Attitude of Worship

20.06.2005
My unbelieving colleague asked me "everytime you all go church do wad uh?"
My apt reply was "worship God lo"
and to that he queried further asking "how do you worship God?"
and again I responded with another apt reply "pray lo...sing song lo"
now he comment with "so Jacky Chueng and Aaron kwok also worshipping God lah since they're also singing songs"

That hit me for awhile realising that sometimes many of us are so caught up with just singing nice songs and not give the glory to whom the songs were composed n sung for,Jesus. When we're so caught up with how nice songs, we're glorifying the people who composed the songs and sang it...and singing along makes things no difference making church and K-box alike just that our songs have the words God in them.Well secular songs too are coming out with songs with the word God in them too with a misconception that He is a girl so we who say "ya la ya la...I know la..." really know God? and some will say "sing only mah, later I pray also worship God wad", well there is a time for prayer and therez a time to worship God with our singing,thatz not worship!

21Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." (John 4:21-24

Jesus knew that the Jews were so caught up with religion and legalism,but though they know in their religion they know who they're worshipping, theyre hearts are not in the right place and Jesus was telling the samaritan woman of the opening of doors that we do not need a place of worship confined on the mountain where I can say itz their "church". But even in Jerusalem,the jew supposedly His own people in their "churches" just couldnt accept Jesus but cling on to the religion they have so tightly that their worship was no doubt to God but God was in their midst yet they couldnt recognise cause they're just worshipping to God in religion and not in a relationship.

So then I ask, Are we really worshipping?what qualifies then to be called worship?
what does worshipping in spirit and in truth mean to you?

How many of us wants revival ??? Whats gonna be of the upcoming healing rally?

People in recent believe I have the gift of healing and evangelism...well you know what I believe? I believe that when the Holy Spirit comes in His full measure and fills the atmosphere around us, Healing I would say is a physical manisfestation. But He is going to cut deep into each one of us with His Holiness when His glory fall in our midst.And that each one of us are His temples,the church in each one of us has to be dealt by God first,and minister to Him in our intimacy with God. WE MUST SEEK GOD'S FACE. God spoke to me when I was in my early teens,"Would you seek my face even you know you'll die seeing Me cos nobody can see God's face and live" .
Talk about if looks could kill...This was very much confirmed when I was reading 'God Chasers'.Are we going seek God even if we know we're gonna die to our flesh? We Singaporeans not only are Kiasu but Kia si... so self-preserving.
When we seek God,He will deal with us and He'll put to death the misdeeds of our sinful nature that hides itself together with our instincts that we actually NEED to live on it,thatz where I reiterate to a previous blog entry asking ourselves as to what we are feeding ourselves with.Our sinful nature has that self defense mechanism that when we chose to break away from it,it lets out itz out-stretched tentacles to bind us back from repentence. But when we acknowledge we are weak and call on God, He is faithful,We'll see whose arms are longer out-stretched to lift us up and embrace us with His love. We have to remain therefore in His love and let it renew,revive reconcile our relationships and bring us to repentence.
If we want a breakthrough,We have to come before God broken a vessel for Him to work through. This verse hit me recently :
12Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.

13Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.

14Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer. (Psalms 19:12-14 KJV)

David, A man after God's heart understood that God was His strength and His Lord. Lord to Him meant God had a governing and authorative rulership over His life and that God just wanted Him to live that holy life but David acknowledged that God would also grant Him the strength to and He knew God was His redeemer, I guess He knew His decendent would redeem the world with His blood. Well,what does it look like to you the relationship between God and David for God to say David was man after His heart.
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I say that the church's upcoming rally will be like any average service,maybe a lil betta than normal...now we are optimistic and are expectant cos we need God to meet our needs there. why there? unless we are going to seek God's face and let ourselves melt in His Holiness,the rally will be as like any service,a lil hype for a while, and gradually itz gone with the wind. But if we are going to seek God's with such a zealous heart and fall in such intimacy with God and know His heart,His consuming fire will be in us,when the wind blows, the fire spreads!!! People will be affected by Him in you cause they can feel the heat wave.It'll tug on their hearts that whateva that isnt of God in them will be consumed and they will just fall in the presence of a Holy God.The ark of the covenant was carried by the priests!!! and we are His Royal pristhood to Minister before the Lord.
Remember that it was in the period when Samuel was ministering before the Lord that He let Samuel hear His voice and revealed His Heart's cry to Him. Ministering isn't what we always think is serving in a ministry.Ministering before God is a sweet communion, a deep intimacy with the Lord.We have to minister before the Lord and then can we minister to the people.A ministry is birthed from ministering and being ministered to by the lord.

