Share, Naomi! Share!

Every now and then we'd take Naomi to our favourite restaurant (sadly - Mc Donald's) and get her some chicken nuggets kids meal. Everytime we do that, I'd ask her to share her food with us. It's one way of teaching her to share, because she's the only child. But everytime we do that, without fail, she'd say, "Don't finish it ok mummy?" (I know that it sounds like I'm some greedy mother who eats her child's portion as well as her own, well I'm not, okay!) And so everytime she says that, V and I have to teach her that mum and dad are the ones who bought this for her, so if we want to eat them, we are allowed to, because we're the one who bought them. If it's finished, we can buy some more for her, because we're the ones with the money, not her. Therefore she has to be generous to mommy and daddy, because we are the ones who provide her with everything!

Turns out that it's not that easy to convince a 6 yo to let mum and dad take as much chips as they want just because they bought them. I think in her mind she thinks 'well you gave them to me, so now they're mine!'

I think in the same way, we are like Naomi when it comes to our giving to God.

God gives us everything we need in this life. He blesses us with work and jobs so we can earn our living and buy our needs; He blesses us with family and friends to keep us happy, entertained, and encouraged; He blesses us with lives, so we have time to do our job for His kingdom. Everything comes from Him, and belongs to Him.

If He wants to take everything away from us right now He can, simply by taking our lives away or the lives of those we love. Who are we to complain? At the end of the day He is the owner of this universe and everything that's in it.

So why is it sometimes so hard for some of us to give generously and with a cheerful heart?

Deut 15 says...

¹⁰ Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to.

If you have been holding back from giving generously to God or for the purpose of His kingdom, may I encourage you to take a good look at your life and everything that's in it.
Are you well? or hospitalised with some sort of life support?
Do you have family and friends who love you? even if it's just one person.
Do you have roof over your head?
Do you have easy access to food and fresh water to drink?
Can you sleep well?
Can you taste delicious food?
Do you laugh at your friends' jokes or comedy shows on TV?

These are little blessings that we often take for granted, and yet we still have all these despite of our lack of generousity to God! Now read again Deut 15:10 and take the challenge of faith and give "generously ... and without a grudging heart", and watch your life multiply in wellness, peace and blessings as you consistently obey His words.

Just remember, daddy can buy you more chips! :)

Happy Naomi

Everyday I thank God for the time I spend together with Naomi. She's only 6 years old, but the impact she has on my life and what she taught me about my parenting skills, about life, about others, and about God, is amazing. She doesn't know it, but I am learning so much through just being with her.

 

Some days she's naughty and cranky, but some days she's just so joyful, happy, cute and bubbly. When she's happy, she sings, and she hums as she goes about doing whatever it is she needs to do. ie. she hums in the shower, she hums as she's colouring in, she hums as she's walking around the house, she just hums. It is so cute. When she's happy, she is very obedient to me. When she's happy, she tells me everything that's happening in her little world. When she's happy, she brings a big smile to my face.

 

Sometimes she even says some really nice things to me. Like for example, when I made her some yummy pancakes with ice cream, she'd say, "Oh wow! Thank you mommy! You are so good mommy! You're good at making sweets and deserts!" (Although that's probably the only thing I know how to make, thanks to the ready made batter!). In the morning when she wakes up next to me, she'd kiss me and give me a nice big smile and closed her eyes again.  Sometimes when I pick her up from school, she gets so exited and so happy, she would shout in front of all the other parents, "Mommy! You pick me up!!!!" OMG I get so embarassed because it becomes obvious then how I just never have the time to pick her up unlike some other mums who would dilligently be at the gate 15 mins before their children finish school.

 

Her love touches my heart. Her happiness brings smile to my face. Her words of encouragement brings tears of joy down my cheek. When she's like that, she's like the best thing that's ever happened to me and I just love her so much!

 

That brings me to my own behaviour and attitude before my heavenly Father. If Naomi's happiness, joy, good behaviour and words of praise and encouragement can bring joy to my heart, how much more can MY happiness, joy, good attitude and words of praise bring joy to the Father's heart?

 

Psalm 69

³⁰ I will praise God's name in song

   and glorify him with thanksgiving.

³¹ This will please the LORD more than an ox,

   more than a bull with its horns and hooves.

 

Through experience, David knew that praising God's name in song and glorifying Him with thanksgiving pleases the Lord more than the animal offerings. More than our good deeds. More than anything else. When we sing praises and proclaims His glorious name, it brings pleasure to His heart, it brings a smile to His face.

 

I guess that's why when Paul and Silas were thrown into prison, their songs of praise opened up all the prison doors and broke everyone's chains!

 Acts 16:16-40 - check out the story.

