but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
-Isaiah 40:31
The mocker seeks wisdom and finds none,
but knowledge comes easily to the discerning.
-Proverbs 14:6
Heartspeak.
+"Lift Me Up" by The Afters - 1/2 chorus done.
+"Just A Dream" by Sam Tsui and Christina Grimmie - Development of choreography ideas
1 My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, 2 turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding— 3 indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, 4 and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, 5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. 6 For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. 7 He holds success in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, 8 for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.
9 Then you will understand what is right and just and fair—every good path.
- Proverbs 2:1-9
I reckon especially at this point in my life, a search for wisdom is key. When we're young, we're so reckless, wild, curious, experimental and if we're not the ones who influence, we're easily influenced. I had a pretty good headstart when I was younger; I stayed away from the things that weren't going to do me any good.
But as I've matured and grown over the years, I realize that wisdom is not only differentiating what is 'right' and 'wrong', but it's also for understanding the finer lines of emotions and situations. My heart has been pressed down, rolled over, shaken and shaken again as God has been revealing things to me that still need to be cleared out or things that I've had a wrong perspective on all this time.
Wisdom is pure gold. When you come out of a situation and you know you did what you had to do - And I'm not talking about going with instinct or intuition, I mean actually thinking through and concluding that what needs to be done is the right way (though not necessarily the easiest way) - it's a level of peace, not satisfaction. If you only get satisfaction, be wary of selfishness and pride. Nobody is 'right' in this world; only God is.
My Godpa Peter gave me a particular devotional for my Christmas present this year, and said to me it's time to go deeper with God. All the surface things are going well, so now time to dig into the ground.
Challenge Accepted.
Monday, January 02, 2012 4:15 PM
A new year, a great start :)
"1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears,[a] we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure." - 1 John 1:3
I haven't abandoned this blog! Just a lot of things happening so haven't been updating. For one I've graduated! Bachelor of Commerce booyahh!
I am privileged to know such beautiful people :)
My family is the best <3
The past few months have been just a mad frenzy. I feel like I do more things and get less sleep during holidays than I do during the normal semester. 2011 was the year of becoming, and God was really working on the word 'becoming'. Come last quarter of 2011 and God was still clearing things out of the closet for me. I am very thankful for that. It has not been easy, and it has hurt a lot, but I feel a lot stronger from it. Like I have a better perspective of certain things.
Because God will never let you just sit in your current state when you could be all that He has made you to be. The BEST you.
I'm super excited for this new year! It's a huge transition year for many people I know, myself included.
For one, starting afresh in God's leadership role for me as an urbanlife leader. After having a chat with one of my senior leaders, I realize that I had been running around worrying about the 'human' details of things. So this break is time for me to step back, let God back into the centre of it all and lead as He pleases.
Secondly, my 1st year in The University of Melbourne Juris Doctor programme. I am so scared yet excited at the same time. People say that I'll do well in law, and I am confident that I will too. I'm aware of how tough it'll be, and I'm dreading the amount of readings I'll have to do. But yay! I finally made it to law! Praise God :) It'll be an interesting 3 years.
My dance. Not only with university ministry, but with other dream projects God has been giving to me. I have my own project that is way overdue; I had hoped to finish it by end of 2011 but I ran out of time. I'm still going to finish it; As God reminded me the day I panicked about not being to complete it, the whole point is not to put it up for show, there's a heartbeat message behind it that I want to share. It will be up soon, I promise. And more to come after :) Also, a friend of mine asked me to support her with her God dream; I am super excited about that! I cannot wait to see the work God does in her life and how it is going to touch others :D
Last night Pammie and I organised a primary school gathering. Sad to say because we don't have everyone's facebooks or phone numbers, we only invited a small group. 13 altogether. Still pretty good! Haha! We ate, played kinect games and talked heaps about stuff we did in primary school, what we have been up to, and what is next. It was so nice to see them, especially the few who I haven't seen in the past few years. Everyone looks the same, everything still feels the same. :)) The one thing that became super clear to us having met last night was that we are all turning 21 this year. Scary. What a birthday. We're 9 years down since graduating from primary school.
Just. Wow. How far each of us have come.
And of course, come 2013 will be our 10th year reunion. Pammie and I plan to make it bigger and hopefully more people will be able to turn up!
One month of rest, reflection, prayer and preparation for my year ahead. Bring it on God! :D
Sunday, October 16, 2011 4:52 PM
Rainmaker, God dreamer ♥
[I have this really long post about my amazing 1st half of my midsem break that I wanna post up but I have yet to finish typing it. Oops]
Ps Sergio spoke at church today and man was he on fire! It was a message that many may not get, but it really struck a chord with me. He spoke about how God is looking for people with the hearts to be a rainmaker for him - Someone who stirs it up, burns the fire of God and stimulates growth in and out of the church.