Thailand Mission Trip

I was away at Chiang Rai,Thailand during the past six days. The Royal Rangers and Bethel Children Ministry conducted programs for the kids there. But for me,It was like a personal retreat with God. There were times I quietly or as cantonese put it "kwai kwai shui shui" go to the room when we sleep to just spend time in God's presence. And many things are just unveiled and confirmed what God had been speaking to me in a book Im presently reading entitled 'God Chasers' apart from 'Angels and Demaons' and 'The Da Vinci Code' of which Im concurrently reading also.
The very feature I longed so much for in the program was the altar call for the kids.
I just cant help but tears just flowed down my cheeks when these children responded in coming forward for the altar call whether be it to receive salvation, healing or dedicate themselves to the Lord in service to Him. These verse came to mind :
16But Jesus called the children to him and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 17I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." (Luke 18:16,17)
These children are I would say like the children of Jesus's time.They simply craved for Jesus to touch them.There is absolutely nothing else they want in this world but God alone because He is all they ever have and He is their everything. For us leiz, We really want to draw near to God, but so many things just quenches that hunger with a counterfeit sense of fullness, of what? U tell me man!!! We burnt ourselves out only to still again ritualise church,taste abit of God's goodness and off we are to see what the world has to offer.All it has to give to you is a whole new vicious cycle to continue with in a program-filled sunday. GOD DOESN"T WANT US TO KEEP SEEKING WHAT HE CAN DO FOR US,HE WANTS US TO SEEK HIS FACE EVEN IF IT MEANS TO DIE BECAUSE NOBODY CAN SEE GOD AND LIVE. DIE TO OURSELVES BEFORE HIM!!!
If we really want revival...Seek God and not the revival!! We want revival cause we think revival is a Holy Spirit-come-touch-me-thing and itz all about sensationalism.
Yes! no doubt Revival is about coming to touch us,it is about God's manifested presence coming onto the very place where we are and convicting every heart of itz sin, whether be it a christian or not. When God's presence falls in all itz glory, people cannot stand but fall to their knees in awe before a Holy God in repentence.
And God wants to fall where His temple is open to Him of whom we are His very temples. God is gonna break out of the ark of the covanent,and touch His people.
His temple Has got to be one whose temple has a torn curtain between the Holy Place and the Holies of Holies. A broken Spirit is the torn curtain which is the avenue to having God's manifested presence radiating from us,A Holy Spirit revival has gotta began with us acknowledging we can never ever, ever,ever and ever get enough.We cannot carry God on our carts. God put rings on the ark of the covanent for a reason, and though we think God is irrational all the time,it is us who is irrational to use carts to carry God's presence.God put rings on the ark so you can have yourselves put in him with a rod through the holes and carry it.the carts we tried to keep using as our primary vehicle to move God's presence will kill us like Uzzah who touched the ark to keep it from falling. We just trust God's design of the ark. The cart could be the programs we have in church that we think will carry God's presence, It'll give way to circumstance like it did hitting a point where God wants out! Outta the box! We see God in the box all the time and call on Him on our every whim and fancy. Eh..Whos God? We are to be the vessels of honour carrying His glory and giving Him the glory to touch people's lives.
Let us simply be as children seeking the Father's touch. Joseph had a sense of security in his position in God and in his father's confidence and love in him and desired to be holy for God that made him rule of Egypt.Moses took the burning bush experience and brought the Israelites outta Egypt,not just a taste His presence like we would durian,savouring every bit of it even on our fingers yet when we are to plant the seeds after tasting itz goodness,We throw away the seeds. How much more is God than durians? doesnt having tasted His love and in all itz goodness make us want to sow the seeds to bear more of His Goodness and letting others taste of His love and goodness as well?

