more than…

I have been pondering this thought since camp.
Romans 8 says we are more than conquerors through He that loved us.

What does it mean to be more than a conqueror? What have I conquered that gives me this title?

Well technically nothing… because I haven’t done anything… but because Jesus Christ beat the grave and defeated sin He is a conqueror. And because Jesus Christ lives in me that makes me a conqueror.

And I am more than a conqueror because Christ has already won the battle, He already owns the victory over satan. He has done more than conquer sin, he has completed eradicated the enemy that is why I am more than a conqueror.

i think. any thought. Correct me if i am wrong =D

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make poverty history

These 3 words now resound deep in my heart after watching  documentary which for the first time has actually made me sigh and hurt deeply for the poverty in the world.

The story that made me think was the story of an indian woman who made things out of bamboo for a living.  When asked how much she earned a day she replied back with “2 pennies” when asked why she replied back saying that the man she gets the bamboo from placed a condition on her… that he will buy back everything she makes for the price he wants.

When they asked her how much the bamboo itself costs she replied back with 25c.

In that moment i was shocked… here I am at uni with my clothes my lunch my bag and complaining i have no money when there are people who can’t even afford something for 25c.

The doco continued and the man gave her the money she needed which started the microcredit revolution… Bascially small loans of as little as $65 are given to the poor to start up businesses.

I felt the heartbeat of God as I watched people work 1000x harder than i’ll ever work for the amount of money i can find dropped on the sidewalk.  I thought to myself that this is what the church is called to be and called to do.  Poverty is not a natural progression but it is man made.  No human deserves to live without food for one day when there are humans out there that eat food every couple of hours.  Never before have I understood the thought of the church is to bring justice and rightousness , never before have I fully understood the song albertine, never before did i fully understand the i heart revolution until now

I don’t know what i can do but i sure hope that we can make poverty history in my lifetime

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an overflow

Ok so it is 2 am in the morning and I am blogging but I guess I wanted to quickly journal this thought.

So after being involved in the MAC side of camp (with the camp marketing and opening multimedia) I have been scouring the endless pages, videos, referrals, searchs, more pages and even more videos for great promotional and opening multimedias people have done.

I have to say that I did manage to find a couple of great videos that I haven’t seen before but amongst the searching and thinking to myself “man that is where I want Ablaze to be soon, yeap that stadium will fit us nicely… yeap we’ll definetly need those lights and that screen” God reminded me of something that Torch shared… when, where and what it was exactly I can’t remember so here’s the basics of it

“What drives you? Is it the vision of a stadium full of people with flashy lights and big speakers or God?”

I still remember back when Torch said that and being so convicted, yet here I am having to be reminded by God that don’t be driven by the idea of being as big, flashy, skilled or well-known as some of the big churches… be driven by the heartbeat and relationship with God.

Just as everything that we do is an overflow of our walk with God as in loving others, working hard, being genuine, so should our influence and growth as a church be as well.

Because we love God we want to see people come to know God = growth in numbers in the church.
Because we love God and we want to do our best to honour Him = growth in skills, knowledge and commitment to ministry.
Because we love God and want to see the world purged from the devil himself = growth in our character, conviction, actions to be a good influence and be the salt & light God call us to be.

I want to see the church grow bigger in worship, arts, media, programs, influence but if it is for the sake of ‘growing bigger’ then I know I’ve completely lost the plot. I want to see the church grow because of God. Nothing more, nothing less, nothing else just simply because of God.

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Shoved!

thats a word that has caused a lot of humility and respect to a certain individual come into my life.

Voltage Senior had the unfortunate task of farewelling one of our members as he quote “being shoved” back to Malaysia.

Who is this person who allows God to push him around?  Mr Adam Khoo

To celebrate the time Adam has been with us we decided to have a normal LG camp reflection time last Sunday.  We headed down to Yatala Pies and had an awesome time of sharing.  I was very humbled as Adam shared about how he feels like God has been shoving him into situations lately but he still completely trusts in the plan that God has for him.
We faked the end of our LG.  We organised the transport and even said our farewells and final prayer and group photo.  But what Adam didn’t know was that a proper farewell has been bubbling right under his nose.  Instead of taking the exit back to Brisbane we headed down the coast and spent the rest of the day at Harbour town and at Broadbeach

Funniest moment… when Adam told us that when we pulled up into Harbour town he thought we were at Garden City lol.