²⁵ About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. ²⁶ Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone's chains came loose.

 

 I guess that's also how King Jehoshaphat manage to win his battle without even fighting or sacrificing a live of his people:

 

2 Chronicles 20

²² As they began to sing and praise, the LORD set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.

 

One of the thing I love about going to church is our time of worship. I dont think I can describe the feeling I get from simply declaring His goodness, His greatness and His awesomeness (if there's such word). It's like nothing can describe how great and mighty He is, yet how so full of love and compassion He is. I really don't care who's looking at me, or what they're thinking, or how I am perceived. I love immersing myself in His presence and I know that it brings smile to His face. So why care about what others think? Who am I trying to please? Who are YOU trying to please?

 

Every Sunday I see people standing with their arms folded, watching the worship leaders on the stage like they're not interested. I have no idea what's going on inside their head, but I just don't understand how people can just do that. I dont understand how they can NOT praise and thank God for what He's done in our lives. For the air that we breathe, for our family, for our well being, for our health, for our lives, and for His faithfulness. People who call themselves Christians, follower of Christ, church-goers. I don't quite understand their relationship with God, their father. Does it even exist?

 

As usual, it is easier said than done, but I challenge myself to always delight myself and be joyful in Him. Give Him praises and thanksgiving, to always set everything aside when it comes to worship time and bring a smile to His face. If Naomi can bring a smile to my face, how much more does God take pleasure in our praises?

 

 

The Prison of WANT

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want" Psalm 23:1 NKJV.

Come with me to the most populated prison in the world. The facility has more inmates than bunks. More prisoners than plates. More residents than resources.

No prison is so populated, no prison so oppressive, and what's more, no prison is so permanent. Most inmates never leave. They never escape. They never get released. They serve a life sentence in this overcrowded, underprovisioned facility.

The name of the prison? You'll see it over the entrance. Rainbowed over the gate are four cast-iron letters that spells out its name:

W.A.N.T

The prison of want. You've seen her prisoners. They are "in want". They want something. They want something bigger. Nicer. Faster. Thinner. They want...

They dont want much, mind you. They want just one thing. One new job. One new car. One new house. One new spouse. They don't want much. They want just one.

And when they have "one", they will be happy. When they have "one", they will leave the prison. But then it happens. The new-car smell passes. The new job gets old. The neighbours buy a larger television set. The new spouse has bad habits. The sizzle fizzles, and before you know it, another ex-con breaks parole and returns to jail.

Are you in prison? You are if you feel better when you have more and worse when you have less. (You are if you can complete this sentence without even thinking, "Just one ............ and I will be happy").

That's the bad news. The good news is, you have a visitor. And your visitor has a message that can you paroled. Make your way to the receiving room. Take your seat in the chair, and look across the table at the psalmist David. He motions for you to lean forward. "I have a secret to tell you", he whispers, "the secret of satisfaction. 'The lord is my shepherd; I shall not want" (Ps 23:1 NKJV).

David has found the pasture where discontent goes to die. It's as if he is saying, "what I have in God is greater than what I dont have in life".

You think you and I could learn to say the same?

Think for just a moment about the things you own. Think about the house you have, the car to drive, the money you've saved. Think about the jewelry you've inherited, and the socks you've traded and the clothes you've purchased. Envision all your stuff, and let me remind you of two biblical truths.

Your stuffs isnt yours. Ask any coroner. Ask any embalmer. Ask any funeral-home director. No one takes anything with him. When one of the wealthiest men in history, John D. Rockefeller, died, his accountant was asked, "How much did John D. leave?" The accountant's reply? "All of it".

"Naked a man comes from his mother's womb, and as he comes, so he departs. He takes nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand" (Eccles 5:15 NIV).

All that stuff - it's not yours. And you know what else about all that stuffs? It's not you. Who you are has nothing to do with the clothes you wear or the car you drive. Jesus said, "Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot" (Luke 12:15 MSG). Heaven does not know you as the fellow with the nice suit or the woman with the big house or the kid with the new bike. Heaven knows your heart. "The Lord doesn't look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart" (1 Sam 16:7 NIV). When God thinks of you, he may see your compassion, your devotion, your tenderness or quick mind, but he doesn't think of your things.

And when you think of you, you shouldn't either. Define yourself by your stuff, and you'll feel good when you have a lot and bad when you don't. Contentment comes when we can honestly say with Paul "I have learned to be satisfied with the things I have... I know how to live when I am poor, and I know how to live when I have plenty" (Phil 4:11-12).

A missionary met a leper on the island of Tobago. On the final day, he was leading worship in a leper colony. He asked if anyone had a favourite song. When he did, a woman turned around, and he saw the most disfigured face he'd ever seen. She had no ears, and no nose. Her lips were gone. But she raised a fingerless hand and asked, "Could we sing 'Count your many blessings'?"

