Bible Study

Hey guys,
This is the list for bible study :

Student Teacher
1. Kee Wee - Pastor (Leader's Meeting)
2. Cheryl - Lee Choo
3. Puiks - Lee Choo
4. Regina - Lee Choo
5. Krystina - Lee Choo (to be confirmed)
6. Gordon - Kee Wee (after CNY)
7. Spencer - Kee Wee (after CNY)
8. Yew Jin - Kee Wee
9. Michelle - Puiks
10. Jessie - Puiks
11. Yu Wen - Jessie
12. Aaron Chan - Gordon (after CNY)
13. Haruka - Regina
14. Jaslynn - Cheryl

Anyone else is not in the list? Please do let me noe yea =)

Puiks

Seasons

Bible Verse Tag

Hey people!!

its me .... Haruka.

I am soooo sorry i have been MIA these past months..

I miss you guys a lot and i miss home!!! =( but Japans great..though its getting colder each day..

Im also really sorry that this bible verse tag thing has taken forever since Puiks posted hers..i know its meant to be an on-going thing but as usual it stopped at me!!! sorry sorry!!! here goes!!

Actually the verse i chose is kind of long..and it is one of my favorite verses:

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

We learned this verses in one of pastors sermon. When i heard Pastor preach this, i felt he was almost talking directly at me. Because we learned that God loves us so much he wants us to be happy but i often found myself questionning God when life gets hard to deal with. After learning this verses however, everytime i am caught in times of trouble i try to just relate back to this verse and find which season God has put me in now.

Ecclesiastes 3:1

To everything there is a season,

A time for every purpose under heaven

Ecclesiastes 3:2-8

A time to be born, to die, plant, pluck, kill, heal, break down, build up, weep, laugh, mourn, dance, cast away stones, time to gather, embrace, refrain, gain, lose, keep, throw, tear, sew, silence, speak, love, hate, war and peace

So as you can see.. it explains the quote

...`lifes a rollercoaster`...

Everyone goes through their own ups and downs but we can reassure that the good times will come again when the season comes.. As God as said so in the Bible.

So what season are you guys in??

Next person i tag is none other than

Mr. GG (gossipgirl)

Yew Jin

Lots of Love from TokyoJapan

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Haruka

Don't hide from God

Hey all, I’ve got something to share here. Quite long but read slowly ya.. :)

Keith preached last week to us about the true satisfaction in our lives. He mentioned that we don’t find true satisfaction in PLEASURE, PERFORMANCE or POSSESIONS. All these things might fill up the emptiness in our hearts, but all these won’t last..

People always chase over pleasures, fame etc in life as we can often be self-sufficient through those things that we gain. When you think in a deeper way, we are actually trying to cover up our imperfections by achieving great successes, having a lot of possessions and so on. This is a common way people will hide themselves from God. We are not perfect since the moment we were born into this world, we are not whole but “broken”. God can choose to just leave us alone for us to forever deal with the sin nature of this world such as anger, greed, lust, violence and death. But He loves us too much to just leave us alone and don’t have our “brokenness” be healed. From the beginning Adam & Eve hid from each other when they realized their nakedness, and they make coverings for their bodies, then hid in the bushes from God. (Gen 3:7-9) This illustrates the world, ever since sin entered the world, everyone is trying to hide from God...

Coming before God in total brokenness and admitting our true self goes against our sin nature. We hide as an attempt to cover up our brokenness. What I meant here of hiding means we use achievements, pleasures, materials etc as a “cover” to satisfy ourselves, instead of depending on God and be broken before Him, i.e admitting our weaknesses.

We shall identify how we might have hide from being broken/open to God. All these are spiritual “junkfood” as described by Keith. The most common ways to hide is through self-sufficiency. Humans have sets of rules and guidelines to grade our achievements. We often want to achieve the best results in our studies, to be at the highest position at work, or have the most amount of material possessions. All these are good achievements, and we glorify God’s name through great achievements. But always remember that, non of these will help us to get enough. The Pharisees are one of the example, they were self-sufficient religious people whom observed all the laws. They may seem blameless in the laws but they were never broken or being really truthful before God.

Remember Keith shared that: God is self-sufficient but we are not!

Other than that, some might have chosen the path of anger to hide their brokenness. Anger is a strong emotion. When we harbour our anger, it feels powerful but it always serves the wrong purpose: to help you hide from facing what is really wrong.

The next thing is addiction. There are a number of pleasure seeking ways where we often get to numb ourselves from the imperfections or dissatisfactions that we have within us. Addictions can be drugs, sex, work, sports, shopping, TV, video games and so on. All these keep us from facing our broken condition.

