Jesus, our oxygen.

John 20:30-31 NLT

The disciples saw Jesus did many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book. But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name.

John 20:31 AMP

But these are written (recorded) in order that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ (the Anointed One), the Son of God, and that through believing and cleaving to and trusting and relying upon Him you may have life through (in) His name [through Who He is].

I have been pondering upon this verse for a few hours. I read up some commentaries but i still dont quite understand it fully. I understand that the scriptures are written so that people may believe in Him, the messiah, the saviour. There are so many proof of miracles done by God through Jesus, His son. The gospels are written by his disciples, who bore witness to what Jesus had done, His power and what He was able do, His loving heart, His compassion for others and His desire to come closer to all sinners, the imperfect, the flawed, which is us, normal people.

When we believe in Jesus, we "may have life through Him". To me, it means having Jesus as the our source of our being, source of our lives, our joy, our strengths, our compassion for others, .. we draw our everything through Him.

It's like when we go diving we wear oxygen mask. It is only through that oxygen that we are able to breathe and stay alive. The oxygen is what we need to stay alive, without it we won't be able to stay alive and enjoy the underwater scenery which is the whole purpose of diving.

This life that we have is a bit like that. Living in this life is like diving underwater, and to those who believe, Jesus is our oxygen. Through Him we have our lives, the lives that God gave us. What I mean by that is we are sinful being, and by the standard of God's holiness, we deserve to be punished to death. But God has given His only son, Jesus, as a sin sacrifice for all of us (whether you believe it or not) Jesus has died for your sins (yes, YOU, whoever you are, whatever you've done) so that you may 'escape' God's wrath and continue to live.

Through Him, we can have true joy, peace and happiness, the type of happiness that is truly from within despite of our external circumstances. The type of happiness that doesn't depend on alcohol, or money, or power or anything else.

Through Him we have our health because Jesus healed the sick. He loves us and He has compassion, and He's the same yesterday, today and forever.

Through Him we have all our needs because He is our Father. Like every other father, He wants to make sure we have all that we need, and often what we ' want' as well!

Through Him, we can truly enjoy the underwater scenery!!

That's all I got for now.

I believe throughout the week as i chew upon this, god will reveal more of what His words means to me. Because He is my shepherd and i am His sheep, and I can hear His voice. Because i am His child, so im sure my Father will want to reveal Himself to me more and more, daily.

One Verse a Day

2 Timothy 3:16-17 NIV

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Today marks the beginning of a new year. With anything new, consciously or not we tend to make a resolution. It may not be only on New Year's day, it could be anytime we begin something new.

For eg, when we move to a new house we might set a brand new rules for the kids (no drawing on walls??). Or perhaps we'd say to ourselves, "im gonna water the garden everyday so my new backyard doesn't end up looking like a jungle again" (talking from past experience).

Or perhaps we've just started a new job. We might decide that this time you're not going to be romantically involved with anyone from work, or maybe this time you're going to work harder and pursue a career progression within the company.

Whatever it is we are starting new, we have the tendency to make a small resolution.

So today, in celebration of a brand new year, my NY resolution is one Bible verse a day, followed by a devotional journal entry.

It's not a new resolution, it is a repeated one from last year. I didn't manage to fulfill it without fail but I didn't stop after one failure. Everytime I stopped, I gave myself a new beginning. Every Monday is a beginning. Every first day of the month is a beginning. I just kept restarting everytime I failed. "We only really fail when we quit trying", I read that somewhere.

Because my NY resolution is one scripture a day, I think it is important to firstly ground myself in the WHY.
Why do I need to read the Bible???
Hence I've picked this particular reading plan about why we have to read the Bible. So everyday for the next two weeks, you'll find that my verse is related to this theme of WHY READ THE BIBLE.

Having done this (although quite inconsistently), I find that the Bible is just so full of promises for those who believes. Whenever we face certain circumstances, there's always a verse and a promise from God that will get us through. If only we'd believe.

Whatever your situation is...
Are you sad?? Lonely?? Sick?? Poor?? Being betrayed?? Loosing your faith?? Needing a partner?? God already has a promise for you for this particular area in your life. You just need to search for His promises and start declaring them because He never fails. He never lies, He's the same Jesus that healed the sick, raised people from the dead, comfort the sad, and love the outcasts. He's the same yesterday today and forever.

I ask that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. (Paul's prayer for the Ephesians, Eph 1:17-19 NIV).