Well Adam has left already and I know God will do some great things with this young man back home.
Happy studying Adam and I’ll see you back in Australia in 2 years time… unless God shoves you in another direction hehe.

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one the greatest thing ever said to me

“cool (Y) btw i look like a man in one of the pics on ur facebook album lol”

- Elaine Chiu

correction: ok so i read what she wrote wrong. i am so self-centered haha. I thought she said btw U look like a man haha. but i saw the pic and unfortuneatly i had to agree. sorry elaine =P

here is the picture in question

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REFLECTION|NOITCELFER

Ablaze Camp has come and gone and just like that I have been tempted to slip back into complacency but I am determined to challenge myself to grow and not remain stagnant.

Just as stagnant water is undrinkable, so is a stagnant Christian unusable

So there are many, many, many things God taught me & spoke to me and many things that I am determined to put into action so to share them all you’d probably have to read a short story lol.

So I’d like to share one of the main things God spoke to me at camp:

For a long time now God has been challenging me to change certain perspectives I have. One example is in regards to how I see God. If I say God is all powerful and a God of possibilities and in the same sentence utter the words there is no way I can pass this exam so there is no use in praying to ask for help then I am being hypocritical. So before camp I was determined to not just see myself but to see Ablaze encounter God in a way like we have never experienced before. I wanted Ablaze to leave camp in unified agreement that “yes that was undeniably a God moment.” That thought was of course aimed at Saturday night.

In the days before camp I got the opportunity to watch the Hillsong This is Our God DVD and finally got to see the actual footage of the congregation that wouldn’t stop worshipping. I was speechless in that moment, I sat in awe and amazement of the hunger of the congregation. I giggled a little at the thought of what the keyboardist was thinking since he was the only muso left on stage accompanying the voices of God’s people. But amidst it all i said to God ” I want that to happen at Ablaze camp. I want this same hunger, this same desire, this same faith, this same expectation, this same want, this same desperation for God at camp. I want this to happen not just on saturday night but throughout camp, on friday night, on saturday morning, during fellowship just any moment i wanted it to be a God moment.

So the first night of camp comes around and I am so caught up in running around, in making sure that things are going smoothly that God stopped me in my tracks and said to me “don’t forget who you serve” In that moment I repented in my heart and just worshipped God. But the God moment came during altercall. After some time of responding to God the congregation took hold of worship for itself. Amidst crying out for God to fill me, fill me! I felt the hunger, the desire, the want, the faith, the desperation of the church in that place. I couldn’t deny that God was in the house.

God continued to move mightily throughout camp with the champs and leaders of the high school ministry washing the feet of the high schoolers to the prophetic word for every unit on saturday night to the prophetic word for individuals on all three days. The presence of God throughout camp was like none I’ve ever seen and felt.

Through this God broke my perspective. He showed me that He can move whenever and wherever. In seeking God for the greater revelation behind this God said to me that “I am limitless, I am all powerful but I am a gentlemen and will not force myself into any situation where there is no willingness. I choose to be seemingly limited by men because their perspective limits me and does not allow me to move.”

I thought to myself… oh man… God I am so sorry… I am so humbled… Just now God reminded me of a moment in the Bible (in Mark) where Jesus returned back to his hometown wanting to share the gospel and do great miracles but could only perform a few small miracles here and there. Later on he goes on to say he was surprised by their lack of faith. This reminded me that 1. don’t limit God and 2. if you look into the scripture you find out that the people in his hometown saw him as a peer not as the Son of God. I thought to myself – when Jesus is around do I treat him as a peer or do I place him on the pedestal He deserves?

So God doesn’t live in a box yet our lack of faith or perspective causes Him to be forced into a box. Time to give God some more space to move and let him reign over everything we see as impossible. Because all things a possible with God!

note: there is so much more God spoke to me… hmm should i blog about some more hehe maybe in dot points.  To be continued …

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why so serious?