The missionary started the song but couldn't finish. He said "I'll never be able to sing it in the same way again".

Are you hoping that a change in circumstances will bring a change in your attitude? If so, you arer in prison and you need to learn a secret of travelling light. What you have in your Shepherd is greater than what you don't have in life.

May I meddle for a moment? What is the one thing separating you from joy? How do you fill in this blank: "I will be happy when ________________"? When I am healed. When I am promoted. When I am married. When I am single. When I am rich. How would you finish that statement?

Now, with your answers firmly in mind, answer this. If your ship never comes in, if your dream never comes true, if the situation never changes, could you be happy? If not, then you ae sleeping in the cold cell of discontentment. You are in prison. And you need to know what you have in your Shepherd.

You have a God who hears you, the power of love behind you, the Holy Spirit within you, and all of heaven ahead of you. If you have the Shepherd, you have grace for every sin, direction for every turn, a candle for every corner, and an anchor for every storm. You have everything you need.

And who can take it from you? Can leukemia infect your salvation? Can bankruptcy impoverish your prayers? A tornado might take your earthly house, but will it touch your heavenly home?

And look at your position. Why clamor for prestige and power? Are you not already priviledged to be part of the greatest work in history? According to Russ blowers, we are. He is a minister in Indianapolis. When he's asked about his profession, he explained, "I'm with a global enterprise. We have branches in every country in the world. We have representatives in nearly every parliament and boardroom on earth. We're into motivation and behaviour alteration. We run hospitals, feeding stations, crisis-pregnancy centers, universities, publishing houses, and nursing homes. We care for our clients from birth to death. We are into life insurance and fire insurance. We perform spiritual heart transplants. Our original organiser owns all the real estate on earth plus an assortment of galaxies and constellations. He knows everything and lives everywhere. Our product is free for the asking. There's not enough money to buy it. Our CEO was born in a hick town, worked as a carpenter, didn't own a home, was misunderstood by his family and hated by his enemies, walked on water, was condemned to death without a trial, and arose from the dead. I talk with him everyday".

Paul says that "godliness with contentment is a great gain" (1 Tim 6:6 NIV). When we surrender to God the cumbersome sack of discontent, we don't just give up something, we gain something. God replaces it with a lightweight, tailor-made, sorrow-resistant attache of gratitude.

What will you gain with contentment? You may gain your marriage. You may gain precious hours with your children. You may gain your self-respect. You may gain joy. You may gain the faith to say, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want."

[From "Travelling Light" by Max Lucado. Chapter 4 - The Prison of Want. The Burden of Discontent.]

If this post encourages you, will you please share it so others can get encouraged too? :)

I'm good enough

Taken from www.girlfriendsingod.com:

 

March 9, 2011
He Loves You No Matter What
Sharon Jaynes

Today's Truth
"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39 NIV).

Friend to Friend
Most of us live in a world of performance-based acceptance.  We make good grades and mommy is proud.  We look pretty and daddy smiles. We do a good job at work and the boss is pleased. We serve at church and congregation thinks we are "good Christians."

Unfortunately that same sense of having to perform well to be accepted by people can easily roll over into our relationship with God. We falsely believe that we must perform well to be loved and accepted by Him, when nothing could be further from the truth. As a result, we strive to obtain something that we already have...God's unconditional love.

Anabel Gillham was a woman who loved God, but had trouble accepting that God could love her. Sure, she knew the Bible verses that talked of God's unconditional love for her. And yet she knew herself and doubted a God who knew her innermost thoughts would approve of her.

Then God used a very special person to help Annabel understand the depths of His love for her - her second child, Mason David Gilham, who was profoundly retarded.  Let's let Anabel tell you her story.

I never doubted for a moment that Jesus loved that profoundly retarded little boy.  It didn't matter that he would never sit with the kids in the back of the church and on a certain special night walk down the aisle, take the pastor by the hand, and invite Jesus into his heart.  It was entirely irrelevant that he could not quote a single verse of Scripture, that he would never go to high school, or that he would never be a dad.  I knew that Jesus loved Mason.

What I could not comprehend, what I could not accept, was that Jesus could love Mason's mother, Anabel.  You see, I believed that in order for a person to accept me, to love me, I had to perform for him. My standard for getting love was performance-based, so I "performed" constantly, perfectly. In fact, I did not allow anyone to see me when I was not performing perfectly. I never had any close friends because I was convinced that if a person ever really got to know me, he wouldn't like me.