Please Pray for me

25Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

Please pray for me that God will give me the strength and self control in my walk so that as I write what God wants me to, I will not just put down the 'know-how-tos' and live otherwise which will disqualify me.pray that I'll not be proud and that all that I seek will be to give God the glory. And I need a unsatiable hunger and thrist for God.

Segregationistic approach answered ...

I wonder why our very nature carries in itself doubt and disbelief that God wants to work through us instead of us having to strive, strive to prove our self worth, strive to please God, strive to please people, strive to attain success.
Need we strive like the world does?Need we prove anything?Need we do things by ourselves when God has sent the Holy Spirit? We see working ourselves crazy and say itz reality that we are what we make of ourselves and thatz it...We just somehow think that we have to get by the thing called 'life' by our means and when the going really gets a lil too tough we throw in the towel and thatz when we let God handle the problem. Eh...who do you think God is? Your servant uh? call Him, He come liddat izzit? When life relac relac...wherez God? *shrugs*. Yes, God will intervene when we admit we cant do it but the fact is we really cant do anything by ourselves! We say we solved so many of own problems sometimes wad not that I cant do anything wad! Have you looked carefully whose footprints were in the sand through those times? He carried you through and you thought, I did it!!! the 'I' factor always pops up.
And God waits patiently..."When will my children know that I love them with an unconditional love?you really do not need to do anything to prove yourselves. Why do they speak of Grace and not know My hand is outstretched to work through them in ALL circumstances.Just Let your Father fix the kite He bought with the price of His son,Itz only because of His Son we have a relationship through the Holy Spirit to become sons of God,You just need to thrust (trust) the kite up and the wind takes it higher and Your Father is pleased to see His handiwork in motion as the kite goes higher with Him in control of it and you just hold on together with Him,and you enjoy the benefits". The kite flying trip is like our relationship with God.The kite represents our lives that God gives to us. We can either choose to fix the kite alone or let your Father fix it for you and who is going to take control of it.Our Father too is the wind that takes us up with Him and all we have to do is trust our lives in His hands and take control of it, the string is our very attitude and confidence in God our heavenly Father, the measure of faith to take us higher when He is in control not holding back an inch. but a full surrender! but if We think we can maintain our kites with a confidence in ourselves we can fly much higher? We might have to go through the school of hard knocks of kite flying which will tell us that our Father is always right.
That may not be the best of an analogy but the point Im getting at is that we do not have to do do do...Jesus said done! and by that we who believe that God so love us enough to give up His only son for a sinful person such as myself,and all I have to do is acknowledge Jesus as my LORD and SAVIOUR redeeming my life with His own and conquering sin,sickness and death by His resurrection. We claim God's Lordship over our lives and whatever that is ours are now His, and we are indebted to Him. Why then do we think we have a life of our own? why do we think there is a distinction between God and reality of life of which we have to earn merit of to attain acceptence and prove ourselves,and face life out on our own...God created the very reality of kinsship made for us so that we do not have to prove anything of ourselves for Him to love us. We have to ask ourselves what was the experience of our salvation like when we accepted Jesus into our lives... I certainly hope it wasn't about fear of going to hell that cause us to impulsively make that decision.
We have to take up our crosses by laying down of ourselves and crucifying it with Jesus everyday. Meaning to surrender all that we are with Jesus and we will be quickened by His Holy Spirit who raised Jesus,complete in us His purpose and reveal to us an identity idiosyncratic to the very meritocracy of our societal demands.
We are His Children, not longer slaves to sin and the law or even to these meritocratic principles and We are simply to live,imitating Christ as dearly loved children as we have received the Spirit of sonship.

Just another sermon-like blog

If the title turns you off...You might as well not continue reading from here and you know what?I very much encourage you not to read anymore of my blogs cos they'll be like the very one Im to write about.