Recently, I've been doing a lot of God dreaming. I've acted on the dream, and I can really see it happening. It's exciting and scary at the same time. There's been heaps of obstacles in the way, and yet in the midst of those troubles, I can still see the bigger picture. God keeps giving me downloads. I love it.
And me activating and acting on my dream has led others to activate/act on theirs. I'm amazed and freaked-out-in-a-good-way by the supernatural-ness of it all. How God's timing is perfect in all this.
Then one of my dreaming buddies told me yesterday how hers started with mine; with me asking her to partner our dreams together. And wow. Just wow, the result has been nothing short of so darn exciting cool.
I think to myself maybe that's my rainmaker duty - A dreamer who kickstarts other dreamers. I like that idea. So God, if that'd be your will, let me do my duty well.
So watch this space. Hopefully I can get what I want up by the end of this year. :)
I love the rawness of this piece. The real emotions that are carried in each step.
Monday, October 10, 2011 12:38 AM
"He's Jesus. He's alive and He's livin' in me"
At church today we had special guest Cindy Cruse Ratcliff from Lakewood Church in Dallas, Texas. She brought such an amazing worship anointing into our house and it was such a different worship atmosphere. Like same but different. I'm not sure how to describe it.
"He's Jesus. He's alive and He's livin' in me"
Those lyrics struck me. How true they are. Jesus died for us, and rose again 3 days later. God sacrificed His son, that we may be alive. And I'm not talking physically. I mean spiritually alive; living in love, peace and joy. I literally almost teared when I first heard those lyrics.
Anyone who thinks that I am the perfect child who grew up sheltered, was taught all the good values, and must be "perfect", super naive, fortunate, and happy-go-lucky - It is so untrue. I am so flawed. But, I have been saved by the grace of God. And I live my days in a joy that is so real that I cannot do anything but praise my God that I am alive <3
Monday, September 05, 2011 8:31 AM
The best weekend yet at planetUNI camp 2011!
Seriously, my expectations were sooo crazy high for this camp, and my excitement was sooo explosive I could've easily pinballed a room.
And yet God still blew them out of the roof, like millions times more than what I had walked into camp with.
Leading up to camp, God has been doing a work in me - and I have been tested into it.
Camp was the finale. I am free. I am changed. This is for real.
[Credit for all the amazing photo montages goes to the talented media team of planetUNI: planetUNI tumblr]
Every single message that Ps Kenneth shared with us was so relevant, and I'm pretty sure not just to what has been going on in my life but in a lot of other people's lives.
All those expectations and breakthroughs I wrote down on a piece of paper at Urbanlife felt like they were all answered, and even more. As Ps Matt would say, it was like a complete heart surgery done. Amen.
And that's why I'm picking up my shield of faith. The steel wall has been shattered; I have nothing to fear or be ashamed of anymore. My God project is going to go into motion and I will glorify my God through it.
A little bonus. We had a hilarious Colours Wars where few urbanlifes were grouped together to compete in games throughout camp. And GREEN TEAM WON! :D
No kidding, we were so sure we weren't going to win that my urbanlife started cheering for the ORANGE team (ie non-existent group, there was no orange team)
And that GREEN was called out, followed by the comment that we had won by a landslide. First we stared at each other in shock, then we screamed, then we just bolted for the front hugging each other and screaming. The prize was a treasure chest filled with chocolates that were wrapped in gold and silver wrapping.
In our excitement we just flung a huge amount of chocolates to the rest of the campers. Apologies for anyone who got hurt ^^"
Funnily enough, I went in excited for myself, but almost a bit more excited for my urbanlife and the newbies - those who had either never been for camp before, or had only been to City Camp.
And definitely, God answered that. I call them the "younger" ones because they came to planetUNI after me - I loved seeing the younger ones feel the presence of God so strong and just be touched by an encounter with Him. I loved my urbanlife peeps stepping out to want to grab their breakthroughs and see their expectations fulfilled. As a leader this year, I got to serve on the praying side of the prayer tunnel first. As I prayed for people, I felt words of wisdom, anointings, refreshings, joy and hope just running through me into people. I got so excited and bent my knees and clapped so hard and shouted so loud that my back, hands and throat hurt after. HAHA. Oh wells. God you are so amazing!
Even better, God turned the tables on me. Hit by the Holy Spirit FOUR times in one night. Starting with Ps Kenneth's altar call, where I laid it all down. Then I got slained, and God revealed His majesty to me. Then the prayer tunnel, God pumped up the power, and the tangibility of his presence was so great I could barely walk. He just kept giving me more. And finally when I saw a friend of mine, and hugged her after she had walked through the prayer tunnel. She prayed for me, and everything she said - Let's just say the only way it could be that spot-on was that God had just served up more than my expectations. Just. Wow.
I want to take the courage to use my gift beyond the limits that I thought I could. I can't wait to hear the stories/testimonies/encounters/revelations from many others. I feel like I am to feed this into my way of worship, and share them through dance. Starting with my own, of course :)
And if you went to camp not expecting much, dear brother or sister, you just got served by God! :D