Besides that, we should be aware that sometimes we will try to hide by our spirituality. For example, reading the Bible to get the formula to make yourself feel good about who you are or to get the security of yourself from it. You may do all the good things as commanded by the Bible, but if these are not on a relationship with God, all these are just superior. We may be hiding from God behind all these good actions.

Most of us spend the majority of our time trying to cover up the fact of our true brokenness... God didn’t break us, but He has the power and He longs to heal us. God loves us and want to show us a lot but He can’t get close to you unless you can take away everything else that stands between you and God. And come to Him with brokenness of heart – a heart that knows it needs healing, and lay everything you have before God.

We can clearly acknowledge our insufficiency when we truly believe that only Christ’s forgiveness, and nothing else, is the reason you are able to have a relationship with a Holy God. It took me quite a long time to truly cherish this truth. I knew this from the moment I accepted Christ, but I never feel the need for it, until I experienced the brokenness, and know the meaning of salvation...

“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly”... Romans 5:6 (NIV)

I'm sure we will know even more deeper about all of God’s truth all along our walk with God. =)

And just be simple before God, let your life be centered around God, and don’t let anything else shield you from Him, and we shall enjoy the intimacy in our relationship with God. ^.^


Love,
Jessie

Philippians 4:6

Philippians 4:6

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. (NIV)

At this moment as you're reading this, you're worried about something eh? Everyday, the second we open our eyes... we are constantly thinking and worrying about anything and everything. 

What are the things we are usually worried about? 

a) Food

b) What to wear ?

c) Finances

d) Assignments

e) Exam

f) Friends and perhaps, friends' problems

g) Family

h) Relationship

It can be anything from the above that may be something that we're worried about.

From the verse, Philippians 4:6 clearly says that not to worry about anything regardless to any situation but pray in everything and let your request be known to God.

Believe that God is able to take care of our worries and problems. I believe this and so i say THANKYOU from my heart because I believe that God will work things out for me and for you as well. We need to have faith to believe this, We cant have faith and worry at the same time. 

Just see that how God has blessed me financially for the past half a year. I need not worry but part time jobs keep coming to me, blessings keep pouring into my life and my family. Even though i'm still attending classes, but by God's grace, im able to earn extra allowance, serve in ministry and cell group, attend bible study classes, and have time for many things. 

We talk to others about our problems but shouldn't we go to God first?  God is like our BFF, mentor, teacher, counsellor..Learn to surrender all your worries to God, talk to Him about your problems and challenges and believe that God will take care of everything for you.

We also have learnt many times that prayer is powerful. Prayer can move the mountain, prayer brings us closer to God and that we're just a prayer away from God. 

I want to encourage you all to start your day with a simple prayer. Don't think about brushing your teeth or worry being late for classes, but just spend a few minutes(if you're already late, a few minutes wont hurt anyway) talking to God. Just a simple prayer and im sure your day will be a smooth sailing.

All you need is the Desire to pray and talk to God, then Discipline yourself to pray for every single thing and then you'll find Delight in praying and talking to God. 

So guys, stop worrying whether you wont be able to score well for exam or worrying what others think about you when you do this or that. Just surrender all that you do or want in God's hand and be sure that all that you do align in the word of God. God will take care of everything for you. 

STOP WORRYING, but PRAY, GIVE THANKS and BELIEVE! 

Puiks

The next person i'm gonna tag is Harukajukukumalu. =)

An Unclean Spirit Returns

__________________________________________

Matthew 12:43-45

43 “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. 44 Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. 45 Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.”

__________________________________________

You guys remember when we had a long super after cellgroup and we shared about ghost stories? And between that Kee Wee mentioned that when on evil spirit leaves, it'll bring back 7 evil spirit?

Here's the verse that he was talking about. But it is not as scary as it sounds. Basically when someone is delivered from an evil spirit, the evil spirit will have to find another place to dwell in, most likely looking for humans. "Dry Places" it meant there was people who are spiritually dry or empty, meaning without Jesus Christ and God in their life.

And when the same evil spirit can't find anyone else to dwell in, it will go back to the first person where he was first casted out from. "he finds it empty, swept, and put it in order" That means if the evil spirit finds that the previous person is still the same as before (without Christ in life), no changes, no protection and everything is in order. Then the evil spirit will bring in seven more evil spirit who is far worst to corrupt back the person.

So basically if someone is delivered from an evil spirit and do not go back to Christ, keep him/herself clean, or avoid committing sin. The person will not grow better but get corrupted and trapped into sin.

So be aware and careful of what you do even after you're being delivered from sin/evil spirit/traps.

God bless you w22
Gordon~
[My next target: Cheryl Ho Suet Yih]