.

"But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things...so that no one may boast before him."

- 1 Corinthians 1:27-29

Make me nothing so that you can be everything in my life. Amen.

The unveiling of His beautiful work in you and me

Hello! How's everyone doing? I'm kinda bogged down with my FYP, school and church stuff but thank God for giving me the strength and grace to carry on! Well, just wanna share something with you guys and gals coz i hope that it'll encourage yall :)

Remember this verse? Ecc 3: 11 "God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end. "

Whenever I read this verse, I'm reminded of how so many times i just see only part of the full picture that God has in mind. And when i see a mess of colors all mixed up, God reminds me that my eyesight is bad and He is actually painting a very intricate and fine picture...and it is certainly very beautiful...

We may not understand why we have to go through certain things in life. We often wonder why God can't make us to be perfect Christians where we do everything perfectly, have wonderful experiances daily, walk in such strength and integrity, and sing and dance with absolute freedom. We forget that our lives are still being painted out by God. We forget that the full picture is super duper chunted...something beyond what we can imagine...and till that day, He will continue to work in us.

He says "My strength is made perfect in your weakness." And He says "But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." The thing is that we can't make it without God, the One in whom we can draw strength from and the One who would make our lives beautiful in its time :)

Darkness to Light, Prison to Palace

Have you ever been into a dark room? Being in a dark room reminds me of loneliness, scary and simply empty. While someone shared with me on one of the days a few weeks back, I was seeing this vision of me in a dark room. It wasn't anything scary. Coz I'm the 'star' that shines in the room.

Imagine lighting a match in the room. Or shining a torch in that room. The room will be filled with that light in a way of another. Isn't it? Where there is light, it brings freedom. Similarly, our 'prisons' can be that dark room, filling up with our hurts, pride and many things, including jealousy, etc.

How can we break from 'prison' and enter into the palace? Ask ourselves, our heart condition. Why are we feeling empty over and over again? It's pretty simple. Breaking the prison, we need to know who can free us from bondage and the same person who can revive us into freedom.

One thing I ask, is that as you read this, call upon the name of Jesus. Only in the name of Jesus, you will be saved. Set free from prison to palace, from death to life, from sin to sinless, from pride to humility, from temporary to eternity.

Be Blessed!