Have you ever felt if you are going the motion everyday? and yes,even to church...
AH! Im sure we've had many a time heard the pastor preaching about going through the very mere motions and exsistence of our very lives,we've stepped up for altar expecting a radical change to our lives in a instant which we blatantly say "it does not come as an overnight thing" which is of course itz true but we just dont get the change we want cos our hunger for God was satisfied at that very moment at the altar but as soon as we walk away from the altar, we have to build our very own altars before the Lord and just remain hungry for His awesome presence and acknowledge our ABSOLUTE need of HIM. If not, what then is feeding us? why don't we feel that hunger we feel only when we are in church? Because we allow the things not of God to feed us and we thought we are full...We are being fed with emptiness that creates a counterfeit fullness,but far from the truth, it creates only a vacuum only to be fed the very next day with the very same what I would call 'crap' of which I too am being filled with if I allow myself to be fed anything but the 'Bread Of Life'.

35Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. 36But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."

41At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." 42They said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I came down from heaven'?"

43"Stop grumbling among yourselves," Jesus answered. 44"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. 45It is written in the Prophets: 'They will all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. 46No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. 48I am the bread of life. 49Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. 50But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. 51I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."

52Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"

53Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever." 59He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
(John 6:35-59)

We need to be fed on Him and He shall satisfy our every need cos He is all that we need. I understand people really likes to believe that but the subtlity of the secular intrusiveness into our lives creating a fear of uncertainty which tells us God as our SOLE & ABSOLUTE need is absurbity.

44"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him....
We can by no means come to God except through the calling of His son, Jesus Christ.
He has already called us unto Himself through His outstretched arms on the cross and embraced us with His love so great tho intolerable of sin, became sin for us and resurrected in power conquering it.So when we confess of our sins, and ask for His forgiveness, He takes the very sin and nails to the cross on calvary,back to very moment Hez was on the cross of which it is no more when He rose from dead in power and by that is Justification,and sanctification as itz continuing work for our ever sinful nature,His Faithfulness will embrace us in acceptence and the Helper,the Holy Spirit will guide us into all righteousness.

16Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)

With all that love shed upon us by His blood,covering us with His righteousness...
Do we still want to satisfy ourselves with sinful gratifications? at times I feel Im writing all these about myself but the Holy Spirit teaches me with such patience that I feel compelled by His mercy to help people who are bounded by self-guilt.
Now He that Hungers and thirsts after God and His righteousness found only in Christ shall be filled. and by that We now come also to the understanding that God is my righteousness.lemme reiterate a lil here : He that became sin for us now has become our righteousness. Let us Hunger for His touch everyday cos WE NEED HIS PRESENCE! and let Him feed us and satisfy us with His love which is the only thing we ever need where nothing else matters more than to dwell and listen to His gentle voice.
We cannot draw ourselves to Him cause we can't come to Him by our own efforts no matter how hard we try. All we need is yield ourselves helplessly and cease striving,acknowledge that I cannot live a righteous life on my own and I cant please God.Itz only when hunger, and thrist in desperation my need of Him.
witholding self-sufficiency is pride and God opposes the proud but gives grace to the Humble. We can do nothing apart from Him so He is telling us to place our entire dependency on Him. I believe that when Jesus said greater things shall you do in my name is possible why? It is done in JESUS name and all glory belongs to Him. He is our all in all...take up His yoke for itz light and give to Him your heavy laden, He will give you rest and strengthen you as we wait on Him.His Holy spirit is all powerful and He is more real than the air we breathe, more real than our very exsistence if we ever tried thought within ourselves segregating reality and God our only hope and dependence.


21 When my heart was grieved
and my spirit embittered,

22 I was senseless and ignorant;
I was a brute beast before you.

23 Yet I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.

24 You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will take me into glory.

25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.

27 Those who are far from you will perish;
you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.

28 But as for me, it is good to be near God.
I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge;
I will tell of all your deeds.

(Psalms 73:21-28)