One of the most anticipated movies of the year was released last Wednesday. With so much buzz around Batman: The Dark Night due to the death of Heath Ledger I was honestly a bit skeptical.

Many critics and fellow actors in the movie claimed that Heath performed an oscar winning performance taking the role of the Joker to a whole new level. When I first found out Heath Ledger was picked I was a bit confused aswell.

And finding out that the movie is 2 hours and 36 minutes long I was almost sure that it would bomb out at some point of the movie.

but I was wrong

This movie has to be one of the best movies i have seen in a long time. 2hours and 36minutes flies by as you are gripped by not just the action but the absolutely complex and genius script coupled with fantastic performances by Christian Bale and who i believe stole the show Heath Ledger. Even the love story of this movie isn’t all stupid and unnecessary.

I really like this new angst driven version of Batman… it is much better than the lame humor of the previous batman movies.  A couple of months back i watched Batman and Robin and gagged at every lame line like telling mr freeze to… freeze…

Christian Bale makes Batman so tank i don’t think it would really be physically possible for him to movie that fast and fly haha… But he brings a more mature feel to the character… and Heath Ledger makes the Joker one of the most sadistic, crazy, scary, pure evil characters ever portrayed on the big screen.  Yet you hear bits of his story and you often feel sorry and that it is not totally his fault for the way he is.

But one of the things that really caught my attention was the major twist in the end.  i won’t say it but i was taken a back by it… and above all taken a back by the cross section of society it portrayed in the end.

i look forward to the next one… as long as it doesn’t pull an x-men 3 aka change in director… i will be first in line to see it

I seriously cannot find a fault in this movie. This is what movie making is all about.

i honestly rate this movie

5/5

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contextualing the fast

fast not feast… although Ps PN shared that in Thailand they have feast after fast hehe….

Anyways… our 2 weeks of fasting and prayer began last tuesday and i was determined to not give up a meal (mostly because camp was during the fasting time and there is no way i am not eating what i paid for)  so i decided to do something that equally as difficult for me to fast.

Facebook & MSN

yes friends i am fasting both facebook and MSN.  It has been very difficult especially since

1. the first website i visit is normally facebook
2. MSN is where most people know they can ‘find me’ to let me know about something important
3. ABLAZE CAMP PHOTOS ARE ALREADY ON FACEBOOK!

but im pulling through sorta haha… i guess i have more time for other things now =D like doing my camp reflections

so just wanted to let you know.  If you need to contact me please call me on my mobile or e-mail me =D

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maintain

It has officially been over 24 hours since Ablaze Camp ended which marks the official beginning of the journey of change as knowledge has or is becoming conviction to the next big step of action.

Ok i’ll be honest to every reader who reads this blog… i am already feeling the temptation to slip back to where i was before camp.  Thinking of what God has planned in the next 6 months naturally i want to run into a corner and just hide in fear.  But this is a critical time of planning the next step i must take.

If life is a race then Ablaze Camp is like that sudden sprint you take to put yourself ahead in the race just that tiny bit more… post camp is like that feeling of needing to slow down slower than before you started sprinting to catch your breath… but the fact is if you do that eventually you end up either where you started or further behind.

I know that i need to atleast maintain where the pace i was at before.  I can tell you already though that the enemy has been on my back all night and day… having not very pleasant dreams to feeling as if i am lonely again… i know that the devil has been in overdrive since 106 youth (found out 3 ppl couldnt make it to camp due to some last minute things) not only experienced God but felt, smelt, heard, tasted and saw the very hand of God do something amazing.

Let’s keep each other in prayer.  Pray that we would all maintain what God has given to us during camp… Ps Judah Smith did a sermon about change where he said that change doesn’t happen at camps, conferences or coventions… it happens after… when you go home and do something about what God spoke to you.

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Ablaze Camp 2008 Opening Multimedia

It is offically post-ablaze camp and i am feeling the withdrawals.

But with the need to still reflect on what God did not just for me but for my LG, my church, my fellow leaders, peers, sheep and ministry there will be more to come.

But here is the multimedia from our opening night … a night which itself probably needs its own post =D

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