Obsession

Last Sunday, Tim was preaching about the first command in the Ten Commandments - Exodus 20:
² “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
 ³ “You shall have no other gods before^[a] me.
 ⁴ “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. ⁵ You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God.

Back in the days, the Israelites would create an idol to be worshipped. They'd worship and bow down to a golden cow, an image, a statue, and many more. They'd believe in the 'god of rain', 'god of thunder', and this and that. There were many other gods on whom they depended on and brought sacrifices to. It took away the attention from the real God, the God of Abraham. God didn't like that, and therefore He commanded Moses to tell His people to worship only Him, to bring sacrifices to only Him, and to depend only on Him. He is the Creator, He is the mighty one, the one who brought them out of slavery in Egypt, the one who parted the Red Sea, the one who provided them with water in the dessert and manna and quail for food. Therefore He is the only one worth of their worship.

However, in these modern days, an 'idol' may not be in the form of a golden cow, an image or a statue. It could be in many other forms such as work, power, money, sports or hobbies, material thing, a rock band, a partner/spouse/family member or anything at all that could take away our devotion to God. An 'idol' in this modern day is anything that is stopping us from loving Him with all our hearts, minds and strengths.
Basically the question you should ask yourself is... what do you spend most of the time thinking about? What do you spend most of your energy doing?

The funny thing is.... after listening to that message, this week I realise that I might have an 'idol' which I need to get rid of. It becomes quite obvious especially this week as I grew my 'obsession' in a particular thing, a tablet pc. I must confess.... I have been spending all of my free time doing some research about which tab to buy. From the iPads to the Xoom, night after night, the internet has become my very best friend.

When I'm in the car, I'd be calling places, checking out prices in the retail stores. When I'm at home, I'd be on my laptop reading articles and reviews, watching the review videos on youTube. When I'm in the passenger seat, I'd use V's phone to go on the net, browsing and comparing prices. It just goes on and on and on. In the past few weeks, I must have spent at least 2-3 hours per day, which is 21 hours per week, which is over 80 hours in the last month or so, just researching about tablet pc's. It's crazzzzzzzy!

This week, it hits me! OMG, my love and obsession for tabs has overtaken my devotion time with God!!!

A few weeks ago I was stressing out about our home-selling progress, and I often found myself praying and just pouring out my thoughts, feelings, anxieties and all repeatedly to God. Whenever I find myself in solitude, I just start talking to Him and after I poured it all out, I always felt so joyful, happy and peaceful. There's this hunger in me to just keep connecting to Him and 5 mins in His presence just gave me so much joy. After we made some changes to our home-selling arrangement, a huge burden lifted off my shoulder and from about 2 weeks ago I just felt a bit more relaxed about it, which is suppose to be a good thing! But it turned out to be a not-so-good thing afterall, because the lack of stress and anxiety apparently has 'relaxed' my praying muscles quite a bit.

This week I'd find myself in solitude, and instead of feeling that urge and hunger to be connecting to God, I'd be busy doing tab-research-related stuffs. It's not good though. A few times I realise what I was doing and what I could have been doing instead, and I tried to connect to Him the way I used to a few weeks ago, and there's like this big barrier in between us. It's like there's this huge wall and I just cant seem to find Him. I cant seem to connect with Him. I feel like I'm stuck in this blood sucking mud and I need something to just lift me up and out of whatever it is. It might sound crazy, or it might just all be my imagination, but that's just what I feel.

But I believe that "our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (Eph 6:12) and that the devil can use all sorts of thing to put a distance between us and God. Behind every physical symptoms, there's always the devil working in the spiritual realm.

I'm not saying that it's completely the devil's fault for me being so obsessed with tablet pcs. I believe it's partly my fault for allowing my mind to be so consumed with it. I know we can choose what we want to think about, and I might have made a conscious choice to be thinking about tabs all the time. But I do believe that he contributes to it somehow. Because at the end of the day, all he wants is for me to put my obsession for tabs before my devotion for God.

Anyways, now that I realize what's just happened, all of a sudden it makes sense to me what it actually means to "have no other gods before [Him]", and I'm certainly working and praying hard to destroy my 'idol' and put God as my no.1 obsession again.

So what's your 'god'  ??????????

What are you obsessed about?
What do you spend most of your free time doing?
What do you spend most of your time thinking about?
What would you rather be doing than connecting with Him in prayers, worship and reading His words?
Who/what is your 'god'?