Chronicles of a Discoverer...: God so Near, God so Far

Listen to this article

This week has been awesome and I am so grateful to how God works, just this week.

Thanksgiving
I give thanks for all my answered prayers and all the blessings given... this week has been a wonderful week with many good news...

First, I give thanks for God's blessings to my friends... two managed to find good new jobs, one got promoted and got a pay rise and yet another also got a pay rise too.
Secondly, I also thank God for blessing my friend's and her baby. Over the past few weeks, we have been praying for an ex-colleague and her baby when the doctor suspected the baby might have down syndrome after a test. That really worried the mother and all of us in office... The mum got even more worried when she recently met 2 families with down syndrome children in just a day, worrying what God is telling her. We were all so happy when we heard she is pregnant but all of a sudden, we hear the baby might be down syndrome.. so we prayed hard and prayed hard. Eventually, when we heard that the baby is OK on Saturday, we can only shout, PRAISE THE LORD! What a relief!
Thirdly, I want to thank God for blessing the devotion and cell group last week. Though both did not turn out to be a roaring success, it still went on well. For the devotion, it was really a long sharing as I rushed through 17 days of experience in 45 minutes...

I give thanks for so many things including a wonderful friend God sent to help me with playing the piano (despite only giving him like two days to practice and also learn a new song) and also even providing a projector cable. I had been working on the presentation for so many days but forgot to check whether the projector is OK. So came Thursday morning and I suddenly realised that the projector is available for loan but there is one problem, there is no projector cable! With just a few minutes to go before the presentation, a fellow colleague suggested I check with IT department. Thank God when I went to the IT department and asked if they have the cable to attach the projector to the laptop, it was just sitting beside my colleague, who conveniently stretched over and passed me the cable. Thank God for his simple providences...Also thank God for all the wonderful colleague who came to support me for the sharing. In fact, by the end of the session, I felt it was just OK until someone came to me the next day to affirm me and shared how the sharing ministered to her. Thank God!

I also thank God for cell group which went OK on Friday. Friday is the first time I was leading officially in the capacity of a cell leader and I was so nervous. What then made me more nervous was the fact that just as we were about to start, my ex-cell leader suddenly received a phone call and the Deputy Pastor was on the way to visit! Of all times, my deputy pastor was coming when I am leading the first time... But in the end, I thank God for his presence also because I felt he has helped me to also put a lot of things into perspective during the discussion. I think, it was also timely he came because I was about to announce to the cell about our zone overseer moving on and had worried I would say the wrong thing. So thank God he was there to also help make sure I said the right thing (though he startled me when I looked at him after I announced and he uttered a "really?", only to later laughed. Hmmm, he was just "pulling my leg"). I thank God for the wonderful attendance and also for how God has provided me , throughout the week, with the materials to prepare for the discussion.

I also thank God for the right articles seemingly to appear at the right time for me to use to support me sharing and cell discussions.
I also thank God for His providence at work. One of my centres was urgently looking for a Malay tutor and the surprising thing was that, they managed to find one in the end as they were talking to a volunteer who I referred but was found unsuitable for placement. However, they found out that his wife can help with Malay tuition... talking about God sending the right people at the right time.
I thank God for my project over the weekend that went well. We were in city promoting an event which was supporting my organisation together with 2 other organisations. In the end, I realised our organisation provided the most volunteers: 40, while one other provided 6 and yet another provided none. Although there were awkward moments when I sat with my volunteers and had nothing to say to them (am always so introverted), the project was a success and I can see how the volunteers tried their best to help us promote the event.

Jung Arrested. Yeah!
Over the weekend, I received an email from an anti-Jesus Morning Star cult mailing list on , the one which I was trying to get my friend out from. Such great news! Apparently, he was arrested in China on rape charges and is now being interrogated. Thank God! I tried to ascertain if this is indeed true and I did a search on the net for news reports on it. Confirmed and saw articles in Sina.Com and even our own Zaobao confirming it. Compiled the articles and sent to my friend. I do not dare to think what will happen to our friendship but then in the email, I said..." Call me meddlesome or kay poh but I am still concerned about you..." I guess I am willing to forego this friendship as long as he is OK and comes out from the cult. In fact, I am also contemplating whether to write to Zaobao to tell them that JMS is also operating in Singapore... on one hand, I do not know what I will land myself into if I contact them and whether I should just "mind my own business" but on the other hand, I just can't bear to think that more can be ruined at this Jung guy's hands if nothing is being done about it... it has even infiltrated the university campus already...

Chill Out on Saturday
Took some time out yesterday for myself. In the afternoon, I settled myself down at BK Midpoint and did some photo editing for the mission trip photos with my laptop... boy, am I surprised to find a BK in town so quiet... nice place to chill out. Then, later in evening, I went to meet a friend and his wife... we had a simple chillout and chit-chatted at Coffee Club at Hotel Rendezvous (this after we stormed out from Xin Wang in Marina Square after being pissed off by their service attitude). As I walked around in town alone... I can't help but notice that I seem to be one of the only lonely souls around... most seems to be with their families or with their girlfriends/boyfriends... How come ah? Me thinking about relationship liaoz ah?

Much @ Stake
Felt horrible today... It seems that sermons tend to speak to me at certain points in time and today is one of those times... It seems ironic that I was leading a discussion about God's law and Ten Commandments on Friday but I am still as much a sinful person who does not abide by God's commandments...

"I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me..."
"Do not make a image or any likeness of what is in the heavens above..."
"Do not swear falsely by the name of the LORD..."
"Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy"
"Honor your father and your mother..."
"Do not murder"
"Do not commit adultery."
"Do not steal."
"Do not bear false witness against your neighbor"
"Do not covet your neighbor's house"

Somehow, I entered the sanctuary today feeling unworthy to worship God. As the sermon was preached, I somehow got the message that we should not test God and His grace again and again... I am reminded about how Moses was in God's favour but because of a wrong-doing, he never got into the Promised Land...

It seems like a big contrast to me, having received so much blessings this week, and how distant I felt from God today... It is not so much the blessings but the desire to want to be with God and experience Him... Of course, the blessings are good but secondary... I am reminded how sin sometimes separate us from God (because God is a holy and righteous God) and so much is at stake when we are distant from Him; we can no longer enjoy the communion with Him and His blessings. Dear God, I repent and ask for your forgiveness... God, also give me more strength to reach out to minister to those who have strayed far from your kingdom...