Mace could never have performed for his parent's love, or for anyone's love, but oh, how they loved him.  His condition deteriorated to such a degree-and so rapidly-that they had to place him in an institution when he was very young. His parents enrolled him in the Enid State School for Mentally Handicapped Children. They drove regularly 120 miles to see him but occasionally also brought him home for a visit.

On one particular visit, Mace had been with them since Thursday evening. On the following Saturday afternoon God painted a vivid picture of His great love for Anabel through Mason. She was standing at the kitchen sink, dreading what lay ahead. In just a few moments, she would be gathering Mace's things together and taking him back to "his house." She had done this many times before-and it was never easy-but today God had something in mind that would change her life forever.
 "I stood up to the sink again," she continued. "More dishes, more washing, more crying - and thoughts, foreign to my way of thinking, began filtering into my conscious awareness.  I believe God spoke to me that day, and this is what He said: "Anabel, you don't look at your son and turn away in disgust because he's sitting there with saliva drooling out of mouth; you don't shake your head, repulsed because he has dinner all over his shirt or because he's sitting in a dirty, smelly diaper when he ought to be able to take care of himself. Anabel, you don't reject Mason because all of the dreams you had for him have been destroyed. You don't reject him because he doesn't perform for you. You
 love him, Anabel, just because he is yours. Mason doesn't willfully reject your love, but you willfully reject Mine. I love you, Anabel, not because you're neat or attractive, or because you do things well, not because you perform for Me but just because you're Mine."

And friend, that's exactly how God feels about you.  He loves you just because you're His.

God in a box

I havent posted anything for a long time, because I manage to start a few writing but never actually finish them. I take my time to double check them, re-read them over and over, to make sure it has a good flow, etc. But then in order to meet perfection, I never end up finishing them. So I began to remind myself the whole reason I am blogging: to bring glory to God's name; to be a living testimony of his love; to be a connector between others and God. Perfection has nothing to do with it.

 

God never chose perfect disciples. Tax collectors, fishermen, unemployed, that's whom he's chosen. Not the lawyers, the doctors, the teachers or church leaders. Not that there's anything wrong with them, but my point is... when it comes to doing something for God, you simply bring what you have and he'll multiply and perfect your work for His purpose.

 

Lately I come across quite a few of Jesus' miracles. In Matthew 14:13-21 He fed the five thousand men (plus their wives and children) with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. "They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over."

 

In John 2:1-11 Jesus turned around 120 gallons of water into wine at a wedding in Cana.

 

In Luke 5:4-10 Jesus commanded the fishermen to lower their net again, and after a whole day of catching nothing, suddenly their net was filled and overflowed with fish.

 

There are many more stories of Jesus' amazing miracles, and each of them is just so fascinating if you really think about it.

 

After reading them, I began to ponder... Jesus is God, the two of them are one. The God we worship is the same, yesterday, today and forever. He is the God that parts the red sea and brought the Israelites out of Egypt. He is the God who healed the blinds, the crippled, and even raised the dead. God is still a God who is able to do all these miracles, today, in our lives! But I think we, as humans, have the tendency to put God in a box.  

 

Like when we need healing, we prayed and we expect healing through doctors, medications, etc.

When we need finances, we prayed and we expect God to provide through our jobs, etc.

When we need marriage restorations, we prayed and we expect God to restore through marriage counsellors.

Again, not that there's anything wrong with them, and I'm not discouraging those practices at all. This is not about that.

What I'm trying to say is that we put God in a box, and we think (with our little minds) that God will work this way or that way, through means we are familiar with.

 

I feel like I need to challenge myself to not put God in a box!

I need to remind myself that God can work in many different ways and I really want to give Him some space to do creative miracles in our lives. I want to give Him space to do extraordinary, exciting stuffs! Stuffs that people have never heard or seen before!

 

The day after I ponder about this, something happened.

 

One of my best friends is getting married interstate. I've been wanting to go, but for numerous reasons, the wedding went to the bottom of our priority list in terms of expenditures. 

 

One morning, I got a text from another good friend of mine who knew that I wasnt going, and for some unknown reason, out of the blue, he offered to contribute towards my ticket! I mean.... all my friends are so wanderful and beautiful in hearts, but I have never ever come across anyone who does this kinda thing before. Over 15 years we've been friends, and this is pretty much the first time anyone offered to pay for part of my ticket to fly interstate! 

This is just a small example, but this is exactly what I'm talking about! Just to have some random incidents in our lives that just proves God's love, generousity, and provision.

 

I dont care how small and big it is. It could just be that some random friend decides to give us a cereal dispenser (which I really need at the moment), or perhaps someone suddenly decides to fly us overseas. I dont know. All I want is to give God space for creative miracles in our lives.

 

Psalm 37: 4 says "Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart". Not just your 'basic needs', but the 'desires of your heart'.