Neglected

Well that’s exactly how this blog must feel after nearly two months. Mostly attributed to me moving to a new home and no internet access until recently.

A lot of things have happened in the past two months some of the highlights include:

• New home in West Ryde
• New Homecell in West Ryde
• Salvations in Church and Youthopea
• Choir at church (and I’m in it!)

I believe there’s plenty more to come, there’s no end to the blessings of God.

Boot Camp Week 2: Breathe

The second week of boot camp has already begun, last week almost everyone memorised at least one verse for the week, many memorising almost all 7 verses. Consuming the word of God (eating) is very important, however prayer (breathing) is equally important in our spiritual lives. This week the challenges are:

1. Prayer time – at least 10 minutes a day
2. Corporate Prayer – Everday at 8pm pray for Youthopea
3. Pray for a miracle – In someone elses life, in your life, in the life of the church. BE SPECIFIC!

More details on boot camp or if you have any questions, head over to the Boot Camp post on the Youthopea forum.

Boot Camp begins

For the next two months Youthopea is holding a boot camp challenge which aims to raise each individual’s (and the group as a whole) spiritual level. Our first task this week is to:

1. Memorise 7 verses (John 1:1-2, Ephesians 4:2, John 4:24, James 4:10, Philippians 4:8, James 1:2-3, 2 Corinthians 5:17)
2. Read your bible at least 2 times a day.
3. Apply what you read into your life.

Each person will monitor their progress through the use of a (Spiritual) Diet Diary. Each week at Youthopea each person will get a chance to submit their progress and at the end of it all we will evaluate how much we have grown spiritually. This is not to be a competition, but more to encourage and challenge ourselves to take living for Christ to whole new level.

Distractions

Why do we get distracted with things? At times I can get in the zone and be working away for hours and even forget to eat. Other times I could be working one minute and the next minute we find that we have just spent the last hour browsing Facebook profiles. I believe this happens when our mind is not focused and we start to think about other things. The Bible (written about 2000 years ago) had already warned us about this:

A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.  – James 1:8

The best thing we can do is focus on one plan and don’t let other things get in your way. I am not saying this because I’m perfect, after all I’m still a work in progress. I found this to be a good reminder and so I hope it helps you too.

So did you just get distracted? Well at least now you know what to do 😉

Growing The Wrong Way

  Part of growing and staying healthy is exercise.  When we exercise our  bodies grow stronger. However a lack of exercise not only hinders growth but causes our bodies to grow the wrong way (sideways). This degrades performance and could also lead to unattractiveness of the physical body (subjective to the viewer). God designed our body a specific way, and by exercising we allow our bodies to achieve its full potential.

You’ve been raised on the Message of the faith and have followed sound teaching. Now pass on this counsel to the followers of Jesus there, and you’ll be a good servant of Jesus. Stay clear of silly stories that get dressed up as religion. Exercise daily in God—no spiritual flabbiness, please! Workouts in the gymnasium are useful, but a disciplined life in God is far more so, making you fit both today and forever. – 1 Tim 4:6-8 (MSG)

Likewise a Christian needs to excercise to build their spiritual life, this excercise means to use what we have learnt from God. Using what we have learnt to bless others, to serve and to glorify God. Without spiritual exercise, our spiritual life becomes flabby and weak. What can you do today to perform spiritual exercise?

2008 Here We Come

I hope you all enjoyed your holidays as much as I did, some of you are probably STILL on holidays. What a great year 2007 has been, praise God for all the blessings in finances, spiritual blessings, relationships with family and friends and many more. I am looking forward to see what God will do this year and I believe it is going to be even better.

Highlights of 2007:

• Launch of Hope Within Reach
• My very first sermon
• Vertical Jamberoo outing
• New church building
• Vertical snow trip
• Graduation
• Hope Church camp

Although holidays has come to an end, the amazing journey for 2008 is just getting started 🙂

He Cares

At times it may be hard to believe, but God cares for you.

Another year of blessings

On Monday (29th October) I turned 24. That number may not be very much for some people, but at least for me it is huge. It seemed not too long ago that I was still in high school. I guess we can’t stay being a teenager forever, as much as some would want to. There are seasons in life, which is why we need to take each season for all its worth and don’t take anything for granted. When we were young we wished we could be older sooner, longing for the freedom. Now that we are older, we look back at how wonderful it was to be young, having little (or no) responsibilities. Make the most of each season (school, uni, work, married life, etc.), that is part of living life to its fullest.

Here are some things God has blessed me with this year:

• A good job
• A fantastic snow trip
• Finishing my bachelor degree (Computer Engineering) with honours
• Encouraging and supportive friends
• Building the church
• Opportunity to preach at Youthopea
• Seeing many people get saved through Hope Church
• A new car and many more…

LOVE = TIME

Tim Schmoyer posted an online love language test on his youth group website and found that:

More than anything else, students want people to spend time with them.

This is interesting because it is consistent with the notion that the best way to show love is to give of your time. So I guess this begs the question, how are we spending the time with our loved ones, or are we spending time with them at all. I think for some people (including myself) this can be a challenge especially when your schedule is filled with other things.

By the way I took the test myself and my top love language is: Quality Time.

Try it out yourself.

Graduation Day

Well… it’s been about a year overdue, but it has finally come. Yes I am now officially a graduate of UNSW (Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Engineering). I wasn’t looking forward to my graduation as much as I was looking forward to seeing my uni friends again. It was great to catch up and take pictures, walk around the uni reminiscing old times. I guess I can certainly say that the journey is just as if not more important than the destination.

Had I not gone through the 4 years of hard labour alongside my friends, I don’t think I would have been able to appreciate my graduation as much as I did. The reason why I was able to enjoy that moment, was because of the journey that had gotten me there. All the late nights, lack of sleep, travelling for 3 hours a day (not that much has changed) was all worth it in the end. To be able to share the moment with friends and relatives who were there with me was even better.

Pastor David Gunawan of Hope Church. Spoke about the importance of patience. If you’re going through stuff right now, be patient. Life is more about the end result, life is about the journey and having impatience robs you of the process. Embrace the process, so that the end result can be better appreciated.